In the World of Sword and Magic as Space Marine

Chapter 134: 7th Level Spell and Unexpected Results

Star Child, a piece of Master of Mankind's soul gave one mission before departing to the 40k universe. One and only mission that must be accomplished so Williama and everyone he summons can leave. Slaying the mother of all evil dragons, Tiamat the Dragon Queen.

The quest to defeat the Tiamt isn't some humor that Star Child demands but rather one of the deals he made with local pantheons. To cleanse the taint of Chaos that invaded the Forgotten Realm, remove all foreign mortals including converted ones back to their home universe and finally, gain favor from the divine realm by taking out one of their to-do lists.

By completing the third quest, the gods of the Forgotten Realm will remove the barrier that prevents mortals from leaving the world itself. This means William's starships can leave the planet's orbit and able to reach one of the moons that hid the warp portal. Already having a considerable number of ships in his inventory, all that William has to do is slay the Tiamt which is not as easy as it sounds.

For a story purpose, Tiamat isn't in the mortal world as she is currently a ruler of the first layer of hell. Considering that all evil beings including monsters end up in hell after their death, the first layer of hell isn't the playground or easiest as many think. Just like how 40k's Khorne's realm is a complete bloodbath, death, and murder, Tiamat's realm is the same and bloody.

One crucial thing is that Tiamat wants to leave the first layer of hell but is unable to do so as she is under reluctant service to the Greater Gods, Bane the Black Hand. Long story short, she needs a massive ritual sacrifice and enough hoard of treasure worthy of Dragon Queen. For this reason, the Cult of the Dragons dedicated themselves to summoning the Tiamat, believing in an ultimate reward for their own self-interest.

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The ancient black dragon appeared and stood between William and the traitor, Ver Ravenwings who now possess the black dragon mask. Growling and leaking acid from its mouth, the black dragon of giant size shows its teeth while waiting in order to attack its prey.

"You may kill them all." Said Ver Ravenwings, the traitor's words immediately gave permission for the black dragon to open its mouth, about to unleash an acid-breath attack of its own.

"Oh, hell no!" William, bring out one of his heavy flamers from his inventory and pulled the trigger. With the black dragon's mouth open but unable to attack at that moment, William's flame attack hit its mouth's inside, literally giving a taste of fire directly.

'Dorn's attack philosophy: The best defense is absolute attack if needed.'

Black dragon roar in pain and start rampaging the ground around it. Still, this is a dragon and an ancient one at that, it took only a few seconds to recover from the fire attack by bringing out its own acid attack, extinguishing it as it made rain of acid.

William wasn't the only one who reacted to the ancient dragon's attack. Working together, Rana and the rest of the adventurers moved to a new formation to counter the legendary monster.

The Living Saint once again brings out her spear with her shield and dashes forward to strike the dragon's chest. Meanwhile, Divine Heralds react accordingly to support or attack from their own sides.

"For the Emperor!" Rana's warcry can be heard as she delivers a piercing attack to the dragon's chest, aiming for the heart. To her expectation, the black dragon had its own barrier spell protecting its body as the spear tip couldn't penetrate the scales. Just as she anticipated the dragon's extra protection, Rana made her next move using her own shield. She bashes her shield to the other end of the spear, giving a powerful push.

The additional force successfully break through the protection spell and it suddenly shattered like glass. It was at this moment, the Divine Heralds jump in to attack.

A sword, a war hammer, an arrow, offensive spells, and bare knuckles came in at once. The opportunity of a lifetime to hurt an ancient dragon came but this was nothing but a wishful moment as the ancient dragon's own offensive spells activate at the same time, precisely four level 6 spells.

The first spell engulfs the black dragon with a boost of all stats. This doubled all physical ability including the extension of its health points as Rana's spear slowly begin to pull back from the flesh.

The second spell enlarges the dragon itself, becoming bigger than before and its natural weapons much more dangerous.

The third spell reactivates the protective barrier spell, giving immediate projection and making it much stronger.

Finally, the fourth spell adds resistance to elements including fire, ice, and lighting. This buff spell gave much more boost to the already powerful dragon as its original purpose was to fight another dragon from a different color.

These four spells were this black dragon's trump cards and the sole reason why it managed to reach ancient status, until now.

Fearing none, the ancient black dragon utilizes its two front claws to attack the Divine Herald's front-line fighters. The first to receive the deadly claw was Stan Cloudfists. The wise and talented monk/chef attempted to dodge the attack from the empowered dragon but he was too slow as claws slashed his lower half. His two bodies were thrown to two different places and his demise shocked the rest of the adventurers as he is the first to be fallen.

This didn't stop the dragon's second claw as Harland Duuhpim, the tank of the party became a second victim. Using his steel shield, the dwarf did his best to withstand the attack but failed as his shield shred like paper and was thrown to the mountain like a rag doll.

Still alive but critically wounded, the healer of the party, Saro Earthwing made an earth shield and cast healing root to the downed dwarf. Meanwhile, Durand and Zerth made a last stand with the Dragonborn wizard casting a powerful spell to fight the ancient dragon, somehow.

Rana, meanwhile hanging with her spear still somewhat intact to the dragon's chest attempted to regain her footing as a dragon was wildly moving around. It was at this moment that she saw the ground getting much closer as the black dragon simply drop to the ground, using its massive body weight to crush the Living Saint.

Unable to escape in time, Rana use her entire lower body to withstand the dragon's body from completely crushing her to the ground while she holds the dragon's chest using her two hands.

Sensing that its prey is somehow still alive underneath its body and two adventurers in front of it, the dragon opens its mouth to use an acid-breath attack. It was at this moment William stepped in front of the dragon with something in his hands, a fully charged thunder hammer and he is ready to strike down with all his might.

Kaboom!

The sheer power of the thunder hammer shook the very ground and swamp as the massive hammer of the William hit the ground while the dragon's head remained intact.

'It changed its head position at the last second as I strike down my hammer!' The realization hit William hard as a dragon bites William whole and starts to chew. An ancient dragon lifts William's terminator armor while its big teeth attempt to penetrate his armor plates. It was thanks to William's invincible armor that he is still alive and not dissolved by the acids. William attempts to free himself using a frag grenade from his inventory and throws it down its throat.

The grenade exploded a second later inside the dragon's stomach and it deliver enough damage to make the dragon drop William and cough a stream of blood. Without thinking, William pulls out his black and red power swords to duel wield to attack the dragon but to his surprise, the dragon managed to counter William by delivering a powerful tail swipe. The impact of the dragon's tail threw William into the other side of the battlefield and into the swamp.

It was at this moment Durand the Golden One finish his 7th-level spell and cast it. The golden light shined through the wizard's staff and when it dime down, there were no changes as even the ancient dragon didn't sense any damage.

"Durand, what the hell did you do? It didn't do anything!" Zerth Graymore shout in panic as he was expecting some kind of tactical advantage. To his disappointment, there was none and everyone is about to die due to the wizard's failed attempt to cast a powerful spell.

"Oh, it did something, my boy and you are about to witness it." Durand, the Dragonborn wizard said with confidence, and just as he said, the result came in a figure of golden light.

Rana, who was buried underneath the dragon's massive body lifted the dragon using only one hand. Her appearance was the same as before but instead of 6.5 foot-tall Living Saint, she is now 13 foot-tall Living Saint with the strength to back it up.

"I cast a powerful duplicate spell to copy the dragon's status buff and place it on one person who is the closest. For some reason, I couldn't cast it onto Lord William but thankfully, Lady Beckett was there to take the spell." Durand explain to his party leader and student as he leans on to his staff due to massive exhaustion from casting the spell. Zerth Graymore barely heard his teacher's words as a golden giant of a lady stood with a dragon above her head as if it was a pile of straw.

Rana, who is now physically buffed with exactly four spells of an ancient dragon smiled with joy as she use her free hand to turn her spear into a long sword and begin her work for the Emperor.

Using her powerful strength, Rana toss slightly toss the dragon in the air, and with lightning speed, she flew to the side, giving her room to intercept the dragon as it being to fall. Timing perfectly, Rana's golden blade and the legendary monster's neck met in which by the time others realized what just happened, the black dragon was missing its head and laying on the ground as the dust slowly clears.

"That makes it the fourth and last one out of five colors." Rana proudly said as she held the dragon's head with her hand and sword in the other. No one knows how long the effect of the duplicate spells would last with her but for now, Rana who is now bigger than William stood with a big smile on her face.

Meanwhile, William finally got back up from the swamp and saw the result of the battle between Living Saint and the ancient dragon when his helmet caught a motion of two beings fighting each other not that far from him. William identified the two beings as Rev the traitor and the dragon rider who wore the three combined dragon masks.

Rev is busy fighting the cult leader over his combined dragon mask while the rider attempts to stop him but quickly failed to do so as a dagger pierced his heart. The death of the rider wasn't missed as Rev quickly grab the combined mask from the dead and place his own black dragon mask next to it. The legendary items soon combined into one and just as Rev was about to place it on his head, an arrow hit him in the back as Divine Herald's archer finally made her move.

Elda the female elf archer knock the send arrow and hit the traitor's lower back, making it painful as she could but delivering a lethal shot. Seeing this, William decided to join the archer as he also pull out his long-range bolter and quickly aim through his auto-targeting system.

With a simple pull of his trigger, William fired his bolter gun just as Rev managed to place a four-combined dragon mask onto his head. To his no satisfaction, William's bolt round didn't hit the target as Rev disappeared as bolt round hit the tree behind him.

"An instant teleportation!" William said to himself as he failed to hide his surprised reaction.

"The mask must have a precast spell the moment it is combined and placed on to user's head," Durand said as he slowly walk with help from his student. Next to them, Rana approached and jump onto William's arm but due to her size, she actually hugged him and managed to lift him with his armor on.

"I thought I was going to lose you for a second." Cried the Living Saint as she finally relaxed and showed a feminine side.

"Ok, ok. I'm fine. Would you please put me down?" William said to Rana and she did.

The battle ended on William's side as the winner but the real victor was the traitor as the ultimate price is now in the enemy's hands. Still, William has one more opportunity to change the course of the war against the Dragon Cult as the combined dragon mask needs one more mask to be finished.

The red dragon mask still needs to be found before meeting one of its requirements to summon the Tiamat. Now, out from the Tomb of the Yar, William was able to contact his forces and request a pick-up from his Thunderhawk to regroup. Knowing what is coming next, William decided to take the Divine Heralds with him and plan the next course of action for the upcoming battle.