Chapter 296

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Chapter 296: Heavy Losses

Hearing Jesse’s voice, Vereesa paused. The black dragon in front of her suddenly lifted its head, its eyes locked on the two, mouth oozing with a thick evil liquid that was black like blood, instead of the golden lava fire from earlier!

She immediately turned and ran, and Jesse also turned without daring to look back, running frantically into the distance.

However, he felt exhausted already. He had only taken a few steps when a dark, blurry, and chaotic energy surged behind him, terrifying enough to burn everything.

This is even more painful than the fierce fire he released… Just feeling it is enough to make people terrified from their hearts.

The two of them kept running without knowing how far they had gone, until the crazy force behind them dissipated and they stopped.

Jesse turned around to see large blocks and buildings being engulfed by black flames, with pus-like fire rising everywhere, as if everything had turned into dark burnt blood.

This is the Black Dragon’s Shadow Flame… Truly capable of destroying everything with its black fire.

"Thank goodness…"

Jesse wanted to say something, but felt almost unable to speak, and couldn’t hear any sound.

It was then that he felt something eerie behind him.

"Jesse! No… don’t…"

Vereesa looked over, her voice trembling.

Jesse looked down and saw holes burnt into his robe, the cloak scorched and dark shadows creeping along the edges. His exposed skin turned dark purple.

Okay, just a little slower.

"Shadow Protection… Give me Shadow Protection Potion," he weakly said, his voice muffled.

He mumbled, his words barely audible.

Vereesa quickly uncorked a bottle and made Jesse drink. He felt numb, cold, unable to taste the potion.

Shadow Protection Potion couldn’t help him anymore.

He tossed the bottle aside, saying, "I… I have to go back!"

Pushing away Vereesa, Jesse ran towards the black dragon holding a magic wand. He faintly heard Vereesa shouting behind him, but couldn’t make out the words.

His awareness faded fast, his mind crumbling, only a strong desire to survive kept him going.

Using all his strength, Jesse crossed over the burning Shadow Flame until he reached the ruins where the black dragon lay on its back, eyes wide open but weak, like a helpless creature.

"Humans… are interesting…"

The black dragon’s voice was as clear as a drum.

"Interesting?"

Jesse mumbled as he extended his magic wand to drain the life force from the black dragon. His arm trembled, his lips quivered, and he repeated the same words until he could barely speak.

Soon, a sharp pain shot through his arm and side, causing Jesse to almost faint. But at the same time, he felt a surge of excitement because it meant that his senses were returning!

The black dragon convulsed violently, unable to resist any longer, allowing Jesse to drain its life force freely. Its scales turned gray, its tongue lost its color, and the dragon collapsed like a dried specimen, its wings making a faint, creaking sound in the wind.

When Jesse had drained all the energy and was about to faint, he finally relaxed, taking several deep breaths to calm his emotions.

Looking at his arm, it was still a deep black color, but with a touch, it shed like dead skin, revealing healthy reddish skin underneath.

The pain all over his body was almost unbearable, but he knew that he was out of danger and his body was slowly healing. He just needed to hang in there.

The black dragon’s wrinkled eyes moved slightly as it looked at the shedding dead skin, its mouth closed and then opened again, as if it wanted to say something.

He walked over and kicked the black dragon’s head hard, causing it to finally turn its head completely and close its eyes.

"Jesse!"

Vereesa grabbed his arm, felt something wrong, quickly pulled back her hand and stared at the scales-like things being uncovered, her face turning pale.

"I’m okay, at least I won’t die," Jesse said.

He tried to brush off the black and red dead skin, saying, "It’s just a shame for my clothes. Damn, I really…"

His clothes were burnt halfway through, from his robe, cloak, to his shirt.

The people who made these clothes surely never thought they would one day have to withstand the Shadow Flame of a black dragon. Even in the game world, such terrifying breath could only be resisted by a cape made from the scales of the black dragon princess, Onyxia.

Jesse checked the bag and found broken glass and a strong smell of medicine inside, but luckily most things were still intact.

"You really… scared me, Jesse."

She sighed, cleared her throat, and walked closer to observe the baby dragon, whispering, "We killed him…"

After speaking, the elf’s figure swayed as if feeling unsteady. Jesse felt something was wrong and asked, "Vereesa, what’s the matter?"

Vereesa stepped back and leaned against the wall, breathing heavily, she touched her ribs and looked at her hand, which was already covered in blood.

"I must have been scratched by that beast just now, it’s really annoying."

The powerful Healing Potion was still intact, so Jesse quickly took it out, removed the stopper, and handed it to her, saying, "Hurry, drink this."

Vereesa frowned and said, "If I drink it now, that Death Knight…"

"Are you out of your mind? Drink this quickly." He removed the stopper and poured it into the elf’s mouth, then handed her another bottle of Healing Potion.

Jesse glanced at her side and saw several terrifying cuts opening and closing as she swallowed.

After drinking everything, the wounds seemed to show signs of healing, and Jesse hoped it wasn’t just in his mind.

However, Vereesa’s complexion did improve slightly. She wrapped her cloak tightly around her and leaned against the wall, sighing, "I should learn some of your magic, it’s really powerful."

Jesse tossed the bottle of medicine aside and said, "Forget it, even if you learn now, what are you going to cast? A spell on me?"

Vereesa chuckled but winced in pain.

Jesse searched through the ranger pack for Mageweave Cloth bandages when a head peeked out from behind the wall – it was the imp, still alive, which was quite surprising.

He glanced at the coughing Vereesa, then at the imp, and his eyes slid towards the Warlock Pack nearby.

The imp Phase Shifted away, and Vereesa lifted her head, sensing something, but the pain had clearly shifted her focus too much.

Jesse coughed to get her attention and handed her the bandages, asking, "Can you do this yourself?"

Vereesa nodded and reached out her hand to accept it.

Jesse stood up and looked around, saying, "We can’t stay here for too long. There are still many unburnt dark fires here, which are not good for your recovery."

After a simple bandaging, the two of them walked to a relatively intact short house in another part of the ruins, with Jesse sitting against a dwarf’s stone platform.

Her complexion had improved a lot by now, and this time it was definitely not just psychological. Jesse finally felt relieved.

He brushed off the ash burned by the Shadow Flame on his cloak. By now, the shadow had mostly dispersed, but looking at the burnt holes and damaged areas, he felt more and more frustrated.

"You seem to care a lot about this cloak," Vereesa raised her eyes and asked, "Is it very expensive? Or does it have any special meaning?"

"It was given to me by King Varian," Jesse sighed.

"Why did the Stormwind King give you a cloak?" The elf widened her eyes and asked, "Are you friends with him? But it seems like that human king is about the same age as you."

"Friends? Not exactly," Jesse said. "Once I helped a group of soldiers deal with some Gnolls, and the king gave me this… It was supposed to be a collector’s item, to hang up. But I had nothing else to wear. And it did save me several times, without it, I wouldn’t be alive today."

"It’s all my fault, I shouldn’t have rushed over like that," Vereesa sighed.

"Blame yourself for what? For being faster than me?" Jesse shook his head and said, "If I had run as fast as you, I wouldn’t have been scorched. It’s not your fault. Who would have thought that beast would come at us so fiercely? Anyway, we’re alive, and that’s what matters."

Vereesa glanced in this direction and simply replied, "Hmm."

"Now that I’m out of arrows, how do we deal with the Orc and the Death Knight?"

Jesse said, "You’re still thinking of heading north with your injuries? Anyway, we’re sure there are Shattered Hand Orcs here, in that direction. We can come directly next time."

The ranger didn’t say a word, but her reluctance was evident.

"How did you run out of arrows so quickly?" Jesse asked.

"A few got burned when the black dragon was chasing us earlier," Vereesa held out her hand, looked at the black soot on it, and sighed, "Otherwise, I wouldn’t have run out of arrows."

"No matter what we do next, let’s first rest peacefully here," Jesse suggested.

Vereesa nodded slightly and glanced outside the crack in the wall, asking, "Where are we?"

"It should be an old dwarven city from the past," Jesse said. "Probably near the ruins of Thaurissan city. Once you’ve rested a bit, we’ll move further away. I’m worried that Wyrmkin might come this way to check on things."

"Okay," the elf said.

Jesse patted the dust off a stone bench nearby and sat down, saying, "I thought I was a goner!"

"Me too," Vereesa said. "I thought he was gone for good, didn’t expect him to come back and pick a fight with us. If it weren’t for this ruin, we might have been in real trouble."

Jesse let out a sigh and said, "I forgot about the Invisibility Potion."

Vereesa glanced at Jesse and chuckled before nodding along.

After a while, she whispered, "To be honest, I just want to kill him."

"Same here," Jesse said.

"But, if it’s dangerous next time…"

"Don’t forget to drink," Vereesa added.