Translator: AnubisTL
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The Chimera, mid-meal, suddenly froze.
Its three heads swayed in the darkness, sniffing the air repeatedly, its multi-colored eyes darting in all directions as it spread its wings uneasily.
The Chimera's sense of smell was exceptionally keen.
It had caught the scent of danger.
At that moment, the sky suddenly darkened, just as it had when the Chimera's body had blocked the cave lion's vision. The Chimera looked up, and a majestic, black-scaled dragon with silver-glowing scales appeared in its field of view.
"Chimera, you wretched subspecies."
"Kneel! Prostrate yourself!"
The red-iron dragon's voice, deep and thunderous, boomed through the night.
In the eyes of dragonkind, the Chimera's appearance was grotesque and hideous, utterly lacking in beauty. "Ugly-ra" would have been a more fitting name.
However, this particular Chimera was quite powerful. If it could be tamed, the Ironforged Tribe would gain a formidable warrior.
Garos had inherited the iron dragon's pragmatism.
He didn't care about the Chimera's appearance and was willing to give it a chance to submit to him.
"Get out of my territory!" The Chimera growled in a guttural, slurred form of dragon language.
It was a semi-intelligent creature, akin to an Earthstorm Bear, with some wisdom but not much.
Its three heads stared at the red-iron dragon, their eyes burning with battle intent, not fear. Instead, they seemed eager and restless, ready to pounce.
Whoosh!ย With a flap of its wings, the massive creature soared into the air.
"Instead of fleeing, it's charging at me."
"How foolish."
Garos's dragon wings tore through the clouds as he plummeted downward. The friction between his cold, hardened scales and the air generated intense heat.
The Chimera roared with all three heads.
The central red dragon's jaws gaped, flames surging between its crisscrossing fangs, and a scorching torrent of fire erupted from its throat.
The red-iron dragon didn't flinch or dodge the oncoming flame.
Boom!
His powerful body braced against the fiery blast, splitting it apart as he advanced inch by inch toward the Chimera.
The flames, capable of melting stone and liquefying steel, merely reddened and cracked his scales.
Garos possessed high fire resistance.
The damage was negligible.
Realizing its flaming breath was ineffective, the Chimera abandoned the futile attack. It raised its claws and lunged at the red-iron dragon.
As they closed the distance, Garos's right wing unfurled, its bone-like blade slashing through the air like a keen weapon, aimed at the Chimera's red dragon head.
Sensing mortal danger, the Chimera recoiled, its lion head snapping open to bite the wing membrane.
But Garos's wing maneuvered deftly, the spear-like bone at its tip jabbing toward the lion's head.
Riiip!
Despite the Chimera's swift reaction, turning its head and dodging to the side, the dragon wing still grazed its lion-faced cheek, leaving a gaping, bone-deep wound that bled profusely.
Roar!
The lion head let out a thunderous roar, its mane bristling.
An invisible yet tangible wave of sonic force erupted from the roar, striking the red-iron dragon at close range. The dragon's movements froze, entering a dazed state.
The Chimera's sharp claws slammed down, striking the red-iron dragon's neck.
Clang!ย The claws collided with the thorn spikes, sending sparks flying. A wave of frigid air burst from the fractured scales, coating the Chimera's claws in frost. The broken thorns, hard and sharp, embedded themselves in its flesh, burrowing into the flesh.
The Chimera let out a pained howl.
In this exchange, Garos merely twitched his neck slightly, the Cold Exploding Scale on his neck cracking and denting without significant injury. The Chimera, however, suffered from both the chilling frost and the piercing thorns.
Enraged, the Chimera's other raised claw didn't retreat. It slammed into the red-iron dragon's chest.
Clang!
Sparks and thorns flew simultaneously. The freezing air seeped through the thorn-pierced wounds, causing the fire-attribute Chimera to feel as if needles were piercing its flesh.
Two claw strikes.
The red-iron dragon took the blows, but the Chimera was the one injured.
About a second later, Garos broke free from his dazed state.
Level 3 Dragon Qi Circulation!
Reinforced Claw Strike!
Black-red qi swirled around the dragon's claws, its attack speed skyrocketing. In the blink of an eye, the claws pierced the Chimera's defenses and dug deep into its chest and abdomen, tearing flesh and snapping bones.
The Chimera roared in agony and kicked out, its goat hooves scraping sparks against the dragon's scales.
Its strength was immense.
The red-iron dragon ripped off a large chunk of flesh and retreated, simultaneously tensing its tail muscles. The scales on either side of its tail clattered together, forming a blazing red blade, while a spear-like structure sprang from its tip.
Level 3 Dragon Qi Circulation!
Reinforced Tail Strike!
Dragon qi surged through its body.
The dragon's tail swept forward with lightning speed, its angle cunning and precise, leaving behind a fiery red afterimage.
Splat!
After a momentary pause, the massive lion head flew skyward. The flesh at the severed neck was charred black, as if seared by flames, without a single drop of blood flowing.
The Chimera shuddered as if struck by lightning. Its dragon head and goat head let out simultaneous roars.
The severed head had fully enraged the giant beast.
Its four eyes burned crimson, its last vestiges of reason devoured by pain and fury.
Meeowโย Its goat head opened, emitting a bizarre, layered sound, like some indescribable incantation. Black-purple veins bulged from its body, writhing like living creatures as its frame swelled, as if stuffed with pitch. With each heartbeat, its body expanded several times its original size.
As expected of a wild monster lord that has roamed the southwest for so long.
This creature possessed formidable skills beyond those of ordinary Chimeras, making it exceptionally dangerous.
Now in a berserk state, the Chimera's speed and strength surged. Roaring furiously, its two heads attacked from either side, coordinating with its claws and hooves to engage the red-iron dragon in a brutal close-quarters battle.
Dense volleys of attacks rained down on the red-iron dragon, cracking its Cold Exploding Scales one after another.
A biting cold radiated outward from the dragon's body, coating the nearby Chimera in a layer of ice crystals. As the creature moved, the ice shattered, only to reform and coat it again, in an endless cycle.
The constant cold erosion slowed the Chimera's movements.
The red-iron dragon, unaffected by the chill, struck with lethal precision. Each of its weapon-like limbs left gaping wounds on the Chimera's body. In moments, the creature was drenched in blood, its flesh torn open to reveal bone.
At the same time, Garos could clearly feel the thermal energy accumulating and rising within his body.
"I don't need to store it to the limit; I seem to be able to use it to enhance my breath attack."
Because the intensity of the battle was limited, Garos could still divide his attention to ponder this during the fierce exchange.
The first time he had accumulated thermal energy, it hadn't been very noticeable. But this time, under his careful scrutiny, he sensed the formation of a new organ within his bodyโa jade-like structure designed to store thermal energy.
When he focused his spirit on this organ, the stored thermal energy began to boil and flow outward in all directions.
In an instant, the red-iron dragon's Cold Exploding Scales cracked spontaneously, even without being struck. The scales heated up, turning a glowing crimson hue, like red-hot iron.
Billowing heat waves erupted from the cracks and gaps between the scales, clashing with the lingering chill. The two forces mingled, creating thick plumes of smoke that twisted and churned with the heat waves.
The beasts of Sword Cliff trembled, their legs buckling as they collapsed to the ground.
Both herbivores and ferocious carnivores alike felt as if an invisible hand had seized their hearts, paralyzing them with fear.
"If I hold back and don't use the thermal energy to enhance my breath attack, it will dissipate rapidly through this method," Garos thought, his body burning with heat as he carefully assessed his condition.
The heat waves radiated outward, forming a field of extreme temperature. Yet with each passing second, the thermal energy value decreased, weakening the power of the subsequent breath attack.
To unleash its full power, this strike must be delivered instantly. Timing is crucial.
The red-iron dragon pondered internally.
Opposite him, under the influence of the terrifying sense of crisis, the Chimera's eyes suddenly cleared.
It let out a fearful roar, flapped its wings, and began to flee, dragging its battered body away from the red-iron dragon.
Unfortunately, it had made the wrong choice.
Had it immediately begged for mercy and pledged loyalty, it might have survived. But by fleeing, it sealed its own doom.
Garos's gaze fell upon the Chimera.
He opened his dragon's maw, flames surging between his fangs. Then, a crimson beam of destruction erupted forth, igniting the sky into a sea of fire. The unstoppable torrent swept toward the Chimera with relentless force.
In its prime, the Chimera might have evaded this conspicuous, overwhelming attack by fleeing instantly.
But now, engulfed and consumed by the extended flaming dragon breath, it ceased struggling after two or three seconds.
Whooshโย Garos exhaled.
The scales on his body gradually returned to their normal color.
When the dragon breath dissipated, the Chimera's body had vanished without a trace, its bones reduced to ashes and dust.
The wild monster lord, who had dominated this territory for years, was no more.
(End of the Chapter)
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