"Betrayal! Lowly creatures! How dare you betray me!"
The Cliff Snake Dragon let out a shrill, angry roar and spat a poisonous mist at the Old Shaman. The giant wolf phantom enveloping the Old Shaman's body leaped nimbly, narrowly avoiding the Cliff Snake Dragon's toxic cloud.
"O powerful Dragon, please slay this evil serpent for us!"
"You shall receive the friendship of the Howling Moon Clan, along with our reverence and offerings!"
The Old Shaman shouted toward the sky.
Hearing this, although Garros still couldn't determine the strange relationship between this clan and the Snake Dragon, he could be certain that the two parties were not of one mind.
That made things easier.
Now that the Cliff Snake Dragon was heavily injured and its condition was deteriorating, it posed basically no threat other than its Death Curse.
Garros folded his wings and stopped circling high above. Under the tense and fearful gazes of the werewolves, he dove down and landed with a thunderous crash.
Whoosh!
He opened his mouth and exhaled a thick, mist-like white gas at the Cliff Snake Dragon.
—Hypnosis Dragon Breath!
The Cliff Snake Dragon tried to dodge, but failed to avoid it due to its sluggish movements.
However, when the Hypnosis Dragon Breath landed on the Cliff Snake Dragon, it failed to take effect and did not put it into a hypnotic state.
The Cliff Snake Dragon had extremely high resistance—even higher than its fire resistance—against curses, paralysis, and sleep. The Iron Dragon's Hypnosis Dragon Breath had little effect on it.
"Snake Dragon, submit to me, and I will give you a chance to live."
Seeing that the Hypnosis Dragon Breath was useless, Garros didn't rush to kill it. He stared at the Cliff Snake Dragon and spoke in a deep voice.
A creature like the Cliff Snake Dragon, covered in poison and carrying a Death Curse, with a cruel and violent nature, was a nuisance as an enemy. But if it could be tamed as an enforcer, it would be quite useful.
Furthermore, because he was still unsure of how the Death Curse would specifically affect him,
Garros did not want to endure its Death Curse.
If his fire resistance was lowered or weakened, although he could train it back up, it would ultimately waste his time and affect his growth.
"Submit? To the likes of you?!"
The Cliff Snake Dragon growled and roared.
Garros wasn't strong enough to force its submission, and it was filled with rage and resentment toward him. It would rather die than not make Garros pay a price.
"Since you refuse to submit, then die."
Garros's gaze turned cold and sharp.
He was not an indecisive person.
To resolve this trouble, it was worth paying a small price.
The Cliff Snake Dragon dug its sharp claws into the ground to prop up its upper body. Its blood-red eyes swept over the hateful Hybrid Dragon before it and the werewolves who were standing as if facing a great enemy. The hatred in its heart almost solidified into substance.
"A Snake Dragon does not fear death!"
A black mist suddenly rose from its green body, and at the same time, it let out a hysterical hiss at Garros: "With my life and my Soul, I curse you! For all eternity, you shall fear the flames! You shall fear being burned!"
Before Garros could deliver the killing blow,
The Cliff Snake Dragon's hissing stopped abruptly. It was dead, collapsed on the ground.
The black mist on its body grew thicker and more solid, transforming in an instant into a hideous Snake Dragon pattern that shot toward Garros like a bolt.
Whoosh!
The powerful wind made the surrounding werewolves lose their footing.
Garros took off from the ground, soaring rapidly into the sky, trying to see if he could outrun the Cliff Snake Dragon's Curse of Fire with speed.
The curse mark wasn't fast; it failed to touch Garros on the first pass and dissipated into the air. However, Garros, who hadn't been directly touched by it, suddenly felt his whole body grow hot and then cold.
"As expected, it's not that easy to avoid."
Garros shook his head.
However, for the moment, he didn't feel any abnormal reaction after being hit by the Curse of Fire.
"This curse lowers resistance. Let's test it."
He lowered his head and spat a burst of flame onto his own claws.
A slight stinging pain immediately followed, making Garros frown.
With his fire resistance derived from both Red Dragon and Iron Dragon Bloodlines, the ordinary flames he just spat should have felt like a light breeze and shouldn't have caused him any harm at all.
Now, he felt pain.
Sure enough, just as the Legacy described, the Cliff Snake Dragon's Curse of Fire would lower the target's fire resistance.
Garros thought for a moment, then continued to breathe fire onto his claws.
The burning pain continued to come in waves, but it also faded rapidly, returning to normal.
"Hmm? My resistance recovered so quickly?"
Garros was somewhat surprised.
But on second thought, it seemed normal.
His resistance was developed through Adaptive Evolution. Although it was weakened by the curse, his physical foundation remained. The efficiency of re-evolving and adapting was extremely high, making it easy to recover, unlike the initial struggle.
"The Snake Dragon's Death Curse isn't all that either; it's too weak."
Suddenly,
His claws began to hurt again.
This curse was lowering his fire resistance once more.
"Excellent! It's not a one-time, permanent reduction in resistance, but a continuous curse."
Feeling the pain and the curse taking effect, Garros was not alarmed but delighted; his spirits were instantly lifted.
Continuous damage was the best way to stimulate Garros's Adaptive Evolution.
Based on Garros's understanding of his own talent, it was foreseeable that his fire resistance would steadily rise through this tug-of-war between constant reduction and enhancement.
Curse of Fire?
No!
To Garros, this was equivalent to a Blessing of Fire.
If the Cliff Snake Dragon had known this, it probably wouldn't have committed suicide so decisively, nor would it have bestowed the curse upon Garros.
"Snake Dragon, Snake Dragon."
"Are there other Snake Dragons in the Serel Wilderness?"
"If I kill all the major Snake Dragon species once, every aspect of my resistance could improve by a whole stage."
Garros licked his lower jaw, thinking to himself.
The insidious nature of Snake Dragons made many Dragonkin wary, including Garros, but starting from just now, the situation had completely changed.
Soon, he composed himself and circled down to land in Crescent Moon Valley.
The Old Shaman immediately came forward and said to Garros in a respectful tone:
"Noble and powerful Dragonkin, we thank you for slaying the evil serpent for the Howling Moon Clan."
"Anything you desire, as long as our Howling Moon Clan possesses it, we shall offer it to you as a token of our gratitude."
Garros looked the Old Shaman over a few times, then his gaze swept across the surrounding Grey-mane Werewolves, and he said slowly: "I want your Howling Moon Clan to submit to me and swear your loyalty."
At those words, the Old Shaman's expression changed.
They had already tasted the bitter fruit of supporting the Cliff Snake Dragon.
Now an even more powerful Dragon was demanding their loyalty, and they didn't know his temperament. What if he was even more cruel than the Snake Dragon? Wouldn't that be like walking into a tiger's mouth?
As if seeing through the werewolves' doubts,
Garros added: "I am not a cruel Evil Dragon, otherwise this place would have already been reduced to a sea of fire."
"Become my vassals, and you will be my wealth. I will not damage my own wealth without reason. On the contrary, by serving me, you will enjoy my protection and have a longer future."
"I will give you ten days to consider."
"If you refuse to submit, I will not force you. I respect your choice and will simply feel regret for your loss."
With that, he grabbed the Cliff Snake Dragon's corpse with both claws and took to the air.
Just as Garros said, if the werewolf clan refused then, he wouldn't force them.
However, he would destroy them.
An intelligent clan operating on the branch roads of the Thousand Snake Scars might not know his exact location, but they could still spread information about him, causing unnecessary trouble.
For that reason,
If they were not sensible,
For his own security, Garros would choose to pull them out by the roots.
His kind attitude was meant to stabilize them, making them stay obediently in Crescent Moon Valley so he could wipe them out all at once. Ten days or so was enough time for his injuries to fully recover.
Only when they saw his figure completely disappear into the night sky did the werewolves relax.
"Elder, this Dragon seems quite easy to talk to."
"Do you think he is an Evil Dragon?"
The young Chieftain walked to the Old Shaman's side and asked in a low voice.
The Old Shaman looked in the direction Garros had left and said softly: "He looks like a ferocious Dragon, but time has taught me one thing—do not judge by appearances. This applies to Dragonkin as well."
"His manner of speech, his words, and his actions are different from the Evil Dragons I know."
"Perhaps he is a Dragonkin worth relying on and following."
Surviving in the wilderness, being able to serve a Dragon was actually a good thing for many biological races.
"Gather the high-ranking members of the clan now to discuss and communicate whether we will ultimately swear loyalty or refuse."
Because it concerned the future development of the clan, led by the Old Shaman and the Chieftain, the Howling Moon Clan immediately organized a meeting to decide their future path.