Chapter 283: Settled

"Raise your battle-axes!" "For the King!" "Kill!!!"

At the King's call, all the Dwarves who could still stand followed Thorin, letting out waves of high-pitched shouts. Driven by a heart full of rage, they raised their gleaming battle-axes high and charged toward the blue dragon's vulnerable underbelly.

For a moment, the blue dragon, unable to attend to both sides, had to abandon the idea of battering the city walls. It kept moving its thick limbs to dodge, while its tail, like a meteor hammer, swung back and forth even faster, creating gusts of wind that struck at those ants who seemed to be courting death.

The scales on a cold dragon's belly are always more fragile than elsewhere; this is a common ailment of all evil dragons. Whether it was the Father of Dragons, "Glaurung," or Smaug, who called himself "King under the Mountain," they all met their ends this way.

Meanwhile, the blue dragon, with three crossbow bolts stuck in its head, had begun to pay attention to the weapons the Dwarves were using, sensing that the cold-gleaming steel seemed capable of piercing its scales.

This caused a long-lost fear to emerge in its heart. The last time it had felt this way was when it was contending for wealth in the Grey Mountains and suffered the baptism of fire from the fire dragon Smaug.

And this terror was entirely inherited from their creator, for Morgoth was the only one among all the Valar who knew fear.

"Serar, Karagang, what are you two still waiting for? The weapons of these fellows before us are far stronger than those of the Dwarves of the past; they have broken through the strongest defense on my head!!! Do you intend to wait until I am dead and then slink away?"

The blue dragon's rumbling voice had lost its initial irritability, instead revealing a sense of panic and pleading. If there were no reinforcements, it felt it would die.

At this moment, the Dwarves, having regained their footing, had already reloaded their crossbows under Gandalf's encouragement.

"Swish!" "Swish!" "Swish!"

Three streaks of silver light tore through the air toward the blue dragon's head. If they hit, they would surely cause even greater damage, for this time the Dwarves were aiming for the more fragile eyes.

Yet, the blue dragon's massive body possessed an agility that belied its size. A huge sense of crisis caused that hideous head to whip around quickly, nimbly dodging two of the crossbow bolts.

The third streak of silver light, however, plunged into the dragon's fang-filled maw, the shimmering arrowhead piercing right through, accompanied by blood.

"Wooo!" "Wooo!" "Wooo!"

Suffering heavy wounds once more, the blue dragon let out a miserable cry. By now, its mind was tightly gripped by fear. The desire to survive made its behavior even more frantic and violent. Its massive body, no longer caring about the Dwarves' hacking, threw itself with all its might against the already tottering city wall.

"Crash, rumble!"

Enduring the impact of the blue dragon's massive body, the crudely built wall could hold no longer. At least a third of the section collapsed amidst a huge cloud of dust, and five heavy crossbows were smashed to pieces along with the falling stones.

The warriors on the wall, a large number of heavy-armored Dwarves preparing to fight the dragon, and the human warriors standing ready behind the wall were struck and buried by the suddenly collapsing rocks. Wails rose up in an instant.

"Roar!"

The blue dragon's massive roar drowned out all other noise. This time, without the slightest hesitation, it charged madly toward the interior of Mount Gundabad to escape the heavy crossbows on the wall that had begun to rotate rapidly.

Running out of range of those strange weapons would mean safety. But a small figure in a grey robe now stood in its path—it was Gandalf, who had jumped down from the wall.

He held Gramdring in one hand and his staff in the other, assuming a defensive stance, his entire body radiating a rich white light.

"Evil creature born in Angband, I will never let you proceed further."

A brilliant white light surged from Gandalf's staff toward the blue dragon's eyes, and the sword in his right hand summoned peals of thunder.

On the other side of the battlefield, the white dragon named Serar and the crocodile monster named Karagang acted immediately upon hearing the blue dragon's wails.

At this point, there was no talk of fighting or not fighting; destroying those strange devices on the city walls was the most important thing.

These two dragons had observed clearly from the sidelines: these Dwarves now possessed the ability to contend with them.

As long as those devices were destroyed, this battle would still be easy. Moreover, that irritable fellow had already cleared away many dangers with its blood; if they still wanted to complete their deal with Sauron, they could no longer just watch from the sidelines.

The next moment, Allen's figure suddenly appeared beside the white dragon. Ringil, gripped in both hands and raised high above his head, shimmered with a cold, eerie light, illuminating the dragon's malicious, dark-yellow eyes.

At this moment, it was the most critical point of the battle.

Suddenly, the dragon's vertical pupil flashed, and a strange light appeared, enveloping the figure flying in the air.

Allen, his heart sounding an alarm, suddenly discovered that his entire body had stiffened; no matter how he struggled, he could not move a single bit.

He did not fall from the sky only because the wind carrying him was controlled by his will. After exerting all his strength, he barely managed to maintain his position and dodge the dragon's maw, which was filled with sharp teeth.

This entrance was extremely dangerous, and he had nearly fallen into the dragon's trap.

The seemingly gentle Serar was far more cunning than the other two dragons. Its long tongue had sensed the scent of a stranger in the nearby air long ago. The reason it had been dragging its feet and negotiating with the Dwarves was precisely because of this.

Since the opponent had an ambush, it was natural to wait for a foolish fellow to test it out first.

Unfortunately, the irritable Nigen had not drawn the opponent out, but Serar had been guarding cautiously, waiting until this human suddenly appeared in the air.

Serar knew that no matter how one looked at it, it was the one most likely to be attacked. Who told it that its neck was the thinnest one present? Serar was fully aware of this.

Some dragons are born with the ability to fly and breathe fire; some dragons have extremely strong defenses and massive bodies when they are created; and some possess magic, especially those eyes, which contain all sorts of strange curses.

Serar was a cold dragon born with knowledge of some curses, and this curse of its, which could freeze enemies, could not be resisted even by cold dragons, let alone that human in the air who didn't know whether he was living or dead.

However, Allen, who was completely unable to move at this moment, did not panic.

After a moment of astonishment, he immediately regained his calm and adjusted his posture with the wind wrapped around him. Like an arrow released from a bow, he drew a circle in the air and flew rapidly past the white dragon's chin, which was unable to dodge in time.

The sharp Ringil also sliced through the white scales at this moment, and black blood gushed out like a fountain.

"Ah~!!"

The originally confident Serar let out a howl of pain in disbelief. This sword wound in its chin was extremely deep, and a large amount of blood flowed out. It had nearly had its throat slit. A pair of eyes filled with resentment locked onto the human who was still flying in the air.

At this moment, its only thought was to bite this fellow who dared to hurt it to death, crush him with its sharp teeth, and listen to his wails before death!!

Allen, having succeeded in one strike, flew far away to the side. Perhaps because the white dragon had suffered extremely serious injuries, the curse he was under seemed to dissipate, and his body slowly regained control.

Because he had been controlled by the curse earlier, Allen began to consciously avoid the dragon's cruel gaze, circling around Serar in the air, occasionally dodging the lashes of the long, thin dragon tail, and using the sharp Elven sword in his hand to attack the white dragon's back and legs at every opportunity.

Man and dragon reached a stalemate at this moment.

"Crack!" "Rumble!"

Thunder suddenly sounded from the Dwarves' holy land. A thick bolt of lightning struck down from the sky, hitting Gramdring in Gandalf's hand. Immediately, this legendary sword from Turgon, the "King of Hidden," struck the blue dragon's left forelimb with the force of thunder.

The blue dragon Tier, blinded by the white light, let out a heart-wrenching wail, and a foul-smelling, burnt odor slowly drifted out. Large patches of wounds appeared on the foreleg hit by Gramdring, and the seemingly solid scales kept falling off during its violent thrashing.

Gandalf, dodging to the side, avoided the dragon's counterattack in its agony. Then, a cold light flashed, and the sword in his hand flew up on its own, plunging deep into the flesh unprotected by scales.

Then, the sword light cut all the way down, adding another huge wound to this severely injured leg.

The dragon, having suffered repeated injuries, finally could not hold on, especially with that miserable foreleg, and with a "boom," it knelt directly to the ground.

At this time, Thorin, leading a large group of heavy-armored Dwarves, sprinted to the blue dragon's side. After dodging the meteor hammer that whistled with the wind, Orcrist in his hand turned into a streak of white light and slashed fiercely at the dragon's exposed belly.

"Clang!"

A blue-white scale cracked at the sound. Immediately, a large number of heavy-armored Dwarves broke through the defense of the dragon's tail and began to hammer away with the axe-hammers in their hands, "ding-ding-dang-dang," along the broken scales.

The blue dragon, feeling the injury to its belly, was terrified to death for a moment. Enduring the pain coming from all parts of its body, it struggled to stand up and spun madly in place, its massive body, like a small hill, driving away the Dwarves surrounding it.

Its four limbs kept retreating, dodging Gandalf, who was fast approaching.

Before long, the panicked dragon actually arrived at the edge of the city wall again. The remaining seven heavy crossbows had long since been redirected by the concerted efforts of the Dwarves, and the cold, shimmering arrowheads were aimed at it once more.

"Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!"

As the strings of the heavy crossbows sounded, several streaks of silver light flashed again, attacking the blue dragon's back. Tier, in extreme panic, could no longer dodge the shots as easily as before.

The silver-shimmering crossbow bolts broke through the blue scales and plunged deep into the flesh, bringing huge damage to the frantically struggling blue dragon. This time, the severely injured Tier was scared out of its wits.

At this moment, whatever mountains, whatever endless wealth, were not as important as its own life.

Its massive body crossed the collapsed city wall and began to flee desperately in the direction it had come, its mouth emitting desperate, miserable wails.

These heart-wrenching screams were continuous, alarming the white dragon Serar, who was confronting Allen, and even scaring the black dragon Karagang into stopping its advance.

At this moment, Allen exerted all his strength, pushing his flight speed to the limit. The edge of Ringil flashed like lightning, and taking advantage of the white dragon's moment of distraction, he cut off one of its hind legs.

With this, there was another dragon on the field letting out miserable cries. The continuous changes made Karagang, who was standing in place, hesitate.

Of the three dragons that had come together, only it remained uninjured. The blue dragon Tier was severely injured, especially that foreleg, which looked nearly crippled; it didn't dare to put any weight on it while running, and it looked like it was going to die.

And the white dragon Serar had only been stunned for a moment before the human flying in the air had cleanly cut off one of its legs. So, after Tier died and those crazy Dwarves rushed over, could it and Serar really win?

Most importantly, Karagang understood its own advantages: it had thick skin and was immensely strong, true, but it had no magical abilities and had no way to deal with that human flying in the air, especially that cold-gleaming longsword in his hand.

It didn't want to use the scales on its back to test how sharp that sword was; the price might be the life it still had several hundred years to live. It hadn't eaten enough of the delicious fish under the deep ice of the Northern Wasteland yet.

Karagang figured everything out after a slight hesitation.

Therefore, this hesitation didn't even last five seconds before that massive black body turned directly and, under the gaze of the two dragons and countless people, fled toward the northwest.

"Karagang!!" "Bastard!!"

Serar and Tier, who had come with it, let out angry shouts, but this could not stop a cold dragon fleeing in fear.

Allen, watching everything before him, did not hesitate for a moment. He directly abandoned the white dragon he had been fighting and flew straight toward the stumbling, fleeing blue dragon. Ringil in his hand drew a bright arc, directly opening a huge wound at the base of its tail.

The second sword, the wound was deep to the bone; the third sword, that tail, which resembled a meteor hammer, was cut off alive by the sword.

Tier, the blue dragon, went black before its eyes from the extreme pain, and the whole dragon collapsed to the ground. Immediately, Thorin, leading the dozens of clansmen who could still stand, chased up with Gandalf, swearing to slay this blue dragon.

And hang its hideous head on the newly built city gate.

Serar, seeing that the situation had deteriorated to such a degree, dared not stay here any longer. It quickly moved its remaining seven thin legs and ran toward the north. Allen pulled his sword from the blue dragon's neck and quickly chased after it.

Monsters with magic cannot be left alive, especially dragons that are good at bewitching people and controlling others. Leaving them behind would only be a disaster. ===== CHAPTER 284 =====