The icy killing intent from the Red Dragon finally jolted Yevgeny into full awareness amid the incessant buzzing in her head. Struggling to stand with the aid of her adjutant, she ordered everyone to fall back while she herself retreated.
Under normal circumstances, hardly anyone would be foolish enough to directly challenge a fully enraged Red Dragon. But in their current predicament, if this Red Dragon didn't die, they would all perish! And it would be a horrible death.
The High Elves had no choice but to grit their teeth. Suppressing their dizziness and discomfort, they raised their longswords, magic wands, and chains, and riding their Pegasi, they renewed their assault.
However, facing the Elves' combined ground and air assault, and their swift, sharp attacks, David charged like a heavy combat truck with its pedal to the metal, hell-bent on crushing their commander.
THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD!
David was determined to kill the Elf commander. He ignored all non-fatal stabs and entangling vine spells, weathering them with his physical body. In just a few seconds, this elite squad—composed of over a dozen Elf Rangers, Sword Dancers, Moonshadow Assassins, and two Spellcasters—had riddled him with so many wounds he looked like a porcupine. Their weapons remained embedded in him; the Elves themselves were sent flying.
Some were knocked unconscious against tree trunks on impact. Others, propped up on the filthy snow, looked around in disarray. Still others were pinned by their falling, screaming Pegasi, vomiting blood and unable to rise.
Relying entirely on his 'heavy armor'—which possessed the qualities of both Metal Dragons and Chromatic Dragons—and his brutally overwhelming charge, these Elven professionals were utterly outmatched. Under normal circumstances, they could have easily hunted a young dragon, or even threatened an adolescent one, but now they were no match for him!
"Die!!!"
Having successfully closed in on Yevgeny, David swiped a claw, sending her sword-drawing adjutant flying. Then, the bone spurs at the tips of his wings, longer than his claws, pierced through Yevgeny's arms as she attempted to cast a spell with hand gestures. With a sickening thud, he pinned her body to the trunk of a winterwood tree.
"Ahhh! Save... me..."
Roaring, David raised his claws to crush the shrieking Elf. But just as he prepared to slam through both her and the tree with a devastating Dragon charge, pain flared simultaneously from his neck, arms, wings, legs, torso, and even his tail.
SNAP!
David whipped his head around in fury. Several chains had wrapped around various parts of his body, arresting what would have been the killing blow. Now, with nine Pegasi pulling in unison from behind, his claws and wings were slowly dragged away from the lucky Elf.
THUMP. Freed from her impalement, Yevgeny, gushing blood, slid down the tree trunk and pitched headfirst into the filthy snow, thick with decaying leaves.
"Cough, cough, cough."
The Elf staggered to her feet, wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth, and with a somewhat neurotic smile, said to the clearly frustrated David, "Heh heh. It seems that in the end, I've won."
"I underestimated you, truly I did."
"It's such a pity. You're so outstandingly brave and fierce, shattering my lifelong convictions, held for a century, multiple times in such a short period. If it weren't for that Silver Dragon, I would absolutely, by any means necessary, take you back to Dewensen. I'd train you thoroughly, have you replace Aima, and turn you into a good, obedient little Dragon, always following at my heels."
Seeing his attack thwarted, David had been reluctantly preparing to play his trump card: first incinerate this Elf with his breath, then tear open an escape route using Endless Gluttony. But upon hearing her words, the entire Dragon froze for a moment and asked reflexively, "What Silver Dragon?" He was clearly a Red Dragon!
"Ah? You didn't come for her?" The Elf, who was still smarting from her heavy losses, was also dumbfounded.
"Damn!" / "Zenasania!"
The Dragon and the Elf, both realizing something at the same instant, cursed simultaneously.
What Red Dragon? What Silver Dragon? It was all a colossal blunder!
Right then, David felt like he'd been royally screwed over, as if by a Goblin!
So, all this damn commotion wasn't even for him?
Then why did they swarm him and attack for so long, like a pack of frenzied beasts, the moment they saw him? If they'd just explained things clearly from the start, what was the goddamn point of this whole fight?!
All this resentment coalesced into a raging inferno building in his chest.
Yevgeny, on the other hand, felt the complete opposite. She, who had felt herself teetering on the brink of the Abyssal Depths, now felt as if she were soaring towards the freedom of the Heaven of Seven Hills. The plan to rescue the Silver Dragon could proceed! Moreover, the sight of the powerful Red Dragon before her filled her heart with an irrepressible hunter's thrill.
Now that she knew it was all a misunderstanding, how could she possibly bring herself to kill such a young Red Dragon—one destined to achieve fame on the New Continent alongside her, Yevgeny?
She'd even be willing to bring it back and worship it like an ancestor!
As long as he was willing to return with her and they became Dragon Knights together.
The question of who would be the knight and who the mount... well, that was certainly negotiable!
"Your Excellency! Your Excellency, please, calm your anger! I think... there might have been a slight... misunderstanding..."
But before Yevgeny could finish speaking, she suddenly felt a searing heat in her chest. Looking closely, she saw the scales on the Red Dragon's chest were heating up like a branding iron. She instantly recognized it as the prelude to the Red Dragon's breath attack!
But this Red Dragon's breath attack… it has no 'wind-up' at all?!
"How is this possible!" She distinctly remembered him unleashing his fiery wrath upon those Barbarians of the North the moment he arrived.
However, her cautious nature wouldn't let her gamble on whether this was a 'dry fire.' Reflexively, she raised the Elven officer's sword in her hand and thrust it towards David's sparking throat. But this thrust, born from decades of ingrained, instinctual swordsmanship, felt as if it shattered not only its target but also her dreams of a perfect life and her own fragile, crystal-like heart.
"No!!!" Tears of anguish streamed from the Elf's eyes; the pain was even greater than when her own Aima had died!
"ROOOAR!!!"
Just as the flames in David's mouth were about to erupt, and as the Elf's despairing sword thrust was about to land, a Dragon's Roar tore through the air, echoing across the trembling leaves of the forest.
"Release my brother, you bandits! You all deserve to be cast into Barto Hell!"
"ROOOOAR!!!!!"
Then, a winter storm materialized without warning, descending at the very instant the Dragon's Roar arrived. A river of ice poured down from the heavens, spraying in a precise circle with David at its epicenter. Wherever it passed, all vegetation was instantly coated in thick frost. The Elves surrounding the Red Dragon were likewise transformed into ice statues. They were frozen in place: some looking up towards the source of the Dragon's Roar, some holding swords in vigilant guard, others lunging forward in a desperate attempt to evade the danger, yet none escaped the icy wave.
"Commander!" At the critical moment, the adjutant had tackled Yevgeny to the ground, yet his own body was still coated in layers of frost.
David, his target suddenly gone, also doused his burgeoning flames.
Brother? Bloody hell, she's got the wrong Dragon, hasn't she?
As a Red Dragon, he lifted his head in astonishment. A slender Silver Dragon was flapping its wings, uncoordinated from numbness, and careening headlong towards him through the forest. It stumbled and scraped against branches, looking like a clumsy moth drawn to a flame.
He had a sinking feeling about her erratic flight path.
Then he was sure of it: not only was she 'flying under the influence,' but she was also flooring the accelerator instead of hitting the brakes!
"Wait! Don't come over here!!!"
"Aaah! Oof!"
CRUMP.
The Silver Dragon, eyes welling with tears, slammed headfirst into his chest.
In that instant, he could almost hear his ribs screaming in protest amid a symphony of CRACKS.
Holy crap...
The tremendous kinetic energy snapped the chains. It also sent the Pegasus Knights in mid-air tumbling, riders and mounts alike, crashing towards the earth.
David, however, felt no joy at all.
He'd pretty much figured it out now.
Whether this Silver Dragon was truly the 'sister' she claimed to be, he had no idea.
But one thing was certain: she had deliberately crashed into him, probably to cause trouble!
David felt as if a half-ton silver mountain had crashed down on him, pinning him completely.
He stared silently up at the sky.