New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

"Look under his armpit!"

Phoenix flew in closer, pivoting to look at the dragon's massive underside, and found what Astaroth was pointing at. Lodged in the dragon's armpit, an enormous iron bar that could either be a lance, or a ballista bolt, was sticking out.

The surrounding wound was loose, though. Almost as if all the movement had stretched the cut open.

It begged to ask how the object lodged in was still holding. But it was a question for later.

Phoenix saw the golden opportunity and didn't hesitate. She flew in like a flaming bullet, jamming herself into the open wound.

This action alone would have made many women, and even some men, queasy. She was now inside the dragon.

The stench assaulting her was horrendous, and she refused to land or step foot on anything inside. She spun around, her only source of light being herself, and she found what she was looking for.

The rest of the metal object was visible from inside, and she could now identify it as a lance. But it was a strange one, made entirely of black iron, blade tip included, and the bladed part was like a tri-spoke spiral.

It was lodged into the dragon's shoulder joint, halfway into the blade, or at least that's what she assumed by the size of it. Whatever threw this did so with incredible strength.

But now was not the time to be amazed. Phoenix had to use this golden opportunity.

She began shooting gouts of flame at every surface she could, flying along the inside of the beast. Her damage was back to normal, meaning the interior was not fire resistant like the exterior.

She grinned madly, unleashing even more flames. She had a lot of damage to make up for.

From the outside, Astaroth could already see her damage climbing again, and he smiled. He could have gone inside himself, but he feared the extra Exp would shoot him over level fifty.

So he let his ally benefit, instead. And he intended to let Violette benefit too.

Astaroth shot forward, running to where Violette was shooting ice lances from, grabbing her by the midsection. She cried out in surprise, almost icing Astaroth's arm, before realizing who it was.

He didn't have time to waste on explanation, so he just ran back under the dragon before throwing Violette with all his might, aiming for the cut.

Violette screamed on her way up, before the spin in her flight made her see what Astaroth was trying to do. She panicked, since she didn't want to end up inside the dragon, but it was too late.

With a gross slurping noise, her body entered that of the beast. Unfortunately for Astaroth, his little stunt had attracted the attention of other players.

They now saw the wound, and that you could enter through it. They also saw the damage of Phoenix, who was steadily climbing the ranking, and since they couldn't see her, they assumed she was inside.

This rapidly escalated in many attempts to send players inside by the guilds. But Astaroth refused to let this advantage go to them.

His meld timer was only halfway for White, currently, but he cancelled it, and melded with Morpheus. Using his wings, he flew up, body blocking the improvised entrance and batting away the thrown players, sending most of them hurtling to their deaths.

When the players noticed Astaroth defending the entrance, they started cursing him out, and attacks started pouring on him instead of the dragon.

'Shit!'

Astaroth was suddenly back to dodging instead of attacking. This stalled his damage dealing, and Azamus used this distraction to deal massive damage to the dragon.

Astaroth was looking at the ranking from the corner of his eye, and he clicked his tongue.

'This damned sniper. I'll have to move where I can keep attacking.'

Astaroth wasted no more time and flew out from under the beast. This would let the players under keep attempting to send in their own, but he had already warned Phoenix.

She flew back toward the cut and started pouring fire through it continuously. This made the hole inaccessible, but it also started cauterizing the wound.

After a few seconds of burning, I already cauterized the wound enough it had almost sealed itself. Phoenix could now safely go back to rampaging inside the dragon.

Astaroth was now flying over the beast's back, attacking as fast as he could, but he was back to having to deal with Azamus' pesky shots. The gnome player was always firing in a way where he could still deal damage to the dragon if he missed.

Astaroth looked at the progress they had made, and was disappointed. The dragon was barely losing health right now.

'Too many players gave up...'

He knew the situation was becoming dire. By the time they dropped him to ten percent health, how many of them would be left to endure his next enrage?

'This is bad.'

*

*

*

Inside Sunpeak, the guardian dragon was looking at the situation unfold, his eyes steadily locked on his kin. He could already judge that the abnormals wouldn't win this.

Their damage had already lowered too much, since the weaker ones had already stopped joining back. And now, when the red dragon raged next, there wouldn't be anyone left to stop him.

He would have to act soon, or the city would be in danger.

Unfolding his enormous golden wings, he walked out on the ledge of his cavern. The citizens of Sunpeak city down below could suddenly see the sun reflecting off the dragon's golden scales, blazing like a second sun.

The guardian took off from the peak, its wings sending blasts of wind to the city below, regardless of the distance separating the two. It had been a long time since the citizens saw the guardian take action, and all of them became slightly scared.

As for the players who saw this, they rapidly informed the players on the frontline. This caused players to flee in all directions, lessening the burden on the red dragon even more.

The situation was worsening by the second.