Chapter 263: Dragon Fear
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 263: Dragon Fear
“Please… just not my hair…!”
“I can’t go baaaald!”
What are you talking about?
I think your leader would be disappointed.
Of course, the bald guy who looked like the leader had already foamed at the mouth and collapsed, so he wouldn’t hear them anyway.
Threatening them with poison seemed to be working quite well.
The poison wasn't lethal, but I had no way to explain that, nor any reason to. They were probably just imagining the effects for themselves.
They had screamed when they saw the hair of those affected by the poison falling out.
“S-snacks… I’ll give you snacks!”
Tempting, but did you really think I used poison just to get something like that?
“Gek.”
“Th-then… my treasured jerky…!”
“Ge-ek.”
Do they still just think of me as a small lizard with strong poison?
“Gek gek.”
“Wh-what is it you want…?”
“Geeeeek.”
Seriously, why can’t they understand me? Even Soyeong gets it in an instant.
“Don’t tell me… i-information, or something…?”
“Gek!”
Finally, there was one who could communicate.
When I nodded, his face brightened despite his anxiety.
“S-seeing how you ate so many elixirs, can I assume you’re looking for the ones we’ve hidden?”
It seemed my hand and tail gestures were finally working.
“Gegeng.”
That’s right.
“Sob… Then, if I tell you, will you give me the antidote…?”
I nodded. There was nothing to call an antidote, but they wouldn’t talk unless I promised them one.
“If you go straight to the left from here… there’s a room made of steel. You’ll know it when you see it. The unit members are guarding it.”
He must have thought he could escape the poison and avoid going bald, because he started blabbering away.
I already had a rough idea of the location thanks to the mantis, so I could just cross-reference to confirm.
“Gek.”
“Y-you mean the forces guarding that place?”
I narrowed my eyes slightly.
Look at this guy.
Snap.
“H-hiiik!”
He shrieked in terror when I pretended to bite him.
“The Hwangpungdae, Baekpungdae, and Heukpungdae! Those three are guarding it!”
Since it was the Black Cloud Faction, I guess it made sense they’d have a unit like the Heukpungdae under their command.
“…To be more precise, the Black Cloud Faction has five units: Jeok, Cheong, Hwang, Baek, and Heuk. The Jeokpungdae and Cheongpungdae went with the Faction Leader to deal with a spy, while the remaining three units are guarding the elixirs in case something happens!”
Hmm, good.
A single snap of my jaws and his answers are so forthcoming.
“Gegek.”
“Th-thank you. A-and I heard that the captains of each unit are all martial artists who have reached the Supreme Peak Realm. Their vice-captains are at the Peak Realm.”
There are five at the Supreme Peak Realm?
No, why are there so many of them?
This felt a bit strange.
After all the trouble I went through to reach the Supreme Peak Realm, five of them suddenly pop up.
Still, not all Supreme Peak masters are the same, and they’d probably curse me out, wondering how a one-year-old lizard could have already reached that realm.
There were more powerful people than I thought.
Of course, this was an organization responsible for the True Dragon's recovery, even if only a part of it, so it wasn't that strange for this many troops to be gathered here.
Or should I see this number as too small? If someone truly intending to harm the True Dragon appeared, there’s no way they could be stopped by Supreme Peak masters.
Even if someone like Gongbok showed up, there’s nothing a Supreme Peak martial artist could do. That must be why the Faction Leader, a Transformation Realm master, was here.
Tsk, does that mean Baek Seol-hwa is facing one Transformation Realm and two Supreme Peak masters? And I'm stuck with three Supreme Peak masters on my end.
I needed to finish up here quickly and go help Baek Seol-hwa. I didn't think she'd lose, but you never know. This group was closely tied to the True Dragon, after all.
“U-um…”
“Gek?”
“The, the antidote…?”
Ah, right.
Munch, munch.
Ptui!
I spat out some poison, and he scrambled to pick it up and rub it on his scalp.
If he believes it's the antidote, then it's the antidote.
I left the poisoned martial artists behind. They wouldn't be able to move properly for a while.
Still, they could probably walk, so there was a chance they'd tell the Faction Leader about my existence.
That would actually be better.
Feint east, strike west.
The operation was already underway, so it was better to draw the Faction Leader's attention to me.
If he needlessly divided his forces, it would create a situation where Baek Seol-hwa could devour them even more easily.
Besides, the poison I spat out at first was contagious. If those injured soldiers rejoined the others, they'd just end up destroying themselves.
That's why I was leaving without finishing them off. I didn't particularly feel like seeing blood right now, anyway.
I trudged along with a lizard's stride.
I immediately knew where the place the man had mentioned was.
A place they’d split their forces to guard in a situation like this?
It had to be the most important location in the Black Cloud Faction, the place where they kept the elixirs for restoring the True Dragon's vitality.
There were three who looked pretty strong, and judging by their clothes, they had to be the captains.
“Who goes there!”
Someone noticed my presence and shouted.
“Gek gek.”
“Hmm, it's a lizard.”
Yeah, keep up the good work.
Unlike a person, no one would find a lizard small enough to fit in one hand suspicious.
“Wait a minute, why is it walking on two legs?”
“Gek?”
Is a lizard that walks like a human a little suspicious?
I glanced around cautiously before planting all four feet on the ground.
The martial artist who met my gaze had a confused expression.
“Uh… Captain, there’s a strange one over here.”
Seriously? He's tattling on me. You must want to go bald too.
“A strange one? I didn’t sense a human presence. What in the world is it?”
“There’s a lizard here… its expression is suspicious, its walk is unnatural, and most of all, its tail is incredibly plump.”
What's wrong with having a plump tail?
“A lizard? You're bothering me over a mere lizard… Wait, a lizard?”
The man turned his head as if he'd remembered something. Seeing his yellow clothes, he must belong to the Hwangpungdae.
“What are you doing! Capture it immediately!”
“Yes, sir!”
Shing!
The subordinates drew their swords.
At the same time, the captain's roar shot out.
“What are you doing! Are you trying to injure the elixir to be offered to ‘Him’!”
“B-but then…”
Do they still think I'm a lizard meant to be offered to the True Dragon?
“Use your bare hands! Why would you use a sword to catch a mere lizard!”
“Y-yes, sir!”
The martial artists approached me, their hands waving limply.
It was a pose Soyeong often made, but seeing these men do it gave me the creeps.
At least she was cute. The thought of being caught by those rough hands made my dragon scales stand on end.
Should I use poison again?
It would take care of the small fry. But it probably wouldn't work on the Supreme Peak-level captains.
As a group that managed elixirs and spiritual beasts, they were bound to have some resistance to poison. Besides, my poison wasn't that lethal, and if their goal was to protect this place, they'd try to eliminate me without a second thought.
I shifted my gaze to the ceiling.
“Come here!”
“That plump tail…!”
The ceiling was higher than I thought, but it still wasn't enough.
If I used Gigantification here, the whole place would collapse.
I thought this would be easy, but it's getting a little annoying. Still, I have to do what I have to do.
Dudududuk.
A black light erupted as my skeleton transformed.
I didn't deactivate my miniaturization. I was just adjusting the size.
If I deactivated it completely, the side effects would destroy this place.
For a place this size…
Can it handle about 80% of my full size?
*
The martial artists rushing to capture the lizard could only stare in horror.
The slightly cute lizard with the plump tail had suddenly grown, transforming into a monster several times larger than them.
“H-huaaack!”
“A m-monster!”
They were the battle-hardened troops of the Black Cloud Faction, but they had never encountered a situation like this.
Look at those blue eyes.
Every time those vertically slit pupils stared at them, goosebumps erupted all over their bodies.
They were certain that one wrong move would mean their heads would be torn from their shoulders.
Look at those thick, sharp claws.
It was obvious their armor would be utterly useless.
“Krrrrrr…”
Look at the highly toxic saliva dripping from its mouth.
Didn't it look like a single touch would melt them, bones and all?
The being before them was not something a mere human could dare to face.
It was a ferocious monster that seemed to be the very personification of death.
A spiritual beast that, paradoxically, felt divine.
“I-it’s a dragon!” one man shouted.
A creature that looked like that could only be a dragon.
The captains, who had been watching their subordinates' actions, also realized the situation was dire.
It was definitely a lizard, so when did it become such a monster? Could it have transformed because it ate so many elixirs?
“…Hwangpungdae, listen up!”
“Heukpungdae, listen up!”
“Baekpungdae, listen up!”
The thing before them was no longer a mere lizard they could capture. It was a monster they had to stop, even at the cost of their own lives.
If something happened to the lizard meant for the True Dragon, they would be killed, but if they failed to stop this monster, they would die right here and now.
Their chances of survival were much higher if they joined forces to stop the monster, take its inner core, and flee.
“Everyone, draw your swords! Slay that monster!”
Despite the captain's roar, the unit members didn't obey. They could only lower their heads and tremble.
“Captain of the Heukpungdae! How on earth do you train your men!”
“The Baekpungdae aren't any better! Look who's talking!”
“Everyone, stop! There must be a reason the men are acting this way.”
The captain of the Hwangpungdae knew a few things about dragons.
A dragon's roar had an effect similar to a Lion's Roar; those with weak qi would lose their will to fight just by hearing it.
It was a unique ability of the dragon race, also known as Dragon Fear.
Therefore, to get their subordinates to move, they, who could still act in the face of such fear, had to make the first move.
“If the three of us at the Supreme Peak strike at once, the fear will be broken!”
The Hwangpungdae captain charged forward immediately.
Swaaaaaa!
A yellow sword aura blossomed from his blade.
The captains of the Heukpungdae and Baekpungdae followed him.
A sword aura like a black wind and one like a white wind rose from their respective blades.
Their swords flew toward the shoulders and neck of the monster staring them down, only to—
Kaaaaang!
—be sent flying back in the direction they came from.
“…Impossible.”
The Baekpungdae captain muttered, dumbfounded.
It was a combined attack from three Supreme Peak martial artists.
Yet they couldn't even leave a scratch.
They hadn't managed to pierce a single one of its scales.
“…Are those… real dragon scales?”
The Hwangpungdae captain also muttered in vain.
Scales that couldn't be pierced even by the sword aura of a Supreme Peak martial artist.
They realized this wasn't just something mimicking the form of a dragon, but a divine spiritual beast that possessed true dragon scales.