The Crimson Dragon - Chapter 42

Chapter 42

 Claudius flew ahead of the brigs while letting the sailors catch a glimpse of his massive shadow from time to time, which prevented them from thinking that they were out of reach of the dragon. As a matter of fact, most sailors in this world knew that trying to escape from a dragon was futile. Their cruising speed was lower than most dragons, and there was no way for the ships to evade attacks from the sky. After travelling for a day or two, the sailors were forced to hand over one third of their rations and water, and Claudius spent a few hours flying to his island, carrying the supplies for his Udaeus army.

 Back on the island, the Udaeus were hiding in one of the natural caves while huddling in small circles to reduce heat and energy loss. They were experienced warriors, thus the soldiers were familiar with what to do in case of lack of food and water. The soldiers each drank a sip of the water before suppressing their own desires, trying to suppress their need for water to minimum. From the look of things, they could probably survive up to three days with that tiny amount of water. It was tough for the Udaeus, but the suffering had come to an end as their commander returned with sacs of food and vials of water, allowing them to each as much they wanted to.

 The sailors, on the other hand, tried to outsmart the Crimson Dragon by changing their course bit by bit, trying to revert to their original course. The crew were worshippers of Anbo, and they firmly believed that the goddess would protect them from danger. It didn’t matter where they went; as long as they could arrive at a populated island, they would be able to reach their goddess through an altar. All the populated islands among the Velen Isles had altars for worshipping Anbo as most people living there worshipped her.

 However, their plan did not go unnoticed. Claudius pretended to overlook their actions, and instead of punishing them for the attempt straight away, he forced the crew to hand over half of the remaining rations, leaving them with one third of the original portion. After delivering the supplies to his island, Claudius launched his attack on the brigs.

 Thick, long tentacles filled with sharp thorns and suckers shot out of the sea just as Claudius began his assault.

 “Tchh, pets of the freaking goddess! That irrational bitch……” Claudius snorted while pulling up, dodging the attacks from the tentacles.

 A massive torrent of flames flooded out of the Crimson Dragon’s jaws the next moment, and the first victim was the unlucky Giant Octopus which attacked Claudius. The gigantic monster had only showed his tentacles, hiding its body under water. With tentacles longer than Claudius, it would be safe to assume the octopus was at least 50 metres long. Yet size did not matter right now; the Giant Octopus did not have any sort of fire resistance. A sizzling sound could be heard as its tentacle became delicious-looking grilled octopus tentacles. The thick layer of skin could block normal fire and fire elemental spells like Fireball had little effect, but this was the first time the octopus had faced flames which such temperature and intensity. Claudius dived down and easily pulled the cooked tentacles out of their sockets, munching on the tasty snack as he pulled up once again.

 The Giant Octopus poked its huge bald head out of the sea and growled in rage after suffering severe injuries from the previous attack.

 “Just how? Octopi don’t have vocal cords, nor do they have organs to store air. What a mystery……” Claudius mumbled as his mouth was stuffed with tasty tentacles.

 The Crimson Dragon was not given much time to enjoy his snack as freezing air and ice arrows were formed in front of the octopus. Spitting out the remains reluctantly, Claudius dived towards the incoming attack without hesitation.

 Claudius sucked in large volumes of air into his lungs and air sacs by utilizing the tail wind as he dashed forwards with his Ring of Blaze at full power. The massive dragon made a sudden brake with a flap of his wings, pulling upwards and slightly backwards by the lifting force. A gigantic cone-shaped fire breath attack ravaged across the sea surface; even the sails of the brigs, which should be out of the attack range, were burnt to ash while the now naked sailors screamed in pain and terror as they rolled on the deck. Their skin was suffering from burns, but most of the pain originated from their scorched tracheas as the inflamed throats prevented them from breathing.

 As the primary target of the attack, the Giant Octopus was in an even more dire situation. If not for its rapid reaction, diving back into the sea right before Claudius attacked, its entire body would have been turned into charcoal like its tentacles. They were no longer edible like the ones before as they were no more than a lump of bitter charcoal right now. The freezing air was replaced by baking hot air while the arrows evaporated among the raging flames. Steam rose from the bubbly and sizzling sea as the surface was now boiling. Claudius casually stretched his body, fanning the steamy fumes towards the two brigs unintentionally.

 At this very moment, a massive whirlpool appeared along with a waterspout while storm clouds gathered unnaturally. The temperature drastically dropped, and a salty and pungent smell of dead fish filled the air.

 Claudius thought, “Oh crap, something’s wrong.”

 There were pretty much no survivors on the two ships by now, but he still shredded the deck into pieces nonetheless. With the interior now in sight, Claudius immediately spotted the glow of magic in the captain’s room at the very end of the ship. He smashed the walls into smithereens, and there he found a fancy crate along with a piece of machinery which looked like a manual operated water pump and was decorated with a fish head. Claudius had not sensed anything the few days he was with the brigs, but now magic was radiating from the items. Having a bad premonition, the dragon snatched the crate and the machinery with his claws and began to flee from the stormy region.

 A thunderous voice growled in rage as something clad in lightning chased after Claudius, only failing to catch up with the fleeing dragon in the end. Just as he left the area, Claudius swore that he heard a sharp shriek of a woman……

 Most dragons would have been caught by the unknown pursuer, but Claudius was not one of them. Accelerating without paying heed to his personal safety, he rapidly flapped his wings despite having the risk of tearing up some of his muscles. Within a short period of time, he accelerated up to over 400 kilometres per hour; this speed could be considered first rate in this world, and was only inferior to teleportation spells. Claudius dashed straight towards his island without trying to fake his destination.

 “Even with the power of Anbo, breaking apart a whole island into tiny pieces is not an easy feat. Well, unless the mad bitch decides to descend into the world and waste her divine powers, I guess.”

 At least that was what Claudius believed; even for the gods and goddesses, altering the environment in the physical world require a lot of divine power and effort. His guess was right on spot — in terms of changing the terrain of the world, they were even inferior to some of the great mages who lived in Floren.

 Claudius was glad to find out that the piece of machinery was a magic tool — a water pump which could magically generate infinite amount of fresh water. The magic tool was connected to the water elemental plane, dredging up to a thousand gallons of water per hour. ‘Not sure how the captain got such an awesome thing, but that’s certainly useful for sailors,’ was what Claudius thought. His appraisal ability told him that it was worth around 30000 gold coins; unless the captain somehow managed to please the goddess, it was unthinkable that he got it with legitimate means.

 As for the crate, the contents were just as fancy as its appearance — a whole crate of gold coins. With just a glimpse, Claudius could tell that there were around 3000 delicately crafted gold coins in it. If any other Crimson Dragon found such awesome loot, they would have stuffed the magic tool and crate of gold coins into the depths of their lair, but Claudius seemed to have different plans for the future……