Overwhelmed

The air around Drahon swirled with pressure. A piece of armor began to materialize mid-air, slowly spinning, glowing with the sheen of dragonforged steel. Charred scales rippled across its surface like liquid metal, hardened into jagged shoulder plates edged with gold.

A chestplate hovered below it, and leg guards shimmered into view next, formed from interlocking plates that resembled a dragon's tail, flexible and unyielding.

Gauntlets swirled out of nowhere, rolling with speed in the air, and then a grey, tattered-looking cloak followed.

It all hovered in the air for a heartbeat, and then, in a flash, the armor launched toward Drahon and slammed into him, piece by piece, like he was a magnet and the armor parts were steel.

They snapped into place with metallic sounds. His body jerked slightly, but there was no pain. Only aura. A surge of power went through him, and he wondered if the armor actually gave him some new cool powers.

The cloak settled last, billowing dramatically even without wind.

Finally, Drahon knelt on the floor, looking at it like there was something there when it actually was empty.

He wished there was a mirror somewhere so he could see how he looked.

________

The skeleton monsters came in mass multitude, surrounding the players even before they had time to react.

Devon was alarmed as he looked around, trying to see if he would see Drahon, but then, he was nowhere to be found.

Just seconds after turning right and stepping into this part of the forest had they discovered the skeleton monsters. Devon and the players had occasionally looked back before this incident, expecting to see Drahon 'sprout' out, as he had put it, but then, they saw no one.

It made them wonder if perhaps he was in some sort of trouble or he was lost? Well, lost wasn't really a reason as they hadn't walked miles off the barbarian's cottage, it was only a straight line, and now, they were taking their right.

Vanyra summoned her dragon and immediately took to the sky. It was difficult flying upwards though, as the monsters roared out bursts of wind towards them.

The monsters were mixed, by the way, and from what the players roughly calculated, they should be over a hundred.

It only meant one thing!

This was the final stage in the skeleton area and probably level one. It only depended on if the players at the frost region had killed all the frost monsters they were to face.

The skeleton monsters roared at the players, but they were more careful this time. All had already summoned their dragons, who were now shielding them from the ferocious wind.

Devon's dragon seemed to envelop Devon in its wings because not a morsel of the bursts of wind from the skeleton monsters was affecting him. It also roared its dark fire at anyone who came its way.

"How do we fly up?" a player shouted. "We're gonna die soon. They're just too many, and if we're to just fly up, we'll get ourselves killed."

A thought suddenly struck Devon.

They needed a distraction.

"We need to distract them!" he shouted at the players.

Vanyra, since she was the only one able to fly up in the air, started to roar out ice windy breath stuff towards the skeleton monsters, who flinched each time it touched them.

The roar froze some, while it did nothing to others. But the aim hadn't been to kill; it was merely to distract, and it had done just that.

With the monsters flinching from the cold, the players came from the cover of their dragons' wings, and it took them to the sky.

By 'sky,' it wasn't that they were where the clouds were, but simply a few centimetres off the ground, at least enough for the skeleton monsters to not get them.

Devon looked around as he was a bit higher from the ground, trying to check if he'd see Drahon.

"You seen him?" Jeff asked.

Devon nodded in the negative.

"Not at all."

Jeff sighed and then scoffed.

"And he seemed pretty smart. I don't know why he went ahead to be so daft for some meat, when we have enough of them!"

Devon looked at Jeff for some seconds and then looked away. That wasn't their problem here (their current state, that is). Right now, what was more important was defeating these skeleton monsters.

It wouldn't be so easy as before, though, as his dragon was the only type that could roar out fire to actually melt the skeleton monsters very quickly.

Drahon would have done better, though, as he had an actual 'FIRE DRAGON.' He was sort of just improvising. His dragon could only roar out demonic flames and not the real deal as Drahon.

Devon's was just as efficient as Drahon's, but right now, they would need both.

From the players' calculations (more like from Vanyra and Devon's calculations), this was all of the remaining skeleton monsters in one place, and that meant that the game mechanics would want to make it more harder for them.

Above the ground was windy, and soon it'll be more than that, making them to be on their feet. The skeleton monsters also came in different shapes and sizes, as they could see tall ones, large ones, average-heighted ones, and even dwarfed ones, making this patch appear more sophisticated.

Devon sent demonic fire from the mouth of his dragon, instantly reducing five players to ash.

The Demonic Roar skill was a completely different skill on its own—perhaps new, as Devon hadn't used it earlier.

Or perhaps he simply upgraded it.

The other skeleton monsters became furious from the roar that killed five of their types, and they roared back with the same energy, staggering the players in the air.

Their roars were equally as fierce as that of Devon's. It even had the same energy, the raw brutality with it.

The only true difference was that theirs had no fire; if not, the players would have been roasted.

The brutality of the skeleton monsters came as a big shock, and it startled. Perhaps if Drahon was here, it would have been less taxing than it was now.

They needed something brutal.

Something that would roar and melt these skeleton monsters. Devon's dragon, which might have seemed OP with many skills at this point, was was not enough.

The monsters were many, and…, they just seemed too powerful. If Drahon was present, this would have seemed pretty simple, as Devon and Drahon usually worked together to take down these monsters. If he was here, the duo might have done a combo.

Frankly, Drahon had been the main factor the other players were able to progress as…, they were…, well…, pretty useless.

Overwhelmed, Devon looked at the other players. Their dragons were weak against the monsters, and since it was the last battle with them, the skeleton monsters were giving it their all.

Almost giving hope, the players heard the distant flapping of wings, one so loud it sounded like it was from a dragon. The instant the noise came, a burst of dust followed, rolling across the battlefield.