Chương 49: Reborn as the Dragon: — Chapter 49 - Beat Them Down

In Su Nian's vision, the Insight Technique began feeding him information on the Rock-Armored Crocodiles: [Rock-Armored Crocodile, Level 13 (Tier 2), Tender, Shell-Off, Best Steamed] [Rock-Armored Crocodile Leader, Level 15 (Tier 2), Tough Meat, Needs a Good Long Braise] Su Nian: "⊙ω⊙??" He had a feeling the System and the Insight Technique weren't quite playing well together.

Sure, the Insight Technique pulled information from his own emotions and thoughts, but he was thinking about taming these crocodiles as mounts. He definitely was not thinking about eating them. At least, he hadn't been. He swallowed a mouthful of Dragon Saliva. He decided to try reasoning with the Rock-Armored Crocodiles first. If that didn't work, he'd introduce them to Draconic Rhetoric.

"Foolish Rock-Armored Crocodiles!" He let his wings beat wide, his voice booming across the swamp.

"I am giving you a chance. Submit to the great Black Dragon, Su Nian · Votrus · Stupak! You have three seconds to hesitate." The Rock-Armored Crocodiles glanced at each other, then stared blankly up at the Black Dragon screaming and flapping in the sky. What did the Black Dragon just say? [Crocodile... machine... rub... three seconds?] This Black Dragon was mocking them for being short and stubby! How were they supposed to just take that? Dragon or not, nobody got to insult crocodiles like that.

The Rock-Armored Crocodiles erupted. A chorus of guttural "ANG-HUM ANG-HUM" bellows rose from the swamp below. Their four thick legs slapped the wet ground in fury, flinging up clods of reeking mud. Su Nian stared.... Were Rock-Armored Crocodiles always this gutsy? Now it was his turn to be dumbfounded. He was starting to think his Dragon's Might might be counterfeit. Apparently, anything with even a drop of dragon blood in it could shrug the thing off. That was deeply irritating. He wasn't counting down anymore.

He was going down there to teach these crocodiles what benevolence was. To introduce them, personally, to the wisdom of Draconic Rhetoric. Su Nian snapped his wings, torqued his body toward the swamp below, and dove, wind pressure screaming off his scales, hitting the earth like a bomber on final approach. The Rock-Armored Crocodiles watched him coming. Watched, and held their ground. Wide jaws parted, teeth bared, ready. The Black Dragon wasn't particularly huge by the leader's reckoning. It had fought bigger.

As the leader, it had a duty to go first. It crushed down the blood-deep terror crawling up its spine, shoved off with both forelimbs, and launched itself skyward. Its jaws spread wide, a massive clamp bristling with teeth, and snapped shut on the diving Black Dragon. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. But. CRACK. Nothing but air. Then a force like a collapsing wall slammed into the leader's upper jaw. A dull, meaty THWAP. Searing pain.

The world spinning. Four-to-five tons of crocodile launched clean off the ground by a single Dragon slap, drilling through the air like a corkscrew, and vanishing headfirst into the swamp. Only the tail remained above the surface, armored in rock scales, jutting up at an angle like an unusual tombstone. Su Nian didn't slow down. He banked into his next dive, claws already reaching, grabbed two Rock-Armored Crocodiles, one in each talon, and hauled them out of the swamp.

He glided to dry ground and dropped them like he was putting down groceries. [Rock-Armored Crocodile, Level 12 (Tier 2), Female]"Grey Wolf, Bolikri — these two are yours." He pointed a claw at the pair on the ground.

"Beat them down. Don't stop until they can't get up." He gave the order and swung back into the air. Below, the situation had changed. The leader was still trying to extract its head from the swamp. The rest of the male Rock-Armored Crocodiles had given up on fighting entirely and were making for the tree line at full waddle.

"Running?" Su Nian's grin was not a friendly one.

"I gave you three seconds. Three seconds, and you wasted them. Now you've actually made me angry, and you think you can just turn around and walk away? Get back here." His dragon breath organ began to swell. A sickly green glow lit his throat from the inside.

"Gurrrgle gurgle, Aaang—" Turquoise flame poured from his mouth in a sustained stream. He swept it in a wide arc as he flew, looping around a section of the swamp, boxing in every crocodile too slow to reach the edge. With their escape cut off, the remaining Rock-Armored Crocodiles made a decision: dig. The plan was to burrow down and go under, earth escape, old and reliable. Except the swamp had been baking under the sun for days. The ground was half-dried.

Not nearly wet enough, not nearly soft enough, not for animals this size. Being enormous had its drawbacks. They scrambled. They clawed. They heaved. In the end, exactly one crocodile managed to sink its head into the dirt, and then stopped. It couldn't go further no matter how it wriggled. Its hindquarters stuck up in the air, armored tail swaying helplessly. Su Nian almost lost altitude laughing. He pulled himself together, swept his wings back, and dove. Eagle catching chicks. One talon, one crocodile tail.

He plucked them from the swamp and flung them, SMACK SMACK, at the hard rock nearby. In short order, every last male crocodile, including the leader, who had finally managed to get its head out of the mud, was deposited on dry ground in a pile. They were still thinking about struggling. Their legs twitched. Then Su Nian planted a foot on one of them, tilted his head back, and exhaled a full mouthful of dragon breath directly into the crocodile's open mouth. The creature turned to ash from the inside out.

After that, every Rock-Armored Crocodile went perfectly still and stayed that way. Su Nian leaned down over the leader. His jaws held a mouthful of dragon breath barely contained, scorching acid dripping from between his teeth and hissing where it landed on the leader's rock-armored hide, SSSSS, SSSSS. He extended a claw and gave the leader's face a few light pats. Several teeth bounced across the ground. He rumbled in thick, garbled Draconic:"Ge lao ji chen hu, bo ran lao ji ya kou long xi peng si li."

[Submit to me, or I'll blast you with dragon breath and be done with it.] The Rock-Armored Crocodile Leader had no idea what the Black Dragon was actually saying. It didn't need to. It could see perfectly well the barely-contained torrent of flame sitting two feet from its face. It pressed itself flat against the ground and covered its head with both stubby forelimbs. The other Rock-Armored Crocodiles took one look and did the same.

"See?" Su Nian straightened up and shook his head.

"Was that so hard? What was all that about? You made me kill one of you for nothing." He pressed a drop of heart's blood to the leader's head. It didn't take long. The dull-eyed crocodile blinked, and something behind those eyes shifted. The first clear, coherent thought it had ever successfully formed crossed the bridge into Su Nian's mind.

"Great Master — we really do last more than three seconds!" Su Nian's first response was a cold laugh. His second was to rap the leader's skull with his knuckles, three sharp strikes: CLANG, CLANG, CLANG. The leader's eyes went a little loose.

"You didn't even make it to one."

With the leader subdued, Su Nian raised his head, puffed out his chest, and led the whole sorry procession of rock-armored crocodiles around to the other side of the battlefield. He came around the bend. He stopped. His dragon eyes went very wide. The scene before him shattered everything a dragon thought it knew about the world. Even the male Rock-Armored Crocodiles behind him froze in place, and then began trembling with fury.

"WHAT IN THE HELL ARE YOU TWO DOING?!" The roar came out like a thunderclap. Grey Wolf and Bolikri, very much still in the middle of it, jolted so hard they nearly collapsed.

"Pants. On. NOW!" Su Nian bellowed.

"Get over there and face the wall. Both of you. You stand there until I tell you to move. And if the sun goes down before I say a word, you keep standing." ➤ Next: Capture Humans, Plant Potatoes