Iron Dragon's Advancement Journey

Page 14

　Green dragons are of average strength among the chromatic dragons, but they are generally known for their magical power. The mature female green dragon made a few movements with her limbs; she was initially somewhat hampered by the unique physique of green dragons...

Chapter 28

　Its erratic flight attitude stabilized, and its speed, which was slightly slower than Casalos's, increased significantly.

　Buoyancy and Wings of Swiftness, just two first-level spells, directly reversed Casalos's three flight-related feats and the flight advantage brought by his size.

　That wasn't all. From the jungle further to the west, another green dragon, slightly smaller and likely in its adult stage, flew out—undoubtedly Lantero. In addition, seven other green dragons, both juvenile and young, also emerged from the jungle, surrounding Casalos from all directions.

　A teenage green dragon and a young green dragon were blocking Casalos's escape route not far away.

　"You little iron dragon brat, give up, you have nowhere to run." Judging from the voice, the teenage dragon was none other than Shakales, who had sold out his brother before. While preparing his spell, it shouted loudly, "Lie down on the ground, expose your belly, beg for my mercy, swear a blood oath to become my slave, and perhaps I'll be in a good mood and plead for you to spare your life to serve us..."

　Casalos had no intention of wasting its energy on verbal sparring with the green dragon. It kept a close eye on Shakales' every move, calculating its spellcasting progress, while adjusting its course and slowly increasing its altitude, as it approached the other nearby young green dragon.

　The latter's bean-sized eyes were full of surprise, as if it was happy that its prey had come to its door. It also took the initiative to meet it and took a deep breath to prepare its dragon breath.

　Shacales naturally adjusted his direction as well, intending to continue blocking Casalos's path. He almost collided with the young dragon, but his massively larger body forced the latter to swallow back the dragon breath he had been charging up.

　This guy did it on purpose. The green dragon couple probably promised some reward to whoever captured Casaloz, and the seven green dragon cubs are rivals among themselves.

　As the two closed to within a hundred meters, Shakales' spell was about to take shape. A chilling aura quietly spread, indicating that the spell it was preparing was an ice-attribute spell with a special attack against fire-type iron dragons.

　Casalos's indigo pupils, beneath his two transparent eyelids, were fixed on Shakales. The moment the frost-covered sphere took shape on the green dragon's wing hook and was thrown forward, Casalos suddenly spread his wings to the limit of his joint mobility.

　Suddenly losing most of its lift but also significantly reducing its drag, the Iron Dragon Hatchling let out a piercing shriek and shot downwards like an arrow. As it reached Shakales, it turned and spread its wings to climb again, flying between the two green dragons.

　After half a day of preparation, Shakales' secondary cold ball finally broke free from the control of the wing hook and flew out.

　28. Pursuit and escape

　Due to the close proximity, Casalos, having accelerated through its dive, gained a sufficiently high angular velocity relative to Shacales, and almost instantly passed through its field of vision. The detached cold ball lost its lock-on and naturally crashed into the only other target on its trajectory.

　"You are..."

　The young green dragon cursed and dodged, but it was too slow and had poor aerial maneuverability. Shakales' attack was too close, and the cold ball slammed into its side, exploding into a cloud of cold frost that instantly froze it, causing it to fall straight to the ground.

　Fortunately, the battle took place at a low altitude, and the lush trees and soft humus in the jungle provided an effective buffer; otherwise, the young dragon would probably have been smashed into a pulp.

　"Oh, poor Effie, how could I have done that on purpose? You flew right into the line of my spell's attack. Don't worry, I'm coming to your rescue. You must have hurt yourself badly from the fall. I hope you're unlucky enough to break your wings..."

　Instead of continuing the pursuit, Shakales shouted loudly and flew towards the spot where the young green dragon had crashed.

　Judging from its tone, the young dragon named Effie's wings were probably about to break—even if they didn't break from the fall, they would definitely break from the fall after Shakales went down.

　Can a dragon with broken wings still be called a dragon?

　It has one less competitor in the Green Dragon's Nest.

　Successfully capturing the iron dragon cub would only yield a one-time, insignificant reward, while eliminating a competitor would determine the ownership of the territory after the green dragon couple parted ways. The intelligent green dragon clearly understood which was more important.

　The green dragon couple would not punish it for this; on the contrary, they encouraged such behavior, as it was a skill that an excellent green dragon must master.

　However, whether or not Shacales and the other young green dragons pursued him had no effect on Casalos's escape.

　Above the sky, Casalos's only real threat was the green dragon couple.

　The mature green dragon Lylotar, equipped with two flight-enhancing spells, drew ever closer. The adult male Lantro, seemingly lacking similar magical abilities, simply pursued from treetop height, maintaining a constant distance and appearing as if he would never catch up.

　Casalos knew this was just an illusion. If one had to find an advantage of a blank adult green dragon in flight ability compared to an iron dragon hatchling, then endurance would undoubtedly be the first choice.

　40 km!

　Casaloz's limit is to fly a distance of 40 kilometers in one go.

　Dragons are not migratory birds skilled in long-distance flight, nor are they birds of prey with superb gliding techniques. In fact, limited by their enormous bodies, relatively stocky builds, and shapes that are highly incompatible with hydrodynamics, most ordinary non-magical birds, except for those in the rainforest, can fly onto the head of a flying dragon to defecate—provided the bird isn't scared to death by the dragon.

　There's no need to fly 40 kilometers; at full speed, it would only take ten minutes at most before the Casaloz's stamina began to wear down, slowing it down more and more.

　An adult green dragon might not feel tired even after flying like this for an hour.

　Worse still, there was a robust green dragon who possessed the magic of flight.

　We can no longer fly to the distant coastline.

　Even if he could fly there, he would have already revealed that he couldn't swim, and he wouldn't be able to escape the green dragon in the sea, which had the supernatural ability to breathe underwater.

　Casalos reassessed the situation, lowered his altitude slightly, and slowly changed course with the increasingly close Lelotar, flying towards the depths of the dark jungle to the east.

　"What? That's a jungle over there! Have you panicked and lost your way, you reckless little Iron Dragon brat?"

　A hoarse dragon's voice came through the air; Lylothar had caught up to a distance where he could communicate with Casaroz using a roar.

　Casalos remained silent, not wasting its precious energy on verbal sparring with the old green dragon. It simply curled up its limbs as much as possible, spreading its wings to the extent that it could support its own weight with the help of ground effect, trying its best to reduce the wind resistance it experienced, and tilted its head to stare intently at the old green dragon flying behind and above it.

　He stared at the claw that was already reaching out to him.

　The green dragon then spoke, clearly trying to interfere.

　Just as the enormous, deformed green dragon claws, designed for climbing trees, were about to touch Casalos's neck and back, it suddenly tilted its head to the left and simultaneously spread its right wing.

　The sudden shift in the balance between drag and lift generated a tremendous torque. Casaloz rolled sideways and turned left as if plummeting into the canopy, kicking up large swaths of leaves and snapping several slender branches.

　The old green dragon, having made a seemingly foolproof pick, let out a roar that seemed to pierce the soul.

　Fear spread through Casalos's heart, quickly growing to the point where it could affect its control over its body, but it stopped at the last moment.

　The Iron Will, not yet a specialization, took effect, preventing Casalos from being intimidated by the green dragon's might. However, this incomplete Iron Will was not enough to make it completely immune to the dragon's might; the terrifying aura still lingered in the young dragon's mind, generating a dreadful pressure that compelled it to only want to flee into the distance.

　It no longer paid attention to what was behind it; all its attention was focused on what was in front of it, on the path it was flying.

Chapter 29

　The bag of sunflower seeds spun rapidly, judging the strength and size of branches or other obstacles flashing past, as well as its actual height above the ground, in order to make a choice to crash into or change direction to avoid them.

　The side-turning feat learned while flying around the cave after hatching came in handy. Even when the terrified Iron Dragon hatchling was flying at full speed at the height of the treetop, it still managed to avoid the thick tree trunk in time. It flew erratically and precariously in the air, gradually moving further and further away.

　The commotion of the mature green dragon rushing into the forest was like a meteor falling to earth, and the storm blew through the leaves of the tree canopy, creating ripples.

　Then came the sound of trees being knocked down, Lelotar's curses, and the flapping of wings of a massive body as it took off again.

　There was also the sound of startled jungle animals scattering and fleeing.

　It's now!

　Casalos's indigo eyes suddenly narrowed, and his entire body transformed into the shape of a scops owl. He mingled with the flock of other birds that had been startled and flown out of the treetops, and together they flew north.

　Just as Lylotar emerged from the bushes and regained her sight, she lost her template again. She roared once more, and the aura of some kind of magic radiated outwards, sweeping over the startled bird, sweeping over Casalos's body, and turning into a ball of green light that stuck to it.

　"Haha, let's see where you can run now. How dare you play tricks on me, you damned little brat!"

　Realizing he had been exposed, Casalos once again descended and charged into the woods, crashing onto a thick tree trunk. He transformed into a large cat covered in glossy black fur, using the acceleration from his descent to run and leap between the tree trunks.

　The green orb of light remained attached to it.

　29. Escape from Longkou

　The black panther Casaloz hadn't run far when Lelotar crashed into the woods in front of it, sweeping down a large number of trees with a tail sweep.

　Casalos, who had just leaped from a tree trunk, lost his landing spot, but transformed into a parrot in mid-air. He flapped his wings and spun sideways to dodge the dragon's claws, flew into the still intact treetop next to him, transformed into a flying squirrel to glide to the ground, and then transformed into a deer to leap away.

　It had just noticed that the trees here were taller and thicker, and the terrain was much flatter, making it faster to run on them than to jump on the tree trunks.

　Lelotar charged forward, knocking down several trees, but found that these trees were in the way and prevented him from catching up with the leaping deer. He had no choice but to take off again and chase after it from the air.

　Casalos changed into a smaller form and turned to escape when Casalos landed to block him.

　This cycle repeated several times, but Lelotar never managed to touch a single scale of Casalos, and Casalos never escaped Lelotar's control.

　On the other side, Lantello also flew overhead and rushed into the woods to join his mate in initially chasing and intercepting the ever-changing Iron Dragon cub.

　However, it was all for naught. The adult male dragons, which charged even more recklessly after landing, couldn't even touch the slippery Casaroz and were instead dragged into a violent collision with Lelotar.

　The female green dragon struck the male dragon twice with her wings, scattering emerald green scales all over the ground. The male dragon had no choice but to hunch its head and fly into the sky, blocking Casalos's escape route from the outer edge and compressing its range of activity.

　Casalos was actually gambling; he was betting that the green dragon didn't want to kill him so easily.

　It's just a young iron dragon. If the two adult green dragons can't capture one alive to take back as a slave, how will they ever be able to survive in the green dragon circle again? What face will they have to call themselves green dragons? Green dragons have always been like this.

　Fortunately, it made the right gamble. Otherwise, regardless of the green dragon, if it had unleashed a devastating dragon breath or cast a homing damaging spell as soon as it flew in, Casalos would have been reduced to ashes long ago.

　Since the green dragon couple didn't want to kill it, it still had a chance to escape.

　Form change is indeed a god-tier skill. Even if it can't give the Iron Dragon skills or abilities it doesn't already possess, the change in form is enough to give Casalos a huge mobility advantage.

　The jungle environment and terrain are characterized by their complexity and variability. Casalos' ability to choose the right form to deal with different "roads" ensured that his escape speed was almost never slowed down.

　On the other hand, the crisscrossing trees on the two green dragons' side constantly hindered their massive bodies from moving quickly, forcing them to take flight every now and then to intercept them from the front.

　Thus, Casalos had the opportunity to slowly move towards the Hazul Mountains with the two green dragons. Furthermore, the glowing green mark spell on its body was fading.

　What is in the Hazur Mountains?

　It is said that a group of grumpy, sculpted stone giants live in a massive stone mansion on a remote mountain peak. Given the giants' innate hostility towards dragons, they would surely relentlessly pursue any green dragon that intrudes into their territory... Unfortunately, Casalos can't count on them; it has no idea where the stone giants' settlement is located.

　But in addition to that, there are also complex caves in the mountains that can be utilized.

　In fact, Casaloz has not yet been able to leave the area surrounding the Athelon Sanctuary. Given the terrain of the Sanctuary, which is full of volcanic caves, if it finds a cave on its way to the Hazul Mountains, it will basically escape the clutches of the green dragon couple.

　The ideal was beautiful, and reality didn't make things too difficult for the newly hatched dragon chicks.

　As dusk fell, Casalos, who had been twirling and dancing between the claws of the green dragon couple like a tightrope walker, had traveled less than five kilometers northwest when a narrow cave entrance, barely wide enough for small animals to squeeze through, came into view. Casalos, who had transformed into some kind of night owl, tumbled and dodged a claw strike from Lelotar.

　Excitedly flapping its wings, it sprinted to the limit of its flight speed and rushed towards the narrow and dark cave entrance.

　Lelotar let out another low growl carrying the might of a dragon, opened its crocodile-like mouth, and a pungent acidic smell quickly spread, while strong acid emitting a green light spewed out from its mouth.

　Clearly, it had also discovered the burrow and immediately understood Casaroz's plan. Feeling annoyed at being tricked, coupled with the possibility that its prey might actually escape, it completely abandoned its plan to leave its claws. It was going to use its strongest dragon breath to annihilate all of Casaroz's life.

　The shadow of death loomed over Casaloz, which charged forward with all its might, ignoring the thorny bushes blocking the entrance that might harm its high-speed flight in owl form, and crashed headlong into the cave.

　The sharp thorns and tangled vines in the bushes, like barbed wire on a beach, tore off the feathers of the owls that crashed into them at high speed, ripped open their skin, and scraped off bits of flesh and blood.

　Casalos felt no pain. It dared not feel pain, much less succumb to the dragon's wrath—the dragon's breath, as the green dragon took shape, was like a guillotine falling from the guillotine, stimulating its body to secrete excessive adrenaline, which combined with boiling magic power, bypassing the dragon's wrath and entering a new state. This caused it to ignore all unimportant information, and all its mental energy was highly focused on the action of "escaping for its life."

　The bushes were about to completely engulf it when it transformed from its owl form into a slender, wounded weasel. Wielding its agile limbs, it darted through the gaps in the vines and across the latter half of the bushes with almost no descent. Upon landing, it transformed back into a smaller mouse, more suited to running in burrows, and scurried down.

　The highly corrosive magical acid, almost entirely clinging to its tail, poured down in a deluge. The sounds of the liquid hitting the ground and the hissing of corrosion rang out simultaneously, converging and mixing into a muffled explosion-like sound, creating a shockwave that spread outwards.

　Trees withered, rocks boiled, and a pungent smell spread through the jungle with the white mist.

　As the white mist dissipated, only a large, bubbling pit remained. The mature female green dragon sat on the edge of the pit, gritting her teeth and shouting in dragon language, "You ignorant brat, I'll see how long you can hide in this cave!"

　The adult male green dragon arrived late, flapping its wings as it landed beside the female green dragon.

　boom!

　A dull, resounding impact followed by a whooshing sound echoed through the air.

Chapter 30

　With her rage finding no outlet, the green dragon Lylothar cleaved Lantello to the ground with a single, powerful strike.

　It stepped on the male dragon's neck with its forelimb and cursed viciously, "You piece of trash, you're so slow at everything. Go, gather all our descendants and all our servants, especially those barking dog-headed people, and bring them here!"

　I will wait here and use divination to find every connecting cave entrance. You and your useless servants will guard all the places.

　I don't care what method you use—whether you dig it in bit by bit with your claws or pry it open with magic—you must personally drag that iron dragon cub out and bring it properly before me!

　A single breath of dragonfire failed to kill Casaloz, and it escaped again. Enraged, Lylothar changed its mind. It decided to torture this iron dragon cub that dared to toy with it, making it wish it were dead...

　Beneath the cave, Casalos was still racing against death.

　The narrow entrance to the cave could prevent the massive green dragon from entering, but it couldn't stop the flow of liquid, highly acidic dragon breath.

　The acid, imbued with dragon magic, poured into the winding tunnel, rapidly corroding the rocks and soil, and like a raging torrent, it chased after Casaroz in its rat form, forcing it to continue to descend deeper into the earth.

　The natural rock caves are full of winding passages and forks; if you choose the wrong path and end up in a dead end, Casaloz will perish from the green dragon's acidic breath.

　Perhaps it was the dragon god Chronipus who sensed the return of the extinct Athena to the heavens, or perhaps it was the merciful lady Tamara's unique protection of the young dragons, but Casalos was undoubtedly lucky. He never chose a completely impassable path. Even when he encountered a dead end for a rat, he always managed to leave a crack so that it could transform into a smaller creature and pass through.

　It kept running, and the dragon's breath behind it grew weaker and weaker, flowing slower and slower.

　After running for an unknown amount of time, the pungent smell from the reaction between the strong acid and the minerals faded, the hissing sound of corrosion disappeared, and a bright, open space appeared before Casalos's eyes.

　It instinctively rushed into it and resumed its dragon form, stumbling and breaking several stalagmites before collapsing to the ground, panting heavily.

　It stopped abruptly, its adrenaline levels plummeting, its boiling magic subsiding, and a searing pain engulfing its entire body. The dragon's wrath descended fiercely, but Casaloz, already in a state of madness, was unable to move. It had exhausted too much physical and magical energy; its muscles were strained, its joints severely worn, and the remaining, subsided dragon magic was insufficient to support any further action.

　Thus, the dragon's rage, which had been ineffective, quickly faded in disappointment, and Casalos regained consciousness. A tingling, numb, and powerless sensation seeped into the pain. It didn't even have the strength to groan; it could only rely on its increasingly strong will to forcefully open its mouth, stick out its tongue, and lick a few mouthfuls of the condensed water on the ground, replenishing its body's meager energy, before falling into a deep sleep... or perhaps "coma" would be a more accurate description.

　Not long after waking up, Casalos fell into a coma again.