"As you wish, Mother."
"However, I will say this upfront: I may cause you a great deal of pain, and I will not feel the slightest bit of remorse for it."
Garros gave a low chuckle, his massive dragon wings suddenly spreading to the sides, the shadow cast instantly engulfing the light in the surrounding area like a surging black tide.
He calmly stepped back several paces, each landing causing the hard ground to tremble slightly, clearing enough combat space for this imminent parent-child exchange.
Meanwhile.
A heart-palpitating Aura naturally permeated the area, causing the surrounding subordinates who were watching from afar to fall silent in fear, their legs trembling.
"All of you, retreat! Get away from here!"
Following Leticia's order, the subordinates, who were already terrified, felt as if they had been granted amnesty and scrambled to retreat as fast as they could, keeping as far away as possible from the two Dragons whose Aura continued to rise like volcanoes on the verge of eruption.
"Come, Garros."
Leticia roared deeply, the roar kicking up visible waves of air that buffeted the surrounding atmosphere.
"Let me properly see just how much progress you have made in these past few decades."
Clang, clang, clang—!
Accompanied by her low growl, the iron-gray dragon scales covering her entire body, thick like refined steel armor, seemed to come alive. They rubbed and collided against each other, emitting a teeth-gritting metallic friction sound like a thousand sharp swords being unsheathed simultaneously.
The moment her voice fell, Leticia launched a thunderous offensive.
Boom—!!!
The Iron Dragon's immensely strong hind legs slammed into the hard rocky ground.
Tremendous power erupted instantly, and the hard rock layer was torn apart and shattered by her dragon claws like fragile cookies, with gravel flying everywhere!
She flapped her wings, her body like a cannonball, charging forward fiercely, heading straight for the Red-Iron Dragon before her.
As she charged, she raised her right claw covered in thick steel scales.
Spell-like Ability—Steel Dragon Claw!
A thick, black light, like liquid metal, flowed and flickered rapidly on her right claw, the entire dragon claw exuding an extremely heavy, seemingly indestructible texture.
Facing this aggressive steel claw that struck like a battering ram.
Garros raised his own claw at almost the same moment.
No dodging, no fancy tricks, only the most primitive, most direct frontal clash.
Clang—!!!!
The instant the two dragon claws, containing immense power, collided violently, a visible shockwave suddenly spread out, sweeping across the surroundings.
An extremely loud metallic explosion, as if two giant hammers had smashed into each other, rang out.
Scorching sparks splattered from the point of impact like fireworks.
The entire valley was almost left buzzing from the vibration.
At the moment of impact, Leticia's eyes narrowed sharply, clearly feeling the massive power coming from Garros's claw, far exceeding her expectations.
The combat-experienced Leticia immediately made an adjustment.
She let out a low growl, her strong legs firmly rooted to the ground like two steel tower bases, supporting her massive body as she suddenly stood upright.
Using the standing posture to dissipate some of the impact force, she lightning-fast retracted her right claw, which was slightly numb from the shock.
Her movements were like a tide!
Leticia's pair of dragon claws instantly turned into two steel whirlwinds tearing through the air, striking out with a speed several times faster than her previous swift thrust.
Attacking from left and right, claw shadows chained together.
The massive iron claws brought up blurry afterimages, as if launching a storm-like, multiple-target attack covering Garros's head, neck, chest, and abdomen all at the same time.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
The dense metallic clashing sounds, like a sudden downpour hitting banana leaves, rang out frantically again. Garros also stood upright without hesitation, displaying astonishing agility completely inconsistent with his massive, sturdy physique.
His claws moved like lightning, meeting Leticia's claw shadows that had almost turned into a curtain of cold iron light.
For every bit more fierce and swift Leticia's claw strikes became, Garros's counterattacks became equally fierce and swift. Between the two Dragons, one could only see countless cold-glinting claw shadows frantically crossing, colliding, separating, and colliding again!
The piercing, sharp sounds of metal clashing were endless.
"Such fast speed! Such precise reactions!"
Leticia was secretly shocked.
That Garros's massive, sturdy, and muscular body could possess such agile speed and neural reactions truly exceeded her expectations.
She found that she was even gradually unable to keep up with the rhythm of his attacks.
Tactical Wisdom!
She did not hesitate to activate a long-prepared Spell, her gaze instantly becoming as calm and deep as an icy lake.
An invisible tactical model seemed to appear in her field of vision.
She decomposed and analyzed every subtle shift in the Red-Iron Dragon's center of gravity, every transmission and surge of power in his shoulder muscles, every trajectory arc of his claw attacks... as if in slow motion, taking it all in.
Through this transcendent observational perspective that was almost like viewing the entire situation.
She was able to make blocks and counterattacks faster and more precisely than relying solely on instinct.
"The Iron Dragon Mother has definitely taken up some combat professions, and it seems she has also dual-cultivated other completely different paths."
Garros was thoughtful, a glint flashing in his eyes as he silently activated his Detection Spell.
[Adult Iron Dragon, Life Level: Rank 17]
The detection results showed that the Iron Dragon Leticia's Life Level was exactly the same as his, both at Rank 17.
Facing an adult Iron Dragon of the same Rank who had clearly dual-cultivated multiple paths and was rich in combat experience, Garros set aside his relaxed attitude and decided to get a bit more serious.
Zzzzt—!
With a deep breath.
Dazzling, thick lightning like liquid gold suddenly burst forth from within his majestic dragon body, his physique instantly expanding another size as if inflated, his muscle dimensions surging.
Immediately following that, after a swift exchange of claw strikes.
Garros's thick right claw, wreathed in golden lightning and bursting with power, seemed to break through the constraints of space, carrying the momentum to crush everything, and slammed violently toward Leticia's relatively weakly defended waist and abdomen area.
Shield Parry!
Leticia's reaction was extremely fast; she immediately retreated half a step while crossing her broad dragon wings in front of her. A layer of solid, thick black light instantly flashed across the surface of the wing membranes, as if turning into two huge tower shields, attempting to block and deflect this heavy blow.
However, the moment the claws made contact with the dragon wings.
She only felt an overwhelming force that was completely impossible to resist surge in; the defensive black light condensed on the dragon wings shattered instantly like fragile glass.
Shield Parry skill failed.
That immensely thick power coursed through her entire body.
Leticia's massive dragon body was blasted backward, completely out of control, as if thrown by a catapult. She stumbled backward repeatedly on the ground, forcibly plowing out a deep trench nearly a hundred meters long before barely stopping her momentum.
"Terrifying, power pure to the extreme, even surpassing an adult Red Dragon."
Leticia shook her somewhat trembling and numb dragon wings, and just as she raised her head to look at the position where Garros had originally stood, she discovered that the dark red figure was already gone from her field of vision!
Above!
The extraordinary perception and crisis prediction enhanced by Tactical Wisdom were still in effect. At the critical moment, relying on her combat instinct, Leticia rolled violently to the side.
Riiiip—!!!
A huge, high-speed rotating shadow tore through the ground where she had just been standing.
Using his strong spine as an axis and his pair of dragon wings, with edges sharp as giant blades, as weapons, Garros had unleashed a devastating blade storm!
Leticia had thrillingly dodged the first attack.
But due to the terrifying attack range brought about by Garros's incredibly amazing wingspan, she was still enveloped by the subsequent spreading attacks.
Hardened Body!
A thick metallic luster, flowing like mercury, instantly appeared and solidified on Leticia's body surface; this was a signature Spell-like Ability that all Iron Dragons possessed.
However, this was not enough.
At the same time that Hardened Body took effect, she let out a low growl, and the Demonic Energy around her surged out as if boiling, quickly constructing a tough, translucent magic energy protective film outside her scales.
Arcane Deflection—capable of significantly weakening incoming physical impact and energy damage.
Iron Dragons themselves were renowned for their indestructible defensive power.
In terms of strength, they might be inferior to Red Dragons of the same Rank, but in terms of body hardness and defensive capability, they were often superior.
However.
Facing Garros's attack, Leticia's carefully constructed double-layer defense was still torn apart layer by layer.
The edges of the dragon wings, like two giant guillotines, slashed down fiercely and continuously onto her crossed-block dragon wings and shoulders/back.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Accompanied by bursts of violently spraying sparks and piercing tearing sounds, Leticia's originally incredibly hard Iron Dragon scales were forcibly sliced open and shattered.
Scalding dragon blood immediately splattered out from the deep wounds.
"It seems I am no match for Garros?"
The intense pain made Leticia's heart sink; she had already roughly foreseen the final result of this battle.
But the pride of being the older, more senior party made her unwilling to admit defeat so easily.
Moreover, in her view, what determined the outcome of a battle was not just strength and defense.
Combat experience and the grasp of timing were equally crucial.
Garros's entire body showed no trace of battle-scarred patterns, which perhaps meant that while he was strong, he lacked the rich experience of true life-and-death combat.
If that was the case.
As long as she could seize an excellent opportunity to deliver a heavy, unexpected blow, perhaps there was still a possibility of turning the tide!
Rapid Strike!
After narrowly dodging a powerful claw strike from Garros, Leticia's speed suddenly increased by another notch. She seized the fleeting opening and quickly raised her sharp claws, which glinted with cold light!
Demonic Energy Burst!
Following a short, powerful dragon language incantation, a highly unstable orb of Demonic Energy containing explosive power instantly compressed and condensed in the palm of her claw.
Demonic Energy Surge!
Even more massive Demonic Energy gushed out from the Iron Dragon's body like a breached tide, frantically pouring into the Demonic Energy orb in her claw, causing its energy fluctuations to rapidly climb and vibrate violently.
The air around Leticia's claw was distorting, making her look as if she were clutching a vortex of energy.
"A standard Warrior path, while also dual-cultivating War Magic."
At this point, Garros fully confirmed the main professional direction the Iron Dragon Mother had chosen.
The Warrior path goes without saying; it is the foundation of close-quarters combat.
War Magic is a special Spellcaster path that integrates the destruction of the Evocation school and the defense of the Abjuration school, focusing on offense and defense in one.
It lacks some of the variety of pure Evocation or Abjuration paths, but its offensive and defensive Spells are extremely pure and efficient, capable of being cast quickly in a very short time, making it very suitable for high-intensity, fast-paced close-quarters slaughter.
Meanwhile.
Facing this dangerous, brewing blow, the Dragon Qi surging within Garros also accelerated its circulation, and he swung his claws out.
Boom! Boom!
Both of their attacks hit each other's chests almost simultaneously.
Pfft—!
The Iron Dragon Mother Leticia was hit hard, suddenly opening her mouth to spray a large mouthful of scalding dragon blood. Her body was blasted backward like a kite with a broken string, crashing heavily to the ground.
The large area of steel-scaled chest armor on her chest was completely shattered and sunken, and one could even faintly see the outline of the broken bones beneath.
On the other side.
Having taken a solid, enhanced Demonic Energy Burst, that highly concentrated explosive energy detonated on the Red-Iron Dragon's chest, creating a blinding magical flare!
However.
Garros's body, heavy as if cast in iron, only stumbled back a dozen steps before steadily stopping, the black light on his body slowly dissipating.
Hardened Body; he also knew this Spell-like Ability.
His own defensive capabilities combined with Hardened Body meant that, let alone being blasted away, Garros didn't even lose his balance and fall.
"Did... did I win?"
Leticia only felt a buzzing in her head, and waves of intense pain kept coming with the heaving of her chest.
She struggled to crawl up from the ground, immediately raising her head to look in the direction of the Red-Iron Dragon, and then, her expression instantly froze on her face.
Under her gaze.
The Red-Iron Dragon just lowered his head slightly, reached out his claw, and casually patted his chest, brushing off the shattered Frostburn Scales fragments, revealing the layer of black-red inner main scales beneath, which were covered in dense, crisscrossing battle-scarred patterns.
On those scales, only some slight scorch marks and insignificant white marks were left.
"Do you want to continue?"
Garros raised his eyes, looking at the scarred Iron Dragon Mother, his voice as calm as before, as if the attack that could have severely injured a Dragon of the same Rank just now was merely a breeze.
Silence lasted for a few seconds.
Finally, Leticia slowly shook her head: "No need, continuing to fight is meaningless."
She had to admit this fact.
The indestructible defense that Iron Dragons were proud of, the overwhelming power that Red Dragons were proud of... the signature advantages of these two great Dragon species were perfectly, or even over-the-top, embodied in Garros.
And other advantages that Iron Dragons and Red Dragons did not possess, he seemed to have as well.
Leticia stared closely at that strong dragon body that seemed to contain infinite power, not revealing any flustered or angry emotions due to her failure.
The muscles on her huge dragon face slowly twitched, and finally, she revealed a smile.
"My dear Garros, your strength indeed far exceeds my most optimistic expectations."
She said: "I... am proud of you."
This sentence invisibly diluted the strangeness and estrangement brought about by decades of separation, quietly narrowing the special connection between them based on their Bloodline.
Obviously, the Iron Dragon Leticia had her own extraordinary wisdom in communication and managing situations.
"This is thanks to the Bloodline inherited from you, Mother; I am equally proud of it."
Garros responded, his words once again narrowing the distance between them.
Obviously, well-versed in dragon nature, he also knew how to communicate with Iron Dragons.