No matter how much Ilarode wracked his brains, he could never have guessed that Theresa was a witch born from a cluster of nearly transparent and intricate optical instruments; she was not a human spellcaster at all, and all radiant damage was completely ineffective against her!
Just like Sephera is immune to all toxins, and Ekta is immune to all flames, she too is immune to all radiant damage!
So this time, Ilarode’s spellcasting hadn’t harmed her at all—on the contrary, it awakened her senses to the true source of danger!
Sensing the aggressor’s position, Theresa’s brows furrowed as she turned to look, and in an instant realized who was targeting her.
It was a druid clad in a colorful feathered bird robe, his spellcasting abilities so formidable that even Theresa felt a hint of threat. Watching the opponent’s spellcasting motions, she immediately determined his identity.
Nidalee’s father, leader of the Mountaineer tribe, the only Archdruid in these mountains: Ilarode!
But not impossible to handle!
Normally, under these circumstances, asking Theresa to simultaneously hold off a creature of the elements with a challenge rating possibly equal to her own, and defend against the harassment of a max-level spellcaster, would be impossible for anyone.
But this elemental creature was at a disadvantageous location for it and could not attack her in the sky.
And the max-level spellcaster was still just a druid—a Circle of the Land druid skilled in maintaining natural balance, but not especially adept at true combat.
That changes everything about this battle.
She had already firmly anchored the Earth Dragon’s hatred. As long as she avoided being caught by a sand-formed giant hand, she considered her mission complete.
Thus, she could now focus even more attention on her duel with Ilarode!
For witches, the disadvantage is that their spell list isn’t broad, and it’s difficult to learn spells outside their specialty; however, their greatest advantage is an enormous mana pool!
So instead of clashing with Ilarode in some complicated spell duel—he was, after all, a max-level Archdruid, with countless tricks she couldn’t predict—her job was to unleash continuous pressure with her vast mana, overwhelming him with absolute firepower and forcing him to spend all his energy defending!
So next, she pivoted and unleashed a torrent of guiding bolts at Ilarode. And perhaps because he had no intention to fight to the death with her, Ilarode fell into a completely defensive stance, desperately shielding himself instead of attacking back.
This resulted in a bizarre spectacle: Theresa, like a massive living beacon, soared in the sky, dragging the Earth Dragon back and forth like a leashed beast while simultaneously bombarding Ilarode from afar with overwhelming magical firepower. From a distance, it almost looked like she was fighting—and pressing—both of them at once! ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ 𝓷𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓵✶𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕖✶𝓷𝓮𝓽
After his eyes adjusted from the blinding light, Charles saw exactly this scene. Even though he’d long known Theresa’s true might, now that he saw her in real combat, in the real world, he could not help but feel awestruck.
An archwitch—truly the thickest thigh in the game’s early-to-mid phase...
As he was thinking this, Nidalee also glanced that way. She faintly sensed that the one dueling Theresa was none other than her own father.
A storm of emotions churned in her heart. She had done everything to avoid this day, but fate brought it all the same.
Fortunately, at this moment, because of the distance, she did not need to confront her father face-to-face.
At the same time, she had already found an appropriate scapegoat for this father-daughter conflict.
Torun—this is all your fault!
She silently cursed that toad who dreamt of courting a swan. Then Nidalee patted Charles on the shoulder: "Let’s go, Priest, let’s pull the Earth Dragon’s attention this way!"
"Got it!" Charles replied, falling in step with her, weaving through the chaos of the small town and circling around to the side.
"Let’s start drawing its attention from here, Master," Nidalee suddenly said. With Anno not present, her address immediately reverted to her usual habit. "The trap we set up is just ahead—a deep pit. We’ll start from here, pull its aggro this way, and once we’ve got it, we run around to the far side."
As she spoke, she raised her hand, tracing a circle with her fingertip to indicate the route, and pointed out the most critical turn.
Charles nodded, then turned to gaze at the distant Earth Dragon, eyes narrowing, "Can you really throw your spear that far?"
Nidalee thought for a moment, drew a light crossbow from her back, and said, "Actually, I could just use arrows. The power is limited though, and it probably won’t really hurt it."
After all, this was a colossal element creature. It didn’t need Stoneskin—its hide alone was solid rock. Ordinary weapons couldn’t hope to hurt it—you needed magic.
Charles had wanted to save his spell slots, but seeing Nidalee’s pitiful light crossbow, he sighed quietly: "Never mind, let me boost your power."
He placed his hand over hers: "Elemental Weapon!"
This time, he chose thunder.
Thunder is, essentially, vibration—a force with particular effects against Earth elementals: it breaks apart those rock-like scales on the Earth Dragon’s hide, dealing extra harm.
Not only that, the sheer noise was enough to attract the Earth Dragon’s attention for sure.
"All right." No time to fret about dwindling spell slots, Charles drew his hand back, face set. "Let’s begin!"
Even as he spoke, Nidalee raised her light crossbow, let fly a magically-empowered bolt, and Charles began his incantation, launching four thick Eldritch Blasts in quick succession—
The magical beams reached slightly faster than the crossbow bolt, striking the Earth Dragon and kicking up clouds of stony dust, but to a creature that size, the hits meant little.
But Nidalee’s enchanted arrow landed, and there was a thunderous explosion!
The shockwave was so fierce that even the ground underfoot trembled. Truthfully, the attack probably wasn’t as powerful as a single Eldritch Blast from Charles, but "thunder," by its nature, carried immense force!
Instantly, the Earth Dragon’s attention whipped around. Its massive head turned, crimson eyes fixing on Nidalee and Charles. With a guttural roar, it lumbered into a full charge!
Each of its four legs was over a meter thick; the whole body must weigh hundreds of tons. When it moved, the ground shook as if hundreds of elephants were stampeding!
Dust boiled into the air, the earth shaking madly. Charles was astonished—he hadn’t thought the effect would be quite so dramatic.
But of course—this wasn’t a game; you didn’t need to hit a specific damage threshold to draw aggro.
Just make enough noise—that was enough!
"Well done, Nidalee!" he called in admiration, giving her a playful pat on the butt. "Lead the way, let’s run for it!"
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