Chapter 228 - Surprises
While Alissa was preparing her attack, Ryan checked once more the dragons and sighed once again. For some reason, the number of dead dragons was too high… the targets ahead were three red dragons and one brown dragon.
"I wonder if the red ones are stronger and the number of others is small because the megalodons have an easy time killing them… anyway, it looks like Alissa won't be able to use her fire attacks, perhaps not even those dark flames. Even though she has the power of a dragon, elemental resistances play an important role most of the time."
Alissa prepared the bow, and when the bone arrow appeared, she pulled the string. Weirdly enough, she had a smirk on her face. First a smug expression and now a smirk… Ryan couldn't help but frown at this weird girl. It doesn't matter what she was planning. Acting like that before a fight seemed wrong…
In just a few seconds, Ryan saw some cracks appearing on the bone bow. As expected, Alissa could pour much more energy in just a few moments in comparison to Ryan. He didn't know if she had activated any buffs, but Ryan saw clearly when Alissa poured mana around the arrow and changed the nature of it to lightning. The air around them changed, and the energy concentration was so intense that the temperature rose several degrees.
"Hey…" Ryan frowned while taking a few steps backward after feeling the danger.
Suddenly, the battle in the distance stopped, and the four dragons looked in their direction. Although Alissa didn't emit her killing intent, she went too far gathering energy. However, before the dragons could even think of running away, she fired the arrow.
Somehow, Ryan managed to see that the bone arrow didn't endure all that vast energy concentration. Even before the attack hit one dragon, the projectile became dust. However, the energy still followed its trajectory as if nothing had happened and pierced the thick neck of a red dragon and immediately beheaded it.
After that, the mana and stamina on the attack expanded until it caused an explosion of flames and bolts of lightning. The dragons around got hit by flames and the bolts of lightning as well. Although the red dragons endured the flames, the bolts of lightning completely paralyzed them. As for the earth dragon… the creature didn't resist the explosion and fell dead after the hall of its body was completely annihilated by it.
Ryan knew that dragons had enough energy to pull off that kind of attack, but they weren't that skilled at controlling it. Since they have so much pride in their strength, they never felt the need to rely on control. Just overpowering their opponents was good enough. Regardless, Alissa managed to use their powers in a very efficient manner. The only problem was the aftermath of doing something she never did before. Alissa fell on her knees and trembled a little while holding her head.
"You went too far, controlling mana like that when you never tried before made your brain overload with that huge amount of willpower you need to control it. Anyway, you should get back to normal in a few minutes."
It looked like Alissa was suffering from a pretty harsh migraine… in the end, Ryan learned that quite a lot by observing someone who had the power that he wanted. Mainly, just obtaining that level of strength wasn't enough. He needed to reach a certain level of mastery in control, or he might become like a machine that overheats pretty quickly.
"Go finish them off," Alissa declared. "I will join you in a few minutes."
Ryan considered ignoring the idea since even though the explosion made the dragon bodies fly away and land on the land, he thought the megalodons would find a way to devour them. However, they wouldn't have the nerve to expose themselves like that when an unknown creature just killed two dragons and wounded two others heavily with a single attack.
When he started to fly using his shield as a platform, Ryan confirmed his suspicion, the megalodons have left the area. They probably headed downstream… if that was good or bad, that was something Ryan couldn't tell.
"Orgar said that she is getting better at controlling his powers, but she has been obtaining classes at a steady pace… most likely, her ability to control those powers is only one of the many factors that explain her growth. Alissa probably didn't learn many skills by herself, but the status bonuses of the classes can't be ignored."
Although he will never admit that, one of Ryan's many goals was to one day surpass Alissa, but since she was also constantly improving, it looked like that goal will never be achieved.
To make sure that the dragons wouldn't try anything, Ryan paralyzed one with his spear and attacked the other relentlessly with his gauntlets. Of course, he did that by using wind magic. Those beasts were heavily wounded, but Ryan was fully aware that nothing was more dangerous than a wounded beast.
You obtained 11.598 coins.
You obtained 9.952 coins.
"Feels like I am being rewarded for something that I didn't do. Regardless, I can't let these kinds of monsters recover… one of them dropped an ax, and the two fire dragons that died first dropped some items as well. Considering that dragons gave me fifty thousand coins, I guess I don't deserve even their drops and dragon hearts."
Regardless, Ryan satisfied his curiosity and he was prepared to pay such a price when he let Alissa attack first. So, such a thing didn't bother him all that much. After a while, Alissa finally appeared and grabbed her items. However, since she was flying pretty slowly, it looked like she wasn't fully recovered. Weirdly enough, even some dire wolves began to show up.
"Well… that was unexpected," Ryan frowned. "Did they lose their sense of danger?"
"Wild animals and monsters have good instincts. Although they know that Alissa is more powerful than them, they also know that she is in bad condition."
Ryan decided to guard that knowledge in his head. Brute strength wasn't everything… it was obvious since his best weapon was his bow, and he wouldn't be able to use it if he loses both of his hands.