svetikya Page 24
Page 24
Casalos then suddenly brought its six limbs together to launch a grappling attack. It knew very well that when facing a Shadow Dragon in its teens or even adolescence, wrestling was the only way it could possibly win.
However, Shadow Dragon was also fully aware of this.
"Pah, get away from me! Who wants to be hugged by you, you wretched iron lug... Damn green dragon, you didn't even tell me you were a dragon of eagle skin! I'm done playing..."
The shadowy figure, held by Casalos using all six limbs, exploded with another soft popping sound. The Shadow Dragon's voice came from afar, growing fainter and fainter until it was completely inaudible.
"Green dragons?" Diving a short distance away from the dome, Casalos cautiously surveyed his surroundings while muttering to himself, "Besides that legion of chromatic dragons summoned from another world, the only green dragons I've encountered are the couple, Lylotar and Lantello. The chromatic dragon legion wouldn't hire a shadow dragon to hunt down someone as insignificant as me; it must have been the green dragon couple. They even knew I was in the Underdark, using prophecy spells? That's really troublesome."
After rolling his eyes twice, Casaroz flew back to the luminous mushroom patch to resupply. The Shadow Dragon's last words were clearly intentionally meant to be heard, meant to show that he didn't want to get involved in Casaroz's feud with the Green Dragon, hoping it wouldn't pursue the matter relentlessly.
Casalos certainly didn't believe the Shadow Dragon would give up so easily, but he was certain that at least for the time being, the Shadow Dragon wouldn't cause any trouble. The important thing was to continue dealing with the Grey Dwarves.
The group of bald, short men were already repairing the two gantry catapults that had been blown down, while the remaining two were still being bombarded. With this short delay, the fluorescent mushroom patch was almost completely flattened; they couldn't be allowed to continue.
Perhaps having witnessed Casaloz's battle against the Kotto murlocs and the Shadow Dragon, the high-ranking psionicists of the Grey Dwarves dared not leave the main force's cover to fly up and block the hatchlings alone, remaining huddled on the ground. Casaloz's second wave of bombardment still encountered little resistance, successfully destroying the last two gantry catapults and freeing the kobolds.
The grey dwarves did not retreat, but instead set up camp on the spot and began to build a bomb-proof "fortress" with clanging and banging, carrying the wreckage of the gantry catapult inside for repair, looking as if they would not give up until the Karrick tribe was completely destroyed.
Casalos attempted several bombing raids, but the iron bombs were all deflected and exploded outside the fortress, only slightly delaying the gray dwarves' repair progress. It dared not rush into the gray dwarves at too low an altitude to forcibly destroy or kill their high-ranking psionicists, and the two sides remained locked in a stalemate for the time being.
But all of this is only temporary. The two groups of grey dwarves have left the Nameless Rift and returned to Grevesend City. New reinforcements from the dwarven city will arrive soon, including a professional dragon-hunting team composed entirely of exemplary professionals. At that time, the situation will be completely reversed.
Adding a note about the product launch
I always have to say something when something is released, but when I think about it, there doesn't seem to be much to say.
I wrote a bunch of dragons, but the Marvel Bronze Dragon has absolutely no one to support it. The Cyber Dragon has a decent collection, but the initial subscription rate was abysmal after it was released, so I had to postpone both of them.
This is the most traditional D&D dragon build right now. Aside from the cheat codes, after getting past the early stages, it's a traditional dragon lord farming game... The stats are so-so. I've decided to temporarily stop checking subscriptions and stuff, and wait two months before looking at the updates.
To be honest, what I'm best at is writing hardcore settings. Even when I try to control the pace and get as close to the story as possible, I still unconsciously veer off to the settings as I write, and then I have to scrap the whole chapter and start over—because I really want to tell a story.
Aside from the main storyline, this part mainly aims to explore the vast, complex, yet fragmented history of Feralas in D&D, piecing together a blank space left by the official D&D website—isn't the freedom and tolerance towards settings and stories what D&D should be all about, even though it has changed somewhat since the 4th edition, especially now?
I can only do my best to write the stories I create, and the rest I can only ask for everyone's support.
What I can guarantee is that I will keep updating at least twice a day. As long as the data is about right—it doesn't have to be high, just 500+ average subscriptions per day is enough to make a living—I can finish writing the book.
PS: The two kids are mostly done with the initial setup and various things. I'll finish Godzilla in the next couple of days, and then I'll update at a snail's pace while Dad follows along.
59.Solution
Edgeworth sat quietly in a bunker, watching through the spirit crystal servant as the rare iron dragon hatchling flew over the camp once more, a mocking expression on its rock-gray face beneath its bald head.
It knew what the dragon wanted to do: besides continuing to bombard the four siege catapults, it was simply looking for an opportunity to fall from the sky and kill it, or the other two psionicists in the camp.
A fledgling dragon with very hard scales!
It's so tough that neither the Kota Murlocs nor the Shadow Dragons can handle it; it's so tough that it dares to directly swoop down and kill a level 12 high-ranking priest of the Kota Murlocs.
The gray dwarves aren't fools. Having witnessed several battles, which psionic mage would stand outside and wait for it to charge? In terms of individual strength alone, the gray dwarf warriors aren't much stronger than those Koto murlocs. Moreover, even the most powerful battle spirits in Gravesend could only choose to evade such a terrifying charge attack. Who could stand in front of the psionic mage?
Since the psionicists could only defend themselves against the attacks, they might as well hide, since there were so many slaves working obediently outside anyway.
If the dragon thinks that the gray dwarf is afraid of it, it would be very wrong!
The siege catapults are almost repaired. This time, the slaves have built a hemispherical fortress with only one opening, and added a slippery spell to it. Spherical iron bombs thrown at it will only slide off and explode on the outside, and will no longer be able to harm the catapults or the gray dwarf workers inside.
The dragon had no idea what kind of enemy it was facing; the city of Gravesend had already set its sights on it.
A fire-type iron dragon hatchling!
Which dwarven city would let such a dragon go?
Judging by the time, both messenger teams should have already returned to Gravesend City. The city lord of Gravesend City, the level 18 super psychic Dubois Gravesend, should have personally led his team to this remote rift valley.
Gravesend is about to become the second Grey Dwarf city to have a dragon blacksmith!
Thinking of this, Edgeworth stroked his old crossbow, a relieved smile appearing on his face.
Rumble…
The continuous tremors interrupted Edgeworth's pleasant reverie. He frowned, his thick, gray eyebrows furrowed, and called to the gnoll servants waiting outside the crypt, asking, "Gals, what's going on?"
"Hmm, oh, it's not quite clear yet, sir." The servant knelt on the ground, pressing his head almost to the ground: "I heard the tremor coming from the direction of the passage leading to the main city. Someone outside said that Lord Hubbard, who is on duty, has sent his spirit crystal servants to investigate. I believe we will have results soon."
Edgeworth nodded in satisfaction. She had chosen gnolls as her personal servants because of their keen hearing and sense of smell. By imbuing them with several psionic powers that enhanced their perception, with them guarding her, no one, except perhaps a legendary assassin, could sneak up on her.
Besides, Edgeworth often knows a lot about the outside world just by relying on their hearing and sense of smell, just like now. It's just an earthquake, nothing serious should happen, now we just need to wait for Hubbard's instructions.
Hubbard didn't keep everyone waiting for long.
A tacit telepathic message connected with Edgeworth. Without even announcing himself, Hubbard shouted in the message, "Something terrible has happened..."
Chapter 56
Outside the passage from the Rift Valley to the city of Gravesend, Casalos hung upside down from the dome, activating his flames and leaning against a stone peak to avoid being ambushed by the Shadow Dragon. He stared at the collapsed passage and shook his large head with satisfaction.
"You actually blew up the tunnel! You just dug a few holes and planted a few cheap bombs, how did you manage that?"
A surprised voice came from the shadows. It was the shadow dragon—it had been secretly following Casalos for the past few days, and would try to launch an attack whenever it had the chance, but of course, it always failed.
Shadow Dragon is currently only in its adolescence; its innate weapon hasn't yet matured into a magical weapon. A full-force attack would only be able to break through Casaroz's somewhat exaggerated scales. Its eerie ability to merge with shadows is countered by the irregular flames, preventing it from getting too close to Casaroz. Its negative energy dragon breath, which absorbs energy, is mostly neutralized by Iron Dragon's positive energy spark dragon breath. The remaining effect is also unable to penetrate the magic resistance granted to Casaroz by the level 1 Carved Skin Dragon—normally, the Carved Skin Dragon's magic resistance boost requires Casaroz's own magic resistance awakening, which only takes effect after adolescence. However, items from the Dragon Vault that require in-game purchases are always a bit different.
Its scales, which were far from being fully sculpted with three-dimensional runes, had been forcibly enhanced to their current state, so it was only natural that it had gained some magic resistance ahead of time... In fact, Casalos suspected that Bejuri's Flame Light played a part in this. However, it couldn't be completely certain yet, since magic resistance was a newly acquired ability, and it hadn't encountered any enemies with the corresponding ability before. It would take some time to quantify it.
It can be said that this Shadow Dragon was completely countered by Casalos; there was absolutely nothing Casalos could do about it.
"I could tell you, but only if you come out and let me vent my anger," Casalos said with a chuckle, tilting his head to the side.
"Bah, what an arrogant lump of iron! Doesn't he know that dragons respect the elders?" Shadow Dragon retorted angrily, "Say it or don't, who cares?"
"Come and fight me if you dare!" Casalos clicked his iron beak up and down, looking like he was rubbing his claws together. "You've been harassing me for so many days for no reason, and you still want to get knowledge from me for free? Dream on!"
The Shadow Dragon stopped answering, and Casalos couldn't find its location either. It flicked its tail, released its claws, landed, and spread its wings to fly towards the stone pillar.
"Explosives are a science. Even if I told you that I found stress points and destroyed them to cause the collapse, do you think you, a weak dragon comparable to the White Dragon, would understand what I'm saying? Heh."
Deliberately making a mocking sound, the flowing flames immediately illuminated an approaching shadow. Then, adjusting its posture, it used its thick shield scales to block a claw attack and then unleashed a breath of dragon breath. The grab missed, and the darkness returned to its original calm.
This wasn't the first time Casaloz had done this. It could feel that its control over the flames, its perception of the Shadow Dragon, and its reaction were all improving rapidly. If it could continue to "train" like this, it would eventually be able to catch this slippery eel and then use its overwhelming power to show it what a powerful dragon was.
Now, there are still two more passages waiting for it to blow up.
Aside from the unexplored underwater world, the Nameless Rift Valley has only three passages leading to other areas. Destroying these three passages will turn the rift valley into a completely sealed underground space, where no one except aquatic species can enter or leave. It will have plenty of time to deal with these troublemakers.
60. Ideas
The Shadow Dragon disappeared, probably angered by Casaloz's insults—although Casaloz was stating an objectively existing hierarchy of dragons, no dragon could readily admit its place in that hierarchy: the Iron Dragon would not consider itself inferior to the Gold Dragon, even if that were the case.
Casalos didn't know what was wrong with this Shadow Dragon that insisted on sticking with it. Logically speaking, given the Shadow Dragon's personality, it should have given up its spying and run far away long ago once it realized things were going wrong. Perhaps the Green Dragon had given it too much.
That makes sense, though. Green dragon stuff isn't so easy to take. These ugly things covered in mushrooms and emitting a pungent chlorine stench are definitely the closest thing to a devil among the true dragons. The Shadow Dragon accepting their employment was probably forced to swear some kind of oath; what an unlucky fellow.
Casalos can't do anything about it for the time being, but every time Casalos uses the hierarchy of contempt, it manages to calm it down for a while.
Only when Shadow Dragon quiets down can it proceed with its plans in peace. Its plans are not complicated; the core idea can be summed up in four words: survive and develop.
Being watched closely by a bunch of guys, you'll have to put in some effort to survive; sufficient intelligence is key to formulating the right battle plan.
The residents of several neighboring areas, including the Carrick tribe, all knew the strongest being in Gravesend City: Dubois Gravesend, a powerful warrior with the rank of 10 Psionic Warrior/8 Hyperpsychic. It was he who led the Grey Dwarves to resist the invasion of the Serpent Abyss Empire and established the city of Gravesend here.
It was also it that led the Grey Dwarves to conquer all directions, repelling the Mind Flayers that surged from the depths and driving away the Eye Demons, thus making Gravesend one of the most powerful and well-known forces in the surrounding region.
Dubois Gravesander possesses absolute combat power in the surrounding area; perhaps even within the Serpent Abyss, there are few who can rival him head-on.
However, it is a psionic warrior, not a psionic sorcerer or any other psionic manifestation spellcaster.
Although the advanced mind-controller granted it powerful psionic manifestation abilities comparable to a psionicist, it is ultimately not a psionicist. It cannot learn the disgusting superpowers of a mind-controller, nor can it choose teleportation as its energy system to create a level 9 teleportation array and launch a surprise attack.
It cannot even teleport itself; the only way it can reach its destination is by using existing pathways.
In fact, there isn't a single psyker in the entire city of Gravesend who has embarked on the path of exemplarship—and throughout Faerûn, there are very few psykers who have chosen teleportation as their primary energy type... those who roam the astral plane or the outer realms are the ones who prefer this kind of ability.
The Koto merfolk were also driven here, meaning there's a high probability that there's an underwater passage in the Rift Lake directly connecting to the Serpent's Abyss. However, the Serpent's Abyss is occupied by amphibious subterranean serpent people, and the grey dwarves of Gravesend are at war with them, making it almost impossible for them to pass through. As long as Dubois still dreams of capturing Casalos, he won't reveal the existence of dragons in the Rift.
Therefore, once all the land routes leading to the Rift collapse, the Grey Dwarves' "expeditionary force" will be completely cut off from Gravesend and become an isolated army.
To complete this plan, the Shadow Dragon is actually an obstacle. Destroying all the land passages means the Shadow Dragon will also be trapped inside the Rift—Cassaros intends to imprison all of them and then find an opportunity to wipe them out in one fell swoop.
He flew back to the blasted mushroom patch, summoned an old kobold, who pointed in a direction and counted a number with his fingers. Casalos nodded and crawled into the tunnel.
The old kobold was skilled in divination magic. By detecting the location of creatures, he roughly knew that the Shadow Dragon had returned to the dome on the west side of the Rift Valley, which should be one of its several temporary lairs in the Rift Valley.
Before long, the iron dragon hatchling, whose body occasionally emitted bursts of flame, carried a pile of carefully selected iron ore and lay down on the stone platform it had occupied as a Simmons mattress. It started munching on the roasted mushroom slices that the kobolds had brought it, just like it always did.
If you look closely, you'll discover some strange things. For example, the mushroom slices remain intact after the dragon bites off its head, and the iron forks that the kobolds feed it can accidentally pierce through the dragon's head... This dragon is actually just an illusion created by the kobold sorcerers.
The real Casalos has already donned an invisibility spell.
Chapter 57
With one claw gripping a kobold specializing in invisibility, and the other claw holding an iron bomb, it silently flew towards other passageways.
They continued searching for areas of stress buildup, digging in to plant bombs, and arranging the fuses according to the detonation sequence. After several rounds of this, the kobolds, who were using invisibility spells, were exhausted, but finally, the bombs in both passages were set up. Then Casalos made one more trip, taking two kobold demolitionists to safe detonation points outside each passage. He flew back to the stone pillar to replace the illusion, carefully ate some iron ore and mushrooms to replenish his strength, then got up and soared into the sky, swaggering towards the gray dwarf stone pillar.
The gray dwarves, thrown into chaos by the destruction of their return route, noticed the dragon's approach. The gray dwarf slave masters raised their whips and unleashed mental rebukes to restore order to the camp, directing their slaves to once again construct a defensive formation.
They were used to the dragons' occasional bombardments. After all, the noble grey dwarf psionic warlocks wouldn't fly up to engage in dangerous aerial combat with the dragons, nor would the dragons descend to low altitudes to act as a pyionic shield. As long as the slaves were spread out, the casualties caused by the bombardment could be effectively reduced, and the grey dwarf slave owners would naturally hide in the safe tunnels dug by the slaves to avoid danger.
Although the bombs made by this wretched dragon are not as powerful as the large ones made by the gray dwarves, they still shoot out many sharp fragments when they explode, making their destructive effect and range much stronger than the gray dwarves' bombs. Some craftsmen have already reconstructed the bomb-making process from the flying fragments; it's just a matter of using a more brittle cast iron shell and sawing some interlaced grooves into it.
Once we return to Gravesend, the fragmentation bomb technique can be taught to every artisan in the Great Forge, which will definitely give those legless reptiles in the Serpent's Lair a good thrashing.
To make matters worse, the passage back to Gravesend collapsed during the earthquake!
The dragon-hunting teams from the main city will now have to take a longer route to reach the Rift, and the gray dwarves will have to stay here for quite some time, having to continue to endure the vicious dragon defecating on their heads every day.
The only saving grace was that enough slaves were brought on this expedition to drag siege weapons, so the gray dwarves wouldn't go hungry—the slaves alone would feed them for several years.
Once the dragon-catching team brings this vicious dragon back, they'll definitely give it a good whipping.
Rumble…
Damn it, why are there so many earthquakes in this godforsaken place lately?
61. Agreement
Hearing the tremors coming from afar, Casalos flew over the gray dwarf camp, routinely dropping two iron bombs, then made a wide turn and rushed to a height lower than the top of the stone pillar, urging flames to flash all around.
As expected, the Shadow Dragon's rapidly approaching figure was swept away by the narrow beam of flame. It tilted its body and used its thick shield scales to meet the attack with its claws, creating a trail of sparks. It then breathed out a burst of sparking dragon breath, burning away most of the negative energy dragon breath. It rolled over and tried to grab the Shadow Dragon with all its limbs, but still missed...
"You little brat, Iron Dragon, are you looking for death? Why are you dragging me into this if you're going to bury yourself alive? Bomb, bomb, bomb... I'll teach you to blow up!"
This battle did not end as usual. The Shadow Dragon, which had dodged Casalos's grab, released a mirror image while cursing. Its true form remained fused with the shadow, rolling around Casalos and scratching at it with claws one after another. The ear-piercing crackling noise was incessant, and sparks kept flying with the flashing flames.
After each ten or so claw strikes, the Shadow Dragon would unleash a breath of negative energy. Casalos only had a slight chance to grab the Shadow Dragon when it paused slightly due to the breath attack after receiving the attack, but the Shadow Dragon always managed to narrowly avoid it.
Shadow Dragon's reaction speed is still much faster than Casalos'.
"Pah, you lowly, cowardly dragon who only dares to hide in the shadows, I'm burying you! Come and bite me if you dare!" Unable to catch this slippery eel, Casalos grew increasingly frustrated and launched into a verbal attack: "I can wade through lava to get out, can you? You'll just have to wait to be buried with those gray two-legged dwarves... Oh, no, they can't do anything to me, but killing you is quite easy. You won't even be buried with them; you'll just be slaughtered and eaten like pigs!"
A string of vicious dragon curses erupted, and it was unclear which word touched the Shadow Dragon's pride, but it slowed its continuous claw attacks by half a beat. Casalos seized the opportunity to launch an additional grab, but unfortunately, it still failed.
"Hehe, a dignified teenage dragon, you're swayed by just a few words. Your willpower is weaker than mine, a fledgling dragon. You truly deserve the name of a weak dragon on par with the White Dragon."
"you……"
"You, you, you, what do you mean 'you'? If you're stupid, don't try to be a brass dragon and spout nonsense like those two-legged ant bards. You're not a brass dragon, you're just a lowly, weak dragon who can only hide in the shadows your whole life. Saying that you shadow dragons are on par with white dragons is giving you too much credit. Do you dare to fight a white dragon head-on? You don't have the guts! Even the white dragon looks down on you!"
The clawing attacks became more ferocious, and the Shadow Dragon exposed more and more openings. Casalos found another opportunity to launch a grab, and this time its wing toes, which had shrunk into a cage shape, brushed against something, causing ripples to spread from the dark mist—it was just a hair's breadth away from catching the Shadow Dragon.
"What branch of dragons are you Shadow Dragons? Ah, I remember now, the plane contact dragons, a bunch of wrecked creatures corrupted by plane power. Genuine dragons wouldn't be corrupted even if they stayed in the outer planes, yet you've been corrupted and altered in form by that leaked aura even while staying in the Prime Material Plane. What a lowly branch! Look at what kind of trash your branches are: the Calamity Dragons, the Withered Dragons, and you Shadow Dragons—you're all congenitally malformed, a disgrace to the name of true dragons..."
The shadow dragon, illuminated by the flames, paused again. Casalos rolled out once more to seize the dragon. This time, the sharp bone spike at the tip of its left wing felt significant resistance, as if it had been forcefully driven into a rock. As the two dragons rolled out from different angles, a spray of blood lingering in the shadows fell out.
Shadow Dragon is injured!
Casalos's innate development was already slightly better, and now that it had successfully become a Leather-carving Dragon, it wasn't unexpected that its natural weapon could pierce the scales and skin of a juvenile Shadow Dragon. The Shadow Dragon simply couldn't completely dodge the grab, and a hole was immediately pierced in its body. This injury, however, made it calmer. It stopped its mindless, continuous claw attacks, and flew after Casalos for a long time, feinting attacks multiple times without actually closing in, only occasionally unleashing a claw strike. Its speed became faster, its angles more cunning, and its effect more ruthless.
Casalos found it increasingly difficult to parry with his thick shield scales. His relatively fragile ventral scales were scratched three times, and the metallic coating and even the underlying scales suffered varying degrees of damage, sending waves of burning pain through him.
But this did not mean that the Shadow Dragon had reversed the advantage. Because the Shadow Dragon made too many feints and the intervals between attacks became long, Casalozs's damaged scales were rapidly recovering in the flashes of flame. During the entanglement, two rifts circled around it, and the first wound it suffered from being scratched by the Shadow Dragon was almost completely healed.
Seeing this, Shadow Dragon completely abandoned its attack and retreated entirely out of the range of the flames.
"What, are you dumbfounded? I can make countless mistakes, but if you make just one and I catch you... I'm going to tie your slippery body into a knot!"
"Put away your arrogance, you iron dragon brat." The shadow dragon, flying alongside Casalos and created by the Mirror Image spell, finally spoke again, but this time it wasn't exchanging insults with Casalos. Its tone had become calm and serious: "Although I don't know exactly what happened to you that made you grow adult scales in your hatchling stage and become a hide-wearing dragon, I have to admit, just as you said, I have no way to deal with you right now."
Similarly, as long as I don't get close to you, there's nothing you can do to me!
"So, what are you trying to say?" Casalos chuckled, its iron beak twitching. It realized the Shadow Dragon was present.