"Heh heh, did you really think this river god didn't know you brought two dragons? Using the green dragon as bait, don't you see I was simply playing along?"
The flood rose like a towering city wall, crashing down toward Dany and Dahei. From within the waves came the sinister, gloating voice of an old man.
Hmm, this move looked a bit like "Water Style: Great Waterfall Technique."
"Crack! Boom!"
Dahei glanced calmly at the oncoming giant wave, then lowered his head swiftly. His jaws clamped down on the head of the loach thrashing under his claws. His fangs sank deep, dragonfire burst forth, and in an instant meat juice dripped, the skull turned soft, and the scent of scorched flesh spread in all directions.
"Rumble—"
The flood surged like a galloping army, crushing everything in its path. It swallowed Dahei and Dany's figures whole. Groves of birch trees splintered, leaves scattered, and trunks snapped like twigs.
"Your Majesty!"
"Screeech!"
From afar, Little Green, the big bear, and Old Jiong cried out in alarm.
But they had no time to worry about the Dragon Queen. Though the flood had been slowed by Dahei and the forest, by the time it reached dozens of meters away, it was still seven or eight meters high.
"BOOOOM!"
Suddenly, the section of river that had engulfed the black dragon glowed red, as if ten 3,000-watt lamps had lit up underwater.
Then came a violent explosion of energy, shaking the heavens with a roar like mountains collapsing and seas overturning. Glazed-red dragonfire mixed with white steam and muddy spray, blooming outward like a flower.
At the center stood Dahei, his whole body shrouded as though within a bell of blazing crimson dragonflame.
"Oh—no! That's a true dragon! Impossible, he's only three years old—"
Above the explosion's center, the once-proud old monster now screamed in terror. His body was as large as a house, yet still he was blasted uncontrollably dozens of meters into the air.
He crashed down just before the flood surged forward, landing with a thunderous smash before Little Green and the two knights.
He nearly flattened Little Green's head like a pot lid slamming down.
"Boom—"
With the evil god's power gone, the river water that had once charged like stampeding horses now collapsed like a ninjutsu waterfall that had lost its chakra, breaking apart into formless spray.
As the tide receded, murky river water dripped from Big Bear and Old Jiong's faces. They barely noticed, their eyes fixed in shock on the massive creature before them—larger than a house.
It was not a giant turtle. It was not that knife-fish loach.
It was an enormous crab.
Its shell gleamed metallic blue-black, its eight legs thick as beams and sharp as reapers' scythes, its colossal pincers like the shears of a giant deity.
Even its blood-red eyes were the size of basketballs.
But the crab was in a pitiful state. Its frothing mouth spewed blue-green blood like a fountain, and a quarter of its shell and left pincer were glowing bright red—exactly like a freshly steamed crab.
"Impossible! I am the Father God of the Loen River. How dare you—how dare you! You must all die!"
The crab's hateful "voice" echoed.
It wasn't sound but psychic waves. Big Bear and Old Jiong both heard it.
And that was all the reminder they needed.
Without hesitation, both strode quickly through the knee-deep water, drawing their swords in unison to thrust forward.
"Shhk, shhk!" Both strikes landed.
On the left, Clinton's sword stabbed into the crab's blood-red left eye, sizzling like a red-hot blade plunging into rotten melon. Black-and-red fluid splattered, drenching the knight's head and face.
On the right, Big Bear roared, mustering all his strength as his massive 1.2-meter blade plunged straight into the crab's mouth up to the crossguard.
"Graaahh—" The crab spirit shrieked in agony, its left claw lashing at Clinton, its right claw snapping at Jorah's waist and belly with lightning speed.
But the left claw, half-cooked by Dahei's dragonfire, moved sluggishly. Clinton nimbly dodged.
The right claw, however, was intact. Even flipped onto its back, with its peak demigod strength, the crab spirit clamped down on Jorah with deadly precision.
As easily as a man might pick up a shrimp ball with chopsticks.
"Crunch, crunch, crunch—"
"Ahhh—"
The Valyrian steel plate armor groaned and warped, rivets snapping, as Jorah spat blood and screamed in unbearable pain.
All of this—Dahei's dragonfire blast, the crab's overturning, the knights' strikes, Jorah being seized—happened in the span of just a breath or two. And right beside them, Little Green did not hesitate. He lunged and sank his teeth into the crab's eye socket. "Boom!"
Dragonfire burst forth like a torrent, incinerating the second eye, melting the guillotine-like teeth in its maw, and heating the shell above its brow until it glowed red.
Even the Valyrian steel sword still stuck in its mouth turned red-hot.
"Agony beyond words!"
The crab spirit hurled aside the armored knight it had failed to crush in half. Its right claw lashed at Little Green's neck like lightning.
Little Green's barrel-thick neck compared to that massive pincer was like a pencil before a cleaver. One true strike, and he would lose half his life.
But the green dragon reacted swiftly, tucking his head to dodge while continuing to unleash dragonfire.
Meanwhile, Clinton crouched low, slipping beneath Little Green's neck, pressing into the crab's blind spot at the root of its right claw. Lifting the Sword of Clear Skies, he hacked hard at the joint.
"Thud, thud, thud!" Dark blood sprayed as the crab's eight legs thrashed like a mountain of blades, yet it still could not reach the knight.
"Chaa—" Dany and Dahei rushed up as well, their twin dragon-spirits striking mid-charge. The crab's movements froze.
"Boom—" From ten meters away, Dahei spewed out glazed-red dragonfire like a raging torrent.
Dany, with Little White, unleashed another soul strike. In the space of two breaths, she delivered ten continuous soul assaults, even testing three times the "Soul Extinguishing Strike" researched from the Slayer's Horn runes.
By sheer force, they beat the crab spirit into unconsciousness.
She only stopped when her own head was throbbing in pain.
Strike while he's down, take his life!
Dany pressed the attack again, wielding fire control. Little Green in front, Big Black behind. One unleashed golden-red dragon flame, the other a crimson fire of the Smith God. Together they formed two great cauldrons above and below, trapping the Crab Spirit in between.
"Gurgle, gurgle—" the knee-deep filth began to boil, and Clinton, supporting the Great Bear, hurriedly retreated.
"Crackle, pop—" the Crab's eight legs turned from dark greenish-black to glowing red under the dragonfire, releasing a tantalizing aroma along with the sizzling of oil bursting.
"Gulp." Dany's throat rolled as she swallowed her saliva. She was getting hungry.
"Spare him, Mother of Dragons, I beg you to show mercy!"
Suddenly, from far downstream came the cry of an aged elder.
It was a telepathic transmission, brimming with divine power!Dany's expression hardened.
It was like how Big Black, upon facing the sudden appearance of the Crab Spirit, would first snap up the knife-fish spirit in a single bite.
Confronted with this unknown evil god coming from downstream, she almost instinctively directed dragonfire along Jorah's Valyrian steel sword, forcing it into the Crab Spirit's mouth, burning his innards and brain.
There was no sound at all. In his soul-stunned state, the Crab Spirit perished miserably.
But she would not stop there—her soul-binding was already in motion.
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!" It was as if a hole had opened in the heavens, pouring down the river of the Nine Skies. An unimaginable torrent of spiritual essence flooded into Dany's sea of consciousness.
Knowing she could not absorb it herself, she immediately prepared to transfer it.Dany hesitated for a moment, glancing first at Little Green, who gazed at her expectantly, then at Big Black, who eyed her sidelong.
"Little Green, your capacity is limited. Big Black is the main force against the Others, an attack fighter, while you are more like a safe bomber."
Dany, playing the biased mother, funneled the divine essence into her eldest dragon.
"Hisss—gah!" Little Green cried out in grievance, nearly shedding two yolk-sized tears.
Her motherly heart softened. With a sigh, she divided the share nine to one—nine for Big Black, one for Little Green.
"Hisss—gah!" The two tears vanished at once. Little Green let out a jubilant roar, its spirit soaring to the skies.
"Spare him, Mother of Dragons!" The elder's voice grew closer, accompanied by the crashing of waves upriver.
From the sound of the water churning, Dany could tell that the newcomer was also some massive creature, much like the Crab Spirit.
"Damn it. This isn't some classical xianxia world. Why are there so many spirits and monsters? And in such numbers too?"
Cursing, Dany ordered Little Green to continue burning the dead Crab to extract more essence, while she mounted Big Black and took to the air.
Flying to the riverbank, five hundred meters above the water, Big Black immediately spewed dragonfire. Dany shaped it into a colossal fireball.
The fireball swelled quickly. By the time the downstream creature's silhouette came into view, the bowl-sized flame had already grown into something like a small carousel.
The dragonfire was entirely powered by the terrifying might of the Smith God, making it Dany's strongest attack at that moment.
She was confident—no demigod could take this strike unscathed.
"Seven hells, what a massive turtle, this—"
Dany's eyes widened. In the crimson light of the flame appeared a hulking figure like a small hill—the Horned Great Turtle.
Its dark-green shell was mottled with brown spots, overgrown with water moss, and crawling with all manner of black, slimy mollusks. It was like a floating river-island come alive.
"Dragon Queen, I mean no harm." The giant turtle, too, feared the blazing fireball like a second sun in the sky. Even from a kilometer away, it halted.
"You are the Old Man of the River?" Big Black roared with thunderous voice.
"Yes, it is I." The turtle lifted its head, its two deep-green eyes shining like lamps. The voice rumbling from its throat was no weaker than Big Black's, loud and resonant like a war horn.
"What do you want?" Dany asked through Big Black's mouth.
"I wish to plead with you for mercy, to spare the Crab King," said the turtle.
"Too late. He is already dead." Dany grew more alert, ready for battle at any moment.
The turtle froze in disbelief. "How could he be dead?"
"He ambushed me, and this was the fate he deserved!" Dany replied.
Suddenly, a thought struck her. Recalling the mythos of the Rhoynar, she asked in surprise, "You say he was the Crab King—the legendary ruler of the Rhoyne, the Crab King?"
In Rhoynar mythology, the chief deity was of course the "Mother Rhoyne." Her foremost subordinate god was the Crab King. Only after him came the Old Man of the River.
According to the tales, the Crab King ruled the creatures of the Rhoyne's depths, making him essentially its water god.
Mother Rhoyne herself, however, was not the river's water god. She was the Rhoyne itself.
But things had since changed. At some point, the Old Man of the River defeated the Crab King and usurped the river god's throne.
"He was indeed the Crab King, newly freed from his seal. How could he already…"
The Old Man of the River was in disbelief, yet also felt a humiliation he could scarcely voice. He and the Crab King were of equal rank, both demigods. If the Crab King had died so easily at another's hands, then what did that imply for himself?
With a sigh, he said, "Dragon Queen, I hold no ill will toward you. Since the Crab King is dead, I shall take my leave."
With that, his colossal, mountain-like divine body slowly sank back beneath the water.
Seeing this, Dany guessed that he truly bore no hostility, and hurriedly called after him: "Friend, please wait!"
(ps: The Crab King and the Old Man of the River who appear in this chapter are not additional embellishments. In the original A Song of Ice and Fire, the Old Man of the River did appear once—Tyrion encountered him long ago.
Also, during the last Long Night, when Azor Ahai arose, it was Mother Rhoyne and many subordinate gods who together summoned the sun.)
(End of Chapter)
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