Mystical Journey

“As for these little ones, as long as I’m a little more careful, they shouldn’t be too much of a problem.”

Garen’s heart was decided, and he left the team quietly, walking toward another corner. All the Dragon Whelps were distracted by the forces coming from the intense battle, so no dragon actually noticed his departure.

Following the wall of snow, Garen slowly walked to a crevice and listened to the commotion outside.

If he wanted to get the Ice Stalagmite, his current abilities were not quite enough, so he needed to use some other methods as well.

Garen walked around the site of the battle once. There was a team with a few Dragon Whelps hiding nearby, and he could feel their gazes burning into his back when he moved to certain areas. Some of those gazes clearly carried a warning.

He was unperturbed, continuing to search and remember the lay of the land around here.

A simple but somewhat brutal plan formed in his mind.

“Whatever, I just have to make sure Leona and the rest dodge it.”

Garen considered this simple plan over and over again, and finally decided to make his move.

*******************

Deep within the snowstorm.

Outside the tunnel, it looked as though two circles, one large and the other one small, were huddled against each other.

In the first circle, there were several Giant Iguanas killing each other around a sharp and broken stone. In the second circle behind it, there were many Dragon Whelps lying in wait.

The whole thing looked like a skewer of candied haws.

One Dragon Whelp, on the other hand, flew out of the tunnel, upward and outward. Bracing against the wind and the snow, it landed on top of the candied haws’ circular mountain.

The snowstorm was extremely dense here, so he could not see anything clearly at all. But Garen relied on his powerful memory and computational power to quickly find a spot above one of the hiding teams.

He carefully imprinted this spot into his memory, and then went in search of other spots.

*****************

“Eh? Where did Garen go?” Leona noticed someone was missing from his team and was instantly confused.

“I saw him go out by himself, but I don’t know what he went to do,” replied Saszt honestly.

“I keep feeling as though Garen’s a little mysterious. I don’t know if it’s just me, but he seems to like being a lone dragon,” said Boris unhappily.

“I think so too, a little.” Leona nodded in agreement.

“He’s just one Dragon Whelp, ignore him for now,” said Toni nonchalantly. “It’s fine for us to work together like this, right? If there are no problems, shall we just settle with this?”

“Sure. Once the battle starts, clear off the other Dragon Whelps first,” agreed Boris.

“Then it’s decided.”

The two sides formed a temporary alliance.

The other Dragon Whelps did not have Enchantments, so they had no speaking rights here. They could not leave these leaders and operate on their own as Garen could. Without a Level Five offensive spell, they could not kill a Level Four Giant Iguana. Instead, they would be hunted down and killed.

******************

“Hmph, it seems that Toni got some support, whad’we do?” Inside another dug-out cave, several Dragon Whelps gathered together and discussed in whispers.

“It’s fine, we just stay in here no matter what, and only go out once they’ve more or less settled their fight with the Giant Iguanas. They can have those few Crystal Cores, our true aim is the Ice Stalagmite!”

A Dragon Whelp with slightly red skin said softly.

“Can we really do that?”

“Of course, with my Magic Equipment, there won’t be any problems whatsoever!” said the reddish Dragon Whelp confidently. “Then we’ll catch them all in one fell swoop! Heh heh heh… If they’re seriously injured, we can demand that they hand over all the Crystal Cores.”

“Deth, you’re a genius!” The other Dragon Whelps began to gasp in admiration.

“Good, as long as you guys get it. You won’t regret following me!” Deth was extremely pleased with himself.

*********************

Garen lay sprawled on a very high cliff. Looking down, he saw that everything was completely white. He could not see or hear anything, the wails of the snowstorm drowning out the sounds from the Giant Iguana battle below.

He could not see or hear anything from up here.

But it was fine, Garen had already determined his location using his own sense of direction and memory. The Giant Iguana battlefield was directly beneath him.

Unlike the other Dragon Whelps, his intelligence far surpassed theirs.

The development of a White Dragon’s brain was not particularly advanced, and so it was naturally no match for his seventeen points.

He calculated the process slightly.

Garen began to use his claws to cut through the hard ground with his Ice Pressure Blade.

He smashed and stabbed at the ground, and with each cut he carved out deep slashes. He had already memorized the lay and path of the land here.

Soon enough, he had dug a gaping hole out of this elephant-sized snowy cliff, such that it could fall at any minute.

He could only accomplish this because he had the Ice Pressure Blade, an extremely high-sharpness claw technique.

Without hesitation, Garen flew upward and then smashed his body down hard.

Ka-chak.

The entire snowy cliff emitted a crisp sound, and whatever remained of the final link snapped instantly.

Amidst the howling of the snowstorm, that little cracking was not particularly ear-piercing or clear; instead, it was completely drowned out. Garen saw the entire elephant-sized snowy cliff roll down, rumbling as it went.

Not long later, barroom!

There was an enormous rumble, and he abruptly heard loud howls of agony coming from below. It seemed like he had managed to hit a Giant Iguana!

Garen tried to distinguish them carefully, but he could not tell which Iguana had been hit. Well, as long as he managed to hit one and break the stalemate, he considered it a success.

A battle must have erupted down there.

Garen quickly moved to where the other Dragon Whelps were hiding.

Using the same moves as before, he began to cut up other large chunks of ice. Sometimes he would meet rock, and then he would cut through that easily as well. Dragon claws had always been sharp and deadly. Add that to his special technique, and the degree of sharpness increased exponentially.

There was another rumble, and yet another chunk of ice went rolling down.

This time, he did not hear any sounds from the Dragon Whelps, probably because the snowstorm was too intense. Regardless, Garen knew with certainty that he had caught the Iguanas’ attention.

This Dragon Whelp hiding spot was the closest one, so once a Dragon Whelp was injured, the smell of blood would be as clear as a lighthouse in the dark of the night to the Giant Iguanas and their acute sense of smell.

And then, once they discover that there was an ambush lying in wait, they would definitely finish off the hiding ones first.

He had carefully calculated it all, this spot just happened to be the nearest to the Giant Iguanas, so even if there was no smell of blood, it would still give the Giant Iguanas a sense of threat, forcing them to speed up the battle.

Garen did not linger and continued walking to the third position he had marked.

Only he could wander around like this in such a heavy snowstorm. The other Dragon Whelps did not have such a sense of direction and memory, and would easily get lost in the storm if they were not careful.

The third chunk went down as well.

Watching the broken cliff roll down, Garen noticed that this one seemed to be off-target. The storm had suddenly intensified, blowing it off-course.

“But it’s fine, I can grab the Iguana’s attention too by creating a commotion.”

He was not bothered at all. He did not touch the fourth chunk, however, because that was where Leona and the others were hiding.

Walking back the way he came, Garen patted down his claws, and all the traces he left behind were completely buried by the snowstorm.

******************

Roar!

A Level Five Giant Iguana was hit in the back by a giant broken cliff. As a result, it was pressed onto the ground and could only roar out furiously as it stayed there, completely sprawled.

The other Level Five Giant Iguana was being surrounded by the four remaining Level Four ones. Hide, blood, and flesh was sent flying on both sides as they wrestled with and tore away at each other.

Two of the Level Four Giant Iguanas had large gashes clawed out of their sides, and the blood froze as soon as it began to flow, forming red ice crystals. Meanwhile, the only Level Five Giant Iguana had been blinded in one eye, and there was a deep scratch on one side of its neck. One of its back legs had also gone limp, so all in all, it made a pitiful sight.

Bam!

It made one last effort and used its final Earthquake, jolting away the four Level Four Giant Iguanas around it, but also finishing up the last of its power.

The four Level Four Giant Iguanas were also completely exhausted by this point and riddled with wounds. If it were not for the chunk of a snowy cliff that fell down suddenly from above, taking out one of the Level Five Giant Iguanas, the weaker ones probably would have no other choice than to turn tail and run.

Looking at the broken Ice Stalagmite a little off the center of the area, the remaining Giant Iguanas roared happily, as though chasing away the Level Five Giant Iguanas.

Battles between Giant Iguanas did not usually end in death.

Helplessly, the Level Five Giant Iguana helped its companion push away the broken cliff, and the two of them prepared to leave, one after the other, heads lowered dejectedly. Their Ice Armor had also been used up during the fight, so if they did not leave now, they might attract the unwanted attention of other Giant Iguanas.

Just then, a wave of huge tremors came from the direction of the only exit.

The few Giant Iguanas were instantly alert.

“Goooo!!” Immediately after that, they saw a group of white Dragon Whelps rush out. They were only as tall as half a man each, but greed sparkled in their eyes.

There were more than ten Dragon Whelps in total, and they all made a mad rush for the Ice Stalagmite in the middle.

The Dragon Whelps went to the injury-riddled Level Five Giant Iguanas, the rings and necklaces on their arms twinkling with a rainbow-colored light. These were clearly Enchanted items, affixed with high-level spells.

“If a large boulder hadn’t suddenly fallen from above, we could’ve totally waited a bit longer before making our move!” said Boris exasperatedly. He looked at the Giant Iguana ahead of him and shuddered slightly in his heart. That was still a Level Five Giant Iguana, after all!

“What are you scared of, it doesn’t have any more Natural Spells left! Right now is precisely when it’s weakest,” said another Dragon Whelp on the other side loudly. It was Deth, who had originally planned to lie in wait and scavenge the final spoils. Now, however, he was a complete mess, having clearly been wounded by the broken cliff as well. As such, he had a stomach full of pent-up anger.

He was already chased out here by that cliff, so if he still refused to fight along with everyone else, the other Dragon Whelps would not be foolish enough to wait. Instead, they would make the first move. That was why he had to abandon his plan and make his own move ahead of schedule.

Even so, anyone would be slightly intimidated when facing a Level Five Giant Iguana like that.

“I’ll hold ’em up!” A powerfully-built Dragon Whelp rushed out abruptly. Aiming its claws at the Giant Iguana’s eyes fearlessly.

Whoosh!

A giant tail swiped at him mercilessly with lightning speed, as though hitting a rubber ball, and sent the Dragon Whelp flying. White blood sprayed instantly. They did not need to see it to know that this Dragon Whelp was seriously injured.

It did not have as strong a Will as Garen, and fainted before it even hit the ground. It could not even reduce its speed, and so it crashed hard into a rock-solid wall of ice nearby, leaving cracks all over the surface. Many of its bones broke, and it seemed that this Dragon Whelp would not survive.

If it had reduced its momentum in mid-air, it might have been able to reduce the damage from the crash. But it had immediately fallen unconscious, so not only could it not mitigate the damage, it could not even tense up its muscles to resist the impact. Hence, the damage it received was much worse than it would have been usually.

“Don’t go up to it! Use Spellcraft!” Having witnessed that, Boris knew that a head-on attack would not work, so they could only use Enchantments.

If they attacked from the front, they would be killed instantly. The other Dragon Whelps knew that without him having to say it.