Redd let out a long breath, his tense shoulders relaxing slightly.
Damn! We finally escaped the most dangerous part of the encirclement, for now!
He looked at the ceaselessly flowing river of lava beneath him, radiating scorching heat, and felt a little steadier.
But he immediately reminded himself that this was no time to relax. They would only be truly safe once they returned to the lair atop the volcano.
He immediately issued orders, commanding the Red Dragon Aegon to drag his heavy body upstream along the lava river, toward the volcano's summit-their nest.
The Black Dragon Ehm and the still-small, relatively agile King Ghidorah guarded Aegon on either side,
With the scalding river of magma at their backs, the three dragons formed a solid defensive line and moved slowly toward Fire Peak.
The densely packed, lump-of-flesh creatures still surrounded them, their numbers so great that they nearly covered the entire ground.
But with the lava river as a natural barrier, the situation had indeed improved considerably.
The creatures clearly had an instinctive fear of extreme heat and dared not readily cross that boundary.
As a result, Redd and the dragons only had to face threats from the front and sides.
This sharply reduced the pressure on the Black Dragon Ehm.
Previously, Ehm had needed to breathe dragonfire in every direction, covering all 360 degrees without a blind spot. Now, Ehm only needed to focus on the 180-degree arc ahead and to either side.
Ehm drew a deep breath, a low roar rumbling in the dragon's throat, and scorching dragonfire swept outward like an unbroken wall of flame,
Instantly charring any flesh creatures that dared approach.
King Ghidorah also harassed them with small electrical arcs at opportune moments, while Aegon struggled to maintain his pace, occasionally breathing a small burst of flame in support.
This relatively easy situation did not last long.
Redd noticed that the black mist already permeating the air had begun gathering and churning at some point, surging toward them like a living thing.
What chilled him even more was that the instant the black mist enveloped those lump-of-flesh creatures...
In the already dark and eerie night, these ghostly green points of light lit up in dense clusters like countless will-o'-the-wisps, almost illuminating the night sky.
Redd's scalp prickled, as though countless icy hands were scratching at his nerves.
The churning black mist exuded an indescribably evil aura, cold and clammy, as though it could corrode a person's soul.
His heart instantly skipped a beat, and a powerful sense of panic rose from deep within him, sending his heart pounding wildly.
The feeling was utterly awful.
As though it had received some evil command, the churning black mist frantically spurred on those lump-of-flesh creatures.
As if injected with a berserker drug, they actually inched forward step by step, heedless of death, braving the terrifying heat radiating from the magma river-heat strong enough to melt steel.
Some creatures drew too close to the magma, and their outer skin instantly charred, sizzling and giving off black smoke and a strong, burned odor resembling roasted meat.
Although Redd had long since grown accustomed to the brutality of the battlefield, the sight before him still left him dumbstruck, his scalp prickling.
Even with their skin split and flesh torn by the heat, almost reduced to charcoal, these lump-of-flesh creatures,
Still maintained their attacking posture and kept charging forward, as though they felt no pain and completely disregarded the lethal heat.
The only reason he could command the three dragons here was the trait of the Unburnt carried in his bloodline, which allowed him to withstand this intense heat...
Redd dared not imagine it. An ordinary person standing here probably would not last even a minute, instantly roasted to charcoal with nothing but bones remaining.
Faced with this nearly impossible-to-counter attack, all Redd could do was keep issuing orders.
The Black Dragon Ehm and the Red Dragon Aegon, who had just recovered a little strength, let out low roars from their throats,
And streams of scorching dragonfire lashed viciously at the approaching flesh creatures like furious whips of flame, burning them to ash.
The three dragons dared not pause for even a moment. Every step closer to Fire Peak felt like treading on knife points; they had to return to the relative safety of the lair as quickly as possible.
And so Redd and the three dragons trudged along the bank of the magma river, struggling upstream while fighting the enemies that kept closing in, dragging their heavy footsteps.
Time passed amid the tense fighting and movement. After another two hours and more, they finally reached the foot of the Broken Volcano.
Here, the terrain began to steepen, and the smell of sulfur in the air grew stronger.
The moment they arrived, the black mist and lump-of-flesh creatures pursuing them relentlessly seemed to encounter some invisible restriction,
And all stopped, lingering far below the foot of the mountain, not daring to advance another step.
Disturbingly, however, the black mist surrounding Fire Peak now grew even denser,
Enveloping the entire peak like a nearly solid black curtain and giving off an even colder, more oppressive aura.
As Redd watched the churning black mist, the unease within him grew ever stronger, almost becoming tangible.
He could no longer spare any concern for the Red Dragon Aegon's near-collapse and commanded sharply, "Aegon! Climb! Hurry up to the summit and get back to the lair!"
Aegon seemed to sense that something was unusual at the mountain's foot as well. Though every step looked exceptionally difficult, he continued climbing slowly and stubbornly over the ground.
Seated firmly on the Black Dragon Ehm's back, Redd gripped the protrusions on the dragon's neck with both hands and ordered Ehm, "Keep breathing fire! Burn them all!"
Ehm growled, spewing an unbroken stream of black dragonfire from the dragon's throat that struck the lingering black mist and flesh creatures with precision.
Wherever the dragonfire passed, the black mist burned with a sizzling sound, while the flesh creatures burst with sharp cracks, reduced to ashes that scattered on the wind.
No longer held back by the flightless Aegon, Redd immediately directed Ehm to take to the air.
High above, Ehm gained an even greater advantage, no longer needing to divide attention between threats from every direction and able to focus directly below.
Thick streams of dragonfire poured down from the sky like divine punishment, blanketing the area at the mountain's foot,
Thoroughly sweeping away the black mist and flesh creatures. For a time, the ground was scoured by flames and left in utter devastation.
But just as Redd thought the danger had temporarily passed and he could catch his breath, a teeth-grating creak suddenly came from the ground below.
Immediately afterward, earth and rubble were heaved aside by an immense force,
And a gigantic creature resembling a sandworm abruptly thrust its hideous, enormous head, covered in jointed limbs, out of the ground!
When Redd saw the enormous sandworm emerging from underground, his first reaction was disbelief; he even wondered whether something was wrong with his eyes.
The nights in the Valyria Ruins were even crazier than he had imagined!
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