novelraw Chapter 501: Aftermath and Domestic Violence
Chapter 501: Aftermath and Domestic Violence
The Admiral stood up, brushed off the nonexistent dust from his body after the pounce, and looked toward the "great battle" between the two massive beasts in the distance. An involuntary smile curved at the corner of his mouth. As he sighed in admiration, he flicked out the rope in his hand and chose to leave this place.
After all, in the time that followed, the Sunblaze Dragon would neither have the mood nor the time to answer his questions.
Logan was, after all, a bona fide Forbidden One. How could he possibly be suppressed for so long? Not to mention that there were still a group of hunters watching from nearby. Did he not care about his dignity?
With a low growl, the evolved wing-claws braced forcefully, directly flipping the female Tyrannosaurus wyvern who was pressing down on him.
Originally, Logan had thought that after reaching this point, Aki would at least show him a little consideration. After all, with other creatures present—especially members of the Research Commission, hunters who could not simply be eliminated—he did not believe Aki had failed to notice them.
Yet to his surprise, the moment he had just gotten up, Aki pounced again.
"Roar!"
"ROAR!!"
The image of Aki’s furious state once more flooded his mind—her upper body rearing upright, wings spread as she roared in rage, flames licking at the corner of her mouth, her roar even louder than Logan’s.
It was clear that Aki was truly angry this time—so angry that she gave Logan no face at all. With heavy, thudding footsteps, she charged forward while roaring.
Under Aki’s suppression, Logan’s roar instantly dropped several octaves. As the roar diminished, so too did his imposing presence.
Pounced to the ground once more, Logan resigned himself to his fate.
To those unfamiliar with the situation, Aki’s pouncing "bites," even her kicking strikes, looked entirely like open warfare—merciless and aimed at killing blows.
But anyone even slightly familiar would know that these "attacks" from Aki did not even count as breaking the skin for thick-scaled Logan. Moreover, beneath his scales, a layer of Terastal membrane now covered him at all times. Aki simply could not break his defense.
Perhaps Logan’s refusal to resist brought a measure of clarity back to Aki, or perhaps the conspicuously "eye-catching" wound on his neck—only just healed—was "coincidentally" noticed by her.
At some unknown moment, the biting had turned into the familiar licking. Aki tried to ease Logan’s "pain" in this way, and drop by drop, dragon tears fell through the gaps between her scales.
The atmosphere changed in an instant.
In his perception, the hunters had already completely withdrawn from the Secluded Valley. Logan’s mind stirred, and a vast mass of Terastal crystals burst through the rock layers, covering them from view.
...
After spending an entire night researching how to make baby dragons at this stage, the next day, when the hunters once again set foot in the Secluded Valley, they discovered that the dragon patrolling the territory had changed.
Aki glanced at the Research Commission’s upper ranks arriving on wingdrakes, showing not the slightest intention of paying them any attention. She simply wandered along the edge of the deeply Terastalized Secluded Valley, entirely on her own.
She already knew Logan’s plan. With no psychological burden at all, she tossed the Ancient Tree to the back of her mind and began getting used to this future new nest.
To Aki, Logan was the only thing she truly cared about. Even little Loren—once grown—would, to Aki, be nothing more than "another dragon" that happened to carry the bloodline of her and Logan.
Therefore, she was still quite invested in the Secluded Valley. Even though this place had long since lost any living space for other creatures.
Inside the crystal palace created at midnight, Logan lay lazily within the Terastal nest. The battle with Safi’jiiva had still been extremely taxing on the mind, and at this moment, he felt utterly exhausted.
Seeing several members of the Research Commission walk in, he only flipped over wordlessly, trying to make his appearance look at least a little better.
"Old friend, we..."
"Roar~ roar~"
The Admiral had only just begun to speak when Logan decisively cut in with an answer. Right now, he truly did not have much mental energy to deal with them.
"Oh, oh, so it’s already been dealt with. As expected of you."
"You’ll be stationed here from now on? Then you’re not going to manage the Ancient Tree side anymore? The little prince probably can’t hold up the Ancient Tree yet."
"True. After the aerial route is opened up, the two sides actually won’t be that far apart. Even a wingdrake only needs ten-odd days to fly over. You nearly scared me to death. The Ancient Tree side is in a phase of rapid development right now—if you just threw up your hands and stopped managing it like that, it would be a disaster for the entire New World’s civilization."
Although the Commander and the others could not understand Logan’s dragon roars, through the Admiral’s various reactions, they still grasped most of the situation.
Learning that Safi’jiiva had died completely, they all let out a breath of relief. Although in their view Safi’jiiva’s death did not seem to have much to do with them, at least such a result could be considered worthy of the hunters’ sacrifices.
’However, since the Sunblaze Dragon has chosen to reestablish his nest in the Guiding Lands, then can we also set up an outpost over here?’
After relaxing, the Commander’s mind began turning rapidly. Although they had lost quite a few hands this time, the remaining manpower was still enough for them to establish another outpost—after Astera and Seliana.
However, the intensity of the Guiding Lands was indeed somewhat exaggerated. The difficulty of establishing an outpost there was extremely high. Without the assistance of an Elder Dragon, it would truly be difficult to accomplish.
Thinking of this, he recalled Mother Chameleos, who had fled and had not shown herself even once until now, and sighed inwardly.
Fortunately, although the young Chameleos had been raised somewhat askew and was not as reliable in strength as Mother Chameleos—and even loved following little Loren around to throw her weight about by borrowing his influence—there was no denying that she at least possessed a measure of responsibility.
After Mother Chameleos left Astera, she very responsibly took on the heavy duty of guarding the outpost—by staying in her nest in the back mountain and sleeping soundly!
The Research Commission members came quickly and left just as quickly.
They had already remained in the Guiding Lands for quite some time, and the operations of Astera and distant Seliana in the Hoarfrost Reach had been stalled for a long while.
After arranging certain matters and leaving a few relatively well-conditioned recommended team hunters to remain on guard, the others all returned together to Astera, preparing for a banquet.
Although they felt sorrow over the many companions lost in this campaign, those who survived also needed such a banquet to celebrate the resolution of the incident. This, too, was one of the hunters’ ways of life.
Unbeknownst to them, just as they were holding the banquet, an important directive from the Old World Hunter’s Guild and the Kingdom was being carried toward the New World aboard a trade ship.
These days, Aki had noticed that Logan was often behaving in strange ways. Every day, at irregular intervals, he would fly high into the sky and very carefully observe the surroundings, as though searching for certain creatures that might pose a threat to him.
But the Secluded Valley was only so large. After the previous battle, from the air it could practically be taken in at a single glance. Aki did not understand what exactly Logan was looking for.
Logan himself was also somewhat puzzled. Since the Fifth Fleet arrived in the New World, although the course of events had deviated slightly due to his existence, the major events had still essentially followed the original storyline.
Yet Safi’jiiva had already been killed by him for so many days—so why had Alatreon still not appeared?
The black dragon symbolizing creation, according to the plot, should have received a cooperative summons from the will of nature and rushed over to kill Safi’jiiva.
Logan had been preparing for battle these days. Although it would not necessarily turn into a fight to the death, given Alatreon’s temper, they would most likely still have to cross blows.
So why was there not even a trace of him? A mighty Alatreon would not go so far as to conceal his own aura, would he?
Deep within the Hoarfrost Reach, in a "divine realm" that contained nothing but attribute energy, dazzling and multicolored, a certain alpaca-like creature sleeping soundly felt its nose itch. After sneezing, it turned in another direction and continued sleeping.
A message from the will of nature? It had not received anything at all!