"Buy me time!"
With [Alertness] active, Tang Qi felt every hair on his body stand on end.
He immediately chanted the spell for [Misty Step], turning gaseous through his [Mist Walker] trait and dispersing into the windblown sand—the acid passed through the gaps in the mist.
"Yiwu!"
Yiwu exhaled a repulsive force that swept up the dust, carrying Tang Qi swiftly toward the Black Dragon Anduin's forehead.
Dawn closed in even faster, like a meteor streaking parallel to the ground. By the time the fleeing defenders and advancing Beastfolk spotted her, the broken sword in her hand had already flashed with light once more. "[Supreme Holy Slash]!"
The gilded blade shone like sunlight, yet beside the Giant Dragon, a full ten meters tall, it looked like a lone star amid the swirling sand.
The blade slammed into the front of Anduin's left leg. Dragon scales tougher than alloy gave a dull thud, splintering beneath the holy strike in a spray of tiny fragments and blood.
It was pain Anduin had never felt before.
Or rather, he had never felt pain since the moment he was born.
As the first Black Dragon to awaken in that warm underground pool, he had proclaimed himself the Rotting Swamp Lord, and his entire life had gone smoothly.
He had never needed to worry about food—the pool held vast stores of Magic Energy, enough to sustain him until adulthood.
He had never needed to fight for survival—the souls of anything underground that might have qualified as an opponent had already returned to oblivion.
Now he had truly broken out from the depths of the earth, leading his awakened kin toward a broader sky.
He had never expected such a surprise in his very first battle, but he was not angry.
He was merely excited.
"Resist