Calm to the point of seeming cold, Xingyan waited in silence. Even when a few Blade Scales shot by Seregios happened to fly into the cave where he was hiding, he didn't move.
Inside this dragon-made, half-enclosed space, the dust kicked up by the collapsing rock layers lingered in the air. The whole world seemed to have turned ocher, and every breath filled the nose with sand and grit.
Especially in this murky environment, a dragon driven mad by excessive terror was thrashing wildly, beating its wings and making the already filthy air even more chaotic.
Seregios was utterly terrified. In this near-zero visibility, it suspected that a monster could spring out and attack it from any direction at any moment—front or back, head to toe. Especially that crazy Glavenus!
Yes, in Seregios' mind, the Glavenus that had attacked it instead of fleeing even when faced with a scene of devastation like the collapse of heaven and earth was the real lunatic.
And the most terrifying part was that it now had to fight a mad dragon in this cramped space where it couldn't fly, with almost no visibility!
For all it knew, something might suddenly appear from some hellish corner and slash it again!
A dragon horror story.
And Xingyan—he naturally wouldn't let his Seregios brothers down.
He was all about ambushes.
He'd gone to all this trouble to create the situation not so he could have some fair and honorable exhibition match with Seregios, but to kill it for good in one go—with no chance of escape.
When dealing with a winged creature that could fly exceptionally well, he had to prepare in advance. Those things really could take off and flee as soon as the situation turned against them. They certainly wouldn't stop flying and land for a close-quarters tussle just to accommodate Xingyan's gaming experience.
This Seregios had already clearly demonstrated its fighting style. It intended to stay airborne and relentlessly draw Xingyan's blood with its Blade Scales, with no interest at all in fighting Glavenus at close range.
If it could fly but didn't, wouldn't that be wasting its advantage?
Not to mention that Seregios was naturally skilled at flying.
Fights between ordinary monsters were often just about territory, getting more food, or satisfying their desire for combat. Once an enemy was defeated and chose to flee, the victor usually didn't pursue it to the bitter end.
But Xingyan was different. He didn't fight over territory. He wanted the two chunks of meat on his opponent.
That meant that when Xingyan chose a target and began hunting, he couldn't settle for merely defeating his opponent. He also had to prepare in advance to stop it from escaping—like that Tempered Female Fire Dragon that had fled halfway through their fight.
Xingyan never wanted to go through another drawn-out fight only to end up without a single bite.
Uh, actually, he already had—cough! Anyway! Let's not worry about that for now!
Xingyan had prepared a birdcage to match Seregios' size: a crude but effective trap.
The fallen rock layers had become an impassable sky, while the ground lay just beneath their feet. The two dragons were currently more than a hundred meters from the only exit.
In Xingyan's eyes, Seregios was now a piece of meat waiting to be slaughtered.
Listen. It was tired.
Even a dragon's lungs and heart would be affected by constantly breathing air full of dust, especially when Seregios was exerting itself and breathing much faster than it did at rest. Even from inside the cave, Xingyan could hear its heavy, panting breaths.
Glavenus' eyesight let Xingyan make out the layers of scales embedded in the ground outside, faintly visible through the murky air. Seregios had been firing so furiously and without pause that these Blade Scales, sharper than knife blades, covered almost the entire area.
These terrifying little things could even explode when they hit a target or were struck, causing secondary damage with the shockwaves and flying fragments of Blade Scales. Their method of inflicting damage was somewhat similar to Xingyan's Air Sac Carapace.
Yes, Seregios' Blade Scales were renewable ammunition. In a single battle, after firing its first batch, it could quickly regenerate a second, then a third batch of Blade Scales to fight with. But that didn't mean regenerating them came at no cost.
Regenerating its Blade Scales steadily consumed Seregios' stamina, as well as the nutrients it had stored up by eating—even its Life Energy.
To be honest, this Seregios' regenerative ability was already exceptionally impressive. Just as different people had different natural talents, this Seregios was an individual among its kind that specialized in firing Blade Scales.
So aside from the first attack it had launched at Xingyan, when it recognized Xingyan's species, Seregios had relied entirely on its Blade Scales to attack.
That was a good thing. The reason Xingyan had set his sights on a monster like Seregios was precisely its regenerative ability and its Blade Scales. A Seregios that excelled in these areas might even shorten the time it took him to accumulate information on evolutionary traits.
The weariness in Seregios' roars kept growing, and it attacked its surroundings less and less frequently. The intervals between each volley of Blade Scales were growing longer and longer—
The fact that it hadn't been attacked for so long, combined with the exhaustion that followed its frenzy, gradually brought Seregios' senses back to it. At last, Xingyan moved.
His broad Sword Tail swept out of the cave and brushed across the Blade Scales embedded in the rocks. A series of crackling explosions rang out, but at least he'd cleared a space where he could stand, so he wouldn't step outside only to have his crotch blown apart by a field of shrapnel mines.
Uh, having his ankles blown apart wouldn't be any better.
Seregios finally got the response it had been waiting for—an explosion.
The strange Glavenus had made that same explosive sound before, just after firing a volley of Blade Scales.
This narrow terrain certainly limited Seregios' chance of escape, but it also left Xingyan nowhere to dodge its attacks. The Air Sac Carapace was bound to explode, but Xingyan didn't care about that one bit now.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Xingyan's heavy body made every step thunderous. Just from the sound, it was as if some ancient beast were rushing toward them, and the close, heavy footfalls sounded even more oppressive in this half-enclosed space.
Boom!! Boom!!
Xingyan deliberately kept changing his posture, using the remaining Air Sac Carapace on his sides to take the Blade Scales head-on. The exploding Air Sac Carapace altered the course of Seregios' shots, until the moment the two enormous monsters collided—
Bang!!
This was the most primitive kind of battle, and the most savage. The two beasts fought to the death in the dim, lightless space—but it was anything but fair!
Xingyan hadn't gone to all this trouble to create a fair battlefield. His sharp, heavy Sword Tail plunged straight through Seregios' chest and belly!
"Guaaahhhhh!!!"
Pain. Excruciating pain!
The agony shattered Seregios' mind and drained the life from it. It was like a swollen balloon with a tiny hole suddenly poked in it, everything inside streaming out through the opening.
Blood, strength, life—no matter the dragon, its powerful body gave Seregios vigorous vitality, letting it struggle on even while Xingyan had run it through.
But its struggle was visibly growing weaker.
Seregios beat Xingyan's body again and again with the wing that wasn't pinned beneath Xingyan's foot. Its sharp Blade Scales even cut through the armor on Xingyan's leg, and the hot blood of the Glavenus began to spill out.
But such a minor injury did nothing to stop Xingyan. He pulled out his Sword Tail without hesitation, leaving two enormous holes in the monster's body.
Anyone who's often been shot by arrows knows that once you've been hit, you should never pull the arrow out recklessly. Otherwise, you'll suffer severe blood loss and the wound inside will tear even wider.
If you leave it in, you might survive. Pull it out, and you're sure to die on the spot.
And now, Xingyan had pulled out his Sword Tail, which had pierced Seregios.
The gushing dragon blood made his appetite surge. Xingyan could even smell the sweet aroma of its innards.
Gulp.
He swallowed.
He'd spent so long preparing for this hunt. Now, he was hungry.
He kept lifting his legs and stomping down on Seregios' body. The Seregios probably never imagined that one day it would die beneath such trampling, just as it had trampled countless smaller creatures under its claws.
Finally, even the wing that had been beating ceaselessly fell still. Seregios was dead.
Xingyan felt nothing in particular, nor did he experience any profound revelation. He simply bit down on Seregios' neck and dragged it through the long passage and out into the open.
When the sunlight warmed his body again and brightened the world, Xingyan eagerly tore into Seregios' corpse.
Warm and fragrant.
He started with the innards.
By now, he was something of a connoisseur, but no matter what dragon he ate, fresh innards were still his favorite. Mixed with the fat the creature had stored up, every bite was packed with Life Energy. It was simply perfect.
Nothing like the rotten, stinking innards of a creature that had been dead for a while, with microorganisms growing inside it.
With his head smeared in blood, Xingyan plunged it straight into Seregios' enormous body and devoured its insides. First the organs, then the fattier parts of the body, then the muscles and bones. Especially Seregios' Blade Scales—one of the reasons Xingyan had gone to all the trouble of hunting it.
Crunchy, with a nice texture.
He ate from the rear forward, even biting through and swallowing Seregios' dragon bones. The place looked like a slaughterhouse, with dragon blood, scraps of meat, and splinters of bone scattered everywhere. Xingyan wouldn't waste the ground beneath his feet, soaked as it was in Seregios' blood. He'd swallow all of it in a moment.
A dragon that didn't waste food was a good dragon.
He licked his way up Seregios' spine from the tail, cleaning the Blade Scales, then prepared to open the treasure chest—Seregios' head.
After every hunt, this was the part that excited Xingyan the most.
When a dragon lived long enough, grew powerful enough, and accumulated sufficient Life Energy, crystals of Life Energy would form inside its body. These were Dragon Orbs, also known as gems.
A Dragon Orb let a dragon control the Life Energy inside its body more clearly and smoothly. It also enhanced each dragon's special abilities, making it even stronger—if it had any special abilities.
If it didn't, the Dragon Orb would instead make its body stronger. In short, it was an all-around enhancement on multiple levels.
It had to be said that a Dragon Orb also required a bit of luck to form. Just because a Tempered Monster had lived long enough and grown strong enough didn't mean it would inevitably develop one. Individual talent played a part, too.
A powerful dragon didn't necessarily have a Dragon Orb inside it, but dragons with Dragon Orbs were often very powerful or unusual in some way.
Xingyan thought this Seregios was rather unusual, with its incredible regenerative ability and Blade Scales that it could spray like rain.
In Xingyan's experience, every species and every individual was different. A Dragon Orb could appear either in a dragon's heart or in its head—and he had already checked inside this Seregios' body when he ate it. There hadn't been a Dragon Orb in its heart.
By the way, in his role as a dragon doctor, Xingyan had also carefully examined his patient Seregios' outer scales, but unfortunately hadn't found a Reverse Scale.
So whether this hunt would be a complete success, whether a miracle would happen, all came down to how well this treasure chest opened.
Xingyan cracked open Seregios' skull and sucked out its brains, just as the Bird Bro sucked out an egg yolk.
"Rrgh—ptooey!"
His nimble tongue detected something hard, and Xingyan hurriedly spat out the lump in his mouth!
A Dragon Orb?!
There really was one!!!
It wasn't transparent. Instead, it reflected the dazzling sunlight like a mirror. Xingyan saw his own reflection on its surface, distorted into a strange shape by the spherical mirror.
Seregios' Mirror Orb.
That was what it was called in the game.
Oh, perhaps it should be called [Seregios' Mirror Orb]. Adding the square brackets definitely made it feel more impressive.
A precious gem that Seregios occasionally formed inside its body. They said it was a perfect sphere that could reflect things invisible to human eyes.
A real Dragon Orb! Whole! Huge!
A true Dragon Orb!!!
"Roar!!!"
It wasn't that Xingyan was being unreasonable in his excitement. This was the first genuine Dragon Orb he'd seen since arriving in this world. The monsters he'd hunted before had either lacked Dragon Orbs or only had those tiny, irregular little things, like bits of broken kidney stones—nothing like the grandeur a Dragon Orb ought to have.
At last, he'd gotten something good to eat. Afraid something might happen if he delayed, Xingyan didn't even dare waste time taking a closer look at the Dragon Orb. He hurriedly swallowed Seregios' Mirror Orb along with the lump of flesh beneath it.
Before you continue