Chapter 218 - Tiamut (1)

"My Lord... This is the end..."

The warrior next to Talos collapsed on his knees. Weeping uncontrollably. So did a few who were still conscious after the initial attack. Well, it wasn't an 'attack' per se. 

When the monster came out of the dungeon, it roared once. Just one roar and more than 80% of the warriors present there to 'take care' of the monster, were blown away like dried leaves. Blood came gushing out of every single orifice known in human anatomy. Only those ranking at A or above were left standing... on the verge of mental breakdown. Even Talos, who was incapable of feeling such emotions was shaken. This was the strength of the monstrosity standing in front of him... 

The air smelt of burning, acrid, chemical infused and choking - no wonder the humans could barely speak. Talos' digital eyes moved from face to face in the gathering crowd. The entire plaza was ablaze. It looked like a scene out of a Hollywood movie.

'That's assuring, at least we are in Hollywood. What even I am thinking right now...' He scratched his metallic head. 

The observatory was flattened the moment this, four-headed dragon appeared. The ever-confident Talos was now clueless about everything. He needed to save the humans but could he even save himself, in the first place? No. He could be repaired by his master but the human... cannot. 

He grabbed the collar of the man next to him, lifting him off the ground. 

"Get everyone and get out. Start the evacuation procedure and wait for the reinforcements-" Talos noticed the man's gaze was fixated on the dragon. The man was scared sh*tless by this point, he couldn't even register what Talos was blabbering about, "LOOK AT ME, GOOD SIR! THE DRAGON WON'T GET SCARED BY YOUR PITIFUL STARES! GRAB WHO YOU CAN AND LEAVE! I'LL DISTRACT THE MONSTER IN THE MEANTIME."

All the shouting seemed to have snapped the human out of the trance. He looked up at Talos who still had him suspended midair and asked, "How can you be so calm..."

'This man is no good. He has lost all sense of reasoning. His brain can't even compute than I, an artificial being, am insusceptible to fear or other emotions as a matter of fact...'

He threw the man towards the exit and said, "Run!"

His thinking was simple. That man, in his current state, was incapable of doing anything else. It was the same case for other A rankers. Only the S rankers there had some sense of reasoning left in them. 

"This aura..." Talos mumbled, "This aura renders anyone below A-rank lose their consciousness, while the A rankers become useless. So only S rankers can even try to confront this monster... This is going to be a pain. At least master is stronger than S rankers, if not SS rankers, so he should be fine. But the others are a different story altogether."

He looked that the cause of all this destruction, the four-headed dragon. All of its four heads were identical. Tranquil sapphire eyes sat delicately within the creature's angular long skulls, which gave the creature a well deserved vicious-looking appearance. Several tendrils sat atop its head, just above its thick, horn-like ears. Several small fan-like skin and bone structures ran down the sides of each of its jawlines.

Its nose was large and had two thick, rounded nostrils. A small horn extended from each of its chin. Several rows of sharp teeth poke out from the side of its mouth and show a glimpse of the terror hiding inside. 

A thin neck ran down from its heads and into a long body. The top of which, was covered in rounded scales and a row of tendrils runs down its spine.

Its bottom was covered in small scales and is coloured darker than the rest of its body. Four long limbs carried its body and allow the creature to stand poised and arrogantly. Each limb has 6 fingers which the creature used to crush the observatory in one sweep. Furthermore, each of the fingers ended in sharp claws seemingly made of some metal.

Horrendous wings grew from just below its shoulders and end at the lower end of its back. Yet Talos doubted the dragon was capable of flight due to its massive size. The wings were bladed in structure, the edges of the skin inside the wings looked tattered and damaged while armour-like scales grew on top of the wing's primary bones. Its graceful tail ended in a curved talon and was covered in the same rounded scales as its body. All in all, even if the dragon was a beast, it looked like a king of some sort. The crown-like bone structure one the top of each of its head further supported his thoughts. 

The most impactful aspect of the dragon, however, wasn't it's appearance, but the ability to use a different type of attack from each of its heads. So far Talos had witnessed the ability of two of the heads. The head at the extreme right had the traditional ability, the ability to spew fire. The ability almost every dragon-type monster had. While the one on the extreme right complemented the previous by using ice. The dragon had used these abilities but not on the warriors from the syndicate. But on the ones who freed it from the dungeon. How the hell did this monstrosity came out of a low ranking dungeon was a mystery to Talos. 

The dragon was deadly. There was no doubt about it. But something was not right. After the initial 'attack' and destroying the observatory, it remained still like a monk during meditation. It was almost like it wasn't interested in anything. It was either that or it was waiting for a worthy opponent to show up. 

'It's a good thing. At least I assume it is. It'll give us more time to evacuate everyone and once that's done we could attack it.' Talos was relieved. Well, he wasn't capable of feelings yet his thoughts suggested otherwise. 

He turned to face the humans, "We should prioritise evacuating the civilians first. Once that's done and reinforcement arrives, we can deal with it."

The warriors nearest to him nodded and slowly backed away from the scene. The dragon saw them leaving, however, it stayed indifferent. Once again displaying its peculiar behaviour. 

"Just what the hell is it thinking..."