Chapter 41

The moment Boss Ah Xue made her move, her presence proved to be on a completely different level from that of the child.

Her pressure was nothing like Sui Xiong's. It lacked the vast, lofty feel of a deity and instead seemed sharp and vicious, carrying a presence that made one's heart pound as if facing a natural enemy. It was the overwhelming aura of a creature at the very top of the food chain.

Her eyes had changed, too. Her ordinary-looking eyes had become golden-red slits, and blue-white patterns covered her fair, slightly chubby face. Tiny scales had appeared as well, while horns slowly sprouted at her temples and behind her ears. The sight was chilling.

"Frost, shut the door! Sleet, activate the array!" she said coldly. "And Phil! Come out and cut them down!"

At her command, the strange child called Frost sprang into action. He bypassed Sui Xiong, who was confronting Boss Ah Xue, and reached the door in a single stride. With a wave of his hand, the heavy door slammed shut. Blue-white lines appeared one by one beneath their feet, then quickly filled the air throughout the shop. Clearly, a powerful spellcaster was working behind the scenes.

At the same time, heavy footsteps sounded from the back room—the clank of metal boots crossing wooden floorboards.

Sui Xiong certainly wasn't going to sit around and wait for his enemies to complete their magic array and surround him from several sides. With a roar, he sent more than a dozen tentacles stabbing out at once, attacking both Boss Ah Xue and Frost. Another tentacle shot toward the back room, blocking the way out.

By now, he had already guessed who the people in the shop were, and he showed no mercy. Even a deity would be foolish to hold back when surrounded by several dragons—as if the skin on his face were too thick and he wanted them to help scrape off a few layers.

It was like a video game. A world-class esports champion might tell an amateur, "I'll play you with one hand." But what if the opponent wasn't a beginner, but a top amateur who was almost professional level? That would be asking for a beating!

Or take soccer: Brazil might be able to spot China ten goals without much trouble—but just try asking them to spot Russia ten goals!

With a whistle of rushing air, the tentacles formed from Frost Magic shot toward their targets. Two pincered Frost from either side, eight surrounded Ah Xue, one blocked the back room, and the remaining four shielded Palin. Meanwhile, Sui Xiong kept condensing more tentacles from the cold, striving to intensify his assault.

Once the door was shut, Frost had also transformed into a half-dragon, half-human form: a dragon's head, claws, and tail on a human body. His entire frame was reddish-brown, and he was exceptionally tall. His claws whipped through the air, each swing producing several sharp whistles, like a cluster of blades being rapidly brandished. Claws and tentacles clashed again and again, the ringing blows like a group of strongmen hacking at solid ice with axes and chisels.

But he was still a little weaker than Sui Xiong and was driven back again and again. If his tail hadn't lent him a hand now and then, he would have crumpled long ago.

The fight between Sui Xiong and Boss Ah Xue was an entirely different sight. Ah Xue had become a mass of blue-white light, with no recognizable human shape. Eight huge tentacles of condensed ice closed in from all sides, tightly wrapping around the light, only to be strangely encased in another layer of frost. The two layers of ice enveloped each other and steadily eroded one another. Though they made no sound, the sight left Palin uneasy.

As a mage, he wasn't particularly powerful, but he had a decent eye for these things. His Majesty Void Mask had already gained the upper hand against the half-dragon child; there was no chance he would lose. But his battle with the shopkeeper was locked in a stalemate. Their magic was eating away at each other as they fought for control of the cold. Such battles were the most perilous: all the danger lay hidden from sight, like two high-level mages countering the same spell. The contest came down to control over magic and the depth of their mental reserves. The moment one left an opening, the enemy would exploit it—and the result would be serious injury at best.

As for the last fight, Sui Xiong hadn't even tried to attack the back room. When the tentacle reached the doorway, it simply collapsed and became a solid wall of ice, sealing the door and keeping the enemy inside.

From the very start, he had decided to split the enemies apart, separating those inside from those outside so he could deal with them one by one.

Even a lion fighting a rabbit had to be cautious and give its enemy no chance to strike!

All in all, his tactics were sound. Unless something unexpected happened, he should have been able to take down Frost first, subdue Ah Xue next, and then slowly deal with their reinforcements.

But the unexpected always happened.

With a crash, the floor nearby suddenly shattered, and a reddish-brown figure burst out. It was another half-dragon, half-human creature, a little shorter than Frost but just as astonishingly strong. Yet he didn't go to Frost's aid or attack Palin. Instead, he charged straight for the back room.

Sui Xiong's heart jolted. Two more tentacles shot out to stop him, but the newcomer had no intention of meeting them head-on. He dropped low, sliding almost against the floor and slipping beneath the tentacles to reach the back-room door sealed by the ice wall.

With a roar, the half-dragon swung his claws and smashed them against the ice wall.

At the same time, someone in the back room attacked the wall from the other side.

With a thunderous crash, the ice wall shattered. A tall adventurer, completely encased in heavy armor and carrying a huge greatsword on his back, strode out. He didn't immediately attack. Instead, he said in a deep voice, "Are you trying to destroy Dragon Roar Town?"

Both sides froze at once, their movements slowing involuntarily.

"Snowflake, I told you long ago that what you were doing was playing with fire. Sooner or later, it would bring serious trouble." Amid the shattered ice, the big man in heavy armor rumbled, "See? Now the trouble's here!"

As it happened, Palin knew this man—or rather, the man was famous throughout the Four Northwest Towns.

"You're Phil, the 'Armored Magic Swordsman'? The famous adventurer?" he blurted out. "Why are you mixed up with dragons? Don't tell me you're a dragon, too?"

It was a reasonable guess. From what he could see, the "Good Eye" general store was clearly run by a group of dragons in human form. So anyone emerging from the dragons' back room was probably a dragon as well.

"He's not a dragon, but he isn't human either," Sui Xiong said. With the fighting having slowed, he could spare the effort to probe the newcomer and immediately saw something strange. "To be honest, I'm not sure what he is, either. There's nothing inside that armor—not even a soul or anything like one. What impressed me most about him was the sword on his back."

"Buster's a fine sword," said the adventurer called Phil in a mechanical-sounding voice. "I'll ask you again: do you really intend to destroy Dragon Roar Town?"

"Yeah! Stop fighting! Stop fighting!" Palin joined in. "If you keep this up, Dragon Roar Town might be destroyed before either side wins!"

By now, cold mist filled the shop. Both sides were skilled in Frost Magic, and the chill spilling from their battle had already driven the temperature inside to a terrifying low. Thick frost covered everything that lacked protection. As far as the eye could see, almost everything was encased in ice.

Palin also clearly saw that the magic array around the shop had been damaged in the fighting, allowing the cold to seep outside. He could imagine how frigid the air around the shop had become. A passing resident or adventurer would start shivering from a single breath of the icy air. In fact, even as they spoke, several loud sneezes came from outside.

And that was with the magic array keeping the cold contained inside. If the array collapsed in the middle of the battle and all that freezing air poured out, then...

At the thought of what might happen, Palin shivered despite the protection of Sui Xiong's magic.

And there was more. With the enemy's reinforcements here, the battle would only escalate. He had heard Gerald describe the battle when His Majesty Void Mask rescued him: the mighty deity had transformed into an ash-gray beast floating in the air, with dozens of huge tentacles, each as thick as a mountain. His opponent had been a terrifying monster that had made an entire forest its body, with almost every tree serving as one of its incarnations and tentacles.

That fierce battle had turned the skies dark with storms. Mountains had been leveled, forests reduced to ashes, and deep ravines gouged the earth like scars. The shockwaves of their power had even lit up the Shadow Plane of eternal night as bright as day.

If His Majesty Void Mask fought the three dragons and the renowned "Armored Magic Swordsman" of the Four Northwest Towns with all his strength here, the battle might not be as terrifying as that one, but it would still be catastrophic, with widespread destruction—and that was before accounting for the spreading cold. Afterward, the residents of Dragon Roar Town would be lucky if even one in ten survived. That would require both sides to show extraordinary restraint and the townspeople to be exceptionally fortunate...

The kind-hearted young mage desperately didn't want that to happen. He did everything he could to persuade them, using every word he could think of and putting all the negotiating skills he had learned from his uncle, old Soth, to use.

His efforts, together with Phil's persuasion, finally convinced the three still fighting to sit back down and settle things with words instead of fists.

A little while later, the cold enveloping the entire shop was withdrawn. The two sides, who had been fighting fiercely just moments ago, sat down at the table again. Apart from the marks on the floor, there was almost no sign that a terrifying battle had nearly spread across Dragon Roar Town and wiped it out.

The two sides seated at the table had also each left their battle forms and returned to their everyday appearances.

Of course, the three dragons had not returned to the ordinary forms they used to pass as human and avoid attention. Instead, they had taken on their true appearances as dragons in human form.

If they didn't want to fight, then meeting a deity in their true forms was only basic courtesy.