Sun Dragon and Glowing Sun

'If you think the second portal is bad enough, you might wanna look up,' said Magnus 2.0.

Magnus knew his copy had been keenly watching TJ's and Summer's POV the whole time. Apparently, he just suddenly noticed the shift on Summer's POV when the girl felt an immense amount of light element mana radiating from above. As soon as she looked up, her view was transmitted to her POV, allowing Magnus 2.0 to see what she saw.

But before Magnus could look up, a heavy flap of giant wings was heard as a bone-shaking roar erupted from the sky, freezing everyone on the spot. Even the rioters halted their advance.

As the wings beat in a steady rhythm, Magnus cursed as he knew, even without looking, what sort of creature had popped out of the third portal. Nevertheless, he lifted his head. And there he saw it, hovering in the air and staring down arrogantly—like the ruler of the sky it was—at the mortals below it, was a dragon.

A literal fucking dragon! A Sun Dragon, to be specific.

However, that was not the worst of it all. The Sun Dragon's golden scales were coated with a blinding layer of white-and-orange glow. Its eyes radiated the same lights, filling up the eye sockets and completely covering the pupils and sclera. Pretty much how that poor guy's eyes looked like when Scoville Descended.

In other words, it was yet another god's Descent. And boy, was that bastard a clever one. Turning a monster into a Protagonist just so he could Descend? Nothing Magnus hadn't heard of, but definitely a wasteful move on the god's part, as he must've paid a hefty price not only to put the dragon's portal there, but also to Descend into the body of a mighty beast.

Supposedly, Descending cost a lot of AP. Magnus wasn't a hundred percent sure of it, as he wasn't a god. But there must be a reason why the gods wouldn't Descend willy-nilly, other than the fact they would risk injuring a portion of their soul in case their vessel died.

Magnus would even bet that this Descended god had forsaken his chances to select a lot of Protagonists for the sake of using the giant flying lizard as his vessel. He must be the god currently with the least number of Protagonists.

There was also a reason why the gods felt repelled from selecting monsters as Protagonists. Monsters were dumb, after all. They couldn't be tempted with rewards to complete Objectives, nor could their actions be controlled using complex emotions that would normally motivate more intelligent beings. The most they could feel were primal instincts that were not very enjoyable to watch.

Evidently, this god didn't care about any of that.

And that white-and-orange glow? Magnus only knew of one god associated with the two colors: Dazhbog.

Magnus was torn. Should he lure the god-dragon away and battle him elsewhere, like how it had gone with Scoville? Facing the monster here could endanger his family and friends, not to mention they were already occupied with battling the ammit. Thankfully, the number of harpies had dwindled by a lot and there were now only two injured ones flying around.

Or should he stay here in case someone needed his help right away? By now, the thought of disappointing The Viewers by interfering had flown out the window. He didn't care anymore. Besides, if the gods were targeting him, it was only fair if he fought back, right? He was still a Protagonist, after all.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?" screamed The Mad King.

Apparently, his god and Dazhbog hadn't come into an agreement. Perhaps both were trying to compete who would be able to take out Magnus first.

The masked Protagonist suddenly jerked his head, seemingly surprised at a system message popping up in front of him. He took a few seconds to read the content.

In the meantime, Dazhbog already made his move. He opened his giant maws; white flames could be seen flickering from the depth of his mouth. He was about to breathe out a combination of fire and light element—something that would normally be beneficial to purify toxins and darkness element, but in enormous amount could overload a living being's body and disintegrate their cells.

Magnus was ready to tank the attack with [Frontier] in his hands and a thicker layer of [Unbreakable] shielding his entire body. During the time Dazhbog was casting his fire breath, Magnus 2.0 had already instructed the others to get away and lure the ammit further from the range of the dragon's attacks.

The white flames skill was soon done charging and was then fired in Magnus' direction. Or rather, it was about to be.

Just before Dazhbog managed to breathe out the flames, a shout was heard from another direction.

"ATTACK!"

The Mad King had yelled out his order. His twenty or so Team members hesitated at first, but when one idiot dove headfirst in Magnus' direction, the others screamed their lungs out and followed suit like a bunch of sheep.

Seeing the interruption, Dazhbog was visibly annoyed. He decided to redirect his fire breath toward the screaming mass of idiocy. They all died in less than five seconds.

Magnus wasn't completely exempted from the attack, though. The Mad King's minions were already on their way to where he stood, after all. Therefore, he still had to bear with the immense heat and some stray flames licking his white barrier.

'Further! Further!' Magnus could hear his copy shouting in the Protagonist group call. He was trying to tell the others to take their battle against the ammit even further away from Magnus' location.

As the white flames dissipated, not even the ashes of the once scary-looking 'demons' were spared. The light element had erased everything completely.

The Mad King froze for a moment, before a muffled bellow escaped his mask. Magnus could see his body twitching, seemingly fighting against an unknown force assaulting his mind. That must be his Author narrating something. After a few seconds, the man stopped twitching. He suddenly let out a crazy laugh as he charged forward, his raised hand producing a spike made of lightning.

However, he didn't go far. Dazhbog huffed before he swung his scaly giant tail at The Mad King. The man was swatted away like a helpless fly. And just like that, his career as a Protagonist ended prematurely.

'I bet the god who selected him is now furious,' Magnus thought.

Now, it was just Magnus and the Dazhbog-possessed Sun Dragon, facing off against each other.

'Should I buy myself time like before? How long can a dragon withstand a god's soul? Does it even get affected at all? It's a freaking dragon, after all.'

---

Summer struggled to control her breathing. She had been the first one to witness the arrival of the dragon. And in the span of less than two minutes after that, the dragon had totally wiped out a group of humans and their leader. Even though she was already pretty far away from the scene, what had taken place did not escape her widened eyes. It was a sight she would most likely never forget for the rest of her life.

If she would live after all of this, that was.

'Babe, calm down,' she could hear Magnus' voice in her head. It was actually Magnus 2.0's voice, but of course she had no way to know that. 'You still have enough Mana to sustain everyone. You're gonna be okay. We all are.'

Summer took a deep breath. Her boyfriend was right; everyone depended on her to survive. She needed to pull herself together.

Up ahead, the ammit was constantly firing acidic black goo out of its mouth while defending against the onslaught of various spells. At the same time, those with defense skills were focused on casting spell after spell to protect the ones responsible for offense.

Nikolai activated his [Giant's Stomp] boots and stomped the ground. He controlled the direction of his mana so it only targeted the monster. The asphalt created cracks that snaked toward the feet of the ammit. An isolated earthquake shook the ground beneath its hippopotamus-lion hybrid legs, causing it to lose balance. It abruptly cancelled its skill to regain its footing. But in the meantime, it had received simultaneous attacks from Katja, Matt, Garrett, and Owen. Even so, it only let out a pained growl without seemingly nearing the end of its life. The monster must have a large Health pool.

The ammit was about to fire more black goo out of its crocodile mouth before it stumbled again. It looked down and noticed thick mud reaching its ankles, its thick substance creating waves and making the monster struggle to remain afoot.

Summer glanced at the one casting the skill; Gina had apparently casted the tower shield's active skill, [Mud Mayhem].

The monster was starting to get pissed as it tried its best not to fall over. It suddenly decided to cancel its black goo skill and pointed its protruding mouth at the sky. At the same time, tiny droplets the same color as the black goo materialized in the air above the area. The others' positions were quite spread out, so the circle of the spell didn't reach a few who stood out of its range. Still, it looked like many people were about to get hit by whatever form of attack it was.

'Summer, it's an acid rain skill!' said Magnus 2.0 through the Protagonist call. 'That monster has affinities to water and darkness, so its magic skills are all composed of those elements. That acid rain is an area of effect skill, so it'll be tricky to defend against it. Tell everyone to huddle up and get my mom to cast a hollowed version of [Bubble] around all of you. After that, try to imbue you light element mana into her water—'

'No. There's no time for such a method,' Summer cut him off. Her eyes were observing the black water droplets growing in numbers above, but her mind was replaying the scene where the dragon breathed out a stream of white flames and her boyfriend's white barrier covering his body like a bubble made of light. 'But I think I know what to do.'

"Everyone, gather around me!" she commanded.

Immediately, they did as she said. However, there was an apprehensive look on their faces. They didn't know what she was up to, so they were already preparing their own skill they could use to defend themselves against the incoming attack.

However, they soon felt a familiar sense of invigoration as a layer of light element mana emanated from Summer's raised palms and began to surround them. The light then took the shape of a dome, inspired by Magnus' [Unbreakable].

"Everyone, close your eyes!"

Just as the acid rain started pouring down from the sky, Summer increased her mana output by tenfold, causing the dome of light to brighten instantly. The light was so bright it was almost blinding. Fortunately, everyone did as Summer had instructed and covered their eyes. After that, it was if it just started to rain. They felt water dropping on their heads and soaking their clothes.

However, it was just regular water. It turns out that Summer's dome of light managed to purify the water droplets that had previously been contaminated by darkness element, making it acidic.

Seeing all that happening, Magnus 2.0 was rendered speechless. He couldn't have imagined that his girlfriend would come up with a new skill in the middle of a battle. And in the face of an imminent attack, to boot.

From the outside, the dome of light shone so brightly it resembled a sun. And the system message that popped up before Summer's eyes revealed an appropriate name.

[Congratulations! You just learned a skill!

Skill Name: Glowing Sun

Description: Uses an intensified light element mana to instantly purify an area within a certain radius.

Mana Cost: 10 points/second

Cooldown: None.]