Translator: AnubisTL
The night wind rustled through the branches, creating a soft, whispering sound as the leaves brushed against each other. The shadows of the branches stretched long and thin across the ground.
Moonlight, fractured by the leaves, dappled Garos's scales in scattered patches of light.
His massive body pushed through the undergrowth, claws tearing at vines as he sniffed the metallic tang of blood in the air. After searching the area for several minutes, he stopped, focusing his gaze.
There, lying quietly on the ground, was a severed tail of a serpent dragon. The green dragon blood seeping from the wound had corroded the surrounding gravel and broken branches, forming a bubbling pool of emerald liquid around the severed appendage. The pool continued to bubble and expand, its corrosive edge creeping outward.
"The poison is in the blood. Why doesn't it kill itself?"
Garos gripped the tail, lifting it with his claws. Then, beating his dragon wings, he soared into the sky, turning back toward Needleleaf Valley.
He had come out to investigate his "neighbors."
Garos had originally intended to survey multiple intelligent creature clans and powerful ferocious beasts or demonic beasts in one outing. However, after discovering the presence of a cliff serpent dragon at the graymane werewolf tribe and engaging it in a fight, he had been poisoned in the wing. With no desire to continue his investigation, he decided to return to Needleleaf Valley first.
Soon after,
Garos flew to the skies above Needleleaf Valley, folded his dragon wings, and landed in his usual training ground—an open clearing in the valley.
On the west side of the clearing, the fairy dragon Vera lay fast asleep in the branches of a tree, swaying gently.
Garos's arrival didn't wake her. She first twitched her nose, then suddenly thrashed her limbs and tail as if having a nightmare. Losing her balance, she tumbled to the ground with a thud.
"S-s-s-s-s-serpent dragon! Don't eat me!"
The fairy dragon trembled like a quail, shouting in terror.
She had just dreamt of encountering a serpent dragon, being captured, and about to be brutally devoured.
But as her eyes fluttered open, she realized she was still in Needleleaf Valley, facing the robust form of a red iron hybrid dragon. With no trace of a serpent dragon in sight, her fear subsided slightly.
Yet she soon grew puzzled.
She could clearly smell the scent of a serpent dragon.
Serpent dragons loved to eat dragons, with elves high on their menu. They also relished fey creatures like pixies and flower sprites. As both a dragon and a fey being, the fairy dragon was a delicacy to them.
In essence, serpent dragons were the fairy dragon's natural predator.
Back in the fae wilderness, the Unicorn Elder had often used serpent dragons to frighten the fairy dragons, and it had never failed.
Fairy dragons are highly sensitive to the scent of their natural enemies. The little creature's head swiveled constantly, sniffing the air, before finally settling on Garos.
Indeed, the serpent dragon's scent emanated from Garos.
It fluttered its butterfly-like dragon wings toward Garos and circled his body.
It noticed that Garos was clutching a severed green tail in his clawed hand. Along the edge of his right wing was a patch of foul-smelling, dark green color, where several fine scales had fallen off, revealing a festering, pus-filled membrane.
"Did you encounter a serpent dragon? And get exposed to its venomous blood?" the fairy dragon asked with concern.
"A cliff serpent dragon," Garos replied. He extended his right wing, carefully examining the dark green area corroded by the serpent dragon's venom.
The sharp pain was gone, replaced by numbness. The palm-sized festering patch was almost completely insensitive.
Dragonkind possess robust constitutions and innate resistance to toxins.
Ordinary poisons have little effect on them.
But the cliff serpent dragon's venom, which seemed to have evolved specifically for internal conflict and hunting other dragons, could inflict significant damage on their bodies.
"Cliff serpent dragons aren't skilled in close combat, but their venomous blood is truly troublesome."
"Unless I can defeat it from a distance, I'm in trouble. Even if I could tear it to shreds in close combat, the amount of its venomous blood I'd be drenched in could still severely injure me."
Garos thought silently.
Severe injury—Garos had experienced it once during his Hatchling Stage.
He was three years old at the time, and had just realized he possessed an Evolutionary Talent. Unable to control the arrogance inherent in his dragon nature, he had excitedly flown to his maximum altitude and attempted his first "Sun-Earth" maneuver, hoping to rapidly enhance his strength through such a drastic measure.
The result was a devastating fall that left him severely injured.
It took him over half a month to gradually recover.
Moreover, his Evolutionary Talent provided no satisfying feedback after the incident.
This made him realize that his talent favored gradual progress through consistent effort rather than impulsive bursts of intensity.
Now, without the protection of the iron dragon maiden, a severe injury could easily prove fatal if he encountered other dangers.
Meanwhile, the fairy dragon flew to Garos's wound and anxiously urged, "Quick, dig out this flesh! It will help the wound heal faster."
Garos had promised to play with the fairy dragon and had even had the earthstorm bears in his territory join in the games.
The little creature seemed to have forgotten it was an imprisoned captive, forcibly bound by the Enslavement Contract, and had mistaken Garos for a companion.
"No need," Garos shook his head, rejecting the fairy dragon's suggestion.
He lifted the severed tail of the serpent dragon, and his dragon wings slowly unfurled. The edges, covered in metallic structures, glided inch by inch along the tail, the razor-sharp wing blades drawing poison blood. A hissing, corrosive sound filled the air.
Occasionally, his movements were too vigorous.
Toxic blood splattered across Garos's wingspan, leaving behind ink-green stains that sent bone-chilling, agonizing pain through him, as if thousands of snakes were biting him simultaneously.
The fairy dragon's eyes widened at this sight.
I've never heard that cliff serpent dragon poison drives dragons mad!
"Wh-wh-wh-what are you doing?!" It circled Garos anxiously.
Meanwhile, a fiery red dragon silhouette emerged from between the pine trees and approached—Samantha, who had also caught the scent of the cliff serpent dragon.
"Overreacting," Samantha said, looking down her nose at Vera, the Fairy Dragon. She tilted her chin and added, "Little one, you'll get used to things like this after you've seen them enough. Garos just likes this sort of thing. It's one of its peculiar hobbies."
The Fairy Dragon flinched slightly at the sight of the red dragon.
Samantha had initially wanted to eat it, which was why Vera was still a little afraid. However, because of Garos's warning and the fact that the fairy dragon wasn't even a mouthful, Samantha's interest in it had waned, and she no longer showed any desire to eat it.
Vera, the Fairy Dragon, forced herself to calm down and act less afraid of the red dragon.
Hearing Samantha's words and recalling Garos's earlier, heart-shaking deeds, she vaguely understood what Samantha meant.
"It... it seems to be the case. Garos's interests are quite unusual. The first time I saw it..."
The Fairy Dragon instinctively began to tell the red young dragon.
(End of the Chapter)
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