Translator: AnubisTL
"My name is Charles Haynes, though some call me the Flower Knight."
"Respected Ironforged Lord, I wish to speak with you."
Beneath the deep night sky, atop the rugged hills, the massive head of the red-iron dragon tilted slightly, its cold, hard scales gleaming. Its vertical pupils silently gazed at the Flower Knight who had approached.
Hearing the human's proposal to negotiate, the dragon's fearsome face remained expressionless, its gaze steady.
When the Albert Family's tax collectors had descended upon the Ironforged Tribe like jackals, seeking to forcibly extract exorbitant taxes through violence, had even a single knight, claiming to embody order and justice, stepped forward to represent the Ironforged Tribe's monstrous citizens and speak with the lofty Albert Family?
Back then, there had only been cold steel and greedy demands.
Yet he could sense genuine goodwill from this human.
This was no pretense.
The fact that the human had willingly entered his absolute attack range without drawing his sword, and that his magic energy remained calm and contained rather than tense and ready, was clear evidence.
This courage and sincerity deserved a sliver of respect.
However, this absolutely did not mean that the Albert Family, represented by the Flower Knight, harbored any goodwill.
If there had been even a shred of benevolence, the Albert Family's private army, radiating murderous intent, would not have appeared beneath these wild hills. Instead, it would have been peace envoys holding olive branches.
As a lawful dragon who respected order, Garos actually didn't reject the idea of resolving disputes through negotiation rather than battle.
But, absolutely not now.
Buzz—!
Without any warning,
A piercing, ear-splitting crackle erupted, as if the very air were being torn apart.
Countless golden lightning bolts surged across the red-iron dragon's massive frame. Its already formidable body swelled in the electrical glow, radiating a suffocating pressure.
The instant the first golden serpent of lightning shot forth,
His towering form vanished from its original position, leaving only a distorted afterimage in the air and crackling arcs of electricity.
The oppressive dragon body surged towards the Flower Knight at a speed far exceeding visual perception. In an instant, it closed the distance, its claws, wreathed in destructive energy and black-red dragon qi, tore through the air as they slammed down with overwhelming force.
Boom!!!
The ground collapsed and fractured, sending countless fragments of rock scattering like shrapnel in all directions.
A massive, claw-shaped pit appeared beneath the red-iron dragon's talons, swirling with dust and smoke... yet there was no bloody scene as expected.
In the nick of time, the Flower Knight had vanished.
He reappeared ten meters away from the dragon's claws, his posture slightly hurried but unharmed.
Blink Strike.
In an instant, he had traversed space, teleporting to any visible and unoccupied location within ten meters just before the attack landed.
The essence of this skill lay in the follow-up with a fierce counterattack.
However.
Before the Flower Knight could steady himself and prepare his counter, even as he materialized, the dragon's razor-sharp wing tore through the air with a chilling roar, slashing horizontally at his waist.
The human figure blurred once more.
Only an afterimage remained in his place, instantly shredded by the violent air current stirred by the dragon's wing.
He reappeared ten meters away, but before his feet had fully touched the ground, the dragon's steel-whip-like tail already slammed down.
The dragon's attacks from different body parts connected with unbelievable speed.
As if there were no intervals at all, the relentless, storm-like offensive gave the opponent no time to breathe or think.
The red-iron dragon's strength far surpassed that of dragons of similar size, and it greatly exceeded the Flower Knight's expectations.
Garos, having gained the initiative, attacked with the ferocity of a hurricane, his blows relentless and airtight. He forced the renowned Flower Knight into a desperate, constant state of evasion, leaving him with no opportunity to counterattack.
Boom!
Garos's claws swept past the Flower Knight's afterimage by a hair's breadth.
This time, the Flower Knight didn't simply blink away. He vanished abruptly and completely, as if erased from existence in that space, leaving no trace behind.
"Ranger?"
Garos's mind raced. Drawing upon the knowledge inherited from the dragon race, he identified the core of his opponent's class.
This was a ranger, but far from an ordinary forest hunter.
He followed the extremely rare and specialized Boundary Walker branch path, a path with a high threshold that required exceptional spatial talent. He wielded formidable and elusive skills such as Blink Strike, Banishment, and even spatial walking.
In the past, facing such an agile Boundary Walker, especially one determined to kite and evade, Garos might have struggled without effective means of perception and locking onto his target.
But he had never stopped working to compensate for his shortcomings.
The times had long since changed!
The red-iron dragon's eyes were as sharp as blades, and the crimson-black dragon qi swirling around his body surged and roiled like molten lava.
In an instant, the majestic dragon qi rapidly coalesced and took shape above his already massive and formidable head, ultimately forming a dragon qi helmet with sharp angles, covered in dark, thorny spikes, yet perfectly molded to the contours of his skull.
This helmet covered almost his entire face, leaving only a pair of increasingly deep and indifferent black eyes visible.
This was the key skill Garos had comprehended upon reaching level 6 in the Path of Dragon Qi:
Star-Self Appearance.
The ability to manipulate dragon qi to condense a personalized helmet or faceplate, its form born from the user's will. Not only does it provide formidable defensive power, but it also grants the wearer transcendent insight and perception.
The moment the dragon qi helmet settled onto his head, Garos's vision of the world underwent a radical transformation.
All colors became intensely vivid—reds that seared the eyes, blacks that plunged into abyssal depths, yellows that blazed like suns... countless color patches intertwined yet remained distinct, as if the surrounding world had become a vibrant, abstract oil painting with bold strokes and sharp lines.
And within this bizarrely vivid vision...
Without even needing to turn his massive head or open his physical dragon eyes, Garos could "see" everything around him in a full 360-degree range, centered on himself.
Omnidirectional vision was one of the fundamental effects of his star-self appearance.
"Little thing, what are you hoping for?"
The red-iron dragon's gaze turned eerie as it instantly locked onto a semi-transparent, constantly rippling, colorful patch.
Inside, a clear human silhouette was trying to conceal itself.
The moment the figure completed its spatial jump and was about to solidify, Garos spun around. His four massive arms, crackling with dragon qi, whipped up a storm of afterimages as they launched a sweeping, all-encompassing assault.
6th-tier dragon qi activated!
Star-self arm! Claw Strike Mastery!
In an instant, the red-iron dragon entered a ferocious combat stance, holding nothing back.
Strength, speed, and precision surged to new heights. The four dragon arms transformed into a destructive tempest, completely engulfing every possible space the Flower Knight might dodge into.
From Charles Haynes's perspective:
He had just performed a Space Walk, a technique more advanced than Blink Strike, attempting to hide in the interstitial space between the Ether Plane and the material plane, temporarily evading the relentless, desperate onslaught.
Yet a bone-chilling cold gripped his heart, as if a pair of indifferent, all-seeing eyes were piercing through layers of spatial barriers to lock onto him.
Boom!
The arm of dragon qi, brimming with terrifying power, slammed viciously into the space node where he was hiding. Though it failed to tear through space directly, the overwhelmingly potent and solidified energy caused violent compression and tremors within the relatively fragile space rift.
If he lingered any longer, he would face a devastating backlash of spatial energy.
With no other choice, the Flower Knight was forced to abruptly cancel his skill, scrambling out of the space rift in a humiliating retreat.
The only consolation was that this desperate gambit had bought him a fleeting, yet invaluable, moment of respite.
(End of the Chapter)
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