I became a legion lich

159 Dragon breath

“Don’t worry Patriarch...we will definitely win...no matter how many enemies...attack us.” Vanilla spoke with confidence, though no one knew whether the confidence came from her naivety or her blind trust in Athos.

“Shut up. Something’s going on.” Athos ordered, noticing that the anomaly had stopped growing. For a moment he thought the whole thing was going to explode, but nothing too dramatic happened.

The anomaly simply disappeared, as if it had never existed to begin with. In its place, a sphere made of earth, stone, concrete and whatever else was in the tower appeared, before collapsing to the ground.

The space within the anomaly was fickle and changing just like its surface, so whatever was swallowed was twisted hideously beyond recognition.

“Okay, I really don’t know what’s going on.” Athos muttered as he looked cautiously at the wreckage there is distance, trying and failing to recognize anything useful.

“My theory was probably correct, boss. What we’re seeing is probably the enemy base’s wreckage, or at least what’s left.” Treevor spoke in a mocking tone, wondering how many people had died in this idiocy.

“That I can understand. What I still don’t understand is why teleported the garbage into my backyard.” Athos said confused.

“Ah, that’s simple, master. The portal’s coordinates were here, so it was natural for the wreckage to end up here. The nature of teleportation crystals has always been to move something from point A to point B and although the order managed to tamper with the arc mithril them to allow movement on both sides, the anomaly still threw things at the portal’s coordinates.” Emília explained, sighing with relief internally.

She knew about the tower of portals, and she also knew that with so much wreckage here, it was likely that the tower had been partially, if not completely destroyed. Emilia doubted they could send enemies against them until everything was rebuilt.

.....

“Well, it looks like we’re not going to have any big fights at the moment. We’re safe, though I don’t know for how long. Astrus, how’s the investigation going on your side?” Athos asked after confirming they were safe.

“I scattered all the skeletons that wouldn’t be needed for defense around the fortress and found a total of two teams of mage slayers in addition to the one we were already aware of. Both teams were turned into the undead, but we didn’t get any new information.” Astrus reported.

He had been tasked with looking for the mage slayers by Athos, who was suspicious that they were still alive and lurking somewhere.

“So the two remaining teams are still alive, right? What are the chances they’re conveniently dead somewhere in the fortress?” Athos asked ironically.

“We haven’t finished searching the entire fortress yet so I can’t say for sure, but it’s very unlikely, my king. I believe the mage slayers are alive and lurking around the fortress. I’ve already sent skeleton birds to investigate the surroundings and look for them. them, but without success so far.”

What neither of them expected was that both teams were running desperately at the moment, fleeing the fortress with all their might. Both captains realized that there was something wrong with the portal and started to flee the moment the anomaly appeared.

They didn’t know what it was, but it looked nothing like a dragon zombie that Elder Louis had promised to send.

“Got it. It’ll be almost impossible to find them using just the skeleton birds thanks to that damn invisibility, but at least make sure there’s nobody around the fortress.” Athos ordered and Astrus nodded.

“Vanilla, order the demihumans to collect all the corpses you impaled on the back gate. Emilia, bring some skeletons and let’s look for anything useful in the wreckage. Even destroyed magic weapons can be melted by metal.” Athos ordered.

Both skeletons nodded their heads and were about to retreat to do his bidding, but froze in place. Not just them, but all of the skeletons near the wall found themselves unable to move, their bones shaking in what felt like fear, though that should have been impossible.

Athos felt his knees tremble and a shiver ran down his spine. He looked at the rubble almost instinctively and noticed that something was moving among the rubble, as if it were trying to get out.

Cracks appeared through the concrete before a giant scaly paw ripped through the concrete to break free. The zombie dragon had survived the anomaly.

As he was the first to enter the anomaly, all the concrete and earth that was sucked in afterwards formed around him, crushing his body and sealing off his every movement.

A living dragon would have died after its body was crushed by several tons of concrete and stone, but the zombie dragon managed to survive despite all the injuries on its body.

Its wings were crushed and one of them was completely torn off and missing somewhere in the wreckage. Its front right leg was broken and held loosely to its body.

Many of the scales on its body were crushed and there were places where rotting flesh was exposed. He had several broken bones and torn muscles, black blood oozing from open wounds.

His long tail was cut in half, the severed half trapped in a mithril arc. He had ripped its own tail in an attempt to free itself.

The right half of the dragon’s face was crushed, several of its tusks broken and falling off as it walked.

The zombie dragon slowly emerged from the wreckage and looked around, trying to understand where it was. From his perspective, all he had done was follow his master’s orders and enter the portal, only to appear in a dark place and be buried.

He circulated as much mana as possible to resist, but still nearly died several times as the anomaly distorted uncontrollably.

But all those thoughts disappeared from his mind when he looked up at the wall and saw the black skeletons at the top. The elder’s orders echoed in his mind, forcing his body to move.

The zombie dragon began to run at an absurd speed, despite all the injuries on its body. He took a deep breath as he ran, energy from the world around him being sucked in and filling his lungs.

“Get away from the wall now!!” Treevor screamed desperately, his mystical senses allowing him to feel the world’s energy being sucked up by the dragon. He knew what it meant and it terrified him.

Treevor returned to his giant size and grabbed all the high-ranking skeletons with his vines and jumped off the wall, running to the right as fast as possible. Only an idiot would run in a straight line from a dragon breath, after all.

After reaching approximately 100 meters and filling its lungs with world energy, the zombie dragon moved the energy from its lungs through its neck to its mouth, where a magical organ at the base of its throat ignited the world energy with a spark of darkness, transforming the world energy in black flames.

The zombie dragon spat out the black flames, which spread out in the shape of a cone, increasing out until it was twice the dragon’s diameter. The black flames left a trail of destruction on the floor, before reaching the wall and immediately destroying it.

Dragon breath evaporated the undead at the top, the black flames corroding their bones to dust. Even the mithril plates failed and rusted in a matter of seconds.

The black flames didn’t stop at the wall and continued for almost 50 meters, before it disappeared. Hundreds of undead behind the wall were destroyed by the dragon breath, but the zombie dragon attack was not over yet.

Dragon Zombie jumped through the hole in the wall and immediately conjured two 10 meter spheres of darkness, launching one to each side as he continued to run forever and engage in melee combat.

“We have to flee immediately. A dragon is not something we can face.” Treevor spoke bitterly, but never stopped running. He glanced back, worried that Athos was unusually silent.

“...” Athos was busy investigating the dragon’s body as it was being carried, using the death vision to analyze it.

He noticed that the dragon’s entire body was filled with power to the point of overshadowing its core and that the mana moved in a complex pattern, as if the mana flowed through its veins like blood. Athos knew of skills that had similar effects, but the dragon didn’t seem to be using a skill.

What confirmed his theory was that the blood leaking from the wounds still carried the dragon’s mana. If it was a skill, the mana would have dispersed the moment it moved away from the body. It was likely a racial ability, but Athos was focused on something else.

The shadows he was able to see in living beings, for some reason, he was able to see them in the zombie dragon as well.

Faint shadows spread across the zombie dragon’s body, scarring all the wounds on its body, but one stood out from the rest. Athos noticed that a tiny shadow, almost invisible on its black body was on its back, right between the joints of its wings.

He was only able to notice why Treevor, in his desperation to flee, shook the vines and allowed him an up view of the dragon.

“Treevor, stop running, let’s kill this thing.” Athos screamed as he freed himself from the grip of the vines.