Pursuit

Grrumble!

Her stomach protested again.

Hunger made Samantha's stomach cramp and convulse, leaving her utterly miserable.

She whimpered, lowered her head, and took a bite of foul-tasting wet mud. She missed the days under the Iron Dragon Mother's protection even more. Even if Garos had bullied and pushed her around every day, it had still been better than this life of uncertainty, eating dirt to stave off hunger.

Should I go ask Garos to take me in?

Samantha suddenly remembered what Garos had said when he left.

Though she was unwilling to admit it, she knew Garos was smarter and stronger than she was, and that he must be living a better life.

Even if I have to obey Garos's every command, that's fine. I never liked thinking anyway.

Samantha no longer wanted to drift from place to place.

But she could not let go of the pride and arrogance in her heart.

No, I can't. I'm a Red Dragon, destined to stand at the pinnacle of the world. How can I be defeated by the Wilderness so easily? I can't let Garos look down on me!

Samantha gritted her teeth, rose from the muddy water, and cast the thought of following Garos to the back of her mind.

I'm too hungry. I need food, real food, not mud or tree bark.

Samantha took a deep breath and dragged her heavy steps through the curtain of rain.

Iron Fir Hills.

After the rain, the sky had cleared, and the air was once again filled with scorching heat. Damp vapor rose from the coniferous forest, gathering into shallow, iridescent pools in the lowlands. Broken fir trunks lay across the mud, amber resin seeping from their fractured ends.

Garos lay sprawled over a massive boulder on a hillside.

Golden Gleam sunlight fell across him, coating his scales in a radiant sheen.

He spread his wings and enjoyed the warmth of sunlight on his body, lazily squinting as he felt no desire to move.

Given Garos's diligence and discipline, he rarely took such breaks. Yet he understood the value of balancing work and rest, and knew that excess was as bad as deficiency. While pursuing evolution and strength, he also gave himself chances to relax during his free time.

The previous downpour had lasted for an entire week.

During that time,

because the Wilderness was dry year-round and rain was rare, Garos cherished the hard-won rainy days. Bathed in wind and rain, he repeatedly used the Dark Gold Tail Ring to train himself. Whenever its energy ran out, he immediately recharged it with lightning before resuming his training, over and over again. Still, he kept the Wilderness's dangers in mind, resting intermittently to conserve his stamina and avoid exhausting himself too severely.

And after being washed by torrential rain and tempered by lightning,

over the past few days, Garos had whipped away every Buffer Scale on his body. New ones had yet to grow in, revealing a layer of black-red scales covered in cracks and dents, uneven and mottled, as though he had gone through an intense battle.

As for the results,

aside from lightning resistance that had increased by an unknown amount, Garos could also feel a faint, tingling sensation beneath his dragon scales and skin, in the muscles below.

This was also a sign that he was gradually undergoing Adaptive Evolution.

Basking in the sun, Garos gently swayed the tail hanging over the edge of the rock. He shifted slightly so that the sunlight could reach his belly.

Until noon, when the sunlight became most intense and searing,

Garos still did not set out to hunt.

He had decided to give himself a day off and sent Mobel to hunt for food instead.

I'll nap a little longer.

Garos yawned, closed his eyes, and continued basking in the sun, drowsy and on the verge of sleep.

Suddenly,

his nose twitched, as if he had caught a scent, and he opened his pair of black dragon eyes.

—A familiar scent reached Garos through the air.

The Red Iron Dragonet pushed himself upright and looked toward the distance.

At the same time,

Samantha stumbled through the wet, muddy ground of the Wilderness. Her already half-ruined right wing had gained even more wounds, with several poison-tipped feathered arrows still lodged in it.

As she ran, she beat her dragon wings, trying to take flight.

But after several attempts, her shattered wings and weakened body could not support her in the sky. She could only keep running across the ground.

Behind her, dozens of Goblin Wolf Cavalry pursued her relentlessly.

The paws of gray Giant Wolves splashed through the mud as they ran swiftly, and the distance between both sides steadily closed.

Samantha clenched her dragon teeth and looked toward the hills covered in dense Iron Fir trees ahead, a trace of hope appearing in her eyes.

Almost there, I'm almost there.

I hope Garos is still here. I hope he can forgive my past ignorance and savagery.

Even if she had to become Garos's follower, lower her proud head, and obey this elder brother completely, Samantha would accept it.

After suffering so much, she had come to deeply realize

that dignity could not keep her alive in the Wilderness. She had been too naive before.

In truth, both the Iron Dragon Mother and the Dragon Inheritance had mentioned that it was not easy for Hatchling Dragons to survive alone. They needed to be extraordinarily cautious. Yet arrogance and conceit were born alongside the Dragon Vein, and Hatchling Dragons who had never weathered hardship always believed they could easily conquer the world.

However,

neither the Iron Dragon Mother nor inherited knowledge could teach that.

But cruel reality could.

On the first day the heavy rain began, Samantha had already considered following Garos. But at the time, pride still lingered in her heart, and she was unwilling to admit defeat to the Wilderness.

Bathed in the raging wind and rain,

Samantha tried to hunt, hoping to replenish her strength with food and recover from her injuries.

But things did not go as she wished.

Creatures capable of surviving in the Wilderness, whether intelligent beings or wild beasts, all had their own rules for survival. With Samantha's poor hunting skills and weakened body, every hunt ended in failure.

If Dragonkin were not so resilient,

any other creature put through such hardship would already have been half dead.

After chewing on tree bark and mud for several more meals, Samantha finally saw herself clearly and decided to follow her strong and wise elder brother.

Unfortunately,

the Goblin Tribe Samantha had encountered in the beginning had continued searching for and pursuing her, hoping to turn the Red Dragonet into alchemical materials. After tracking her for some time, a group of Goblin Wolf Cavalry discovered her trail, followed it, and gradually caught sight of the Hatchling Dragon.

"The distance is enough. Archers, prepare!"

Among the Goblin riders mounted on gray Giant Wolves, several drew their ironwood longbows to their full-moon limit. Their bowstrings held arrows engraved with tiny runes and coated in poison.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Three feathered arrows tore through the air with piercing shrieks and shot toward Samantha.

Her ears twitched as she sensed danger from behind. Samantha rolled away in a panic.

Two feathered arrows missed and struck the wet ground, burying themselves completely from tip to tail. Another lodged in Samantha's hind leg. Its armor-piercing arrowhead drilled through her dragon scales, while the metal shaft trembled slightly, producing a faint metallic hum.

The pain of being pierced was secondary.

Worse still was the poison it carried, which eroded and spread through her body.

Samantha was simply too weak now.

Had she been at full strength, such a small amount of poison would not have affected her at all.

Samantha felt the last of her strength gradually slipping away. Her steps grew slower and slower, her body as heavy as a mountain, and the Iron Fir Hills before her seemed as distant as the horizon.

If she were given another chance,

Samantha would definitely cling tightly to her elder brother's thigh instead of foolishly trying to prove herself by surviving alone.