Chương 20: Reborn as the Dragon: — Chapter 20 - The Demise of the Gale Bandit Group

Su Nian had been watching from nearby for a while. When the bandits all charged together and practically grouped themselves up for him, he didn't see any reason to hesitate. As for the mage? She wasn't a priest. Sorry. Adventurers with no utility were enemies just like the rest. He glided over in one pass, beat his wings, banked back around, and unleashed a second stream of breath. The acidic cloud came down from above, less concentrated than the first, but covering exponentially more ground.

"It's a Black Dragon! Scatter, run!" The faster bandits were already screaming warnings at the others.

"Kyle, my eyes — they burn, I can't see!"

"Help me, I don't want to die!" The breath didn't kill them outright. It just ate through whatever was exposed, skin, eyes, everything that wasn't behind cloth or leather, and plenty that was. The bandits shrieked and ran blind into the jungle. That was when the Kobolds Su Nian had brought along finally got to do their job. Or rather, the traps they'd set in advance got to do their job. One bandit stumbled through the brush with both hands clamped over his eyes, moaning.

Acid was running down inside his collar, working through cloth and into skin. His whole body was on fire. He needed water, a stream, anything, and he knew these woods well enough to find one even half-blind. What he didn't know about were the tripwires and spike pits hidden in the grass. A Kobold crouched in the undergrowth nearby, eyes cold and sharp. The moment the bandit passed, it yanked the line taut. The bandit's ankle caught. His balance went. He pitched forward into the pit. THUD!

"Ugh—!" Stone spikes and bone spikes punched through him from below. He screamed.

"When the tall ones lie flat in the trap, they are shorter than us!" The Kobold grinned and crawled out of the brush, crouching over the fallen man. It drew its rusty blade across his throat with one easy motion. The same scene played out across the jungle in a dozen variations. The Kobolds had seeded every possible escape route, poisonous insects, fire oil, pit traps, tripwires. Most of the bandits found one before they found freedom.

The ones who survived the initial trigger didn't survive the Kobolds who swarmed out of the grass afterward. Kills made by his minions still counted as his. Su Nian circled overhead, tracking the few who'd slipped through the net. For those, he simply folded his wings and dove, snatched them off the ground with his claws, carried them up, and let go. First-tier bandits didn't survive the landing. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

In less than a minute, the only one still standing was the leader. 786 System Points, just like that. Su Nian ordered Bolikri and the Kobolds to strip the battlefield, then walked to where Joseph knelt, unhurried, dragon head raised high, cold eyes carrying colder intent. [Fear-Stricken Bandit Leader: Joseph, Level 12, Second-Tier Warrior (Trash)] Joseph was shaking so hard he could barely stay upright. In under a minute, the bandit outfit he'd spent years building had been wiped out of existence.

"Great True Dragon!" He pressed himself to the ground like he was trying to sink into it, fingers clutching fistfuls of grass, cheeks wet with tears and snot.

"Please, don't kill me. I'll pay you, I have money, Gold Lions, over a hundred Gold Lions! They're yours, all of them, just let me go. Please." Something flickered back into his eyes. Dragons loved gold. Everyone knew that. He lifted his head, trembling, hope clawing its way back up through the terror. A dragon claw came down instead. CRACK! [Killed Second-Tier Human Warrior. Gained 11 System Points.] Joseph was dead. Half his skull was gone.

His body flew like a bundle of hay hit by something large and very angry, crumpling against a tree stump twenty feet away. Killing felt good. Su Nian tipped his head back and exhaled a satisfied snort through his nostrils. One wing stayed angled to block Anna's sightline. He scraped the blood and brain matter from his other claw on the grass, then kicked what remained of Joseph's head into the bushes. Only then did he lower the wing. She was too young for this. He was protecting the innocence of her heart.

He was settling deeper into his skin as a dragon by the day. Killing a bandit like this barely registered anymore. The mage was gone. She'd been standing in the center of the blast radius both times, and the acid had done its work thoroughly. Where she'd fallen there was nothing left but a dark puddle. Not even bone. Just the mithril staff lying in the mess and the magic ring beside it. Su Nian pinched the ring up with one claw, shook the acid off the staff, and picked it up in his teeth.

Then he turned to look at the second-tier warrior standing alone in the aftermath, completely hollow-eyed. [Despondent Blazer, Level 15, Second-Tier Warrior (Trash)] He hoped the man's next life would teach him not to take his girlfriend on romantic walks through this particular forest. There were lecherous bandits in here. There were also completely unreasonable evil dragons. Su Nian killed him, and collected 16 System Points with a heavy heart. Running total: over eight hundred.

The basic furnace was practically calling his name. He carried Anna back to where Bolikri and the others were working, and found them in absolutely tremendous spirits, hauling away everything the bandits had on them. This was Kobold nature. They looted defeated enemies down to the last item, including, if the ribs were firm enough, bones from the corpse itself. So when he watched one Kobold cheerfully pull a dead bandit's underpants over its head and wear them like a hat, Su Nian didn't particularly flinch.

He did, however, make a mental note of which one it was. Gate guard duty, every single day, indefinitely. It was never setting foot inside the lair. The bandit leader's strongbox full of Gold Lions turned up too, of course. With the word "dog" literally baked into their name, there was no such thing as a physical hiding spot a Kobold couldn't sniff out.

"We have won a tremendous victory — but all glory belongs to our great master!" Bolikri had claimed a waist-high rock as its podium. It held the captured longsword over its head with both hands, arms visibly straining. The sword was not cooperating. The result was more valiant in intention than in execution. It didn't let that stop it. It turned to face the assembled Kobolds and delivered its speech at full volume.

"Dragon scales harden our skin! Dragon bones reinforce our skulls! Dragon hearts ignite the fire in our blood! We stand for the Dragon! Long live the Dragon! Long live our great master!" Bolikri thrust its fist into the air. The Kobolds responded in kind, hoisting their looted trophies high and erupting into barking. What Su Nian's ears actually heard was something close to this:"Great master's! Long live! Woof woof woof!" ➤ Next: Transforming the Basic Furnace