Garros's gaze was locked tightly on the Cliff Snake Dragon. As it tried to leave, he opened his mouth and spat out a high-speed, long-range Electric-Fire Dragon Breath, forcing it to react.
The Electric-Fire Dragon Breath carved a brilliant arc through the night sky, shooting toward the Cliff Snake Dragon.
With extreme difficulty, it twisted its body violently to dodge. Although it avoided the Dragon Breath attack, its recently sealed wounds burst open again, sending waves of tearing pain through its body.
"I will skin you alive and swallow you whole!"
The Cliff Snake Dragon roared and flew toward Garros, but Garros spread his wings wide and retreated once more.
Although he was covered in much poisonous blood, making his wings somewhat numb and sluggish, it wasn't enough to make Garros lose his mobility. Furthermore, given the Cliff Snake Dragon's injuries, it had become even more sluggish and still couldn't catch up to Garros.
For a moment, the Cliff Snake Dragon didn't know what Garros was trying to do.
It hissed irritably a few times, then dove down. Its slender body hugged the ground, gliding between hills covered in a dense layer of ancient trees like an agile snake. Wherever it passed, other lower Rank creatures fled in terror, and birds and beasts scattered.
There were many obstacles on the ground that could obscure vision.
The Cliff Snake Dragon realized its aerial mobility was inferior to Garros's, so it landed.
Reflecting the Snake Dragon's winding figure on the ground in his pupils, Garros folded his wings and dove in pursuit.
The Cliff Snake Dragon stared at Garros's silhouette brushing through the night sky. Its long tongue flicked out as it coiled its body, ready to counter-attack at any moment. A thick poisonous mist steamed from its body, causing the surrounding tree branches and leaves to wither and fall.
However.
When Garros was still a hundred meters from the ground, he suddenly leveled out and flew at high speed parallel to the earth, no longer diving downward.
One by one, Explosive Scales—reinforced by air friction and Demonic Energy until they glowed a branding-iron red—burst from his body like a rainstorm, falling over a wide area toward the Cliff Snake Dragon.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Massive fireballs erupted on the surface, and rolling heat waves carrying thick smoke rose into the air. This carpet bombing, which covered a much wider range than Dragon Breath, made it difficult for the Cliff Snake Dragon to dodge everything despite its agility. It scurried in panic but was ultimately swallowed by the flames.
The ground was blasted into charred craters and plowed into deep furrows.
When the Cliff Snake Dragon rushed out of the fire's range and rolled its body to extinguish the remaining flames on its surface, it looked incredibly disheveled.
The flames had left large areas of scorched, blackened marks on its body.
The explosion's shockwaves had blown off some of its scales.
Sharp fragments of shattered scales remained embedded in its flesh.
"Hiss——"
The Cliff Snake Dragon let out an angry hiss and raised its head.
But before it could even see Garros's figure, another rain of Explosive Scales showered down upon it.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The shattered scales bloomed into flowers of blood as they pierced the Cliff Snake Dragon, and the flames from the explosions swallowed it once again.
Garros's wings were spread flat as he soared and circled at high speed. The Explosive Scales on his body heated up from the friction, letting out crackling sounds like red-hot iron being dipped into cold water, occasionally emitting the sizzling sound of sparks.
These scales were moving at their limit, looking as if they would explode at any second.
Garros flung them out in dense clusters, falling toward the Cliff Snake Dragon.
Landing on the ground was definitely a mistake. The Cliff Snake Dragon was bombarded relentlessly by Garros, who acted like a bomber with his Explosive Scales. It was suppressed so heavily it couldn't even lift its head. Whenever it tried to take to the sky again, a dense barrage of Explosive Scales or Dragon Breath would meet it head-on, suppressing it back to the surface.
If it were in its prime.
The Cliff Snake Dragon could have relied on its explosive speed to maneuver.
But it had been wounded by Garros early on. After a period of fierce combat, it now had no way to disengage and escape.
And this was the battle strategy Garros had planned in advance while traveling to Crescent Moon Valley.
First, use a fierce offensive to wound the Cliff Snake Dragon in one wave without lingering in melee. Then, while he wasn't yet deeply poisoned, switch to long-range attacks: when the enemy advances, I retreat; when the enemy retreats, I advance; when the enemy is tired, I strike.
The ground cracked and collapsed, and ancient trees burned fiercely like torches.
Even with the vigorous life force of Dragonkin, it couldn't withstand such a relentless bombardment. The Cliff Snake Dragon's aura gradually grew weak.
As a fire-type Dragon, its resistance to fire damage was high, but the primary lethality of the Explosive Scales wasn't the fire damage—it was the shockwaves from the explosions and the scale fragments mixed within, acting like shrapnel.
Garros swept across the night sky again and shook his body.
Only a few scattered scales spun out, falling to the ground and exploding into flames.
Looking back at himself, Garros found that the Explosive Scales on his body were almost exhausted; the saturation bombing had consumed quite a lot.
And as the unremarkable Explosive Scales all fell away, the true armor of the Red Iron Dragon was exposed.
Silver matte scales shimmered in the moonlight, looking like premium obsidian or cast iron, possessing an indestructible metallic texture. Across them, glowing dark-red veins crisscrossed, as if lava were flowing over his body.
Strong and majestic, his Draconic Aura permeated the air.
It could be said that Garros was only now revealing his true form.
But the Cliff Snake Dragon was already at its limit.
The black-red draconic shadow hung high in the night sky.
His massive wingspan blocked the moonlight, casting a shadow that enveloped the Cliff Snake Dragon.
By now, the Cliff Snake Dragon's scales were blasted to pieces, its flesh was torn open, and the poison it emitted had reached its densest and most violent level. It was at death's door.
It stared up at Garros with unwilling hatred.
The Cliff Snake Dragon's body swayed, and its raised upper body crashed to the ground as it lost consciousness.
It probably wasn't dead yet, just unconscious.
Should I take it away? Find a way to imprison it, prevent it from committing suicide, and use it as a continuous source to increase my poison resistance?
Garros narrowed his eyes and spat a spherical Electric-Fire Dragon Breath toward the Cliff Snake Dragon.
Swoosh—the dying Cliff Snake Dragon suddenly snapped its blood-red eyes open, twisting its slender body to dodge the Dragon Breath. It then stared fixedly at Garros, letting out an irritable hiss.
It had tried to feign death to lure Garros close, intending to deliver a fierce counter-attack while its toxins were at their peak.
But Garros didn't fall for it, choosing to deliver the finishing blows from a distance.
Like a final burst of life, a surge of strength erupted from the Cliff Snake Dragon's heavily injured body. It lunged toward Garros, but halfway through the air, it suddenly turned and fled toward Crescent Moon Valley.
"Didn't the Legacy say that Snake Dragons would commit suicide and lay a curse when they're heavily injured and desperate?"
"Its desire for survival is stronger than I imagined."
"Is it because I haven't pushed it to the limit yet? Or is it an individual difference?"
Garros pondered, feeling that the possibility of individual difference was higher.
The knowledge in the Legacy was mainly based on inherent impressions of an entire race; it wasn't as accurate when narrowed down to an individual and couldn't be fully relied upon.
Garros pursued the Cliff Snake Dragon at a leisurely pace.
He wasn't in a hurry to get close and kill it, prioritizing safety. He used long-range attacks like Dragon Breath and the silver frost ring, making the Cliff Snake Dragon increasingly exhausted and causing its condition to steadily decline.
One chased, the other fled.
Because their previous fight hadn't moved them too far away, the Cliff Snake Dragon soon landed in Crescent Moon Valley, dragging its heavily injured body.
At this moment, the werewolves of the Howling Moon Clan were gathered together, standing in wait. Some of their gazes fell on the Cliff Snake Dragon, while others looked up at the sky, noticing the rapidly approaching black-red draconic shadow.
Landing in front of the Old Shaman.
The Cliff Snake Dragon hissed and said, "Stop him! Kill him! He is my enemy!"
The "him" it spoke of was undoubtedly Garros.
Meanwhile, Garros had already arrived at Crescent Moon Valley, circling above.
"What exactly is the relationship between these werewolves and the Cliff Snake Dragon?"
Garros thought to himself, deciding to rely on his aerial advantage to wear down and kill the Cliff Snake Dragon with long-range attacks. The werewolves couldn't fly and posed no great threat to him.
But to Garros's surprise.
He saw that as the Cliff Snake Dragon twisted its body to seek the Old Shaman's help, the Old Shaman suddenly overflowed with white light, transforming into a massive phantom of a Great Wolf Spirit, which struck the Cliff Snake Dragon's head with a claw.
The damage wasn't high, but it left the Cliff Snake Dragon dazed.