266 Ranking Up 5

Draco smiled. The fact that his Black Dragon could use his skills, techniques and abilities was a trump card no one had forced him to reveal yet! 

The Black Draco was he, and he was the Black Dragon! While it could not use fusion item and equipment skills, it could use any of the skills or spells he had learned from skill-/spellbooks. 

Any title he activated would affect the Black Dragon, so both his Mage God and his Master Craftsman title that were always on benefited the Black Dragon. This also included the Richmond's Herald title he currently had active. 

｢Mage God (Rank 1) – Special Rank 

Able to use subjective magic without limits. Opens the willpower and concentration stats. Spells cost 10% fewer resources to cast. This Special Rank title is always equipped without occupying a slot.｣ 

｢Richmond's Herald – Special Rank 

Mana capacity 100% 

Mana recovery 100% 

Skill cooldowns lowered by 50%｣ 

This also included the following active skills: Absolute Void, Armageddon, Instant Healing, Rain of Arrows, Necrotic Hands, Evil Curse, Life Steal, Divination, Dark Resurrection. 

Unfortunately, racial skills like Beckon could not be used by the Black Dragon. 

For passive skills, it was: Soul Bond, Omnipotent Archer, Charm, Insight, Foresight, Flexibility, Nymph Lord, Illusion, Revenger, Cloud Feet, Dragobond, Aether Conversion, Ruler of Nine Hells. 

Some skills of the lot were naturally useless. Like Rain of Arrows, Divination, Soul Bond, Omnipotent Archer, Insight, Charm, Nymph Lord, Aether Conversion and Dragobond. 

Right now, the Black Dragon was much stronger than it should be thanks to it activating Absolute Void along with Revenger and Cloud Feet. It's speed and offensive power that were already terrifying had become even more so. 

Some others were useful but not right now, like Instant Healing, which could get 30% HP back instantly or Dark Resurrection which was part of Draco's hidden repertoire. 

However, the 40 second - now 35 seconds - summoning time limit was strangling the Black Dragon's ability to stifle opposition. As such, it had to act fast within this time period or Draco would lose out. 

｢Cloud Feet – Passive skill 

Movement speed +20% 

Attack speed +10%｣ 

｢Revenger – Passive skill 

Weapon damage +20% 

Magical damage +20%｣ 

｢Necrotic Hands– Active skill 

Effect: Summon a plethora of arms from the earth that trap an enemy and apply damage over time on the target. 

Duration: 30 seconds 

Cooldown: 2 minutes｣ 

｢Evil Curse – Active skill 

Effect: Place a curse on an enemy which applies a random negative status effect. 

Duration: 1 minute 

Cooldown: 5 minutes｣ 

｢Life Steal – Active skill 

Duration: 5 minutes 

Cooldown: 10 minutes｣ 

｢Dark Resurrection – Active skill 

Effect: Bring back any dead ally at full health with invulnerability. 

Note 1: Ally must be within 100 meters of you 

Note 2: Invulnerability lasts for 5 seconds. After that, ally goes into a weakened state for 1 week. 

Note 3: No rank or species cap. As long as the target is assessed to be an ally, they can be revived. 

Cooldown: 28 days｣ 

｢Foresight – Passive skill 

Effect: You are able perceive danger in combat 0.5 seconds before it occurs.｣ 

｢Flexibility – Passive skill 

Effect: Your body is malleable to the extreme.｣ 

｢Illusion – Passive skill 

Effect: Weak minded enemies will be drawn into an illusion when looking at you. You are consciously able to create illusions, but they are effective based on circumstance.｣ 

From its repertoire, the Black Dragon immediately used the Illusion passive skill which Draco himself never used because nothing had ever pushed him far enough to do so, and in the few situations he could have used it, it would have been useless. 

With the Black Dragon using it and not him, it would be much more potent. It used it on the three Dragon Lords, and the Sky Dragon shivered strongly as she felt her mindscape getting overlaid with something else. 

To use an amusing analogy, it was like wearing shades to see the world but suddenly the lens of the glasses had started to project a movie. You would lose focus of the real world since the movie was all you could see. 

The only way to prevent yourself from running into something was to remove the glasses, but they were taped to the side of your head. As such, it depended on how tough you were to rip it off in time. 

The same occurred for the Earth Dragon who was instantly captured in an illusion, falling slack. Only the Golden Dragon's inherent characteristics allowed him to be immune to it. 

Seeing the lady Dragon struggling to resist and his buddy there being captured, the Golden Dragon wanted to smack his face. What unreliable help! 

He had no time to waste, so he immediately increased his charge and rammed into the Black Dragon with unparalleled force. 

-100,000! 

The Black Dragon spat blood and was knocked to the ground. There was no perfect skill in this world. Mystic Art skills from Roma were overpowered as hell, but they required a lot as well. 

Since the Illusion skill was a passive and not an active, Draco had to consciously activate it, construct the illusory world and then place it on his targets. 

Roma herself had never done this before because it took too much focus. Even doing this to a feral monster was hard, much less a sentient being. 

Draco's Dark Angel Inheritance was activated to 30%, so matters of the mind were usually easy for him. If he could learn how, the fellow could even use psychic techniques and attacks, but those were far away from him for now. 

So, he had managed to trap at least one Dragon while immobilizing another temporarily. If he had captured the Golden Dragon, the Black Dragon would have had to sit down and focus its everything on its mental attack. 

If Draco himself tried this, it wouldn't even work. This only worked because it was from the Black Dragon, not himself, which is another reason why he hadn't used it before. 

Now that he brought out the Black Dragon, he was holding nothing back. It was make or break this time! 

The Black Dragon rose up and ignored the Golden Dragon. It fired out a plethora of Orbs of Destruction towards the immobile fellow, and the crowd felt their hearts lurch at the sight. 

Even one Orb of Destruction could ruin half a Field Zone, while two colliding ones had resulted in ruining an entire Field Zone for years to come, turning it into a death ground. What about more than ten of them? 

The Golden Dragon saw this and blanched. He immediately fired off many Orbs of Golden Essence, which were extremely bright and carried a heavy weight. Anything that came into contact would be smashed by the pure physical force of it. 

Many of the two orbs collided, causing hectic explosions that rent the stage apart, but most of the Orbs of Golden Essence were vanquished while the Orbs of Destruction were only slightly weakened. 

The Golden Dragon could only slow his attempt and rush at the Black Dragon once more. While he could not save the Earth Dragon anymore, as long as he could keep the Black Dragon occupied, how could the fellow have time to fire at his incapacitated allies? 

This was also another weakness of the Illusion skill. As long as one person was fine, it would prevent the caster from using it to his advantage until it was dispelled. 

However, the already fired Orbs of Destruction hit the Earth Dragon, blowing it back more than a few meters as it fell on its side. 

-24,540,350! 

The only saving grace was that fellows absurdly high HP pool and crazy strong defense, otherwise he would have been removed from the stage with only 1 HP left. 

However, this ejected the Earth Dragon from the illusion, and he was shaking all over. He threw away all his worries, fears and hesitations, going all out in a bid to win. 

The Earth Dragon did something shocking. He summoned a thick armor of earth to surround his body and smothered the remnant energy of Destruction that was wreaking havoc upon his scales. 

He then charged towards the Black Dragon as well, firing hundreds of Earth Spikes as well as summoning walls to defend the Golden Dragon who was trading blows with it. 

Immediately, the Black Dragon was suppressed. Unless he dropped the illusion, he would be unable to use subjective magic to strengthen himself, but if he let go, that annoying Sky Dragon would pepper him with endless wind blades. 

These three were Dragon Lords for a reason. Even against the Metal Dragon, the Black Dragon had only been evenly matched. Against three other Dragons of higher skill, it was at its wits end. 

The worst part was the time limit. If it wasn't there, it could at least vanquish two of them and lose against the last one, but now, it was quickly being reduced to 50% HP by the time its summoning period elapsed. 

It had only brought the Golden Dragon down to 40% and the Earth Dragon to 3% in this time. Draco had been unable to add his presence into the fight because he had to focus on channeling the technique, as well as fuel it with bloodline energy. 

Now, he could only sigh when both Dragons turned to face him. 

Truthfully, Draco had many other means he could use, but they were more harmful than beneficial. The first was to use Dark Resurrection to bring back the Black Dragon, but it was pointless. 

It hadn't died, only been unsummoned. Even if it had, where was he supposed to find bloodline energy to fuel it? And even if he could, the Dark Resurrection skill had a terrible penalty. 

He would go into a state of weakness for 1 week, which meant he would be easily killed by any enemy he saw. Just like how the Black Dragon was able to enjoy the benefits of being Draco itself, it also transferred over the detriments. 

For example, losing 50% of its health had made Draco's drop to 30%. If it wasn't for the fact that the damage transferred over was greatly reduced, he would have been long since dead! 

The second means was to use the Dragonlance. It would greatly increase his killing power against them, but not really make him overpowered. Still, the increase in its power would be very useful compared to his swords. 

But that would be very stupid to do in a city of Dragons, especially in a stadium full of them. It would be no different from inciting public anger and killing himself. 

To use a touchy example, it would be like taking out an item that was symbolic to the tragedy of a race/ethnic group and flaunting it. At that point, death him/herself would be shocked with how excited you were to meet him/her. 

As such, he refrained from using those two. The Sky Dragon finally broke free of her illusion and was shocked deeply by the abilities of this Black Dragon. She realized that had he not been handicapped, they could have been thoroughly crushed. 

She was even more shocked when she saw how beat up the Golden and Earth Dragon were. Those two could very well have been vanquished in a bit more time, which made her solemn. 

Draco removed Hawkeye and the Phoenix Cry arrow to fight with what he could, but it was useless. In the next few seconds, he was crushed by the Golden Dragon and entered his final state of invulnerability. 

Like a man possessed, he attacked the Earth Dragon crazily. The Earth Dragon was on his last legs, and after being bombarded by these two Legendary items with Draco activating every other skill he had off cooldown like Black Dragon's Roar, he was soon sent out of the stage with a defeated expression. 

In the next moment, Draco was also smothered with Orbs of Golden Essence, being sent out of this Class Up Procedure with a wicked smile on his face.