"Crack, boom!" Beside him, a fifty-meter-long dung-green wyvern let out a mournful cry as it lost speed, snapped the mast, and crashed
"Crack, boom!"
Beside him, a fifty-meter-long dung-green wyvern let out a mournful cry as it lost speed, snapped the mast, and crashed through the deck and hull.
"Ahhhh!"
Splinters shot out like bullets. Blood-stained seawater splashed in all directions, and the wyvern, like a plane losing control, plunged straight into the sea.
The dragonrider on its back was scraped along the side of the ship—like a mosquito landing on someone's thigh, slapped and then smeared—reduced to a mess of blood and flesh on the red dragon's back.
Waves surged violently. The deck of the great ship split open, revealing panicked but eager-eyed crossbowmen inside—members of the Wings of Freedom, dressed in varied leather armor, looking more like mercenaries.
Benny's eyes were bloodshot. In just a few breaths, he had watched several wyverns fall—either struck in the eye, neck, or other vital spots, or their wings torn apart and severely wounded. They crashed helplessly from the sky.
He no longer knew how many comrades remained, but one thing was certain—his old green dragon wasn't going to last much longer.
Even though he had immediately pulled up to a higher altitude after the ambush, hoping to fly above his comrades and use their dragons as shields, there were too many bolts, and they were too close. The ballista bolts easily pierced through double layers of flesh and wing membrane.
His old green dragon's body wasn't fatally wounded, but its wings—scorched like cicada wings held to a flame—were nearly useless.
It was like a bed sheet hung outside for ten years, battered by wind and rain—full of holes.
The old green dragon panted heavily, flapping its wings with all its might in an effort to climb, but with so much of its wing surface gone, it could barely generate lift.
"This is a trap! A trap! The Spear Regiment betrayed us—Jack Reha betrayed us!" the two-headed demon Benny roared in fury and grief.
There was no time to dwell on that now. Get out. Get out of here now.
Jenny's voice echoed in Benny's mind.
"High Priestess, my Lord, bless me!"
Clutching at the last strand of hope, Benny cried out in desperation and anticipation.
You've broken through the ambush. Head west immediately. There's no time to return to Matalis. Go to Erelia, fifty kilometers away.
There's a garrison there, scorpion-ballista positions, and the Balerion Grand Cathedral. If the black dragon dares follow, he'll never return!
Jenny warned.
Benny brushed the sweat-drenched silver hair from his forehead, glanced around, and finally realized: ahead was a vast blue sea, open and clear, with no more demonic rain of arrows below.
Even he could hardly believe it—his green dragon had pushed through the storm of bolts like a swarm of locusts and survived the ballista formation spread across over a thousand warships!
But when he looked to either side, his heart sank. Only two companions remained beside him. The bellies of their dragons looked like moldy bread, sprouting "black hairs"—dozens of bolts embedded deep into their armored scales.
Clearly, they had also survived by using their comrades as living shields to escape this deadly ambush.
"Where do you think you're going, cursed dragon!"
"Boom!" A splash erupted from the sea. A ferocious black dragon, like a missile launched from a submarine, burst from the water and charged at twice the speed of the old green dragon.
"Steve, Windrow—for the great revival of Valyria—it's your turn to sacrifice yourselves."
Using the channel of faith from Jenny, Benny gave his two remaining companions a command.
"No, I don't want to die! I'm Prince Windrow of Quells! I have ten thousand acres of land, countless beautiful concubines—I'm the richest man in the world! I haven't even begun to enjoy life—I—no!"
No matter how loudly Prince Windrow of Quells screamed, his dragon twisted midair and fearlessly charged toward the black monster.
"No, Lord Balerion! I'm more valuable than Benny! I'm royal blood from Quells—I even have a wooden throne in the palace—"
The platinum-colored dragonflame had already gathered in the black dragon's throat. Before it was even released, the divine pressure alone sent shivers through Windrow and his dragon's souls.
At this point, Dany no longer held back, nor did she spare her power of faith—she had already taken the Seven Gods' faith pool as her own. Knowing how rare and precious power was, she usually rationed it carefully.
With the blessing of the "Grand Protector" divine office, her blood-red dragonflame transformed into platinum divine fire—a sub-divine power (lower than a true god, but above ordinary magic).
At this moment, the power of her dragonflame was like comparing a normal Rasengan to Sage Art: Rasengan from Naruto—at least twice as strong!
"Damn it! Divine power—that's divine power! Such immense faith—where did the black dragon get it?"
Sensing the terrifying wave of power behind them, Jenny's voice rang with both fury and panic in Benny's consciousness.
This development frightened her more than the Dragon Queen's earlier trap—being forewarned of the dragonriders' raid was one thing, but this... this changed everything.
Wyverns might be rare, but as an ancestor of Valyria, she knew their habits and nesting grounds too well. If you found one nest, you could find another. As long as Valyrian blood persisted, there would always be more wyvern riders.
But a black dragon becoming a true demigod—with a stable source of divine faith—meant the opponent had risen to her level.
If it were only an ordinary demigod, Jenny wouldn't be so afraid. But this black dragon had also perfectly cultivated the Grand Sorcerer's legacy.
Without a doubt, in the future she might no longer remain "invincible among equals." The Dragon Queen, after all, hadn't inherited the complete legacy—still missing internal techniques and divine skills. For now, the black dragon still lagged behind Balerion by two notches.
Prince Windrow of Quells screamed in terror, "No! Dragon Queen—Black Diamond—don't, don't! We know each other! Your mother even walked past my house's back door once!"
Er... back in Quells, Dany had given him 777 Gold Glory coins, hoping he'd speak kindly for her when she met the royal court.
He took the money but did nothing—and now had the nerve to reminisce with the Dragon Queen.
Still, Windrow was clever enough. Even as he begged, he unbuckled the leather straps of his dragon saddle. Just before the dragonflame struck, he flipped off and splashed into the deep blue sea.
Then it was a fifty-meter-long wyvern versus a thirty-meter-long black dragon.
"BOOOOM————"
Before they even collided, the platinum dragonflame landed squarely on the wyvern's head like a blowtorch melting an aluminum ingot.
The turquoise eyes of the wyvern—each the size of a fist—instantly burst in the flame, exploding into a mix of blue and red fluids.
Its tough dragon hide, capable of withstanding a barrage of crossbow bolts, was visibly melting. Juices dripped from its sharply contoured face like a braised meatball stewed for two hours.
"Boom!"
The green dragon's body tilted and fell diagonally. Its wing bone struck Big Black, knocking him off balance.
Big Black staggered, his speed slowed, and Benny seized the chance to pull away.
The green dragon couldn't breathe fire, but its physical strength far surpassed that of Big Black—utterly overwhelming.
In her dragon-spirit state, Dany instantly realized she must never engage the wyvern horde in close combat.
"Steve, it's your turn," Benny ordered the last of his companions.
He had already asked the other two to attack earlier, but Steve's dragon was in worse condition than both his and Prince Quails'.
It was too slow, couldn't fly high enough, and struggled to stay airborne—lagging one or two kilometers behind Windrow.
At this point, it was desperately trying to gain altitude. Otherwise, it wouldn't even be qualified to act as cannon fodder—Big Black would simply fly over its head.
"Don't abandon me, great High Priestess Jenny! I'm a Velaryon too. You're from the main family, I'm from the Myr branch—we're kin. My blood ties are closer to yours than Benny's twin-headed freak. Let him be the sacrifice—save me!"
Steve wailed.
Idiot. You're from a cadet branch of House Balerion. How can you compare to my pureblood line of Meraxes?
Benny sneered inwardly, though his mind was urgently crying out: "High Priestess Jenny, the black dragon is fast. He'll catch me within twenty minutes. But in twenty minutes, I still won't have reached Elaria!"
If he really catches up, I'll sound the Dragon Slayer's Horn. Whether it works or not is uncertain. If it fails—face your death with dignity.
Jenny replied calmly.
Benny—
"Screech!" Little Green cried out in pain.
Dany, who had been hiding in the basement of a dockside bungalow, suddenly heard Little Green's roar from the city behind her.
He was hurt.
Alarmed, Dany activated her dual dragon-spirit state, letting her second soul enter Little White—who had not sent any danger signals, which was why she hadn't previously connected to him.
Indeed, Little White was not in danger.
Knowing her enemies would try to ambush her, how could Dany not make preparations to ensure Little White and Little Green's safety?
A thousand sea vessels in the harbor were rigged with traps to protect Big Black; around the Black Tower, where Little Green napped, a hundred dragon-slaying scorpions had been deployed; in the northern city warehouse, another hundred scorpions were hidden, along with five hundred standard ballistae.
Dany understood the enemy's primary target was herself, with Big Black as a secondary objective. So she chose to hide, letting the three dragons spread out to disperse the enemy's forces.
As for luring the entire dragon horde into the bay? Unrealistic. Too many wyverns in one place would cause spatial overlap.
For example, the lower dragons could block all the ballista bolts aimed at those flying above.
In fact, with just twenty wyverns, some overlapping had already occurred. Otherwise, how could three dragons escape from a concentrated barrage by thousands of ballistae within a hundred meters?
Little White and Little Green didn't need to kill many enemies. As long as they could stay alive and pin down the enemy, their mission was accomplished.
All the surveillance along the way had shown Dany that her dragons flew faster than the enemy's.
But she'd made one miscalculation: the elder wyverns' hides were too tough. The scorpions weren't as effective as expected.
This, too, was a trap laid by Game of Thrones' final episode.
In the last episode, Euron's scorpions pierced Little Green's neck and skull from hundreds of meters away, like shooting chickens with regular arrows.
She had overestimated the scorpions' effectiveness against dragons.
Sure, Dany had scorpions—but would she dare test them on her three dragons?
Well, maybe she hadn't overestimated the scorpions entirely.
Little Green was only three years old—a juvenile dragon—so getting pierced through the skull wasn't surprising. But Benny's wyvern flock consisted solely of full-grown elder dragons.
The key difference between wyverns and true dragons is that wyverns lack magic—dragons have it.
Physically and in terms of resistance, both species are on the same tier (demigods excluded).
A wyvern compared to a dragon is like Barristan to Dany.
Dany knows magic; Barristan doesn't. In terms of swordsmanship and stamina, both are merely human.
So, Little Green met a tragic fate.
When five wyverns pounced, the hundred scorpions hidden around all struck true—but none of the five died. Together, they blocked Little Green's escape route—he had to fight purely on instinct, disconnected from Dany.
At first, Little Green held the high ground. A single blast of dragonfire killed a nearly dead elder wyvern and severely wounded two others.
The enemy riders fared even worse—four were incinerated on the spot.
But then, the wyverns closed in, forcing Little Green into brutal close combat atop the Black Tower.
He kept spewing dragonfire, searing their hides open. The wyverns, with poor magic resistance but immense strength and razor-sharp claws and teeth, tore bloody wounds into Little Green's body.
Still a juvenile, Little Green couldn't match them in physical combat. Within moments, his scales shattered, flesh torn, bones broken, wings mangled—his howls filled the sky.
Thankfully, the hundred scorpions nearby kept offering suppressive fire, allowing Little Green to barely hold his own against two of the wyverns.
The problem was, elder dragons had long health bars. A prolonged stalemate worked in their favor.
Now, Little Green couldn't hold on anymore—he began to cry for help.
After all, he hadn't forgotten—he still had two big brothers, and a mom!
(End of Chapter)
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