Chapter 157 - The Last Stand (VI)

Queen Tanya is asserting dominance like her usual thing. It was not even that amount of dominance she was exerting normally but the soft kind and yet all of them were lying on the floor with their faces planted flat.

It took a while before Queen Tanya released her pressure. Still, even though the pressure was released, most of them are too weak to stand up while the stronger ones are able to slowly stand up like Dolly and Harmless Sparrow. The ninja guy also managed to stand up and two others including the female earlier who questioned my abilities.

"I apologized for doing that without warning especially to my friends who were also among the people who got almost crushed by my pressure. But I commend those people who managed to stand back up after my aura was released. Seeing some still have not recovered from the attack I just made just means you are all still too weak to handle leadership. All I can say is that you shouldn't boast about your achievements like you are the most superior. It is okay to be proud and boast it to other people but that doesn't mean you need to impose that to be forceful on what you are boasting."

She returned to her throne and glance at the struggling people before she shook her head. "I am a bit disappointed in some of you. But I have no choice since you are all chosen by the goddess. But if I was her, I would personally handpick all of the participants in this raid. Well, whatever, the meeting about the details about the subjugation will begin shortly. Use this chance to at least recover from your sorry state, talk to others or choose whether you guys will participate in the raid or not."

Many of the Pioneers were speechless and didn't have any rebuttal on Queen Tanya's rant about them. In the end, they decided to keep quiet rather than continue to bicker with Queen Tanya even though they know that they have no chance to say any words that will be able to improve their reputation to her.

After a few minutes, some of Queen Tanya's assistants appeared and handed some papers containing detailed plans about the subjugation process. I even receive my own copy from them.

"Did everyone got their own copies? Good. Now let's begin. Since the Dragon of Darkness will be attacking, it will use its command to launch an assault on the human settlements and villages. If the assault is complete and successful, the monsters will attack the city and a bloody battle will occur. 

Since the monsters and demons will be lacking commands from leaders which you pioneers killed, they will be in a disorganized state and will attack according to their instincts, making their movements predictable. Since we already know that the numbers of the enemies will be massive and it might count as a horde, all of our soldiers will be deployed to the villages and human settlements to be on the guard and be the first to intercept the horde.

If the guards will be fighting against the horde of monsters, that means there will be no guards or soldiers that will be assisting the Pioneers to fight.

Now, here is the task of the pioneers. Since the soldiers will be busy in the defense, the pioneers will not help to defend against the attack but will be responsible to fight the Dragon. With Bladeheart's leadership, the attack will be organized and will be done while the defense against the horde is happening."

"So our task is to defeat the dragon before it can march towards the human settlements and kill all the people?" one of the pioneers asked.

"Yes, that is right. If you guys fail, the Sandurk region will be done for and I have to make my own move to defend."

The other pioneers gulped while the others who seem to have experience in raids are calm and are listening quietly. The difference is pretty drastic.

"Because the situation is not in our favor, the division of forces is pretty big and the burden the pioneers will handle is pretty big, I will be giving some of my abilities to everyone so that everyone will have a fighting chance. Did everyone remember the feeling you guys felt after I released my aura? Things will be much worse once you face the dragon. Since I tested this to everyone and you guys showed unsatisfactory results, I have to give out some of my blessings to at least fend off that problem that might prove fatal."

She waves her hands for a bit before she snapped them. The moment she snapped those fingers, a black aura enveloped our body and panels appeared showing the buff that was applied to us.

-[Immunity to Fear] applied. The fear debuff will be ineffective to the users who have this buff.

-[Immunity to Taunt] applied. Taunt status inflicted by an outside force aside from the user will be dispelled.

-[Blessing of the Death God] applied. Instant Death will be nullified. Any skills inflicted to the user with an effect of Instant Death will be immediately nullified.

The buffs she gave are pretty straightforward but this is useful especially the last buff. From what I heard in the past timeline, the players who faced against the boss has no blessing of that sort because of the conflict done by the players towards the NPCs which resulted in the lack of blessings given. They suffered so many deaths and the healers were burdened on reviving them again and again due to the instant death skill used by the dragon.

"The blessing I just gave are buffs that can at least stop the trouble everyone might have during the battle against the dragon. They might be simple but they can at least stop the annoying trouble everyone might experience during the subjugation."

Queen Tanya is still discussing things when the messenger falcon that I saw while we are in Southern Oasis appeared once more and landed on Queen Tanya's throne. She gave the falcon some meat treats before she grabs the letter on its feet and started reading it. After a few seconds, she sighed and turned to look at us.

"Pioneers. It seems the time has come for everyone to show their worth. The dragon is now approaching and will reach this place in 2 hours if not defeated. The demons and monsters are also attacking now. Make haste."

"Huh? 2 hours!? How can we get to the dragon as soon as possible?" the female warrior asked and she panicked a little bit.

"Don't worry, Bladeheart here will handle the transport to the dragon since it walking will just not be enough for everyone to reach the dragon on time and by the time you arrived, everyone will be exhausted. Bladeheart, if you please. Things are dire and we need your steed."

"Understood. Everyone follow me outside."

Queen Tanya stopped us for a bit. "Everyone, may the tides of destiny guide you to the proper path."

...

After that, I headed outside the castle and went to the open field where there are no obstacles that will trouble us. The players who were not sure what will happen looked at me with confusion while Dolly and Harmless Sparrow already knows what Queen Tanya meant by "transport".

"What are we going to do now?" the other players asked.

"Please wait a bit."

I put my two fingers on my mouth and whistled. It wasn't loud but the sound traveled quite a distance. Everyone is looking around, waiting for something to happen until they hear Leona's cry up in the air. They quickly pointed out the incoming Leona at high speed.

Leona landed on the ground and everyone is stunned.

"We will be heading to the dragon using my gryphon to arrive as soon as possible. She can fly very fast if she flies full speed and we will arrive at our intended location in just a few minutes."

"A gryphon?! Is this a pay-to-win pet or something?! How come I didn't see this on the store?"

"No, this was not available in the store. I don't see any options that we can obtain a pet too if we pay money. Maybe it is an event-only exclusive pet that is available during this quest and can only be summoned by a captain?"

"Maybe that is the case!"

I wanted to reveal to them that Leona is mine and not being given out in the event but I decided not to do so because it would be great to see their reactions once they knew it was mine all along.

Harmless Sparrow and Dolly are the first to climb up since they are already familiar with Leona. They patted her head first before riding on her back.

"Everyone else should climb up too since we are running out of time. Also hold tight because if someone fell while we are going to the Dragon, I won't bother picking them back up. It's going to be a bumpy ride!"