The Price of Getting Cocky

Just as Zheng Yichen was about to crush the three people he had driven into the ground like cockroaches, a scorching impact struck his back. Judging by how it felt, the heat was like a miniature sun, but it was the force of the blow that affected him most.

The impact made his body sway slightly and tugged at the crossbow bolt lodged in his wing. It hurt!

"Careful! This dragon's magic resistance is strong too!" shouted a man with a ball of fire burning in his hand. When Zheng Yichen turned to look at him, the man hurled the flames without hesitation.

The moment the fire left his palm, it expanded more than tenfold and streaked toward Zheng Yichen with a short trail of flame behind it. This time it wasn't a sneak attack, so Zheng Yichen reached out with his other claw and caught the enormous fireball.

Warm...

He was about to tighten his grip and crush it when a thought struck him. Why crush it? Now that he had caught it, the thing could be moved. It was like a stone someone had thrown at him: if it hit, it would hurt, but if he caught it, it became a weapon in his hand.

Under the astonished gaze of the man who had to be a mage, Zheng Yichen held the Flame Burst he had charged up firmly in his claw. Even more baffling to the mage was that the spell, which should have remained somewhat controllable after leaving his hand, had slipped completely beyond his control. But shouldn't it have exploded the moment that happened?

Why was it still a fireball?

Zheng Yichen hurled it at the three warriors on the ground, who had yet to regain the ability to move!

An explosion more violent than a grenade's swallowed them in an instant.

"What a strange feeling..." Zheng Yichen muttered, looking down at his claw. After catching the fireball, he had felt something peculiar. It had drawn in a great deal of energy of the same kind, energy that was highly active and close to the energy he sensed from the magic items he had collected.

The fireball in particular had felt as though it was about to explode. But Zheng Yichen hadn't wanted it to, and when he tightened his claw around it, the reaction had stopped. Put simply, it was as if he had controlled the fireball through his physical movements.

Of the three warriors, two were injured and one was dead. The one in the middle had been the unluckiest, taking almost the full force of the Flame Burst!

Even the mage who had cast the Flame Burst Fireball was stunned by its power. Didn't he know his own spell? It should never have been that strong. Why had it become so powerful after that dragon got hold of it!?

Wait, the dragon! After passing through its claw, the Flame Burst had shrunk by thirty percent before it was thrown... What was going on? If it had shrunk, its power should have dropped!

Zheng Yichen looked back at the mage.

Though they didn't speak the same language, the mage still read something unmistakable in Zheng Yichen's eyes.

Go on, throw me another fireball!

The mage's face twitched hard. How the hell was he supposed to fight that? He wasn't some high-level mage. That Flame Burst had been the strongest attack he could cast, yet the dragon had caught it with ease and turned it into his own weapon!

Bang!!

Zheng Yichen caught a cold glint at the edge of his vision, and his heart sank. He had gotten carried away and forgotten the greatest threat to him here. By the time he heard the sound and realized it was coming, it was too late.

The ballista showed him its full, vicious power. Its massive bolt had been made to breach city walls, and now it had become a weapon against him. Zheng Yichen threw both claws up to block with all his strength, but the enormous impact still sent him flying.

He could almost hear his bones screaming. Several deep wounds split open across his claws as he flew backward, and many of his scales were torn away. Worse, he hadn't blocked the bolt's impact completely. A substantial part of it had struck his chest.

Zheng Yichen wondered if a few of his bones had broken.

"That dragon's badly hurt! Get him!!" When the hunters saw Zheng Yichen lying on the ground without getting up, their spirits soared. Their aim was to capture him alive. Kill him, and his value would plummet.

Besides, he was only a hatchling nearing adolescence. Dead, he would be worth even less.

"Roooaaar!!" Enduring the agony in his claws, Zheng Yichen snatched up the giant bolt that had fallen nearby and swung it like a club. The first enemies to approach were caught off guard and swept away. Their bodies twisted out of shape in midair from the force; there was no way they would survive.

The sight made the next wave hesitate. With those bloodshot eyes, was the dragon about to make a desperate last stand?

Then, to their astonishment, the dragon turned and ran without a moment's hesitation. He even threw away the massive bolt he could have used as a weapon to lighten his load, flattening a group of people with it in the process!

As bolts hissed through the air behind him, all Zheng Yichen could do was fold his wings tight so they wouldn't end up with more holes in them. He had no time to worry about the bolts striking his body. His chest didn't feel particularly tight, but it hurt like hell. With every step, the flesh and bones there seemed to scream.

I definitely can't block a second shot from that ballista!

"That dragon's scales are too thick. Even a heavy bolt only broke through the scales. It couldn't penetrate any deeper." The branch vice president picked up several scales from the ground. Though they belonged to a hatchling, they already felt no less sturdy than steel and rang when struck together.

The scales had been shaken loose when the giant bolt hit the dragon, and they collected every one. They had withstood a ballista strike with no more than cracks, which said plenty about their strength. With a little work, they could be made into a fine suit of armor!

"He's still too green. To overlook the biggest threat in the middle of a fight." The president spoke with a faint smile. He had been startled when he first saw the ballista, but then he had known they had this in the bag. Sure enough, even without striking one of the dragon's vulnerable spots, the heavy bolt had done its job, and the ballista had proved invaluable!

As for the family that had supplied the ballista... he would deal with them later!

To think they had been hiding something like this. If this incident hadn't prompted them to bring it out, the threat they posed would have been severe. No one in the entire town could withstand a shot from that ballista.

After all, a weapon that deadly was meant for sieges. It could be used against people, but doing so was sheer madness. They were humans, not dragons. Even a knight in heavy armor would be smashed to pulp by it.