New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Meat-Shield wasn't so lucky as to land away from the conflict, in the mind space he was dragged into.

He appeared under the belly of the humongous brown dragon, who was holding out under a constant stream of attacks, coming from a looming cloud of dark mist. The shape of the mist was weird, looking like a bipedal dragon, whose neck was abnormally thick.

Its two front paws were slashing at the brown dragon's hide, as he braced itself in defence. Its wings were folded on its back, trying to cover the weaker area in its scaly armour.

The dragon's face was under its body, and when it saw the Dwarf appear, its eyes squinted.

Face to face with the dragon's visage, Meat-Shield almost dropped to his ass as he stepped back and stumbled on his own feet.

"I'm here to help. I'm not the enemy!" he hurriedly shouted.

The dragon huffed in response before speaking in his mind.

'Then help! I can't resist the onslaught for much longer, and I can't attack with all the attacks I'm taking.'

Looking at the situation, Meat-Shield could only do one thing. So he charged out from under the dragon, bracing his shield, and slammed his mace on it.

"Look over here, you black fart cloud!"

Using his most powerful taunt, in conjunction with his strongest defence skill, Meat-Shield stole aggro from the brown dragon instantly.

But when the dark cloud looked at him, with its two red burning dots serving as eyes, he gulped.

'Shit…'

***

The last of the players that were sent to the soul spaces, Jeanne d'Arc, appeared in a snowy landscape, the biting of the wind immediately gnawing at her skin. She wasn't dressed for this kind of temperature, and shivers crawled up her spine, her teeth immediately clattering.

"W-w-why did I-I-I have to l-l-land in the c-c-cold spot? F-f-fuck me!" she stuttered through her shivering body and rattling teeth.

But she had a task to do, and couldn't let the cold get the better of her. Casting a blessing spell on herself, she managed to stave off a bit of the freezing, enough for her to focus on her surroundings.

With a quick sweep of her eyes, she saw she was on a plateau on the flank of a tall mountain, atop which loomed a black and red cloud that seemed to streak down in black lightning every few seconds. Under the level of her plateau, a cloud similar to the one atop the mountain was slowly creeping upward.

She knew her only way was up.

Starting her ascent, Jeanne had to refresh her blessing spell often, just so she wouldn't freeze to death. The climb was a harrowing experience for her, who had never been in either this type of cold or mountainous region.

But once she made her way to the top, what she found froze her very blood.

Laying on the top of the mountain's last plateau, blood pooling around its form in quantities abnormally large, was a white dragon, whose once pristine scales were covered in cuts, burns, and deep gouges, from which rivulets of blood seeped out.

The dragon, feeling a creature approach its body, weakly opened its eyes.

Jeanne felt a sense of vertigo take over her body as she peered into the icy blue eyes of the massive creature.

'Leave, child. It is already too late for me. I can't take it's harrying for much longer. When I turn, I want you to be far away, so I don't kill you.'

The voice was neither angered nor depressed, but flowing with a sense of peace. Acceptance of what was to come.

The white dragon had already accepted its coming fate, only resisting in hopes it would kill the least of its wards as possible.

But Jeanne couldn't let it die. After all, if it died, they were next.

She ran up to the Dragon, laying her hands on the enormous snout of the beast.

"Don't give up yet. You aren't dead, and I won't let it happen. I will give you every ounce of my strength if that is what it takes for you to survive."

The resolve in her voice moved the dragon. But what could a single Human girl do against the onslaught of demonic corruption?

Jeanne knew her shielding spells wouldn't be powerful enough to cover against the might of the black lightning strike. She also knew her healing would barely be enough to her alive.

But she had to try.

Focusing on her holy emblem, dangling from her neck, she poured every bit of mana she could muster into it, calling out to the god her class was tied to.

"Please, Mother Medicius. Grant me the power to save this life. For the sake of many more," she whispered.

The dragon felt the amulet pulse slowly, like a heartbeat of power had animated it. Then, healing magic poured into it, steadily replenishing its life force.

It was far from enough to bring her back to her feet, but the dragon felt enough power flow into her to counteract the unabating strikes of the corruption. Perhaps there was hope.

***

From outside the dragons' souls, the Elven mage was keeping watch. He couldn't intervene, since keeping this spell alone was draining all his mana, but watching was easy for him.

He was currently worried about the threat the Ash Elf had uttered to him, but the man seemed to take his task seriously. Or at least, there wasn't currently cause for concern.

Although all the young Abnormals were each doing whatever they could to fix the corruption problem, some were going about it with more violence than necessary.

But he doubted they were powerful enough to take down dragons.

'They couldn't possibly take down dragons on their own. Could they?' he silently worried.

***

In the demon plane, the rest of Astaroth's party was fighting an arduous battle. They weren't in any life-threatening danger, their teamwork covering for any mistakes they committed.

But the more the battle went on, the more the risk rose. Tiredness was already sweeping over Jaxx, as his Legacy skill had just recently ended.

Twinxie's summon had timed out, and she had pulled out another elemental spirit, this one of wind. But her mana had dropped significantly from those two powerful summons.

The casters were running on fumes, and Jaxx was beginning to become sluggish. They all wondered how long they would last.

The Imps kept appearing in a never-ending wave. Things were getting dire.