In the World of Sword and Magic as Space Marine

Chapter 133: Dragon Mask

Dragons are very powerful and magical creatures within the forgotten realm. They possess the natural ability to wield magic power and are capable of casting powerful spells that could devastate brave but foolish adventures.

The dragons are most commonly divided into two categories. Chromatic, the evil dragons that are based on colors such as red, black, blue, green, and white (Order of powerful to less powerful). The metallic is a type of dragon that can be identified as metal such as gold, silver, bronze, copper, and brass (There are more but these are the most known) in which they are generally good and righteous beings. Even though the colors of their scales can identify their natural personality, the dragon is still a dragon and very aggressive towards anyone who dares to challenge them.

There are a few other subraces of dragons aside from true dragons. True dragons become more powerful as they age and have four-legged, wings on their back, with a powerful tail that could destroy a company of cavalry in one swipe. Meanwhile, lesser dragons are the ones that possess a characteristic of the dragon but don't get powerful as true dragons even though they do get older. These are Dragon turtles, drakes, pseudodragons, and wyrms (There are many misconceptions about wyrms are in fact true dragons. This is in fact wrong as wyrms have only two legs and support their upper body using wings to crawl. Also, wyrms can't use magic unlike true dragons, and don't have the ability to communicate with lesser races).

Possessing powerful magic, strength, and the ability to fly, dragons' dangerous weapon of choice is in fact their breath weapon. There are different types of breath weapons based on the dragon's type and as previously stated, their breath weapon gets stronger as the dragon itself gets older. There is fire, ice, acid, lighting, and some cases poison breath that could end the nation in one night.

"Dragons? Splendid things, lad. So long as ye look upon them only in tapestries or in the masks worn at revels, or from about three realms off."

By Astragarl Hornwood, Mage of Elembar.

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Three Chromatic dragons wait with snares and stomping of their tails onto the ground. From William's view, the situation went from easy to very difficult as evil dragons have a bad habit of annihilating the battlefield with no remorse. One thing Western media got a Dragon right is that 'the downed dragon is a dead dragon' from the movie How to Train Your Dragon.

Dragons have a huge advantage when it comes to flying as their ability to take flight and breath weapons be a one-sided battle if the opposing party doesn't have a method of countering the dragon's strategy.

'And there are three of them working together. Great, more headache for me.' William thought to himself as he positions himself to be in the front center of the party. If it comes to shove, William is once again willing to aggro against all three dragons while others act according to their role in the fight.

"Kill them all. The artifact won't be destroyed." The dragon rider gave his order and with no hesitation or moment to consider who gave the command, all three dragons open their mouths and took deep breaths to unleash one of the most powerful breath attacks known in the forgotten realm.

"Everyone behind me, NOW!" William quickly orders everyone to stand behind him and expand his energy shield. A few seconds later, the three massive breath attacks came as the ground shook and everything turn dark inside of William's energy shield.

The first attack was an acid attack from the green dragon as everything around them engulf with green acid. The second one came from a white dragon and its ice attack was cold enough to freeze acid and anything that survived the acid itself. Lastly, the lighting attack from the blue dragon struck the solid ice surrounding the energy shield and shatter it like a glass globe as ice shards flew off like projectiles. While all this is happening, William's energy shield endured as William saw his shield meter decrease slowly but within green range.

"Spead out the moment the attack is over. I will take their attention." William instructs everyone and brings out his range weapons while preparing himself to rush the dragons to get up close.

"Got it." Said Rana and others nod their heads in agreement.

Second later and end of the breath attack, William lower the expansion of the energy shield and charged while firing his bolters. William expected the rounds to heavily wound the dragons as bolter rounds are designed to hit hard and explode inside of the enemy body. To his surprise, the bolter rounds explode immaturely as something shielded all three dragons similar to William's energy shield.

'Shit, they cast a protective spell to protect themselves from potential harm.'

William switch his range weapon to something heavy and with a blink of an eye, William held a plasma cannon with an additional powerpack to boost the firepower of the shot.

"Eat this!" William pulls the trigger and forces his plasma cannon to fire at once without safety measures. The weapon mummed for a second before the massive blue ball of plasma fired from the cannon,

The sudden change of attack surprised all three dragons and a rider when an armored giant fired a strange but powerful attack similar to an advanced offensive spell. The blue dragon and its rider was William's target in which dragon attempted to dodge the attack but failed to do so as something prevented it from doing so. Before realizing what happened, the blue dragon received full damage from the plasma cannon, leaving a giant hole in the chest with scales melting like an iron plate meeting forge fire.

The blue dragon fell down forward with no idea what just happened as the last thing it remembers is the ground shaking due to its massive weight. Meanwhile, the dragon rider failed to keep himself from falling off and dropping to the ground but managed to keep his mask on.

With one dragon down, the other two dragons decided to attack William without realizing what happened. Before the plasma cannon hit the Blue Dragon, Rana, and Divine Heralds successfully spread around and perform their role without failure.

Using magic of their own, the wizard and druid managed to tangle the blue dragon's feet before William fire his weapon. Meanwhile, Rana and others sneak around the other dragons to attack the flank while they are focused on William.

Blazing with a golden spear, Rana jump high and threw her spear with all her might. The spear hit true and before realizing what just happened, Rana's spear pierced the green dragon's head, splitting it into two and missed William's shoulder by a few inches. Rana wasn't done as she extend her golden shield and using the sharp edges, she drop from the sky with the shield's edge towards the dragon's neck. The Living Saint's golden shield bleeds the green dragon by completely beheading the neck, giving it no chance to come back as undead by other forces in the future.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Divine Heralds ambushed the white dragon from all sides and attack with all their might. They may be veteran adventurers with the highest rank but facing the dragon head-on is an impossible task. This is why their strategy depends on striking down before giving an opportunity to fight back.

"Take the legs!" Zerth Graymore said as he strike one of the front legs using his blessed longsword. At the same time, Harland Duuhpim, the dwarf warrior slams the dragon's rear leg using his heavy Warhammer which the dragon slumps down to the ground as its lower leg failed to support the massive weight.

Meanwhile, Stan Cloudfist positions himself on the other rear leg with full focus on his fists.

"Clear sky palm strikes!" The monk's multiple attacks hit valuable spots of the dragon's leg and the last attack caused the leg itself to explode from the inside, crippling the dragon for good.

Finally, Elda the elven ranger seeing the chance, fires her arrow as the dragon roar due to massive pain. The arrow flew above William as Elda hide herself on higher ground and waited for a chance to deliver a deadly blow. The deadly arrow hit the white dragon's mouth, piercing the inside and through the brain.

Seeing this, everyone cleared out to avoid the deadly drop from the dragon's upper body and its head but just as it was coming down, the white dragon registered the downfall of its neck and open its mouth. As it was bleeding through its mouth, the dragon attempt to deliver a last stand using a breath attack. Seeing the danger and range of its powerful attack, William unhook his plasma cannon power cable and overload the power cell the cannon was equipped with.

"Eat this!" With all his strength of superhuman, William throws the heavy plasma cannon as it glows blue. White dragon, unable to close its mouth or inability to move whatsoever couldn't do anything but receive a strange metal tube that glows with a mysterious light. After the plasma cannon went into the dragon's mouth, the cannon exploded with enough power to destroy a dreadnought.

Boom!

When the dust cleared, the headless white dragon fell to the side with its entire upper body mostly gone. The three Chromatic dragons that possess enough power to destroy large cities were easily vanquished by followers of the good. But, before anyone could celebrate incredible victory against the dragons, Zerth cried out loud due to pain as two daggers pierced his back. Ver Ravenwing stood behind his party leader with a small bag in his hand while holding a third dagger in the other hand.

"Long live the mother of all dragons." The traitor pulls out the black dragon mask and puts it on his face. The moment he placed the mask, a sudden wave generated from him and rippled the air itself.

"Come forth and serve the followers of your queen." With simple words, a massive shadow flew over with the sounds of flapping wings. Looking up, William and others saw a fourth Chromatic dragon with scales dark as the darkest night with glowing yellow eyes like a shiny reflection of three moons.

The black dragon and guardian of the Tomb of Yar respond to the summons. To kill anyone who stands against his creator and mother of all dragons.