The Hunt Begins

Chapter 29: 28 · The Hunt Begins

Pulling the spear from the ground before her, Nedeli found its snakewood shaft light yet resilient. She swung it a few times, then infused it with mana. The instant they connected on an energetic level, she realized just how powerful the weapon was.

After a month of recovery, Nedeli's arm had healed most of the way. She still couldn't fight, but her daily life was no longer affected—meaning Yuan Chen no longer had to feed her water.

Though she had only just laid hands on it, Nedeli was clearly highly experienced with spears and lances.

In her hands, the weapon felt as light as a feather. But as she poured in mana, its weight surged in an instant, enough to make it a nightmare for any enemy or prey she faced!

Even a one- or two-pound warhammer could deliver hundreds of pounds of force when swung. And the weight of this spear was already impossible to measure, since it depended on how much mana she infused—

If Nedeli threw it with all her strength, even a real dragon standing before her would be left bleeding.

She knew he was only lending it to her, but she still couldn't help examining it closely. After a while, she looked over at Yuan Chen. Perhaps because she had gotten her hands on a weapon she liked, her gaze softened a little when she looked at him.

"Your judgment's pretty good. This spear can only reach its full potential in my hands! I'll give this hunt everything I've got, but I want my share of the prey!"

Nedeli's voice was full of confidence. Yuan Chen wasn't surprised—

The claim that "this spear can only reach its full potential in my hands" was a bit of an exaggeration. But Nedeli had never left this jungle to see the Outside World, so there was no need to take it too seriously.

He did appreciate her straightforwardness, though—

Yuan Chen hated formalities of any kind.

"You'll get your share. More importantly, get ready. We'll be moving soon. Once we do, you won't have the chance to back out, even if you want to."

At that, Nedeli gave a disdainful laugh. "Wild creatures don't know what fear is!"

"That's not what you said at first."

"That was before."

The day before the Dragon Hunt, Yuan Chen, Lupe, Nedeli, and the Meat-toothed Beasts went over the battlefield arrangements again.

After confirming that all the preparations were in order, the next day the village evacuated everyone except its able-bodied adults, sending the elderly, women, and children into the mountains to hide. They needed to keep the dragon from rampaging into the village.

Then the hunt officially began.

Wearing a full set of protective gear, the village's able-bodied adults went to the valleys on either side of Nedeli's Beast Den to make final adjustments to the ballistae.

Besides the ballistae, the craftsmen of Ixialia had also built a few relatively simple bolt throwers.

They were inferior to the ballistae Mordas had smuggled out of Noxus in both power and accuracy, but they would still be useful.

They test-fired a volley at an open stretch of ground. After that, they made their final assignments. Nedeli's role was the most important.

Yuan Chen handed her the jar containing Azure Starfire and looked into her brown eyes as he spoke seriously:

"Don't activate the Azure Starfire right away. Wait until the Elemental Dragon enters the ambush site before you do. Otherwise, there's a high chance it'll fly out of the combat zone before it's weakened. We don't have enough anti-air weapons."

Nedeli nodded and took the jar. "Understood."

Then Yuan Chen looked toward the others. Mordas nodded, then turned to a Meat-toothed Beast Hunter named Kona.

"Begin the operation! Just like we planned!"

According to the plan, someone had to lure the Elemental Dragon to Nedeli's Beast Den. It was an extremely dangerous task: they would have to enter the dragon's lair and provoke it, then reach the target area before it tore them apart.

The mountain where the dragon lived was a full fifteen kilometers from Nedeli's Beast Den. The dragon soared high above the ground, and one careless move could get someone killed by a blast of its fiery breath!

So the Meat-toothed Beast Hunters drew lots. Kona was the one they picked.

A hint of fear showed in Kona's eyes. But after a long silence, determination rose in his beastlike gaze. "I'm ready!"

Seeing Kona's resolve, Mordas couldn't help but let a trace of sadness show in his eyes. It lasted only an instant before he concealed it.

Mordas said nothing. He simply clenched his broad hand into a fist and thumped it against his chest, producing a dull sound.

Kona nodded, turned, and lifted a barrel of Beast Blood over himself. Dark-red blood poured down, quickly coating every inch of his body.

His yellow mane was dyed a filthy dark red. The stench was enough to make him stand out to any creature with a keen sense of smell, like a firefly in the dead of night. Carrying an Explosive Barrel packed with gunpowder, Kona said nothing. He clenched his teeth and raced toward the Dragon's Lair without looking back.

About ten minutes later, a blaze erupted from a distant mountain peak. Kona hadn't brought only one Explosive Barrel. Before this, the Meat-toothed Beast Hunters and the village craftsmen had buried large quantities of elemental explosives around the mountain.

Now, the barrel had set them off, and the explosives that had been lying in wait for so long triggered a violent chain reaction. In an instant, the flames crudely sheared off the top of the mountain!

Mordas held up a pair of binoculars smuggled out of Noxus, his expression grave. Through the lenses, he clearly saw a pair of enormous leathery wings spread out amid the raging flames—

The dragon had a winged, bipedal form. Its wings were attached to its massive forelimbs, and its wingspan was enormous. Even through the billowing smoke, they stood out clearly.

Almost at once, the enraged Elemental Dragon shot into the sky with a violent rush of Wind Pressure. Below it, Kona, drenched in dark-red blood, was no bigger than a sesame seed in the view through the lenses.

Beside him, Yuan Chen made one last assessment of the dragon—

Name: Flame Drake

Race: Elemental Drake

Status: Full, Enraged, In Heat, Feral

Class: Epic Beast Lv. 8

Skills: Fire Mastery Lv. 8 / Fire Immunity Lv. 7 / Dragon Might Lv. 4 / Hard Scale Lv. 7...

Trait: Dragon Legacy (Excellent):

A direct descendant of a pureblood dragon, it possessed a powerful body, mastery over the elements, and resistance to magic from birth. However, its bloodline limited it, and its intelligence might not truly develop until it was a century old.

Yuan Chen had already learned most of the Flame Drake's attributes during an earlier assessment, but no matter how many times he saw them, they still weighed heavily on him.

Mordas roared, "Kona succeeded! Get ready to back him up!"

Kona raced along the dirt road they had cleared in advance for the Meat-toothed Beasts to run along. His eyes were bloodshot. As the stench spread, the furious Flame Drake let out a roar from above.

Roar!!!

Amid a bellow that nearly burst their eardrums, a scorching blast of breath poured from the dragon's mouth.

Kona narrowly dodged it. The nearness of death drove him to run faster than he ever had before.

But against the dragon's speed and strength, the hunting talents the Meat-toothed Beast Hunters were so proud of were as fragile as paper.

He had run less than three kilometers when the dragon beat its wings. Kona was swallowed by a dense blaze, and the surrounding earth melted into seething lava.

But the instant Kona died, another Meat-toothed Beast Hunter—already prepared—doused himself in blood and burst from the woods to one side. He continued racing toward the target area, taking over from where Kona had fallen.

The Elemental Drake was a powerful dragonkin, but it didn't possess the intelligence and wisdom of a pureblood dragon. Its bloodline limited it, leaving it with the intelligence of a three-year-old child—

An age when tempers ran especially short!

So when another Meat-toothed Beast Hunter appeared, the Flame Drake let out an excited, furious roar!

Its wings, rippling with blazing fire, beat as it swooped toward the hunter like a fighter jet skimming the ground!

Fifteen kilometers didn't sound very far. In Yuan Chen's previous life, it would have been a matter of pressing the gas pedal. But under a dragon's pursuit, no single hunter could draw it all the way there—

That was why the Meat-toothed Beasts hadn't drawn lots to choose just one person for the task. They would all take turns, following the order of the draw.

They had enchanted the hunters in advance, strengthened them, and cleared the road. Even so, by the time the dragon reached Nedeli's Beast Den, four Meat-toothed Beast Hunters had already given their lives.

When the fifth hunter was vaporized by the dragon's breath, leaving not a trace behind, Mordas—who had been holding himself back for a long time—roared hoarsely, "That's enough, right? We're close enough, right?"

"Yes!"

Seeing the sacrifices the Meat-toothed Beasts had made, Yuan Chen's expression held none of its earlier levity. Calm and grim, he shouted, "Lupe! Activate the spell formation!"

At the bottom of the valley, on the site of Nedeli's former Beast Den, Lupe spread her arms. Her Vydalian Robe, smooth as silk and shimmering with colorful light in the sun, stirred though there was no wind.

In an instant, the solidified mana shifted form. Her white hair flew in the storm of transformed magic, and yellow light glowed in her eyes as mana surged through her. The moment her Lv. 7 mana erupted, it surged outward like a tide, covering the entire valley.

Sensing the tremendous mass of mana gathering, the enraged Flame Drake realized something was wrong—

Even without true higher intelligence, every creature had an innate instinct for self-preservation, especially a powerful creature like an Elemental Drake, whose intelligence was close to that of a three-year-old child.

But just as it beat its wings to climb higher, a rough, stone-like ring flew from Lupe's sleeve amid a surge of magic.

"By Skarner's name! Heavy Pressure!!"

As she spoke, the rough ring instantly shattered into six yellow halos that sank into the ground around it. Each one fit perfectly into a Mana Circuit that had already been carved there.

Energized, the entire valley burst into yellow light. The space grew oppressively heavy under its glow. The weightless air felt like it had been filled with invisible jelly, and the sudden increase in gravity sank the ground by a full inch, compacting it. Nedeli's old den collapsed completely!

High above, the Flame Drake felt gravity pull at it. It let out a shrill cry, then began to fall helplessly toward the ground as the change in gravity took hold.

But it was still a powerful Epic-level creature. It fell less than a hundred meters before forcing its wings under control and regaining its balance. Then, as mana surged, it slowly began to climb again.

"Fire!"

At that moment, Yuan Chen waved the small flag in his hand. On a distant mountainside, the craftsmen had already placed their hands on the triggers of the giant mechanisms. Seeing Yuan Chen's signal, they pulled them without hesitation.

The next moment, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!!

Giant arrows, nearly a meter and a third long and made from thick tree trunks, shot out. The finely crafted ballistae from Noxus fired especially true, their tempered steel arrowheads bristling with vicious barbs and leaving dark, muted arcs in the sky.

With several thuds, three arrows struck the Elemental Drake. Two of them only wounded its body, which was no serious concern, but the third hit its left wing as it beat furiously.

The instant the wing was hit, Nedeli poured her power into the Azure Starfire without hesitation.

In an instant, flames surged. A kaleidoscope of light streamed from the jar in Nedeli's hands like a river of stars. Though it was broad daylight, a starry sea appeared upside down in the sky!

Amid the surging flames of order, Nedeli's aura rose at an astonishing speed, from feeble to full strength. A torrent of Heavenly Power flooded into her body, turning her wheat-colored skin a clear azure, speckled with dreamlike starlight!

Meanwhile, the Elemental Drake cried out in terror after its wing was struck—

Its intelligence might have been limited, but even it now understood that this was a trap laid for it.

It tried to strengthen its body with mana and break free of the accursed gravity. But as the inverted river of stars filled the sky, pressure from its own bloodline suppressed its mana until it was practically frozen!

Not only its magic, but even its body and blood went sluggish. No matter how desperately it struggled to move, it couldn't muster even a third of its full strength!

Bereft of balance and strength, and dragged down by gravity, the Elemental Drake's enormous body—nearly thirty meters long—began to plummet freely from the sky.

At that instant, Mordas, who had been holding back for so long, leaped out with red eyes and roared:

"Meat-toothed Beasts! Begin the hunt!!!"