But things were different now. To the Blazing Black Dragon, these humans weren't just random insects. They were pests brought into its home by the very creature that had humiliated and trapped it.
To Alatreon, it was as if a cockroach had broken into its house, beaten it up, and then dumped a whole nest of baby cockroaches on the floor.
The dragon's throat began to glow a violent orange. It was going to wipe them out from a distance with another devastating fireball.
But before the beast could unleash its breath, a flurry of white flashes filled the air.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Fern was the first to act. The moment she saw the glow in the monster's throat, she raised her staff. A rapid-fire barrage of basic offensive magic, Zoltraak, rained down on the dragon's face.
It fired like a machine gun, splashing against the dragon's eyes and snout. The dense cluster of blinding white light completely robbed the monster of its vision.
Unable to see its targets and interrupted mid-breath, Alatreon was forced to release the fireball blindly. The massive sphere of flames sailed far off course, crashing harmlessly into a distant, empty section of the volcanic rock.
"Something is wrong," Fern muttered, keeping up her rapid-fire assault.
A warrior could judge the hardness of a shield by the shock traveling up their sword. A mage could do the same with their spells. When her magic struck the dragon, Fern felt no "impact." It didn't push the beast back. It didn't pierce the scales. It felt like she was splashing buckets of water against a solid steel wall.
The monster was terrifyingly sturdy. Just looking at it made Fern feel a deep sense of helplessness.
However, her cover fire was far from useless. While the dragon was blinded, the other elite mages didn't just stand around. They immediately sprang into action.
With Fern suppressing its vision, the mages scattered, forming a wide perimeter.
Suddenly, the volcanic ground beneath the dragon began to shift. Earth mages slammed their staffs into the rock. Massive, jagged spikes of stone erupted from the floor. While the spikes couldn't pierce the dragon's thick, reverse-growing scales, they angled upward, crossing over each other to form heavy, rocky shackles. The stone pillars clamped tightly around Alatreon's four limbs, pinning the beast in place.
At the same time, a mage with white hair locked his intense gaze onto the monster's head.
"Got you."
Two glowing, golden rings materialized out of thin air, wrapping tightly around the dragon's body. It was a binding spell that paralyzed anyone captured in the caster's line of sight. He poured his mana into the rings, locking the struggling beast down.
"Now! Hit it with everything!"
The rest of the mages unleashed a chaotic storm of magic. Lightning, wind blades, explosive fire, and beams of pure mana slammed into the trapped dragon from all sides. The deafening roar of explosions echoed through the crater, kicking up a massive cloud of smoke and debris.
It was a beautiful display of teamwork. Everyone knew exactly what role to play.
High above the arena, floating completely unseen, Stell watched the fireworks.
She hadn't left. She was hovering right above the battlefield, cloaked in optical camouflage with her mana and heat signatures completely masked. To the world, she was a ghost.
She had hidden herself for a very logical reason: aggro management. If she had stayed visible, the dragon, driven by a grudge, would have focused entirely on her. It would have ignored the candidates completely, making the exam pointless.
Analysis: Their coordination is excellent, Stell noted, watching the barrage. However...
Conclusion: If they do not discover the underlying mechanic, their probability of victory is 0%.
My creation, Alatreon, was not a simple monster that could be beaten with raw, mindless damage.
...
Down below, half a minute into the bombardment, some mages paused to catch their breath. The heavy hitters continued to pour magic into the smoke, hoping to end the fight in one overwhelming push.
Frieren was among the attackers, but she wasn't exhausting herself. She fired moderate, measured spells, saving her mana while carefully observing the monster's reactions through the smoke.
She was the most experienced mage in the group, and she knew Stell better than anyone else here.
Stell wouldn't create an impossible test, Frieren thought, hovering gently in the hot air. There has to be a trick to this monster. A weakness.
She flew in a wide circle around the trapped beast, studying it from different angles.
The dragon was still pinned by the stone pillars and the golden rings. The mages were throwing everything they had at it. Yet, as the smoke shifted, Frieren noticed something troubling.
The dragon's dark, purple-black scales were covered in soot and dust, but they weren't cracked. They weren't broken.
Is it completely unharmed? she wondered. Does it have absolute magic resistance, like a Crimson Mirror Dragon?
No. That didn't make sense. Stell was strict, but she was fair. An immune monster would just be an execution.
Frieren flew to the other side of the beast, narrowing her eyes. Finally, she spotted it.
On a small section of the dragon's flank, the scales were slightly chipped.
What caused that?
Just as she asked herself the question, a stray spear of ice magic, cast by a mage below, grazed that exact spot. The moment the ice made contact with the dragon, the scales cracked further, and the beast let out a low, pained rumble.
A lightbulb went off in Frieren's ancient mind.
I see. The dragon is currently radiating intense heat. It uses fire. Therefore...
Having figured out the core mechanic of the trial, Frieren immediately flew away from the group, stopping directly above the struggling dragon.
She raised her staff. A massive, complex magic circle bloomed beneath her feet.
Instantly, pure, biting white cold invaded the scorching red arena. A fierce blizzard erupted from Frieren's magic circle, washing over the beast below. In the sky above the dragon, massive, irregular boulders of solid ice, each dozens of meters wide, began to form out of thin air.
Frieren had found the weakness, and she was preparing to deliver a fatal, elemental blow.
Down on the ground, the mages shivered as the temperature plummeted.
"Hey, is it just me, or is it getting really cold?"
"Of course it is! Look up! Someone is casting a massive blizzard!"
Sensing the overwhelming, freezing mana forming above it, Alatreon looked up.
SKREEEEEEEEONGK!!!
….
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