Chapter 523: Dual Dragons Clash

【Lily: Rod! The effect of "Phantom Dragon" has reached its limit.】

Rod looked at the message Lily sent through 【Far Whisper Chain】 and nodded.

Although it was a bit different from what he had expected.

But it wasn't a big problem.

The direct battle between the dragons had been successfully provoked!

The red dragon Nas was especially furious at the black dragon Mikhail's betrayal and focused on dealing with him.

After all—

Rod was playing the role of a white dragon.

And it was a universally acknowledged fact among the chromatic dragons that white dragons had slightly lower wildness and intelligence.

So the question arose.

One was a white dragon — the shame of the chromatic dragons — full of wildness, whose hunting methods relied entirely on hiding within its own flesh and beneath layers of ice.

The other was a black dragon — cruel and treacherous, fond of using traps to torment prey, with its little brain spinning nonsense all day long.

Which side was more likely to have devised the plan to steal the treasury and join forces?

The red dragon Nas could probably figure out who it was even using the fine fuzz hidden beneath his dragon scales to think with.

Rod mobilized the spirituality of 【Judian's Ice Blade Domain】, raising a gale of ice blades and sweeping them over.

At the same time, he dispersed the white dragon battle soul.

Revealing his human form once more.

In their eyes, the white dragon had suddenly cast a polymorph spell and turned into a human.

The black dragon Mikhail was currently brawling with Nas, and upon seeing this scene, he couldn't help but open his mouth to question him directly:

"White dragon brother! Come help out! Why are you transforming into human form?!"

"Don't worry, black dragon brother — my spells in human form are crazy strong. I'll lay down frost from the back. You hold on for a bit."

Mikhail nearly spat blood.

Laozi brought you here precisely so you could take the red dragon Nas head-on! Then Laozi would harass from the side!

And you damn well went and stole my position!

Just as he was about to roar at him to come help.

Before he could open his mouth, a dragon claw landed square on his face.

The hard bony claw tips scraped against the black dragon scales with a sizzling screech, sending sparks flying.

Speaking in terms of the quality of spirituality and magical power—

The red dragon Nas was at the upper tier of the eighth tier.

From his brief clash with him, Rod had roughly estimated his value on the brass spirit-measuring orb to be around 600 notches.

Compared to the black dragon's 510 notches, that was nearly 100 more.

No wonder he was so obviously being suppressed by him.

And this one claw strike sent his entire dragon body staggering!

"ROAR!! You don't hit a dragon in the face! Don't you know that?!"

With this one slap—

His true fury was thoroughly drawn out. The scar on his face from being slashed by the forest ranger had cost him a fortune to repair with dragon scales.

He was usually extra careful when washing it — and now you come along with this slap, weren't all my expenses wasted?!

"ROAR!!!"

A fierce roar.

The two dragons grappled violently.

Rod pretended to cast 【Humus Ice Blade】 from behind.

Unlike being broken apart by high-temperature heat force when clashing with breath attacks.

The freezing attack's effect was unusually good.

Although it still couldn't pierce the dragon scales, after one round of operations, it had actually succeeded in covering the red dragon's smaller half of his body in white frost.

The "Necrotic Rot" effect had also successfully attached!

However—

To avoid the red dragon sensing a greater threat from him and turning his dragon head to deal with him.

Rod maintained his slacking-off state the whole time and did not continue to expand the damage range.

The halfling Lily in the shadows, seeing him bored, began to chat.

"How is it, Rod? How's the red dragon's strength?"

As she spoke, the girl's tone rose — clearly excited about her second dragon-slaying operation.

"Pretty strong. I don't know if you have that dwarven spirit-measuring orb."

"The derivative development product of the dwarven craftsman 【Heart of Locke】 from the Magic Control Union, right? I have it."

"Yeah, that's the thing. The red dragon Nas is around 600 notches."

Upon hearing the red dragon Nas's strength data.

Lily was not only unafraid, but even more excited.

"600 notches? Quite a bit stronger than that substitute green dragon I dealt with in Deepwater City — that guy was probably only around 520 notches. By the way, my value is 383 notches! Far exceeding the dwarven seventh-tier value!"

The dwarven-set values were between 150 and 300 notches for the seventh tier.

Between 300 and 600 notches for the eighth tier.

Above 600 notches for the ninth tier.

Of course.

These values can only be used for medium-sized humanoid races; for large-bodied creatures like dragons and giants, the numerical ranges hold no reference value.

But still, Lily reaching 383 notches gave Rod quite a scare.

The last time Rod went through a battle with the black dragon Mikhail, his spirituality advanced a small step, reaching 408 notches.

But don't forget.

Rod is a cheater — only someone with a hack could have such high values.

Lily is purely a freak of talent!

"What about you, Rod! What's yours?"

"I know!"

Tally, in the shadows, spoke up cheerfully, "Last time when spirituality was measured, Tally had just finished eating and was resting in Master's arms, and I saw it — it's 408 notches!"

"F-finished eating, cough cough!"

Lily coughed violently, forcing herself to stay calm. "408 notches? As expected of Rod! But I'll catch up to you soon!"

Tally giggled: "You couldn't catch up! Master has a breathing method called 【Elbert's Curious Love Codex】 that boosts spirituality and girls'... well, even without counting that stinky snake and the doggo, we have six girls every day — you think you can catch up?"

"Six?!"

Just from hearing that voice.

Rod could already picture Lily's shocked and slightly shy, adorable little face.

"Humans have limits, you'll die doing that, Rod!"

"I won't, though!"

Tally added, "You'll know once you try it later. That's not something these few people can overcome."

Lily panicked: "What do you mean 'you'll know once you try later'? Lily and Rod are friends!"

Tally smirked wickedly: "You're a young halfling, you don't really understand your own feelings, and you don't even have the experience of figuring it out on your own. Maybe tonight you could give it a try, and see whose face pops into your head."

"..."

Lily fell silent.

But sounds of a scuffle came from the shadows.

Tally laughed: "Hahaha — I'm not ticklish! Your tickling is useless. I could teach you a few tricks for tickling another spot. Recently Master listened to the elves' slander and insisted on controlling his diet, so I've figured out quite a few new techniques!"

"Shut up right now!"

It was also because Lily was wary of the current setting, afraid that casting spells would be discovered, that she failed to stop it.

Besides, the shadow space was Tally's domain.

Otherwise, two Tallys combined probably wouldn't be a match for the battle-experienced Lily.

Rod smiled and steadied his mood.

He looked back at the battlefield of the two dragons!

Although the black dragon Mikhail, having fought in earnest, briefly matched the red dragon Nass.

Yet a gap of nearly 100 notches in strength cannot be overcome by rage alone.

Even after the black dragon used its most powerful breath weapon.

The red dragon seemed to have a counter ready, using spells like strong-acid energy shield and chain of fire.

The former could resist strong acid to the point of withstanding it head-on with dragon scales.

The latter used the high temperature of fire to evaporate or neutralize part of the acid, thereby weakening the breath's effect.

But to say the red dragon took no damage at all was impossible.

The black dragon Mikhail specifically used a cone breath, maximizing the strong acid's effect within the narrow canyon.

Sizzle sizzle—

Sizzle sizzle—

Violent corrosion reactions appeared on the surface of the red dragon Nass's dragon scales.

He roared furiously, attacking even more savagely.

Beating the black dragon until broken scales flew, dragon blood splattered, and miserable cries rang out one after another.

Mixed within the acid fog, the two dragons' melee grew ever more brutal.

Moreover, the red dragon Nass was not like some declining old dragons that need several days to recover after a single breath.

After all, he was still a dragon in his prime; the fatigue period of his fire sac had already passed.

He too held nothing back.

The dragon pupils' orange-red firelight blazed brightly.

Between the corroded dragon scales, lava-like spirituality flowed.

A violent blast of fire breath surged onto the black dragon Mikhail's body with a boom.

The pitch-black dragon scales melted and deformed at a speed visible to the naked eye under the intense firepower.

The domineering heat even neutralized and evaporated most of the strong acid fog in the canyon.

Mikhail couldn't take it anymore and howled miserably:

"Come help me! Stop using those damn ice-blade spells!!"

"Right away, right away."

Right away was absolutely not going to happen.

Rod was purely a bystander.

After a large patch of dragon scales was burned away, came another bout of savage beating.

The black dragon Mikhail completely became a roadside lizard.

It was effortlessly knocked to the ground by a single twisting body-slam and tail-whip, then suddenly had its head stomped.

The massive body crushed down with a booming roar, shaking the mountain and the canyon.

The Red Dragon Nas roared in mockery and victory.

"You should examine your judgment in choosing companions! Mikhail! Of course, in your next life!"

"I surrender, I surrender! Nas!"

Mikhail screamed in agony.

The intense pain from taking a full blast of fire breath made Mikhail lose all desire to stand and fight again.

Under the Red Dragon's stomp, half of his head sank into the earth.

But he stared fixedly at the 'White Dragon Brothers' nearby, who were maintaining their human forms.

He was completely unable to understand the situation.

Logically, even if Nas was strong and arrogant, he shouldn't have been able to win so easily against a physical brawl between two dragons.

Yet, the White Dragon, aside from taking it seriously for a moment at the start, had been slacking off the entire time.

What benefit did this bring him?

Wasn't he the Red Dragon's mortal enemy?

Was the Red Dragon actually his collaborator? Was the target always me??

"Do you think I will give you that chance, traitor!"

"I can fix all of this! For the sake of Archduke Asmodeus, spare me, Nas! By the way, this White Dragon kept the portion of treasure from your vault! Let's kill him together! I will hand over all the property in my vault to you!"

Mikhail saw a low, rumbling growl come from Nas's throat.

This was the other party's habit when thinking.

He immediately felt hope, knowing he likely wouldn't be torn apart!

And just at that moment.

Mikhail suddenly saw the White Dragon in human form ahead, his face beginning to change.

It transformed into a familiar human face that he had held a grudge against in his mind.

He froze.

Then, in an instant, he reacted, and intense anger and humiliation flooded his mind.

"Forester Rod!!!"

At the same time.

A thunderous boom that shook heaven and earth suddenly erupted!

Above the canyon, a shell bearing a human face tore through the narrow sky, trailing a pink-purple tail flame, and struck the Red Dragon Nas directly!

(End of this chapter)