Regret, Utter Regret!

By the stream, several Roving Rabbits grazed while warily watching their surroundings. Even as they ate, the slightest disturbance would make them abandon everything and flee for their lives.

It couldn't be helped. As creatures at the bottom of the ecosystem, escaping quickly when danger appeared was their rule of survival, whether that danger was real or not.

In the grass, Luo Yun drooled as he stared greedily at the Roving Rabbits in the distance, carefully closing the gap.

It couldn't be helped. He was a Male Fire Dragon that still couldn't fly. Unlike Female Fire Dragons, which excelled at running, his overly long toes meant he could only walk on bent knuckles for now. The closer he got, the greater his chances of a successful hunt.

Soon, as Luo Yun stepped down, the ears of the grazing Roving Rabbits ahead suddenly perked up. They looked around warily.

Luo Yun knew he could wait no longer. He spread his wings and burst from the grass like an arrow released from a bow.

The alert Roving Rabbits scattered at once. Luo Yun fixed his gaze on the target he had picked out long ago and chased after it.

With the boost from the Speed Boost trait, Luo Yun grew faster and faster. Before long, he clamped his jaws tightly around the Roving Rabbit. Unable to stop himself, he tumbled forward and slid some distance before finally coming to a halt.

The Roving Rabbit in his mouth kept kicking and struggling, exerting strength far beyond that of a Forest Gecko. But with Luo Yun refusing to loosen his bite, it soon fell silent.

Seeing that his prey had stopped moving, he did not even bother with the dirt still clinging to its body and immediately began tearing into it.

Unlike the cold-blooded Forest Gecko, the warm flesh of the Roving Rabbit suited Luo Yun's tastes far better. It was tender and chewy, and its faint gamey flavor was utterly irresistible to a dragon!

The sensation made him swallow even faster, and he even let out a pleased sound.

"Uwoo~"

Just as Luo Yun was feasting, a somewhat muffled roar suddenly sounded nearby. He quickly swallowed the meat in his mouth, licked his lips, and looked up.

His pupils contracted in the next second. He instinctively lowered his body and let out a deep growl.

Three adult Diablos emerged from behind a massive boulder with two young Diablos in tow. The largest one glared furiously at Luo Yun, its forelimbs constantly scraping the ground, looking ready to charge over and ram this low-danger Hatchling Dragon to death at any moment.

Faced with this sudden hostility, Luo Yun let out a roar of his own, though it was still immature.

He was a vicious carnivorous dragon, and a Rathalos at the very top of the carnivorous dragons. If a few mere Herbivore Dragons scared him off just like that, where would he put his pride in the future?

"Help, help, help!!"

Through the jungle, Luo Yun beat his wings and scrambled desperately over one obstacle after another like a panicked flightless chicken, letting out a string of hurried, incomprehensible short roars.

Behind him, two Diablos had gone red-eyed. Their nostrils flared as they panted, their heads lowered slightly as they chased him without pause, determined to ram him to death.

At that moment, Luo Yun felt nothing but regret. Utter, overwhelming regret.

Why had he insisted on roaring like that back then?

Now it was great. The Diablos had only intended to drive Luo Yun away so their family could have a proper drink of water, but they had been thoroughly enraged and launched this chase like mad.

Fortunately, from the very instant the pursuit began, the Speed Boost trait had activated again. Relying on the Ancient Forest's complex terrain, Luo Yun survived the initial and most dangerous phase. As his speed gradually increased, the two Diablos, already poor runners, finally could not keep up. They could only watch helplessly as Luo Yun vanished into the woods.

Having lost their target, the two Diablos looked at each other. Their none-too-agile minds could not understand how a Hatchling Rathalos that could only flap its wings could run so fast.

Elsewhere, Luo Yun, who had finally shaken off the Diablos, was gasping for breath.

The drain on his stamina was secondary. Now that he had left combat, the sensation of lightness brought by Speed Boost was rapidly fading. In its place came a heaviness so sudden that he could not adjust to it for a while, as if his body, which should have been dressed in casual clothes, had suddenly been fitted with a suit of heavy armor.

"Good thing I finished that rabbit. Otherwise, this trip would've been a massive loss."

After recovering slightly, Luo Yun thought to himself. The one he had targeted had been quite plump, and swallowing it whole had finally given him the long-missed feeling of having food in his stomach.

Just then, a foul, fishy stench suddenly entered his nostrils. He had been too exhausted earlier, so his senses had not been very sharp. But now that he had relaxed, his keen sense of smell began to recover.

Following the scent, he saw a patch of mucus on a distant rock wall, glaringly visible under the sunlight.

"Is that... a territory marker?"

Most large creatures in this world had the habit of marking their territory, whether with mucus, claw marks, or scales.

Luo Yun did not know who had left this patch of mucus, but with a Male Fire Dragon's naturally powerful eyesight, he could see two deeply gouged claw marks around the rock wall. Just from those marks alone, he could tell that their owner was definitely something huge.

And Luo Yun had unknowingly entered its territory.

The relief he had just felt immediately turned back into tension. Luo Yun cautiously scanned his surroundings, afraid that some gigantic beast with a gaping maw would suddenly rush out from around a corner, roaring as it charged toward him.

With his current little body, outrunning Diablos was already his limit. If he really encountered one of those massive creatures, a single step from them would equal ten of his. How was he supposed to run then?

As he carefully looked around, his spine suddenly went cold. The familiar sense of lightness brought by Speed Boost appeared once more.

There was indeed no giant beast, but there was a Jagras. Its body was mainly yellow-green, with black markings beneath its eye sockets like eyeshadow. Brown spines rose high along its spine, and its slightly opened bloody mouth was filled with sharp, saw-like teeth. It looked like an oversized green iguana, and it was currently staring coldly at Luo Yun with eyes that seemed utterly emotionless.

Jagras were among the lowest-ranking carnivorous dragons. Aside from their relatively sharp claws and barely passable biting power, they had almost no notable traits.

Because they were small and weak, Jagras generally only attacked creatures that were not much larger than themselves. When facing large creatures, they could even be so timid that they climbed trees to hide. They were, in short, among the bottom dwellers of the food chain.

In terms of danger alone, this thing was less threatening to Luo Yun than the Diablos from earlier. Moreover, it was even smaller than Luo Yun at his current stage.

But in truth, Luo Yun had a terrible headache right now. Jagras were pack creatures!

Sure enough, two more Jagras emerged from the jungle. Together with the first one, they formed a pincer attack around Luo Yun. As they advanced, they kept watching the sky, checking whether an adult Rathalos was protecting this Hatchling Dragon.

"What kind of rotten luck is this?!"

This world was truly far too unfriendly to a Hatchling Dragon without anyone protecting it!

Luo Yun wailed inwardly and prepared to turn around and run again.