Explosion

The dragon's breath had ignited the withered weeds. Even though the battle had long since ended, the flames continued to burn across the wilderness, threatening to spread in every direction as the night wind blew.

Lunaris gazed at the flames soaring into the distance, and a sudden wave of unease surged through his heart.

He waved to his guards, and a ginger-colored centaur immediately pulled a horn from his back, raised it to his lips, and blew with all his might.

The deep blast carried far across the wilderness. Hearing the signal, the centaur rangers immediately began gathering in its direction.

The centaurs who had gone out gradually returned, but as time passed, there was still no sign of the squad sent toward the flames. Lunaris's heart sank to the bottom.

Could three red dragon wyrmlings have the strength to defeat three centaur rangers? Under normal circumstances, that should have been impossible.

Their breath organs had yet to mature, and their magic had not awakened. Apart from their fairly strong physiques, they were no different from ordinary beasts.

The thoroughly trained centaur warriors, on the other hand, were all strong and experienced in battle. Armed with sharp spears and blades, longbows and heavy arrows, they should not have been the ones to lose, no matter how one looked at it.

Something unexpected must have happened.

Lunaris waited no longer. Leading the force that had assembled so far, he galloped toward the flames.

Hard iron hooves pounded the earth with thunderous footfalls, raising dust into the air like a roiling yellow dragon of smoke.

Centaurs charging at full speed were terrifyingly fast, reaching nearly seventy kilometers per hour. That worked out to almost twenty meters in a single second.

The flames grew larger before their eyes, and soon tongues of fire were licking around their hooves.

That much heat could not stop the centaurs. They trampled over glowing red embers and soon reached the place where Sol had fought the centaurs, spotting the two corpses on the ground at a glance.

The once-valiant centaur warriors were now unrecognizable, their bodies charred black and covered in bite and claw marks.

Their flesh and fat sizzled in the flames, giving off a strange smell of char and roasting meat from the Maillard reaction.

"Urgh!!"

"Damn beasts!"

"We can't let those three reptiles get away!"

After a brief silence, overlapping roars of anger erupted from the centaur ranks. Some of them could not stop their stomachs from churning and began to retch.

Lunaris also gritted his teeth, his bloodshot eyes gleaming sharply as he scanned the surroundings.

There were only two centaur corpses here, one short. The missing one had most likely been dragged away by the red wyrmlings for food.

A centaur weighing nearly a ton was no light burden. Dragging one away would surely leave an obvious trail on the ground.

Sure enough, they soon found drag marks on the ground nearby. A few steps beyond the area consumed by the wildfire, they could also see broad patches of flattened tall grass, with bloodstains on the blades.

"A few of you stay and recover the warriors' bodies. The rest, follow me!"

At his command, thunderous hoofbeats echoed across the wilderness once more as the group swiftly pursued Sol and the others in the direction they had gone.

Sol heard the earth-shaking hoofbeats from far away. He raised his head to look out over the dark wilderness, then curled his lips in a cold smile.

He called Xisitana and Kalpu over, then turned and flew off close to the ground.

This time, he did not flee too far. More than a thousand meters away, he chose a dense patch of grass, settled down, and began to wait patiently.

Their powerful darkvision allowed the wyrmlings to see clearly in the night. A cluster of faint black dots appeared in the distance, gradually growing until they took the shape of centaurs.

The centaur corpse laid over the Large Barrel Bomb stood out in the open wilderness. Following the trail, Lunaris and his companions spotted their former comrade almost at once.

Like the other two corpses, this centaur's body was covered in scorch marks and wounds torn by claws and teeth. Blood seeped from the wounds, soaking almost the entire little pile of rubble beneath him.

What surprised the centaurs, however, was that the red dragon wyrmlings had not eaten their companion. Had they run out of time, or were they performing some bizarre ritual?

The centaurs formed a loose semicircle around the corpse, constantly searching their surroundings, but they never caught sight of the wyrmlings.

Those red reptiles had probably heard the hoofbeats and fled in advance.

The darkness of night not only blocked the falcons' vision but also concealed the small traces left by the wyrmlings. Otherwise, the centaurs would not have split up and given Sol and the others an opportunity to strike.

"Where did those dragon brats run off to?"

"Damn cowards, reptiles who can only hide!"

"When I catch them, I'll..."

Angry roars rose one after another from the centaurs. Some even raised their front hooves in agitation and stomped heavily on the ground.

Lunaris was also filled with anger, but he could still maintain a basic level of composure. He beckoned, and two centaurs stepped out of the group, intending to recover their companion's body first.

They reached out with their strong arms and gripped either side of the corpse. Their muscles bulged slightly as they lifted the thousand-pound weight straight up.

What they failed to notice, however, was a tough tendon torn from a hoof and buried deep in the pile of rubble beneath the body. As they raised the corpse, the tendon stretched until it gave a sharp snap.

The trigger mechanism atop the Large Barrel Bomb activated. The pieces of flint inside struck each other, and the gunpowder ignited in an instant.

Lunaris suddenly felt an intense sense of danger well up from the bottom of his heart. Every hair on his body stood on end, as though he were facing a Balor from the Abyss.

He opened his mouth to shout a warning to his companions in front of him, but the pile of rubble swelling rapidly before his eyes was faster than sound.

A spark suddenly flashed, followed by a blaze of dazzling fire. A deafening boom seemed to fill the entire world, and intense pain came from every part of his body.

A massive fireball exploded into the air, and the terrifying shock wave sent the centaurs gathered nearby flying.

Worse still, the rubble and needlefruit seeds stuck to the surface of the bomb were propelled by the explosion into countless blades flying at high speed, mercilessly tearing into the centaurs' flesh.

It all happened so suddenly. Who could have imagined that three wyrmlings could obtain such a terrifying bomb?

In this world of swords and magic, gunpowder was generally found only in the hands of Giff, dwarves, gnomes, and goblins.

Lunaris was undoubtedly lucky. For one thing, he had been standing far enough away that his companions in front of him blocked nearly all the fragments of rubble flying at him.

For another, he was strong enough. With a challenge rating as high as twelve, he had already reached the threshold of an advanced professional. His thoroughly trained body was as tough as steel, and the magic flowing through his blood formed another layer of protection.

Even so, he felt a sharp pain on one side of his face, and several gruesome bloody holes had appeared in his lower body.

As the ringing in his ears from the explosion gradually faded, piercing cries of anguish reached him.

Everywhere he looked, he saw suffering. Severed limbs were scattered haphazardly around him, and blood had nearly soaked through the ground beneath his feet.

Almost none of the centaurs who had followed him were unscathed. They clutched their wounds and wailed, while some lay motionless on the ground, long since lifeless.