Volume 3 Takeoff Chapter 303: Multi-party melee
With the cooperation of Teclis and the others, and even the secret support of the goddess, the next plan went smoothly.
First, Lucia brought a group of vampires created by illusions, as well as the undead under the command of the Sun Knight and others, and began to frequently wander around the outskirts of the old black dragon's lair in the form of a small team, and deliberately let the Black Eclipse Kobolds, Poisonous Lizardmen and Dragons discover them.
Naturally, they would not sit idly by. Almost as soon as they discovered it, they immediately took the initiative to attack.
They think they have the powerful Lord Black Dragon guarding them, so if ordinary enemies dare to provoke them, they will naturally kill them all in the first place.
So the Sun Knights fought and retreated all the way, and after paying a certain price, they successfully led the enemy to the base of the 13 families.
Because the illusion was too realistic, the dragons, whose brains were not very good, subconsciously thought that they were all in the same group.
Faced with the sudden appearance of the dragons, the vampires of the 13 families will of course only have one reaction, which is to kill the other party.
After all, as the head of the family and the descendant of Dracula, they had long known that Dracula was planning to find an opportunity to deal with the old black dragon, and the Cursed Blood Spirit also provided a sudden intelligence yesterday that surprised and shocked both Dracula and them.
Tomorrow is the most critical moment, and now their spirits are naturally more tense.
So the two sides started a battle, and the vampires killed all the dragon people with their numerical advantage, and only a small number of dog-headed people escaped successfully.
Then Teclis cast an illusion, disguising himself as a small group of fleeing dragon men, who seemed to be planning to go back and report the news.
The vampires naturally started a pursuit subconsciously. Now that the war had begun, they naturally had to kill everyone.
And if there are no survivors to tip off, even if Old Black Dragon comes to cause trouble, there will still be room for maneuver.
Before Ksa could completely kill the defeated army, they unexpectedly discovered that a large number of gnolls were gathering together, kowtowing and bowing towards the direction of the black dragon's lair, as if they were holding some special ceremony.
Although he is a werewolf, because he is the chosen hero who joined the old black dragon early, Chen Zhui of the Last World is able to control a large number of black eclipse kobolds.
Now, combined with the information provided by the Cursed Blood Spirit before, the two were confirmed, and the vampires of the 13 families immediately believed it completely.
In fact, this strategy itself is not very clever. The difficulty lies in how to make the other party believe in each other's identities.
In the end, Teclis' magic provided a guarantee for this. The illusions he created were not only lifelike, but could also cut people, bleed when beaten, and their movements and expressions were perfect.
After all, Lilith's priesthood includes dreams, and the Moon Bow Goddess is also the Goddess of Illusions. With these two goddesses backing her up, plus Teclis' own powerful strength, the entire plan went very smoothly.
So on the next day, before dawn, Levi and his men received intelligence that the two sides had already started fighting.
The 13 families joined forces with the Silver Blood Army, as well as a part of the necromancers and undead army under Herman Gost, with a total force of more than 50,000. They surrounded the old black dragon and launched a general attack under the cover of night.
If we look at the numbers alone, they completely crushed their opponents.
Because there are less than five thousand gnolls and about three thousand poisonous lizardmen under the old black dragon, but their average strength is not high. The real backbone are the dragon people, but their number is even smaller, estimated to be less than one thousand at most.
In addition, there are probably less than two thousand cave trolls, troggs, grimlocks, harpies, kuo-toa, toadmen and other miscellaneous races.
They were basically overwhelmed by the old black dragon's strength and became slaves, servants, cannon fodder and spare food. At this time, they also participated in the battle.
But probably because the old black dragon had cast a special magic on that swamp, it was full of corrosiveness, which not only greatly slowed down movement speed, but also continuously caused acid damage to anyone who stepped into it.
As long as the dragon people can guard a few special passages, it is not impossible for them to fight against an enemy force that is ten times their size in a short period of time.
But vampires can fly after all, and a few harpies are not enough to resist them, so the dragons paid a heavy price for their lack of consideration.
But they were also decisive enough. After the initial defeat, they immediately destroyed all the roads and fought while retreating. Some dragon people retreated to the central area of the swamp, a huge rock nest.
The kobolds and other numerous servants and slaves continued to rely on the geographical advantages to resist stubbornly outside the nest and continued to gather the undead army that tried to land.
But the vampires did not give up. They continued to launch a fierce attack, with the momentum to use low-level cannon fodder to fill the entire swamp in one fell swoop.
Although it is actually unlikely, considering the number of cannon fodder they have, it is still easy to fill in a few passages leading to the black dragon's lair.
At this point, the Dragon Prince couldn't help but get a little excited, but he still asked for Tigris and even Levi's opinions.
After the plan succeeded, his attitude towards Levi changed further. Although Levi's strength was still insignificant in his eyes, his wisdom could not be underestimated.
However, Levi and the others both chose to continue waiting, because Dracula's allies - the drow elves, the snake cult developed by the old black dragon, and the two of them themselves, had not yet entered the scene, so it was far from the right time.
Moreover, the Old Black Dragon had previously sent the descendants of the Evil Dragon to chase him across hundreds of miles, but now there was no trace of any descendants of the Evil Dragon on the battlefield. It was obvious that the Old Black Dragon intended to use them as his trump cards, which also showed that the battle had not yet entered the most critical moment.
Further speculation is that the old black dragon was able to send out so many descendants of evil dragons just to hunt him down. Then after so many years of efforts, are there really only descendants of evil dragons in its nest, with no other small evil dragons or something?
Teclis was worried about other issues.
Although with their current strength, it can be said that there is no suspense in defeating the old black dragon or Dracula head-on.
The black dragon ranks last among the five-colored evil dragons, only slightly stronger than the beast-like white dragon. Apart from the opponent's acid spray which is somewhat powerful, the rest is not worth mentioning.
Now they have a demigod, a dragon prince who has rich experience in fighting dragons, plus himself. Even if the other party has fragments of the godhead and their abilities in all aspects have been improved to a certain extent, they are definitely not their match.
But if you want to kill the opponent, the difficulty will increase by more than one level.
With their strength, even if they can't win, they definitely have more than one way to escape.
So they continued to wait patiently, while Teclis cast various magic spells to completely block the old black dragon's retreat.
Dracula's existence is certainly a major threat to all humanoid intelligent races, but now their focus is more on the old black dragon.
Because it possesses a fragment of the godhead, a possibility that allows mortals to become demigods, a treasure that would move all legends.
Then, we need to keep abreast of the enemy's latest movements through long-distance reconnaissance and dispatching scouts.
During this period, the Moon Singer, who was notified by Levi, arrived in person with Pamela, dozens of sword dancers, and hundreds of drow elves.
They came not only to reinforce Levi, but also to meet with Tigris, Imrik and others.
As benevolent drow elves, they have always been yearning for the surface world, and they also have a yearning and envy for the high elves who can live on the surface forever.
If they really want to settle on the surface in the future, the high elves will definitely be a hurdle that they cannot avoid.
If they want to go to the surface world through the nearby passage, the attitude of the Lord of the Kingdom of Caledor is also of paramount importance.
Therefore, no matter from which perspective, the Moon Singer must respond with utmost sincerity.
So when Pamela came, she lowered her attitude very much.
However, Teclis and the others did not show any arrogance. With their strength, they already knew a lot about the affairs between the elven gods.
Even someone as ferocious as the Spider Queen Lolth has always been considered by the God-King Corellon as his own family affair, not to mention that while Eilistraee is of the chaotic good camp, she is also the daughter of Corellon and a sister of the Moonbow Goddess.
Because of her kind nature, while maintaining friendships with most of the elven gods, she is also loved and pitied by some gnomes, dwarves and even human gods. Even the human goddess of magic regards her as a friend.
In addition, if the night elves want to develop in the Underdark for a long time, the other side can also serve as a help, so there is really no need for them to make enemies with them.
So when they met, the two sides had a very pleasant conversation. Although they did not sign a written covenant or anything like that, Imrik had already instructed Michaela to try to cooperate with the Moon Singer.
Therefore, Pamela was also somewhat grateful to Levi. If he had not sent someone to notify her, she would never have been able to come in person so quickly.
In return, in addition to ensuring that the transaction of the "Sword of Song" that Levi was previously interested in could proceed smoothly, she again offered to help provide the job transfer of "Sword Dancer" and the recruitment rights of some drow elves.
If Levi allows, they are also willing to build a temple belonging to Eilistraee in Blood of Glory to further enhance the connection and cooperation between the two sides, and they are also willing to participate in the battle when encountering war.
However, if the temple is officially established, Levi may also encounter hostility from the evil drow in the city of Ostak.
The other side has been searching and pursuing members of the Moonsongists and all believers of the goddess Eilistraee. If they find a temple of Eilistraee or any benevolent drow here, the chance of them launching an attack is almost 100%.
Levi thought about it for a moment, and finally agreed to everything the other party said.
He was not entirely interested in the sword dancers who liked naked dancing. He had never seen the sword dancers that Pamela had sent out before actually dance naked.
He just thought that for Pamela, being discovered by the city of Ostak would be a very bad thing, but for the chosen heroes of God, weren't these enemies rushing to give money, equipment, and experience points?
As for recruitment, he has not taken any major action for the time being because the races under his command are already complicated enough.
And the truly fierce drow are those who believe in the Spider Queen Rose. The ordinary drow of the Moon Singers, apart from being good at fighting in the dark due to their racial talents, there is really not much to praise in other aspects.
At least in a 1-on-1 duel, it is almost impossible for an ordinary level 3 drow warrior to defeat a silver guard of the same level. The racial talent of the high elves - martial arts - is too advantageous among low-level soldiers.
And one more thing, he has almost spent all the money he has...
This is mainly because the Moonbow Goddess is very generous this time. Nearly a thousand night elves will be available for recruitment by God's chosen heroes such as Levi, Sun Knight and Thousand Thief.
This made the Sun Knight so happy that he could hardly stop smiling. The military system was very dissatisfied with him because of his camp and profession, and almost set up all kinds of obstacles for him, but the Moon Bow Goddess was really generous.
Moreover, he also learned from the priest of the goddess Lilith that if the battle went well, she might use her privileges to provide some high elf troops, which would be even better!
Levi was also a little excited at the time. After all, such an open recruitment opportunity was really rare.
He immediately borrowed money from people around him. In addition to the Red Brotherhood, he even asked Stump and Hans. In the end, he recruited 300 night elf archers, 150 huntresses, and 100 druids. It can be said that he almost consumed half of the recruitment quota.
He then recruited 50 level 4 forest fairies (tree spirits) and planned to put them under Luna's command.
The spears of these half-human, half-deer beautiful girls are coated with slowing poison, and they can also perform healing and purification spells, which are just right to assist Luna and the others in combat.
After the recruitment was completed, the number of night elves in his team had officially surpassed that of high elves, and the overall combat effectiveness also expanded rapidly.
This large-scale military expansion not only fully utilized the leadership of all subordinates, but also some of the remaining troops were left by Levi in Blood and Glory as reserve forces.
But as a price, he has to fight harder to get more spoils.
It's not just to repay the debts, but also because as the number of troops increases, the daily expenses of consumables such as arrows and daily supplies alone are a considerable amount.
So in the end he only brought the few sword dancers who had followed him into his fold, and recruited some new ones to complete a small team (12).
After spending these days together, he had a rough idea of their abilities.
They are all tier 5 elite soldiers, and although on the surface they appear to be super-enhanced versions of rangers, as exclusive priests of Eilistraee, they are actually more like a hybrid of warriors, priests, and mages.
Their attributes are mainly agility and perception, followed by strength, intelligence, constitution, etc.
In addition to being proficient in a variety of combat techniques, they also possess a variety of special skills. Healing and purification are the two most basic abilities. Based on their current strength, they also master the Dancing Sword, Magic Missiles, Demonic Weapons, Silver Glowing Blade and Secondary Spell Reversal.
Needless to say, magic missiles and magic weapons are very common. Many magic professions can master these two types of magic. Although they are of low rank, they are very practical.
The Dancing Sky Sword is very similar to the Spirit Sword Technique that Levi has mastered, the difference is that sword dancers can cast this magic on any bladed weapon, and unless they are captured or destroyed by the enemy, they may still take them back after the spell's duration ends.
A stronger sword dancer might have multiple swords flying over his head at the same time, and then attack with a sword in his hand, which is a bit like Cindy's previous fighting style.
These flying swords are very conspicuous and are relatively easy to be destroyed by the enemy. They can be considered a good trick for bullying weak enemies and in melee combat, but they may not be very effective against enemies of the same level.
The Silver Glowing Blade is a special type of magic weapon. It is not completely calculated according to the duration of magic. It will automatically become invalid after successfully hitting the enemy 10 times. At the same time, it can also cause additional damage to undead and incorporeal creatures.
Levi could only say that the undead were truly horrible, and there were simply countless ways to restrain them.
The last secondary spell is reversal. As the name suggests, once the spell is successfully cast, they will directly reverse a single-target, offensive magic cast by the enemy on them.
Based on their current strength, they can only be effective against 5th level magic at most.
Unfortunately, the number of times they can use this magic every day is subject to certain restrictions. If it is a 5th-level reversal magic, it can only be successful 3 times at most. If it is a 1st-level magic, it can be effective dozens of times.
Moreover, this magic is ineffective against area-of-effect magic such as ice storm and fireball, and is also ineffective against debuff magic such as curse and deceleration.
But despite so many limitations, this magic is also very powerful.
Because according to the information Levi had, this magic was completely absent from the magic list of orthodox wizards. Only in their 7th-level magic list would a spell reversal appear.
Although the sword dancers are now using a degraded version, it is definitely a special gift from the goddess they believe in.
In general, they are a bit like the magic swordsmen under Teclis. They don't seem to have very good defense, but in fact their attack power and survivability are very good. If they are used to deal with low-level magicians, they will be particularly useful.
It's a pity that the swords of law-breaking (fake) that Levi had obtained from the descendants of the evil dragon were all two-handed greatswords, otherwise if they were given to them, they would definitely be more powerful.
But Levi finally decided to arrange most of them around Elegy. He didn't ask them to kill many enemies, but as long as they could help Elegy eliminate the magical threats from the enemy, it would be enough.
In direct close combat, as Diana's maid, she possesses many powerful skills including melee expert, as well as her excellent combat awareness and full of magical equipment. In a one-on-one fight with other warriors, she has rarely lost.
The only thing she lacks is her weak resistance to magic and the inability to fly. Now the existence of sword dancers just makes up for one of her weaknesses.
A few hours later, Teclis' magic showed that the drow from Ostak City and the Snake Cult from the surface world entered the battlefield with thousands and tens of thousands of troops respectively. Multiple races surrounded the old black dragon's lair and launched a battle that was rarely seen even in the Underdark.
Although battles in the Underdark are frequent, battles involving thousands of people are rare. A battle as large in scale as the current one, with so many participants, may not occur until once every few decades.
So Levi and his men soon discovered that all the surrounding forces, big and small, became nervous, as if they were afraid that these forces would beat them up in the melee.
It was at this time that the dwarves also got involved. Rune Blacksmith Hans and Stump went out again, intending to act together with Levi.
Hans didn't have any particular aversion to the undead or the gnolls. If he happened to meet them on the road, he would just beat them up and kill some of them. If he didn't meet them, he wouldn't deliberately go out of his way to cause trouble.
But the conflict between the drow of Ostak City and the Helhain clan was nothing more than that. Hans also had a grudge against them.
According to him, a small patrol of drow once plundered some of his family's mineral resources 13 years ago.
Although the total value of those minerals was less than 5 gold coins, they had never forgotten it, so they wanted to seize every opportunity to retaliate until all the drow who participated in the looting were killed.
As he spoke, Hans took out a small notebook and said that it was the "Book of Hatred" that had been passed down in their family for thousands of years. All the behaviors and enemies that had ever offended their family were recorded in the book.
This is also one of the traditions of the dwarves. All families, clans, and kingdoms have their own "Book of Hatred". Clearing the contents of the book is also the greatest wish of all family heads, clan patriarchs, and kings.
After such a long time, some of the enemies in Hans' Book of Hatred had run out of life, and some were killed by others. Now only the drow and some Kuo-toa murlocs are left.
Since the Kuo-Toa are an aquatic race, it is difficult for the dwarves to deal with them. But now that there is a chance to deal with the drow, Hans will naturally not miss it.
To this end, he even deliberately used favors to let some of his fellow dwarves from Gray Mountain temporarily guard the valley on his behalf, while he came in person to take revenge.
Levi was somewhat speechless after listening to this. There were really too many things to complain about this matter.
As a runesmith, what piece of equipment on you is worth less than 5 gold coins? How come you remembered this little thing for so long?
And for the loss of 5 gold coins, we have to kill an entire team?
After hearing this, the ferocious drow were probably about to cry. Any level 4 drow among them, including the various equipment on him, would probably cost more than 5 gold coins.
What's more, when you carry out revenge, you will certainly not be able to attack that target. All the drow who block your way will be equally identified as enemies, right?
It must be said that they are worthy of being called dwarves. They are honest and reliable when they are allies, but they are really a headache when they are enemies, because some trivial matters that seem trivial to you may be a matter of life and death, honor and disgrace to them.
But in any case, with the addition of this friendly force, their strength has further expanded.
After half a day, each force suffered heavy casualties and they all slowed down their offensive.
Teclis' magic was also ready. According to him, once the spell was successfully cast, the entire black dragon's lair would be locked by space magic, and no one would be able to use teleportation magic to enter or exit. At the same time, the old black dragon would not be able to transform freely into a human form.
In this way, since it cannot use magic to escape, it is basically waiting to die there.
Not to mention whether it could escape their sight easily given its size of several dozen meters, given the special environment of the Underdark, even if it managed to run away, it would probably be stuck at the entrance of a passage within two minutes.
At the same time, he also felt that it was about time.
By now, both sides are really angry because of the heavy losses. Regardless of whether they have doubts about the cause of the initial friction, they can only continue to fight. It's time for the old black dragon and the vampire to appear!
So they began to quickly prepare for battle and set off immediately. After walking for a long distance, Levi began to consider whether to temporarily slow down the march, find a place to hide, and wait until the old black dragon and Dracula officially appeared.
Because after turning through a certain passage ahead, they might be exposed to the sight of multiple forces that are in a state of war.
Especially according to what Chen Zhui of the End of the World said, as well as the personal inspections by Lucia and others before, the view from the old black dragon's lair is very wide.
They have both high elves and dwarves, and their appearance and equipment styles are completely different from those of the undead or drow. Once they show up, they will most likely be discovered on the spot.
At this time, Tigris in front suddenly became happy: "It is a legendary level power fluctuation. Both sides have appeared and officially fought!"
Although Levi and the others didn't feel anything at all, Imrick next to them soon nodded in excitement and agreed: "Indeed, I sensed a strong breath of dragons, and the other breath was full of blood and brutality, which should be Dracula."
After the two legends spoke like this, everyone became excited, because they knew that the most important step had been completed, and it was finally time to reap the rewards!
