novelraw Chapter 22: Dragon Slaying Battle (2)
Chapter 22: Dragon Slaying Battle (2)
About twenty minutes passed.
Kiriman focused his hearing, catching the sound of panting and frantic footsteps emerging from the wyvern's nest, followed by an angry, piercing dragon roar.
He soon saw a slender, remarkably agile dwarf running out from the nest. The dwarf nimbly grabbed a rope hanging down from the cliff and swiftly rappelled downward.
Immediately after, accompanied by sharp dragon cries, a massive wyvern measuring eight meters in length emerged from the cave entrance. Its gray-brown scaled wings spread wide as it crawled forward angrily, a crossbow bolt still embedded in its nose, apparently chasing the slender dwarf who had provoked it.
Kiriman watched silently as the slender dwarf screamed to attract the wyvern's attention, and as the wyvern quickly exited the cave and took flight with powerful wingbeats.
He knew this was the bait Alpan's Dragon Hunting Team used to lure out the male wyvern.
Only when the enormous wyvern roared and charged toward the mountainside, its entire form disappearing from his view, did Kiriman emerge from his hiding spot. Gripping his Viper Steel Sword tightly, he cautiously advanced into the wyvern's nest.
This was a massive cave, humid and stuffy due to its sheltered mountaintop location.
Even before he got close, a nauseating stench of feces mixed with rotting bones and flesh assaulted his senses, making him gag.
But there was no helping it - though called dragons, wyverns were essentially winged lizards that ate, drank, and relieved themselves in the same place. Expecting these blood-drinking beasts to maintain personal hygiene was impossible.In such a dangerous place, Kiriman didn't dare suppress his sense of smell. Instead, he activated his full Witcher senses, carefully advancing step by step through the foul atmosphere.
Forcing down his disgust, he proceeded another few dozen meters into the cave. By the faint sunlight filtering through the entrance, he immediately spotted a massive female wyvern, also about eight meters long, half-spreading its wings while brooding over a pile of bones and flesh like a mother hen.
Its size resembled a bus or a train carriage.
Due to the commotion caused by the slender dwarf, this female wyvern had already awakened. It glared with basin-sized dark green eyes, wings shielding the eggs beneath it, neck raised high as it vigilantly surveyed its surroundings.
However, having lost one eye, its surveillance range was limited with significant blind spots. Kiriman pressed his entire body against the wall, effectively avoiding the wyvern's line of sight.
Time passed minute by minute, and soon another ten-plus minutes elapsed.
A sharp signal flare sound accompanied a red firework explosion in the sky.
This meant Alpan's Dragon Hunting Team had succeeded - the strong male wyvern had been trapped with ropes and couldn't fly back to support the female.
Kiriman quietly took a breath, then followed his pre-planned strategy. He retrieved a lamb purchased earlier from the elf village from his storage space and forcefully threw it to the female wyvern's side.
This was a lamb pre-cut into a bloody mess with a dagger. Since items in storage space remained in near-time-stasis, the moment it was thrown out, the rich blood scent immediately caught the female wyvern's attention. For more chapters visit novel⟡fire.net
In her egg-laying irritable phase, the female wyvern didn't hesitate before biting down. Her sharp, massive jaws snapped the lamb in half instantly.
Perhaps the taste of blood and flesh stimulated the wyvern's hungry taste buds. Discovering she had bitten into delicious lamb meat, the female dragon showed no vigilance but quickly raised her head and swallowed half the lamb whole.
Seizing the moment when the female wyvern's attention was focused on the lamb,
Kiriman's body erupted into motion. He rapidly closed in along the wyvern's visual blind spot while raising his sharp Viper Steel Sword, aiming directly for the eye already blinded by Valessa's arrow, and thrust forward with full force.
This was a fatal strike.
His strength, nearly five times that of an ordinary person, was tremendously powerful. The Viper Steel Sword in his hand, forged with meteorite iron and refined steel, was exceptionally sharp.
Kiriman felt his blade pierce through what felt like tough wood, but under his brute force, it broke through multiple layers of barriers.
Only when the entire meter-long blade plunged deep into the female wyvern's eye socket did the severely wounded wyvern's frantic struggles violently throw him away. He couldn't even withdraw his steel sword, which remained embedded in the wyvern's skull.
Kiriman's back slammed hard against the cave wall, but in this critical moment, he ignored the pain. He immediately drew another Temerian longsword from his storage space, ready to continue fighting.
However, when he looked up and saw his Viper Steel Sword had pierced straight through the wyvern's pupil and emerged from the top of its head,
He knew this female wyvern had already suffered a fatal injury - death was merely a minute or two away.
Just as Kiriman considered whether he should quietly exit the cave and wait for the wyvern to die,
Unfortunately, the female wyvern's remaining eye had already spotted him - this enemy who had inflicted severe injuries.
Madness filled that remaining eye.
Before he could react, the enormous wyvern twisted its body, and its tail - more terrifying than a steel whip - swept toward him like a death scythe. Even the hard stone wall was scraped away, stone fragments flying everywhere in a display of astonishing power.
Seeing such force, Kiriman knew he couldn't block this attack. He immediately used the wall as a stepping stone, leaping high to avoid the tail sweep.
But the female wyvern proved clever. It seemed to have anticipated Kiriman would jump, and while he was still mid-air, it instantly opened its massive jaws and lunged to bite him.
Facing this colossal beast charging toward him, confronting those foul-smelling jaws large enough to swallow him whole, Kiriman's heart couldn't help but feel fear.
He was still mid-air with nowhere to leverage himself, seemingly unable to avoid this attack.
Fortunately, his mental fortitude was strong enough. In less than a second, he devised a countermeasure.
His left hand instantly produced a volleyball-sized earthen jar while his right hand formed the gesture for Alder Magic Sign. As he threw the Beehive Bomb toward the wyvern's mouth, the Alder Magic Sign simultaneously struck the side wall with force.
The tremendous recoil shifted his body several meters sideways, barely avoiding the snapping jaws as he brushed past the wyvern's mouth.
Before Kiriman even hit the ground, his right hand immediately shifted to another sign - Igni Magic Sign.
A spark ignited at the female wyvern's mouth, and as it swallowed, the small earthen jar went straight down its throat.
A muffled boom sounded as violent flames erupted from the wyvern's mouth.
The already mortally wounded female wyvern didn't even have time to utter a final cry before the alchemical bomb swallowed into its stomach extinguished its life force entirely.
It stiffened and collapsed to the ground, limbs and muscles trembling uncontrollably.