Crimson Infinite Dragon Swarm

Crimson · Infinite Dragon Swarm

"Phew~"

Above the Star Sea's dazzling, multicolored surface, the Winged Fire Dragon streaked swiftly past, carving a massive wake through the water. The disturbance was considerable, alerting many Star Beasts beneath the surface, and they launched attacks as well.

Though the Winged Fire Dragon was merely a Subdragon, its flying speed was not much slower than that of a Pure-Blooded Giant Dragon. The attacks of most Star Beasts could not catch up to it at all.

The few Star Beasts with relatively fast attacks lacked sufficient power. Their strikes landed on the Winged Fire Dragon without so much as an itch, not even enough to make it stop.

Even within the Star Sea, Star Beasts heavily affected by the power of the Star Gods were not all that powerful. The vast majority were still Tier 1 or Tier 2. However, as creations of the Star Gods' power, there were no unranked Star Beasts among them. The weakest were at least Tier 1.

The fundamental reason was that the Star Sea was not the starry sky, after all. Its environment was nowhere near as harsh as the starry sky's. Though Tier 1 and Tier 2 Star Beasts died easily, they could still survive here. Unlike in the starry sky, where Star Beasts below Tier 3 lacked even the foundation to continue existing.

Secondly, the Star Sea was part of the Endless Sea and had not been completely severed from it. Just as when Isaac had been attacked by Star Beasts upon reaching the Star Sea's border, the Star Beasts of the Star Sea could leave it and roam other waters.

It was simply that other waters lacked the lingering power of the Star Gods, and those environments did not suit them. That was why most Star Beasts remained active within the Star Sea.

By the same logic, the Star Sea did not restrict Star Beasts from appearing in other waters, so naturally, it did not stop Sea Beasts from other waters from drifting into the Star Sea.

Of the Sea Beasts that entered the Star Sea, some were eaten by Star Beasts as food, while others strove onward, absorbed enough Star God power, and evolved into powerful Star Beasts!

Then they were eaten by even stronger Star Beasts...

This peculiar ecosystem made the number of Star Beasts in the Star Sea far greater than that of genuine Star Beasts in the starry sky. Naturally, their average strength was also far below that of the legitimate Star Beasts of the starry sky.

Of course, an average was only an average. There were still quite a few high-level Star Beasts here.

Just like this...

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Several water blades shot from the sea ahead of the Winged Fire Dragon, slashing straight toward it!

At the same time, a strange force field descended. The invisible field transformed into bizarre ropes that wrapped around the Winged Fire Dragon. Though they could not stop it completely, they effectively restricted its flight speed.

Rona, seated upon the Winged Fire Dragon's back, narrowed her eyes slightly and parted her crimson lips. "Stop. Deal with it."

"Roar!"

Though it was only a soft whisper that should have been easily swallowed by the wind, it reached the Winged Fire Dragon's ears with perfect clarity. It let out a confident roar, and the violent soundwave instantly shattered the three water blades.

Then...

"Hisss!!!!"

The Winged Fire Dragon took a deep breath. As its chest lit up red, it swelled high...

"Boom!"

The next instant, a scorching crimson beam erupted from the Winged Fire Dragon's mouth, blasting toward the direction from which the water blades had come... then three hundred meters to the right!

The scorching crimson breath instantly vaporized the seawater along its path and the invisible force field around it. At the same time, an enormous volume of water vapor billowed upward!

"Whoosh, whoosh~"

Immediately afterward, gale-force winds howled as the water vapor converged upon Anna on the dragon's back like a vortex. Crimson radiance flickered within the misty white vortex, carrying intense draconic magic and giving off an ominous feeling.

"Roar!"

Elsewhere, the Shark Star Beast, half its body blasted away by the Winged Fire Dragon's breath, opened its bloody maw. Violent silver soundwaves surged toward the Winged Fire Dragon. At the same time, mysterious starlight emerged around the Shark Star Beast's wounds, and the body destroyed by the breath rapidly regenerated, returning to normal in the blink of an eye.

No, it had not merely recovered. Compared to before, the Shark Star Beast's body had become larger and stronger!

As the saying went, every loss came with a gain. Having lost the Authorities possessed by normal higher lifeforms, Star Beasts had gained an unparalleled rate of physical growth!

Every time they were injured, their physical strength increased tremendously after recovering. Combined with their equally terrifying regeneration speed...

These two perfectly matched abilities not only gave Star Beasts the qualifications to fight normal higher lifeforms, but even allowed them to grow stronger the longer they fought!

Just like a certain warrior who could use the Fool Spirit Art—born for battle, and only resting in death~

Therefore, there were usually only three ways to deal with these Star Beasts. The first was to kill them instantly with absolute power. Your mechanics might be great, but my numbers were better!

The second was to focus on control, like Isaac had done before. I might not be able to kill you, but you would not be able to stop me from doing what I wanted. The third was to be like a Dimension Apostle: neither the numbers nor control methods were sufficient, but there was a little of both, and with absolute endurance, one could slowly grind them to death.

As for Rona, though she did not possess Isaac's endless stream of tricks and had no idea how to control it, as a Witch, what she lacked least were mechanics and numbers!

More unfortunately for it, her mechanics existed to serve her numbers. So, faced with the Shark Star Beast that had recovered almost instantly, Rona merely gently pushed the crimson mist sphere in her hand forward.

Immediately afterward, the Winged Fire Dragon folded its wings together, wrapping its own body and Rona atop its back inside them, perfectly blocking the Shark Star Beast's roaring soundwaves!

At the same time, the crimson mist sphere thrown by Rona was naturally shattered by the Winged Fire Dragon's crimson soundwave. In an instant, countless mist-like dragons with crimson chests roared out from within and flew toward the Shark Star Beast!

Authority Magic—Crimson · Infinite Dragon Swarm!

Authority Magic, like a wizard's Authority Spell, was a type of magic that could extract the power of an Authority as thoroughly as possible. Of course, that was not entirely accurate. More precisely, Authority Spells were more like Authority Magic.

That was because Authority Spells had been researched based on Authority Magic. Their greatest difference was that Authority Spells were researched by wizards themselves, while Authority Magic was awakened from a Witch's bloodline together with her Authority when she advanced to become a High Witch.

After Rona advanced to become a High Witch, the Authority she awakened was called Giant Dragon, an extremely special Authority that lay somewhere between a concept and an Authority.

The Authority Magic she awakened was the Crimson Series.

Yes, a series.

Witches were a group deeply favored by the world. Not only did they not need to research their Authority Magic themselves, they even awakened complete sets of it!

For example, Crimson · Infinite Dragon Swarm was a summoning spell based on Giant Dragons. It could summon an endless stream of weak Tier 3 Giant Dragon and Subdragon projections to destroy living beings it had locked onto beforehand. As long as life remained, the dragon swarm would not cease!

The Authority Magic of the Crimson Series was all immensely destructive magic. There were no mechanics at all—only numbers!

So...

The final outcome of the battle naturally held no surprises. Under the siege of the infinite white-mist dragon swarm, no matter how powerful its body or regeneration was, the Shark Star Beast was ultimately devoured completely by the dragon swarm, transforming into a crimson crystal that flew into Rona's hand.