The Crimson Dragon - Chapter 26

Chapter 26

With just a single breath attack, the outpost fell like a sand castle. The darkened wood and collapsing structure reflected the might of the Crimson Dragon. Claudius was spewing sparks from his nostrils while expanding the pair of wings with a smug look on his face. The adult-sized teenager jumped off the fallen fortress — walking with two legs instead of crawling on fours gave off a peculiar feeling of agility, which contradicted common sense.

  Claudius’ dragon aura received a shocking buff from the breath attack, scaring off the attacking beastmen and gnolls. Britannia’s dragon aura was almost like child’s play and was unable to encourage the army to push onwards. Claudius ran through the area at high speeds without much effort; he was like a Humvee with the speed of a racing car.

  A fortress on the side began to retaliate, firing mithril-headed spears at the dragon with their massive stationary crossbows. Time was probably the only thing the elves could spare, thus their weaponry were all polished to perfection. Magic circles or enchantments were applied to each and every part of the massive crossbow, granting it terrifying power and firing speed. The rate of fire was comparable to handheld crossbows, and the loading speed was much faster than the ones used on Earth. They had power comparable to triple-bow arcuballistae, not to mention their accuracy-correction ability.

  But their actions were futile — Claudius performed the perfect demonstration of ‘Bullet Time’. With movement as smooth as flowing water, Claudius twisted his body while sprinting. The spear passed by the Crimson Dragon with a ‘Whoosh’ and struck the ground faraway. The elves’ reloading speed was commendable, firing off their second — and also last — spear at the incoming dragon. As if the results were predetermined, the spear missed its target as Claudius casually moved his body while retaining his speed. A fireball then struck the walls of the fortress, disabling the crossbows with a flashy explosion. The operators were all ignited by the sparks, rolling on the ground in a desperate attempt to put out the fire on their burning bodies.

  The elves were regarded as the race of beauty by the intelligent beings on Floren, yet Claudius showed no sign of sympathy for them. He failed to noticed that his sense of aesthetics greatly deviated from that of humans; in his eyes, Sylvia and Britannia were both ‘beauties’ while the elves were no more than ‘meat’ or ‘food’. That was only if he did not pay attention though — Claudius was able to identify the female elf representative back at the previous fortress as a ‘hot’ elf.

  Britannia was rendered speechless as her brother lit another elven base on fire. From the looks of it, Claudius alone bore more than enough firepower to mow down the entire elven frontline. Yet this time, Claudius refrained from using his breath attack in full power. The panicky look on the elves as they frantically put out the fire on the outer walls of the fortress should suffice as a warning for the elders in Greenliner. There was no need to push things till the point of no return — that was solely due to them having the leaf of Yggdrasil though. Frankly, Claudius could not care less about the elves.

  Claudius voiced his demands once again in a large voice which could cover the entire battlefield. It was a bit embarrassing to speak in the Elven Language though as it was half-baked at best. Unable to endure the awkwardness, Claudius left the area to search for his next target.

  “Britannia did ask for help, but she was kinda enjoying herself in battle, wasn’t she?”

  After observing his little sister for a while, Claudius discovered that Britannia seemed to be taking pleasure in the war. The vigorous look on her face as she commanded the army and battled was something Claudius did not overlook. It also did not seem that Sylvia was willing to concede such a useful tool — the battle prowess of a Crimson Dragon was nothing to joke about. Owing to his little sister’s pleas, Claudius had no choice but to take action to free her from the slave contract. Participating in the war did not interest Claudius in the slightest; to him, it was just a farce between adults and races.

  After landing on top of the third fortress, Claudius breathed flames at the structure while paying no attention to the rain of incoming arrows. Yet this time, his flames dissipated after clashing with a large green screen, which was most likely a barrier of some sort.

  “Heh, what’s this thingy?” Claudius was not shocked at all, but instead found it rather interesting.

  The bubbly shield was able to block the incoming breath attack, showing strong resistance against the magical component of the breath attack. However, Claudius’ flames were a mixture of magical and physical attack. The flammable fluid adhered to the surface of the green screen, burning at high temperatures of at least 1000 degrees Celsius. The droplets permeated the screen and ignited the surface of the fortress bit by bit. The screen reacted to the change immediately, causing the living branches to secrete liquids which extinguished the fire. The areas which were burnt to ashes were now regenerating as well.

  “Hmm, although I did say that the leaf of Yggdrasil was needed, I did not expect you to actually find or obtain one. I would have been satisfied with a leaf of the Elven Spirit Tree, but it seems that you have quite the luck.” Sylvia’s voice was transmitted to Claudius through magic, and she sounded extremely excited despite her attempt to sound calm.

  “AHAHAHA! Not even a god can stop me when luck strikes! Oh wait, there’s a goddess of luck called Tymora if I remember correctly, but that trifling stuff does not matter right now! AHAHAHA!” Claudius shouted without paying any respect to the gods and goddesses.

  The green screen which specialised in neutralizing magic cracked and was soon smashed after Claudius slammed his body into the screen a few times, trampling the fortress. Resolving problems with brute force was Claudius’ forte after all.

  Claudius could detect magic to a certain degree despite his magic was at the level of a newbie. The senses of Crimson Dragons far exceeded that of elves and humans from the start, thus it was only natural for him to have exceptional senses. Naturally, Claudius headed for the location where intense magic power swelled, which was the centre of the defensive screen. He brutally tore apart the steel-like wooden walls with his claws and squeezed his way through the gap.

  The elves fought valiantly, welcoming the uninvited dragon with all sort of magic weapons. Arrows, swords, spears…… All sorts of infantry weaponry struck his scales, but the damage Claudius received was basically negligible. After succeeding in impaling his scales with much effort, the damage inflicted onto the dragon was no more than stabbing a toothpick on a human. The spearmen which managed to scratch Claudius were all shredded after being slashed by the razor-sharp claws. If Claudius was not focusing on searching for the leaf, he would have annihilated the entire defence force stationed in the fortress by now.

  As Claudius chewed the unlucky elves, the metallic taste of blood and flesh stimulated his mind; it was probably the only saving grace of the mundane task of searching for a leaf within a fortress.

  “So this was the reason why there was a legend saying that Jade Dragons like **ing (consuming and corrupting?) elves, huh? They are quite delicious indeed.”

  The crunching sound and dripping blood struck fear into the elven warrior’s minds, but they also had the weapon called ‘magic’ apart from physical attacks. A myriad of magic was fired towards the Crimson Dragon, but it was all for naught.

  Before the troublesome spells such as Banishment and Maze could hit Claudius, the floating leaf on top of the altar was already within his reach.