novelraw Chapter 241: Wild Dragon
Chapter 241: Wild Dragon
The night by the Raging River was as deep as thick ink, with the red iron dragon stretching his massive dual wings and four ferocious dragon arms.
The surrounding river surface boiled and churned, the earth covered in deep pits and fissures, while the surviving sorceresses and shamans stood frozen in place like wooden chickens, their eyes filled with terror.
"These Dragon Qi arms provide very direct enhancement to my current capabilities."
"Most crucially, based on the Star-Self incarnation foundation, I can better cultivate other paths simultaneously in the future."
Garoth felt the power feedback from his newly formed Dragon Qi arms, his black dragon pupils flashing with contemplative light.
He flexed his four arms slightly, scales rubbing together and sparking tiny embers, mentally sketching his future combat form—a colossal giant with five heads and ten arms, each dragon head containing different elemental powers through the Four Symbols mystery, like the incarnation of the legendary Immortal Dragon Queen.
If supplemented with the exquisite techniques of the martial arts path, this supremely powerful dragon body would undoubtedly unleash world-destroying combat prowess.
Roar!
An ear-shattering roar interrupted Garoth's thoughts.
The orc Ugorsk, drenched in blood, his gray eagle wings beating frantically behind him, charged forward once more. The totemic patterns on his skin wriggled like living creatures, the madness in his eyes nearly materializing into substance."Knowing neither life nor death."
Garoth waved his wings, his formidable and ferocious body rising straight up as he charged toward the orc chieftain.
All four dragon arms erupted simultaneously, dense afterimages tearing through the air, instantly sealing off all possible evasion space from different directions.
A brute like the orc chieftain could only see Garoth's physical arms with his naked eyes.
However, his instinctual perception was sharp; though invisible to the eye, he could sense the Dragon Qi arms through the howling and fluctuations of air currents.
The Savage Bear Soul behind him roared toward the sky.
A pair of thick bear arms reached out, actually confronting the red iron dragon head-on.
Crunch crunch crunch!
With a series of dense, rapid dull collision sounds, invisible shockwaves erupted from the two as the center, radiating outward like a great wind that stirred waves across the river surface.
The Savage Bear Soul enveloping the orc's body.
Its chest, arms, head... rapidly developed collapsing concave areas, being brutally beaten to explosion.
However, barbarians of the Totem Warrior path were more durable than Ancestral Guardians; when his Savage Bear Soul could no longer hold, the aura around him abruptly shifted, transforming into a beast soul dominated by the giant wolf, becoming agile.
When the Giant Wolf Soul failed, it switched to the extremely fast Gray Eagle Soul.
After that, though somewhat dimmed, the repaired Savage Bear Soul took over again.
Ugorsk had fused three major beast souls simultaneously; fighting him was like battling three Wild Beast Lords at once, and these three Wild Beast Lords were united as one, cooperating and taking turns with remarkable resilience.
Orcs were more suited to the barbarian profession than humans.
Ugorsk now appeared madly demonic, emitting continuous roars and snarls from his mouth. Even though completely suppressed by the red iron dragon and covered in blood, he showed no trace of fear, fighting to death without retreating, like an indestructible cockroach.
"Truly exceptionally durable to kill... Since that's the case, then destroy his beast souls with one strike."
The red iron dragon's thoughts moved like lightning, not wanting to drag things out with the orc chieftain any longer. Such powerful yet easily irrational individuals were difficult to control and commandeer, not worth subduing—direct elimination was the best choice.
Hum!
Level 4 Dragon Qi Rotation!
Four-arm fusion!
Enhanced Claw Strike!
Instantly, the black-red Dragon Qi giant arms pressed tightly against Garoth's arms, fusing inch by inch, while Garoth's dragon arms suddenly swelled, like engorged spongy tissue becoming thick and long, muscles bulging high under the triple stimulation of Dragon Qi, Frenzied State lightning, and Bloodburst spell, even his sturdy dragon scales cracking audibly.
Die!
The red iron dragon growled low, releasing the accumulated power toward the frenzied orc.
His attack coverage area shrank, but the intensity suddenly skyrocketed.
The arms of the Savage Bear Soul met the strike like fragile glass, instantly shattering to pieces. The red iron dragon's massive claws encountered no obstruction, fiercely slapping onto the Savage Bear Soul.
Boom!
Scattered light fragments filled the sky.
Ugorsk's Savage Bear Soul was brutally beaten to explosion, completely shattered.
Then the Giant Wolf Soul, Gray Eagle Soul... under Garoth's lethal attack that concentrated triple power, they shattered upon contact, ceasing to exist.
With his totem beast soul power core destroyed, the barbarian reacted as if struck by lightning, his aura plummeting dramatically.
Yet even so, Ugorsk still didn't regain clarity.
"Kill!"
A hoarse roar squeezed from his throat as he opened his mouth wide, biting directly at Garoth's arm like a wild beast, his protruding fangs clashing with dragon scales and sparking red-hot embers.
The red iron dragon's arm shook, throwing off the orc, then grabbed and crushed him to death instantly.
Now, the night wind whistled past, the Raging River rolling with continuous waves.
The lightning, Dragon Qi, blood patterns... on Garoth's body gradually dispersed one by one, his form returning to normal state, though his chest heaved continuously, emitting heavy, scorching breaths from his mouth.
Two tribal chieftains, a group of elites, pre-arranged dual anti-flight arrays, sorceresses and shamans.
This lineup would mean certain death for any other Young Adult Dragon, without any possibility of survival.
Even for Garoth, such intense combat consumption was considerable; fighting alone against many was perilous throughout, and now that the battle stopped, he immediately felt pain and fatigue throughout his entire body.
Placing himself in dangerous battles like this—Garoth didn't fear it, but neither would he deliberately pursue it.
Thus, though possessing great power, during the early war stages he chose to avoid the two chieftains, only launching surprise attacks to eliminate other high-ranking leaders, gradually wearing down their collective strength.
Now reviewing and recalling.
If those high-ranking leaders hadn't been killed by him in advance, and had participated in this encirclement, Garoth estimated he would have needed to use the Duel Array Disk. Of course, had it not been for his outstanding performance in raiding important strongholds, he wouldn't have attracted such attention from the two tribes either—the war's direction would have developed differently, not necessarily providing opportunity to encircle Garoth.
But regardless.
His cautious style once again allowed Garoth to stand last at relatively small cost.
"The barbarian's fury and frenzy... quite excellent skills."
His gaze sweeping over the barbarian's corpse, Garoth thought to himself.
He had some ideas about the barbarian's core skills.
Within dragon inheritance, there existed a special profession developed from the barbarian path—Wild Dragon.
Numerous dragons chose the wild path, particularly those with irritable temperaments and naturally short-tempered red dragons, because after becoming Wild Dragons, rage would no longer be just negative emotion but would transform into an energy source, providing Wild Dragons with continuous power.
When choosing his main profession, Garoth had considered Wild Dragon.
But after careful deliberation, he ultimately chose to primarily cultivate Battle Dragon.
Frenzy and Fury, these two core skills both came at the cost of sacrificing reason; intelligent beings entering this state completely lost awareness of heaven and earth, fully immersed in combat desire, resulting in either your death or mine, leaving no room for maneuver.
However, despite major flaws, these two skills' power was visibly evident, making Garoth somewhat interested.
Wild Dragon paired well with Eternal Death Dragon; even if not dared for casual use normally, they could serve as trump cards, perhaps enabling reversal during life-threatening crises someday.
The problem was.
Becoming a Wild Dragon wasn't simple, having basic requirements like Battle Dragon.
Just as Battle Dragons needed a life-and-death battle to awaken Dragon Qi, Wild Dragons needed to experience bone-deep rage to awaken the power of rage, obtaining the medium to transform anger into energy.
Garoth frequently struggled with his own emotions.
Intense rage, fury... such emotions rarely appeared in him; even when pushed into dangerous predicament by the Dragon Hunting Team previously, his mind remained completely calm and rational, controlling power with reason, not allowing anger to affect himself.
The Wild Dragon's employment requirements were harder for Garoth than life-and-death combat.
"Let it happen naturally; dragon life is long, opportunities will always come."
"Tales of youthful achievement don't belong to dragons."
The red iron dragon thought to himself.
Those ancient dragons—unless lazy to the point of being like Gordon—any who could reach ancient dragon level invariably cultivated numerous paths simultaneously.
Even if their simultaneous cultivation levels might not be very high, their variety of skills and methods ran deep beyond measure, not to be underestimated even by ancient hundred dragons.
Long lifespan was dragons' uniquely advantageous gift.
Not everything needed to be accomplished necessarily in youth.
Collecting his thoughts, the red iron dragon turned to look at the sorceresses and shamans on both river banks.
"Those standing die; those kneeling live."
He said calmly, his voice cold as cold iron.
Hearing this, about half of the sorceresses and shamans on both banks trembled and knelt down, while most stubborn ones soon turned to ash in dragon breath.
The Battle of Raging River thus concluded, the curtain rising on the Molten Iron Tribe's dominance over the convergence lands.