Coming to a Close

The flames could not leave the slightest scorch mark on the Red Dragon's scales, and the shock wave could not tear through his tough wing membranes.

Sol snapped the wings shielding him outward, and the fierce gust they stirred instantly scattered the smoke raised by the explosion.

He raised his head and roared at the dumbstruck young dragons around him.

"Did you see that? This is the power of a Red Dragon! Who else wants to challenge me?!"

His arrogant display plunged the young dragons watching into a brief, stunned silence.

In their youth, before they had awakened many magical abilities or racial talents, Blue Dragons, Green Dragons, and Black Dragons were actually much the same in strength.

Although Zefiro was not among the very strongest of the young dragons, he was still in the first tier.

Even he had been defeated so decisively. If another young dragon stepped forward, the outcome would probably be no different.

As Zefiro struggled to his feet, a powerful sense of humiliation surged through him. Ignoring the waves of pain coursing through his body, he lunged at Sol again.

"You damn bastard, I haven't lost yet!"

Sol looked disdainfully at the stubborn Blue Dragon.

The poisonous gas Zefiro had inhaled earlier had long since begun to stiffen his body. Combined with his injuries, it had left his movements badly impaired. His resistance now was nothing more than a futile death struggle.

Moving with nimble steps, Sol easily dodged Zefiro's snapping jaws, then charged forward and knocked him to the ground.

Before Zefiro could get up, Sol raised a foreclaw covered in red scales and stomped down hard, driving half of his head into the dirt.

"What about now, you fool who doesn't know his own limits?!"

A low roar burst from Sol's mouth, and through the gaps between his fangs, flames could already be seen flickering in his throat.

As he spoke, his pale golden slit pupils swept over the young dragons around him. The ferocity and brutality in them made every young dragon who met his gaze wary.

Even though True Dragons generally possessed elemental resistance, if Zefiro was lucky enough to survive a blast of fire breath at such close range, he would probably still be half dead.

The cunning Green Dragons blinked without betraying their thoughts, while the Black Dragons hid in the shadows at the edges. The dim-witted White Dragons probably had yet to understand what had happened.

But the young Blue Dragons could no longer stand by and watch.

As the only lawful evil Chromatic Dragons, they did have some sense of solidarity.

"Enough!"

"Let Zefiro go!"

"Don't get too arrogant!"

They growled one after another, the spines along their backs standing on end and their pterosaur-like wings spreading slightly. As one, they advanced a step.

Seven or eight young Blue Dragons could easily flatten a small tribe in the wilderness. The ferocious pressure of their combined growls was enough to stop the hearts of some timid creatures.

Xisitana and Kalpu could not help growing nervous. If those guys all rushed them at once, their little bodies would never be able to withstand it!

But the pride inherent in their Red Dragon blood still made them spread their wings as wide as they could to appear larger, and they shouted with a show of bravado.

"What do you think you're doing?!"

"We're not afraid of you!"

Sol pressed down hard with his claw, forcing Zefiro's head back to the ground as he tried to raise it.

He held his already somewhat ferocious-looking head high and spoke disdainfully to the young Blue Dragons closing in.

"Cowards who can only huddle together for comfort will always gang up on those they outnumber.

Even if all of you come at me together, the great Red Dragon fears nothing!"

For all his words, Sol was actually somewhat uneasy.

If seven or eight young Blue Dragons attacked together, Xisitana and Kalpu would not be the only ones unable to withstand them. He would have a hard time dealing with them himself.

At worst, he would take a savage beating. Presumably, the Blue Dragons would not dare actually kill him.

Besides, with a True Dragon's regenerative ability, and especially with his ample supply of Dragonvein Crystals to replenish himself, he could quickly recover from even the gravest injuries as long as he was not beaten to death on the spot.

Then, as time passed and he grew stronger, he could settle accounts with them one by one.

Just as Sol made up his mind, the Blue Dragons closing in stopped in their tracks.

In the eyes of outsiders, Red Dragons were unquestionably the foremost of the Chromatic Dragons. But among the Chromatic Dragons themselves, apart from the White Dragons, every kind believed itself to be Tiamat's rightful heir.

This was especially true of the Blue Dragons. In their eyes, Red Dragons were nothing but a bunch of brainless brutes, and they were determined to refute the Red Dragons' assessment of them as "timid cowards."

If they had met in the wild, there would have been nothing wrong with using their numbers to gang up on him.

But with so many young dragons watching, including ill-intentioned Green and Black Dragons, would ganging up on him not prove that they really were the cowards who could only huddle together, just as that damn Red Dragon had said?

A young Blue Dragon sprang out from among his companions. He was a little larger than the other Blue Dragons, and he looked at Sol impassively as he spoke:

"You only defeated the weakest among us. What is there to be proud of? At the next full moon, we'll show you the strength of the Blue Dragons.

Now let Zefiro go. Lady Leilia doesn't allow young dragons to kill one another in fights. Do you want to challenge her authority?"

Sol looked into the Blue Dragon's amber eyes and decided to quit while he was ahead. He lifted the foreclaw pinning Zefiro's head and burst into wild laughter.

"Ha! Ha! Ha! Well said. I'll be waiting for your challenge.

And you, and you-I'll take you all on anytime.

I'll show you weaklings what true strength looks like!"

At his words, every young dragon around them bared their teeth.

Zefiro got to his feet dejectedly and returned to the Blue Dragons' ranks without a word.

Losing twice in a row under everyone's gaze had utterly disgraced the Blue Dragons, and he felt as though the looks his companions gave him were filled with contempt and coldness.

The farce came to an end, and the young dragons gathered around dispersed. Sol's taut nerves finally relaxed.

Those damned bastards had tried to put him in his place on the very first day. Once he grew up, he would trample them under his own claws and grind them into the dirt.

He turned to look at Xisitana and Kalpu behind him and saw that their gazes were filled with envy, as if they could not wait to take his place.

For a Red Dragon, displaying his strength before more than twenty True Dragons was definitely something to boast about.

But Sol, who possessed a human soul, did not much care for such lowbrow pleasures. Only when he turned his attention to the enormous wheel in his mind did he truly feel a trace of delight.

The intense emotions the young dragons had just given off had provided him with nearly five points of mental power essence, almost as much as he normally accumulated in two months.

Seen that way, perhaps being captured and brought to the Dragon Castle was not such a bad thing?

Although he would lose some freedom, the speed at which his strength grew had increased greatly. He might even be able to make an advanced draw before reaching adolescence.

If he had continued as before, taking Xisitana and Kalpu with him and relying on himself to gradually subdue followers, then depending on them to provide mental power essence, there was no telling how long it would have taken to accumulate ten thousand points.