Artorius was quickly realizing this was a huge mistake. He was like a candle light lit up by a flamethrower which will be exhausted in a blink. Worse yet how on earth was he going to have this thing do anything. Its memories of its life flash before him, but there was one thing he grasped, its fall. He watched as it got slain by its old rival, the Frost Lady and fell down here long ago.
Well it looks like he knew what this dragon reverse scale was. "Her brood is right before you," his voice whispered. It was like a fly buzzing before a giant. Nonetheless it noticed and peered closely at the White Lady.
"Ahh, let's deal one final blow beyond the grave," he spoke. Looking at the sad state of his body as it crumbled, this would be truly their last act upon this world. Artorius raised his hands, and the world seemed to bend toward his will. A last strike was unleashed. "Snow Cataclysm!" he whispered.
Image: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/423619908696205507/
Temperatures plummeted, snowstorms formed in seconds, and frost leapt from the ground like living serpents. Dragons in midair froze solid, shattering like glass upon impact with the ground. Auxithkox, the Radiance Dragon, tried to counter with the Word of Light, but the impervious cold penetrated his scales, searing through his radiance. He was blinded, overwhelmed, and frozen solid on the spot.
The White Lady's frost, once absolute, was overwritten by the Dragon Lord's might. Her control wavered as the Pale Snowfields themselves obeyed Artorius. Snowstorms roared, forming mountains of ice, spikes that spiraled skyward, and blizzards that turned visibility to zero in moments. The battlefield was no longer a field, it was a frozen cathedral, the land reshaped by Artorius' newfound dominion.
The armies watched cowered, many caught in the crossfire. Even dragons loyal to the Queen staggered, unsure if the land itself would swallow them whole. Artorius, guided by the Snow Dragon Lord's will, became a living avalanche, unstoppable, terrifying, and godlike.
Then out of nowhere in the sky, ice came down to counteract the snow. High above the Dragon Nest, the Frost Dragon Lady decided to intervene for her daughter's sake. She was enormous wings like wedding veils of frost, horns curling like sculpted glaciers, scales white-blue like polished permafrost.
But then someone else stepped in to put a stop to her indiscretion. Dark laughter filled the air as a dragon wreathed in purple-black nothingness with tattered wings, hollow eyes and an aura that erased everything. He tilted his head, purple fire leaking from the gaps in his wings and put a stop to her intervention.
All they saw was a flash and the two figures were gone. The Snow Cataclysm subsided. Artorius, body flaking, cracked from the sheer energy drawn through him, knelt amidst the wreckage. Artorius' eyes opened, white-blue flames flickering. The battlefield was unrecognizable.
Where an army once stood, now spears of ice jutted from the ground at impossible angles, each one a frozen tomb for dragons caught mid-scream. Whole platoons had been flash-frozen into sculptural remains, then shattered by the pressure changes. The air itself crackled with sheets of thin, translucent frost, drifting like broken glass.
The dragons in the sky did not stand a chance as the further they tried to escape the more the temperature dropped. Now their bodies fell like dead butterflies. Auxithkox, High Noble Radiance Dragon, beacon of the Fragrance Queen's authority, stood like a frozen statue before him, his claws raised and his jaw open for a roar.
You have slain[High Noble Radiance Dragonling — Level 30]
Congratulations! You have leveled up. Race: [True-Blood DragonMen] → Lv. 21
Stat gains: +1 STR, +1 CON, +1 DEX, +1 Per, +1 CHA
Congratulations! You have leveled up. Archetype: [Leader] → Lv. 21
Stat gains: +1 INT, +1 WIL, +1 CHA
Congratulations! You have leveled up. Class: [Storybook Squire] → Lv. 21
Stat gains: +1 Str, +1 Con, +1 Will, +1 Char, +1 Luc!
Congratulations! You have leveled up. Race: [True-Blood DragonMen] → Lv. 22
Congratulations! You have leveled up. Archetype: [Leader] → Lv. 22
Stat gains: +1 INT, +1 WIL, +1 CHA
Congratulations! You have leveled up. Class: [Storybook Squire] → Lv. 22
Congratulations! You have leveled up. Race: [True-Blood DragonMen] → Lv. 23
Stat gains: +1 STR, +1 CON, +1 DEX, +1 Per, +1 CHA
Congratulations! You have leveled up. Archetype: [Leader] → Lv. 23
Stat gains: +1 INT, +1 WIL, +1 CHA
Congratulations! You have leveled up. Class: [Storybook Squire] → Lv. 23
Stat gains: +1 Str, +1 Con, +1 Will, +1 Char, +1 Luc!
The world was silent. Not silent in the way of an empty field or a windless night. Silent like a tomb. Artorius swayed where he knelt, the last shards of Dragon Lord power fraying off his body like burning snowflakes. The glow in his eyes sputtered. His breath came in sharp, fractured pulls, steam hissing from the cracks in his skin.
It seemed like the system accredited him to the mass slaughter he just committed along with killing off the Radiance dragon. He just gained multiple levels in full swoop, he would have loved to gain more levels like that if only he didn't have to slaughter so many.
Also looking at the skill he gained, he could only shake his head. It was not the saving hope he was looking for since he was dying. His body was collapsing right was before his eyes. His fingers trembled, skin splitting along the knuckles with a soft, crystalline crackle. His forearms were latticed with fractures, glowing faintly blue from the power that still leaked through, unable to be contained.
Every breath came out colder than the air around him freezing his lips, freezing the blood running down his chin. His heartbeat was uneven. Like an engine forced to run on the wrong kind of fuel. He coughed. A spray of blood hit the snow. It hissed and froze instantly, forming small red crystals that tinkled faintly when they hit the ground.
His vision flickered. The world dimmed. Shapes lost their edges. His ears rang with a dull, underwater throb. He could feel the Dragon Lord receding, withdrawing into whatever lay beyond death, leaving him behind like an abandoned vessel. The absence was worse than the presence, it left a hollow ache in the marrow of his bones.
"Damn…" Artorius whispered, shoulders drooping. "I really overdid it…" He laughed, or tried to. It came out as a cracked cough.
Then to add to his growing list of problems, Isylith staggered, trying to fly, but the weight of her wounds pressed her down until her claws gouged trenches in the frost. She looked small. Fragile. Yet she inched towards him to try to finish him off.
"Just give me a few more minutes. I will be gone by then," Artorius smiled.
And then a roar cut through the stillness. A wounded, limping Viserion dragged himself out from a mound of ice rubble, one wing broken, half his ribs visible under shredded scales. Frost bled from the wounds; his breath was ragged, uneven, a dying furnace.
His eyes locked onto Isylith. His half-sister. Viserion opened his maw. The frost inside his chest crackled, turning cerulean. And then he unleashed everything he had left. A torrent of absolute cold, amplified by the lingering aura of the Snow Cataclysm, blew straight through Isylith's chest.
"No…" she whispered, frozen breath spilling from her lips. "You dare. You dare! You worthless thing," Her scream froze instantly, captured mid-echo.
The blast tore open her torso. The frost dragon noble bloodline ended in a single, violent exhalation. Her body crystallized. Then shattered. Viserion collapsed, his breath spent, coughing up chunks of frost and blood.
They were all in a sad state with Artorius worse of them all. That seemed to be what he was looking for as a shadow fell over him. A ragged, tattered, half-missing jaw. A single glowing eye. A voice like broken stone: "Good trick…"
Artorius's heart nearly stopped. Xytherion. The Oblivion Dragon. He lived. Barely. His wings hung in tatters. His ribs were exposed. Darkness seeped from gaping wounds like ink. He limped forward, dragging his body across the cracked snow.
Artorius tried to stand, but his legs buckled. Cracks split down both arms, glowing blue-white with leaking frost energy. His heartbeat fluttered painfully, arrhythmic, like a machine missing half its gears. He did not have long left, he could feel the sweet embrace of death calling. Though he couldn't stop grinning.
Xytherion saw the look on his face and couldn't help asking, "Why.. are you smiling!"
"I could kiss you know," Artorius couldn't help laughing but broke into coughing fits.
Ouroboros landed next to them and looked at him as if lost his mind, and even voiced it. "Did you lose all your facilities boy? This really tops the most foolish things you have done! Look at you about to kick the bucket… and I had so much hope for you."
Artorius simply just withdrew the sacrificial dagger he kept on hand, Artorius's voice was hoarse and broken. "Thank you!" Xytherion did not like one bit the feeling of being played he got and lunged.
Artorius moved first. He slammed the dagger into his heart. The oblivion dragon simply… stopped. The effect was instant and catastrophic. Xytherion froze mid-motion, his one good eye widening. Then his entire form convulsed as cracks of white light spiderwebbed across his blackened body. "No…" he rasped. "No, nonono. NOT LIKE TH—"
He never finished as he broke down, meanwhile Artorius looked more and more healer each minute. It was like the clock was turning back on all his wounds while the oblivion dragon broke down.
You have slain[High Noble Oblivion Dragonling — Level 30]
Congratulations! You have leveled up. Race: [True-Blood DragonMen] → Lv. 24
Congratulations! You have leveled up. Archetype: [Leader] → Lv. 24
Stat gains: +1 INT, +1 WIL, +1 CHA
A silence followed that felt like the world exhaling in relief. Artorius sagged forward, he was much better now but he was still severely injured. He wasn't going to fall dead any second but he wasn't out of the zone.
There was something he noticed as the creature collapsed and dropped to the ground, a black orb that fell from within its stomach. Picking it up with the effort of it greatly pained him, he turned it in his hand. It had a skull shape that was eerie and he used inspect on it.
Feign Death(Epic): You are able to fake your death.
Artorius had been wondering how the oblivion dragon had been kept on coming back to life, he assumed it was one of its abilities but it turned out to be this item. And this was the highest rarity item he had run into so far. He wondered how it worked exactly.