Chapter 69: Typical Secondary Dragon Mindset |
"Cough, cough..."
Dwarf Somu's face flushed red, his whole body tingling, his shoulder and thigh burning with pain, as if hit by the aftershock of an explosion.
He was a member of the Dwarves' Seventeenth Legion. During the assault on Tina, he had stood farther back as an archer. Now he had been caught by Xia'er's breath wave, lucky to still be alive but gravely wounded.
"So this is the power of an evil dragon..."
This evil dragon's power... was a natural disaster ordinary mortals could not resist!
Somu felt a deep despair. He had finally sensed the gap between dwarves and true dragons—an abyss that could never be crossed.
Impossible to overcome!
King Jandres was wrong. How could the dwarves possibly defeat such beings?
Somu coughed up blood mixed with ash, struggling to climb to his feet.
Despair rolled over him like an icy tide, nearly drowning him.
Just as his consciousness blurred, the sunlight above him was suddenly blocked, a bitter, bloody wind howling down!
A massive dragon claw covered in pale blue, resilient scales, carrying the damp cold of the tide, like a predatory pincer, suddenly grabbed him!
Somu only had time to utter a short cry before he was roughly lifted from the charred ruins and shot skyward.
The world spun. Somu saw the city below burning in a horrific blaze, the port turned into a hellish sea of fire. Once-solid piers were twisted and broken, the Seventeenth Legion’s banner reduced to a charred scrap in the smoke.
"We shouldn't have waged war against these evil dragons, a city built for over a decade, destroyed in an instant..."
Somu regretted in his heart, "It's all King Jandres's fault!"
Tina's cold claw tips dug into Somu's armor. The immense force nearly crushed his bones, yet she did not pause, speeding across the ruined battlefield.
Moments later, height plunged.
Somu was slammed onto the cold, hard ground. He struggled to lift his head and found himself on a plaza ravaged by dragonfire, shattered flagstones smoking blue.
Also sprawled on the ground in similar devastation were a dozen or so other dwarves, charred and wounded, their eyes filled with terror and despair.
They were the few survivors from the five or six hundred legionnaires who had tried to regroup and fight back.
A heavy shadow fell. Somu slowly turned his stiff neck and met a pair of enormous, cold dragon eyes.
Green dragon Xia'er’s vast, suffocating emerald form towered before them, wings partially folded, blotting out the sky.
The draconic aura emanating from Xia'er mixed with the scent of blood and destruction, an invisible hammer that smashed into each surviving dwarf's soul, making them tremble involuntarily and struggle to breathe.
Xia'er lowered her massive head to appraise the dozen or so dwarves who had miraculously survived the double breath-combined explosion. Her gaze swept across them and she saw varied expressions.
Some dwarves wore a stance Xia'er recognized well. Though wounded, they still glared at her, their eyes seeming to burn with flame.
These were the typical death-defying dwarves.
Some dwarves were dazed, as if they had not yet recovered from the earlier explosion.
Others, like Somu, were filled with pure terror; they dared only a glance before avoiding Xia'er's eyes.
In a moment, Xia'er already knew how to sort these dwarves.
Those die-hards would have been executed before.
But now Master Xia'er was merciful; she could not bear to see innocent dwarves die before her. So she would issue pardon orders and, at twenty gold coins apiece, sell... cough, rent them to human kingdom merchants in the south.
As for these cowardly dwarves, naturally she would keep them.
Letting them be soldiers is wasteful.
Focusing on forging is the right path!
With that thought, Xia'er's attention fixed on Somu.
This dwarf's aura of fear was the strongest.
So Xia'er locked on precisely and looked at Somu: "Where is the Eastern Sea Port treasury?"
Somu stiffened under Xia'er's icy dragon gaze, as if all the blood in his body froze.
His knees buckled and with a heavy thud he collapsed onto the blood-stained flagstones.
Trembling, he raised an arm and pointed to a fortified complex in the city center, protected by high walls, his voice shaking: "By the true dragon above! The treasury is beneath the town hall and the military supply depot! Under that largest gray granite building!"
Before Somu finished speaking, a dwarf warrior beside him whose leg had been blown off erupted in fury: "Somu! You coward! Shame of King Jandres! You've knelt and softened the bone of the dwarves! How dare you bow to this evil dragon and sell out the kingdom's wealth?! You should be thrown in the furnace and burned to ashes!"
Somu shrank back at the words, too afraid to argue.
Xia'er, however, shifted her interested gaze from Somu and slowly fixed it on the roaring dwarf.
How amusing.
Xia'er said nothing. She casually lifted a talon, then, as if smacking an annoying insect, pressed down precisely and heavily!
"Bang!"
The furious dwarf warrior was pinned as if under a mountain, held flat to the ground with no chance to scream. Only his eyes stayed fixed on Somu, firing endless rage and scorn.
Xia'er lowered her head, bringing her massive dragon snout close to Somu's pale, terror-stricken face. In the Common Tongue, clear as a bell, she whispered into Somu's ear: "You, cut out his tongue."
Somu convulsed as if struck by an invisible whip.
He stared in horror at the comrade pinned under the claw, whose only movable half still glared curses with his eyes.
Survival instinct overrode everything. Somu could only tremble and frantically search among the scattered charred wood and metal fragments on the ground.
At last he grabbed an edge of a broken axe blade that was still relatively sharp.
Staggering, Somu crawled to the pinned dwarf and met those burning, contemptuous eyes.
He couldn't bear to look. His hand moved of its own accord. He roughly pried open the cursing mouth and thrust the cold metal shard in, gouging fiercely!
"Ugh!"
A fierce, off-key howl erupted and was abruptly cut off.
Somu held the shard, stained with hot blood and a small piece of soft flesh, then flung it away as if dropping a branding iron, collapsing in a limp heap.
Xia'er snorted in satisfaction, raised her claw, and turned her gaze back to Somu: "Lead."
Her massive body shifted direction. The shadow from her wings completely swallowed the tiny Somu, and she then said to Tina behind her, "Tina, follow. It's time to collect our 'spoils.'"
"Oh."
Tina nodded, watching the arriving kobold soldiers without comment. She simply followed Xia'er toward the treasury.
Under Somu's guidance, Xia'er soon reached the granite vault doors.
For others, the heavy granite vault door would be hard to open.
For a dragon, it was nothing.
With a light lift of her talon, the heavy granite door was tossed aside, and a dense, almost tangible aura of wealth rushed out, mixed with the metallic coldness unique to coins.
Beyond the door lay the wealth the Dwarven Kingdom had stockpiled in Eastern Sea Port over many years.
Countless gold, silver, and copper coins, gems, and unrefined gold and silver ingots piled like mountains. In the dim underground space, faint lighting stones embedded in the ceiling reflected a dazzling, almost eye-scorching golden radiance!
"Hiss!"
Xia'er and Tina's breaths both hitched, then grew incredibly heavy.
That glare seemed magical, instantly making Xia'er's eyes unable to open. Greed and possessiveness, rooted deep in her bloodline, surged like lava, threatening to drown the dams of reason. An instinctive urge to throw herself on the mountain of gold rose up.
"Calm!"
Xia'er snapped her head, forcing herself out of the dazzling light. A low dragon roar rumbled from her throat—a reminder to herself and a warning to the nearly out-of-control Tina beside her: "If you act rashly, you will be killed!"
At Xia'er's words, Tina's massive body shuddered violently and she barely suppressed the primitive impulse to rush and roll atop the coins.
Still, her gigantic eyes remained fixed on the pile of gold, her voice trembling with excitement: "Xia'er! Look! Look! So much! Shall we... bring it back to the Royal Court? No! We... we should just live here! Permanently stay at Eastern Sea Port! Guard it! See it every day!"
Tina's words were full of the innocent, ecstatic joy of a child discovering a treasure trove. Her suggestion to "permanently stay" slipped out, clearly enchanted by the sight.
And Tina had thought further.
As an ocean-born dragon, she understood the importance of port trade.
If Eastern Sea Port is so profitable, why return to those godforsaken islands? Better to occupy this place outright!
Xia'er glanced at Tina.
Speechless—typical lesser-dragon thinking!
"Ha."
Xia'er exhaled roughly, then without hesitation gave orders: "You, go out now and bring the kobolds here to prepare crates! Notify Saga and Disos, flank and guard both sides. Do not let Tyrone come!"