Death Shadow

Qingfeng Lanhuai ignored those unruly people and rapidly issued orders to the core members.

"Elementalists, put up the Flame Protection Barriers."

"Hunters, rangers, and archers, get to the front and form an anti-air formation!"

"Everyone switch to ranged weapons and drink your fire-resistance potions!"

His old brothers were still reliable. In the blink of an eye, they had established a circular anti-air defense system.

The outermost ring consisted of sharpshooters, rangers, magic bowmen, and hunters, forming an anti-air fire net with the longest range and capable of effectively attacking aerial targets.

The second ring consisted of heavy firepower units made up of mages, necromancers, elementalists, Storm Attendants, and other spellcasting damage dealers. Once the Black Dragon drew near, they could unleash devastating magic and strike it head-on.

The inner ring held various healing and support classes, while at the very center stood the high-level elementalists responsible for maintaining the Flame Protection Barriers.

The Black Dragon soared through the sky, using a low growl to intimidate the adventurers below.

Murphys (Black Dragon Lord): "Hehehe, puny humans. Your futile struggle, your desperate efforts to survive—they are meaningless. From the moment you stepped into my territory, your destruction was already inevitable! You came here for glory and treasure, but all you will find here is death and ruin. Tremble. Beg for mercy. Perhaps I will graciously grant you a swift death."

Flame God: "Damn, why is this Black Dragon such a chatterbox? Is he really a player?"

Qingfeng Lanhuai nodded. "He's definitely a player. Probably some drama queen. Don't worry about that right now. Keep the barriers up, or we're all dead."

In the blink of an eye, the Black Dragon dove down once more.

Qingfeng Lanhuai hurriedly shouted, "The dragon's coming! Elementalists, get ready—raise the shields! Arrow barrage—fire!"

Four or five Flame Protection Barriers activated at once. Massive crimson magical domes instantly protected a large number of players in the core area, while the ranged classes fired a rain of arrows at the Black Dragon.

The Black Dragon paid them no mind. Braving the arrow rain, it exhaled a blast of dragon breath. The searing dragonfire crashed against the magical barrier, bursting into a dazzling red glow.

The elementalists holding up the barriers desperately poured out their mana, protecting the companions around them.

"One hundred and twenty meters, one hundred meters, eighty meters! Spellcasters, attack!"

Fire and lightning intertwined in the air, magical radiance dominating the sky. Yet the Black Dragon anticipated their attack a second in advance and abruptly turned while still less than a hundred meters above the ground, causing most of the concentrated barrage to strike empty air.

Instead, it flew toward the players without magical protection and spread another sea of fire.

After fighting dozens of suppression battles, Murphys had long become intimately familiar with every trick players could pull.

Generally speaking, arrows could only deal single-digit or double-digit damage to him. They posed little threat, merely chipping away at his health. For an adult dragon with over eighty thousand health points, that was nothing.

The real threat came from high-level magic, especially powerful control spells. Even dragons did not dare ignore those. But it did not matter. Dragonkind occupied the skies and could freely choose when to enter the battlefield, while spells generally had fairly limited casting ranges. As long as he kept his distance, he would not be shot down.

He was completely toying with them now, circling those enormous magical domes and occasionally diving down. Braving the harassment of arrow rain, he sprayed deadly dragon breath at the unprotected adventurers. Every time dragonfire descended, screams inevitably followed.

"Hold the formation! Hold the formation! Get inside the barriers!"

Qingfeng Lanhuai shouted loudly. In truth, he did not need to call for them. Players who realized things had gone wrong swarmed beneath the domes, but high-level elementalists capable of using Flame Protection Barrier were rare. More than three hundred adventurers only had eight barriers to shelter beneath, so naturally they could not protect everyone.

People shoved and squeezed their way into the circles, all hoping to survive the dragonfire.

But the Black Dragon would not give them time to regroup in peace. It kept diving and bombing. Flames raged across the wilderness as screams, magical explosions, and the crackling sounds of human bodies burning into charcoal rose one after another.

Damn it! Qingfeng Lanhuai's head throbbed as he looked at the chaotic scene. "All melee classes, get the hell out! What are you meat shields crowding in here for? Switch to ranged weapons and provide anti-air support! Support classes, get inside! Hurry up and apply your buffs.

Are the ranged classes all dead? Can't you aim better? It's such a huge dragon and you still can't hit it. Are you all eating shit?"

As he spoke, he fired an arrow with all his strength. He had calculated the lead and thought it would surely hit, but the arrow streaked through the sky and passed five or six meters behind the dragon's tail.

Damn it! Why was this Black Dragon flying so fast?

Qingfeng Lanhuai was speechless for a moment, but he immediately thought of a solution.

"You lot!" he shouted at the necromancers and cursecasters who had been standing around doing nothing. "When the Black Dragon gets close, listen for my command and cast curse magic together!"

The Black Dragon dove again. Its enormous body was astonishingly agile as it slipped beneath a layer of flaming clouds created by the Cloudfire Spell, dodged a Doom Meteor and two Lightning Orbs, endured several range-enhanced Arcane Missiles, then used a single strengthened breath attack to burn straight through the dome of a Flame Protection Barrier at the outer edge.

More than twenty adventurers packed beneath it were instantly burned to death, and an entire full party was directly shattered.

The Black Dragon swept past close to the ground. Its overwhelming dragon might and the killing so near at hand drew a chorus of screams from the adventurers. With his companions' help, a warrior leaped into the air, intending to deliver a head-on jumping slash. Murphys opened his jaws and activated Devour—mm, tastes like chicken, nice and crunchy.

Rising into the air again, Murphys proudly looked down at the panicked adventurers below—this battle was already won.

Murphys had dared build his dragon nest on the Burning Plains, where there was no defensible terrain, because he relied on Dragonkind's powerful ground-attack capabilities.

They could fly and breathe fire. Dragonkind feared groups of enemies least of all. To strengthen his ground combat ability, he had invested all his talent points into improving dragon breath and flight. He had even completely abandoned melee skills, Dragon Magic, and improvements to Dominion Power.

The price had been enormous, but the results were exceptionally impressive.

[Agile Wings] Talent allowed him to freely change direction in the air and nimbly evade enemy anti-air fire.

[Supersonic Flight] Talent made him far faster than ordinary Dragonkind, making him more difficult to hit with magic and arrows.

[Scorched Earth] Talent allowed his dragon breath to directly destroy terrain. Sustained dragon breath could even break through Flame Protection Barriers.

[Wildfire] Talent allowed his dragon breath to spread and propagate in every direction, disrupting the enemy's formation.

[Bone-Eroding Dragonflame] Talent allowed his dragon breath to inflict continuous damage after igniting its target. Moreover, it was a supernatural power that could not even be dispelled.

Murphys was, in every sense, a perfect living incendiary bomber. In all these days, not a single adventurer team that came to suppress him had survived passage through the Dark Plains. Whenever the Black Dragon's shadow covered the earth, death followed. That was how Death Shadow earned his great name.

Even heroes would meet their downfall here. As for this bunch of trash too stingy to drink fire-resistance potions or craft Flame Protection Cloaks, no matter how many came, they would only be delivering themselves to their deaths.

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