Start?
Start my ass!
Nobody actually thought this would turn into a cliché where the protagonist gets besieged right before a breakthrough and has to desperately fight their way out... right?
No way, right?
Looking at the dark mass of dragon-blooded monsters outside the cave, drawn by the leaking energy, Caesar actually found it a bit funny.
That's it?
Just this motley crew around Level 19 dares to challenge the future Lord Garchomp?
...To be honest, Caesar was indeed a bit cautious at first.
After all, he understood the logic that enough ants can bite an elephant to death.
But soon, the Gible discovered that he was no longer the same as before.
"Roar—!"
A Sub-dragon, the most robust of the lot and covered in a heavy rock shell, took the lead in charging.
Greed for a new throne flickered in its foolish eyes.
Behind it, over a dozen slightly smaller kin followed closely, their heavy footsteps converging to make the entire cave vibrate.
Cecilia, lying at the cave entrance acting as a gatekeeper, was so startled her dragon body shuddered, and she instinctively wanted to shrink back.
But she saw that Caesar, far from retreating, faced that charging Aura and suddenly lowered his small body!
[Bulldoze]!
Rumble—!
With a loud bang, centered on Caesar's small body, the hard rocky ground suddenly collapsed downward and cracked!
Countless rock spikes, sharper than blades, rose from the ground without warning, instantly turning the area in front of the cave into a complex three-dimensional forest of spikes!
The rock Sub-dragons charging at the front couldn't stop at all, their massive inertia carrying them headfirst into the spikes.
Squelch! Squelch!
The sounds of flesh being easily torn apart echoed one after another.
Their massive bodies were skewered straight through by those sharp rock spikes.
They only had time to let out half a wail before hanging there, warm dragon blood flowing down the stone spikes, merging into streams of blood.
The Sub-dragon pack behind them fell into a commotion, coming to a dead stop as they stared in terror at this death trap.
But it wasn't over yet!
"Shhh—!"
Caesar gave them no chance to react.
He spat out a large cloud of dust, instantly kicked up by the [Sand Attack] skill.
Mixed with the rubble generated by [Bulldoze], it formed a Sandstorm Domain where visibility was almost zero.
[Sand Veil] Ability, activated!
Caesar picked up a sharp stone, and his figure instantly vanished into the swirling dust, his presence hidden along with it.
For those massive dragon-blooded monsters, this battlefield created by the combination of [Bulldoze] and [Sand Attack] was simply a nightmare.
Most of them were hybrids of Rock and Dragon, already hard-countered by Caesar's Ground-type Moves.
Now trapped in the narrow, complex spike-filled terrain, they struggled to even turn around, let alone charge.
With their vision completely stripped away, they could only roar and attack blindly like headless flies.
Meanwhile, Caesar's small size became his greatest advantage.
He was like a ghost assassin moving through a complex building; every time he appeared, a monster fell.
Splurt—!
A grey-blue shadow flashed through the dust, so fast it was almost impossible to catch.
A deep, bone-deep wound was instantly torn into the neck of a bewildered land-walking Sub-dragon by a sharp stone.
Its artery was severed directly, and hot blood surged out like a fountain!
The round blue figure lightly kicked off the falling body, using the momentum to spring toward the opposite rock wall.
He ran several meters along the wall as if defying gravity, easily dodging several claws and tail swipes swinging blindly through the dust.
He slaughtered his way in and out of the dragon pack, every attack landing precisely on fatal weaknesses like necks, joints, and eyes.
Cecilia, who was lying at the cave entrance with her head buried in her claws, finally peeked out cautiously with one eye after trembling for a long while.
Then, she was completely stunned.
That trashy Little Earth Dragon who usually only forced her to drink strange soup, licked her scales with his tongue, and looked at her with disdain... was he really this good at fighting?
In her vision, Caesar's figure appeared and disappeared in the dim dust, every attack precise, calm, and lethal.
Those monsters, more than ten times his size and looking fierce and evil, were like a group of clumsy toys before him, their lives being harvested at will.
Is... is this really a combat technique an Earth Dragon can possess?
The Silver Dragon's Legacy memories told her that the Earth Dragon Clan was synonymous with strength, barbarism, and stupidity, only knowing how to fight with the most primitive ramming and biting.
But this guy's fighting style was more like that of an experienced Grandmaster assassin!
"What kind of bot-tier garbage..."
Caesar himself felt he had overestimated this bunch of "challengers" who were just delivering experience points.
All those Sand Tomb traps he had worked so hard to dig now seemed completely unnecessary.
If his story were a novel, the author would be suspected of padding the word count by writing another chapter; there was no challenge at all.
Caesar was exceptionally fierce in this group fight.
[Bulldoze], a Ground-type Physical Move with 60 Power (90 after Same Type Attack Bonus), was far more useful than he had imagined.
One stomp might not split the earth and shatter mountains, but it at least directly changed the battlefield terrain and split the enemy formation.
It almost had a hint of the flavor of "Precipice Blades"... One could only say that Pokémon Moves were a bit too overpowered.
Starting with Bulldoze to change the terrain and add cover, followed by Sand Tomb and Sand Attack to kick up a Sandstorm environment... triggering Sand Veil to form a smooth little combo.
To be safe, the Move [Dragon Breath] had been temporarily shelved by Caesar.
He didn't want to expose his pure Dragon Might for a moment of satisfaction and attract some truly untouchable big shot.
These small mobs didn't require him to use his ultimate yet.
After efficiently dealing with dozens of low-level Dragon Clan members who came to their deaths, a series of pleasant experience notification sounds finally made Caesar's mouth curl into a wide grin.
[Ding! Killed LV.21 Rock-Armored Sub-dragon, Experience +320!]
[Ding! Killed LV.20 Swift Earth Dragon, Experience +288!]
[Ding!...]
[Ding! Level Up! LV.21 -> LV.22!]
Only two levels away from the formal evolution threshold of LV.24.
However, the sense of crisis in Caesar's heart did not vanish with the deaths of these challengers.
On the contrary, it grew even stronger—
He could feel that although most of the prying malice around him had been cleared by his slaughter, a deep, terrifying, and mountain-heavy malice remained lingering over the nest, never leaving.
Moreover, he had a faint premonition that his evolution still lacked a special "opportunity."
It was like... being one kick away from a goal, but the goal was blocked by an invisible wall.
Just as Caesar finished off the last challenger—a LV.22 adolescent Rock Storm Dragon—and was about to touch that invisible evolutionary membrane.
A familiar, powerful, and majestic Dragon Might, like the sky collapsing, crashed down from the deeper parts of the Dragon's Nest Mountain Range!
It wasn't the violent and chaotic pressure of the Lava Giant Lizard King, but a pure, noble will with absolute dominance.
Accompanied by a majestic roar that seemed capable of shattering the Soul, the entire underground world trembled!
...Meanwhile, in the lower regions of the Dragon's Nest Mountain Range.
A young Red Dragon, far larger than an ordinary Sub-dragon, was irritably flapping his wings.
It was Fafnir.
"Damn it, where on earth did that egg roll off to?"
Fafnir's golden vertical pupils were filled with unconcealable irritation.
Losing a Silver Dragon egg from the Dragon Academy's hatchery was a great humiliation for him.
Once word got back to the academy, he would surely face severe punishment, which might even affect his future resource allocation.
He and his Blue Dragon friend had been searching this cavern area full of inferior species for several months, and aside from getting covered in dust, they had found nothing.
His Level 35 strength made him a standout among dragons of his age, nearly a presence that could shake human nations single-handedly.
Therefore, his Dragon Might could practically walk sideways in this cavern world.
Wherever he went, birds and beasts scattered.
"Was it really eaten by some low-life species?"
Fafnir was a bit annoyed.
At the thought that the noble Silver Dragon Bloodline might have been treated as food by some crawling underground reptile, this Red Dragon felt a wave of physiological disgust.
Just as he was about to give up, he keenly sensed an abnormality.
"Hmm? The Aura of the Lava Giant Lizard King... has vanished?"
As the original Overlord of this area, Fafnir was somewhat familiar with the Lava Giant Lizard King's Aura mixed with sulfur and tyranny.
Immediately after, waves of chaotic energy fluctuations came from the depths of the earth veins, as if announcing the vacancy of the throne.
The Red Dragon's eyes flashed with deep disdain.
Just a bunch of brainless dragon-beasts fighting over territory—a boring drama of low-level organisms.
But then, a pure Fire-attribute Aura mixed with a faint Dragon Might caught his attention.
"This is... the energy dissipated after that stupid lizard died? No, there's another scent mixed in..."
Fafnir followed that Aura, his massive wings flapping hard, his huge body like a burning meteor tearing through the air, heading straight for the underground cave where Caesar was located.
Deep in the nest, Caesar, who was about to try guiding the evolutionary energy again, suddenly snapped his eyes open!
It's here!
As expected, there's an expert!
That familiar, overwhelming Dragon Might made the Dragon-type factors and Pseudo-Legendary Bloodline within him vibrate violently out of control!
This wasn't fear, but an instinctive warning from a life form of the same Level, or even a higher Level.
This wasn't something those small-fry dragon-beasts could compare to; this was a true threat!
A True Dragon from the top of the food chain!
"Ha... ha...!"
At the cave entrance, Cecilia's Bloodline was directly suppressed by this pure Dragon Might, triggering a stress response.
Her whole body went limp, unable to move, unable to even muster the basic will to resist.
She could only let out indistinct hissing sounds from her throat, her silver pupils shrinking to the size of pinpoints from extreme fear.
Boom!
A massive shadow blocked the only light source at the cave entrance.
Fafnir's massive body descended.
The Sand Tomb traps and stone spike forests at the entrance, which were enough to trap dozens of Sub-dragons, could not pose any obstacle to a flying dragon.
With just one glance, he saw Cecilia lying on the ground, symbolically tied up by a few vines, having instantly switched to her ridge-dragon form and hissing.
That silver scale luster and that Bloodline Aura belonging to a Silver Dragon, familiar to his very bones, made him instantly fly into a rage!
It's her!
It's this Silver Dragon egg that he accidentally lost!
Why is she here? And being... kept like livestock?!
Fafnir completely ignored her bared teeth.
His cold gaze pierced through the darkness of the cave like two swords, locking firmly onto the depths of the nest.
He felt a wave of energy accumulating, a precursor to a True Dragon's first slumber.
Following that wave, he saw the culprit.
That... that was actually a... despicable Earth Dragon!
It wasn't large, only slightly bigger than the hatchlings of those small-fry Sub-dragons.
It had deep blue scales, a red belly, a comical large fin on its head, and a mouth disproportionately large.
It looked both stupid and weak.
This kind of inferior species, which didn't even count as a Sub-dragon, actually dared to "defile" a noble Silver Dragon and even presumed to absorb her Bloodline power to purify itself and complete an evolution...?!
Unforgivable.
Absolutely unforgivable!
"Roar—!!!"
The earth-shattering roar turned into a physical sound wave, shaking the entire cave so much that rubble fell.
Cecilia was nearly knocked unconscious by the roar.
Violent Fire element energy frantically accumulated in Fafnir's throat, the bright red light illuminating his bloody maw like a furnace from Hell.
He was going to completely erase this despicable Earth Dragon, along with this filthy cave, from this world—
[Flamethrower]!
The next second, a destructive torrent of fire descended from the sky, sweeping in with unstoppable force!
It was no longer just fire, but a destructive wave mixed with lava!
The scorching wave instantly swallowed the cave entrance, burning the hard rock walls to a bright red, the air instantly sucked dry and distorted!
"...!"
Lying limp on the ground, Cecilia watched the sea of fire, capable of melting steel instantly, surge toward that small figure deep in the cave.
It's over... everything is over... that trashy Earth Dragon is dead for sure!
In a moment of life and death!
Caesar knew he didn't have time to complete a full evolution ritual, let alone dodge!
To be honest, he didn't know how that roasted wing had found this place.
The opponent had come too fast and inexplicably attacked upon meeting.
But the Dragon Bloodline and massive evolutionary energy accumulated to their limit within his body were completely triggered under the threat of death—
The moment the flames hit him, Caesar's body let out an overburdened "crackling" explosion.
His size suddenly expanded.
His deep blue scales became harder and heavier at a visible rate, their edges glinting with a metallic luster!
The fin-like structures on the sides of his head began to twist and elongate, moving toward his back to form the prototype of sharp fin-blades!
His mouth also became more slender and ferocious, full of aggression!
"Garchomp"—
Although it was only an incomplete prototype, this primitive power surging through his body, surpassing the limits of an Earth Dragon, made Caesar let out an unwilling roar!
He suddenly raised his head, opened his mouth, mobilized all his strength, and slammed headfirst into the sea of fire!
Boom—!!!!
Caesar endured most of the power of the [Flamethrower].
However, even so, the power of a True Dragon was still overwhelming and terrifying.
The weight of Level 35 was no joke.
The residual impact was like a ten-thousand-ton hammer, violently sending him flying.
"Little Earth Dragon—!!"
Cecilia finally broke free from the Red Dragon's pressure, and those symbolically tied vines snapped.
The young Silver Dragon moved her claws, her Elemental Wings unfurling, and she immediately flew toward her companion.
Bam!
Caesar slammed heavily into the rock wall at the deepest part of the cave, creating a massive crater in the hard rock as spiderweb-like cracks spread outward.
He felt as if his back had been snapped.
A tearing pain radiated from his spine, his HP instantly hit rock bottom, and his vision went black.
He nearly fainted on the spot.
His life was hanging by a thread!
His consciousness felt as if it were being pulled from his body, sinking into an endless, icy darkness.
However, just as the "Garchomp's" consciousness was about to sink into darkness, a line of cold System prompts slowly emerged in his vision.
[Ding! Level Up! LV.22 -> LV.23!]
A warm current appeared out of nowhere, instantly surging through Caesar's entire body.
That nearly shattered body seemed to be reassembled and repaired by an invisible giant hand.
Broken bones healed amidst an itching sensation, and under the scorched scales, new flesh was regenerating at an incredible speed.
"Cough, cough..."
Caesar coughed out a puff of scorched black smoke, slowly sliding down from the crater in the wall, barely supporting his body with his front claws.
It hurt—it was still a heart-wrenching pain.
But he survived—
He raised his head, his golden vertical pupils piercing through the thick smoke to see the bright silver figure flying toward him, and then fixed his gaze on the massive red figure at the cave entrance radiating terrifying pressure.
Caesar split his maw into an incredibly exhilarated smile.
Heh, you didn't expect this, did you? This is all part of Lord Garchomp's—
Escape route!