A dark red force field rippled along the edge of the Silent Lady. Combined with the momentum of Renato's fall, it punched straight through the scales on the Deep Dragon's back!
The scales shattered beneath the blade, the dragon hide tore open, and deep red dragon blood gushed out, splashing all over him.
Jumping from over ten meters up in heavy armor was no pleasant experience. Renato steadied himself on the sword's hilt, his knees throbbing and his calves numb, as though they had been struck with an iron hammer.
Fortunately, the pain was not enough to hinder his movements. His landing had been accurate, too: right on the dragon's back, in the gap between two enormous scales.
Renato wrenched his sword free of the hard scales on the dragon's back and looked around.
The dragon's spine rose and fell like a mountain ridge, each scale larger than his hand.
The gaps between the scales were packed with slender, flesh-colored tentacles, like countless blood leeches, stretching all the way into the nearby Brain Pool.
The sight made Renato's scalp crawl, and for a moment, he had no idea where to begin.
He swung his sword at the nearest tentacles. They snapped beneath the blade, springing apart like taut strings and twitching as silvery-white blood spilled out.
Cutting them was easy enough, but the dragon was over ten meters long and covered in tentacles from head to tail. How was he supposed to cut them all?
The dragon beneath his feet began to sway. The tentacles pulsed in unison, continuing to pour the Elder Brain's will into the dragon's body.
The Elder Brain was about to overwhelm Gattholex's newly awakened consciousness.
Renato immediately revised his judgment and abandoned Klauthsura's strategy.
A crossbow bolt struck the dragon's head with a thunk, only