Grease Technique

The Gray Dwarves were attacking Dragon Tooth Village!

With the aid of the mysterious Ladder Cloud Steps, Roger stood on one foot atop a tree and gazed into the distance.

Firelight drove away the dense fog, while the uproar shattered the silence.

He saw countless Gray Dwarves surging toward the gates of Dragon Tooth Village like a tidal wave.

The gates, which had never been particularly sturdy, soon began to totter under the Gray Dwarves' thunderous charges.

Inside the tower atop the gates.

Some villagers were firing arrows outward, while others were lifting stones and hurling them down.

Quite a few Gray Dwarves had indeed died under the villagers' resistance.

But it was merely a drop in the bucket.

There were simply too many Gray Dwarves! Roger made a rough estimate.

There were more than six hundred Gray Dwarves currently battering the village gates! The most frightening part was that this still wasn't the full strength of the Gray Dwarves.

Roger noticed.

On the eastern and western sides of Dragon Tooth Village, two Gray Dwarf armies were making wide detours to encircle the village.

In terms of terrain, Dragon Tooth Village stood at the highest point on Yellowstone Island.

The eastern, southern, and western sides all relied on the mountains for natural cover.

But those mountains weren't steep enough. Ultimately, the mountains in the marshlands were little more than mounds.

Roger noticed that the Gray Dwarves were carrying not only climbing equipment such as ropes and crude iron spikes, but also carts filled with implements concealed beneath pitch-black waterproof cloth.

"Are these Gray Dwarves really going this far...?"

Roger shook his head inwardly.

The number of Gray Dwarves taking part in the Ambush on Dragon Tooth Village tonight might be close to two thousand. Two thousand Gray Dwarves.

What a terrifying number that was.

Even if they stood still and let Roger kill them, he might not be able to finish them all before his arms went numb from exhaustion.

If Dragon Tooth Village had no extraordinary trump card, then even Roger would be powerless.

At most, he could provide support from the sidelines. He couldn't truly change the village's fate.

Just then.

Another group of Gray Dwarves emerged from the dense forest beside Lettuce Avenue.

Unlike the earlier group, which could only ram the village gates with their bodies.

Among this group, Roger saw powerful weapons resembling engineering vehicles! This left Roger even more speechless.

At the same time, he grew even more curious about what exactly was inside the village that had made the Gray Dwarves mobilize so many troops. "Forget it. I might as well kill as many as I can."

Roger leaped down from the treetop and began tonight's hunt.

On a small hill west of the village.

A Gray Dwarf army was advancing while covering one another.

The hillside was covered in damp moss, and many streams flowed down it, making it extremely difficult to walk.

Quite a few Gray Dwarves fell as they walked, only to have the companions behind them stomp them until they saw stars.

Fortunately, they were sturdy Gray Dwarves. If they had been another race, this stampede might well have killed a considerable number of troops.

"*&...*&6!"

The Gray Dwarves who had been trampled let out furious curses.

But under the glare of a chieftain, they didn't dare make too much noise.

Suddenly, an intense magical fluctuation came from halfway up the mountain.

It landed near a cart.

Before the Gray Dwarves could react, oil appeared out of thin air and drenched the nearby Gray Dwarves from head to toe!

Hurried cries rang out at once.

As the oil rolled downward, all the Gray Dwarves in that area involuntarily slipped and fell flat on their faces.

At least twenty Gray Dwarves tumbled down the mountainside.

That movement triggered a chain reaction, and their companions behind them were caught in the disaster as well.

The Gray Dwarves in that area instantly fell into chaos.

These monsters were already extremely irritable, and once enraged, they couldn't distinguish friend from foe.

After being hit by the greasy fat, many Gray Dwarves were squeezed together. Some of them shoved and pushed until they actually began wrestling one another to the ground!

The Gray Dwarf Chieftain spat out a string of low curses, but he couldn't stop the situation from descending further into chaos.

The strip of oil continued to spread.

Halfway up the mountain.

Roger dispelled his Concealment and reluctantly threw away the Magic Scroll of "Oily Spell," which was now completely ruined.

Magic Scrolls like this, which could be activated without any need for mana guidance, were exceedingly rare.

There had only been three of them among the Corpse Demon's collection.

The next second, he used a flint to ignite the arrowheads wrapped in cotton wicks.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh! Three arrows shot out in succession, landing at different points along the strip of oil and forming a pincer formation.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! With the mountain wind behind it, the Big Fire caught immediately.

The Gray Dwarves' screams erupted all at once.

The asphalt and oil produced by Oily Spell had an exquisite effect in fanning the flames.

In the blink of an eye.

The sea of flames that had erupted from the ground claimed the lives of more than twenty Gray Dwarves!

And the fire continued to spread!

More and more Gray Dwarves below were drawn into the sea of flames.

The scene instantly became utterly chaotic.

After landing his blow, Roger turned and ran.

Halfway there, he couldn't resist looking back.

Under the mountain fire, the waterproof cloth covering the cart had long since been burned beyond recognition, faintly revealing the cart's true form.

It was a ballista!

"Damn!"

A chill ran down Roger's back.

Even something as absurd as a ballista had appeared.

And there wasn't just one! What were the Gray Dwarves planning? Were they trying to slay a dragon?

As he thought this, a sonorous, sustained cry suddenly rang out from the gates of Dragon Tooth Village.

The cry was clear and solemn, like a thunderclap exploding across the plains, and it thundered in Roger's heart.

His running limbs stiffened for one or two seconds.

"So there really is a dragon."

Roger looked toward the place where the dragon's cry had come from, somewhat shaken.

There, atop the tower at Dragon Tooth Village's gates.

A petite, entirely green dragon was stretching out its neck and crying at the top of its lungs.

Its neck was very slender.

Its wings spread out like two sea-green screens, and its Dragon Scale glittered in the darkness.

"Is this a young dragon?"

"This color... Is it a green dragon?"

Although seeing a dragon for the first time was inevitably shocking, Roger had already made his guess, so he quickly recovered from his surprise.

This dragon was completely different from the colossal creature he had imagined. It was almost absurdly small.

The innate dragon's might did frighten quite a few Gray Dwarves.

But even more Gray Dwarves seemed to have been pumped full of adrenaline and charged even more fiercely.

At the same time, on the mountainsides to the east and west.

The Gray Dwarves who had taken up position there removed the waterproof cloth covering them.

One ballista after another, each more than a meter long, revealed its vicious fangs.

Under the Gray Dwarves' control, the ballistas gradually aimed at the young dragon.

The young dragon roared furiously.

Its lower jaw began to bulge involuntarily.

Before long, it spewed its first breath toward the area below the main gate! Emerald dragonfire plunged downward, directly burning a large swath of Gray Dwarves to ash! This was the most dazzling fire Roger had ever seen! Around the edges of the dragon breath, quite a few Gray Dwarves survived, but lost their ability to fight.

Roger forcibly suppressed his urge to pick up the kills and made his way back toward the western hillside.

He now knew Dragon Tooth Village's trump card.

They might have a considerable connection with the dragon race, but at present, only a young dragon was guarding them.

The Gray Dwarves had somehow learned of this and come knocking.

They had even prepared the ultimate dragon-slaying weapon—the ballista! Roger was already beyond reach of the eastern hillside.

But he could at least clear out the few ballistas on the west and ease some of the pressure on the young dragon.

"I didn't expect green dragons to be this beautiful."

Roger felt that fantasy novels had deceived him. In his impression, green dragons were all ugly and evil.

Then, unintentionally, he glanced at the data panel.

"Emerald Dragon (Young Dragon) LV21 ???" (Note 1)

"Damn."

"So I was the ignorant one."

Somewhat embarrassed and indignant, Roger could only vent his anger on the Gray Dwarves.

(Note 1: Emerald Dragons are a type of gem dragon and are naturally curious and suspicious. In DND, an Emerald Dragon's breath has a sonic effect; the novel has modified it.)