dmims Page 42
Page 42
Of course, that's the background of a fantasy work, but the red dragon's fondness for humans is indeed related to the right of first night. In the red dragon's philosophy, this is a symbol of power. Consuming the pure gives the red dragon immense psychological satisfaction.
Yes, humans are the red dragon's favorite food.
Lusien's consideration was very thorough, but unfortunately Casalos would never eat that stuff. However, this didn't really have a big impact; Dragon Territory was currently lacking in everything, and it would definitely find a use for anything, whether it liked it or not.
We'll keep these women confined on the surface for now, and every few days we'll select a few to "eat"—that is, secretly send them back to the Rift Valley. They can do some gathering, animal husbandry, or handicrafts to supplement the labor force. Who knows, they might even develop some interracial romances with the residents of Dragon Territory...
The purple-robed lich arrived in haste, then left just as quickly, and then seemed to vanish without a trace, remaining silent for a month or two. Casalos wasn't worried about this; this was actually the normal state of communication between the various regions and forces of Faerûn.
Located near the Dragon Coast, Evanso, a caravan carrying a large amount of cargo, would need to travel several hundred kilometers westward along the main road to reach the Black Jungle where Casalos is currently located. From there, they would need to transfer to riverboats and travel down the Chongsa River to Baldur's Gate. From there, they would board a sea vessel from Baldur's Gate and sail south into the Sword Sea, crossing the Netherlands and the Esswell Strait, before finally reaching the Radiant Sea and landing on the Zultan Peninsula.
Just considering the distance, even if the team had a smooth journey, it would still take several months to complete this route. Not to mention that this road is surrounded by bandits and is extremely dangerous. I wonder how many bandits and pirates Evanso and his liches will have to kill to deliver Casaloz's "gift" this time. This can be considered as making a small contribution to the stability and peace of the Faerûn continent.
Dragon Territory continues its steady development. With a limited population and scarce resources in the Rift Valley, this so-called development is hardly anything to write home about.
It's worth mentioning that, two weeks after Lusien delivered the list, the Orange Dragon and the crippled Green Dragon finally found the Kotao Fishmen hiding in a deep crevice at the bottom of the lake. According to Shacales, they engaged in a "thrilling" underwater battle with the Kotao Fishmen, were ambushed and nearly lost their lives, and finally, after many hardships and serious injuries, they persevered and fought hard to capture the remaining foes.
Casalos didn't believe a word of these words. It was true that both dragons were injured, and the wounds were indeed caused by weapons commonly used by the Koto fishmen. When the crippled green dragon Shakales returned to the mushroom patch, two short spears were still stuck in its chest… However, these two spears precisely avoided all of Shakales' vital points. One of them even pierced through the less than 5cm gap between its basal vessel and heart, yet its heart and basal vessel weren't even scratched. Wasn't this a clear case of feigned injury?
Besides, they're just a bunch of remnants of the Koto fishmen who have lost their spellcasters. As long as the two dragons find them, Bellamy's dragon might will be enough to crush them all. There's no need for a tough battle.
He exposed the green dragon's little trick on the spot, forcibly twisted its short tail into a knot as punishment, and then verbally scolded the orange dragon, who was sure to be fooled by the green dragon again. He then handed the Koto fishman over to Svent to train him properly, and the "navy" of the dragon territory had hope.
Casalos then transformed into a red dragon and led several dragon vein sorcerers to the surface.
Since I'm going to join the Elvanso City Nest organization as a Red Dragon, I naturally need to cultivate this identity properly. A lone outpost on the ground doesn't look like the territory a Red Dragon should have.
The scouts discovered several peaks in the southern mountains that were perfect for red dragons to build their nests. Casalos's trip was to build a "nest" there, specifically for the Dragon Cult members and for showcasing to other Faerûn forces he would contact in the future.
However, since it's a mountain peak perfectly suited for red dragons to nest, it's quite normal for red dragons to reside there—that's how it is in Faerûn now.
Chapter 110
The true dragon population hasn't reached the point of near extinction during the final dragon frenzy. Red dragons and silver dragons have highly overlapping needs for nesting environments. Since they can't compete with the silver dragons, who are always calling for reinforcements and are particularly good at flying, there are many young red dragons who can only fly to remote areas like the Churt Peninsula to become kings of the mountains.
24.Challenge
"My lord, after we discovered the red dragon hunting in the skies above the western desert, we kept a close watch on its movements and followed it all the way to that mountain peak ahead."
On the Iron Dawn, the kobold dragon vein sorcerer of the illusionary class projected the mountain shape observed by the main lens of the optical telescope, and used a simple light dance spell as an indicator, guiding Casalos on the displayed image while reporting the reconnaissance situation.
The mountain projection revealed by the illusion was the tallest and most treacherous peak within a radius of tens of kilometers. Its summit pierced the clouds, and despite being in the tropics, it was covered in snow, truly a favorite habitat of red dragons.
Fire-type red dragons certainly don't like snow, but they do like high places, especially places that can be prefixed with "highest," as these places demonstrate their "supreme" status.
This is precisely why red dragons are so prone to territorial disputes with silver dragons.
“Its lair is here. Three days ago, we watched it grab a Triceratops and go inside, and it never came out again.”
Optical telescopes are great; they are purely passive sensors and do not emit any signals. Unless the target is equipped with some kind of high-level anti-reconnaissance prophecy or lucky spell, they are almost impossible to alert the target.
As long as they have eyes, even the weakest kobold can safely monitor a massive red dragon from a sufficiently long distance.
The light controlled by the Dance of Light spell focused on the cave carved out on the northwest side of the mountain. Peeking out from there, the dragon's eyesight allowed it to almost survey the entire desert surrounding Desera, which suited the red dragon's wishes even better.
Thus, the territory of the Red Dragon was vaguely defined.
This arrogant and violent creature probably frequently harasses the humanoid settlements southeast of Tindor, and merchant ships in Gasland Bay may have suffered greatly as a result. After it is wiped out, Casalos can then legitimately take its head to the primitive people of Tindor to collect some reasonable protection tax—based on the data analysis from the scouts' remote measurements, the red dragon occupying the mountain peak is very likely an adult red dragon.
A red dragon is no trash dragon like a drow dragon, green dragon, or orange dragon, let alone a fully grown one. This will be Casalos's first real-world battle after years of silence, and it doesn't think it has the strength to take down a red dragon like it did with Bellamy.
Lelotar was reduced to a helpless skull by the Silver Dragon Paladin's Demon-Slaying Slash, and the Orange Dragon Bellamy couldn't even withstand Casaloz's unleashed Summer Overlord combo. It had never found a suitable benchmark in reality to test its true strength. Now, the discovery of a fully grown red dragon was the perfect solution.
The dragon vein sorcerer, skilled in divination, checked to confirm that no ranged spells were monitoring the area. He then ordered the hounds to hover at a safe distance aboard the Iron Dawn. Casalos reverted to his Iron Dragon form, boarded the flight deck, and leaped down, roaring as he swooped down toward the Red Dragon's lair.
With several thousand meters to go, Casalos let out a challenging roar, the dragon's cry echoing through the clouds.
The red dragon heard Casaloz's challenge, poked its head out of its nest to take a look, and probably found that the challenger was just a young dragon, so it lost interest and slowly retreated back inside.
Casalos clicked his beak in dissatisfaction after his attempt to lure the enemy into an aerial battle failed.
Its current high challenge rating primarily stems from its advanced class rather than the increase in its inherent HD (Heavenly Hit Rate). In terms of Strength, a crucial attribute for ground combat, it lags far behind that of an adult red dragon. Charging into a red dragon's lair to fight it in the confined space would undoubtedly be a foolish choice. If it were to act so recklessly, it would very likely repeat its encounter with Bellamy.
With his indigo eyes rolling, Casalos swooped down, rapidly passing the entrance to the red dragon's lair. As he began to ascend, he slammed a fully charged breath into the cave, forming a massive fireball crackling with electricity.
After the deafening explosion, a roar that shook the mountains echoed from within the cave.
"You ignorant Iron Dragon brat, I was in a good mood and kindly let you go, but you dare to provoke me like this, 'Lord of the Mountain' Julius."
Flocks of birds took flight in panic from the hills at the foot of the snow-capped mountain, swarming down to the forest below.
"Lord of the Mountain? What a pathetic title. Have you red dragons fallen so low that you can only flaunt your power by targeting mountains that won't fight back?" Casaroz sneered, turning back and hurling another shaped fireball of breath into the red dragon's lair.
"you wanna die!"
The crimson dragon, at least two sizes larger than Casalos, finally emerged from its lair, flapping its wings and stirring up a storm as it rose into the air, chasing after the young iron dragon.
Casalos, having successfully enraged the red dragon, did not rush to attack. Instead, he somewhat frantically maintained a slightly slower pace than Julius and continued to ascend, leading it into the clouds high above the Black Jungle.
"Haha, it's too late to escape now. Let's see how high and how far you can fly."
The red dragon continued to roar, completely unaware that it was being dragged into a combat arena it was ill-suited for—it had only provoked a young dragon, and what red dragon would be wary of that? Julius, who had hurriedly chased after it from its lair, hadn't even cast any combat buffs on himself.
Diving into the clouds, Casalos used the obstruction of its view to fold its wings, roll over, and turn into a negative angle of attack, causing its ascent speed, maintained by inertia, to drop sharply.
Unaware of what was happening, Julius continued his relentless charge into the clouds, only to see a fireball, much larger than his head, hurtling towards him, its leaping arcs of electricity like lightning twisting within the clouds.
"You laughable young dragon, how dare you attack me with your feeble breath weapon!"
Without dodging or avoiding, possessing the characteristic of its fire-type subspecies being at least immune to half the power of the Iron Dragon's breath, along with high damage reduction and spell resistance, it charged headlong into the fireball...
"Damn it, what kind of vicious witchcraft is mixed in with your dragon breath!"
The two breaths Casalos spat into its lair probably didn't touch it, otherwise it would have discovered the disgusting power contained in Casalos's breath and wouldn't have wanted to touch it again even if it wouldn't suffer too much harm.
The blazing flames slowly burned away at the red dragon's life force, breaking through some of its spell resistance, and allowing the dragon breath from the young dragon to also inflict sufficient damage on it. This made Julius increasingly furious, ignoring the fact that he had not yet seen the Iron Dragon's young form.
Amidst the exploding sparks and flames, Casalos, now shrunken into a cone shape, extended its wings, which had been folded together at its tail. Using the head-to-tail line as an axis, it spun rapidly through the air, its sharp wing edges like the blades of a meat grinder, slashing towards the red dragon before it could react.
25. Falling into a trap
With the first half-circle, Casalos's right wing tip, piercing the sound, cut into Julius's neck.
Before colliding with the red dragon's scales, a strange resistance acted on Casalos's wingtip, sticky and syrupy, but without any real deceleration, only slightly reducing the "power" that its wingtip could generate.
Casalos, possessing the same characteristics, understood that this was the effect of the damage reduction ability specifically targeting slashes; only a targeted attribute could ignore this strange power. The damage reduction of an adult red dragon wasn't actually strong; even the most basic magical weapons could ignore it. Unfortunately, Casalos was far from reaching adolescence; his natural weapons—his claws, teeth, and wings—hadn't yet matured into magical weapons, his spellcasting ability wasn't high enough to unleash spells that enhanced his natural weapons, and his disintegration ability couldn't yet affect this special ability.
Chapter 111
They were able to forcefully cut through this barrier.
Even so, Casalos's wingtips, which were harder and sharper due to its advancement, still shattered Julius's scales, tore through its skin, and severed its muscles—but that was all.
Compared to an adult red dragon, it is still very small and disproportionate. Without risking getting too close, its wing strikes at its maximum attack range can only cause such minor superficial wounds to the red dragon.
However, it doesn't matter. Casalos never thought it could defeat an adult red dragon in one blow. It is still just a young dragon, and its growth path is more focused on improving its survivability.
Before Julius could react, Casalos, which was diving and spinning, had already completed half a circle. Its left wingtip connected with its right wing, creating a second wound on its neck below the wound caused by the right wing.
Then came the third, the fourth...
Casalos spun five and a half times in an instant, like a propeller, cutting an eleventh wound on Julius's side and crossing it.
Only then did the red dragon fully react, roaring as it turned around and spewed a cloud of fire-like dragon breath. Unfortunately, due to the relative speed created by its dive and ascent, this dragon breath, capable of burning down most of the village, didn't even touch Casalos's tail.
"Damn Iron Dragon brat, what vicious curse is hidden in your attack?!"
The high-frequency scraping attacks did not cause much damage to the red dragon, but they did stack the flames for a long enough duration. The damage caused by flames that had not been stacked for many layers was also pitifully low, but like a bone-deep ailment, they continuously gnawed at every material basis of the red dragon's body, giving it the illusion that thousands of ants were crawling around inside its body.
Julius, splattered with dragon blood, roared, spreading its wings to catch the clumsy slowing of the approaching stream in the clouds. It flipped its body, turned its head, and used gravity to dive down in pursuit, with magical light beginning to appear on its body.
After suffering repeated "humiliations," the adult red dragon finally took things seriously and regarded Casalos as an evenly matched opponent. The real battle was about to begin.
After activating his combat buff, Julius's flight speed increased dramatically, and he quickly caught up with Casalos, who had deliberately slowed down.
Before they even entered the range of close combat, an invisible spear swiftly crossed the distance between them and pierced Casalos's body. A high-frequency vibration capable of shattering most natural matter suddenly arose on its scales. Under normal circumstances, it could easily pass through the scales and reach Casalos's body, causing serious damage to its internal organs.
However, at the same time as the vibration was generated, the scales that Casalos was hit actually absorbed half of the vibration energy, producing a forced vibration of the same frequency but opposite phase, which completely annihilated the sound spear.
The unique ability of sound wave immunity is actually the synergistic effect of vibration absorption and anti-phase noise reduction?
Casalos seemed to be deep in thought, then rolled his body in an irregular spiral trajectory, dodging Julius's second beam-like spell. He spread his wings again and soared upwards, passing once more the massive, rapidly diving red dragon, before swerving his neck to face the path ahead.
After charging up for a long time and being enhanced with multiple Super Breath feats, the bundle of dragon breath burst forth. The stream of flames, sparking with electricity, resembled a thick spear. After flying a distance in the air, it collided with the diving Julius, shattering into a series of explosive waves that blasted it from head to tail.
The red dragon was immune to the magical fire damage portion of Casalos's dragon breath, but it was struck and shaken by the chaotic arcs of electricity within it. Its entire body stiffened and it briefly lost control, leaving a trail of brown, incontinent, mixed feces and urine that pierced straight into the snow mountain, creating a huge crater with a thunderous roar.
"You deserve to die! Die... die!"
The red dragon that crawled out of the pit had bloodshot eyes, and saliva dripped from between its teeth, making its roar indistinct.
A faint red halo surrounded the red dragon's somewhat tattered wings, and the blood spurting from a series of wounds on its sides burned in the air, intertwining with the red light and rising up.
"So this is what it looks like when you're enraged by a dragon. It certainly doesn't seem like a natural emotional state... Uh, the terrifying aura of Bloodscale's berserk power seems to have a similar effect. It looks rather unorthodox. I should probably develop a mutated aura to replace this ugly ability as soon as possible."
Before the enraged Julius could take flight, Casalos threw a fireball at it, then turned around and climbed higher, carrying the red dragon into the clouds—this time, of course, it wouldn't use the clouds to conceal its direction and charge forward again; a tracking mark from the red dragon was already attached to it.
With no way to hide, it would be unwise to rush in and engage in melee combat with a red dragon that is larger and stronger than oneself. Now enraged, the red dragon, no longer affected by its chaotic thoughts, seems to have become even more adept at fighting after surrendering all control of its body to instinct.
"As expected of a chaotic and hilarious person..."
To put it bluntly, Casalos used his mobility advantage to circle the Bloodrage adult red dragon in the clouds, occasionally luring it into an energy disadvantage before finding a good opportunity to withstand one or two spells and unleash a breath of dragon breath to maintain the fiery effect on the red dragon.
By the time Julius's stamina was more than half depleted, his flight speed in Dragon Fury form had decreased to about one-third of its original speed, and his reaction time to cast spells to counterattack had also slowed down considerably, with a failure rate exceeding 60%.
"I didn't expect it to turn into a protracted battle of scraping with blazing flames in the end. The difference in basic attributes is still too great. But it's over here."
Casalos let out a loud roar, then surged upwards before flipping over, stretching its neck, folding its wings, and swooping down at high speed towards Julius, knocking aside another counter-attack spell thrown by the red dragon, about to deliver the final blow.
At this moment, a cunning glint of triumph flashed in the red dragon's bloodshot eyes, its orange vertical pupils revealing a hint of triumph.
26. The End of the War
We've fallen for their trap! This guy has somehow escaped Dragon's Fury!
Casalos realized what was happening, but it was too late to do anything.
Whether it's the effect of magic or the flapping of dragon wings, no matter what power the dragon uses to soar through the air, it still doesn't rely on the support of the air—dragons ultimately rely on aerodynamic flight, not anti-gravity, nor any other more mysterious method.
Since it is aerodynamic flight, it still follows the basic laws of fluid dynamics. Any acceleration and attitude change require the help of wind and take time to take effect.
Casalos has always relied on his rudimentary knowledge of aerodynamics and basic theories of aerial combat maneuvering to outmaneuver Zollong, the mind warlock, the mind warrior, and the red dragon Julius in aerial combat.
But at this moment, it had fallen into the trap and entered Julius's "no escape zone" for aerial capture, and any maneuvering would be futile.
The red dragon flipped itself upside down in the air, its wings, limbs, neck, and tail spreading out in different directions on the same horizontal plane, like a giant net. It caught Casalos, which was "falling" like a meteor, and then quickly closed the net, rolled over with Casalos in its arms, and used Casalos as a cushion to crash down onto the snow-capped mountain.
The violent impact caused Casalos to lose consciousness and become temporarily incapacitated.
Once it regained consciousness, Julius's forepaws clamped down on its forelimbs, pinning its wings to the bottom of the pit. Its hind legs gripped the rocks, and its long tail coiled tightly around its lower body, just as Casalos had done to the Drow Dragon, using sheer brute force to subdue it completely. The red dragon retracted its long neck, then, like a cobra, sprang its head out with its jaws wide open, biting down towards the junction of Casalos's neck and chest.
Casalos, of course, wouldn't just sit and wait to die. He instantly unleashed a breath attack into the red dragon's gaping maw, piercing its entire neck.
Chapter 112
The electric shock was delivered, and before it could recover, it bit the side of its neck.
The young dragon's teeth barely managed to break through the scales on the side of the red dragon's neck, bite through its skin, and pierce its muscles, but it failed to go any further—compared to the adult red dragon, it was still too small and its strength was completely inferior.
Before Casalos could make a further move, the red dragon had already regained its senses and seized Casalos by the back of its neck, its massive jaws completely engulfing Casalos's neck. The adult red dragon's teeth were long enough to bite right through a young dragon's neck, however…
With a snapping sound, two pale yellow dragon teeth with serrated edges flew far away amidst a shower of sparks. One shattered the rocks outside the snow like a cannonball, while the other disappeared into the thick snow of the mountain.
"Why are your scales so hard?" Julius roared, having lost two teeth. The scales on Casalos's scales were only dented where he had been bitten; the red dragon's bite had failed to break through his defenses.
However, Casalos was not entirely unharmed. With the immense strength of the adult red dragon, the muscles protected by its scales suffered considerable bruising, and the ribs supporting its neck cavity were also fractured, though Julius could not see it.
"What exactly are you? What are those runes under your scales? Why is your damage reduction stronger than mine, even though you're just a young dragon?" It continued to roar wildly, completely ignoring whether Casalos would answer its questions.
Casalos, of course, ignored it, silently taunting in his mind, "As expected of a wild dragon, it doesn't even recognize a hideous dragon. How could you easily break through the thick armor I've built with so much money?" to distract himself from the pain. He then bit the red dragon's neck again, violently shaking his head and tearing off several pieces of flesh and scales from Julius's body. Casalos's fighting style was completely specialized; otherwise, biting would be the strongest attack method for a young dragon besides its breath.
Stimulated by the pain, Julius stopped roaring about the garbage problem. It lowered its head and glared fiercely at Casalos, whose mouth still contained its flesh and blood, before biting down on the front of Casalos's neck, where its throat was located.
This wasn't a biting attack; it was simply using the upper and lower jaws to clamp down on Casalos's neck, then extending forward and applying force.
It tried to use brute force to break Casalos's neck!
Unfortunately, Julius, having been consumed by the blazing flames for a long time, no longer possessed the stamina and explosive power it once had. It tried twice in a row but failed, and instead became panting heavily due to the rapid depletion of its energy, causing its jaws to loosen their grip on Casalos.
Ignoring the excruciating pain and stiffness in his neck from being violently pulled, Casalos seized the opportunity to pull his head back and bite the wound on the side of the red dragon's neck again, tearing off a large chunk of flesh and exposing its neck ribs and the cervical lining between the gaps.
Enduring a second-circle energy-shaping spell slamming into its face, it took a deep breath and unleashed its newly restored breath weapon with all its might. A fully charged burst of electric sparks, aided by the Disintegration spell, easily pierced through Julius's temporary protective order, tore open the thin membrane between its neck and ribs, and poured into its chest cavity.