Getting Along

"Enough! You idiots, if any of you dare make another sound, I'll twist your head off!"

The noisy chatter gave Leilia a throbbing headache, and she suddenly let out an angry roar.

Chromatic Dragons had never been good guardians, and Blue Dragons were no exception. The so-called wyrmling caretaker was merely a title denoting a duty; it certainly didn't mean she was good at it.

She swept her gaze over the wyrmlings around her, who had instantly fallen silent, and bared her teeth in a menacing grin as she spoke.

"Starting today, these three Red Dragon whelps are members of the group.

Lord Kalundak's Chromatic Dragon Legion has finally gained its last missing piece. You all know what you're supposed to do."

With that, she beat her wings and flew into her temporary lair on a nearby hill without looking back.

A True Dragon's time was far too precious to waste on these foolish whelps. She would be better off counting her treasure a few more times.

As soon as Leilia left, the wyrmlings around them began stirring again.

Sol met their hostile gazes, and as he watched a notification appear before his eyes announcing an increase in essence, a pleased smile crept onto his face.

His guess had been right. With these wyrmlings' "help," he could increase the rate at which he gained essence by at least tenfold.

Previously, he had accumulated an average of only three essence a month. Now that would rise straight to thirty, meaning he would need only three months to draw a low-level monster template.

He also understood what the Blue Dragon had meant before she left.

The Blue Dragon named Kalundar was certainly ambitious, actually wanting to form a Chromatic Dragon Legion. That was just what one would expect from a Blue Dragon who claimed to be Tiamat's rightful heir; it was indeed the sort of thing they would do.

The other Chromatic Dragons were one thing, but Red Dragons rarely condescended to serve under other dragons. As a result, there were plenty of blue, green, black, and white wyrmlings around, but only the three of them were Red Dragons.

"So I'm a rare animal! That makes things easy."

Sol raised his thick neck, turned to look around at the wyrmlings, and spoke first.

"Blue cowards, green, long-bodied reptiles, black skeletons, and you idiots-do you have a problem with me, staring at me like that?"

The surrounding wyrmlings were stunned at first, having never expected Sol to dare provoke them. Once they recovered, they were instantly furious.

"What did you say, you damned bastard?!"

"Looking for a beating?"

"Keep acting so cocky and we'll show you what we can do!"

Roars rose one after another like a surging tide. Xisitana and Kalpu, standing beside Sol, instantly tensed all over, their scales bristling and their eyes full of anxiety.

Since they were one age category younger, they were already on the small side among these wyrmlings. With their disadvantage in numbers on top of that, if a fight broke out...

Sol looked at the agitated wyrmlings around him, every one of them baring their teeth like dangerous beasts poised to strike.

He wasn't the least bit worried. Instead, the notification of another increase in essence appearing before his eyes gave him a flicker of secret pleasure.

"Are you planning to gang up on me? Just what I'd expect from cowards who only know how to huddle together, scheming reptiles, and stinking bugs that spend their whole lives in the mud. None of you even have the guts to face me alone."

With that, he glanced at the White Dragons.

These fellows were not only weak but also dim-witted. They weren't worth wasting his breath on.

"You want a one-on-one fight? As you wish!"

A blue wyrmling stepped forward. He was about the same length as Sol, but his torso and limbs were slightly more slender. A single pointed horn rose above his nostrils, and sharp spines ran from the top of his head down his spine to the tip of his tail.

"Remember, the one who defeated you was Zephyro Theralis, descendant of the great Storm Fang!"

The moment he finished speaking, the blue wyrmling pushed off hard with all four limbs and lunged at Sol ferociously.

The surrounding wyrmlings backed away, leaving them room to fight.

Sol swung his long, powerful tail and curled his lips in a cold sneer before charging forward without fear.

Though he was still a hatchling, Red Dragons had an inherent advantage in size over Blue Dragons. With his exceptional growth, he was probably considerably heavier as well.

The two True Dragons slammed into each other like horses at a full gallop, colliding with a heavy thud.

There was little technique to a fight between wyrmlings. It came down to who had the stronger body, the greater speed, and the sharper claws and teeth.

Sol was somewhat surprised to find that, in terms of physical ability alone, he couldn't gain the upper hand.

Whenever his claws raked bloody furrows across his opponent, several red scales were torn from his own body and sent flying. Crimson dragon blood kept seeping from their wounds, making the two fighting wyrmlings look even more ferocious.

Seeing that he couldn't defeat his opponent with physical strength alone, he immediately set the glands in his body to work. A great quantity of oil surged up his throat and turned into thick smoke that poured from the corners of his mouth.

The bluish-white fog quickly enveloped Sol and Zefiro as they fought, then spread outward like rippling waves.

A green wyrmling raised his long, snake-like neck and flared his nostrils slightly. He immediately detected the scent of poison in the smoke and quietly backed away.

Young True Dragons had already begun to awaken their initial magical abilities, such as a Blue Dragon's Create Water and Lesser Immunity to Lightning, a Red Dragon's Manipulate Normal Fire and Lesser Immunity to Fire, as well as a Green Dragon's poison and a Black Dragon's acid.

But what was with this smoke? He had never heard of a Red Dragon awakening Pyrotechnics or Poison Cloud.

The fierce fighting made Zefiro gasp for breath, causing him to inhale a considerable amount of the surrounding smoke. Even with a True Dragon's resistance, he began to feel dizzy and numb.

Is the smoke poisonous?

The thought flashed through his mind, instantly filling him with fury. He hadn't expected a Red Dragon, a creature renowned for recklessness and brutality, to use such a despicable trick!

He stopped holding back. The blood vessels in his body began frantically squeezing out his magic power, which flowed into his upper stomach. Then, following his body's instincts, he threw open his jaws and breathed it out.

But the instant his throat swelled, a mocking smile had already appeared on Sol's face. The great wings on his back snapped open, blocking his front like overlapping shields.

What would happen if an electric current ignited a space filled with gas?

The breath in Zefiro's mouth had only just begun to glow when the air before him instantly erupted into roiling flames.

With an earth-shaking boom, the force of the explosion sent him flying. His breath struck the ground to one side, leaving a branching scorch mark.

He went tumbling more than ten meters through the air before he managed to scramble to his feet in a sorry state. His scales were charred and cracked all over, and even two of his relatively slender, fragile wing bones had snapped.