TL/N: 🎁 GIVEAWAY ALERT! (Details at the end)
Translator: AnubisTL
The firelight and thick smoke behind them gradually blurred under the torrential rain.
Garos and the other dragons soared through the clouds, having escaped the immediate danger.
Samantha's scales bulged, stuffed with celestial pool gems. Cyan light flickered through the gaps between her scales, reflecting in the red dragon's excited vertical pupils.
"Look at these gems!" Samantha's voice nearly drowned out the rain. She spread her dragon wings, performed a mid-air somersault, and proudly displayed a gem, shaking her prize. "Each one is worth enough gold to last us ages!"
The Iron Dragon Solgorn glanced at the red dragon, his iron-gray scales still stained with the blood of the warehouse guards.
"Only fools would trade magic gems for gold," he scoffed, flicking his tail.
The Iron Dragon's tail coiled around a massive, uncut celestial pool stone, roughly the size of an adult human head. Wind-attribute magic flowed across its surface in swirling patterns.
"Decent purity, but the cutting is far too crude," he remarked critically, tapping the gem's surface with his claw. "These people have no idea how to handle true treasures."
Garos flew at the vanguard, half a crossbow bolt still embedded in his black-red scales. Rain washed down the shaft, carrying streaks of dragon blood that quickly evaporated into mist from the dragon's heat.
Crack!
Garos snapped the arrow shaft with his claws, bared his teeth, and yanked out the barbed arrowhead, leaving a bloody hole in his flesh. His body was riddled with similar wounds, large and small.
The regular army, armed with war machines, was far more formidable than the noble's private forces he had faced before.
Their crossbows were devastatingly powerful, firing with incredible speed and accuracy. The alchemy golems were equally formidable, proving resistant to all but the most sustained assaults.
Garos had activated his frenzy state early to create chaos.
Yet even in the midst of the chaos, he couldn't completely evade the relentless barrage.
His harden body quasi-spell skill was quickly overwhelmed, and even his scales struggled to withstand the onslaught. The heavy crossbows and alchemy golems left deep gouges in his armor, wounds that were neither life-threatening nor insignificant.
It was fortunate that Garos was the one facing this assault.
Had it been any other ordinary juvenile dragon, the anti-air crossbows would have pierced straight through their bodies, with far more dire consequences than mere flesh wounds.
Then there was the anti-air pillar.
Though it couldn't completely negate Garos's flight, it had momentarily weighed him down. Only the extraordinary strength of his wings allowed him to maintain altitude.
If it had been Solgorn or Samantha, they would have plummeted straight to the ground. That's why he destroyed the anti-air pillar immediately—otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to loot anything afterward.
Facing a proper legion, one couldn't afford to be careless; they had to be taken seriously.
Garos thought to himself.
This raid on the mine camp wasn't just about grabbing some last-minute loot to recoup their losses before leaving; it was also a test of the regular legion's strength.
Back when he was a young dragon, he would always steer clear of such camps, regardless of their size.
Now, though slightly wounded, the adolescent Garos could emerge unscathed from a direct, fierce confrontation.
He had truly grown stronger.
"We got more than expected this time," the red-iron dragon said, glancing back at his two companions. "Samantha, stop showing off and tighten your scales. We don't want any gems falling out."
The red dragon reluctantly clamped her scales shut, suppressing the azure glow.
Solgorn, clutching the largest celestial pool gem tightly in his tail, added, "If we could find a spellcaster skilled in enchantments, this gem could serve as the core for a powerful barrier."
Garos nodded slightly, then narrowed his dragon eyes, turning to gaze at the distant horizon.
Through the rain-soaked haze, the mine camp was barely visible.
Though the details were obscured, Garos was certain the garrison had already reported the raid and theft as an emergency, and might even be calling for reinforcements.
"They won't let this go," Garos said, his deep voice cutting through the rain. "We need to be extra cautious in the coming days to avoid being hunted down."
Samantha scoffed, dismissing the threat. "Let them come! I'll make them taste dragon breath."
The iron dragon glanced at her. "Foolish. If a professional dragon-slaying team arrives, your flames won't even scratch their anti-magic shields."
The red dragon was about to retort when Garos suddenly raised a claw, signaling for silence.
The dragons' keen hearing had already picked up the distant roar of engines, like thunderbolts echoing across the sky.
The sound wasn't coming from the mine camp, but from Lothurn Federation territory to the east.
Garos's heart tightened as he turned to face the east.
As the engine roar grew louder, the clouds parted to reveal a pair of metallic wings spanning over forty meters. Constructed from three thousand two hundred tempered steel feathers, each feather was etched with wind-breaking and levitation runes along its edges.
This alchemy golem, codenamed "Wrath of Heaven," soared through the sky at breakneck speed, pursuing the juvenile dragon.
The nineteen-point-eight-meter-tall steel behemoth tore through wind and rain, its passage creating a suffocating roar.
Its head, streamlined like a falcon's, pulsed with eerie blue light in its eye sockets. As the hydraulic rods in its neck extended and retracted, the pupils on its metallic faceplates simultaneously locked onto the three juvenile dragons.
The Duchy of Raymond garrison, having been attacked and robbed, had requested this high-energy golem as reinforcements from the nearest Lothurn Federation garrison.
For the juvenile dragons, engaging in combat was a poor choice. More golems and powerful pursuers might follow, and they couldn't afford to be entangled.
"Split up," Garos commanded tersely, his expression grim. "Rendezvous at Quenching Highlands."
The iron dragon and red dragon, recognizing the gravity of the situation, responded with immediate action.
Samantha veered south first, her crimson scales leaving a vivid trail through the rain. Solgorn silently dove into the clouds, his iron-gray form quickly merging with the dark storm clouds.
Garos estimated the wrath of heaven's speed and took a deep breath.
The icy rain and howling wind surged down the red-iron dragon's throat, flooding his lungs.
Garos turned his head and unleashed a blinding electric fire dragon breath that pierced through the wind and rain, hurtling toward the Wrath of Heaven.
The runes on the steel feathers glowed brightly.
The massive, heavy steel body arced nimbly through the air, dodging the dragon breath. Blue flames erupted from its back, accelerating it as it smashed through the rain curtain, locked onto Garos, and pursued him in a straight line.
Having determined that Garos was the higher-level target, it prioritized hunting him down.
Garos didn't immediately accelerate, instead circling the Wrath of Heaven for a while. As the distance between them gradually closed and the other two juvenile dragons had already retreated in different directions, he grinned, squeezed a black oil canister from his storage stomach, crushed it in his jaws, and swallowed it. He then licked a pinch of fairy scale powder from beneath his scales.
Thick, surging crimson flames erupted from the tips of his silver wing bones, like pouring oil onto a fire.
Frenzy State!
He simultaneously activated Frenzy State, golden lightning crackling across his body.
Boom!
With a thunderous flap of his wings, the red-iron dragon instantly shattered the sound barrier. A circular shockwave radiated outward, leaving a long, crimson-gold trail in its wake.
In an instant, he had surged nearly 800 meters away, smashing a clear path through the torrential rain.
The wrath of heaven's pursuit proved futile.
As an aerial combat golem equipped with flight modules, it possessed considerable speed. However, compared to Garos's supersonic velocity, it was utterly outmatched.
Strength and defense were secondary considerations.
Garos's speed and maneuverability were his greatest assets, his most formidable advantages.
Even creatures far surpassing him in level, unless naturally gifted in flight and speed, would struggle to keep pace with his velocity.
Minutes later, the wrath of heaven could only glimpse a faint, flickering light gradually vanishing into the thick, impenetrable rain.
It had lost him.
High above, within the cloud layers, the golden lightning crackling around Garos gradually subsided. He gasped for breath, each wingbeat still trembling from the exertion.
He glanced back at the pursuer, now a mere speck on the horizon, his dragon heart still pounding fiercely.
Not from fear, but from an indescribable thrill of battle.
(End of the Chapter)
------------------------------------------------------
🔸 Read ahead up to Ch249 (DRAGON) on: CinderTL
🔸 Free chapters up to Ch168
🔸 No sign-up required!
🔸 Just search us on Google to find our official site.
🎁 GIVEAWAY ALERT! 🎁
💲 Want a Free 10-Day Baron Membership?
📆 You have until 𝗝𝘂𝗻𝗲 𝟭𝟭𝘁𝗵 to grab it before it's gone forever!
🌐 For details, go to the CinderTL site 🏃💨
------------------------------------------------------