Tales Of The Mighty Dragonair

'They got giants with them,' Gege said before adding, 'real giants, not just five or tens meters tall, but some even reached fifty meters.'

"Giants?!" Arthur exclaimed in shock, "from where did they bring these?"

He turned around as he softly added, "and why are they using such force to crush those here?"

'I… dunno anything about this,' Gege sighed, 'according to the tree that appeared out of thin air after starting to crush mountains.'

"They crushed the mountains without the aid of the giants?" Arthur asked in doubt.

'They use some sort of a fiery ore that has an explosive nature. The moment that ore was touched by fire it would explode.'

'Ding! That's not good,' the system said, 'Ding! You need to awaken them.'

"I was sent here to do exactly that," Arthur took a deep breath before adding, "bring forth everyone, let them scatter along the entire place and get familiarized with it… damn that world's will, why didn't she explain things much clearer before?"

He was slightly annoyed by the attitude of the world's will. If she knew all along about what happened here then why didn't she warn him from the start?

'Ding! At least you have some experience in dealing with such toxins,' the system tried to reassure him.

"I'm not worried about finding a cure," Arthur sighed, "I'm just afraid to discover it too late."

'I'll take them out then,' Gege said and started to open portals all around the place.

'Ding! I'll return to the world's will and ask more about what happened here and how.'

"Thanks, any clue would be priceless to us at this stage."

'Ding! Leave it to me.'

Arthur then watched the large armies appearing on the foot of the mountain. Only his three supreme leaders and their armies appeared in front of him, alongside his dragons and werewolf.

During the past days he kept summoning dragons using his dragomancer ability. So the number of his army grew from being a few hundreds to reaching two thousands now.

"What happened here?" The moment the armies were summoned, Doaf couldn't help but ask.

"I guess it was a poisonous gas," Arthur said before starting to explain the current situation for them, focusing mainly on the enemy's large numbers and special techniques and units.

"This… are you sure they brought giants?" Amera seemed to be slightly shocked by this.

"That's what my intel told me," Arthur helplessly said, "and I trust my intel with my life. Do you know these giants?"

"They are a special task force," the crow said, "belonging to one of the most hideous of all dark forces… the red giants."

"Are they like the bronzed giants?" Arthur tried to understand more about this new enemy.

"They are in theory hailing from the same bloodline," Doaf said, "but in fact both are different. Those red giants consume souls since their birth and their bodies grew over the souls and blood of the killed foes. They are so dark, very sinister, and can't be underestimated."

"They are strong," Amera warned, "and our only advantage here is being neutralized by this strange ore… we need to devise a good plan to make this ore useless."

"You mean a hit force to go and destroy the ores?" Arthur said before shaking his head, "seems like a suicidal mission with no result to me."

"It's the only hope we have," the crow said, standing beside Amera and supporting her idea.

"That's not feasible," Arthur again refused, "losing you out of all people isn't a good thing at all. Besides, who can tell for sure they have no other reserves of this ore?"

"This…" Amera struggled to answer.

"Do you have a better idea then?" Doaf asked to drive this talk into a more productive path.

"I do," Arthur nodded before pointing towards the sleeping men and women over the ground, "they are our hope."

"The intoxicated people?" Amera asked in doubt, "I don't think anyone can help them now and nullify that toxin."

"You don't understand how vicious and hard that toxin is," Doaf said in a dejected tone, "it's something even my master and his friends found a great trouble dealing with."

"But I already dealt with it once," Arthur revealed this shocking piece of information, "yet it was a much milder form of it, but I still can deal with it."

"Are you sure?" The crow couldn't help but ask, "dealing with this poison is very risky not only for them but for you as well."

"Just buy me time," Arthur moved his eyes to fall over those looking dead people down below, "enough time for me to crack the antidote and save them."

"And?" Amera couldn't help but ask, "even if you saved them they would still be very weak to fight."

"Don't you find it strange?" Arthur suddenly asked, "bringing such an unstoppable force to here and leading such a majestic army to crush this weak looking place and yet they acted using their strongest poison to make sure these people would be dead when they arrived here?"

"Your meaning?"Doaf asked and didn't hurry to jump to conclusions.

"They have some sort of a weapon," Arthur paused before adding, "perhaps a grand array that would change the entire war. Something that even those giants and fiery ores would pale in front of."

"Hmm… sounds logical," the crow said.

"But it's still a bet," Amera said.

"It's the only hope we have here," Arthur sighed, "after all if we can't figure out a way to deal with such a force then forget about winning this competition… even getting out of here with our heads on shoulders would be mere dreams."

The three went to silence before nodding. They understood his meaning and fears, and now they were more agreeable to his plan.

"Alright we'll buy you all the time you'll need," Amera promised, "but we might need more defensive equipment… I doubt we will be able to use anything here."

"This place… it looked grand from far but so old and tattered from close up," the crow said.

"Don't worry, I've summoned Agnus and his men… these maniacs will craft amazing things for us to use. Just speak with him and take him on a tour and I promise you will be amazed."

"Let's hope we can do this before the army arrives," Doaf sighed.

"I'm still hoping to send out a task force," Amera said before hurriedly adding, "at least to delay them for a bit."

"Then we need a flying unit," the crow said, "hit fast and withdraw faster."

"It's best if they drew them far away from here," Doaf thought for a moment before adding, "like spreading them away from the main army."

"And then we can lie many ambushes and kite them down slowly," Amera's eyes shone brightly and Arthur realized he couldn't stop them at this point.

"Alright," he helplessly said, "go and make sure you won't get yourselves killed."

"Don't worry, it won't be the first time to fight those demons," Amera clenched her fists, "I never thought coming to such a lowly place would be so amusing and challenging… damn, it's like fighting at the grand battles up there."

"Indeed it's weird," Doaf said before laughing, "but it's all thanks to our little master here. If not for him we wouldn't have seen even a glimpse of a giant for years."

The three laughed and Arthur only glanced at them without saying a word. He watched them move away to arrange things here before he turned to the sleeping people underneath.

"At least the poison isn't spreading around like before," he muttered and then started to move down towards one of them.

The moment he reached the ground he didn't hesitate to check the status of each one around. After ten minutes he opened his eyes and took a deep breath. "They are deeply hurt already and that toxin… it's really savage."

He used his dragonair energy to spy over the bodies of those around. Every time his energy went inside it got instantly attacked by a brutal force of dark green gas that strangely eroded away his eroding energy.

"I believe if not for my corroding natured energy then I couldn't even go this far deep inside."

He managed to reach the soul of each person and see how they were eaten away at a frightening speed. What he discovered wasn't only related to this toxin, but also related to the mages lying around.

"They have a pure form of soul, so pure and strong that even after days of being intoxicated their souls were still there standing their grounds and fighting with all their might."

'Why not try to input a high amount of your energy to heal them?' Gege suddenly asked.

"It's not feasible," Arthur shook his head, "I doubt I even could heal a single one with such a way, plus I need to heal tens of thousands on this peak and similar numbers or even more at the other four peaks."

'It's really too much to ask,' Gege sighed, 'but how about you use your golden energy?'

"Hmm… let me try," Arthur thought and decided to use that energy, "I hope it can affect the poison."

He then closed his eyes and stirred his golden pearl. The next instant his golden energy passed through his arms and entered the body of that sleeping mage.

The next moment the body started to violently convulse, yet Arthur wasn't caring at this but all his attention was focused over what was happening inside.

"It's a war!" he couldn't help but exclaim in shock, "it's a brutal war! That toxin seems to be on par with my golden energy."

"No, the golden energy is slightly superior,' Gege refused to accept such result, 'But the amount you are using is too low to crush the toxin.'