Chapter 183 – The Dragon Emperor.

Chapter 183 – The Dragon Emperor.

"Everyone, get in formation!" Hishya screamed orders as Serval let out a mighty roar. “Don't freak out! Just remember our plan! Do that and we all get out of this in one piece!”

{I hope...} (Hishya)

Every one of them had prepared for this day, but the sight of the massive Dragon caused a brief moment of discord until people snapped out of their stupor. The Emerald Dragon Emperor was no joke, and his visage was enough to terrify even the hardiest of adventurer into submission.

"GRAAAAAAAAAW." Serval roared as his wings flapped. As expected, he wouldn't just stand on the ground and fight the players head-on. In the air, he would be nearly impossible to deal with, but Hishya planned for this.

"Shiru now!" Hishya called out, and massive vines erupted from the ground, latching onto Serval and grounding him.

"GRAAAAAAAAAW." The Dragon cried out as he attempted to tear apart the vines.

"I-I've got him, but I don't know for how long." Shiru strained under the pressure of Serval's strength. Her power over nature was unmatched by anyone else, but Serval was simply too powerful for her to permanently contain. "I'll hold him down for as long as I can, but don't expect this to last for very long!"

{Holy crap! This guy is strong!} (Shiru)

"You heard her! Get your asses moving!" Eris activated her rage as the party stormed toward the grounded Dragon. Most of the support team would remain away from Serval while the tanks and DPS attempted to deal with him directly.

"Nyahahaha meow~! let's get nye dragon meow~!"

[Ahahaha! Let's get the dragon!] As the fastest player among them, Ara zoomed forward at lightning speed. She couldn't do much damage herself, but her paper fan's ability would enable huge damage if she could max out the counters.

"Go get him, Ara!" Avahn called out. She was right behind her girlfriend, and the moment she got in range, the Demon cat activated her blood rage and began slamming down hard on Serval with her blade. "LET'S SEE JUST WHAT KIND OF DAMAGE YOU CAN TAKE!!!!"

"I kinda figured Avahn would just go nuts, so good thing we planned for that." Hishya sighed as she watched Avahn start slashing and smashing Serval's legs "Eris, you and Ayame back me up, plan A3."

The two nodded, forming up behind Hishya as they leaped onto the vines and across Alveron's spatial platforms as they began slashing into the restrained Dragon. The three fighters constituted one core of the team's damage output, and their task was to get in and hit him as hard as possible. Other players could and would do damage, but likely not as much as the three them together.

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<Superbia POV>

"GRAAAAAAAAAW." Serval let out another roar as his claws and tail began swinging around violently.

"Woopsie meow~!"

[Woopsie!] Ara deftly jumped over his tail as it came crashing toward her, hitting him with her fans each chance she got.

"Nya! Nya! Nya! Nya! Nya! Nya! Nya! Nya! Nya! Nya! Nya! Nya! Nya! Nya! Nya! Nya! Nya! Nya! Nya! Nya! Nya! Nya!" (Ara)

They knew from their prior fights against the Dragon Emperor that, while he could be affected by abilities like the paper fans, his natural resistances meant that only every third application stuck.

"Sixth form of the Oni Blade! Fountain of Dreams!" Superbia called out the name of her ability which cloaked her entire body in a pink flame.

"Let's go Tiball! Xerxes, Excel back us up!" Superbia flashed forward. Her task was to tie down Serval's head, a dangerous job, but one that she was a perfect fit for with her high speed and damage output. "Hiiiyah!" The Oni's blade went ablaze with pink fire, as she began to slash into his front right claw.

"GRAAAAAAAAAW." Serval roared in pain. His body, while restrained, was still able to move, and he swung his massive claw down toward Superbia.

Seeing the incoming danger, the Oni jumped backward, barely avoiding his blow, and was chased by his claw which slammed into the ground relentlessly in an attempt to squish her.

"Come on!" Superbia said while dodging his attacks. "I'm over here!" She moved out of the way, carving into him as his arm went by.

{Good, just keep your eyes on me, Serval. We just need things to go like last time.} (Superbia)

"Behind you!" Xerxes called out as he moved in behind her, intercepting Serval's other claw with his shield. "That was a close one!" His massive shield managed to block a direct hit, but it still did some damage to him. "I was hoping Shiru would hold him down a bit better than this!" He cried out as he pushed the claw away.

"She's doing her best." Tiball said as he dove in between them. "Just the fact that she's restraining him at all is impressive." He glanced at Superbia. "How about we start to give him a headache. Otherwise he might get ideas about that breath of his." As he said this, one of Serval's claws came at them, which both he and Superbia deflected with their blades. If Serval managed to get off a breath attack, that would be problem for anyone not immune to fire. Thus keeping his head busy and unable to use that devastating move was their primary job.

"Why not? It's our job after all." Superbia nodded with a smirk. Serval would only rarely use his breath attack during a fight, but when he did it would be a level of magnitude more powerful than what Hishya could put out.

"And we're here to help with that." Mixu's voice came over the comm. "Dai hit it!"

"OHHHH, I've been waiting for this!" Daikael squeed as she began pressing all sorts of buttons on her remote.

"Yes-yes!" Imp cried out in joy.

"I hope they don't hit us with this..." Superbia sighed. A moment later, a barrage of rockets came over the tree line, crashing into the Dragon and making a series of massive explosions on his body. Hishya and the others climbing on the vines were made aware of the impending attack and deftly moved out of harm's way, leaving Serval to take all of the damage.

{Those crazy bastards really went and created an entire artillery system. Daikael reloads and Imp targets. It's actually kinda scary how well they work together.} Tiball started laughing in his head as he imagined the crazy duo.

As soon as she said this, everyone rushed towards Serval's face unleashing their most powerful attack.

"Twin Blade Strike!" (Tiball)

"Ninth form of the Oni Blade! Earth Shattering Smash!" (Superbia)

"Quake Hammer!" (Eris)

"Blur!" (Ayame)

"BLADE OF WRATH!" (Avahn)

"NYA!" (Ara)

"True Strike!" (Xerxes)

"Hammer of Dawn!" (Excelsior)

"Shatter Smash!" (Minazawa)

"Blade of Truth!" (Shimari)

"Vulture Blaze!" (Birdy)

"True Strike!" (Hishya)

Together, they all smashed Serval's head with their most powerful attacks dealing massive damage to the beast.

"GRAAAAAAAAAW." Serval groaned, his breath attack coming to an end as he was forced to turn his attention back on the other players.

"Good, he stopped." Superbia gave a sigh of relief.

"Yeah, but..." Hishya glanced around them. "Now we've got a lava field to avoid, and he's free. On top of that, all the smoke has blocked out the sun in the nearby area..."

{Which means flying, and most likely this asshole's going to strafe us...} (Hishya)

"Everyone, get back in formation!" Hishya called out. "We're far from done here!"

As she said this, Serval roared again and flapped his wings.

"Shiru?" Hishya asked over the radio. "Can you stop him again?"

"N-Nope." She replied in the negative. "I'm drained on mana. It's going to take a bit to recover, and it seems holding him back like that took a significant toll on my stamina. I don't know how long it will be until I've recovered enough, and on top of that, his fire scorched the land around here, so getting more plant life might be hard. I'll need time and MP to regrow it."

{I can't even use the Watering Can since it needs something to grow.} (Shiru)

Ordinarily, she could regenerate quite quickly, but with the sun blocked by smoke from the fires raging around them, that ability was diminished.

"Alright, switch to tactic 16-" Hishya's words were cut off by a familiar voice over the comm.

"Hey now, what are you guys doing having a party without us?" (???)

"That voice?!? It can't be!!!" Hishya's eyes were drawn to the sky above Serval, where four figures appeared out from the smoke.

"No fucking way!" Superbia's eyes went wide as she recognized the four players diving towards Serval.

"MERKYUL?!?" Hishya had no idea what was going on or how they got access to their team comms.

"The one and only! And its not just me, I'm joined by my lovely team of righteous avengers!" Merkyul laughed. His outfit was a bit different from his usual attire. In fact, his entire team looked different. Their normally unique outfits were instead all the same as if they were uniforms. Each of them wore a black heavy trench coat, and on the left arm of each player was the Dumetor family crest emblazoned on a patch.

"Everyone! Let's show this intruder the might of Lady Akagi's most powerful special forces team!" Merkyul let out a cry, followed by the other three who were descending behind him.

{WHAT THE ABSOLUTE FUCK IS GOING ON?!?} (Hishya)

Spoiler

Merkyul's Return!

Sabia's Return!

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