Chapter 22: and translation of chapter title

Three days later.

All the juvenile dragons from the twelve dragon forts gathered in the wide-open central plain.

Here there were twelve sturdy arenas built with alchemy.

"The black dragon fort's dragon has arrived."

Following the sound and movement, many juvenile dragons looked toward the east.

A black dragon over five meters in body length, and another black dragon just over three meters, walked at the front.

Behind the black dragon Huo Er, eleven black dragons followed, including hatchlings and juveniles.

And behind Lai Ang, there were only two black dragons, Ai Di and Sai Jia, and, uh, also a white dragon.

The female white dragon hatchling Pa Na.

Pa Na, just over three years old and nearing the juvenile stage, looked about the same size as a one-and-a-half-year-old Lai Ang.

Despite being watched by many dragons, Lai Ang remained calm and even had the leisure to size up the other juvenile dragons—mainly searching for the hybrid juvenile dragon Ke Lei Mo's figure.

Ai Di couldn't help puff out his chest, trying to increase his 'size' in this way—he didn't want to embarrass his older brother.

Sai Jia, meanwhile, looked at so many dragons with excitement on his face, his fighting spirit barely containable.

For this ranking match, Sai Jia was clearly the most anticipatory and excited member of Lai Ang's team.

The white dragon Pa Na shrank its head, closely following behind the three black dragons, stole a glance at those juvenile dragons, then immediately lowered its head.

"White dragon, you stepped on my tail." Ai Di, who had been holding his head high and chest out, suddenly felt a slight sting at the tip of his dragon tail; he turned his head to see Pa Na walking with its head down.

"Ah?" Pa Na, already extremely nervous, barely had any thought: "Sorry, sorry, I was wrong, don't hit me."

Ai Di looked at the panicked white dragon; his original anger mostly dissipated, he shook his head and gave a cold snort: "Stay away from me, white dragon."

Sai Jia and Lai Ang up front didn't bother with this little matter.

Lai Ang searched around but couldn't find any trace of the hybrid juvenile dragon Ke Lei Mo, and he now felt a bit regretful.

Could it be that the opponent doesn't even need to participate in the ranking match? Is it too strong, with no opponent, making the ranking match meaningless? Just as Lai Ang was thinking this, the dragon crowd began to stir.

Following their gaze, Lai Ang narrowed his dragon eyes slightly.

A purple-scaled giant dragon flapped its wide dragon wings, flying over from the distant sky, and finally landed with a boom in the midst of all the juvenile dragons, its heavy dragon body kicking up some dust.

The purple-scaled giant dragon was over eight meters in body length, far surpassing the huge size of the surrounding juvenile dragons, making it stand out.

Under the sunlight, its purple scales reflected a blinding metallic luster, revealing strength within its dignity.

On its dragon head were three horns: a pair of curved red dragon horns, and a blue dragon's nasal horn.

"Red plus blue equals purple. No problem."

Lai Ang looked at the hybrid juvenile dragon Ke Lei Mo, who had arrived like a king and looked down on the dragon crowd, and grinned.

But in his heart, Lai Ang felt rather heavy.

This hybrid juvenile dragon is too strong!

It completely exceeds the strength of ordinary giant dragons at the juvenile stage.

At the juvenile stage, over eight meters in body length, and likely not yet having reached the peak of juvenile growth—what does that mean? Take the red dragon as an example: the peak of the juvenile stage is at ten years old, with a body length generally around seven meters.

The blue dragon is slightly smaller, but not much less than the red dragon.

Green and black dragons—although the black dragon ranks fourth among colored dragons and the green dragon third, purely in terms of dragon body, the black dragon is somewhat sturdier than the green dragon. Both can grow to about six meters in length at the peak of the juvenile stage.

The white dragon is about five meters.

A hybrid juvenile dragon like Ke Lei Mo, with this level of size and strength, likely could not be matched even by a relatively weak white dragon in the adolescent stage.

With Ke Lei Mo's arrival, the dragon crowd fell silent for a moment.

However, the former obviously didn't pay much attention to this group of 'weaklings'; after glancing around upon arrival, it shook its head and went to its own spot—the first of the twelve arenas. On the arena, it closed its eyes to rest.

Just then, a flash of light passed, and the dragons' teacher, the green dragon La De, arrived.

He was still in his humanoid dragon form, not revealing his true body.

The dragons were already used to this.

As a dragon species with magical aptitude, most green dragons like to take on humanoid forms.

Dragonfolk, humans, and even elves are among the common forms green dragons shift into.

Among metallic dragons, gold and silver dragons especially enjoy walking the earth in humanoid form.

"Let's begin, the rules remain unchanged, same as last time." La De glanced over the dragon crowd, lingered a moment longer on Ke Lei Mo resting on the first arena, then lazily announced.

As La De's words fell, one after another eye-catching juvenile dragons walked out from different parts of the dragon crowd and onto the arenas.

Red dragons, blue dragons, green dragons, and various hybrid dragons. There were red-blue mixes, blue-green mixes, blue-black mixes, and so on.

Yes, hybrid juvenile dragons are not just Ke Lei Mo; on the contrary, most of the juvenile dragons in the twelve dragon forts are hybrids.

But Ke Lei Mo is the strongest among those hybrid juvenile dragons.

Soon, the twelve arenas each had a juvenile dragon on eleven of them.

These eleven juvenile dragons, including Ke Lei Mo, are the leaders of their respective dragon forts.

The smallest among them is still close to five meters; one pure-blood red dragon and one pure-blood blue dragon exceed six meters in length, placing them in the second tier among juvenile dragon leaders.

Ke Lei Mo is uniquely in the first tier.

The dragons looked at the sole empty arena—the one belonging to the black dragon fort's juvenile leader.

The atmosphere was somewhat eerie.

Because the black dragon fort now has dual leaders.

The black dragon Huo Er and Lai Ang exchanged a glance; the former's expression was somewhat solemn, and upon closer look, a hint of apprehension flickered in his dragon eyes.

Lai Ang, meanwhile, remained relatively calm, after all, having strength gives one confidence.

"You two, go up together." La De, watching this scene from the side, had a somewhat strange expression.

Such a thing is also quite rare.

Because the color dragon's competitive and combative spirit is stronger than that of the vast majority of races.

Although the Emerald Academy has no hard rule that a dragon fortress can have only one leader, isn't that obvious?

The strongest dragon is definitely the leader.

However, Lade doesn't care about that either.

Anyway, it won't be long before a winner and loser are decided between these two little black dragons.

The victor will once again rule the entire Black Dragon Fortress, restoring its former state.

After Hoer and Lai Ang step onto the stage together, Lade clapped his hands, with a mindset of watching the fun, smiling narrowly and said, "Please welcome the challenger onto the stage!"

The little dragons that didn't go up on stage began to stir, and then one after another, sturdy young dragons walked out from among them, heading toward their target arena.

The first segment of the dragon fortress ranking battle is the segment challenging the leader.

Although such a challenge likely won't be won by any little dragon—after all, those with strength don't need to wait for the ranking battle to start; they can challenge directly like Lai Ang.

However, most of those little dragons who go up to challenge the leader aren't doing it to defeat the leader; they're doing it to showcase their growth over this period on the arena.

(End of chapter)