Chapter 585 - Floor 12 - Clarent's Might

Suppressing his vile thoughts, Draco then checked the floor-specific rankings as well as the overall one just out of habit.

1st – Draco Morningstar: 15,000 Points.

2nd – Gavin Guy: 233 Points.

3rd – Dorothy Keel: 231 Points.

4th – James Luster: 229 Points.

5th – Mandingo: 209 Points.

6th – God's Son: 201 Points.

7th – Dark Lord: 198 Points.

8th – King's Return: 194 Points.

9th – Helia Nuer: 191 Points.

10th – Makinsser: 188 Points.

Whew, the performance of the others had been truly trash. Unlike Draco, they didn't even have to deal with Sentinels, probably just some other powerful, large species with plenty HP. Nevertheless, when one compared the fight he had just gone through with what they had endured, the gap between both parties was obvious.

1st – Draco: 12th floor, 108,350 Points.

2nd – Gavin Guy: 71st Floor, 102,000 Points.

3rd – Dorothy Keel: 71st Floor, 101,500 Points.

4th – James Luster: 71st Floor, 100,000 Points.

5th – Mandingo: 70th Floor, 96,000 Points.

6th – God's Son: 70th Floor, 94,700 Points.

7th – Dark Lord: 69th Floor, 92,300 Points.

8th – King's Return: 69th Floor, 91,010 Points.

9th – Helia Nuer: 69th Floor, 90,200 Points.

10th – Makinsser: 69th Floor, 88,230 Points.

Draco decided that after this floor, he would no longer check the floor-specific rankings nor the overall rankings. There simply was no point in seeing the same thing over and over again, and comparing himself to the rest was practically an insult to his skill and stature.

Draco couldn't help it, he used his Eyes of Caelo to view the current situations of the top 3. He at least was interested in getting a good look at their reactions after being surpassed by him with a 60-floor difference, as he was sure they would be monitoring his movements through the rankings.

Lo and behold, all three reacted vehemently, each one in their own way.

Gavin Guy was currently kneeling in his courtyard, roaring to the heavens about unfairness. He sounded like someone who had just lost his comrade in battle and was letting out a cry of pain and loss.

Very delectable, ken ken.

Dorothy was currently dressed in some teddy bear print PJ's and was crying into her pillow while throwing a tantrum. She was flinging her sheets and kicking her various dollies around, much to the distress of her female subordinates who could only look on with pity, questioning whether she was really the same person they used to look up to.

Absolutely wonderful, zhie zhie.

As for James Luster…

A sound that would break the hearts of all people seemed to be playing in the background as he lifelessly gazed at the rope he had just tied and connected to his ceiling. He then climbed the chair and was about to put it around his neck before one of his subordinates burst into the room and knocked it away.

Just scrumptious, kyek kyek.

Draco was like a connoisseur of wine as he displayed an expression of enjoyment. The thick despair and hatred in the hearts of these three were just too intoxicating. Truly, he now understood why his Big Sis Sublime loved causing despair!

For a brief moment, he even contemplated giving her some time off, so she could partake in her favorite pastime...

After having enjoyed the show, he decided to move onto the next floor. He was still interested in clearing the tower as soon as possible now that he had a definite goal for climbing it.

Arriving on the 12th floor, his entire group had been spawned alongside with him. Draco noticed that instead of a battlefield, they were riding among a group of warriors who had solemn expressions on their faces.

They were in a small town, and the people seemed to be being evacuated as wagons came in and out to pick them up. There was a sense of urgency in the entire operation, and Draco noticed they were sidelined.

Soon, the earth tremored once more, making the face of everyone here change simultaneously. The urgency that had been present before became crazed as a stampede looked like it was about to erupt.

At this time, the floor's details came up.

｢The Twelfth Floor – Divine Quest

Description: After your debut battle against the powerful Strength Sentinel, you have proven to the remaining mortals of Darion that you just might be the one to lead them out of their dire situation. As such, you have been promoted to General of the Militia and sent on a mission to evacuate some settlements that still exist outside of the safe zone set up by the remaining kingdoms.

As you are in the yellow area (minor Sentinel presence), you may be attacked at any time. Ensure the survival of at least 30% of humans and 50% of your squad.

Limitation 1: Enemies are limited to within your Rank.

Limitation 2: You may retreat from the floor at any time, but upon re-entry, you would have to resume from the exact situation you were in at the time.

Provision 1: Every 5% of HP removed from the Colossus allows you to gain one level regardless of your current Rank or experience requirements.

Provision 2: You have full use of all your powers and abilities in the same way as you would outside.

Rewards: Score Points, 1 Bronze-Tier Reward Selection.｣

Draco smiled, as this one was quite simple. He first snapped his fingers, casting a calming spell on all the people here which made them stop their hustle as their minds sobered up.

Why are we running? Isn't the Chosen One here? Couldn't they deal with any problem while we orderly move out? After all, stampeding like this would only make things worse.

Emotions were a blessing and a curse. Once they overwhelmed a sapient species, they would begin to perform actions bereft of all logic, but once their head cleared and logic returned, the right answer was so clear to them.

"Zaine and Roma, you guys lead the evacuation. Eva and Hikari, please heal and strengthen all the humans here. Qiong Qi, Clarent, let's move out and hold off whatever enemy is on their way." Draco commanded with a smile.

The others nodded and split up, though they could easily do everything at once. All this was just to ensure that they get that perfect score without a margin of error, so Draco and his two pals flew towards the sound of the tremor.

When Draco and his two pals went forward, they saw three Sentinels lumbering over. These were only about the size of a small skyscraper, which was nothing compared to the Strength Sentinel.

However, these ones were much more agile and faster, even able to sprint for short distances as they came over.

｢Name: Agility Sentinel – Colonel Rank monster

Level: 150

HP: 50,000,000/50,000,000｣

Draco nodded. Since these were Agility Sentinels, it made sense that they had less HP since their sizes and defenses were weaker. At 50 million HP, they would be far easier for him to kill with his current power.

He was curious as to how quick they were to have lost so much HP though. As such, he took out his Hawkeye Bow and Phoenix Cry Arrow. From the current distance of over 3 kilometers between two parties, a normal archer could never make the shot.

However, Draco was not included in such calculations.

Bow Skill 10: Overlord Arrow!

Worldly Energy was dragged from the atmosphere and into the Phoenix Cry Arrow, which began to glow with a resplendent light. To Draco's shock, the arrow burst into flames spontaneously, and an image of a fiery Phoenix appeared above the arrow's tip.

It keened into the sky, then opened its mouth and took over the absorption of Worldly Energy. The amount it swallowed was just slightly less than what Draco did as the Phoenix race were number 4 on the State of Being Ranking.

When Draco normally used Worldly Energy or the like, he combined his Void of Perfection, Dragon State of Being, and Cause and Effect Theory. This was why he could do such a crazy thing with Subjective Magic and various techniques as well as bloodline abilities within the game.

Still, the Phoenix began to become more corporeal and grew in size as it absorbed more energy, but it would clearly need time to saturate itself. The Agility Sentinels seemed to be able to notice that something was wrong and began sprint crazily towards Draco.

Fast!

Draco was shocked at how fast such huge things could move. They were tearing up the land with their impeccable running forms and fast-moving legs that left a slight blur as they moved.

At this rate, the 3 km distance would be covered in a mere 5 seconds! Truly, Agility Sentinels deserved their name!

Clarent saw this and sneered. He blasted forward using an explosion of flame jettisoned from behind his wings as he cast his Fireball skill.

｢Fireball – Ability

Effect: Shoot a ball of fire at a target within 5000 yards. This deals 75% fire damage.

Cooldown: 0.5 seconds.｣

The mere Fireball spell that everyone used as an entry-level attack for the fire element had become even more powerful in the hand of a true Fire dragon. Unlike typical fireballs spells still limited at dealing 15% fire damage to a target within 50 yards and had a cooldown of 7 seconds, Clarent's version was on the level of a semi-automatic fire spitter!

Not to mention, the typical fireball was quite sizable for sure, but would only be about three times the size of a football. His though, was about the size of a cargo helicopter and burned like a small sun!

The three Agility Sentinels were shocked by this attack and split up to avoid it. Since the distance between them was quite large and they were - as their unoriginal name obviously pointed out - quite agile, allowing them to dodge it with ease.

Clarent simply laughed and spat out another fireball once the short cooldown elapsed. Now, half a second was still quite a bit of time since it would only take these enemies about 5 seconds total to reach Draco.

However, Clarent had a special passive skill that assisted him in using his abilities.

｢Fire Affinity – Trait

Effect: As a pureblooded Fire Dragon, your affinity with the element of fire is the strongest among all races in the universe. As such, all cooldowns for fire-related skills and spells are reduced by 30%.｣

It was something he had gained once Draco, and therefore him as his Combat Pet, had reached Rank 3, and it proved useful since many of his abilities had significant cooldowns. However, it was even more useful in making attacks like fireball even more accessible.

What should have been a 30-second cooldown now only took 21 seconds, allowing him to almost fire three times a minute instead of twice. Using this, he deftly shot his flames in a way that forced one of the sentinels to face it head-on.

After all, even if they could dart about to dodge them, they were also running forward at full speed and generally getting closer to Clarent himself.

The Agility Sentinel that was forced to take the attack simply crossed its arms before it and prepared to rush through. However, Clarent displayed a toothy grin as the fireball collided with the colossus, exploding in a huge mushroom cloud and sending the monster flying back and crashing into the land, digging a huge furrow.

The other two were shocked by this and stopped their charge to look back. They knew that while that fireball had been large, it was only about 1/3rd their body size and should not be that effective.

However, this was where Clarent's other passive came into play.

｢Dragon's Fire – Trait

Effect: 300% to all fire damage.｣

Sure, one of those fireballs was not enough to blow the sentinel away, but what if Clarent had fired three of the same thing at once? And more importantly, what if three of them combined into one?

Well, this was the answer. Since its power was tripled, its force and explosive shockwave also tripled, becoming enough to yield such an effect.

-12,173,000!

The damage value was also something that left the Sentinels horrified, and even Draco was stunned while he was still charging up his shot. He could remember back when they were clearing the Outer Section of the Treasury, and Clarent's damage had been so low that he had to often assist the Dragon to finish his battles.

From a Rank 1 weakling, Clarent had matured into a true powerhouse... and that wasn't even his final form!

This had to do with two main aspects. The first was this designation as a Combat Pet, not an offensive mount. The Combat Pet system in Boundless was different. Similar to mounts, they did not gain experience and only grew with each Rank their master climbed.

However, unlike mounts, they could be revived indefinitely upon death after paying a price in experience and also grew much greater with each level. Their stats grew according to the race and rarity, so Clarent as a Divine Fire Dragon gained 100 stats in each category per Rank Up.

At Rank 1, he had 50 in all stats, but at Rank 3 he now had 250 stats in all points, even higher than Draco and Eva. It was no wonder when accounting for his various passives that boosted his power that his damage was so high.

One should remember, Fireball was his most basic ability! He still had many others that were much more powerful and dangerous!

Combat Pets were limited in the sense that apart from abilities, they couldn't use anything else. They had no auto-attack or the like, because they were essentially only meant to support their master.

This was why Clarent gained many more abilities and traits with every Rank Up compared to an offensive mount like Sheera.

As for being a Dragon, the benefit of this was obvious. Of course, not all Combat Pets would gain 100 stats per Rank Up and not so uniformly too. Only the #3 in the State of Being Ranking could grow like that, and the high quality of his learned traits and abilities were also reflected from his racial heritage.

Clarent was hands down the most powerful Combat Pet in Boundless over the course of both timelines. Once he reached Rank 7, his power would be too great to even fathom if he kept growing like this.

Clarent was not done yet. His eyes glowed with a fiery blaze as he roared and waved his claw. Immediately, the Three Agility Sentinels felt the aura of death come upon them, and they tried to create even more distance between themselves.

However, it was utterly futile in this case.

｢Flame Explosion – Ability

Effect: Cause a huge explosion in an area of 100 miles. This deals 500% fire damage.

Cooldown: 10 minutes.｣

A huge explosion of fire as if someone had detonated a powerful explosive occurred in the area starting from where the fallen Agility Sentinel was and spread out to cover the entire area.

Qiong Qi and Draco were unbothered thanks to the friendly fire thing, and Clarent would obviously not be affected. As a Divine Fire Dragon, he long gained full immunity to the fire element.

The Sentinels could not argue the same. The first Agility Sentinel had been essentially blown into pieces, its body parties flung all over the area. The other two were blasted apart so far that they were almost out of eyesight even with their sizes.

They too crashed into the earth and dug long furrows from kilometers one and before coming to a stop, their blackened bodies twitching with agony.

-42,340,000!

The first Sentinel had taken more than 100 million damage, but the other two were quite far apart and so took less, which left them with a sliver of life. Clarent puffed out a bit of smoke in annoyance that he had failed to one-shot them.

Qiong Qi - who was on his back - was cheering, having found a cheerleader outfit somewhere, and was giving endless praise to Clarent, making the lizard fellow extremely smug.

Draco noticed that the Phoenix on the arrow was just about done, so he warned Clarent and Qiong Qi to vacate the area. Now, the Phoenix had grown life-sized and opened its eyes, a burning light of sentience shining in them.

It turned back to gaze at Draco and seemed to size him up then nodded with satisfaction. It keened once more before flying around him three times, then entering the arrow that was still set ablaze.

This time, it formed a mark of a Phoenix on the shaft which was extremely lifelike. In fact, Draco saw it pulse with Fire Energy and its eyes even moved about slightly as if it was observing the outside world.

Draco then let go of the arrow since the technique had been overloaded anyway, and it soared out at shocking speeds, breaking through the sound barrier. It tore through the air faster than the eye could follow and rushed towards one of the incapacitated Agility Sentinels.

It could barely cry out in fear in its half-conscious state as it knew death was upon it, but there was nothing it could do. The arrow pierced through its chest, then exploded with a huge shockwave that was nothing like what Clarent had done.

It was so large and intense that Draco knew it would affect the settlement a few kilometers behind them, so he used his Subjective Magic to try and form a barrier to keep the shockwave out of this direction.

The form of a Phoenix appeared above the fiery mushroom cloud and screeched once more, before disappearing. The arrow them returned to Draco's hand immediately, and he noticed that the Phoenix mark on it had not disappeared, yet had weakened considerably.

Clarent and Qiong Qi were fine from the explosion, but Draco had to create more than 5 barriers to negate the remnant shockwave until what came was hardly enough to deal any real damage.

It would probably just knock over one or two people, which would just be their loss.

As for the other Sentinel that had been in another ditch at the other side, the shockwave had naturally torn it apart even if it was lucky to avoid obliteration through the blaze.

A flow of power rushed over from the locations of the three dead Sentinels - or rather where they had initially died - granting them their just rewards.

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