The afterglow of the setting sun dyed the skies of the Hemlock Hills red, as Garros's scales shimmered with a dangerous light in the twilight.
With him at the center, three Earth-Rending Centipede Alchemy Golems suddenly burst from the ground from different directions. Their steel bodies cast hideous shadows upon the earth, emitting ear-piercing metallic screeches as their segmented limbs struck sparks against the rocks.
The first golem curled into a massive metal wheel, its high-frequency vibrating bladed legs bunching together as it sliced toward Garros.
The second golem opened its hideous mouthparts, spewing a liquid processed from black oil that instantly ignited into a raging inferno upon contact with the air.
The shell of the third golem cracked open, firing a dense barrage of Armor-Piercing Steel Nails that resembled a torrential rainstorm.
Garros took a deep breath and suddenly swung his dragon wings horizontally.
His guillotine-like wings slashed toward the 'metal wheel'.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
Countless sparks flew as the dragon wings and the blade-like limbs of the Earth-Rending Centipede collided rapidly, producing a sound like clashing iron that echoed through the night.
Segment after segment of the bladed limbs twisted and shattered.
A few notches also appeared on the metallic outer wing bones.
Then, with a flick of Garros's wings...
The Earth-Rending Centipede was sent flying, spinning as it sliced through several thick hemlock trees.
At the same time...
Just as the first Earth-Rending Centipede was knocked away...
The raging flames and the rain of steel nails came rushing toward him.
Garros neither dodged nor avoided them; he stepped forward and puffed out his chest.
The fire hit him first, engulfing Garros. Amidst the sweeping flames, Garros instead grinned, and his Explosive Scales, tempered by the fire, immediately took on the color of glowing iron.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The Armor-Piercing Steel Nails clattered against Garros's body, easily shattering his Explosive Scales and turning them into fragments.
Then...
With a shake and a flick of Garros's body, countless fragments wrapped in flames and glowing with the color of red-hot iron surged back toward the two Earth-Rending Centipedes.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The shockwaves and flames from the explosions instantly swallowed the two Earth-Rending Centipedes, blasting them away and leaving their bodies covered in cracks and dents.
The flames spewing from the Earth-Rending Centipede's mouth came to an abrupt halt.
However...
The fire burning on Garros's body did not stop immediately.
These flames were formed from combustible liquid processed from black oil, and they were highly flammable.
Bathing in the raging flames, the Red-Iron Young Dragon spread his wings and flapped them lightly. He strode forward with his head held high, his dragon scales glowing with the color of high-temperature iron. The surrounding air distorted continuously as heat waves rose.
Although these flames were extraordinary, they were not magical fire.
Not only could they not harm Garros, but they actually bolstered his dragon's might.
As if realizing that fire was ineffective against Garros and that long-range attacks were also mediocre...
The three Earth-Rending Centipedes, having stabilized themselves and suffering from varying degrees of damage, simultaneously transformed into metal wheels. Their bladed limbs vibrated at high frequency as they spun in wheel form, cutting through the air toward Garros.
Whoosh!
With a sweep of his dragon wings, Garros, enveloped in flames, resembled a fiery meteor as he met the metal wheels head-on.
A lava-like brightness shone through the gaps in his chest armor scales.
The Earth-Rending Centipedes attacking from different directions were reflected in his pupils.
Garros suddenly exhaled a scorching Flame Dragon Breath.
The Dragon Breath carried a thick, powerful impact. It first swept past two Earth-Rending Centipedes, knocking them away, and then directly pushed against the last Earth-Rending Centipede, pinning it firmly to the ground.
Its black metal armor could be seen turning red-hot and beginning to melt under the heat.
Both were fire, but Garros's Flame Dragon Breath was far more powerful than the black oil fire spewed by the Earth-Rending Centipede.
Garros approached step by step, his Flame Dragon Breath suppressing the Earth-Rending Centipede until it melted into a twisted lump of scrap metal. The other two Earth-Rending Centipedes, after this bout of combat, determined they could not defeat Garros. They decisively changed their strategy, ceased their engagement, and began to retreat.
The burning dragon wings tore through the night.
The Red-Iron Young Dragon chased the Earth-Rending Centipede on the right at high speed. Before it could burrow underground, he suddenly turned and whipped his tail.
Zzzzt! Zzzzt!
The Tail Ring lit up, and electric arcs jumped across the dragon's tail, enhancing its lightning damage and stimulating muscle strength.
The sound of whistling wind mixed with the crackling of electric arcs. Garros's dragon tail was as fast as lightning, accurately hitting the Earth-Rending Centipede. The impact severely dented and cracked its outer shell, and the silver snake-like electric arcs found every opening, invading the interior of its body and jumping continuously inside and out.
Sizzle! Sizzle!
This Earth-Rending Centipede was relatively intact overall, but it collapsed twitching, with pungent black smoke rising from its joints.
Boom! The Red Young Dragon descended from the sky, crashing into the ground and smashing out a deep crater.
Samantha stood up wobbly and disoriented, her head spinning.
She had tried to imitate Garros's method of attacking from the sky to intercept the third Earth-Rending Centipede, but she wasn't fast enough. She failed to stop it, letting it burrow underground, and she herself felt sore all over from the counter-shock.
She didn't have Garros's day-after-day training, nor did she have his powerful body.
This method of attacking a ground target by crashing into it at high speed was not suitable for a normal young dragon.
After this third Earth-Rending Centipede burrowed underground, it immediately fled.
Because Garros had not mastered any spell-like abilities for underground travel, he did not pursue it. Furthermore, a blind pursuit was meaningless. The appearance of these golems here meant that this place was likely exposed. Even if he kept it here, the Blackrock Dwarves could still track the Hemlock Hills through underground tunnels; it would merely be a matter of delaying for a little more time.
"Dragon Lord's Divine Might! Your strength fills me with awe and submission!"
"These steel Vicious Beasts are vulnerable before you! It is truly my honor to be your Subordinate!"
The battle was over, and the Earth Storm Bear Mobel came before Garros to offer his flattery.
Garros ignored him, quietly calculating and organizing the combat information in his mind.
"These three Alchemy Golems don't have a specific Rank that can be detected, but each one is more formidable than an ordinary Rank 8 Vicious Beast. They know how to cooperate and adopt different strategies in different situations."
"The Alchemy Golems of the Goblin Tribe are like crude, vulnerable toys compared to them."
"If they hadn't used flame attacks against me, this battle probably would have taken much longer to end."
These combat-oriented Alchemy Golems were indeed powerful.
Garros didn't know the specific model of the Earth-Rending Centipede, but judging by their size and apparent precision, they were likely inferior to the Alchemy Golems stationed on the surface.
"Ah, my Alchemy Workshop!"
Samantha shouted, jumping in anger.
In the battle just now, her Alchemy Workshop had once again been caught in the crossfire and destroyed. Moreover, this was the Alchemy Workshop after five months of continuous repairs, not the initial crude rock-slab shed.
"Where did these damn things come from? I'm going to hunt them down and slaughter them all!"
She said in a fit of rage.
Garros did not stop her; instead, he encouraged her: "They come from a garrison unit at an oil field under the Blackrock Duchy. I'll give you the location so you can have your wish."
"Me?"
Hearing this, Samantha's anger immediately vanished. Are you kidding? She still remembered how she had almost been shot down just by taking a peek from high altitude, a hair's breadth away from death.
Although the two were not the same place—she had been attacked at a mineral vein outpost back then.
However, any place where regular troops were stationed was not to be trifled with.
"A dragon shouldn't be too reckless. I think I'll reconsider and let them live a bit longer."
Samantha gave a sheepish smile and then changed the subject, saying, "I'll go rebuild the Alchemy Workshop first."
"No need."
Garros shook his head, his gaze sweeping over the vegetation and land of the Hemlock Hills, then said decisively, "We can't stay here anymore. We're changing territories."
The resources of the Hemlock Hills were mediocre to begin with, and recently the water sources had been gradually drying up, with fewer and fewer creatures inhabiting the surroundings. Garros had to fly a long way every time he wanted to drink or hunt, and the idea of moving territories had already begun to sprout in his mind.
Now that he felt the danger from the Blackrock Dwarves, it was the perfect time for him to make up his mind and abandon this place.
And this also meant that the peaceful life of the past few months was coming to an end.