The players coughed as a thick haze of dust covered their vision, making them close their eyes.
Some didn’t though. Instead of closing their eyes, they squinted them, and that was Devon included.
He wanted to see what was coming. Perhaps it was another batch of skeleton monsters.
Who knows, these ones might be called:
And have this crazy amount of dust power that would be capable of choking one to death, even in sleep.
But then, this was different.
The skeleton monsters for certain couldn’t fly, and this was coming from their right.
The large massive wings continued to flap, and as the players wondered what it could be, it drew nearer.
The skeleton monsters seemed to be affected by the choking dusts, as two choked to death from it, giving the players a sense of dread.
A dust that could suffocate a monster to death. It was possible. The skeleton monsters who had died were smaller ones. The dwarfs, actually.
They were in the dangerous rank and were good at throwing short axes. They could barely breathe and walk, so them choking to death from some large dusty stuff was very well possible.
The players could see a figure on the dragon, a large sword in its hand.
While the other players might have guessed differently on how it might be, Devon knew who it was, alright.
[I mean, c’mon author, this isn’t some plot twist, we the readers know who’s coming. It’s very obvious.]
"Some villain?" some players asked.
"A skeleton monster riding a dragon."
As the figure on the dragon rode closer, they could see it...
They could see HIM loud and clear.
It was who Devon was expecting to see.
[It was what the readers were expecting to see also.]
He was like a messiah, coming at the right time. He was like their savior. He was HIM!
The dust hadn’t fully cleared, but they could see who it was.
"It’s..., it’s Drahon," Ellen stammered.
"And..., shit! He’s got horns," Cody exclaimed.
Devon was just too speechless to muffle out any words.
Like a bread out of an oven, Drahon came through the dusts, his SSS Rank sword chopping off the heads of three monolithic skeleton monsters.
They fell to the ground and broke into pieces, landing with clatter-like sounds.
They had no blood, and now it was a confirmation. Before, it seemed like an assumption, and one wasn’t so sure.
Why would skeleton monsters have blood, by the way?
Drahon looked completely new. His horns gave him a much more distinct and fierce look, making him look like he was some dragon lord.
He roared out fire from the mouth of the barbarian dragon, and it melted eleven skeleton monsters.
The monsters were not the tall ones though, these were more shorter, so they could pass as ’average’.
Drahon continued burning the monsters to ashes, and soon, he had melted twelve more.
The players were bewildered with his actions. Devon was more surprised though, and it was because of Drahon’s new dragon, the brutality with it. He concluded this wasn’t the fire dragon but another dragon, and he wondered where he got it from, as they hadn’t awakened theirs.
Drahon now paused and went closer to the players, urging them:
"C’mon, let’s all burn these monsters."
The players, still surprised with the horn on his forehead, nodded in the affirmative and started to do as he said, roaring at the monsters.
Devon too followed, and now they were doing more efficiently and super productive as when he wasn’t there.
They had set the skeleton monsters ablaze, Drahon and Devon doing the most work.
They all paused and watched their good work. It looked like a volcano had erupted, as the fire licked through the skeleton monsters.
[Brutal Flame (Tier A)] was the skill Drahon had used in burning all these skeleton monsters to ashes. The name was ’BRUTAL FLAME’. That was the main reason the barbarian dragon was very fierce in burning the monsters.
As Drahon watched the fireworks happening with the skeleton monsters, Devon rode over to him.
"The fuck? How did you do that?" he asked.
Drahon looked at him blankly and shrugged.
"I don’t know. I mean, don’t take it as anything. This level ought to be simplest, and if it’s this hard, then how would the other levels be."
"But your head, there’re two horns on it, by your forehead," he said.
Drahon was startled. He didn’t know his horns were out. The system had told him earlier that it would be out anytime there was a battle, but he didn’t know it was something .
This technically was a battle, though, even though the monsters didn’t get the chance to fight back. Drahon had used his SSS Rank sword, and for the first time since entering the game, he sliced some skeleton monsters’ heads off.
But then, before those acts, him simply on the dragon coming to help the players, the horn was already there, before battle. Totally different from what the system had explained.
It could be that it was the mode Drahon was on. He was clearly coming to fight, and in some sort of berserk mode, that was why the horns came on his head. And now..., even with all the skeleton monsters dead, it was still there.
They had to be very sure though, was this all of the skeleton monsters?
It now depended on the voice which took track of their progress in the game. With the skeleton monsters now fully burnt to ash, it came on.
They could see the words in italics in the sky and still hear the voice:
[Congratulations players!, you have just defeated 104 skeleton monsters!]
[Outstanding player was Drahon who went berserk mode]
[Frost Monsters Remaining: 72]
[Skeleton Monsters Remaining: 1]
[Monsters in Total Remaining: 73]
[Congratulations players!, You have just one more skeleton monster to defeat!]
Drahon’s face recoiled in curiosity.
One skeleton monster remaining? Why didn’t they burn it together with the others they just burned?
[The remaining Skeleton Monster is boss of the skeleton monster, the lord of all skeleton monsters.]
It made sense. In any video game, there was this end level where you get to face the boss villain of the game.
[You’ll not be able to use your dragons against this monster, you all will be restricted.]
Drahon and all the players exchanged glances.
[You can only fight it with your sword and skills, no dragons!]