20demayo Page 37
Page 37
With a fierce roar, Shakales scare away the wild beasts that were drinking there, then approached the river and lowered his head to enjoy the water, which contained a faint magical power.
Normally, Shakalles wouldn't even consider such a poor water source. The Lelotar territory boasts a spring abundant with water elementals; even when the water flowing from that spring reaches areas Shakalles is permitted to traverse, its magical concentration remains several times higher than here after being diluted multiple times.
But now, this may be its only hope for survival.
As long as it accumulates enough magic power in the shallow bay and manages to get through the next slumber, it should at least regain sensation in its hindquarters. If it's not too unlucky, it might even regain the ability to move.
Only then can it truly escape Lelotar.
Thinking this, Shakales drank as much river water as possible. Each time, it would drink until its stomach could hold no more, but this time, a group of clueless creatures came and disturbed it.
6. Foolish
As Shakales was drinking water, a group of Deinonychus emerged from the forest.
These bandit-like predators are among the few disgusting creatures in the jungle who are not afraid of Shakales' massive body and ferocious appearance. Moreover, they are intelligent enough to know that the green dragon is in dire condition as soon as they see its mutilated hindquarters from behind.
They seemed to think they had a chance to hunt the dragon, and actually set up a formation to launch a siege.
Two Deinonychus leaped in front of Shakales, hissing incessantly to attract its attention. When Shakales became agitated and launched an attack, four other Deinonychus jumped onto its back from behind. Their scimitar-like claws, with their thumb nails and feathered forepaws, firmly hooked onto the green dragon's wrinkled and scaly skin, and began to tear at the dragon's hide with their sharp teeth.
If Shacales were at its peak, the Deinonychus wouldn't even be able to break its scales. But in the life-or-death battle with its brother and the Serpentman's Royal Guard, most of its scales were broken, and now only scabbed skin is exposed, making it no longer a reliable defense against the Deinonychus's sharp claws and teeth.
Dragon blood flew everywhere in an instant.
Shacales did try to fight back, but as a true dragon, its agility was already low, and now it had lost its wings, its natural weapons, and was also hampered by its hindquarters. In addition, it was unwilling to waste its accumulated magic power, and after several attempts, it still couldn't touch the flea-like Deinonychus.
But a dragon is still a dragon, and even with its body crippled, it is not something that mere wild beasts can covet.
After several unsuccessful counterattacks, Shacales, enraged, tumbled into the river and, with the four Deinonychus on his body, moved towards the deeper waters.
Green dragons can breathe underwater, but Deinonychus cannot.
Chapter 95
Realizing the situation was no longer favorable, the Deinonychus clinging to Shakales broke free and swam around, ready to capture their enormous prey.
However, once they enter the water, they lose the agility they possess on land.
The moment of Shacales' counterattack had finally arrived. Its long, winding neck suddenly straightened, and it sprang its head out, biting down on the head of the fattest Deinonychus. With a slight effort, it tore the skull open. River water mixed with blood and brains poured into its throat, greatly invigorating Shacales, which had been gnawing on tree bark for months due to its limited mobility and inability to catch prey. Extending its left claw, it ripped open the chest cavity of another Deinonychus, its sharp claw piercing through the Deinonychus's body, stringing its carcass back like a skewer of candied hawthorns, and shoving it into its curved jaws to bite off its head.
The remaining two had already left Shakales' melee attack range, but the green dragon, stimulated by the blood, no longer held back its magic. With a swing of its claws, it threw out an ice ball that froze the third one into an ice sculpture floating on the water. Then, it breathed out a breath of dragon breath, causing the last dinosaur that had hurt it to scream and turn into corpse water—even the river water could not dilute the green dragon's viscous breath.
The two Deinonychus on the bank, terrified by the sight, buried their heads and fled into the jungle, disappearing from sight. On the battlefield, only the crippled Shakales remained, floating in the water, cursing and snarling as it devoured the Deinonychus's carcass. Deinonychus blood dripped into the river, the stench of blood spreading downstream.
Because of the reflection of light on the water, Shakales did not see a huge thing attracted by the smell of blood swimming rapidly toward it.
Casalos could clearly see the shadow that appeared beneath the water's surface from his vantage point.
"Dragon's Might would be very useful in this situation, but unfortunately, this unlucky one is still a teenager who can't afford Dragon's Might. He can't even have peace while drinking water... Uh, wait, what is this thing? How come something hiding underwater has wings?"
The closer it got to the shallows, the shallower the water became, and the shadow began to reveal its general shape as it rose to the surface. The main body of the shadow roughly resembled a somewhat obese crocodile, but behind its silhouette swimming forelimbs were a pair of seemingly underdeveloped dragon wing structures.
By the time Casalos could see the bright orange scales through the water, it had already entered the attack range.
"Oh, what bad luck..." Casaroz yelled, leaping onto the deck and swooping down towards Shacales. If that guy were killed, it wouldn't be good to find a mangled corpse for revenge. Besides, this newcomer was a decent Palu option; Casaroz, desperately needing manpower, didn't want it to get away.
Shacales floated in the water, one claw clutching a headless Deinonychus carcass, while an ice block nestled in its arms. It was preparing to exhale a little breath to corrode some of the frozen Deinonychus's body, making it more palatable to itself.
Suddenly, the water surface not far away exploded, followed by a deafening roar, as if a red dragon was issuing a challenging provocation.
Red Dragon!?
Shacales shuddered as a giant crocodile with bright orange skin burst from the exploding water, spitting a glittering jet of liquid at him. He instinctively tried to dodge, but his claws were gripping his prey, and his wings and hind limbs wouldn't obey him; he ended up getting sprayed in the face.
"What the hell is this thing?"
A viscous, semi-solid substance with a metallic sheen covered Shakales' body, encased in a layer of oily mucus that prevented the water from washing it away. The water around him was also filled with a similar viscous liquid coated in oily mucus.
The bright orange crocodile grinned as it slithered back underwater. This time, the bewildered Shakales clearly heard the mocking dragon language mixed in with the crocodile's laughter.
"Silly Que!"
That's what it's called.
Anger surged into Shakales' brain in an instant, causing its already poor mental state to rapidly decline, and it was ready to plunge into the water and tear apart the giant crocodile that dared to spit at it in a provocative manner.
"Idiot!" Another dragon roar, sounding somewhat familiar, rang out, but this time it came from the sky, accompanied by a high-pitched shriek. The shriek couldn't mask the dragon roar's penetrating sound: "If you want to live, swim away as fast as you can and shake off this damn thing!"
Despite his dazed state, Shakales realized this was a warning and instinctively looked again at the sticky "saliva" clinging to his body, noticing that the greasy layer had thinned considerably. In particular, where the scales were raised, the metallic-looking viscous substance inside the saliva was exposed, suddenly flashing with tiny sparks of light.
It jolted awake, instantly regaining its senses. It threw off its tightly gripped prey and violently swam towards the surface of the water, splashing high and struggling to swim away from the viscous substance.
Flames and thick smoke erupted from its body, scattering everywhere as it flung them, and crashing into the water with a series of crackling sounds.
The fire grew stronger, the smoke thicker, the explosions became more frequent and continuous, then a flash of bright light, and it exploded with a deafening roar.
7. Surrender
A violent explosion accompanied by a bright light occurred on the water's surface, creating towering waves.
Having managed to escape some distance, Shakales narrowly avoided the epicenter of the explosion, but was knocked unconscious by the blast wave. He floated on the water like a corpse, pushed far away by the waves, and then drifted downstream with the current.
Casalos ignored the green dragon. It adjusted the angle of its rapid dive, plunging into the water curtain created by the explosion like an osprey. It skimmed the surface of the water before fully changing from a dive to level flight. Its belly scraped the water's surface as it cleaved through the water. Its two hind claws reached underwater and grabbed the back of the orange "giant crocodile" that was swimming rapidly toward deeper water when it sensed something was wrong. Casalos then forcefully climbed upwards, lifted it out of the water, and slammed it onto the shallow shore.
Before the giant crocodile could even flap its somewhat underdeveloped wings to stabilize itself in the air, Casalos, having climbed several body lengths, swooped down again, its shovel-shaped head pressed against its chest, slamming into the crocodile's belly and bending its body into a C-shape. Then, Casalos extended its forepaws to grab the crocodile's waist, using its head to slam into the shallows, initiating a most primal close-quarters brawl.
This thing was a size larger than Casalos was now, and its body structure was shorter and thicker, its actual volume perhaps two or three times that of Casalos. But in other aspects... in just two rounds, Casalos broke off the giant crocodile's wings, twisted its hind limbs, and braided its tail into a pretzel shape.
Casalos pinned its head under his feet, folded its right wing downwards, and used its sharp forewings to hook through its neck and pin it to the ground. The nails of the magic dagger pierced the scales on its abdomen, and the sharp edges tore open several hideous wounds.
"You despicable orange dragon, if you dare to move again, I'll rip your intestines out and feed them to you. I'd really like to see if you can still be immune to your explosive breath if it explodes inside your chest."
The creature resembling a giant crocodile is a rather rare true dragon, the Orange Dragon. This type of true dragon, the Orange Dragon, is not a subspecies of the original true dragon, and its origin is difficult to verify. Many scholars, including those specializing in true dragons, believe that it is the product of a hybrid between the Red Dragon and the Yellow Salt Dragon.
Casalos is skeptical of this speculation: it is not uncommon for different subspecies of dragons to mate and produce offspring, but such hybrid offspring generally only fully inherit their mother's attributes and traits, with only some scale colors reflecting the father's characteristics, rather than exhibiting mixed attributes, and certainly not giving birth to new subspecies of dragons.
Such a thing, which seems to combine the attributes and characteristics of two true dragons, is most likely the result of some kind of magic or even direct interference from some deity.
Having received the final warning, the orange dragon wisely swallowed its breath, its evil eyes darting around twice before glaring at Casalos and ceasing its struggle.
Since it is a true dragon, it is naturally a highly intelligent being. It recognized its predicament, but was simply being controlled by Casalos.
Chapter 96
Its ravaged body could no longer assume a posture of submission, and the pride of a dragon prevented it from uttering a declaration of submission.
"I'll give you two choices: immediately swear an oath in the name of the Weigher to submit to me, to serve me as your master for life, and never betray me; or I'll pull out your intestines right now and then throw you to that green dragon you just attacked, so it can taint you... How about it?"
The orange dragon opened its crocodile-like mouth, hesitated for a moment, and said in its heavily accented dragon language, "But I don't know your real name yet, so how can I swear an oath?"
"Heh, what other tricks are you trying to pull? All you need to do is loudly proclaim your submission to the true dragon that tramples you under its claws with your true name. Doesn't the Judge know who I am?"
As Casalos spoke, he pushed his claws a little deeper into its belly, his nails hooking onto its mesentery.
"Okay, I swear! At least I'm still alive."
Regardless of the truth about the origins of the Orange Dragons, they are at least not like the Drow Dragons, who are not under the jurisdiction of the Dragon God. Oaths made in the name of the Dragon God are absolutely valid. When their lives are threatened, they are also much more pragmatic than those Drow Dragons who are so caught up in internal strife that they have no sense of direction.
“I, Bellamy the Orange Dragon, the last descendant of the Sally family, hereby swear in the name of Landis the Balancer…”
As the orange dragon correctly swore the oath, the oath mark bearing the emblem of the Balancer Landis shone once more, imprinting itself on both dragon souls. Casalos discovered that this time, the shimmering oath mark did not disappear, but instead remained, shining brightly within his own dragon soul.
So this is what a normal Dragon God oath looks like. If I had known earlier, I wouldn't have been tricked by the Drow Dragon.
Casalos, pleased with himself, released his grip on the orange dragon's head and summoned the scouts hidden behind him, instructing them to give his first tamed dragon-horse a quick heal. The assassins weren't exactly skilled healers, but that didn't matter; as long as Bellamy didn't make it back to the Rift alive, the dragon vein sorcerers there could easily restore it to its lively state.
Before returning to the Rift Valley, Casalos must first capture Shakales.
That cunning fellow was not as easy to deal with as the Orange Dragon. It pretended to be unconscious during the explosion and then used the shockwave to "drift" to a part of the river with great force. In the short time that Casalos had just subdued Bellamy, it drifted away with the current and disappeared without a trace.
With a snap, the iron beak connected to the mind link, Casalos instructed Bellamy to stay put, and then took off flying towards the western foothills.
Soon, it blocked Shakales in a secluded cave hidden by vines.
"How did you..."
"How would I know you were here?" Casaroz chuckled, interrupting the green dragon's exclamation. It slowly approached the crippled green dragon, swept its tail across it, and then leisurely strolled around the fallen dragon's body, occasionally flicking its tail to sweep the dragon back to the ground as it tried to get up. Tilting its large head, it stared at the dragon with one indigo dragon eye and continued, "Who do you think you can fool with your self-righteous feigned death and an illusion?"
With Iron Dawn monitoring it from the air and scouts tracking it on the ground, how could Shacales possibly escape Casalos's clutches? Ever since the scouts discovered it, its movements have been firmly under their control.
“You win. I was wrong last time; I shouldn’t have let you reveal your identity. Please don’t kill me, since I didn’t stop you during the raid! I am a green dragon, crippled now, but I can recover. You know I’m cunning, and I’ll be of great use to you. I, Shacales, am willing to submit to you. I swear in the name of the Mother of Dragons to become your most loyal hound…”
Of all the true dragons, green dragons are perhaps the most prone to yielding and kneeling—of course, most of their "surrenders" are just tricks and schemes.
"Very good, but a bit too early..."
8. Mother's kindness and son's filial piety
"I haven't even gotten over my anger yet, how can I accept your submission now..."
With a wicked laugh, Casalos once again threw the scrambling Shacales to the ground, wrapped his tail around its paralyzed hindquarters, dragged it out of the cave, and raced back to the shallows.
It deliberately sought out rocky terrain, the sharp stones tearing through the green dragon's chest and abdomen, which lacked the protection of thick scales, while broken pieces of wood pierced into its skin. Although the damage was minor, it caused immense pain and left the dragon looking disheveled.
But Shakales didn't let out a single scream, nor did he make any attempt to retaliate. It was as if he had resigned himself to his fate, gritting his teeth and enduring everything.
It understood Casalos's meaning: as long as it could vent its anger by torturing the Iron Dragon, the Iron Dragon would not kill it.
To survive, Shakales would endure anything, even though it knew this was only the beginning.
Soon it met its "brother in distress," the orange dragon that had ambushed it in the river earlier, which had now been beaten into a crippled dragon warrior just like itself by the iron dragon.
I really don't know how this Iron Dragon developed to this point; it has become so terrifying after just a few years.
It's probably only a baby dragon right now, yet it easily defeated a juvenile orange dragon in a head-on battle!
Hmm? What's with these kobolds? Why are they so closely connected to the shadows? They give me the same feeling as the shadow dragon who made the deal with Lantello. Could it be... No wonder my flawless escape plan didn't work. It turns out there's been a ghost following me all along.
Perhaps, submitting to such an iron dragon isn't such a bad thing; at least it's better than living in the territory of a mother who could kill you at any moment.
Shakales endured the burning pain all over his body, contemplating his future and trying to distract himself.
By the time the massive magic ship landed on the ground, it had become somewhat numb to Casalos's "miracle".
Then, Shakales, who was dragged into the cabin, saw Lelotar's lonely skull.
"Haha, I never thought you'd end up like this!"
Under the oblivious gaze of the orange dragon, the paraplegic teenager green dragon burst into laughter at the dragon lich, loudly mocking, "You actually want to turn your own child into a backup body for resurrection? Even the Mother of Dragons would despise your cruelty, my beloved mother!"
"Thank you for your high praise, my dear child Shakales. Seeing your miserable state now, I can't help but feel a little pathetic pity. Oh, just a little, I am still more relieved."
"Tsk tsk, it's hard to say who's worse off. At least I still have a relatively intact body, and my upper body can still move. I'm still alive. But you, my most respected, most wicked mother, what do you have left? A talking skull. I don't know what use you can be, as a talking wall hanging, or as a welcoming relief embedded in the door?"
"Hey, that's a good idea." Casalos watched the pair of loving mother and son green dragons with a cold eye, not forgetting to add fuel to the fire.
"Heh, do you dare do that, Iron Dragon brat? My foolish child doesn't understand the great state I'm in right now. Don't you understand either? Do you dare hang me on the wall as decoration? That would be giving me a chance to escape my wrecked body."
"Looks like you really care about being hung up as decoration, then let's do it this way for now." Casalos wasn't buying it, tilting his head and chuckling with his iron beak.
“Hey, ‘Great’ Mother, don’t forget your children. Guess who tipped off those boring silver dragons that a Dragon Worship Cult stronghold and dragon liches have appeared here?” Shakales suddenly added.
"What, it's you..." Upon hearing this, Lelotar lost his composure and tore off his fake mask, cursing loudly.
Casalos opened his mouth slightly and glanced at the onlookers.
Chapter 97
Bellamy, who was enjoying himself immensely, suddenly felt a headache coming on: there wasn't a single good person in the entire Dragon Territory, and now with the addition of a dragon lich, a green dragon full of scheming and plotting, and a ferocious and ruthless orange dragon, who knew what kind of chaotic mess it would become.
If you have the chance, you should entertain your neutral allies and bring in a few benevolent dragons to balance things out.
Hevilan said Fiona Milon is waiting for me in Sword Bay. Maybe I should take some time to go and see him. Anyway, with the Iron Dawn's wings, it'll only take a moment to go back and forth... Hmm, Sword Bay is not like the wild and primitive Chultan Peninsula. The Goddess of Magic seems to have very strict control over magic ships in Faerûn.
Magic ships require permission to enter the continent of Faerûn; otherwise, they will be disabled by the magic network and rendered useless. Even magic ships like the Shell Ship, which don't rely on the magic network, would likely encounter some bizarre accident if they rashly appeared in Faerûn. They might be attacked by a group, malfunction and crash, or be casually destroyed by some random passerby—it seems Faerûn has a very problematic history.
This is an area that Casalos cannot access and has no interest in accessing for the time being, but that does not mean that the Dawn of Iron cannot go to Sword Coast.
Apart from those damned, stick-thin, pointy-eared Evergrande Islands, the magic ship port of Faerûn is located in Sword Bay.
The glorious city of Deepwater is the only magic ship port on the continent of Faerûn, and it will not refuse the arrival of an iron dragon—or anything else—piloting a magic ship.
Magical ships permitted to enter the continent of Faerûn must land hundreds of miles off the coast of Waterdeep, disguise themselves as ordinary sailing ships, and then enter the port by sea. However, obtaining permission to enter Waterdeep is an urgent issue that needs to be clarified.
Let's dig out the dragon lich's treasure first and resolve the drow dragon's credibility issue before we talk about anything else.
The drow's capital city, Charson, is located in the Darklands of the North. These creatures, identified as elves and capable of transforming into specific drow forms, have a keen interest in the surface world. The ancient shadow dragon, Shimmering, who killed most of the dwarves and seized Mithril Hall, could very well be a member of their family—or perhaps one of the survivors who slipped through the net back then; who knows?
In short, the Charleson boy must be very familiar with Waterdeep. Even if he isn't now, with his special abilities, he could easily infiltrate Waterdeep and figure everything out.
Thinking of this, Casalos swept Shakales, who was still arguing with the dragon lich, away to a corner of the cabin with his tail. He then hooked the dragon lich's skull over and physically silenced it. He glared at the orange dragon, who still wanted to watch the show, and made it sit up obediently. After confirming that all personnel except the scouts who were ordered to continue exploring the local area and establishing an outpost had boarded the ship, he activated the teleportation magic and returned to the rift valley.