Chapter 131 131: Bane
"…"
The Ten-Tailed Tempest Tailspin was a technique she designed to crush the tough fenrirs into mince. But the black dragon she is facing is not a fenrir.
◆◇◆
The fox executed her most powerful close combat technique against the dragon and shredded it to pieces, not only physically but also spiritually.
The potency of the Ten-Tailed Tempest Tailspin technique could destroy even mountains. An annihilating, sure-kill combination that gives the ones it targets the absolute end of life.
But everything has an exception.
The parts of the black dragon, which are scattered around the ground, suddenly twitched and jerked up. In a flash, as if being pulled by an absolute force, the minced flesh flew toward a particular spot.
The fragments gathered into one form. In a matter of milliseconds, the majestic figure of the dragon was created from the flesh and fully healed, as if its fate seconds earlier was a lie.
"HA HA HA! IT'S BEEN SO LONG SINCE SOMEONE INFLICTED THIS MUCH DAMAGE ON ME!" The dragon triumphantly announced that its unimaginable state has been completely repaired.
Thanks to its Immortal unique skill, the dragon managed to survive an erasure technique. But the damage the dragon received was so great that the dragon had to fully maximize the Immortal's healing capabilities.
"..."
The fox has anticipated that her secret technique might not work, but she didn't expect the dragon to heal itself with such lightning speed.
Now that she has exposed her technique, the dragon might know how to counter it. Her mana is at the critical level, a little above ten percent, but she has to buy time before Raphael arrives.
"HM. SEEMS LIKE YOU HAD DEPLETED YOUR MANA AND STRENGTH. TAKING YOU DOWN WILL BE EASY."
"?!"
After the dragon spoke, the dragon unleashed a terrifying power that frightened the silver fox more than she could contain. It's the fear of the unknown, not having a slight idea of what the dragon has cast.
The first thing she noticed were the leaves of the trees nearby. As if in a timelapse clip, the leaves had seen to change seasons in a matter of seconds and fell off the ground. It started just a few, then more trees are starting to bald.
As the leaves were traveling in the air, the trunks of the trees started to turn darker. Perceiving the vicinity, the fox noticed that something is occurring within the radius of five kilometers.
The trees and the monsters within that area are beginning to wither and lose life. In a few seconds, all living things under the influence of the dragon's spell died at the same time.
Before she realized it, her body was starting to feel weak and heavy, as if her life force were being forcefully taken from her. As she peered down, she saw that the fertile soil of the forest was losing its nutrients as well.
Drastically weakened, she couldn't handle the unknown burden and helplessly collapsed inside a ten kilometer wide lifeless and desolated land.
"HOH. YOU SURVIVED THE FIRST PHASE OF THE BANE OF MASSES?"
Dark Magic Level 10 spell, Bane of Masses. The more sinister and broader version of the Life Absorption spell. It absorbs life force at a faster rate and strengthens the caster greater.
The matter that made this spell more frightening was that it doesn't release ominous black fog. Unbeknownst to the targets, their lives has been counting down without knowing the reason why and how.
pàпdá-ňᴏνêι.сóМ The dragon rarely used the spell since it could destroy the forest—the source of its necessities.
If the dragon cast the spell at the beginning of the fight, the dragon predicted that it wasn't enough to take down the fox, so the dragon waited for the fox to drain her mana, which she could use to cloak herself in Holy Light.
But the fox has exceeded the dragon's expectations.
"WELL, IT DOESN'T MATTER SINCE YOUR LIFE ENDS HERE."
The Bane of Masses actually has two phases.
The first phase was to unconditionally and indiscriminately absorb the life force of all the living things around the caster. Not only the living things, even the lifeless undead will lose life as well.
The power of this spell is so great that even the Sanctuary had no way of purifying and intercepting it.
The second phase, meanwhile, could be used in two ways. Both ways will utilize the accumulated life force seized in the first phase.
The first way is that, after the first phase, the caster will convert the life force into death energy and inject it into the ones who died in the first phase, reanimating them as undead.
The other way around is to use the collected life force to dramatically increase the power of the caster's next move; the increase varies with accumulated life force.
Opening its mouth wide, the black dragon started to condense energy within its mouth, aiming at the dying silver fox. With a bountiful harvest, the potency of that next attack could obliterate a series of mountains.
Knowing what it meant, the silver fox powerlessly closed her eyes. She knew there was no way she could survive the Dragon Blast that was about to loose.
It might be regrettable if they die; she would leave her daughter and her people alone. Even if she died, at least she had bought enough time for Raphael's plan. Though she is not certain if she actually stall enough time.
Her eyes are closed, but she can sense the immeasurable energy that is gathering in front of her. All she could expect is her demise, she had lived for long and thought to herself it's about time.
(I'm sorry...) She regretted as she was being engulfed by lights.