The magical presence of my target was nearby.

Unfortunately, my preferred method of flying mount was not an option. Not with the detection ward ready to catch the moment I stepped out of the little web of protection I had created under the shadow of its defensive counterpart.

So, I continued to move the slow way. Creating a complicated set of tunnels. And even worse, I had to create some of them much larger, just in case I had an opportunity to save my scaly acquaintance.

Saving her was a target despite the potential risks, because the headmistress needed me to capture the dragon. However, my motive was not fulfilling her order, or even selling the illusion of a loyal soldier.

No, I wanted to save the dragon — if I could do so without putting myself under certain danger — because the headmistress’ request implied that the dragon was important for her. Which meant, the dragon either had some kind of link with Divine Spark, she had some information valuable for the headmistress.

Or she had a completely different significance, which might make her even more important.

Regardless, she was important for me, because her presence promised leverage that could be used against the headmistress.

The nearer I got, the more accurately I could detect the details.

As far as I could tell, there were eight distinct sources of energy, which would have been enough for me to turn back and retreat, leaving my scaly acquaintance to whatever unfortunate fate that awaited in the hands of a mysterious organization responsible for the ongoing disaster that was slowly destroying the civilization.

Luckily for her, I could also detect their formation and the current targets as well. And that told me one important thing. The battle wasn’t a siege where seven members of the Eternals assaulted the dragon, trying to take her down.

If that had been the case, from the level of power I could detect, she wouldn’t have lasted even a minute.

No, even from a distance, I could feel four parties spread around, each fighting against each other. The first party was, naturally, the dragon herself. She was away from every other opponent, several wards surrounding her in a desperate attempt to create a defensive bulwark, one that was being eroded aggressively.

The intricacies of the wards would be enough to prove that she was more than a mere beast even if I hadn’t communicated with her before.

However, intelligence was not sufficient alone when being sieged by several high-leveled enemies, even when those enemies were lacking in skill. Power was also needed, an asset that she was clearly lacking.

She wasn’t weak by any sane definition of the word. She was still strong enough to take down Cornelia, or one of the death knights of Zokras, in less than a minute — though I would pick Titania for a victory with a comfortable margin.

Unfortunately for her, that level of power was hardly enough under the circumstances. She was only holding on because of external factors. The relative lack of skill of her attackers didn’t match their incredible power. And the enmity among themselves.

Her attackers were split into three factions, though these factions were not equal in number, or in power. The biggest group consisted of four members, three mages and a warrior. They were at the center of the group, their main focus on attacking the dragon. Even with their unskilled approach, they would have taken the dragon down with relative ease.

However, the second group was actively trying to prevent them from succeeding.

The second group consisted only of two members, one mage and one warrior, likely with a ranged specialization. They were staying quite a bit distance away from the first group as they did their best to interfere with the first group’s attacks against the dragon. However, they were distant enough that, if the first group decided to attack them, they would be able to retreat. A simple plan, but effective.

That didn’t mean they were on the side of the dragon, because they were also attacking the dragon whenever the dragon had an opportunity to sneak away.

Clearly, they shared the same objective, but they were fighting for the honor of taking the spoils.

However, the real interesting thing was the fourth party. It was a lone warrior, yet he was attacking all three at the same time, without any rhyme or reason, completely berserk. I might have mistaken him for a monster in the middle of a blood rage if it wasn’t for his distinct signature marking him as completely human.

Just mindlessly berserk.

How very much interesting, I thought even as I continued my laborious journey.

If there was one good thing about a chaotic four-way magical skirmish, the spells that were being thrown around with reckless abandon were the exact thing I needed to conceal my own magical signature, essentially hiding under the shadows of their spells to quicken the tunnel-creation process.

And it was a good advantage, under the assault of two groups — even with them restraining each other — the dragon was getting closer to defeat. Layer after layer, her wards were getting destroyed, with her speed to recreate unable to match the speed.

I started tunneling even faster.

-231 Mana

When I was finally able to poke my head, about a hundred feet away from the defensive cave the dragon had picked for her desperate last stand, only one detail about the battle surprised me, though not a big one.

The members of Eternals were wearing three different types of uniforms, though each had the symbol of a silver ankh on their chest, only the color of their shirt different. The small group of two was wearing a green shirt, while the large group had two different colors, three of them wearing black and one wearing blue. Interestingly, the one that was currently raging was also wearing a blue.

Maybe the Eternals weren’t as unified as I thought. Of course, that was the best case, as there might be many different reasons for that difference in color, like operative teams, maybe even simple fashion preference.

I stayed concealed, watching carefully for an opportunity. I wanted to save the dragon, but not at the cost of revealing myself.

I cared about getting leverage over the headmistress, but not at the cost of directly opposing a literal army of high-leveled combatants.

Luckily, that didn’t mean I was completely helpless. For example, when one of the mages dressed in black threw a huge fireball strong enough to destroy her remaining wards, I sent a concealed string of mana to destabilize it, making explode before it even reached the halfway mark between them and the dragon, making them receive the bulk of the attack.

Admittedly, it hadn’t been a particularly difficult job. Not when it was already getting more and more unstable as it flew toward the dragon due to excessive mana the caster pumped in its structure. And that was another indicator of their lack of experience, failing to cast even such a simple spell correctly, despite from a pure potential perspective, being able to put more raw power than Cornelia could display.

The spell exploded close to them. Unfortunately, they had their own protections — crude, but with enough power behind them to make them formidable — making the fireball barely an inconvenience for them.

It might have been different if the smaller group had been able to take advantage of the mistake, but they were equally clumsy, choosing to send a huge chunk of ice bolt after charging it fully rather than relying on a quick attack to leverage the opportunity.

They were not only incompetent in terms of using magic, but also they were tactically unaware.

As I watched them, the berserk warrior finally started to show the signs of mana depletion, and the next time he attacked the group of four — he had been bouncing between all three targets repeatedly — the group of four turned their attention to him, killing him quickly.

Interestingly, none of them showed the slightest hint of hesitance, including the one that was wearing the same color uniform.

However, even when they were killing a mindless and weakened opponent, their movements were lacking. Both in terms of spell selection and coordination, to a point that their spells interfered with each other significantly.

With that lack of skill on display, I was confident in taking all of them in a few minutes.

Unfortunately, it was clear that those strong but unskilled mages were not my only opponents. Not even close. The amount of skill they were displaying was too limited to establish the wards around us, not even if they had miraculous artifacts to help them.

Which meant that there were others with more respectable skill levels — like the ones I faced back in the city where they were targeting Titania, or even more skilled — responsible for managing the wards.

And even that wasn’t even the full extent of the challenge I was facing.

With my luck, there was always more.

Barely a minute after the berserk warrior had fallen, another complication joined the mix. A group of three just entered the range of my detection, moving with a great speed, uncaring of the magical expense. They were coming from the direction of the smaller group.

At the same time, the smaller group changed their behavior significantly, and stopped targeting the dragon, focusing their attack on the group of four, even slowly closing in the distance.

Another significant tactical mistake, which told me that not only they were not used to using strong magic, but also, they didn’t have much tactical awareness.

They might as well just cry reinforcements.

Even the group of four, despite their limited tactical acumen, realized that. Their reaction, however, was interesting. Rather than trying to retreat, they intensified their assault on the dragon.

For some reason, they were trying to take down the dragon before the reinforcements arrived. Maybe they trusted themselves to defend against the five with the dragon taken down, or maybe they had another aim.

Regardless, with the inclusion of more reinforcements, I was ready to cancel my plans. Information was something precious.

My life was more precious.

However, before I could retreat back to the tunnel, another interesting development made me reconsider my plans. One of the four, the warrior wearing black, let out an explosive cry, and he started to act in the same mindless berserk manner.

A second later, he was attacking his previous allies in reckless abandon.

A crazed warrior loose between three mages in arms reach, a recipe for disaster in any measure.

Also, just the opportunity I needed.

—————

Level: 31 Experience: 493210

/ 496000

Strength: 46 Charisma: 63

Precision: 40 Perception: 42

Agility: 40 Manipulation: 45

Speed: 39 Intelligence: 49

Endurance: 39 Wisdom: 51

HP: 6324

/ 6324 Mana: 6192

/ 7750

SKILLS

Master Melee 100

/100

Master Tantric 100

/100

Master Biomancy 100

/100

Master Elemental 100

/100

Master Arcana 100

/100

Master Subterfuge 100

/100

Expert Speech 75

/75

Expert Craft 75

/75

PERKS

Mana Regeneration

Skill Share

Empowerment (1

/1)

Teleportation

COMPANIONS

Cornelia – Level 22

/26

Helga – Level 22

/26