The red crystal turned into light, getting absorbed into the dragon.

Ding!

//

Dungeon objectives accomplished.

The final boss awakened.

//

The whole land trembled before a purple beacon erupted from the top of the tower heading towards the pitch black sky. Vesuvius immediately turned his neck towards the tower. A small humanoid figure wearing and black robe with golden embroidery stood on top of the tower. The figure held in their right hand a long brass staff with a purple crystal on its tip and a purple glass-like ball in their left hand. All the remaining undead across the barren plain ceased to move before their eyes turned purple. Their bodies moved in synchronisation as they turned towards the tower and started to march.

The dragon looked at the skeleton of the drake and rose up into the air creating gusts of grey dust as he flapped his wings. He had no idea what was the purpose of the undead moving towards the tower, but he knew that it would be better if he got there first.

The dragon was flying as fast as he could, winds pushing him forward, overtaking the marching undead.

The figure on top of the tower turned towards the dragon and rose up the staff into the air. A massive amount of magical energy started to move toward the tower. Four horn-like protrusions in all four corners of the tower flared up in purple light. Purple runes on their surfaces slowly lit up in purple light. Thick purple beams launched from the horns, gathering at the tip of the mage staff, slowly turning into a shape of a giant purple arrow.

At the same time, a magical circle formed inside of the dragon's mouth and a sphere of magma slowly started to grow inside.

Both of the spells quickly grew while the dragon kept closing on the tower. The dragon released his spell, sending the big sphere of rotating magma toward the mage at the tower roof.

The mage reacted by prematurely releasing his own spell. The giant purple arrow quickly flew and collided with the sphere of magma, drowning it. The sphere of magma sunk into the thick purple energy, vanishing without any traces.

Vesuvius quickly put twenty of his stat points into agility and tilted his wings, taking a sharp turn. The purple arrow flew by him, negative energy in it searing the dragon's armour, creating a crack filled with purple light.

"Graaa!" the dragon growled in a pain and opened up his mouth, another magical circle quickly forming inside.

The dragon spat out a smaller sphere of magma that headed straight toward the mage, which had no time to conjure another purple arrow. Abusing his dragon magic to outspeed a mage,

Mage waved his staff, and four horns on top of the tower flared up again. A purple semitransparent dome grew between them, shielding the roof.

"Bang!" the magma ball exploded on the surface of the dome, sending ripples through its surface and splashing lava everywhere.

After a few moments, the lava sizzled down and vanished. The dome disappeared, and the mage waved his staff again, causing all four of the horns to glow again in a different pattern.

Four spheres of purple energy quickly formed up at the tips of each horn and launched towards the incoming dragon, leaving a purple trail behind them.

Vesuvius frowned and took a sharp turn. However, the purple spheres corrected their trajectory, continuing in a collision course toward the dragon. Vesuvius quickly threw twenty points into the defence stat, and mentally prepared for an upcoming pain.

The four death balls hit the dragon, exploding like purple fireworks. Shattering chunks of the volcanic stone protecting the dragon and denting the shiny scales under it. The purple death energy spread over the scales and started to slowly erode them. Incredible pain surged through the dragon's body as the corrupted energy seeped into the dragon's body, fighting with a life force radiating from the dragon's heart.

Vesuvius gritted his teeth and dived downwards as he finally shortened the distance to the tower enough to enter a death angle that was out of the magic bombardment's reach.

The dragon flew close to the ground, losing and regaining height as his body fought against death energy flowing through it while cutting a few undead along the way until he finally reached the base of the tower and landed. His legs felt weak from the death energy, and a terrible pain kept surging through his muscles. Then he evenly split his remaining points between vitality and endurance to help him fight against the death magic causing havoc in his body.

He looked around, seeing a horde of the undead with glowing purple eyes closing on the tower from each side.

'Sensible stuff would be to climb the tower before the undead to safe my mana for a fight against the boss...' then he grinned even though he was in great pain, 'However, I have a better idea.'

He opened his mouth, and a stream of magma followed by bright flames hit the wall, splashing and burning against its smooth surface.

The dragon closed his mouth, and his grin vanished. The surface of the tower was only slightly red from heat, but there was no sign of it melting or taking any damage. The smooth dark stone remained in immaculate condition.

Then he swung his claws at the wall. His claws created sparks as they harmlessly slid at the hard and smooth stones from which the tower was made.

Vesuvius felt desperate at the strength of the mage supported by his tower.

It was a common fact that mages were strong but that they became truly dangerous only when you gave them time to prepare as they could prepare the magical tool for almost any situation.

The dragon looked at the grey ground, and his eyes slightly glowed up as he got another idea.

'However, that will have to wait... I have to solve a different problem before that.' He looked at the horde of incoming undead.

'Luckily, I culled their numbers. Otherwise, it would be a much bigger problem.'

The Undead formed a circle around the tower and stopped.