Chapter 46
Chapter 46
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 46
Chapter Title: Mountain Lord (3)
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Every living creature has limits to its inhalation and exhalation.
The world calls it lung capacity.
[Grrk!?]
The Ice Dragon Adara had just reached that very limit.
The moment the icy breath exploding from its maw came to a halt, Adara was swept up in an avalanche.
The fury of nature shoved even the massive Ice Dragon's body along like a rotten log.
...Kwarrr rumble rumble boom!
The avalanche engulfing the Ice Dragon Adara surged all the way into the Beauvoir Mine.
The Ice Dragon thrashed with all its might to escape the avalanche.
[Kraaaaaah―!]
Adara let out a ferocious roar.
How had things come to this?
It had never faced such a crisis in the past century.
The surroundings were filled only with lowly creatures like ice lizards and sasquatches, with no pure-blooded Ice Dragons that could threaten it in sight.
Even on the edge of the great mountain range, this hidden sanctuary pulsed with the bloodline of the main peaks, allowing smooth growth.
Its power had grown stronger with each passing day, and its body had swelled several times larger than before.
It had even acquired a mana capacity surpassing the innate limits of a wyrm.
At this rate, it would have gained strength rivaling pure-blooded dragons within mere decades.
......Of course, there had been some annoying interruptions along the way.
Filthy humans who seemed to have lived in these mountains originally.
They made incessant noise as they dug into the earth, extracting black rocks.
The Ice Dragon Adara had driven those humans out from the start.
Whenever they gathered, day or night, it hunted them down and slaughtered them all.
Old or young, it tore them apart impartially until they finally fled and never returned.
The Ice Dragon Adara snorted in derision.
Weaklings who occupied good land deserved such a fate.
Prime territory belonged to the strong, like itself.
Afterward, Adara settled deep in the mountains below and began earnestly absorbing the mountain's vital energies.
Decades passed like that.
One ordinary day, as it was greedily drawing in the pure energies flowing from the base of the mountain, disaster struck.
Someone had begun severing the bloodlines of the Meurso Mountains one by one.
The pure essence that once poured in endlessly now trickled to a stop, halting its growth.
The Ice Dragon Adara flew into a rage.
What dared to interfere with it?
A hot-blooded young wyvern? A sasquatch?
Or perhaps some overreaching old lizard challenging a dragon?
Maybe a pure-blood had slithered in from somewhere?
......But it didn't matter who it was.
This honey-pot of a land could never be surrendered.
Not even to another dragon, let alone a superior pure-blood species.
It would tear the insolent intruder to shreds, no matter what.
It would defend its territory at all costs.
That was what the Ice Dragon Adara thought.
......But.
The intruder it encountered the moment it emerged from its cave was far weaker than expected.
A small brat with white hair.
One of those inferior human subspecies it had massacred half a century ago.
The Ice Dragon Adara couldn't hide its bewilderment.
Was this puny thing the one who had severed the mountain's bloodlines just to challenge it?
It couldn't even fathom how such a creature had cut off the mountain's vital energies.
But there was no need for deep thought in the situation.
If the enemy was weak, that was a blessing.
The awakened mountain lord intended to swiftly crush this tiny intruder and return to slumber.
However, events unfolded differently than anticipated.
The small assailant blended seamlessly with the snowy landscape, white hair and pale skin indistinguishable from the tundra.
And with something white and sharp in hand, it stabbed relentlessly at heels and ankles.
The Ice Dragon Adara tried to track by scent, but pungent meat chunks scattered everywhere muddled its senses.
Meanwhile, wounds on its feet multiplied.
Adara soon realized intuitively.
The foe before it was no ordinary human.
Its appearance might seem frail and diminutive, but it harbored an unprecedented malice within.
The Ice Dragon's instincts whispered.
Do not confront that human.
It was like a swamp with a narrow mouth but bottomless depths—step in once, and escape becomes impossible.
......Should it flee?
Adara thought for a moment.
But it quickly changed its mind, ignoring the instinctual warning.
No human could inspire fear in a dragon.
This judgment stemmed from centuries of accumulated power, draconic arrogance, and the memory of effortlessly annihilating the Beauvoir miners long ago.
The Ice Dragon Adara pressed the fight.
Believing that relentless pressure would eventually rip the small foe apart.
......And that was a mistake—a fatally grave one.
From battling head-on, the Ice Dragon Adara was now swept deep into the mine by the avalanche.
[Kr―aaaaah!]
The dragon rampaged.
Fiercely, viciously, with broken fangs and cracked claws.
Kwadudududuk!
Rocks, permafrost, and logs in the avalanche scraped against its scales.
Scratches accumulated on its sturdy dragon hide.
[Kr―woooooor!]
Yet the Ice Dragon Adara endured it all.
The avalanche would end soon.
Then it would dig out, escape, and exact revenge.
So Adara thought—right up until it was hurled toward the cliff inside the abandoned mine.
Bu―woong!
[!?]
Shock robbed it of even a scream.
The instant it thought it had escaped the avalanche's grasp, it faced the bubbling magma below the cliff.
A stream of lava flowing alongside the mountain's bloodlines, a pool of molten minerals bubbling fiercely—it gaped open toward the Ice Dragon Adara.
This was the ancient heat source beneath the Beauvoir Mine, exposed to the surface by human excavation.
In other words, the smelting furnace forged from the blood and souls of miners half a century past.
[Kraaaaaah―!]
Finally, the dragon's body plunged into the heart of the lava.
Plung―! Sizzle―!
Agonizing scorching pain gripped its entire form.
Scales melted, muscles twisted, organs cooked.
Lava, born from rock liquefied by extreme heat, was scorching hot and impossibly heavy.
The Ice Dragon thrashed madly, but could do nothing against the viscous magma enveloping and squeezing its body.
Gulp― gulp― gulp― gulp―
Heavy, thick lava forced its way down throat to stomach.
Lungs and innards burned to char, even punching holes through its abdominal lining.
...Kwachik!
The Ice Dragon Adara jammed its nearly broken claws into the cliff and desperately hauled itself up.
...Kwachik! ...Kwachik!
The cliff shuddered unstably where claws dug in, but it had no choice.
It had to climb up somehow.
Only then could it avoid melting away in the lava.
...Kwachik! ...Kwachik! ...Kwachik!
Adara crawled up the cliff in its battered state.
No different from the geckos it had always scorned.
[Grrrrrr...]
Adara exhaled a breath laced with fury and inferiority.
If only it had wings, the mark of pure-bloods, one mighty flap would have launched it skyward.
No need for this desperate writhing on the ground.
But yearning for what it lacked only made reality more wretched—it changed nothing for the better.
Gnashing shattered teeth, the Ice Dragon Adara clawed to the cliff's midpoint.
A lifetime crawling the earth made climbing familiar.
Adara nearly reached the top.
The moment one arm stretched toward the surface—
Chwaaaaaak―
Some immense force shoved the Ice Dragon Adara back down the cliff.
[Grrk!?]
Adara identified the pusher.
Snow and ice cascading from above.
Secondary and tertiary avalanches.
The Ice Dragon Adara plunged once more into the magma pit.
But this time, it wasn't alone.
House-sized ice blocks swept in by the avalanche crashed into the lava alongside it.
The moment massive solid ice met the molten pool—
Kwa―bang!
Skipping the liquid phase, it vaporized straight to gas.
A horrific explosion erupted.
Massive icebergs detonated with tremendous force in the lava, spewing vast steam clouds.
Kwakwakwakwakwakwakwakwakwakwakwakwakwa boom! Rumble!
Chain explosions rocked the entire cavern.
As if a giant had uprooted the mountain and shaken it wildly every which way.
The Ice Dragon Adara was at the epicenter of this violent tumult.
Kwa boom! Pop! Rumble rumble! Bubble bubble bubble...
The dragon's death throes drowned in the blasts, indistinguishable.
Flash―! Rumble! Boom!
The entire mine was collapsing.
"......We'll have to reopen the mine."
Federback clicked his tongue at the crumbling Beauvoir Mine.
The explosive power was far greater than expected, but it didn't matter.
This area had been deemed uninhabitable not because mining was impossible, but because of the Ice Dragon Adara's presence.
Remove the dragon, and new shafts could be dug for extraction anytime.
"Next time, bring in professional miners instead of convicts. Maybe summon Lorschach and have him devise tax incentives for settlers."
As Federback pondered Meurso Mountain development plans—
Kwa―bang!
A small explosion burst from the collapsed mine ruins.
[Krrruk...... grrrruk......]
The Ice Dragon Adara was still alive.
It crawled out from the debris on tottering legs.
Its body was, naturally, a total wreck.
The explosion from avalanche meeting lava had shredded the dragon's dignity and form.
Scales shattered like a broken mirror, few remaining.
One eyeball burst and dangled, ribs and guts exposed on its flank.
Its tail was no longer a whip for scourging tundra beasts.
Chopped and frayed, it dangled like a long rag.
Sizzle sizzle sizzle...
Embers clung stubbornly to its body.
Like a frozen sea thawing into endless chaotic waves, Adara's form crumbled ceaselessly.
[Shiiik― shiiik― shiiik―]
Broken ribs piercing lungs emitted a bluish metallic wheeze.
When the Ice Dragon Adara staggered onto the tundra—
"Impressive."
Federback greeted it.
"Durability and vitality rivaling an adult dragon. Especially that scale on the lower jaw and those inner fangs—tough as can be."
The Ice Dragon Adara and Federback faced off in the tundra's heart.
"Fangs for blades, scales for shields. Perfect."
[Grrrrrr―]
Different species, but their thoughts toward each other were identical.
Pure, venomous killing intent.