Counterattack

"You two idiots, get over here and get ready to work!

Xisitana, mash this plant into a pulp. Don't waste a single drop of juice!

Kalpu, go gather some stones. The more, the better!"

The two dragon whelps, who had only just stopped to rest, reluctantly crawled over.

Their gazes swept over the objects that had suddenly appeared, then fixed on the Goldenfish scale.

"That's gold, right? It has to be gold!"

"Damn you, Sol, how much treasure are you hiding? And where did you get all this stuff?"

Sol looked down at them, his tone full of contempt.

"That's none of your concern. With your lowly bloodlines, you could never learn the noble art of summoning magic, not in a lifetime."

His contemptuous tone immediately ignited Xisitana and Kalpu's anger, and they couldn't help arguing back.

"We came from the same mother! We have the same blood in our veins!"

"I've never heard of summoning magic. You must be lying!"

Sol rolled his eyes, his tone unchanged.

"The fact that you've never heard of it just proves how lowly your bloodlines are. If we really had the same blood in our veins, why am I bigger and stronger?"

At the mention of this, Xisitana and Kalpu couldn't help grinding their teeth.

"You shameless bastard..."

"If you hadn't stolen our eggshells when we were born..."

"Shut up!"

Sol raised a forelimb and landed two quick punches, cutting off his two foolish younger siblings.

"Don't talk back to your great elder brother. Get to work, right this instant!"

The two whelps clutched their heads and glared at him, eyes wide with anger, but they didn't dare argue any further. They could only do as Sol had ordered.

But as he watched the "Mental Power Essence increased" notifications flash before his eyes from time to time, Sol knew those two were cursing him in their hearts. A smug smile spread across his face.

He picked up the seven or eight Needleberries from the ground, stuffed them into his mouth, and bit down hard with his thick molars.

With a crisp crack, the shells on the Needleberries split open, revealing seeds as thin as steel needles inside.

Before long, he had cracked open every Needleberry. The seeds he gathered from them numbered well over a hundred.

By then, Xisitana had finished squeezing the juice from the Ivy. She had been so rough that she had gotten it all over herself, making her look as though she were covered in slime. It was disgusting.

Sol gave her a somewhat disgusted look and stopped her from coming closer. He pointed to the Large Barrel Bomb nearby, indicating that she should spread the slime over it.

Once the entire brown wooden barrel was covered in slime, Sol began sticking the Needleberry seeds he had just gathered, the crushed Coal, and the pebbles Kalpu had collected onto it.

In just a moment, the modifications to the Large Barrel Bomb were complete.

Sol looked at the messy pile of stones before him, his eyes filling with satisfaction.

Even if those centaurs racked their brains, they probably wouldn't imagine there was a bomb hidden beneath the pile of stones.

Those four-legged bastards spent their entire lives on the ground. This time, he would show them mercy and send them all flying.

But how to lure them to the right spot was a problem.

If he used himself as bait and got too close, his life might be in danger. After all, the centaurs' bows were no joke. As nomads, they were almost as skilled at archery as elves.

But if he stayed too far away, he wouldn't be able to time the Large Barrel Bomb's detonation properly. It could easily go off too early or too late, failing to unleash its full power.

As he pondered the problem, a crisp clopping sound suddenly came from the distance, gradually growing louder.

Sol recognized the familiar sound at once: centaurs were approaching.

The horseshoes nailed to their hooves greatly reduced wear and improved their grip, but they made a loud noise when they struck the ground. It was a trade-off.

With his keen hearing, Sol could tell that there weren't many centaurs approaching.

His eyes narrowed slightly. Rather than flee at once, he signaled to the two whelps, then crouched low and headed toward the sound.

Xisitana and Kalpu exchanged a glance, but ultimately decided to follow Sol.

The three whelps moved like great snakes gliding across the wasteland. The springy pads on their feet let them move in silence, and they soon drew close to the source of the sound.

From more than a thousand meters away, Sol used his excellent darkvision to clearly make out the three approaching centaurs.

One was brown, one yellow, and one black. Atop their powerful horse bodies were nearly bare-chested male torsos, their muscles clearly defined and seemingly glistening with oil.

Those bastards split up. Was it to widen their search? They really do look down on us!

To keep the faint glow of their pale golden dragon pupils from showing, the three whelps lowered two translucent nictitating membranes over their eyes.

Besides eyelids, every true dragon had three nictitating membranes.

The innermost layer was completely transparent and protected the eyeball from irritation caused by water and air. The outer two were translucent and adjusted the brightness and color of the pupils.

The three centaurs had no idea the whelps had set their sights on them and continued chatting in relaxed tones.

It wasn't that they were underestimating the three whelps. Rather, a true dragon at this age had yet to fully develop, whether in its magical abilities or its physical organs, and generally had a challenge rating of around 3.

The weakest white dragons had a challenge rating of only 2 at this age, making them weaker than an ordinary adult centaur.

As elite centaur rangers, however, they had a challenge rating of 4. Three of them together were more than enough to handle three dragon whelps.

Sol glanced at the enormous wheel in his mind. Sure enough, the small squares containing the items he had drawn earlier were still lit up.

He focused on the Coal. The display showed that one point of Mental Power Essence could be exchanged for nearly ten kilograms, so he selected the exchange without hesitation.

This kind of Coal was considerably heavier than ordinary coal. A water-like ripple flashed, and a pitch-black, irregularly shaped lump of Coal appeared before Sol, a size smaller than the previous one.

He reached out a claw, grabbed it, opened his jaws wide, and bit into it.

It was heavy, but not particularly hard. His hard dragon teeth easily bit off a large quantity of fragments, and he began chewing them in great mouthfuls.

Before long, he had eaten more than five kilograms of Coal and passed the smaller remaining portion to Xisitana and Kalpu.

Red dragons sometimes ate sulfur and combustible minerals to strengthen their breath attacks for a short time.

Although the three whelps' breath weapons were not yet fully developed, they could still unleash considerable power with the aid of this super fuel.

While the two whelps were noisily gnawing on the Coal, the Coal in Sol's stomach had already begun to digest.

A tremendous amount of heat surged out in a warm current, making him feel as though there were a high-temperature furnace inside his belly.

His already high body temperature began to rise, and his crimson scales gradually began to glow. Blood raced through his body, and an orange-red light flickered at his throat.

Heat, swelling, and a searing sting.

Even as a red dragon, Sol felt a burning pain.

The swelling sensation from within left him desperate to release it. Without further hesitation, he kicked off the ground with all four limbs and charged at the three centaurs.