[Ouroboros' End]
Only relaxing once he was sure that the aura user was dead, Darganth dispelled the form-tight aura avatar around himself and breathed a sigh of relief. Though they had won, the fight had been far more difficult than he had expected. Especially the aura user's final technique was something that was well into the uppermost percentile among all techniques he has ever encountered. The only thing holding it back had been its user, with the smuggler's hesitancy to use it combined with his merely average mana reserves being his downfall.
Had he used it from the beginning instead, Darganth wasn't sure whether he and Yldra would've managed to outlast him. Though their breath attacks could pierce the defense it provided, the only other thing he could think of to achieve that would've been to summon his spear from the void. However, that would've drained a significant portion of his reserves, reserves he wasn't sure he'd have if he had to fight against that technique for longer. Even now, when he had relied on his physique and his rather mana-efficient dragon's breath for most of the fight, it had cost him a third of his mana pool. Though much of that third was admittedly due to the lava he conjured and the at times excessive magical energy he funneled into his shields and barriers when he hadn't yet gotten a good gauge of the strength of the aura user's attacks.
At the same time as he was thinking about this, Darganth also started to wonder how Scalladras' battle was going. Though it had taken a few moments for the realization to set in, his mana sense wasn't alerting him to any clashes or the presence of the characteristic mana emissions that typically accompanied battle readiness in mana users.
Raising his head, Darganth quickly found the answer to this question. Floating a few kilometers away, roughly at the halfway point between where the battle had carried him and the wall, he observed the aftermath of the fight with his arms crossed. Meanwhile, there was no trace of the second smuggler, though going by the multiple square kilometers of scorched landscape, there was going to be little left of the mage.
Watching a smirk flash over Scalladras' lips as their gazes met, Darganth shook his head with a sigh as he flew toward him. And as he had expected after the grin, he was then greeted by the former's amused voice as he came to a stop a few dozen meters in front of the fire god, "Took you long enough."
"I wasn't in a hurry." Darganth responded as he transformed into a humanoid form to make the conversation more comfortable. "Didn't want to end the fun too quickly." He added with a smirk and a confidence that didn't at all fit his true thoughts on the fight, even if he had truly found it fun despite, or rather because, of its difficulty.
"And it looks like you didn't hold back when it comes to destruction. Did you try to create a volcano when you conjured that lava lake or why does it still expand?"
At the reminder, Darganth glanced back at the lava lake. During the fight he hadn't noticed it, but as he looked at it from afar, he couldn't help but agree with Scalladras' assessment. While the area his spell itself had covered wasn't all that much smaller than the area Scalladras had scorched during his own battle, apart from a few hills, there wasn't really anything to keep the lake of lava in place. And with his spell continuously conjuring a steady stream of new lava all the way until Darganth had dispelled it after the aura user's death, it had spread wildly in all directions and washed over the landscape.
"Well, it won't spread close enough to the wall to damage it, so it'll be fine." Darganth said with a shrug.
"No for a lack of trying." Scalladras added with a chuckle, prompting Darganth to roll his eyes.
"Are you, of all people, trying to lecture me on collateral damages? I still remember what happened back on Zeleum. As far as I remember we never told Vunreon the full story. Want me to change that?" Darganth asked with a mischievous grin.
Briefly freezing, Scalladras hesitated a moment before answering, "Forget that I said anything."
Hearing this, Darganth let out a light laugh as he turned to Yldra. Also having transformed into her humanoid form, she slowly floated up toward them, arriving at Darganth's right a few moments later.
"How's your wound?" He asked as she came to a stop.
"Bruised. These crystals hurt like nothing I've ever felt." Yldra replied, pulling the neckline of her shirt to the side to show the deep purple coloration that covered her skin from the neck to the shoulder. From what Darganth had seen of the hit, it likely also extended downward along her torso, with her chest and the rest of her torso all the way to below her ribs probably having a similar bruised appearance.
"Yeah, they're nasty. The spot where a volley got me on my back also still hurts and I had been far enough away that the lances didn't manage to rip off more than a few scales. Though Venrie should manage to get us fully healed in a few moments." Darganth said, empathizing with Yldra's situation.
"I know, and it's a blessing. Last time I tried to heal myself, I burned through an unbelievable amount of mana. So let's hope the fight on the wall was easier and we aren't delayed there."
Darganth nodded in agreement with Yldra's words. Both parts of what she said. The cost of healing magic scaled with the size of the wound, the power contained within the flesh that needs to be regrown, and the lingering magical effects of the attack that had inflicted the wound. Especially the second part was quite a problem for a dragon, though the fact that their large bodies drew more fire also resulted in a tendency for wounds to be rather large.
While the time element was a surprisingly mana-efficient way to heal larger injuries, especially considering its deserved reputation as a mana-intensive element, that cost doesn't scale in the same way as traditional healing spells do, so even reversing small wounds is costly. As such, using it was something Darganth wanted to avoid while they were still on the front lines. And with Venrie there to offer an alternative, it could be avoided.
Unlike him, she was at least partially specialized in using healing magic. And even if she hadn't been, just the fact that she used the magic specialization capabilities that the mythic rank grants mages to enhance her nature magic meant that she could cast its spells, including the rather large arsenal of healing spells this element offered, far more efficiently than Darganth. He had meanwhile focused his magic specialization on recreating the enhancements to his space and time magic he had developed before his rebirth. But as he didn't have endless amounts of time and excess magical energy available, this meant some other areas of his spell-casting were slightly neglected.
Thus, it was their luck that as they flew back toward the wall, they spotted Venrie already floating above the battlements. Below her, the walkways had almost completely cleared out as Melidra's undead had marched into the corridors that stretched throughout the wall. Venrie was meanwhile overlooking the last of the smugglers left on the section of the battlements they had captured, making sure none resisted as a dozen skeletons of higher stages of evolution placed them into chains. Once the section of the wall was secured, they would then be moved into the cells in the lower levels until the town's soldiers pushed far enough along the wall and took over the occupation of the section.
As Darganth came to a stop next to her, Venrie shifted her attention away from the prisoners and turned toward him. Greeting him with a smile, her eyebrow rose a moment later when she caught sight of Yldra over his shoulder.
"What happened?" Venrie asked with slight concern in her tone.
"One of the mythic ranks was stronger than expected and that took her by surprise." Darganth explained.
"I gathered as much. I meant to ask her what kind of recklessness caused her to get this wounded." Venrie clarified.
At this point, Yldra interjected with a smug grin, "None actually. A mistake, yes, but I wasn't overly reckless this time."
Venrie doubted that. Glancing at Darganth with a questioning look, she searched for confirmation. However, to her surprise, he nodded in agreement with Yldra. Briefly stunned, Venrie's amusement quickly melted off her face and was replaced with a seriousness that bordered on concern.
"And you still took your time coming here?" Venrie said.
At the same time, she was already reaching for Yldra with one arm, channeling a healing spell through her palm. Placing her hand onto the side of Yldra's neck a moment later, a green glow suffused the latter's skin as biomancy rapidly regenerated not just Yldra's transformed body, which would've only been a superficial fix as its natural state was a mirror of her true form's state, but all the way to her draconic form where the spell restored skin to an unblemished state and let new scales grow to replace those that had been ripped out. In a matter of moments, the injuries on Yldra's transformed form then also vanished, with Venrie's spell having fully healed her only half a minute later.
As she did this, Darganth turned his attention toward the situation on the battlements once more.
"Did Allaire and Alicia go into the lower floors?" He asked when he didn't find either woman atop the battlements.
"Alicia followed one of the mages down there and Allaire followed after her. No idea why though." Venrie said, splitting her focus between healing Yldra and talking with Darganth.
"They know what to do, so there will be some reason." Darganth answered, "But otherwise everything went as expected?"
"It did."
Nodding in satisfaction at Venrie's answer, Darganth turned his gaze into the distance. While some scatterings of undead filled the battlements for kilometers in both directions, the smugglers still dominated the area between their position and the town.
By then, word of their attack had also spread there. As such, that direction was filled with activity. When Darganth studied the smugglers there for a few moments, he quickly noticed that there were no mythic ranks present.
While this wasn't all that surprising, mythic ranks were rare after all, a part of him still felt disappointed by it. The prospect of sweeping across the wall with only fourth ranks and weaker foes as opposition didn't carry any excitement with it. Additionally, the likelihood that the smugglers would nonetheless try to resist would draw it out unnecessarily despite the fight being a foregone conclusion if no enemy mythic ranks arrive. All in all, this made it feel more like a chore than a victory to Darganth, so he didn't particularly look forward to this phase of their plan.
Taking his mind off this matter as his thoughts reached that point, Darganth's gaze drifted toward the nearest tower as another group of undead troops disappeared into the lower levels of the wall. Remembering that Alicia and Allaire were also down there, he decided to distract himself by exploring them.
Turning toward his three allies hovering next to him, he said, "I'll take a look at what Allaire and Alicia are up to."
As they nodded, he then already descended toward the battlements. Landing atop of them, he leisurely strolled toward the tower before also entering the corridors that stretched out throughout the wall.