"Roar!"
The Gray Cast Iron Dragon let out a grave roar, beat its wings, and accelerated toward the higher skies.
Standing on its back, Duke Piero Gray Cast Iron was immediately puzzled. "Gray King, what's wrong?"
"Roar!"
The Gray Cast Iron Dragon could neither speak nor communicate with Piero through their minds. It could only barely convey its meaning through body language and dragon roars of different tones. Fortunately, although Piero was not a dragonrider, he had grown up fooling around with the Gray Cast Iron Dragon and understood some of its meaning.
"You mean we're in danger... Is it that Invisible Dragon from before?" Piero quickly guessed the truth.
"Roar!" The Gray Cast Iron Dragon confirmed it.
Piero's face darkened at once. "The Invisible Dragon Knight, Liszt Flame—has he been following us all this way, and now that he's seen me flying alone, he wants to assassinate me?"
"Roar!"
"Gray King, can you contend against the Invisible Dragon Knight?"
"Roar!" The Gray Cast Iron Dragon gave a domineering reply, then spread open several scales on its back, signaling for Piero to hide beneath them.
Next, it would face the battle alone!
Its wings, vast enough to blot out the sky, beat continuously as it passed through layer after layer of clouds and climbed toward still greater heights—it was wary that the seawater raised by the magister might trap it. Dragons, intelligent creatures that they were, naturally understood that the sky was their battlefield. The higher they flew, the better their chances of winning.
By the time it had climbed to an altitude of twenty thousand meters, the air had become extremely thin.
Though the Gray Cast Iron Dragon felt no discomfort, it did not continue ascending. Even in a dragon's body, it was difficult to climb any higher.
It