Chapter 117
Chapter 117: Clouded judgment.
“Idiot,” muttered Ozul when he saw what was about to happen.
In the battle, when everyone expected that at least one of the mages would take a step back and prepare a stronger spell, the opposite happened.
Clive’s back was towards the group of mercenaries surrounding Clara, and the drake was in front of him. A little to his left stood Barry, also ready to attack at any opportunity.
As usual, Clive threw a quick but a spell of average power towards the drake. Barry should have also thrown his bit at the same time, so there were more chances for it to hit the drake.
However, Barry instead ran towards the back of the drake, right behind the place where it was going to land after dodging.
“What is he doing? There is no time. Before he can conjure another spell, the drake would have already jumped away!” A mercenary commented from the side.
It was a logical conclusion. Everyone had already noticed how quick these drakes were on their feet. Moreover, it was probably their territory, and they were just outsiders.
.....
Unknown to these men, there was only the drake’s core in Barry’s mind. He knew that the average spell would take too much time to conjure, and he had thought everything through. That’s why he was planning to attack with his quickest spell that required almost no chanting.
However, greed had clouded his mind, and he made a fatal error in his judgment. Barry forgot to consider if an attack of such magnitude could even scratch the drake or not.
Because of the sudden urge to obtain the core, he had forgotten to take in many things into account.
Ozul had noticed his movements and realized what he was about to do, and that’s why he called him an idiot. Everyone was so immersed in watching the fight that they did not realize what the consequence of this attack would be.
But Ozul was standing on the sidelines, and he also felt the battle to be boring. He was calmly analyzing everything. That’s why it wasn’t hard for him to make a few guesses on what could happen.
And just as he had predicted, Barry suddenly shouted, “Wind Claws!”
While shouting the name of his spell, Barry also waved his hands as if they were claws. As the name suggested, two claws made of wind were created from his hands.
He directed the spell exactly where the drake would land after dodging the previous attack from Clive.
It all occurred in a matter of a few seconds, so no one except Ozul could draw a few conclusions. Maybe the people hiding in the shadows had also assessed the situation, but they could not expose themselves right now.
Just when the drake had landed, the claws shaped like a cross hit it right in the stomach. Many were stunned by this event because it had been the first hit to the drakes.
The spell created quite a show after colliding. Dirt rose from the ground because of the sudden impact of the drake landing and being hit by the claws.
With a booming sound, the claws sent the drake flying backwards. Because of the force of the collision, everyone thought that it would finally kill the drake.
The drake was flung back, closer to the group that was surrounding Clara.
Despite when the drake was only a few meters away from the group, the mercenaries did not care about it. Everyone just thought the drake was dead, and if not, then at least heavily injured.
Barry was on cloud nine that his spell had finally hit the target. Even Clive looked at this with a gloomy face.
However, everyone’s facial expressions changed in the next moment when the drake stood up, completely fine as if nothing had happened!
The only apparent injury on its body was the minor wound on its back. Barry stood there, not knowing how this could happen.
It was one thing that they, as rank 7 mages, could not hit a rank 6 beast, but not killing it in one attack after the hit was even more embarrassing.
Just when he had thought that things couldn’t go any worse, reality slammed him into the ground. The drake, which should have already started running towards them to attack, just stood there looking towards the other group.
It was at this moment when both Barry and Clive realized that they had messed up. On their side, there were only these two rank 7 mages. At the same time, the rank 6 mages were together with Sir Hanry fighting against the other drake.
In short, there was no one between this drake and the group that was protecting Clara!
The drake suddenly turned his head to look at Barry and Clive, before it growled and started running towards the mercenary group!
The mercenaries who stood the nearest to the beast started shaking with fear. They were simply rank 4 mages or rank 7 fighters, so they stood no chance against a rank 6 beast, which even the rank 7 mages could not take down after all this while.
This turn of the events had astonished everyone. Barry and Clive wanted to fire some spells right at the drake to stop it, but they suddenly remembered that the beast would easily dodge their attack.
And if it really did, then the spell would hit right at the formation of mercenaries who were protecting Clara. They had no choice but to run towards the drake that rushed at the formation.
At the moment, Sir Hanry was also not near the group. Moreover, the drake with one of its horns cut off had suddenly jumped at him.
It was also at this point when Hanry had realized the danger rushing towards the group. However, just like Barry and Clive, he couldn’t fire any spell at that drake in fear of hitting Clara and Venessa.
Under a few seconds, the drake would already be in the formation, so no one could think of a plan on the spot to prevent the beast from reaching the group.
Everything that they thought of turned out to be futile. Sweat trickled down the mercenaries’ necks as they could do nothing but watch as the death slowly approached them.
Some of the rank 6 mages, who were on the sidelines, started bombarding the drake with spells. But none of them seemed to hit anything because the beast would always jump when an attack would be about to hit him.
Venessa was also a rank 6 mage, but because of the tight formation, she could not fire any spell at the beast. There were just too many people in front of her. If she fired an attack, it would kill most of the mercenaries in its path.
At this moment, she only had two options. The first option was just to watch the drake come over to their location and endanger Clara’s life, whom she was supposed to protect.
And the second option was to fire the spell, which would at least ensure that the beast changes its direction, but at the cost of the lives of all the mercenaries trying to protect them.
Just as she was about to make a decision, she heard the yell from beside her...