Chapter 89: Evolution! Comet Wings! (Requesting a Monthly Ticket)

The sun rose and the moon set; six years passed quietly.

The rainy season in the Sai'er Wilderness had ended, and it returned to its former scorching heat; sunlight, like molten gold, poured and splashed across the wilderness earth.

But even the most intense sunlight

could not penetrate the countless layers of steam rising like clouds and mist from the Steam Rift.

This was a forbidden zone that most living creatures disliked approaching.

Whoosh!

A Gale Giant Eagle swept across the sky, fast as lightning.

With a wingspan of ten meters, its feathers lay flat against its body to minimize air resistance to the greatest extent, while wind elemental energy swirled around it; its speed was so great that as it streaked across the sky, it resembled a cyan lightning bolt.

The Gale Giant Eagle passed over the Steam Rift.

It noticed the rift below emitting hissing steam; having already hunted and eaten, it was now full and satisfied, and suddenly felt playful.

The giant eagle flapped its wings and dove toward the Steam Rift.

It darted recklessly through the air above, its cyan feathers slicing through the thick fog, leaving behind clear vacuum trails.

At times it dove vertically, pulling up sharply the instant before touching the boiling rift, leaving the surging steam trailing behind it.

At times it banked sharply, slipping through the gap between two colliding steam columns, causing the scalding mist behind it to condense into spiral-shaped cloud rings.

Playing with growing excitement, the Gale Giant Eagle began to challenge the most dangerous part of the Steam Rift.

There, over a hundred high-pressure steam columns erupted randomly, a place even the most agile swifts dared not enter.

Tucking its wings into a spindle shape, it formed sharp shockwaves at the tips of its feathers with wind elements; like scissors cutting through fabric, it showed off its skill, precisely threading through every deadly gap of the steam maze, grazing past the erupting steam columns.

Several tens of seconds later.

Just as the giant eagle completed its final barrel roll and prepared to charge into the cloud layer,

a terrifying aura that made it tremble suddenly surged up from the depths of the rift.

The giant eagle's feathers suddenly stood on end one by one.

One second it was enjoying the thrill of speed; the next, its heart felt as if seized by an invisible hand.

Some predator beyond comprehension had awakened.

The Steam Rift below began to boil—not with slow surges, but as if stirred by a behemoth's breath; all steam columns twisted and burst simultaneously, forming a chaotic sea of mist.

Boom—!!!

The steam cloud layer was violently torn open, and a crimson figure shot skyward at a nearly absurd speed.

The Gale Giant Eagle didn't even see clearly what it was, catching only a string of afterimages and a swaying trail behind it that resembled a comet's tail.

Instinctively, the Gale Giant Eagle flapped its wings and fled at full speed.

It unleashed its ultimate technique—Hurricane Climb.

This was its prideful escape technique.

When ascending vertically, wind elements around its body would form a spiral, causing its speed to skyrocket; it had once escaped from beneath the claws of an adult dragon using this.

But this time, it heard a sharp whistle coming from behind.

Shoo—!

That crimson figure, though starting later, arrived first, appearing directly above it while flying backward.

For the first time, the giant eagle saw the predator's full appearance at close range.

A dragon! This was a dragon!

It possessed a body of black, layered dragon scales that emitted sounds like countless blades being unsheathed as it cut through the air; its wings were huge and exaggerated, and unlike traditional membrane wings,

its wing membranes were covered with fine crimson scales, and the distribution of these dragon scales was not smooth.

At the wing roots, wingtips, and along the six silver crystal bones on the wing edges, protrusions radiated outward, spraying dense, dark red flame streams at their ends that resembled both blazing fire and steam, swaying and dragging long trails behind it.

It was like the destructive light tail dragged behind a comet tearing through the firmament.

It deliberately slowed down; the flame streams on its dragon wings dissipated, and it flew parallel to the giant eagle.

This act frightened the giant eagle more than an immediate kill would have; the opponent seemed to be enjoying this hunt.

The Gale Giant Eagle let out a shrill cry.

It frantically stimulated its mana, wrapping it around its wings to overload and boost its speed, turning nimbly in mid-air in an attempt to shake off the giant dragon targeting it.

The giant dragon did not chase immediately but waited a moment before leisurely flapping its dragon wings.

Boom!

Dark red flame streams churned behind its wings.

Its speed instantly surged; chasing behind the Gale Giant Eagle, its originally black dragon scales friction-heated against the air until they turned almost brand-red, resembling a crimson meteor streaking across the sky.

The giant eagle felt the danger approaching from behind.

But its speed had already reached its limit and could not increase further.

As the dragon shadow flashed past, the giant eagle's vision suddenly spun wildly; its head had already separated from its body.

Holding the giant eagle's corpse in one claw, the giant dragon tucked its wings and landed on the ground; steam still rose from the gaps between its scales, residual heat from ultra-high-speed flight, while its pair of wings resembled peerless deadly weapons freshly unsheathed.

This dragon was none other than Garos, who had just ended his dragon slumber.

"The flame trail on the wings looks like a comet streaking across the sky."

"I shall call you Comet Wings."

Garos shook his brand-new dragon wings and nodded in satisfaction.

In his previous life, he had played a game called Monster Hunter; thinking about it carefully now, many characteristics of dragons within it were worth referencing; his previous naming of the Burst Scale and his concepts for the dragon wings had also drawn inspiration from it.

"The only flaw is that the consumption is too high."

"Using my mana as fuel, every burst of speed acceleration causes massive consumption."

"Later, when I job-change into a Martial Dragon, the Dragon Qi formed by combining mana and life energy will be tougher and more profound, perhaps allowing me to better bear the energy cost."

Garos thought.

The slumber and evolution had left Garos starving to the extreme; he first devoured the Wind-Razor Eagle he had just hunted, eating heartily and rapidly, only then having the leisure to re-examine his own changes.

First.

His Life Level had jumped directly from Level 7 to Level 9.

This was a Life Level only a Young Golden Dragon could possess, yet Garos was now 14 years old, still two years away from the Young Dragon stage.

In terms of size.

His total length from head to tail reached 12 meters, also equivalent to a Young Dragon's size; moreover, length was secondary—Garos was stronger than a Red Dragon, with muscles beneath his scales that were robust and powerful; if another 12-meter Young Dragon stood beside him, it would look like a dried stalk in comparison.

His pair of dragon wings, fully spread, reached a length of 26 meters, more than twice his body length.

Garos's appearance had also undergone some slight changes.

The change in looks, with the addition of silver crystal bones and jet-propulsion structures at the wingtips on his dragon wings, needed no elaboration.

The spikes on his face had become denser and more numerous; fierce, protruding fangs belonging to a Red Dragon jutted from his mouth; the keratin around his upper and lower jaws resembled steel; the roots of his dragon horns were encased in shovel-shaped metallic bones, growing backward in a rugged, winding manner like a crown.

The traits of the Iron Dragon and the Red Dragon remained clearly visible on him.

On his back, besides the explosive scales, dense spikes grew along his spine, extending all the way to the tip of his dragon tail.

His dragon tail had become thicker and longer; the scales on it were extremely dense, yet could lift slightly, revealing razor-sharp edges; when whipped against an enemy, they would inflict dense, slicing wounds like those from a Lingchi execution.

Besides these external manifestations.

Garos had also awakened two spell-like skills.

Claw of Flame—derived from the Red Dragon bloodline.

Body Hardening—derived from the Iron Dragon bloodline.

Whether for the Iron Dragon or the Red Dragon, under normal circumstances, these spell-like skills were only awakened by Young Dragons.

Both the Red and Iron Dragon types were adept at close combat; the two spell-like skills Garos awakened from his bloodline still served to enhance his close-quarters capabilities.

However, in terms of ranged attacks.

As an excellent hybrid, Garos possessed three types of dragon breath, and the explosive scales could be used for bombing.

Currently, this was sufficient for him.

Moreover, all dragons are innate sorcerers; as they age, they will eventually awaken more spell-like skills; the spell-like skills of Young Dragons are merely the beginning, and Garos is not even a Young Dragon yet.

As for magic that relies on knowledge rather than bloodline.

It is usually only dragons that have reached adulthood and whose growth has slowed that begin to explore and learn it, because before that, the spell-like skills awakened within the dragon itself and their constantly growing bodies are far more effective than magic.

Garos flicked his tail.

Within the muscles beneath the dragon scales, there was a faint sensation of electric current passing through, but it was very weak and not quite distinct.

"This aspect did not evolve successfully."

"This evolution focused mainly on the wings."

Garos thought, feeling the faint electric sensation within his body.

The hunger had not yet dissipated.

His stomach growled; he did not continue examining himself, but instead flapped his wings and took to the air, hunting in the surroundings; only after a full day of hunting and multiple meals did the hunger gradually subside, and he was no longer so hungry.

It was already night.

The twin moons hung high in the night sky, casting down clear radiance.

"The Needleleaf Valley, the Crescent Moon Valley, and the Howling Cliffs—I wonder what changes have occurred there over these six years."

"Let's go back and check the situation first."

Garos devoured the last prey, which resembled an elephant, did not continue hunting, flapped his wings, and flew first toward the Needleleaf Valley.

(End of this chapter)