Dragonblood: Book 2 of the Coiling Dragon Saga

by Wo Chi Xi Hong Shi

  “Whoosh!”

  Kaiser once more charged forward at high speed. The greatsword in his hands was actually vibrating now, transforming into six illusionary swords, causing Linley not to know how to block.

  “Ah!” Bebe killed another warrior, this one of the seventh rank, by crushing the warrior’s skull with his fangs. This was Bebe’s seventh kill.

  These deaths only further enraged Kaiser, who had trained and taught these Wildthunder Regiment soldiers. But Linley was simply too hard to deal with. Not only could Linley attack with his hands and his feet, the attack power of his tail was also extremely terrifying. And Linley’s durability was astonishingly high as well.

  Fortunately…

  In terms of both combat experience and tactical acumen, Linley couldn’t compare to a true warrior of the ninth rank who had trained for over a hundred years.

  “Quick, quick, get the ring back!” Clayde was at the verge of losing his sanity.

  Right now, the situation was totally not in his favor. If this continued, they wouldn’t have any chance of recovering the ring at all. Within that interspatial ring was thousands of years of accumulated wealth by the royal clan. Even if he died, he couldn’t allow that ring to be lost.

  “Roaaaaar!”

  The Violet Tattooed Bear had finally arrived, and all the warriors nearby scattered in its wake. No one dared to fight with it head on. To engage in battle against a powerful magical beast of the ninth rank required one to be a warrior of the ninth rank at the very least. And given that magical beasts were naturally more powerful than humans, most likely even a warrior of the ninth rank would only be able to guarantee that he wouldn’t die.

  That Violet Tattooed Bear actually came to a halt and glanced at the group of people present. The intelligence of a high-rank magical beast wasn’t inferior to that of humans at all, and a magical beast of the ninth rank might actually be even more intelligent than some humans. This Violet Tattooed Bear could easily tell that these people in front of him were divided into two groups. On one side, there was a man and a magical beast, and on the other were the knights who were led by the man with only one hand.

  And that man with one hand seemed to be quite concerned about a ring.

  The Violet Tattooed Bear could understand the human tongue. Although he couldn’t speak in it, he could understand it. A hint of excitement appeared in the eyes of the Violet Tattooed Bear.

  “Wooo, wooo!”

  The Violet Tattooed Bear clapped its massive paws together excitedly, then charged directly towards Linley and Kaiser. Upon encountering any warriors in its path, it simply waved its massive paws, mercilessly batting them aside.

  “Ah!” A warrior of the eighth rank frantically tried to dodge, while at the same time a jade-green light appeared from his body.

  But although the Violet Tattooed Bear didn’t move that quickly, its paws were able to attack at a terrifying speed. “WHAP!” The massive paw slammed against the warrior of the eighth rank. A sickening, crunching sound could be heard as the man’s head was instantly shattered. The warrior’s battle-qi aura was shattered as well, and his body was reduced to nothing more than ground meat.

  Even the ground beneath the man had a giant hole gouged into it, with deep cracks appearing in the area around the hole.

  “Why is a magical beast of the ninth rank so much more powerful than humans of the same rank?” Seeing this from afar, Linley’s heart couldn’t help but feel surprise. Kaiser, still engaged in battle against Linley, grew frantic as well. He didn’t have any confidence at all in his ability to deal with a Violet Tattooed Bear.

  Violet Tattooed Bears possessed extremely thick, durable skin and tremendous power. Even giant dragons would probably be reduced to a pulp by its massive paws. Its only flaw was that in terms of movement speed, it was rather slow. Its attack speed, however, was still astonishingly high. Violet Tattooed Bears could be considered one of the extremely powerful kinds of magical beasts of the ninth rank.

  “Bam!” “Bam!” “Bam!”

  Linley and Kaiser exchanged blows at high speed, and Linley’s arms, legs, and tail clashed nonstop with Kaiser’s greatsword. The speed of their blows was at an astonishingly high level. Linley, relying on his astonishing defense, dared to fight with seemingly suicidal attacks, but Kaiser’s techniques were effective, and he possessed both experience and powerful battle-qi.

  The battle between them had no clear victor.

  “Roaaaaar!” The Violet Tattooed Bear had reached Linley and Kaiser, and it swiped down with its massive paws towards the two men.

  “Swish!” Linley and Kaiser both retreated backwards at high speed.

  “Bam!” The sound of the bear’s paw slamming into the ground produced a deep vibration, causing the entire ground to shake The ground within ten meters of the blow became covered with cracks. Neither Linley nor Kaiser chose to attempt to forcibly block that blow!

  A Violet Tattooed Bear’s paw was perhaps the most powerful, durable part of its body.

  If they attempted to block it head on, the two of them would’ve both become nothing more than meat paste.

  “Roaaaar!” With a loud howl, the Violet Tattooed Bear actually turned and charged at Linley.

  “Why the hell are you chasing me?!” Relying on his high speed, Linley began to flee. After having Dragonformed, Linley possessed the speed of a warrior of the ninth rank, and a very fast one at that. At the same time, the Violet Tattooed Bear’s weakness was its movement speed. It wasn’t too hard for Linley to shake it off.

  The Violet Tattooed Bear continued to charge forward, and anyone who got in its way was slapped to death.

  It only pursued Linley!

  Linley didn’t know that the Violet Tattooed Bear had taken a fancy to that ring. Given its intelligence, and its understanding of human languages, the Violet Tattooed Bear knew that the ring was something that both parties valued.

  It was actually quite common for magical beasts of the ninth rank to understand human tongues. They understood it, they just couldn’t speak it, simply because their bodies weren’t designed to speak it. But upon reaching the Saint level, they could break free of this restriction and speak in human tongues.

  “Ring! My ring!” Clayde was about to cry.

  “Your Majesty.” Kaiser was standing guard in front of Clayde. “Your Majesty, it’s best we leave now. If we don’t leave, things will become extremely dangerous.”

  Of the 33 members of the Wildthunder Regiment, fourteen had just been killed by Bebe. The remaining members were beginning to panic as well. The magical beast in front of them was physically small, possessed astonishing durability, and had terrifying attack power. It was highly suited for dealing with humans.

  “Roaaaar!”

  “Roaaaar!”

  Suddenly, a mighty series of draconic roars could be heard from the skies, as hundreds of gigantic dragons with jade-green scales, blazing red scales, silvery scales, and even a very tyrannical-looking Black Dragon began to fly in their direction.

  Dragons possessed a very high level of intelligence. They knew that the palace held many treasures, and dragons loved collecting treasures.

  “Roaaaaaar!” The leader of this flight, the massive Black Dragon, focused on Clayde and Linley. With a mighty roar, it led the large pack of dragons to charge downwards towards the palace. Those Fire Dragons and Emerald Dragons were only dragons of the eighth rank, but Silver Dragons and Black Dragons were generally dragons of the ninth rank.

  Seeing this, Clayde, Kaiser, and the others were all stunned.

  A single magical beast of the ninth rank was already hard enough to deal with. And now a horde of beasts was coming?

  “Boss, this isn’t good. Let’s run.” Bebe’s voice rang out in Linley’s head as well, but right now, Linley was still being pursued by that Violet Tattooed Bear who had taken a fancy to that interspatial ring.

  74

  A Terrible Situation

  “Thud!” With each step of i
ts massive feet on the ground, the Violet Tattooed Bear would make the earth shake. This Violet Tattooed Bear was fixated on Linley. No matter where Linley ran off to, the Violet Tattooed Bear followed, while its two massive bear paws continually tried to reach out at him.

  “Grooooowl!”

  Hearing those familiar dragon roars, Linley couldn’t help but look up at the skies. What he saw made his heart clench tightly.

  The sky was covered with countless massive dragon bodies. In terms of numbers, there were definitely more here today than that time Foggy Valley. What’s more, within the host of dragons, there were even Silver Dragons and Black Dragons. Both of those were dragon-type beasts of the ninth rank!

  “No!”

  With a sudden leap, Linley avoided yet another attack from the Violet Tattooed Bear, then charged directly for Clayde. “No matter what, this time, I have to kill Clayde.”

  “Get it, ring, get it back!” Clayde’s forehead was covered with sweat, but he didn’t dare charge forward himself.

  “Roaaaar!”

  “Roaaaar!”

  Several dozen dragons swooped down from the skies, blasting forth dragonfire from their mouths. The flames belched forth by the Black Dragons were black in color as well, while the Silver Dragons exhaled plumes of silvery-white flames. Clearly, in terms of temperature, the black and silver flames were far hotter than the dragonfire of the Fire Dragons.

  “Sizzle sizzle.”

  The temperature of the surrounding area immediately began to rise at a terrifying speed as several dozen streams of dragonfire blasted down.

  “Your Majesty, if we don’t leave, we’ll die for sure! If we’re dead, treasures will be useless to us!” Kaiser’s entire body was suffused with red battle-qi. He roared frantically at Clayde, who started.

  “CLAYDE!!!”

  A furious roar from the fully Dragonformed Linley, who was shooting towards him like an arrow.

  “Go. Go, let’s go!” Clayde immediately howled out the order angrily. This decision of Clayde was an extremely painful one for him, but he too understood that if he died here, everything would be lost. In addition, his eldest prince and his second prince both had magicrystal cards on them, with a combined value of a billion gold coins.

  A billion gold coins was definitely enough to allow a royal clan to rebuild and flourish again.

  “Bam!” Kaiser’s giant sword once again blocked Linley’s attack.

  “Kaiser, let me kill Clayde. No matter how much gold you desire, I’ll give it to you.” Linley was half-mad with anxiousness as well.

  Kaiser just shook his head.

  “Roaaaar!”

  Right at this moment, a Black Dragon suddenly swooped down and tried to snatch Linley with its claws. Black Dragons were highly intelligent. Seeing how the Violet Tattooed Bear continuously pursued and tried to kill Linley, it was sure that there had to be a reason for the bear’s fixation. Thus, its first target was Linley.

  “Me again?” Linley frantically dodged to the side.

  Just now, when he had been fighting with Kaiser, that Violet Tattooed Bear had decided to chase after him instead of Kaiser. Now, the same thing was happening again. The Black Dragon of the ninth rank chased after the fleeing Linley.

  “Whew.” Kaiser paid no more attention to Linley as he hurriedly upped his speed to the maximum and fled away. Immediately, several of the giant dragons began a pursuit of Clayde and Kaiser, but the large majority of them continued to encircle and attack Linley.

  The Violet Tattooed Bear began to roar in anger as it rose to its hind feet.

  Clearly, it was enraged at the dragons for stealing its prey, but the Violet Tattooed Bear didn’t dare to openly fight against the dragons either. The Violet Tattooed Bear wasn’t confident in beating even that extremely large Black Dragon leader of this host of dragons, to say nothing of the rest of the dragons.

  “Thud!” “Thud!” “Thud!”

  The Violet Tattooed Bear began to walk away in a different direction, moving a long distance with each stride. Every building in its way was crushed and demolished.

  “Clayde!” Seeing Clayde and his men grow farther and farther away, Linley wanted to immediately chase after them.

  But yet another massive dragon descended from the skies. This was a massive Black Dragon, over a hundred meters long, and it blocked the road in front of Linley while constantly reaching for Linley with its claws. From its mouth, it repeatedly blasted hot flames at Linley.

  Both the earth and the skies were covered in dragons, and all of them were launching attacks at Linley. Surrounded and attacked by so many dragons, Linley felt miserable as well.

  “Bastards!”

  Encircled and besieged by a large number of dragons, Linley could only watch as Clayde disappeared from his field of vision.

  “Boss, we need to flee!” Bebe was frantic now.

  Bebe was extremely agile, and also very small. It would be very difficult for those dragons to attack him. What’s more, Bebe’s fierce claws and sharp fangs were very powerful as well. His attack power was now enough to cause some harm to the dragons, causing all of them to be quite nervous with respect to that little tiny thing.

  “Go. Go where?”

  No matter in which direction Linley tried to flee, a host of dragons would block and attack. He wasn’t afraid of dragons of the eighth rank, but there were more than ten dragons of the ninth rank as well.

  “Whap!”

  Linley was attacked viciously by a Silver Dragon’s tail, but Linley only flipped around in the air before trying to flee again. But it was useless. In midair, several dragons encircled and attacked again. Linley was in such a bad situation that he wanted to cry.

  “Swish!” Linley very agilely avoided an attack by a fierce claw, continuing to dodge about at high speed.

  “Boss, I’ll help you!” Seeing the danger Linley was in, Bebe immediately flew over as well and began chomping down viciously at the leg of that dragon. CRUNCH! CRUNCH! CRUNCH!

  “Roaaaaar!” That giant dragon let out a roar of pain.

  Relying on his astonishing speed, Linley managed to resolve one draconic attack after another. Whenever he met with real danger, Bebe would help out. The dragons weren’t able to do anything to Linley for now either.

  In their eyes, this human-shaped aberration was too hard to deal with, and that even smaller-sized rat-type magical beast kept on nibbling at them and causing them pain.

  “Roaaaaar!” The leading Black Dragon let out another roar.

  Instantly, all of the dragons flew into the air. They had already made the decision to give up this battle against this difficult-to-deal-with human-shaped aberration. It was totally not worth it for an entire host of dragons to waste so much time on a single human-shaped aberration.

  The host of dragons flew away, just like that.

  “They left?” Linley was startled.

  Just moments ago, he had been frantically dealing with the attacks of many dragons, and he had been dodging for his life. That was a very miserable experience. He didn’t expect the dragons to give up just like that.

  “Boss, let’s go now!” Bebe urged.

  “Right. Clayde.”

  Recalling Clayde, Linley maintained his Dragonform and led Bebe in a high speed charge through the city.

  By now, the vicious battles between man and magical beast within Fenlai City had all but come to an end. There were very few living people within Fenlai City now, and virtually the only creatures alive on the streets were magical beasts that were hunting for living humans. The Dragonformed Linley moved too fast, and what’s more, the fact that his body was covered in scales deceived many magical beasts into thinking that Linley was a magical beast as well.

  “Not here.”

  Linley had led a chase in the direction where he thought Clayde would’ve fled to, but even after escaping Fenlai City, he still didn’t find any traces of Clayde’s party.

  Outside Fenlai City. A desolate scene.

 
Even many of the great trees that had lined the road to and from Fenlai City had been shattered. Countless human corpses lay on the road as well. Clearly, these people had managed to flee Fenlai City, but had been killed outside the city by magical beasts nonetheless.

  In the desolate countryside outside Fenlai City, small groups of one or two magical beasts could be seen everywhere.

  “I wonder what direction that Clayde ran off in.” Linley stared at the three branching forks ahead of him. He felt very helpless. It was possible that Clayde might’ve even left through the East Gate of Fenlai City, but as Linley saw it, that was unlikely because the further east they went, the closer they would have come to the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts.

  Thus, Linley had chosen to exit via the West Gate.

  But despite having left by the West Gate, Linley still didn’t know in what direction he should now head. After all, there were hoof prints pointing every which way.

  “Perhaps that Clayde didn’t choose any of the roads, and went cross-country into the wilderness,” Linley said to himself. The weakest person in Clayde’s party was of the seventh rank, and so going cross-country wouldn’t be difficult at all.

  Linley understood that the chance of finding Clayde in the wilderness was very, very low!

  “North. I heard that ‘King’ of the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts say that the people of the Holy Union could only flee to the north! I’ll head north as well. Given Clayde’s fame, there’s no way that his passing will attract no attention. When I reach the north, I’ll search for him again.” Linley made up his mind.

  Seeing the corpses littering the area around him, Linley couldn’t help but sigh.

  “Ah! The town of Wushan!”

  Linley suddenly thought of his own hometown. The town of Wushan was less than a hundred kilometers away from Fenlai City. What sort of shape was the town of Wushan currently in? Linley couldn’t be bothered to cancel his Dragonform transformation, as he began to run at the highest speed available to him towards the town of Wushan.