Chapter 160

160 Restriction spell

“What, are you crazy? No, scratch it. You’ve been crazy since before we met. But it’s impossible to kill a dragon with our current power. We’ve both seen the power of dragon breath. If either of us gets hit by that, we’re going to be pulverized!” Treevor spoke in alarm.

Treevor pointed to where the dragon was butchering the skeletons as they spoke. He was casting simple darkness spells like balls and darkness breath, at the same time using his remaining claw to crush the undead.

Although their spells were simple, they were incredibly powerful, killing at least a hundred each. His physical attacks were also absurd.

Despite its limited methods of attacking physically because of its injuries, dragon zombie would tear apart any skeleton it could reach. The few skeletons that managed to get past the claw tried to cut into the dragon’s body, but failed miserably.

Iron spears and swords didn’t even scratch its scales, while its flesh was barely damaged. Even if the undead detonated their own cores to try and do some damage, such a small amount of darkness could never seriously damage the dragon zombie.

“Use death vision and look at his back where the middle of his wings should be.” Athos spoke curtly to Treevor to stop complaining.

Treevor and the other skeletons did as ordered, noting the small shadow on the dragon’s back.

“What is it?” Treevor didn’t know what shadows were, so he didn’t understand what Athos was saying.

“I don’t know exactly either, but these shadows always appear on the wounds of the living or when they die. I don’t know why it appeared on a zombie dragon, but it’s clear where we should attack.” Athos spoke with conviction, but Treevor was still skeptical.

.....

“I already imagine that you want to approach using the teleportation crystal, but how are you going to seal the dragon’s movements? Even I have difficulty following its movements, despite the distance between us.” Treevor spoke, resigned to facing the dragon.

“But there’s one thing I still don’t understand. If he’s a zombie, why not heal him with dark magic? Why stay injured?” Emilia asked.

“The dragon zombie’s mind is a blank slate. The necromancer who created him must have completely destroyed his mind, so he simply must not know that it’s possible to heal. It’s likely he’s using magic instinctively and therefore didn’t use any. complex spell so far.” Treevor spoke, using his mystical senses to look into the dragon’s soul.

Treevor was a little calmer now, realizing that the dragon wasn’t focusing on anyone in particular, just moving forward without thinking. Treevor suspected that the necromancer controlling it had given sloppy orders like ‘kill all skeletons’, so the dragon zombie was just killing whatever it came across.

‘Skeleton mages. start casting chains of corrupted mana. I doubt I can keep the dragon zombie still for more than a few seconds, but it should be enough for us to attack.’ Athos ordered through the mental link.

The mages obeyed his orders and cast urgently. They were still standing inside the main keep, but they sensed the emergency outside thanks to the voices over the general link they all shared.

Most of them still resisted Athos’ control and only wanted to sabotage the mission, but the currents forced them to obey and work as quickly as possible.

For a few minutes, the dragon zombie had an easy time slaughtering the skeletons. All he had to do was move and step on the skeletons to kill them. The dragon even stopped using magic, considering it a waste against such weak beings.

Athos ordered the skeletons to spread out as much as possible so that the zombie dragon had to waste time chasing them. He was busy feeding the teleportation crystal in his hands, the only way to reach the dragon without getting killed.

The dragon zombie bought the trick, considering it a game of catch, and started hunting the black skeletons.

Treevor, Athos, and all the high-ranking skeletons followed his trail of destruction, taking care to stay out of the dragon zombie’s sight. He didn’t seem to be using any detection skills to sense his surroundings, but a dragon’s keen senses cannot be underestimated, even if they were dulled after turning into a zombie.

“Are we really going to do this?” Treevor asked for the umpteenth time, having a hard time keeping up with the dragon zombie’s movements now that he was chasing the fleeing skeletons. Ordering them to flee lessened their losses, but also made their movement wider and harder to target.

“Don’t be a coward...the spell will be...ready soon...all we need to...do is land a...killing blow...what could go wrong?” Vanilla spoke, making Treevor and Athos wish she couldn’t speak.

‘My lord, we are ready.’ Sevenus informed him, before Athos could complain.

Athos swallowed the curses about to come out and realized that the entire flock of hive hawks was descending from the sky. A single hawk wouldn’t be enough to control a large-scale spell, but over two hundred of them would.

The dragon zombie also noticed the approaching skeleton birds and raised its head. He didn’t think much of the birds and just conjured a sphere of darkness when he felt they were in range.

The hive hawks weren’t stupid and scattered the moment the sphere was cast, casting wind spells under their wings to propel themselves away, much to Athos’ surprise. As far as he knew, the queen was the only one capable of casting wind spells.

But the truth was very different. Both the female and the male were capable of using wind magic, the only reason the males seemed incapable was the female destroying their minds. After spending some time relaying the spells and controlling the stormcloud though, they had relearned how to use magic, even though they could only use simple spells.

Most of the hive hawks managed to successfully escape, only five of them being destroyed by the sphere of darkness.

Dragon zombie was mildly surprised that his spell had been avoided, but he didn’t stand still as they approached, quickly casting the next sphere of darkness.

‘Constraint spell, now!’ Athos ordered the Skeleton mages.

The hive hawks dodged the sphere of darkness once more, not losing any skeletons now that they expected the attack.

They fanned out above and around the dragon zombie, before black chains shot out of its body and surrounded the dragon zombie like a net. The hive hawks threw the chains on the dragon to try and bind it, but it was much stronger than expected.

The dragon zombie quickly reacted to the chains, biting the ones closest to its face and using its claw to tear at the ones that got close to its body. He even cast a breath of darkness at the hive hawks, who found themselves unable to dodge now that they needed to focus on controlling the currents.

The breath of darkness wasn’t really a dragon breath, just a normal spell that the dragon preferred to breath out of habit. Dragon breath was an incredibly powerful skill at no cost to the dragon, but it had a long delay between shots.

Despite the dragon’s efforts to destroy the chains, they were too many for him to destroy without a proper spell.

A chain managed to trap its broken paw in a moment of distraction from the dragon zombie. The dragon couldn’t move its paw and the second it took to break the chain, another three wrapped around its body.

The dragon zombie fought with everything it had to break free, but with only one paw and its fangs to defend itself, there wasn’t much to work with. Even her limited use of magic couldn’t break the chains fast enough.

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He tried to spit out another breath of darkness, but the chains clamped down on his jaw. Dozens of chains caught his only remaining front paw and chained it against his body.

The dragon zombie fell to the ground and all the remaining chains chained its body, preventing it from escaping. Hive hawks also spent all their mana reinforcing even more the chains.

Despite all his efforts, the chains would not last long. The dragon zombie was squirming furiously to break free, its sheer brute strength putting immense strain on the spell. Every time he writhed, rotten blood gushed profusely across the floor, his injured body unable to withstand the strain.

The currents were also draining its strength, but the dragon zombie quickly learned to deal with it. He began releasing a layer of darkness across his body, protecting himself from the corrupted mana’s energy drain effect.

“Come on, the chains won’t last long.” Athos ordered Treevor and Vanilla, who quickly approached him. Athos fed what was left to the teleportation crystal to fill it up and its surroundings quickly turned dark, before appearing a few feet above the dragon.

The dragon zombie felt the gust of wind overhead and its magical senses detected the sudden appearance of enemies high above it.