Chương 178: Reborn as the Dragon — Chapter 178 - Fooling the Brass Dragon

The blinding, will-crushing effect of Little Red's Spicy Fecal Bomb hit harder than even the stench itself. The Sakura Players snapped back to their senses and bolted for the center of Sakura Island No. 2 Starter Village. It was the only clean ground left in the entire place. But if every stinking, spice-soaked player crammed into the same spot, wouldn't it still be just as bad? And so, inevitably, something absurd happened.

The players who had made it to the center first started blocking everyone else from getting in. They shoved. They swung fists. A line of warrior players locked together into a human wall, self-made shields planted in the ground in front of them, eyes hard as they watched the filth-covered players stumbling toward them, like soldiers watching a horde of infected zombies shamble in from the dark.

"Let us through! I can't take it anymore!"

"Hey, Taijun! Can't you see the gas spreading over there? Let us in!" The players blocked outside pleaded desperately. The warrior players didn't budge.

"Back off! You reek. You want in, clean yourselves up first!"

"Get lost. Force your way through and we put you down!" Some mage players heard that and immediately stripped and started scrubbing themselves down with conjured water spheres. The warrior players had no such option. It wasn't like they could shave off a layer of their own skin with a sword. Su Nian watched all of this from the sky. Most of the players had clustered together in the center of Sakura Island No. 2 Starter Village now. Time to harvest.

"Rolls-Royce, follow me and breathe straight at the center of that human village!" Su Nian's roar carried across the sky.

"Master... I'm not sure that's... I mean, these humans haven't done anything to us. Why would we slaughter them?"

"If they'd picked a fight with us, killing them would make sense. But..." Rolls-Royce hesitated. He was, at his core, a good dragon. Picking up a butcher's knife and slaughtering a village of humans wasn't something he could just do on a whim.

"Foolish." Su Nian's voice went cold. He spat a glob of dragon phlegm. The scorching magma-hot spit struck Sakura Island No. 2 Starter Village below and vaporized an unlucky warrior player on contact.

"Why are dragon numbers falling?"

"You told me yourself," Su Nian continued.

"Mana is declining. Habitats are disappearing. Dragon eggs are getting weaker. Most can't even hatch anymore."

"And the ones that do? Mindless drakes. Deformed runts."

"Have you ever actually asked yourself why?" Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. Rolls-Royce blinked his big round eyes, blank.

"Why?"

"Because of humans!" Su Nian's voice cracked with fury, dripping with killing intent. He was practically giving a performance, every syllable calculated, every pause deliberate.

"Humans have stolen our living space!"

"Humans have destroyed our habitat!"

"Humans have butchered our kin — taking their hearts, taking their penises, soaking them in wine, stuffing them in meals, carving us into equipment!" Something shifted in Rolls-Royce's expression. He turned it over in his mind. The last thousand years. What humans had done in the aftermath of that great war. Emperor Xiwei's victory had sent human fortune soaring, because when all was said and done, the Emperor was human. Every other race adjusted accordingly.

Humans had ridden that wave ever since, growing more arrogant with every passing generation. Now they practically believed the entire continent existed for their benefit. There was a time when humans feared dragons. Now they looked at dragons the way a miner looks at a mountain: not with awe, but with calculation. A flying stockpile of materials, waiting to be broken down.

"Your parents were killed by human dragon slayers," Su Nian said quietly.

"You should carry hatred for humans. Not this — not cowering and mumbling about how they're 'innocent.'""If you die, you close your mouth forever. No more conversation. No more friends."

"Even the humans who called themselves your friends only respected you because you could crush them."

"The moment you let one go, he walks to the nearest town, finds a dragon slayer, leads him straight to your lair, and stands over your corpse waving a bag of gold. Cheering."

"No!" Fire blazed up in Rolls-Royce's eyes. The aura radiating off him surged to its peak. Scorching heat churned around his body in waves. Anyone nearby could feel the rage rolling off him.

"Humans. Humans deserve to die!" Everything clicked. It was all because of humans. These greedy, grasping humans had turned him into what he was. He could have had a little colony of goblins or sprites to talk with every day. He could have had company. Instead he had been rotting alone in this barren corner of the Moriqan Desert. Su Nian looked at the furious Rolls-Royce and knew the Brass Dragon was thoroughly sold. He was still Chaotic Good, that part hadn't changed.

He just wasn't extending that goodness to humans anymore.

"Good. Now that you understand, follow me and help me burn this village to the ground." Su Nian turned and dove, wings snapping open as he dropped toward the earth. This time Rolls-Royce didn't hesitate. He fell in tight behind the black dragon, linear dragon breath already building in his throat, coiling there like a loaded crossbow waiting for release.

"Two dragons inbound!" A Sakura Player's shout cut through the noise below, finger stabbing at the sky.

"All mage players, ready up!" Akaguchi Sekisei barked.

"Shield the warriors first, then start chanting your highest-damage spells! Two mages break off and cast Slow on the dragons!" Two players stepped forward immediately, casting Slow at the two massive shapes descending from above. Dragons had exceptional resistance to elemental magic. Slow was just about the only spell that could do anything useful against them. Dragon slayers throughout history had almost always been warriors, mage dragon slayers were vanishingly rare.

As a dragon aged and fought, its scales built up strong magical resistance. Layer that with a dragon's innate talents and its habit of consuming raw minerals, and it became nearly impossible for a mage to deal meaningful damage.

"Warriors!" Akaguchi's voice dropped to a low, hard growl.

"Whether we kill them is on you." This was his first time facing a legendary creature from another world. He'd be lying if he said his hands weren't shaking. He'd heard about dragons his whole gaming life. Now his palms were drenched in sweat. And from the moment the black dragon appeared, he'd already made the calculation: his father was almost certainly a prisoner. That made one thing very clear. The dragons had to die. Closer. Getting closer.

"Draw your javelins! Every warrior player, aim at the sky!"

"Everyone in No. 2 Starter Village trained in Throwing — I know it!"

"Forty-five degree elevation! Full power, on my mark!" CLATTER! Hundreds of javelins cleared their sheaths in a single ragged chorus, armor and vambraces ringing off each other in overlapping noise. One hand extended forward, tracking the approaching shapes in the sky. The other hand pulled the javelin back, cocked at the shoulder. Every body tensed. Like a bowstring drawn to its limit.

Akaguchi Sekisei watched the dragons drop lower, calculating distance, angle, trajectory, and then something sharp lit up behind his eyes. He roared:"THROW!" ➤ Next: Encirclement and Suppression