civilwarnovels Chapter 280: A King Descends from the Heavens
Chapter 280: A King Descends from the Heavens
No sooner had the words left his mouth.In the distance, that towering Dragonborn Goblin-like figure planted a heavy step into the ground.
From where its foot landed, the earth split in a spiderweb of fissures.
Thud!
Its knees bent slightly.
The next moment, with the ground shattering, its body shot forward like a cannonball.
So fast!
Gauss felt a jolt of alarm.
So far he had only killed two commander-level monsters.
The first was the Goblin Chieftain roasted to death;the second was the earlier Gorgon.
The former hadn’t met him head-on, while the latter used a sneak attack strategy and was itself a species that favored certain strengths over others.
The Dragonborn Goblin before him was the fastest of the three.
Its body seemed to have inherited part of a Red Dragon’s power, giving its flesh tremendous explosive force that put it at the top tier among monsters of its rank.
The muscular body tore through the air with explosive pops from its skin;the crimson scales even drew a streak of bright red light through the air.
With his peripheral vision, Gauss spotted the shamans and spellcasters behind the Dragonborn Goblin.
They must be providing it with a lot of buffs.
Nearly two hundred meters away, that distance was halved in the blink of an eye under such a berserk charge.
At that speed, forget Fireball possibly being partially resisted—if he stubbornly tried to cast one, hitting would be nearly impossible.
Mobility like that was Fireball’s major weakness.
“Sir Gauss, please stand behind me!”
Albenia placed herself in front.
“Bull’s Might!” Aria used the Strength branch of Enhance Attributes on her,
and Serlandul quickly cast several post-heightened-circle blessings.
A white glow soon lit up from the group.
Immediately, Shadow wrapped Aria and Serlandul and whisked them behind Gauss and the others to a safe zone,
while Albenia deliberately took a few heavy stomps forward.
Unnoticed, her splendid armor had already covered her body.
Under the sun, blue mana lines on the armor blazed to life, projecting an aura of indomitability.
Albenia raised her shield in one hand and gripped her great axe in the other, standing before Gauss like an immovable fortress.
To be honest, standing behind her made Gauss feel quite safe.
The feeling was unfamiliar.
Even thinking that, his hands did not stop moving.
Mana inside him surged like a tide.
Power rippled through his body;beneath his loose robe, blue magical scale patterns activated by the Sturdy Scale Bloodline spread across his skin and climbed to his clear jawline.
Mana quickly concentrated at the tip of his White Wand.
Ahead of him, like a heavy armored truck, the Dragonborn Goblin smashed forward and violently collided with Albenia, who was as steady as a mountain.
Boom!!!
At the impact, sparks and flame flew.
The shockwave of the collision burst outward and kicked up dust everywhere.
Albenia planted her shield forward;the ground beneath her instantly cracked.
The violent kinetic energy that erupted from the Dragonborn Goblin conducted into her great shield. Yellow light shimmered across the shield’s surface, and with a dull thunderous sound, most of the impact energy channeled into the ground.
Around Albenia, a honeycomb-like crystalline golden energy shield formed, guarding her firmly.
In the rear,
a prepared Gauss seized the momentary stalemate.
The White Wand in his hand flashed brilliant light.
His gaze locked onto the Dragonborn Goblin.
“Heightened casting.”
“Magic Missile, seven shots!”
With continued practice, the number of Magic Missiles Gauss could fire simultaneously had quietly increased from six to seven.
That number would keep rising.
Thud!
Seven cobalt-blue missiles hovered before him, arranged into a perfect rotating ring.
It looked almost like a magic array.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
The seven missiles launched like living comets as Gauss swung his wand.
They trailed dazzling tails, slipping around Albenia’s shield and slamming into the Dragonborn Goblin’s body.
Magic Missiles had long since changed from their original form in his hands.
There were more of them, far more powerful, and they could slightly adjust their flight in midair.
That made the Magic Missiles far more flexible and unpredictable.
Boom!...
Explosions of field energy roared in succession.
All the Magic Missiles detonated solidly on the Dragonborn Goblin’s scales.
The Goblin, already locked in a stalemate, was blasted with this sudden assault;its whole body, lacking any brace point, was thrown a dozen meters.
Gauss narrowed his eyes.
When the dust cleared,
the Dragonborn Goblin knelt on one knee;its scales had been torn open by the rapid seven-shot heightened Magic Missiles, revealing bleeding flesh beneath.
Yet there was no sign of pain on its face.
Instead, as if roused by the sight of crimson blood, the red light in its eyes burned even fiercer.
It rose slowly.
The blood seeping from its wounds rapidly vaporized, as if the blood itself became fuel. A scorching steam enveloped its body.
Its wounds completed stopping the bleeding, scabbed, sloughed, and regrew tissue in the blink of an eye.
Roar!!
It opened its muzzle and unleashed a furious bellow.
Rings of sonic force washed through the air as if they had substance.
Albenia frowned slightly at the front.
That roar gave people an uncomfortable sensation.
But that reminded Gauss of something.
You can roar? I can roar too.
And his roar would be even more effective.
Title: Goblin Handler
Effect: True Dragon’s Majesty.
When you roar at goblins, you inflict powerful mental attacks that cause comprehensive drops to goblin abilities. Current effect: 20%.
Compared to the stage it had during Goblin Hunter, this title’s effect had undergone a massive transformation,
but it had seldom had the chance to be used.
Before this commission, the goblins Gauss had fought were all underdeveloped, weak goblins. The strongest winged goblins he had met were still low-tier monsters.
There was no need to use a heavy blade to kill a chicken.
Goblin Hunter’s effect used to be False Dragon’s Majesty, which reduced goblins’ strength and combat desire by 10%.
The upgrade to the current effect partly came from Goblin Hunter evolving into Goblin Killer, but more importantly, Gauss’s racial trait Sturdy Scale Bloodline had grown stronger.
After gaining Sturdy Scale Bloodline, False Dragon’s Majesty had formally transformed into True Dragon’s Majesty.
The weakening effect also became an all-around debuff.
If goblins were the monsters Gauss countered most effectively, goblin-like creatures did not yield easily either.
Gauss listened to the Dragonborn Goblin’s roar.
He took a deep breath.
Roar!
He exhaled the sound.
The next moment, a ring of force rolled forth from his mouth.
This sound was not as loud in decibels as the Dragonborn Goblin’s,
but...
the Dragonborn Goblin’s vertical pupils suddenly contracted at the sound,
as if it had heard something unbelievable.
The murderous and devouring gleam in its eyes cleared instantly.
Gurgle—
Its throat rolled as it swallowed thick saliva.
It felt as if the air around had solidified;the power burning through its blood started to wane.
Its whole body even began trembling uncontrollably.
What was happening?
Farther off, Aria—who was casting an attribute buff on Gauss—caught the scene and exchanged glances with Shadow and Serlandul.
Gauss and that big Goblin had roared at each other;how had it instantly wilted like a mouse facing a cat?
Magic? Some other power?
Beside her, Serlandul’s eyes were sharp and unusually bright.
He felt a solemn pressure in the air.
Closing his eyes, it was as if a giant dragon was slowly descending from the sky with wings unfurled.
Although the force wasn’t aimed at him, he could still feel that heart-stopping shock.
She glanced back at Gauss, who had roared.
Though she didn’t understand how he had done it, she wouldn’t miss this rare chance.
Mana patterns on her steel boots lit up;her heavy body surged forward under explosive force.
Her double-bladed axe swung high.
Boom!
The air was torn.
The sharp axe struck the Dragonborn Goblin’s muscular body.
Sizzle!
Scalding blood spurted.
The Goblin, in extreme shock and panic, failed to dodge that heavy blow.
It was sent flying.
This time it went farther.
The sprayed blood traced an arc through the air,
raining down onto the ground and steaming hot.
Howl—
The Dragonborn Goblin howled in agony.
It tumbled across the ground twice.
Elsewhere, Gauss followed behind Albenia;Aria’s Intelligence buff made his mind clearer.
To him, the Goblin in front seemed even more weakened than 20%.
Why?
Gauss quickly found the answer.
He glanced at the shamans and spellcasters among the goblins in the distance.
Their buffs must have been heavily diminished.
Moreover, the Dragonborn Goblin’s earlier mighty roar was apparently on the verge of entering a special state, akin to a Half-Orc’s bloodrage,
but because its power came from a Red Dragon drake,
an accidental interruption by Gauss at the perfect moment caused a huge backfire,
similar to a spellcaster being interrupted and suffering backlash.
Having figured out the cause, Gauss decided to punish the fallen beast.
“Albenia!”
He called out as he trailed her, and the White Wand in his hand flared again.
This time the Sword Soul profession talent, Will-Sword, layered onto the Magic Missiles.
A visible sheen of bright gold wrapped the Magic Missiles.
They swelled.
Seven blue-and-gold Magic Missiles hovered in the air, radiating a chilling, violent elegance.
Gauss swung his wand.
The enhanced Magic Missiles cracked the sound barrier and drove into the huge wound Albenia had made.
Those flesh buds that were beginning to scab were already starting to sear inward,
but Gauss was too fast.
Thud! Thud! Thud!…
The seven Magic Missiles struck the wounds repeatedly in a very short time.
Scales flung open;flesh buds were torn to pieces by the mighty magical field. The missiles relentlessly shredded the Goblin’s iron-hard body.
Roar!
The Dragonborn Goblin let out a heart-rending scream!
Heightened casting, Will-Sword’s added mental damage, seven consecutive strikes, attribute buffs, blessing boosts, Spell Mastery bonuses, True Dragon’s Majesty weakening and mental damage, the Goblin’s own interrupted-state backlash, plus the huge wound Albenia had inflicted earlier—
Gauss was piled high with buffs, while the Dragonborn Goblin was clogged with debuffs.
Tugging one way and pushing the other.
This attack produced terrifying lethality.
When the dust settled,
the enormous body of the Dragonborn Goblin had been shredded into a gore-filled ruin by continuous strikes.
Its upper and lower halves were nearly severed, held together only by a few charred pieces of skin and sinew.
The sand around it ran a shocking dark red.
Ming~
The spark in the Dragonborn Goblin’s eyes gradually dulled.
It tilted its head.
Its gaze at Gauss was full of bewilderment.
Why?
The energy in its chest barely allowed it to muster one final self-destruct-like attack.
But now, this Dragonborn Goblin—finally clear-minded in its last moments—had lost the will to fight.
It only felt confusion.
Is that the King?
Its look toward Gauss was full of struggle.
Roar?
The Goblin emitted a low, strained growl, like a wounded puppy whimpering, as if seeking confirmation.
Roar!!
Gauss sighed.
He let out another roar.
True Dragon’s Majesty descended again;the soundwave swept across the Dragonborn Goblin,
making it shudder instantly.
A king descends from the heavens, gentle and loving.
In its blurring vision, an utterly sacred giant dragon spanned the sky, emitting a motherly warm light.
The last glimmer in the Dragonborn Goblin’s eyes faded.
In its final moments, it seemed to sink into absolute peace, dying quietly and willingly under the mental assault of the Dragon Roar.
“Commander-level monster Dragonborn Goblin killed *1”
A prompt popped before Gauss’s eyes.
By the result, Gauss had literally roared a commander-level monster to death.
Killing the Dragonborn Goblin unlocked a third type of commander-level monster for him.
Throat...
For some reason, his mood suddenly soured.
He would have preferred seeing its earlier frenzied eyes rather than its final posture of willing death.
But...
goblin-like creatures were destined to be unable to coexist with humans;their nature hated humans.
He took a deep breath and adjusted his mood.
He walked to the Dragonborn Goblin’s side.
He reached out and collected the large floating lump of spiritual energy from its body.
After collecting this commander-level monster’s spirit, he now had two lumps.
However, like the earlier Gorgon’s, such powerful spirit required high-quality materials for clay magic spellcasting, so for now he would set it aside.
“Sir Gauss, what was that roar you just used?”
Albenia stared at the terrified goblin squad in the distance and asked Gauss.
“A bloodline ability.”
“I see.” Albenia nodded thoughtfully.
Just as the group prepared to clear out the last goblin squad in the nest,
Rumble!!!
The ground began to shake like an earthquake.
Huge fissures slowly spread across the surrounding terrain.