Chapter 778 - 765: Power
Bado led the team, tracing along the shadow of the ridge towards the bottom of the ravine.
Roars echoed between the mountain walls, indistinguishable whether they came from ahead or from above, while the tremors of the battle lightly shook the gravel beneath their feet.
The squad numbered more than twenty; aside from Bado being at Lord Level, there were two Palace Level members, while the rest were uniformly Diamond Level.
If Lin Jun was here and opened their panel, she would see that most of the members had the title of [Dragon Slayer (Immune to Dragon Mighty)].
As dwarfs endured the harassment from giant dragons, they gradually learned some methods to deal with them.
One point was that when engaging a giant dragon in open battle, the numbers meant little.
A giant dragon’s tough dragon scales could make them immune to the vast majority of insufficiently powerful attacks. During sieges, low-tier soldiers could operate bed crossbows and similar devices for an effect.
But in field battles, they could only act as meat shields to share damage, something Bado naturally wouldn’t do.
"Captain, look!" After crossing a low hillock, a team member pointed towards another mountain peak.
There, halfway up the mountain, lay a pasture for rams. At this moment, most of the stone walls of the pasture had collapsed, and the wooden fences had been burned to charcoal.
Some charred rams lay scattered on the ground, while the others that should have been in the pasture had vanished without a trace, clearly scared off by the giant dragon to an unknown location.
"Those damned lizards!" Bado was full of fury.
This pasture was tied to the food supply issue of the dwarf city he was in.
Just as Bado cursed, a magic staff gently knocked on his helmet.
He swiftly turned his head to glare at the white-bearded dwarf mage behind him, but the mage wasn’t looking at him. Instead, he raised his staff, using minimal magic power to deflect light and obscure the entire team’s outline into the surrounding rocks and bushes before finally looking dissatisfiedly at Bado.
Bado lowered his voice, squeezing out a few words through clenched teeth: "Got it, damn."
The dragon’s senses were exceptionally sharp; they had suffered a loss on this matter once before.
The battle in the ravine continued, but one dragon’s roar was already very weak, while the other grew louder and more triumphant, as if declaring victory.
Bado felt the handle of his axe, quickening his pace.
...
The Red Dragon, covered in wounds, collapsed powerlessly, its massive body crushing dozens of sturdy trees, making the whole forest tremble.
Its eyes were still open, the golden vertical pupils already beginning to scatter, reflecting the twilight’s afterglow.
"Azra... you’ve become so strong..." The Red Dragon’s voice was hoarse, carrying a hint of disbelief.
The Blue Dragon pressed a claw on its neck, the claw tips sinking into the gaps between the scales, blood dripping down along the toes.
Azra lowered her head, gazing at the Red Dragon’s bloody and battered dragon face: "Because while you creatures, naturally stronger, kept up old habits, fought and then slept for ten or half a month at a time, I haven’t stopped fighting for a single moment! Your loss is not unjust."
"Ha... don’t talk as if you can definitely win in the end... the strongest... is still..."
Azra didn’t let it finish. With a forceful grip, the Red Dragon’s unscaled neck beneath her claws emitted a crisp snapping sound.
The sound that had not yet concluded was cut off in its throat, never to be uttered again.
With the Red Dragon’s demise, Azra turned her dragon head sideways, gazing toward the dim forest on her side — in the middle of the forest, there was a blur of light and shadow.
"Discovered, attack!" Bado leaped out from the blurred light and shadow, swinging the giant axe high to slash at the Blue Dragon’s head.
Over a dozen figures rushed out from the woods in succession, with the white-haired elder mage standing at the far back, holding the magic staff high, magical power surging around him.
"Shadow Binding!"
The shadows of the surrounding trees stretched, transforming into black cords that entangled the Blue Dragon’s limbs, neck, and body from all sides.
They had used this combination multiple times; as long as they could bind it for an instant, Bado’s axe would be able to stun the giant dragon, with the other dwarfs following up swiftly. Sometimes they could even end a battle without any casualties.
But what they didn’t know was that dragons who had already journeyed to the latter half of the [Ancient Dragon Path] were fundamentally incomparable to those they had caught before.
"Is this how you took out those fools?"
As the Universal Language spilled from the Blue Dragon’s mouth, Bado was suddenly alarmed, sensing something amiss, but his axe didn’t stop.
Azra merely took a step back. The shadow bindings entwined around her body were torn apart like a cobweb.
Bado’s giant axe struck open ground, sending rocks flying and creating a giant deep pit on the ground.
Bado realized, something bad was happening!
"Careful!" The elder mage’s slightly hoarse voice, due to rebound from the broken spell, came from behind everyone, "This guy’s at a completely different level from those previous dragons!"
It was too late.
Azra opened her massive mouth, and the dragon breath accumulated since the moment the Red Dragon had fallen transformed into a thunderball condensed to the extreme!
Where the thunderball passed, the ground was gouged out into a charred trench, and the trees it swept across didn’t even manage to ignite, directly turning into charcoal.
Bado had nowhere to hide.
He let out a roar, his right foot stomping fiercely forward, runes on the giant axe lighting up entirely, the axe blade turning crimson as it struck down towards that approaching thunderball.
The instant the axe blade collided with the thunderball, nothing but that beam of white light remained in the world.
Bado couldn’t see anything, couldn’t hear anything.
Only the scorching electric arc surged along the axe handle, searing through his palm, searing through his arm, searing through half his body.
Clenching his teeth, he gripped the axe handle tightly, pressing all his strength onto the widening crack in the thunderball.
The thunderball finally was cut with a gap, splitting around his side.
The smoke and dust gradually dispersed.
Bado braced himself on the half-remaining axe, kneeling on one knee on the charred earth. His armor was still smoking, and the exposed skin was charred and cracked. He looked back incredulously.
Behind him, a V-shaped scorched mark extended from where he stood, ending with a few dwarfs lying haphazardly, emitting black smoke, their fates uncertain, and in more places, there was nothing, just shattered armor remains and a pile of black ash scattered on the scorched earth.
Only Bado was still standing, along with the old mage far off, leaning on a staff, with blood dripping from the corner of his mouth.
Bado lifted his head, gazing at the blue beast still standing on the Red Dragon’s corpse, his voice hoarse, unrecognizable as his own.
"How... could it... be so strong?"
Azra looked down at him, scoffing: "Short-lived, fragile insects; you think you’re formidable just because you took out a few fools with a despicable ambush? You know nothing of true power!"
The dragon claw pressed towards Bado, Azra’s movement not too quick, akin to taking a regular step forward.
Yet Bado, his legs seared to numbness, couldn’t even evade, only able to hold up the broken axe, gritting his teeth to withstand the dragon claw.
The dwarf elder mage shot spells one by one, yet they couldn’t affect Azra’s gradual pressing down motion of the dragon claw at all.
Suddenly, a shadow obscured the sunset in the ravine, and Bado only felt that pressure that nearly crushed him disappear completely.
Azra withdrew the dragon claw, raising her head to look towards the dragon shadow perched atop the mountain peak.
"Great Dragon..."