“Carlos and Nora should be awake too.” To save his own dragon life, Kael intended to call upon his dragon brother and dragon sister.
He quietly retreated, gliding silently toward the extinct volcano.
Inside the cave, Carlos had indeed already awoken.
He was crouching in his nest, energetically gnawing on the remaining half of a pig leg. Seeing Kael come in, he raised his head and mumbled,
“Mmph! You're back!”
“Stop eating,” Kael interrupted him, his voice uncharacteristically cold. “Someone's coming.”
Carlos froze with the leg bone in his mouth. “Who?”
“Humans. An adventurer party of five, coming straight for the dragon nest,” Kael said succinctly.
“The strongest is a Third-Tier warrior, three of the rest are Second-Tier, and there's a First-Tier noble.”
“Humans?” Carlos's dragon pupils instantly lit up with the look of a red dragon sighting prey.
“Humans coming to steal our turf? Then what are we waiting for! I was just worrying I couldn't test out my current—” As he spoke, his entire draconic body nearly leaped out of the nest.
“Hear me out,” Kael swept his tail across, pressing Carlos back down.
“They're still by the river right now. It looks like they plan to camp at the foot of the mountain tonight and come to our dragon nest tomorrow.”
“Isn't that perfect then?”
“Don't be reckless,” Kael stared at him, saying each word deliberately.
“If even one of them escapes and exposes our location, have you thought about the consequences?”
Carlos went silent.
Though he was a bit rash, he wasn't stupid.
Facing either a kingdom's army or waking their sleeping mother—neither was something he could bear.
“So,” Kael's face darkened.
“We can't let a single one escape this time! The three of us need to discuss a strategy.”
“Where's Nora?” he asked next.
“She's still sleeping. I'll go wake her.” Carlos walked toward Nora, who was located deepest inside.
“Digest the food in your stomach first; we won't have time to eat later,” Kael added.
“Don't worry, when have I ever slacked off during a hunt!” Finishing his sentence, Carlos tossed the pig leg in his mouth to the side.
When Nora was woken up, she was still somewhat dazed.
Curled up in the corner, when she heard Kael say, “Humans are coming to the dragon nest,” her pair of amber dragon eyes instantly snapped wide awake, followed by a look of fear.
“Are there... many humans?” she asked in a low voice, clearly spooked by the visions in her draconic heritage of dragons being hunted down.
Kael repeated the details of the party he had just mentioned.
“Then... can we beat them?” Nora's voice grew even softer.
“We can,” Kael walked over with food. “We are red dragons. A Second-Tier red dragon is a completely different concept from the Second-Tier of other races.”
Recalling the dragon status panel he had checked yesterday, the talents column alone was already completely overpowered.
Adding himself, an overpowered anomaly, it was more than enough.
In the evening, the sky gradually darkened.
Led by the warrior Garl, the five finally reached the foot of the extinct volcano.
Calling it the foot of the mountain was generous; it was actually a wide rocky beach. Further up was a layer of dense bushes, followed by exposed basalt.
“We'll set up camp here tonight.” Garl lowered his shield and scanned the surroundings.
“Misha, set up an alert formation. Cody, keep watch on that rock over there. York, scout ahead—don't go too far, and be back before dark.”
“Got it.” York touched the dagger at his waist, activated his Stealth skill, and crouched down as he slipped into the bushes.
The setting sun had already sunk. Daylight gradually faded as darkness swallowed the land bit by bit.
The rogue had walked barely a hundred paces when he suddenly felt something was off.
Nearly ten years of a professional career were reminding York that the surroundings were far too quiet.
There wasn't a single bird call in the bushes, and even the insects had stopped chirping—this was extremely abnormal.
Suddenly, the sound of a snapping branch came from up ahead.
York drew the dagger from his waist, kept his eyes locked on the direction of the sound, and began retreating in stealth.
Upon sensing something wrong, rather than immediately stepping forward or attempting to circle behind to investigate, he chose to retreat directly. This was precisely the reason this low-tier adventurer had managed to survive for ten years.
However, this time, he seemed to have misjudged his opponent.
Suddenly, a whistling sound cut through the air from his flank. York's scalp went numb as he instinctively sensed an extreme mortal crisis, hurriedly trying to roll aside to dodge.
Too late!
A crimson dragon claw, accompanied by an air-tearing boom, clamped with precision onto his neck and shoulder.
Crack!
The sound of shattering bones echoed harshly in the night air!
Before a cheater boasting overwhelming stat superiority, all the skills and caution of a Second-Tier rogue were like a joke.
Instakill!
The target didn't even have time to scream before completely losing all signs of life.
Kael's original plan was to wait until night fell completely and the party members were resting to prioritize taking out that Third-Tier warrior before clearing the rest out one by one.
However, this unlucky rogue brother had completely disrupted his deployment.
Carlos and Nora didn't possess concealment-type skills, allowing this rogue to notice something abnormal.
The branch Carlos accidentally snapped had alerted the rogue, but it had also given Kael an opportunity to strike.
Taking out the only member of the party who had even a tiny chance of escaping first wasn't much of a loss either.
The commotion from the bushland and the suddenly vanishing aura of their teammate instantly alarmed the camp at the foot of the mountain.
“Something happened to York!”
Beside the campfire, the Third-Tier warrior's expression changed abruptly. He rose instantly, stepping toward the direction of the noise with both hands gripping his shield and iron sword in a combat stance.
Immediately after, the archer shouted out a warning:
“Enemy attack! Everyone prepare for battle!”
The dragons, whose plan had been disrupted, also initiated their move ahead of schedule!
A deep dragon roar tore through the bushland!
“What on earth is that?!” Hearing a roar he had never encountered in his memory, a hint of fear actually appeared on Garl's weather-beaten face.
Whoosh!
Instantly, a giant rock shot out of the darkness, hurtling toward the mage.
Having just snapped back from her panic, Misha was completely unprepared as she watched the giant rock fly straight at her.
Bam!
The giant rock didn't hit the mage; instead, it slammed into a shield and bounced off.
Shield Counter—it was that same combat skill, though this time there seemed to be no chance for a counterattack.
Garl, who had blocked the giant rock, actually stumbled back several steps before dampening the impact, his eyes filled with disbelief.
“Carlos, you deal with the archer over there. Nora, take care of that mage in the back.”
From the pitch-black bushland walked out three crimson figures, the speaker being Kael in the middle.
“Got it!” The two little red dragons spoke with a trace of excitement in their voices.
“Dragons! Red dragons! And there are three of them!” Misha's face went pale instantly.
On Carlos's side, a wyrmling didn't bother with combat techniques and pounced straight at the archer.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Three arrows wrapped in battle aura shot straight toward the wyrmling.
Rapid Fire—an archer combat skill that launched multiple battle-aura-infused arrows in quick succession with a degree of armor penetration.
Carlos swatted away the arrow aimed at his dragon eyes with a sharp claw. Of the remaining two, one struck his chest and the other hit his abdomen.
The metal of the arrowheads collided with his dragon scales, doing nothing more than sparking slightly as if striking basalt.
It seemed that his usual routine of working out and eating soil alongside Kael really had produced results.
“Is that all? Human, are you just tickling me?!” Spouting classic evil dragon lines, Carlos continued charging toward the archer.
On Nora's side, it was even easier.
Panicked and flustered, the mage directly launched two Fireballs.
The two fire bullets struck her dark red scales with two dull thuds, the scales merely whitening slightly without leaving behind even a mark.
Rate on N.U.
