Chapter 1257: Dark Arena (3)
Upon facing the shadow dragon that was charging at him, Rhode felt relieved. Shadow dragons were elemental creatures that couldn’t be killed 10,000 times if one used ordinary methods. But as long as one targeted and restrained their attributes, one wouldn’t face any issues. The nemesis of these shadow dragons was the light attribute. To put it bluntly, the key in taking down these shadow dragons was to break them up completely!
Swis.h.!.+
The shadow dragon raised its deadly, razor-sharp claws, swinging down at Rhode. At that moment, Rhode and Erin launched their attacks at the same time. They raised their swords and two glaring blade rays erupted in an instant, enfolding the shadow dragon entirely. The shadow dragon’s claws were ripped apart like sliced cakes, before being devoured by the dazzling brilliance. The shadow dragon let out an agonizing howl. The duo’s combined strike utterly destroyed the magical powers that stabilized its body. As its claws shattered, its forelimb was also shattered into black dust like a crumbling sand tower. The black dust fluttered for only a split second, before vanis.h.i.+ng in dazzling rays of light. But at that moment, the shadow dragon widened its jaw and spat a pitch-black, fiery breath on the duo. Facing this menacing attack, they didn’t fl.u.s.ter at all. One was experienced in annihilating dragons, while the other was a true dragon herself. As a result, before the shadow dragon spat flames, the duo had already dodged to the left and right. Rhode turned around, sprung up, and raised his right arm, where a s.h.i.+ny green card appeared in his hand. At the very next moment, the spirit bird showed up behind him!
“———!”
Along with a crisp cry, the spirit bird expanded its wings and released countless lightning bolts from the sky, striking heavily on the shadow dragon. According to the level of the spirit bird, although it couldn’t deal too much damage to the shadow dragon even after Rhode had risen its level to the maximum, its ‘electric’ attribute was part of the key to defeating the shadow dragon!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
A string of lightning bolts blasted the shadow dragon. Even though it was almost harmless, the constant flashes thinned layer upon layer of its dense, shadowy body.
“Now, Angelina! Weaken them!”
“Yes, Master!”
Angelina was long prepared for this moment. Facing the shadow dragons who pounced on her, the young lady didn’t panic in the slightest. Perhaps she was used to being dismembered so she wasn’t afraid of the razor-sharp claws that slashed at her. She chanted an incantation under her breath and abruptly slammed her palms together after a few seconds. Along with this action, a huge, scarlet magical ritual extended with her in the middle. Shortly after, a dozen shriveled arms composed of scarlet smoke extended from the magical ritual, gripping the shadow dragons’ bodies. Although the arms seemed harmless, the shadow dragons turned sluggish and lifeless instantly.
Meanwhile, Icy Snow also seized the opportunity to fire another light arrow. In the blink of an eye, a blazing, glaring sun appeared over the dark arena once again, illuminating everything in brightness.
“Woah… It’s so glaring…”
Looking at this scene, Anne couldn’t help but narrow her eyes and grumble. As a matter of fact, it was just like she mentioned; the dark arena wasn’t ‘dark’ at all. Icy Snow’s light arrows, Erin’s and Rhode’s spiritual blade rays, the spirit bird’s constant lightning flashes, Angelina’s scarlet magical ritual, and the brilliance from Anne’s ‘King’s Protection’ s.h.i.+eld lit up the arena like an idol concert hall. The entire place was enveloped in flas.h.i.+ng, blinding lights. Rhode had to do this because if Bubble were around, he could make her release a ‘light realm’ and toss all the shadow dragons into it. When that happened, it would only be an issue as to how they would go about fighting the shadow dragons. But now that Bubble wasn’t here, Rhode had no choice but to create a knock-off ‘light realm’. Despite that, the knock-off wasn’t genuine, after all, which resulted in the arena turning into a s.h.i.+ny ballroom. One was easily dazzled after looking at the twinkling lights for a long time. But right now, this was the best strategy that Rhode had in mind.
He could only take one step at a time!
Along with the explosion of the second light arrow, the shadow dragon that suffered a pincer attack from Erin and Rhode turned miserable and desperate. It attempted to retreat from the arena of blinding lights, but Rhode wasn’t that kind to fulfill its desires. Because he clearly knew that if the shadow dragons were to return to the shadows, they would absorb the power of shadows and regain their strength in mere minutes!
“Erin, don’t let it escape! Hurry!”
“I got it, Your Majesty Rhode!”
Upon hearing his command, Erin was alarmed. She wasn’t a fool either. After witnessing the shadow dragons turning weak in this brilliance, she knew that light was their weakness. And coincidentally, Erin’s attribute was the moon! Although she couldn’t summon moonlight here, her blade consisted of powers of the light element too!
After hearing Rhode’s command, she gripped the sword, aimed at the shadow dragon, and swung her right arm forward!
s.h.i.+ng!
Along with this attack, a dazzling blade ray erupted from her blade. The blade ray that was almost 10 meters in length divided the darkness and slammed into the shadow dragon’s wings. In the blink of an eye, the shadow dragon howled in grief as its left wing was cut off from its body. Upon losing its balance, the shadow dragon collapsed onto the ground in a loud boom, losing all of its strength and was unable to escape. Not only that, but the instant it slammed onto the surface, its body also dissipated greatly. When it struggled to lift its head to deal the final blow, Rhode had already transformed into a bolt of lightning with his sword and punctured its skull upon descending from above!
“Roar…!”
Under the meteor-like, dazzling brilliance, the shadow dragon gave its final cry. Rhode pierced a major hole in the middle of its skull. But despite that, the shadow dragon continued to lift its head to deal its final attack! However, it didn’t notice that at the same time, Icy Snow had released the light arrow from her bow.
The long, white trajectory penetrated the darkness, into the incredibly thin body of the shadow dragon. At the next moment, a vibrant brilliance exploded from inside its body. The light torrents that burst out of its wounds devoured the weakened body completely. In the blink of an eye, the shadow dragon vanished before their eyes.
“Way to go!”
Rhode nodded in satisfaction as the shadow dragon vanished completely. He gestured to Erin and the duo turned around and pounced on the remaining shadow dragons.
As a matter of fact, the way to deal with the shadow dragons was simple. They just had to manipulate light to weaken them, deal physical attacks to their cores, and let Icy Snow obliterate them with the light arrows. The most important factor was light. With the presence of light, anything was achievable. The dark arena was completely enfolded in bright, flas.h.i.+ng lights. As the shadow dragons, who were surrounded by Angelina’s blood curse, struggled to break free from the bright arena to start all over again, their speed decreased greatly under the effects of the curse. In addition to Rhode’s and Erin’s pincer attack and Icy Snow’s light arrows that erupted from time to time, two to three shadow dragons were wiped out in mere seconds. During the fight, some shadow dragons tried to take down Icy Snow, but Anne wasn’t one to be trifled with either. The instant they brandished their claws at Icy Snow, Anne leaped and hurled her s.h.i.+eld. The ‘holy’ attribute of the King’s Protection was incredibly strong. After the shadow dragons were crushed by the s.h.i.+eld several times, they feared approaching Icy Snow.
“Three left! We need to hurry!”
After another shadow dragon was devoured by a light arrow, Rhode swept a glance at the remaining three shadow dragons and yelled out his command. He lacked forces on his side. Angelina and Icy Snow had to take control of the battle situation, Anne was responsible for protecting Icy Snow, while he and Erin had to chase and slaughter the weakened shadow dragons. They weren’t quick enough. If he were able to pull in 10 people for this fight, perhaps the shadow dragons would have already been defeated. But it was a pity that most of the card spirits in his a.r.s.enal didn’t possess the light attribute, so they would be almost ineffective against the shadow dragons. Not only that, but they might also, in turn, strengthen the shadow dragons instead. This was why Rhode didn’t summon Celestina, Little Five (the specter young lady), and s.h.i.+ra into battle. If they were to deal with the shadow dragons, their attributes would only make matters worse. Not only would the shadow dragons not be weakened, but they would also become stronger, worsening the situation.
As for the members of the Ultimate Army Deck, they were part of the ‘Casali under the night sky’ venue card, which was also of the darkness attribute. Not only that, but their attacking powers were also weak. If the shadow dragons were to devour them for strength, Rhode’s effort would be wasted.
Due to that reason, Rhode had no choice but to deploy this time-wasting strategy. At that moment, he sharply detected that as time pa.s.sed, the torches pinned on both sides of the arena began to extinguish. It wasn’t because they were impacted by the attacks; it was more likely that they were countdown timers. Rhode was certain that once the flames extinguished entirely, the range of darkness shrouding the arena would expand, making their battle an even tougher one!
“Roarrrr———!”
The moment Rhode and Erin linked up to attack the three remaining shadow dragons, the three shadow dragons let out furious snarls and drew close to them. Looking at their retaliation, Rhode’s scalp tingled. In an instant, he realized what they were up to!
“Everyone, attack! Angelina, Anne, cast all the blinding spells you know! Icy Snow, release the explosive light arrow!”
“Yes, Big Brother!”
Upon hearing his command, Icy Snow nodded in agreement immediately. She was one of the many players who traveled extensively with him in the game, so she naturally knew what the three shadow dragons were up to when they gathered in one spot. Icy Snow pulled the bowstring without any hesitation. Along with her action, a pure white arrow manifested on the bowstring, emanating bright spots of light. Not only that, but a dozen translucent, gorgeous, and mysterious runes also circled the arrow. But Icy Snow wasn’t in the mood to be mesmerized by them now. She squinted at the shadow dragons and released her bowstring.
As though Chaos was shattered and heaven and earth was split, and darkness and light were divided in a clear line. The moment she fired her arrow, the dark arena was split into dark and light. The smear of dazzling brilliance shot straight ahead, dyeing its path in vibrancy. The arrow was like a tiny boat braving the winds and billows, barging into the dark seas and bringing light to the world!
The moment the light arrow penetrated one of the shadow dragons, all three of them were done for.
Boom———!
The pure, white light was like a snowy spot of radiance with a circular light band that expanded in all directions. The arrow-struck shadow dragon let out an anguished wail, disappearing into dust after being crushed by the ring of light. Looking at this scene, Rhode couldn’t help but heave a sigh of relief. But shortly after, a string of loud bellows made him tense up.
“Roar——— Roar———!”
Along with the snarls, a pitch-black column rose from the flat ground, charging straight into the expanded ring of light. In just a few moments, the pitch-black column shattered in a loud explosion and a shadow dragon with two skulls and twice the size of the ones from before appeared from within, pouncing on the group in rage.
“d.a.m.n it!”
Looking at this ridiculous scene, Rhode cursed in wrath. The most annoying part about shadow dragons was that they could randomly fuse with one another into an even stronger individual. That was why when he witnessed the three shadow dragons leaning closer to one another, he knew that the situation was far from good. Despite that, he didn’t expect to fall short of success at the very last moment. He couldn’t help but gaze at Icy Snow. The fatigued young lady looked pale and was a spent force right now. The explosive light arrow had consumed almost all of her strength and now, she didn’t have any more power to engage in battles anymore.
Looks like we need to meet force with force now!
“Angelina, Anne, protect Little Icy. Leave the shadow dragon to me and Erin! Everyone, draw close to the remaining torches!”
Rhode knew that the fused shadow dragon was much more challenging and closer to a true BOSS in strength. Besides, what was equally annoying about it was that it would summon critters into battle like any other BOSSes. That was why an individual shadow dragon wasn’t terrifying in Shadow Ravine, but when fused… Even Rhode had a hard time dealing with them.
What gave Rhode a bigger headache was that more than half the torches around the arena had been extinguished. After the halo effect of the explosive light arrow dissipated, more than half of the arena was enveloped in darkness. Only the light in the corner where Rhode’s group was in continued to hold strong. But judging from the time the torches took to extinguish, the torches on his corner would last another two hours, at the very most.
And now…
Rhode calculated the time and knitted his brows at the two-headed shadow dragon. At that moment, more than half of its body was shrouded in darkness, and it also gradually increased in size. Rhode knew that this was the shadow dragon absorbing the power of darkness to replenish its strength. Even though Icy Snow’s explosive light arrow didn’t annihilate the two shadow dragons entirely, they were heavily injured. Now that they fused with each other, they had to heal their injuries. And as soon as they healed their wounds completely, maybe they would launch their attack straightaway. But the problem was that Icy Snow was exhausted. Without light arrows to dominate the situation, what could Rhode’s group do to deal with the two-headed shadow dragon?
“Big Brother, let me do it…”
As Rhode considered a way to eliminate the two-headed shadow dragon, Icy Snow’s voice sounded all of a sudden. He turned around and witnessed the pale young lady gasping for air, lifting her bow, and gazing at him.
“I can fire two more light arrows with my remaining spiritual energy…”
“No, Little Icy. Two light arrows aren’t enough to defeat it. Don’t sacrifice yourself for nothing, I’m sure there is another way…”
Rhode shook his head to refuse Icy Snow’s suggestion. After exerting most of her strength, Icy Snow’s spiritual power was no longer enough to support her in controlling the battle situation. But without her light arrows, the two-headed shadow dragon couldn’t be easily defeated. The reason why Rhode and Erin chased after the shadow dragons and chopped them up like vegetables earlier was mainly due to the light element that held them back. And now, in the darkness, even though the two-headed shadow dragon was an elemental creature, it was almost as strong as a true night wyvern!
“What should we do, Rhode?”
Gazing at the two-headed shadow dragon, Erin puckered her brows and asked anxiously. She discovered that after its fusion, it became much stronger. At least for now, she didn’t dare to attack brazenly anymore. She instinctively felt a strong sense of danger from it.
“Erin, do you have any other skills that can emit light?”
Rhode ran out of ideas. If he had the ‘Casali under the night sky’ venue card, he could drag the enemy and Erin into the venue. As the venue had a full moon hanging over the sky, Erin’s strength would increase with the power of the moon and wiping out the two-headed shadow dragon would only require minutes. But now…
“Emit light…”
Facing Rhode’s question, Erin pondered for a few moments. Then, her eyes suddenly glinted.
“I think… Maybe I can give that a shot…”