The descent of the black three-headed dragon was terrifyingly swift.
Within moments, the wives could clearly perceive the apex monster's grotesque, colossal frame. Facing the suffocating, corrupted miasma radiating from its scales, every single girl finally understood why Regulus had been so uncharacteristically serious about avoiding an engagement.
The atmosphere was utterly sickening.
It was an aura far more suffocating than the bloody bloodlust of a mortal battlefield. Ordinary people—and even seasoned veterans who had survived the horrors of the civil war—would find their knees buckling and their limbs trembling uncontrollably under the weight of that draconic pressure.
"Everyone, form up and stay close to me," Regulus commanded, his voice cutting through the stifling dread.
"Understood!"
Following his orders, the girls in the rear carriages immediately abandoned their cabins and gathered tightly around him. At this distance and closing velocity, attempting to flee across open terrain in carriages was entirely out of the question.
Only two scenarios could unfold next: either the black dragon would look down upon their small group of a hundred people and fly straight toward the densely populated town ahead, or it would casually decide to exterminate them as a pre-meal appetizer.
To be completely honest, neither outcome was pleasant, but Regulus distinctly favored the former.
Although the dragon descending on the town would cause catastrophic civilian casualties, from his perspective, what did the lives of strangers he had never met have to do with him? When disaster struck, any rational man was obligated to prioritize the safety of his own family before worrying about the world. Those hypocrites who gladly thrust their loved ones into mortal danger just to play the righteous hero were fools with holes in their heads.
"If the beast engages us," Regulus instructed, his eyes locking onto his three strongest guardians, "Betty, Sphinx, Anileni—the three of you form a defensive perimeter, escort the others, and retreat to a safe distance immediately. Once you are clear of the shockwave radius, notify me through the communication mirror."
"Understood, I suppose."
"I will ensure the optimal extraction route."
"Not a single hair on any sister will be harmed," Anileni pledged softly.
Two Great Spirits and an artificial Witch who inherited the intellect of Echidna. In theory, if the three of them combined their magic, they could certainly contest this black dragon. But under the current circumstances, asking them to fight was impossible.
There were simply too many non-combatant wives to safeguard.
If they only had to shield a handful of people, they could weave offensive spells between their barriers. But protecting over a hundred fragile maidens across an open field without any prior ritual preparation was an overwhelming defensive burden.
As the colossal shadow swept overhead, Regulus and the girls maintained absolute stillness, watching from the dirt road below.
Fwhoosh—!
The dragon roared past! Its primary focus was indeed the concentrated life signatures of the populous town.
Unfortunately, before anyone could exhale a sigh of relief, the rightmost head of the three-headed beast abruptly twisted backward, its slit-pupil eyes locking directly onto their convoy.
Its jagged maw tore open, and a blinding, apocalyptic pillar of incandescent fire surged downward!
The signature attack of draconic kind—Dragon Breath!
Watching the torrential wall of flame incinerate the sky as it crashed toward them, Regulus's mood sank.
'You overgrown pest really had to pick a fight!'
"Get behind me!"
Regulus grabbed the heavy, reinforced frame of an empty dragon carriage beside him. Channeling his Authority, he froze the carriage's physical state in time and hurled it like a massive siege projectile straight into the descending pillar of flame!
BOOM—!
The time-frozen carriage tore through the center of the Dragon Breath with infinite, unyielding momentum, scattering the concentrated thermal energy into harmless sparks across the sky. The residual shockwaves were effortlessly diffused by Anileni's surging barrier of pure water mana.
"Retreat, now!"
"Be careful, Regulus! This beast's mana capacity is absurdly high, I suppose!" Beatrice warned, her small face deeply solemn as she maintained her defensive barrier.
Even though she knew Regulus was invulnerable to all harm, the density of pure fire mana packed into that casual breath was far beyond standard high-tier magic. If Regulus hadn't shattered the core of the blast, holding it off with sheer spiritual mana would have severely depleted her reserves.
"Don't worry about me. Go!"
Seeing Regulus take command of the battlefield, the girls no longer hesitated, swiftly pulling back under the escort of the Great Spirits.
In the sky above, the black dragon swerved, dodging the spinning carriage that had torn through its breath. It hovered on massive wings, glaring down at the lone, white-haired figure standing on the shattered road.
"What are you glaring at, you overgrown lizard?" Regulus sneered, raising his right hand and extending his middle finger toward the sky. "Keep staring and I'll rip all three of your ugly heads off!"
The black dragon paused for a fraction of a second.
Although the altitude was far too high for it to hear his voice, the universal disrespect of the middle finger was unmistakable. For ten thousand years, it had never witnessed an insect show such brazen, unfiltered defiance before its might.
Capitalizing on its momentary hesitation, Regulus sharply swung his arm.
A blade of time-frozen air slashed upward at supersonic speed!
Yet, to Regulus's irritation, the beast's primal reflexes flared. With a violent beat of its wings, it tilted its massive body, narrowly allowing the invisible spatial tear to graze past its scales.
'As expected of Valgren,' Regulus analyzed coldly. 'This thing once threw the entire Kingdom into chaos until the Divine Dragon Volcanica personally intervened. Its combat instincts are top-tier.'
The next instant, a guttural roar shook the heavens.
All three of Valgren's heads opened simultaneously! A barrage of concentrated Dragon Breaths rained downward like a cluster of falling meteors, completely engulfing the entire valley in a sea of apocalyptic hellfire.
Assuming the impudent insect had been vaporized into ash, Valgren spread its vast wings, preparing to dive after the fleeing convoy.
However, before it could accelerate, its serpentine eyes dilated in sheer disbelief.
Standing dead center within the roaring, incandescent ocean of fire, the white-haired young man stood completely untouched—his clothes pristine, his posture relaxed, and not a single hair singed.
For the next few minutes, an absurd aerial siege played out across the canyon.
Valgren relentlessly carpet-bombed the earth with torrential waves of Dragon Breath, while Regulus scooped up handfuls of gravel and hurled them upward like an anti-aircraft railgun battery.
Under normal circumstances, Regulus was accustomed to instantly pulverizing any foe who stood before him. But right now, chucking pebbles at a fast-moving, high-altitude target without hitting anything made him feel thoroughly ridiculous.
The biggest issue was simple: he couldn't fly.
The dragon was circling thousands of feet in the air. Unless the beast was stupid enough to descend into melee range, sniping it from the ground with thrown rocks was inefficient.
'I suppose I shouldn't expect an apex predator to be brainless enough to land...'
Just as that cynical thought crossed his mind, Valgren's patience snapped.
Seeing that its breath was entirely useless against this anomalous entity, the black dragon folded its wings and dived toward the ground at terminal velocity, determined to crush the white-haired anomaly with its overwhelming physical mass!
Regulus did not throw a single pebble. He stood calmly, waiting. If he attacked while the gap was too wide, the dragon would merely bank and dodge again.
'Closer... just a little closer...'
The moment Valgren breached the low-altitude threshold, its center head unleashed a blinding flash of Dragon Breath, entirely obscuring Regulus's field of vision with thick smoke and flame.
'A visual feint? So this lizard actually has a few working brain cells after all.'
Through the roaring wall of fire, a colossal, jagged maw suddenly burst forth, its razor-sharp, obsidian fangs lunging directly downward to swallow Regulus whole!
'It really thinks it can eat me?'
Facing the descending abyss of teeth and miasma, Regulus didn't flinch, nor did he raise a finger to defend himself. He simply stood with his hands in his pockets.
CRUNCH—!
A sickening, metallic shatter echoed across the valley.
The dragon's massive jaws clamped shut with the force of an tectonic collision—only for dozens of its gigantic, ancient fangs to violently snap and splinter into bloody shards against the immovable, invincible contour of Regulus's body!
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Give me powerstones.
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