Coiling Dragon

by welyjesch

  “Thud!” “Thud!” “Thud!”

  The Violet Tattooed Bear began to walk away in a different direction, moving a long distance with each stride. Every building in its way was crushed and demolished.

  “Clayde!” Seeing Clayde and his men grow farther and farther away, Linley wanted to immediately chase after them.

  But yet another massive dragon descended from the skies. This was a massive Black Dragon, over a hundred meters long, and it blocked the road in front of Linley while constantly reaching for Linley with its claws. From its mouth, it repeatedly blasted hot flames at Linley.

  Both the earth and the skies were covered in dragons, and all of them were launching attacks at Linley. Surrounded and attacked by so many dragons, Linley felt miserable as well.

  “Bastards!”

  Encircled and besieged by a large number of dragons, Linley could only watch as Clayde disappeared from his field of vision.

  “Boss, we need to flee!” Bebe was frantic now.

  Bebe was extremely agile, and also very small. It would be very difficult for those dragons to attack him. What’s more, Bebe’s fierce claws and sharp fangs were very powerful as well. His attack power was now enough to cause some harm to the dragons, causing all of them to be quite nervous with respect to that little tiny thing.

  “Go. Go where?”

  No matter in which direction Linley tried to flee, a host of dragons would block and attack. He wasn’t afraid of dragons of the eighth rank, but there were more than ten dragons of the ninth rank as well.

  “Whap!”

  Linley was attacked viciously by a Silver Dragon’s tail, but Linley only flipped around in the air before trying to flee again. But it was useless. In midair, several dragons encircled and attacked again. Linley was in such a bad situation that he wanted to cry.

  “Swish!” Linley very agilely avoided an attack by a fierce claw, continuing to dodge about at high speed.

  “Boss, I’ll help you!” Seeing the danger Linley was in, Bebe immediately flew over as well and began chomping down viciously at the leg of that dragon. CRUNCH! CRUNCH! CRUNCH!

  “Roaaaaar!” That giant dragon let out a roar of pain.

  Relying on his astonishing speed, Linley managed to resolve one draconic attack after another. Whenever he met with real danger, Bebe would help out. The dragons weren’t able to do anything to Linley for now either.

  In their eyes, this human-shaped aberration was too hard to deal with, and that even smaller-sized rat-type magical beast kept on nibbling at them and causing them pain.

  “Roaaaaar!” The leading Black Dragon let out another roar.

  Instantly, all of the dragons flew into the air. They had already made the decision to give up this battle against this difficult-to-deal-with human-shaped aberration. It was totally not worth it for an entire host of dragons to waste so much time on a single human-shaped aberration.

  The host of dragons flew away, just like that.

  “They left?” Linley was startled.

  Just moments ago, he had been frantically dealing with the attacks of many dragons, and he had been dodging for his life. That was a very miserable experience. He didn’t expect the dragons to give up just like that.

  “Boss, let’s go now!” Bebe urged.

  “Right. Clayde.”

  Recalling Clayde, Linley maintained his Dragonform and led Bebe at a high speed charge through the city.

  By now, the vicious battles between man and magical beast within Fenlai City had all but come to an end. There were very few living people within Fenlai City now, and virtually the only creatures alive on the streets were magical beasts that were hunting for living humans. The Dragonformed Linley moved too fast, and what’s more, the fact that his body was covered in scales deceived many magical beasts into thinking that Linley was a magical beast as well.

  “Not here.”

  Linley had led a chase in the direction where he thought Clayde would’ve fled to, but even after escaping Fenlai City, he still didn’t find any traces of Clayde’s party.

  Outside Fenlai City. A desolate scene.

  Even many of the great trees that had lined the road to and from Fenlai City had been shattered. Countless human corpses lay on the road as well. Clearly, these people had managed to flee Fenlai City, but had been killed outside the city by magical beasts nonetheless.

  In the desolate countryside outside Fenlai City, small groups of one or two magical beasts could be seen everywhere.

  “I wonder what direction that Clayde ran off in.” Linley stared at the three branching forks ahead of him. He felt very helpless. It was possible that Clayde might’ve even left through the East Gate of Fenlai City, but as Linley saw it, that was unlikely, because the further east they went, the closer they would have become to the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts.

  Thus, Linley had chosen to exit via the West Gate.

  But despite having left by the West Gate, Linley still didn’t know in what direction he should now head. After all, there were hoof prints pointing every which way.

  “Perhaps that Clayde didn’t choose any of the roads, and went cross-country into the wilderness.” Linley said to himself. The weakest person in Clayde’s party was of the seventh rank, and so going cross-country wouldn’t be difficult at all.

  Linley understood that the chance of finding Clayde in the wilderness was very, very low!

  “North. I heard that ‘King’ of the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts say that the people of the Holy Union could only flee to the north! I’ll head north as well. Given Clayde’s fame, there’s no way that his passing will attract no attention. When I reach the north, I’ll search for him again.” Linley made up his mind.

  Seeing the corpses littering the area around him, Linley couldn’t help but sigh.

  “Ah! Wushan township!”

  Linley suddenly thought of his own hometown. Wushan township was less than a hundred kilometers away from Fenlai City. What sort of shape was Wushan township currently in? Linley couldn’t be bothered to cancel his Dragonform transformation, as he began to run at high speed available to him towards Wushan township.

  Although Linley wasn’t moving at maximum speed, after having assumed the Dragonform, he was able to easily travel two or three hundred kilometers each hour as a warrior of the ninth rank.

  The trees on each side of the road quickly disappeared into the distance, and dust flew about everywhere.

  “Is that…?” A fleeing mounted knight suddenly saw a human-shaped aberration suddenly charge in his direction from behind. He couldn’t help but be frightened, but Linley only passed him by, moving like the wind towards Wushan township. This was the speed of a warrior of the ninth rank! Within twenty minutes, Linley had drawn close enough that he could see his hometown.

  Wushan township.

  This was a very quiet little township. In the past, the lives of the commoners here had been very peaceful.

  But now…

  Corpses. Mutilated corpses everywhere. Those corpses clearly bore the signs of having been ravaged by magical beasts.

  “This…this…” Linley walked onto the main road of Wushan township. He stared at the corpses littering the main road or the side alleys. There were old people, young people, women, children…seeing all this, Linley couldn’t help but feel grief in his heart.

  Linley recognized the majority of these dead people.

  Linley suddenly saw a young man not far away, clutching a baby in his arms. That young man’s body was covered with blood, and that baby had been bitten to death as well.

  “Or…Orson [Ao’sen].” Linley wanted to cry, but the tears wouldn’t come out.

  Orson was only one year older than him. When Linley had first started his physical training at the empty training grounds outside Wushan township, both of them had been placed within the six-to-eight year old group. Orson was the little boy who had stood right next to Linley when they had lined up. The two of them were on fairly good terms. Linley knew
that two years ago, Orson had gotten married after reaching the age of maturity. That dead infant was most likely Orson’s child.

  “Rip. Rip.” Not too far away, several Windwolves were chewing on the corpses of the dead.

  “Ah!” Linley cast a furious glare at them, then flew towards them like a bolt of lightning. He didn’t use his Bloodviolet Godsword. Using his two hands, he either smashed their heads in or ripped them into several pieces barehanded.

  In the blink of an eye, the few dozen magical beasts which had remained in Wushan township were all killed.

  Seeing the magical beast corpses around him, as well as the human corpses, Linley cancelled his Dragonform transformation, a pained laugh escaping him. And then, he felt to his knees, powerless.

  Everyone was dead.

  “Haha…” Linley began to laugh in a low voice, but his eyes had begun to fill with tears.

  “When the magical beasts ambushed the city and I escaped from the Radiant Temple, I was so immeasurably smug and self-satisfied with myself. But…” Linley’s tears began to flow. Only now did Linley truly understand the meaning behind the words that ‘King’ of the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts had spoken.

  “How could I be a pathetic human? Humans are nothing more than food to us magical beasts!”

  “Food. Food.”

  Linley’s heart was filled with grief.

  Wushan township. His hometown. These familiar fellow villagers!

  All dead.

  When he had left his hometown, Linley had felt fairly calm, because he had always known that his hometown would still be there. But now…his hometown was gone. Everyone was dead.

  “What a calamity.” Doehring Cowart’s ancient voice rang out. “Not just for your hometown. Most likely nearly half of the entire Holy Union has now become the domain of magical beasts. Those people…will become nothing more than food.”

  Linley quietly stared at his surroundings. He could totally envision how the countless people within the domain of the Holy Union had now been trapped within a catastrophic nightmare. This so-called day of joy, the 10000th anniversary of the Yulan Festival, to the people of the Holy Union and the Dark Alliance, had become a day of catastrophe.

  Book 7, Heaven and Earth Turned Upside Down – Chapter 11, The Titanic Black Python

  When a catastrophe occurred, the only thing a person could do was accept it.

  After leaving Wushan township, Linley and Bebe headed north. Everything Linley saw only made him all the more taciturn. The entire Kingdom of Fenlai had turned into a playground for magical beasts, and human corpses were nothing more than food for them.

  On the long road north, magical beasts occasionally dotted the landscape. Not a single living human being could be seen.

  But suddenly, a human form appeared at the end of the road. The human form was moving forward quickly, and was being pursued by several howling magical beasts. But with a few flashes of violet light, those magical beasts were diced apart, and the human form continued northwards. On this person’s shoulders, there was an adorable little black Shadowmouse.

  “Boss, shouldn’t we find a place to rest? I’m getting a bit hungry.” Standing on Linley’s shoulders, Bebe mentally spoke to Linley.

  Linley cast a helpless look at Bebe.

  This entire trip, he was the one who had been actively moving, while Bebe was either just standing on his shoulders, enjoying the wind, or sleeping inside Linley’s clothes. How exactly was he tired?

  “Fine. There’s a mountain up ahead. We can kill a few magical beasts and cook them for food.” Linley still pampered and spoiled Bebe as always. To Linley, aside from his three bros and his younger brother Wharton, who was in the O’Brien Empire along with Uncle Hillman and Housekeeper Hiri, he had no close kin. But meeting with Wharton or his three bros was and would be an extremely rare thing.

  Only Bebe would always be by his side.

  In Linley’s heart, he viewed Bebe as a younger brother to be pampered and spoiled.

  “This Bloodviolet Godsword is still quite handy when dealing with magical beasts of the seventh or eighth ranks. But it is quite hard for it to penetrate the defense of a magical beast of the ninth rank and deliver a sufficiently deadly wound.” Linley glanced at the sword at his waist and sighed.

  The Bloodviolet Godsword was very sharp, very fast, and could bend in any which way he desired it to. It was thus extremely useful when dealing against large numbers of weaker enemies. But when used to deal with a single powerful magical beast, this Bloodviolet Godsword of Linley’s was actually not even as good as Linley’s own claws and draconic tail.

  At the base of the stubby mountain, Linley and Bebe were roasting a pair of wolf legs. Bebe and Linley had not yet left the boundaries of the Kingdom of Fenlai, and so the area was swarming with magical beasts. But given Linley and Bebe’s current power, as long as they didn’t encounter any Saint-level magical beasts, they would be safe.

  “It’s cooked.” Bebe immediately grabbed a haunch of wolf leg and began to chomp through it.

  With a wave of his hand, Linley extinguished the fire, then grabbed a roasted wolf leg and began eating as well. This roasted wolf leg, when cooked alongside some wild herbs and grasses, was actually quite tasty. In the mountain wilderness areas, one could often find some ingredients which could be used for cooking. This was a survival skill one learned in the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts, and Linley naturally knew it.

  That wolf leg was much larger than Bebe, but Bebe finished eating it before Linley had. By the time Linley was halfway through, Bebe had finished his portion.

  “Slither slither.”

  Suddenly, a very minute sound could be heard from far away. Linley froze in mid-bite, while Bebe’s little ears perked up as well. In unison, the man and the magical beast turned to stare behind them.

  It was a python.

  An enormous python, easily the size of a house. Those two bizarre, reptilian eyes looked like giant red lanterns. Only ten or so meters of its enormous body could be seen outside of a grove, but just judging from the fact that its body was three meters thick, Linley could easily imagine how terrifyingly large this creature really was.

  The visible ten or so meters was just a small part of it.

  Seeing the dense black skin, tattooed with yellow lines, the expression on Linley’s face changed.

  “It’s a Titanic Black Python.” Linley was instantly sure of this magical beast’s breed.

  Titanic Black Pythons were considered one of the more powerful types of pythons. Generally speaking, adult Titanic Black Pythons were magical beasts of the ninth rank, roughly on par with the Nine Headed Serpents. Amongst python-type beasts, the Titanic Black Python was famed as a war machine.

  If you were to place a Titanic Black Python in the middle of an army, it could definitely kill a hundred thousand soldiers.

  It was a darkness-style magical beast with incredible defensive powers. Its fangs were poisonous. These were the special traits of the Titanic Black Python.

  “Hisssss. Hisssss.” The forked tongue of the Titanic Black Python flicked in and out, and its cold eyes stared at Linley and Bebe. Clearly, this Titanic Black Python had already decided that Linley and Bebe were to be its next meals.

  “Bebe. Be careful.”

  Linley’s gaze was locked on the Titanic Black Python, not daring to relax in the slightest. At the same time, dense black scales began to erupt from Linley’s skin, and a row of spikes rose up out of his back. His forehead, elbows, and knees all sprouted fierce, sharp spikes as well.

  “Whap. Whap.” Linley’s draconic tail slapped the ground a few times. By Linley’s side, all of the hair on Bebe’s body was standing up straight.

  Seeing this, the Titanic Black Python suddenly rose up high in the air. Clearly, it was now on guard and vigilant.

  “Whoosh!”

  Like a gust of wind, the entire body of the Titanic Black Python shot forward. In less than a second, its enormous, hundred-meter long b
ody was striking against Linley and Bebe, who both also almost simultaneously launched attacks against the Titanic Black Python.

  “Swish!” Bloodviolet flashed.

  “Clang!” Linley heard a sound similar to a hammer striking against an anvil. His Bloodviolet Godsword had only been able to leave behind a white mark on the Titanic Black Python’s skin, and hadn’t managed to wound it at all.

  “It really is very durable.”

  The enormous body of the Titanic Black Python began to wrap around Linley. Linley knew that if he allowed it to constrict him, not only would he be unable to breathe, the terrifyingly powerful constrictive force would probably be able to crush him to death.

  “Haaaa!”

  Linley’s sharp claws suddenly pierced towards the Titanic Black Python’s body. With a ‘rip’ sound, his claws penetrated the Titanic Black Python’s outer layer of scales. However, Linley could feel that his claws could go no further. Beneath the scales, Linley could sense an astonishingly durable force.

  “Whoosh!” The Python was about to constrict Linley!

  Linley only laughed coldly. He suddenly ripped his claws free and leaped outside of the Titanic Black Python’s coils, while at the same time smashing his elbows down at the Titanic Black Python. Linley’s elbows had those sharp spikes on them, which were the unique traits of Armored Razorback Wyrm’s and possessed astonishing power.

  “Riiip!” The spike pierced through the black scales and slowly penetrated downwards.

  “What exactly is underneath the scales of this Titanic Black Python? Its defense is so formidable.” Linley’s sharp spike was only able to penetrate halfway through before being stopped.

  “Aaaargh!”

  The Titanic Black Python let out an angry, pain-filled roar, and in a flash, its massive head struck towards Linley, its bloody maw opened wide. Suddenly, a black liquid shot out from its mouth and was spat towards Linley.

  “Venom.” Linley immediately leapt off against the body of the Titanic Black Python, hurriedly dodging backwards.