Rise of the Undead Legion Chapter 223 Oh Mighty Black Dragon, How Many Ways Can I Count Thee.

New event created: Run little rabbit run.
You are being hunted by the Abyssal Dragon (Evil Dragon), your mission is to escape and survive for 30 minutes.
Warning: entering combat with any other mob or player will reveal your location to the dragon.
FAILURE to escape the Run Little Rabbit Run event, will result in:
The loss of at least five (5) Character Levels.
The loss of all gold held in inventory.
All equipped items being destroyed.
A 72 hour respawn timer (in-game time).
REWARD for surviving 30 minutes: two (2) levels.
This is a mandatory event, you cannot refuse it.
***
"What the smegging fuck is this?" Dave muttered.
"Oh that's just great, man, now we're gonna lose our levels. And our gold. I told you something like this would happen, man," Flanker moaned.
Dave looked up and around, the forest canopy might hide them from the dragon's sight, but it would not be any protection from the monster if it found them.
"We should be okay as long as we don't encounter any monsters. The dragon can't see us through the trees," Dave reassured.
"Not entirely correct, Stroke. If the dragon has infra-vision we'll look like glowing red blobs to it even through the trees," Perfect Shot said.
"Crap," Fortress said.
Flanker moaned again.
"What are the chances the dragon has infra-vision," Dave said.
"A lot of high-end reptile type monsters have infra-vision. It's very likely top-level night-time predators like dragons would have it. Almost certainly."
"Well crud. Then we gotta keep moving."
A much closer roar echoed across the forest. Every creature in the vicinity ran, crawled or flew away in waves of panic. The dragon's very presence was causing another monster tide.
"It's getting closer, man," Flanker said.
"Spike, I know we're asking a lot from you but please run faster," Dave begged, patting the prong fiend.
The fiend increased his speed. But his chest was working like a bellows and his breath blew out from his distended nostrils in plumes of white vapor.
The sound of an explosion impacted them from behind and seconds later a prolonged heavy blast of scorching wind pushed them forward, plucking at their hair and clothes. Spike stumbled for a moment then recovered and resumed his pace.
Flanker looked back. From within a rising mushroom cloud of smoke and black flame two red-glowing eyes penetrated the tree-cover and stared right into his soul.
***
You have been sighted!
Time remaining for the event: 28 minutes
***
The dragon roared again, then they heard it crashing through the forest in pursuit, smashing through everything in a wide path, uprooting trees and scoring trenches in the ground and stone, doing more damage than a whole herd of giant rhinos. They could feel the dragon's anger and intent, it made their pulses pound and their knees weak.
***
You have been affected by the dragon's Aura of Terror.
Your mount's Fear levels will continue to increase until overwhelms your Affinity bond, causing the forest prong fiend to revert to normal wild behavior.
***
"No way, Smaug," Flanker waved his glowing staff, "Bless this party: [Immune to Fear]."
A white halo glowed around the party, removing the Fear effect.
"Moron, Smaug was red, but thanks for the buff," Fortress teased his buddy.
"Aww c'mon man, it's not like there are a bunch of cool black dragon names out there."
"Off the top of my head: Drogon, Alduin, Deathwing, Nicol Bolas, Maleficent, Toothless, and the Hungarian Horntail."
"You suck Fortr...Ah dammit, my blessing isn't enough to counter the dragon's Aura. We need to put more distance between us.
"Let's see..." Flanker scrolled through his Skills. He chanted and waved his staff then place a glowing hand on Spike.
"Bestow [Vigor of the Troll]!"
Another pass of his cleric's staff.
"Grant my ally [Feline Grace]!"
***
Your mount, forest prong fiend (Spike) has received these temporary Divine Blessings:
Stamina has been replenished to full.
Stamina recovery rate has doubled.
Agility has increased by 20%
***
Dave whistled "I could've used that when-"
"Smaug is doing something very bad!" Flanker interrupted.
The dragon opened its jaws black flames coalesced into a ball and shot at the party, it incinerated everything in its path as it rocketed at the players.
With his buffed Agility, Spike was able leap away, dodging the attack trajectory at the cost of only few singed hairs on his tail.
Everyone gulped as the ball passed them and blew up moments later. A shockwave of scorching heat followed the explosion, trees burned in hellish black flames.
***
The black dragon has lost sight of your group and is searching for you again.
Time remaining 26 minutes
***
"Spike, take us into the burning trees.""
Spike didn't hesitate, he turned and leapt for the burning area of the forest.
"Flanker do you have a buff for fire protection?"
"Nope. Even if I did it wouldn't work, dragonfire isn't normal fire you know."
"Then why are we going where the burning trees are?" Fortress asked.
Perfect replied, "He's hoping the dragon won't be able to see us in the middle of all the heat and light."
Spike moved cautiously between burning trees skirting through the edges of the forest fire, keeping away from the raging inferno that grew closer to the center. Dave patted him on the head and whispered encouragingly.
"Move slow now boy, stay as close to the burning trees as you can."
"I think we lost it, guys," Flanker said.
"Shut up!" the other three players shouted at the same time. Even Spike turned and snorted a blast of air through his nostrils at the cleric.
"W-whaaat?".
"Just keep your big mouth shut," Perfect said.
Fortress nodded and turned to glare at his friend
Another roar echoed. The black flames consuming the tree tops writhed and twisted together, then all the fires were sucked away in a spinning funnel effect. Dragons are intelligent creatures and they only grow more evil and intelligent as they age.
Realizing its prey were using the flames and smoke to hide from it, the dragon simply absorbed all the fire, sucking the flames into itself. The forest fire was doused immediately and the smoke blew clear on the same winds that sucked the flames away, revealing the players.
"Ahh, fa fuck's sake!" Dave cursed.
***
You have been sighted!
Time remaining for the event: 10 minutes
***
From behind them came what sounded like a series of explosions as the dragon chased after them, crashing through the trees and terrain. Though the dragon was immense in size, it was incredibly fast. It closed the gap between it and the fiend with every passing moment.
"There Spike, follow that stream!" Dave shouted. He was desperately looking for any forlorn hope to get them out of here. Just maybe the small flow of water would be it.
Spike changed direction again to run along the bank of the stream sometimes having to leap across and back to avoid obstacles and find a clear path. the stream grew wider and the water flowed more powerfully as Spike followed it.
"Why are we following the creek?"Fortress asked.
"The creek will lead to a lake or river. At best if we dive into a large body of water we might be able to lose the dragon, at worst we won't be burned to death."
The sound of roaring white-water rapids increased as they followed what was now almost a river.
The dark forest brightened as they broke through the trees onto the banks of a large fast moving river
"Now what do we do, man?" Flanker said.
Diving into the river would be tantamount to suicide.
***
You have been affected by the dragon's Aura of Terror, your mount's fear levels will increase rapidly. Your affinity with your mount will steadily drop, if it reaches 0 your mount will throw you off and run away.
***
They were frozen by the Fear effect, paralyzed. Behind them, the dragon swatted away the last few trees in its way and advanced, red eyes glowing.
Dave activated [Undying Will]. The Skill removed the Fear effect from him. Everyone else was still frozen, he might be able to get away, but they would buy the farm.
The dragon reared back and opened it's jaws, preparing to snap at them.
As the dragon struck Dave jumped to the ground and held his tower shield up with [Block] activated.
Dave wasn't sure it would work but miraculously the shield nullified the damage from the dragon's attack like a charm. However the knock-back effect still slammed Dave back into Spike with the force of a cannonball. The prong fiend was knocked far into the river along with the TNT while Dave dropped into the water closer to the edge. The whole party was swept away by the powerful current as the dragon bellowed in frustrated rage.
Dave's armor pulled him underwater down towards the bottom like an anchor. He finally got smart and unequipped his armor then struggled back to the surface. The current wasn't gentle, it dragged him bobbing under then up again, smashing him against rocks and other floating debris. He'd lost sight of the rest of the group long ago.
***
Congratulations!
You have successfully completed the event: Run Little Rabbit Run
Reward: Two (2) Levels
***
Then the roaring sound of the river grew as it accelerated toward what Dave realized was a waterfall.
"Agh-ptew! Fu-ugh-ck Cough!" There was NO effing way was he going to just die from drowning or falling right after surviving a fucking DRAGON hunting him!
He tried to use [Immortal Apparition] to teleport away as he was swept relentlessly towards the drop off, to his horror he realized that all his Skills were greyed-out.
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Chapter Skill index:
[Block] Player receives 100% Damage immunity toward the first incoming attack.
Cooldown: 10 seconds.
***
[Abyssal Sphere] (Dragon Breath)
The Abyssal Dragon launches a Dragon-Breath attack as a concentrated ball of abyssal flames, it does 1,000,000 Flat Damage plus 2,000,000 HP of Curse Damage over 20 seconds (100,000 per second) or for as long as players remain within the impact area of the [Abyssal Sphere].
Players damaged by the Dragon Breath-Abyssal Sphere Will have all of their equipements destroyed if the skill deals more than 50% of their HP at once.
***
[Aura of Terror]: The abyssal Dragon emits a Fear inducing aura, terrorizing any and all creatures below its own level. The aura is a passive Skill and cannot be stopped, but its effects can be weakened through buffs or special equipment.
***
[Vigor of the Troll]: a Nature Buff that can be cast on allies, fully replenish Stamina and double stamina regeneration. Duration 30 Seconds.
Cooldown: 5 Minutes.
***
[Feline Grace]: Increase ally's agility by 20% and movement speed by 30%
Cooldown: 5 Minutes.
***
[Undying Will]: Removes all crowd control effects and gain Crowd Control immunity for 5 seconds.
Player also receives an increase of 5% immunity for 10 seconds.
Cooldown 2 Minutes.