Gamer Reborn

Chapter 639

“It’s a good thing we’re not approaching the capital.” Rex said as he looked up to where Ajax and Aurexion were flying above the army as they approached the headquarters of the Republic’s army. “Even with us sending word that the dragon was friendly it would have caused a panic.”

“That’s a good thing indeed.” Both the prince and Rex jumped a little as Shadow was suddenly amongst them. “So he’s already grown to be a champion, that’s even faster than I could have expected.”

“You should really be more careful sneaking up on people like us.” The prince warned as he let go of his sword's handle. “Especially injured as you are.”

Shadow had half his body covered in bandages, he had pushed himself hard during the initial engagement and was the main reason the Republic didn’t lose any champions in the initial assault. He did pay a rather steep price as he had delayed getting proper treatment for the poison that was used so his recovery time had been extended.

“I know you only just arrived but Archduke Warborne is asking for your champions to report in.” Shadow was thankful for the support but Gryndor had taken longer than both Brightstone and Sylvanthal to send their support, the battle lines had already moved pretty far past the border and evacuations were destroying the lives of their countrymen.

“They already have something for us to do?” Rex was surprised. “I didn’t think it was already this bad.”

“They know just how badly they hurt us with their initial attack.” Shadow explained. “They are taking advantage of that by forcing standoffs on direct paths to large cities.”

“They are playing into their advantage when it comes to champions.” Evelyn joined the conversation. “Locking as many as they can in standoffs with armies where they have to wait while sending smaller shock troops of elites behind your lines with champion support.”

“Exactly.” Shadow nodded as he looked up as Ajax and Aurexion were approaching them. “Head right for the big tent, I’ll ensure your people are helped to set up their own camp. Maybe leave the dragon here.”

“My bond might have some keen insight.” Ajax’s words surprised Shadow, he had to remind himself that he wasn’t just some kid participating in the under age fifty tournament anymore. He was now a champion and a Duke. “He’s not just smart for a bond, he is fully sapient and I’ll have him treated as such.”

Shadow acknowledged his words with a nod before all of Gryndor’s champions headed over to the command tent while the rest of the squads worked with Shadow and the support staff to get their elites settled, unlike the champions the elites had been on the road for a month and needed the break.

“It wasn’t a joke you really did bring a dragon.” Archduke Warborne took in Aurexion’s form with awe for about five seconds before he returned to his usual serious demeanour. “His presence alone will do wonders for morale, thank you for that.”

“You’re welcome.” Aurexion surprised him once more by speaking. “Though it should be an obvious reaction to my presence.”

“Humility isn’t in a dragon’s nature.” Ajax said, specifically however he didn’t contradict or apologise for Aurexion’s words, after all he was strictly speaking being truthful. “Shadow said there was a need to hurry?”

Archduke Warborne took about five minutes to explain the situation they were forced into. They were dealing with six enemy forces moving behind enemy lines. All of them were elites and all of them were being met with their own elite forces. The issue was they were pretty sure one or two of them were actually traps set up to kill their champions or their champion level forces. With Gryndor having sent six champions they could ideally reinforce all of them so they wouldn’t have to guess which was being ambushed.

“They’re looking down on us.” Aurexion growled as he and Ajax flew high above the ground.

“We’re the only ones without any prior experience.” Ajax tried to help Aurexion see their point of view but he was of the same opinion as his bond, the only difference was he wasn’t all that annoyed by the decision. “Not to mention we’re the best choice to reinforce Firebeard without getting spotted and he’s the furthest away, we’re the fastest.”

“Seems like it was a good choice, looks like they are already engaged.” Aurexion spotted the fight before Ajax did; he was used to looking down from such great heights regularly and could make out the battle.

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Ajax took a moment to take in the battle and cursed under his breath. Both of the armies had separated and drawn back the battle between champions had already started. “Let's go help. It doesn’t look like he’s doing too well in a one versus two.”

“There’s three of them.” Aurexion said as he began to dive. “And it looks like it's almost over.”

Firebeard’s knee gave out right as Aurexion was diving from above. “Damn it. Aurexion stall them, the element of surprise isn’t worth as much if they kill him even if we kill them after.”

Ajax had hoped they could kill one of them with their surprise appearance but without [Draconic Roar] stopping their attack Firebeard would die right before they got there. Even prepared for it as he was, Ajax felt the vibrations from Aurexion’s roar shake through his body, he could only hope the pain from his knee giving out would distract Firebeard from taking the full brunt of it.

The roar had caused both beastkin champions to freeze up for enough time that Ajax and Aurexion made it in range to protect Firebeard, unfortunately the enemy champions reacted fast enough that it used up their element of surprise.

“Can you still fight?” Ajax asked Firebeard.

“Aye lad.” To his credit Firebeard adapted quickly, not taking more than a moment to adapt to Ajax and Aurexion’s appearance. “But my leg is done for and I can’t take another potion now so I’ll be pretty immobile.”

Aurexion smashed an ice spike out of the air with his claw before he started giving orders. “Ajax go kill their mage. I’ll keep them both here while the tiny mage burns them.”

Ajax trusted his bond and more than that his plan made sense. He had already gotten a pretty good idea where the other enemy champion was after that last ice spike attack and he was particularly suited to deal with mages. It was best to head out and kill them before the other two realized they were done for and tried to run.

Ajax pretty much ignored the enemy army even as he kept a decent distance from them as he made a dash for the enemy mage. Already he could feel a second ice spike being sent towards him but since he didn’t want to take any risks and wanted to unlock his Pseudo-Mythic Skill as quickly as possible Ajax already activated both [Last Stand] and [Mana Syphon] as soon as he felt the spell his speed spiking in an instant making the spell miss.

“You think we’ll let you just run.” Whitefeather prepared to dash after Ajax ignoring the pull from his [Danger Sense], he was confident Firebeard wouldn’t be able to use a powerful explosion so soon.

“Focus damn you.” Redfang growled as he grabbed Whitefeather and pulled him out of the way right as Aurexion released his dragon’s breath, cutting off any chance of them catching up to Ajax.

Whitefeather could feel himself trembling as he looked at the long scorch mark in front of him and back at the dragon. The battle that had almost ended previously was very much not over and he just realized he needed to be very careful or he’ll end up dead in a split second.

“Besides, she can handle herself.” Redfang continued. “He’s just a thirty year old boy, we’ve got to focus on killing Firebeard and running from the dragon.” The last thing Redfang did before he moved to attack Firebeard was give the elite force the command to run, even if they managed to kill the champion they couldn’t risk the dragon unleashing another breath on their elites.

While Redfang was extremely wary of Aurexion, Whitefeather was more confident in facing the dragon. He had fought his way to power by delving dungeons for more than a century large monsters were nothing he wasn’t used to, not only that but according to his inspection Skill this one was only level eighty so most likely it was magic focused based on how powerful that breath attack had been.

“Let's see how hard your scales really are.” Whitefeather taunted. “You magic focus monsters are all the same as long as you’re not elementals.”

With the extra time Aurexion had bought him by forcing Redfang to go around him Firebeard had enough time to chant a powerful enough spell to regain the advantage in his fight, landing a powerful explosion on the already crumbling armor of Redfang.

Whitefeather was quickly shocked by just how fast Aurexion was moving, a fake overcommitted claw swipe had lead him into a false sense of victory that he hadn't spotted that the whole point of the attack was for Aurexion to put his whole weight behind the tail swipe that followed.

“You think I’m a caster.” Aurexion scoffed with superiority as he felt the impact of his tailswipe land cleanly on the beastkin, bones breaking on the impact.

Under the effect of both [Last Stand] and a highly infused [Mana Syphon] Ajax made it to the mage just as she finished her second cast. A wave of ice spread out from her freezing everything in her surrounding and while [Mana Syphon] did weaken it Ajax could feel the layer of ice forming over his armor.

Unfortunately for the mage the ice was simply not strong enough to hold back Ajax’s empowered body for long, it was already cracking. Her attempt at chanting a third spell was also cut short as Ajax used [Telekinesis] to clamp her mouth shut before pulling her towards himself.

The mage’s armor enchantments weren’t enough to save her life as Ajax decapitated her with a clean swing of his axe. He took a moment to store her body before racing back towards his bond.

Out of the corner of his eyes Ajax could see the beastkin army was already retreating, no not retreating but actively fleeing, with their stats and level it wouldn’t be long until they were far away from here. He was more focused on their champions however and he went to rejoin the fight.

Ajax returned just in time to watch Aurexion barbeque the feathered beastkin, he was a little worried about his bond as this was the second time he was using his breath attack and he knew his Mana had to be running low from that but he was also sure that meant there was only one enemy champion left.

“Looks like the tables have turned.” Ajax taunted his final opponent as his Vibration empowered hammer smashed into his shield, he knew the impact from the blow would travel through the shield and had most likely shattered the bones in the arm since he wasn’t at all prepared for it.

“Don’t kill this one.” Firebeard called out. “We can take him prisoner and question him.”

“What about their army.” Ajax asked.

“The prisoner is more important.” Firebeard said.

With the three of them working together it barely took any time before Redfang was captured, even with Aurexion being a little lethargic from the low Mana.

“Did the mage escape?” Firebeard asked once they captured Redfang.

Ajax didn’t answer, instead he just removed the mage’s corpse from his spacial ring and he could see the last hope die in Redfang’s eyes as he did so.