"We're almost there—don't make any noise."
At the main entrance of the Lonely Mountain, Thorin led the way, bringing the dwarves as they quietly approached with careful steps.
"I remember the way here. Follow me."
"How is there a hole here?"
Halfway through leading them, Thorin's brow suddenly furrowed with confusion.
"It never appeared in my memory."
"Uh, I think it might have been seen before—in other places, of course. Don't you think this hole's style looks familiar?"
A dwarf mentioned with growing recognition.
"Is it Levi?"
"Let's go in!"
Without hesitation, Thorin drew his sword and was the first to charge ahead, entering the council chamber with determined purpose.
Rumble!
Vague sounds of collision and impact came from somewhere inside, occasionally mixed with dragon roars and flame-breathing sounds that echoed through the mountain.
"No way?"
Someone vaguely guessed what was happening inside.
The group listened to the commotion and approached again, until a very conspicuous stone wall appeared before them.
"This isn't in my memory either."
Thorin slowly shook his head: "I remember this was a corridor leading to the cellars. There was never such a wall here, and certainly not this color."
"The same color as Levi's city walls," Bofur reminded with certainty.
"Look at this water pit—exactly two meters long and two meters wide. I can almost certainly tell who did this."
A dwarf crouched by the water pit and dipped his hand in.
The water was crystal clear, comparable only to fountains made by elves.
"There's another opening over there!"
Discovering another passage, the dwarves all stopped exploring other areas and gathered around the opening.
Someone poked their head through and saw nothing but darkness inside, with no light source. Vaguely, there seemed to be some rubble at the end.
"Should we go in?"
Thorin nodded and was about to lead the way forward when suddenly a red glow appeared from the end of the opening. Alarm bells rang in his mind, and Thorin immediately rolled to the side, shouting: "Get back!"
Whoosh!
Flames poured out from the opening, extinguishing in an instant. A dwarf who moved too slowly had several whiskers singed.
"You cannot kill me!"
The dragon's roar came through, followed by wave after wave of massive commotion.
"Let's go see!"
Thorin couldn't hold back and immediately charged in.
That was the dragon's voice!
"Quick, quick, follow!"
The dwarves followed close behind.
Swoosh!
A flaming arrow shot aggressively toward Smaug's eye, but couldn't even penetrate the eyelid, much less ignite this fire dragon.
Obviously, Fire Aspect or Flame enchantments had no effect on this fire dragon.
After all, it was a fire dragon.
And, just as Smaug had said, its dragon scales were harder than ten layers of steel shields. Converted to armor points, they would exceed the upper limit—ordinary arrows or crossbow bolts simply couldn't pierce them.
The only weak point was the small gap where a scale was missing near the heart. But Levi had nearly worn out half his bow's durability, and couldn't even shoot down the diamond lodged there, let alone cause any damage.
"You really startled me, Steve. I almost mistook you for a powerful warrior from ancient ages."
"You may know some miraculous magic, but compared to those in my memory, you're far inferior."
"Ah! That sword of yours might be decent, but unfortunately its wielder is you. Your strength isn't even half that of the warrior I killed back then."
Smaug spoke sarcastically, fighting while not forgetting to display its chatterbox nature. Obviously, it hadn't given up trying to influence Levi with dragon-speech.
"You talk a bit too much. If I were you, I'd shut that stinking mouth before I stick my sword in it and make sure you can never open it again."
A flame-wreathed arrow suddenly shot out, caught with a snap by Smaug's bite, and swallowed.
"This little snack tastes pretty good. Got any more?"
I really am, I...
Clang!
The frustrated Levi struck Smaug's large claw with his sword, making it jump back—clearly feeling pain.
"Despicable human!"
Man and dragon clashed again, the dark corridor continuously echoing with metallic collision sounds and vibrations.
Since discovering that Levi seemed immune to flames, Smaug rarely breathed dragon fire—only occasionally out of habit. More often it attacked with ramming and biting, its steel-like gleaming teeth and spear-like claws dealing significant damage.
When that great maw bit down on Levi's armor, it could actually make him lose health!
Whether biting, claw piercing, or tail sweeping, all could indeed shake Levi's health bar, but that was the extent of it. Compared to Sauron, these attacks were still too light. He didn't even need potions—just eating ordinary food to maintain saturation, relying on natural regeneration and a little movement and dodging was enough to handle it.
In contrast, Smaug's health was dropping bit by bit at an imperceptible but steady rate.
Although Levi's health would also drop, it could always recover, but Smaug's health hadn't seen positive gains in quite a while.
If they could keep grinding like this, he really could hack it to death.
He just needed to find an opportunity to block its retreat as well, and then it would face certain death. However, achieving this was still somewhat difficult.
"I must admit, you have some skill."
As they fought, Smaug changed tactics, no longer blindly chasing Levi but maneuvering around, adopting guerrilla strategies.
Smaug was ultimately a real living creature with its own thoughts. It wasn't like those NPCs in games that only followed fixed logic, mindlessly chasing players—easily defeated by building up high or exploiting positioning.
When sensing danger, it would run and hide. When gaining no advantage, it would temporarily retreat. When feeling it couldn't kill Levi in one blow, it would try other strategies slowly, rather than mechanically responding with one pattern.
The dragon-speech incantations that had never stopped echoing in his ears were the best example. Even if the spells didn't work, trash talk could still affect an opponent's mindset.
"My king, am I dreaming?"
At this moment, a bunch of dwarves suddenly appeared at the opening, with a hobbit surrounded in their midst.
"Levi is fighting that... that hundred-meter-long giant dragon?"
"They look evenly matched."
Seeing the scene before them, the dwarves were once again awed by Levi's displayed combat power. This guy seemed to grow stronger when facing stronger opponents—his exact combat ability was unknown.
Even Bilbo gaped, not knowing how to describe it. This scene exceeded his comprehension.
However, there was still one exception.
"More than that, what I care about is why he awakened that dragon. This has completely disrupted all our plans!"
Thorin felt somewhat annoyed and confused. Wasn't the plan to steal the gem and gather an army before attacking? Why had it been moved up?
"Look what I smell! That's the scent of dwarves!"
"Hm?"
Levi suddenly turned back and discovered that group of guys standing at the opening, immediately sensing trouble.
"Get back!"
Along with his shout came a blast of dragon breath. Though sudden, the dwarves' reactions weren't for show, they grabbed Bilbo and scattered, rolling or diving in very undignified ways to dodge the attack.
"Go!"
Placing a bucket of water on the wall to extend down and form a water curtain for cover, Levi quickly pulled the dwarves along as they hurried back, returning to the council chamber.
[Chapter Complete]
***
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