The Crimson Dragon Chapter 17

Translated by: SaltyTank

Edited by: crimsonwolf8439

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Chapter 17

   It was a squad of rangers, with 2 druids responsible for magic attacks while the other 3 were warriors. They carried magic scrolls for magic attacks as well. The five were fully prepared, with killing the young Crimson Dragon as their sole aim. After killing it, they could salvage valuable body parts from the corpse and sell them for high prices, not to mention the pile of treasure (which, sadly, did not exist) awaiting them at its lair. With everyone over Level 12, the squad of rangers believed that failure was impossible. There were also squads in nearby locations, and they could call for help in case things turned bad.

   After going through the forest, they discovered their target. Claudius was flying clumsily with a bull in his mouth, probably heading to a safe place to eat.

 "Follow it! I think we can find his lair without much effort this time!" One of them shouted happily.

  Disappointment struck the five the moment Claudius dumped the bull on the fields near a river. Claudius simply tore and devoured the bull at a random location, and he was nowhere near his lair.

  It was hard to spot his appearance in the air, but once it landed the rangers could tell something was strange about this Crimson Dragon.

   "The heck is this dragon? No matter how you look at it, it does not look like a Crimson Dragon! Maybe it's a half-bred? Man, I've never seen a half-bred descendant of the Five Coloured Evil Dragons." Another one of them said.

   Truth be told, Claudius did not look like a Crimson Dragon. The only thing which cla.s.sified him as a Crimson Dragon was the bright red scales covering his body and the aura of flames surrounding him. Standing on two legs, having a short neck, a protruding mandible, the 4 horns on his head, as well as the two triangular horns on his snout; these features definitely did not belong to an ordinary Crimson Dragon. Claudius was never bothered by others' comments, not that he could hear the rangers discussing his appearance though. He had yet to discover the lurking rangers, and all that mattered to him was satisfying his appet.i.te. Claudius tore a chunk of beef off the dead bull, placing it on the ground. Spreading his mouth, a stream of flames emerged and roasted the chunk of beef. The medium rare steak gave off a sizzling sound, and oily fat were oozing out to the surface. It gave off a tempting smell, and Claudius could not hold back anymore. He began munching his meal with satisfaction.

   The elves were not vegetarians, and there were also humans, rangers and druids in the coalition of justice. The teachings of their beliefs did not forbid them from eating meat; it only prohibited them from excessive hunting. That was why the bunch of squads nearby were attracted by the delicious scent in the air. Even if they were not hungry, the pleasant smell still left them drooling.

  Previously, Claudius would devour anything edible for his meal, but things were different now. He was now a slightly picky dragon, as he only ate most delicious parts of the bull. The tongue, internal organs and ribs were a G.o.dsend to Claudius. Meanwhile, the rangers had finally finished deploying their members at different locations, and could launch an attack any moment.

  The dragon slaying started off with a series of magic. The first to strike was a magic which created th.o.r.n.y vines. The eerie vines wiggled like a snake through the air, multiplying rapidly in the air before tangling Claudius.

  "Screw you peeps for messing up my lunch!" Claudius subconsciously swore in Chinese.

  In the Floren realm of the Eberron universe, language contained magic power. For example, the Void Language, the Heavenly Language, and especially the Dragon Language, were languages which held the laws of magic. It was shown through the fact that a lot of magic spells were written in the Dragon Language. Chinese belonged to the group of languages which were incapable of utilizing magic, similar to the Common Language used in Floren. It was also the case for other Earthly languages, as Claudius had once tried speaking all the Earthly languages he knew, but none of them were able to resonate with magic power.

  The vines grew at an unnatural pace, shredding the corpse of the bull. The vines then proceeded to attack Claudius, binding him to the ground. Claudius was unable to fly as his movements were restricted by the magical vines. But that was all the vines could do. The thorns which could penetrate metals had no effect on Claudius' scales. They also gave off sounds which made it seem that they were about to break, but in fact the vines were not breaking anytime soon. The vines continued to strangle Claudius, growing thicker by the second. The aim of the druids that casted the magic was to restrain the Crimson Dragon and keep it on the ground. What followed next would be simple, as all the melee rangers had to do was stabbing its neck or heart with a magically enchanted weapon endowed with armour penetration element. The scales of a young dragon was not as st.u.r.dy as adult dragons, thus it should be enough to deal the killing blow.

  It was indeed a tough task to break free from the vines with brute force, as the vines were elastic and could withstand greater force than steel wires of the same thickness. However, vines were also plants, and all plants had a natural nemesis. While Claudius was still unable to break free, the vines also failed to pin him on the ground. Claudius widened his muscular legs and stood his ground, raising his Ring of Blaze to maximum power. The Ring of Blaze now had a radius of 3 metres and could produce up to 600 degree Celsius. Under the intense heat, the growth of the vines slowed down significantly.

  However, the quickest ranger was already right next to Claudius. He looked like an elf, but he wasn't one. The person looked like a human with a large beard on his face, but it was hard not to notice his pointy ears.

  "Che! Just a puny half-elf?" Claudius snickered as he looked at the approaching swordsman.

  The half-elf ranger held a curved sword in each of his hands, and everyone could tell that he emphasized on agility over power from his equipment. The swords were more suited towards a.s.sa.s.sination and stab attacks, and did not seem to have strong slas.h.i.+ng power. The movement of the half-elf was so quick that it looked as if he was unaffected by gravity. The fellow ran up the body of Claudius, aiming to attack his throat.

  Arrows after arrows continued to strike Claudius, providing cover fire for the agile swordsman. On the edge of the forest, about 30 metres away from Claudius, was a ranger holding a longbow. The ranger fired arrow after arrow, aiming at vital spots such as Claudius' eyes, nose, and mouth. It forced Claudius to constantly dodge the arrows by swinging his head around. The arrows were probably not enhanced with magic, thus the steel headed arrows were unable to penetrate his scales. Claudius felt that it was only natural for his tough scales to repel mere steel headed arrows, but in fact the archer was astonished by such a sight. Regular young dragons did not stand a chance against those finely refined arrows; even older teenage Crimson Dragons would at least suffer slight damage at less protected areas such as its stomach, limbs and snout. This abnormal Crimson Dragon which looked like a young dragon only prevented the arrows from hitting its head, and did not care about the raining arrows striking his torso.

   The third ranger was a bit slower, but in his hands was a medium-length spear which approximately reached his eyebrows when placed vertically on the ground. Out of the three weapons, this spear was the most dangerous one. It was longer than the dual swords, long enough to puncture his organs by simply attacking his back or chest. A simple strike was sufficient to kill the struggling Crimson Dragon.

  One of the druids continued chanting to maintain the vines, while the other one morphed into a huge bear after a roar. With a thick wand in his palms, he rushed towards Claudius.
  The dual swordsman was jumping around, stabbing Claudius' legs randomly. Under the effect of Claudius' Ring of Blaze, the half-elf had to consume his energy to repel the high temperature. Thus he also got exhausted quickly, but he was still moving at a speed which was hard for Claudius to lock on. Unable to lock onto his target, Claudius failed to land an attack the annoying pest at his legs. The rain of arrows was also irritating, and it was at that moment that one of the steel headed arrows finally punctured the corner of his mouth. Boiling hot blood streamed out from the wound, creating sparks of fire as the blood reached the ground.