The forest smelled of dung and paupers.

Vainqueur always knew this day would come. The day when pitchfork-wielding peasants, fairies, and minion strikers, envious of his well-deserved wealth, would gather in a great rabble host and try to bring him down. The emperor of all knew that in this time of need, he would be called to serve as the final bulwark of dragon civilization against the forces of the rebellion.

“Do you see him?” a pauper leading a small group of three manlings knights with swords asked; Vainqueur immediately recognized her as the pegasus rider. The weather impaired them as much as it did the dragon himself, forcing his preys to advance against the snow. Each of them carried that strange ring of light above their heads. “I can’t distinguish anything with this hailstorm, but I saw him crash nearby.”

These lawless savages had treacherously stolen his minion, isolating him from his master; and now they moved to encircle him.

Time to show them which species won the class struggle.

“SURPRISE ATTACK!” Vainqueur declared as he squashed a knight into a bloody smear. Thanks to his blinkblink ring, he had managed to mesh with the snow, moving with the stealth of a cat between the trees. The magical shields Cornelia Stormwind had summoned made the manling much harder to chew than usual, but the dragon was hungry enough to make the effort.

“We’re under attack!” the pegasus rider shouted a warning while firing her lead weapon at random, only for Vainqueur to bite her in half.

“How… invisible!” One of the few remaining manlings cursed, unable to distinguish Vainqueur, “He’s invisible!”

“Dragons don’t run invisible ambushes!” the other replied. “They’re dumb as bricks!”

Vainqueur twitched in anger. “I have sixty-four in intelligence!” he corrected them, before tossing the manlings against trees with his tail, causing the plants to collapse on their back.

Much to his frustration, the four annoyances popped back after death, albeit wounded; while they immediately attempted to retreat, Vainqueur blasted them with a fireball. His flames resisted the hail and spread to the trees.

“Vainqueur demolished Erik’s team in the north!” Cornelia’s voice echoed through the trees and causing snow to fall from the leaves. “The golem will be there soon. Green Boy, Drake, Wizi, ensnare him!”

Vainqueur snorted at those words, before noticing the ice drake rider flying above him, having traded his weapon for strange crimson rods whom he set alight. Unlike the dragon, his winged serpent didn’t seem impaired by the hail.

Vainqueur opened his mouth to blast him from below, but the rider dodged the attack. “Here!” the cavalier shouted.

The forest shook, as the roots of the trees sprung out of the ground and snow. These tendrils immediately attempted to ensnare Vainqueur, who burned them with his fiery breath.

The drake rider above tossed his crimson rods to the ground near Vainqueur’s location; each detonating as soon as they hit the ground or the dragon’s flames. One of the blasts hit the dragon to the left, making his scales feel itchy.

You have taken weak damage.