Vagnerd took a single stride, instantly teleporting right before Langpu and bypassing the obstruction of the mirror. He lightly raised his hand and tapped the medallion pinned to his chest.
A surge of powerful psychic force enveloped Langpu in an instant.
Dominate Person.
Yet beneath that overwhelming force, Langpu’s expression remained entirely unchanged. Without the slightest reaction, he even swung his staff and hurled a Fireball.
Faced with the incoming sphere of flame, Vagnerd conjured a shield of black energy that snuffed the Fireball into nothingness. From behind the dark screen, his voice sounded surprised at first, then quickly turned manic.
"I see."
"Hahahahaha! You're not human! So you're not human after all!"
Langpu's disguise had been intended solely to waste one of Vagnerd's spell slots, knowing full well that Dominate Person was one of the man's go-to spells.
Seeing his true nature exposed, the ogre mage let out a thunderous roar. In an instant, he shredded the disguise covering his body, revealing his monstrous true form.
Instantly, the hallway plunged into shadow as a colossal silhouette loomed, almost completely eclipsing Vagnerd.
A six-meter-tall dragonblood ogre stood towering within the dim corridor. Dragon scales armored his massive, muscular frame, sharp bony spurs jutted from his knees, elbows, and back, and small, bone-white horns had even sprouted from his brow, his ugly visage terminating in an unnaturally protruding snout.
"Held back for so long, and I can finally let loose! Let me crush you!"
Langpu glared down at Vagnerd from on high, two thick plumes of sulfurous smoke blasting from his nostrils. The staff in his grasp flared with a swirling aura of searing scarlet and emerald flames as he swung it straight toward Vagnerd's skull—Magic Weapon paired with Green-Flame Blade.
For some reason, Vagnerd merely stared up at Langpu in an entranced daze, making no attempt to dodge.
The staff, blazing with magical flame, struck his head with tremendous force, triggering a Contingency tied to Otiluke's Resilient Sphere. A shimmering spherical barrier of force snapped into existence, deflecting Langpu's staff and encasing Vagnerd safely within.
Repelled by the recoil, Langpu's colossal bulk crashed to the floor with a deafening thud.
Yet Vagnerd continued to gaze at him with utter fascination, as though admiring the most exquisite masterpiece. He muttered beneath his breath, "I've finally found it... I've finally found the perfect creation."
Then, trembling all over, he clutched his face and burst into wild, hysterical laughter.
"Hahahahaha! Not something untouchable and intangible... It's—it's a real, flawless creation!"
"You... you aren't one of those so-called 'players,' are you?"
Seeing that the gaze directed at him held not terror but ravenous greed, an uncontainable fury surged in the dragonblood ogre's chest.
Gritting his teeth, Langpu snarled, "A lunatic, through and through..."
Protected inside the sphere of force, however, Vagnerd was practically impervious to harm without something like Disintegrate, leaving even Langpu momentarily helpless against him.
Only after a long silence did Vagnerd make his next move.
With a casual flick of his wrist, he dismissed the Otiluke's Resilient Sphere surrounding him and strolled forward, swaying unsteadily.
Langpu couldn't resist glancing sideways toward the Cataclysmic Dragon Eye beside him, only to see a vision of himself being held paralyzed by magic. He hurriedly brandished his staff, intending to cast Counterspell preemptively, but Vagnerd gave him no opening whatsoever. Raising a single finger, the wizard shot forth a beam of violet magical radiance.
Hold Monster.
The spell was exceptionally potent. The moment the light touched Langpu, it washed over his entire body, solidifying into a shimmering film of radiance. The colossal dragonblood ogre froze in place, locked midway through his spellcasting motion.
Vagnerd sauntered forward at an easy pace, grinning so broadly his smile practically reached his ears.
Approaching the ogre, he floated into the air and whispered softly into his ear:
"My dear test subject, delivered right to my door... Did you think I only knew spells to control humans?"
"I have conducted tens of thousands of dragonization experiments. As the 'Dragon-Mad Black Wizard,' there is nothing I excel at more than mastering monsters like you—"
Crack... crack...
A faint, brittle sound broke the silence.
"Oh?"
A flicker of astonishment crossed Vagnerd's face.
The film of light encasing Langpu suddenly shattered. A skull pendant upon his chest, having detected that his body was incapacitated, had automatically discharged Dispel Magic.
"Die!"
Breaking free of the restraint, the dragonblood ogre bellowed in fury and spat out several searing Fireballs in rapid succession. The projectiles took erratic, unpredictable trajectories from different angles, seeking to incinerate the defenseless Vagnerd at point-blank range. At the same time, the ogre swung his staff with all his might, aiming directly for Vagnerd's skull.
Yet confronted with this sudden, overwhelming onslaught, Vagnerd vanished casually from the spot, leaving behind only a puff of silvery smoke.
He reappeared at a distance, flashed a grin at Langpu, and lightly raised a hand.
Dragonblood Binding.
Countless chains shaped like dragon limbs rose from the ground.
It was a seventh-circle spell, entirely immune to Dispel Magic and Globe of Invulnerability.
Yet as though anticipating this very move, Langpu's swinging staff abruptly shifted course, pointing straight at Vagnerd. The Bennett's Wisdom resting upon his chest unleashed a beam of pale-violet light of its own.
Hold Monster.
Only this time, it was cast by Langpu.
The instant the beam fired, Langpu was ensnared by the Dragonblood Binding, pinned firmly to the ground unable to move. The hideous chains, resembling draconic limbs, slithered slowly across his massive body, greedily siphoning the dragon blood within the dragonblood ogre.
Simultaneously, Langpu's Hold Monster struck Vagnerd squarely, freezing his entire body stiff.
Even in that final moment before the paralysis took hold, however, the black wizard's eyes held only contempt and mockery, as if saying, *What can you possibly do to me?*
Hold Monster required spell concentration to maintain; the moment Langpu's focus wavered, the spell would quickly collapse.
Dragonblood Binding, on the other hand, was Vagnerd's custom-tailored spell against dragonblood creatures. Like a living parasite, it sustained itself by continuously draining dragon blood from its victim.
From the perspective of this seasoned Dragon-Mad Black Wizard, this mutual exchange was an overwhelming victory in his favor, filling him with smug satisfaction.
In just a matter of moments, the film of paralysis encasing Vagnerd—unsupported by concentration—began to tremble, hair-thin fractures spreading across its surface as he neared the verge of breaking free.
Yet he had no inkling that right before being bound, Langpu had also worn a dark, cunning smile of a scheme come to fruition.
He still had the Cataclysmic Dragon Eye!
Vagnerd had merely assumed the floating eye following the ogre was a divination spell cast by Langpu himself, something he could easily deal with once the ogre was incapacitated.
Never in his wildest dreams could he have imagined that the true master of that Cataclysmic Dragon Eye was Cassius, thousands of miles away, quietly watching everything through its gaze.
And this was the very moment Cassius had been waiting for!
In a flash, blazing light and fury erupted from the invisible pair of eyes hovering in the air, releasing all the boundless elemental energy stored within them!
Boom—!
A pillar of blinding white flame burst forth, blasting straight toward Vagnerd's momentarily paralyzed head!
Maximized Fire Breath!
At that exact instant, a colossal talon clad in crimson scales tore savagely through the fabric of space, ripping open a burning rift nearly ten meters wide out of thin air.
Cassius's colossal, terrifying dragon head thrust through the tear.
"ROAAAR—!"
Chapter 211