Chapter 94: Such a Skilled Flyer, He Must Be Terrible in Close Combat—Advantage Is Mine

The Shattered Spine Hills were shrouded in smoke and flame.

Garos used seven rounds of bombardment to shatter the ogre line, leaving countless ogre warriors and several sorcerers severely wounded or depleted of energy, utterly incapacitated.

When the dust cleared.

The entire Chewbone Clan was left with only Gluttony Demon Karu standing amid the ruins.

The monster was speared through with shards of burst scales; its iron-black skin cracked with spiderweb patterns of char, its belly swollen high like a giant leather ball.

Garos fired the last of his burst scales at Gluttony Demon Karu.

It raised its arm to block.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Explosions erupted; Gluttony Demon Karu staggered backward several steps, its charred scars multiplying, its arm a bloody mess.

Though at a disadvantage,

Gluttony Demon Karu felt no fear.

It lifted its head, studying Garos circling overhead, and said: “Dragon, you’ve used up all your burst scales. I still stand on the earth.”

It sneered, taunting: “If you’re brave enough, land and fight me hand-to-hand. Let me feel just how strong you really are.”

“A weak dragon relying only on flight and speed to show off—no matter if you win, I won’t recognize you.”

In Gluttony Demon Karu’s eyes,

Garos was a dragon skilled in speed, flight, and ranged attacks.

Such trickery in battle was disdained by ogres, who revered strength and favored close combat; they would not follow a foe they couldn’t defeat face-to-face with absolute power. Only by crushing them outright could one earn their respect and awe.

“Your words reveal your stupidity.”

“But to make you understand the vast gap between us, I’ll oblige you.”

Garos grinned, his scales—now stripped of their burst scales—glowing like supreme obsidian in the night, molten veins crisscrossing their surface, blazing bright.

He retracted his wings and dove downward.

This time, when Garos descended to roughly three hundred meters above ground, he did not turn upward—he kept plunging straight toward Gluttony Demon Karu, his outstretched wings slicing through the night.

Facing the hurtling dragon, Karu stepped forward, lifted its head, and roared.

Worm-like veins bulged beneath its iron-hued skin; its bulging muscles forcibly ejected the shattered scales embedded in its body.

As Garos’s dive entered the hundred-meter range, Karu suddenly opened its massive mouth.

Not another roar—but a compressed projectile, fired forth.

Boom!

A massive sphere of compressed burst scales, flame, and stomach acid erupted from Karu’s mouth, hurtling toward Garos with destructive force, moving at incredible speed.

This brutish ogre, though crude in appearance, was cunning in battle and knew how to ambush.

It had feigned a preference for close combat, then suddenly unleashed a powerful ranged attack as Garos charged straight at it.

Garos’s expression remained calm.

Six crystalline bones erupted in blinding crimson flame; he changed direction instantly.

The sphere passed barely inches from his body, striking the slope of the hill behind him and blasting a massive crater, shaking the earth.

Gluttony Demon Karu charged toward the dragon.

This six-meter-tall monster left bowl-sized footprints in the charred earth with every step; its iron-black fists tore through the air with thunderous booms.

Garos did not dodge.

He lowered his altitude, sank his center of gravity, tightened his right forelimb muscles like braided steel cables, and met the blow with his dragon claw.

Crash!

The shockwave from their clashing strength flung loose rocks dozens of meters away.

Karu’s finger bones cracked under unbearable strain.

Its body was hurled backward as if struck by a train, driven by Garos’s force, its legs carving two deep trenches into the ground.

It wrapped both arms around Garos’s claw.

Karu roared, slammed its right foot into the earth, twisted its back, and attempted a shoulder throw—using Garos’s unstoppable momentum to fling him away.

But against the vast disparity in strength,

it had no effect.

The power radiating from Garos’s claw exceeded Gluttony Demon Karu’s imagination.

It failed to throw Garos—instead, Garos lifted his claw and swung it down hard, sending Karu’s sturdy body airborne like a ragdoll.

Thwack!

Garos spun his body, his tail lashing out like a whip and striking Gluttony Demon Karu.

It was flung like a cannonball, rolling across the ground for hundreds of meters, carving a deep furrow, knocking aside ogres too slow to dodge like bowling pins, until it finally smashed into a massive boulder and came to rest.

Garos approached slowly, deliberately.

His muscles, so powerful they visibly contoured beneath his thick dragon scales.

Gluttony Demon Karu believed Garos was strong only at range.

It was a mistaken judgment.

Garos was strong in close combat; his aerial bombardments were merely simple tools of attrition.

Years of relentless training and evolution had made his strength surpass even that of a fellow red dragon; his powerful body was no mere decoration.

The elite warriors had been rendered incapable by the earlier bombardments.

Garos landed on the ground, yet none of the ordinary ogres dared approach or interfere—they scattered in all directions, leaving the field to Garos and Gluttony Demon Karu.

A massive black shadow suddenly leapt from the murky smoke.

Before Garos could close in, Gluttony Demon Karu roared and charged forward with giant strides; its broad, bulky frame contracted, veins bulging crimson, its body becoming leaner, more compact.

Crash!

Dragon claw met ogre fist in direct collision.

Karu’s arm trembled, its skin splitting; it gritted its teeth, then slammed its head forward in a headbutt toward Garos’s skull.

Garos did not dodge or retreat—he lowered his head and charged forward.

Clang!

In the sharp clang of metal striking metal,

Karu’s horns scraped against Garos’s faceplate, sparking, leaving only shallow marks.

Its own iron-like facial skin was torn by Garos’s facial spines; where the dragon’s horns cut, deep gashes bled openly.

Dragon faceplates are made of fine scales—not inherently hard.

But that’s for ordinary dragons.

Garos’s daily training included striking hard metal ores with his head and faceplate, forging a thick, hardened faceplate and skin.

Blood covered his face, dizziness swirling in his head.

Gluttony Demon Karu staggered backward from Garos’s headbutt.

Garos flared his wings.

The razor-sharp wing bones descended onto Karu’s chest, meeting its iron skin—sparks flew as the scales tore through flesh and skin, leaving a horrific, deep horizontal wound.

Gluttony Demon Karu roared in fury.

Pain spurred it onward—it kept charging toward Garos.

But before it could reach him, the thick, long tail, bristling with blade-like scales, swung straight at its face.

Thud!

Karu was flung backward again, its body now covered in countless fine cuts.

It had barely risen when Garos vanished from its vision—only the sudden dimming of light, as if something blocked the moon.

A wind pressure descended from above.

Garos hovered briefly midair, his Celestial Wings spewing flame, accelerating into a dive like a meteor crashing toward Gluttony Demon Karu.

Boom!

The ground collapsed into a massive crater, earth and stone shattered into fragments.

Karu was crushed beneath Garos’s weight, its iron-hard body deeply embedded in the crater’s bottom.

After the evolution of his wings, even without sufficient altitude or long-distance flight to build momentum, Garos could dramatically amplify the power of his charges and wing slashes through instantaneous acceleration.

(End of Chapter)