The lingering rays of the setting sun stained the sky over the Iron Fir Hills, and Garos's scales shimmered with a dangerous glow in the twilight.
With him at the center, three Earth-Splitting Centipede alchemy golems suddenly burst through the soil from different directions, their steel bodies casting ferocious shadows on the ground and emitting a harsh metallic scraping sound, sending dazzling sparks flying as their segmented limbs grazed the rock.
The first golem curled into a massive metal wheel, its high-frequency vibrating blade-feet converging as it carved toward Garos.
The second golem opened its ferocious maw, spewing a liquid resembling processed black oil that instantly burst into raging flames in the air.
The shell of the third golem cracked open, shooting out a dense, torrential barrage of armor-piercing steel nails.
Garos took a deep breath and abruptly spread his dragon wings.
Blade-like dragon wings slashed toward the metal wheel.
Clang-clang-clang-clang!
Countless sparks flew in all directions as the dragon wings and the blade-like limbs of the Earth-Splitting Centipede collided rapidly, producing a sound like clashing metal that rose and echoed through the night.
Segment after segment of the blade-limbs twisted and shattered.
A few minor notches also appeared on the metallic outer wing bones.
Then, with a single sweep of Garos's dragon wings.
This Earth-Splitting Centipede was sent flying, spinning as it chopped down thick iron fir trees one after another.
At the same time.
Just as he swatted away the first Earth-Splitting Centipede.
The raging flames and torrential steel nails came rushing head-on.
Garos did not dodge or evade, taking a step forward and thrusting out his chest.
The blazing fire landed on him first, covering and engulfing Garos, yet under the sweep of these flames, Garos instead grinned and revealed a smile, his explosive scales immediately taking on the color of a glowing iron bar after being quenched by the fire.
Clang-clang-clang!
The armor-piercing steel nails battered against Garos with a clatter, easily shattering his explosive scales and reducing them to fragments.
Then.
As Garos shook and flicked his body, countless fragments wrapped in flames and glowing with a bright red, iron-bar luster counterattacked toward the two Earth-Splitting Centipedes.
Boom-boom-boom!
The shockwave and flames generated by the explosion instantly engulfed the two Earth-Splitting Centipedes, sending them flying and leaving their bodies covered in cracks and dents.
The flames spewed from the mouths of the Earth-Splitting Centipedes abruptly ceased.
However.
The fire burning on Garos did not stop immediately.
These flames were formed from combustible liquid processed from black oil, possessing extremely strong flammability.
Bathing in the flames, the Red Iron Dragonet extended and gently flapped his wings, holding his head high as he strode forward. A coat of dragon scales glowed with a high-temperature, red-hot color, and the surrounding air continuously warped as heat waves surged.
Although extraordinary, these flames were not magical fire.
Far from being able to cause damage to Garos, they instead boosted his Dragon Might.
Seemingly realizing that the fire was ineffective against Garos and that ranged attack effects were also mediocre.
The three Earth-Splitting Centipedes, which had steadied their bodies and suffered varying degrees of damage, simultaneously transformed into metal wheels, their blade-feet vibrating at high frequency as they spun in a wheel formation, cutting and darting toward Garos.
Whoosh!
With a wave of his dragon wings, Garos, enveloped in flames, resembled a fiery meteor as he met the metal wheels.
The gaps between the scales on his chest revealed a lava-like brightness.
His pupils reflected the several Earth-Splitting Centipedes assaulting from different directions.
Garos abruptly spewed intense Flame Dragon Breath.
Carrying a thick and formidable impact, the dragon breath swept past the first two Earth-Splitting Centipedes, sending them flying, and then struck the final Earth-Splitting Centipede head-on, pinning it firmly to the ground.
The black metal armor on its body was visibly burned to a bright red and began to melt.
Both were fire, but the potency of Garos's Flame Dragon Breath was far fiercer than the black-oil fire spewed by the Earth-Splitting Centipedes.
Garos closed in step by step, his Flame Dragon Breath suppressing the Earth-Splitting Centipede and melting it into a lump of twisted scrap metal, while the other two Earth-Splitting Centipedes, after undergoing this round of battle and determining that Garos was unconquerable, decisively altered their strategy, no longer pressing the fight and beginning to retreat.
The burning dragon wings tore through the night.
The Red Iron Dragonet pursued the Earth-Splitting Centipede on the right at extreme speed, throwing a fierce sideways tail-swipe just before it burrowed underground.
Bzz-bzz-bzz!
The tail ring lit up, electric arcs leaping across the dragon's tail to enhance lightning lethality and stimulate muscle power.
The roaring sound of the wind mixed with the crackling of electric arcs. Garos's tail was as fast as lightning, striking this Earth-Splitting Centipede with pinpoint accuracy and causing its shell to cave in and fracture severely, while silver-snake-like electric arcs infiltrated everywhere, invading its internal body and leaping continuously both inside and out.
Crack-crack!
This Earth-Splitting Centipede remained relatively intact overall, collapsing as it convulsed, pungent black smoke venting from its joints.
Bang! The red dragonet descended from the sky, crashing into the ground and gouging out a sunken crater.
Samantha staggered and stood up dizzy, feeling entirely lightheaded.
She had tried to mimic Garos's descent-from-the-sky method to attack the third Earth-Splitting Centipede, but her speed was insufficient and she failed to stop it, letting it burrow underground while she herself suffered full-body soreness due to the recoil.
Lacking Garos's day-in, day-out conditioning and his formidable physique.
This kind of attack method involving direct high-speed bodily impact against ground targets was simply not suited for a normal hatchling dragon.
Once this third Earth-Splitting Centipede burrowed underground, it immediately escaped.
Because he had not mastered spell-like abilities such as underground tunneling, Garos did not give chase, and blind pursuit held little meaning anyway; the appearance of these golems here implied that this location was likely already exposed, and even if he kept this one, the Black Rock Dwarves could still pinpoint the Iron Fir Hills via underground tunnels, buying at most a little extra time.
"Lord Dragon, your divine might! Your strength leaves me in awe and submission!"
"These steel beasts are nothing before you! It is truly my honor to be your subordinate."
The battle concluded, and Mobel the Earth Violent Bear approached Garos, offering flattery.
Garos ignored him, quietly pondering and organizing the combat data in his mind.
These alchemy golems don't have specific life levels and couldn't be probed, but each one is fiercer than ordinary grade-8 fierce beasts and monsters, and they know how to cooperate and adopt different strategies under various circumstances.
Compared to them, the alchemy golems of the Goblin Tribe are like shoddy, fragile toys.
If they hadn't used flame attacks against me, this battle probably would have taken even longer to end.
These combat-oriented alchemy golems were indeed formidable.
Garos did not know the specific model of the Earth-Splitting Centipede, but judging by its size and apparent precision, it should be inferior to the alchemy golems garrisoned on the surface.
"Ah, my alchemy workshop!"
Samantha let out a shout, stamping her feet in anger.
During the battle just now, her alchemy workshop had once again been caught in the crossfire and reduced to ruins, and this was an alchemy workshop that had undergone five months of continuous repairs, no longer resembling the crude slate-shed of the beginning.
"Where did these damn things come from? I'm going to chase them down and butcher the lot of them!"
She said in exasperation.
Garos did not stop her; instead, he encouraged her: "They came from a garrison force at an oil field under the Black Rock Principality. I'll give you the location so you can have your wish."
Me?
At those words, Samantha's fury instantly subsided. Just kidding, she still remembered how she had merely glanced down from high altitude back then and had nearly been shot down, a hair's breadth away from death.
Though the two weren't the exact same place—the target of the attack she suffered back then had been a mining stronghold.
Still, anywhere stationed with regular troops was not a place to be trifled with.
"A dragon shouldn't be too reckless. I'd better think it over again and let them live a little longer."
Samantha offered a sheepish smile, then changed the subject and said, "I'll go rebuild the alchemy workshop first."
"No."
Garos shook his head, his gaze sweeping over the vegetation and land of the Iron Fir Hills before he resolutely stated, "We can't stay here anymore. We need to find a new territory."
The resources in the Iron Fir Hills were mediocre to begin with, and recently the water sources had gradually been drying up, leaving fewer and fewer creatures inhabiting the surroundings. Every time Garos needed to drink water or hunt, he had to fly a long distance, and the idea of relocating his territory had already taken root in his mind.
Now, feeling the threat from the Black Rock Dwarves, it had simply given him the final resolve to abandon this place.
And this also meant that the peaceful life of the past few months was about to end.
Before you continue