Chapter 532: A Blue Dragon
Before them, the Southern Branch Mountain loomed like towering cliffside walls, and even before entering, Fisher and Emhart, who had not yet stepped inside, could see that this naturally colossal mountain range was an excellent strategic stronghold. No wonder it served as a formidable barrier for the Red Dragon Court against the Green Dragon Court.
Emhart floated beside Fisher, asking him about his next plans. Fisher clearly had no intention of waiting any longer; he just wanted to get in quickly and find Raphael.
“Looking at the situation outside, it seems that there hasn’t been a large-scale direct conflict between the Green Dragon Court and the Red Dragon Court for some time. The remnants on the battlefield and the trenches have grass growing in them; it’s been a few months, maybe half a year? But it’s hard to say what’s going on inside the mountains; perhaps the Green Dragon Court has been infiltrating all along?”
Emhart glanced at the situation outside the mountain range and spoke to Fisher.
Fisher recalled the map of the Southern Continent he had seen years ago. The Southern Branch Mountain stretched several hundred kilometers long and deep, and beyond the Southern Branch Mountain, several hundred kilometers further south was a vast wilderness, followed by the southernmost part of the Southern Continent, Twilight Valley, where the bat people have lived for generations.
If Raphael’s Dragon Court were situated south of the Southern Branch Mountain, then the bat people of Twilight Valley might already be subordinates of the Red Dragon Court, serving Raphael.
Fisher wondered if Nali’s army had attempted to launch an attack from the southern sea, but Raphael, being of the dragon race, must be of a rank higher than many other subhuman races. From Ingrid’s earlier descriptions, it seemed that Raphael led the charge in battles, so she would probably be at the front lines of the war. It wouldn’t be wrong to search for her by entering the mountains.
“We’ll head straight into the mountains; she should be within the combat positions of the Red Dragon Court. It would be best if we could find her directly. Unless necessary, I don’t want to expose myself to the rest of the Red Dragon Court.”
“Why?”
Fisher glanced around. For some reason, a sudden hot wind blew from the northern direction behind him, giving him an ominous premonition.
But he did not hesitate. He quickly leapt up again with Emhart, heading straight for the Southern Branch Mountain.
“Because I’m a human, and I’m also a Nali.”
“Aren’t you an escapee?”
“Not in their eyes.”
“Well, that’s true. They’ve been bullied by the Green Dragon Court supported by Nali. The current mentality is hard to guarantee. Do you think that after you go over, that whatever Raphael will stab you?”
Fisher’s expression was flat. He glanced at Emhart and unusually offered an additional explanation.
“Her feelings towards humans certainly won’t be entirely of hatred. I want to believe that when she left, she established the Dragon Court to fight for the freedom and future of her own race, not merely to take revenge on humans. The Dragon Court is her labor of love, but it doesn’t belong entirely to her. I don’t want my appearance to become a difficult choice she is forced to face: ‘Am I more important, or is the Dragon Court?’ I just want to see her and worry about her. That’s all.”
“Yeah, you’re right. But now I’m quite curious; how did you and she get to know each other? I know how the other ladies were poisoned after we met. Elizabeth was completely fooled by you; Baemon was tricked by you; I don’t dare to ask about Renee. What about this Raphael?”
Fisher landed again, this time already in the domain of the Southern Branch Mountain. The towering peaks ahead seemingly had no end; there were no signs of any living creatures other than animals. He could only search little by little.
“She is the daughter of the chief of the Southern Branch Tribe. Previously, due to negligence, she, along with her sisters, was captured and sold by human slave-hunting teams until I eventually bought them. I originally planned to take them back to Saint Nali, but after some events, I ultimately gave up. I let her go out of my selfishness and greed.”
“Oh? She’s a chief’s daughter? I’ll give it a six; many other ladies have backgrounds too, so this puts her slightly above Alagina.”
Emhart’s pages began to flutter again, golden light flowing within them, seemingly recording some fictitious list once more.
Fisher looked at him expressionlessly and asked, “What are you doing?”
“Nothing, just taking notes. Oh, you mean the scoring? I just thought a little quantification would help; I’m curious about the hierarchy among those ladies. I think the ones ranked higher are more likely to stab you.”
Emhart chuckled to himself, looking rather pleased with himself.
Seeing this, Fisher remained unhurried and retorted, “So, where does Hela rank?”
Upon hearing that damn name, Emhart froze completely, even the book pages he had been flipping stopped moving. He suddenly exclaimed, “Don’t mention her!”
Fisher smiled slightly, not saying anything more. Whenever the topic turned to Hela, Emhart would immediately fall silent and the discussion would end. This tactic was proven effective.
Perhaps when he gets into trouble later, and this guy turns against him to expose all the bad things he’s done, he would only need to say “Hela” to break through the encirclement.
Fisher moved swiftly; even the previously daunting Sema Snow Mountain in the Northern Region was no longer intimidating to him, of course, excluding the spatial turbulence generated by the roots of the World Tree. So now, the Southern Branch Mountain was merely a notably high mountain.
As he and Emhart chatted, they made no terrifying noise while quickly searching for possible traces of the Red Dragon Court.
“You just said that along with Raphael, you bought several of her sisters?”
“They are not exactly sisters, not by blood, but they have a very good bond.”
“Strange. A guy like you didn’t make a move on the others?”
“I’m not that kind of person.”
As they conversed, Fisher had already crossed over a mountain and reached the wooded area between two ridges of mountains. Here, the clear springs flowing from the mountains they had crossed nourished various plants, among which were materials for crafting magic.
He stood by the stream and, upon seeing his reflection in the water, suddenly noticed that he was still wearing the tattered white robe he brought back from the Holy Realm. He looked like a beggar who didn’t know where he came from, just a little cleaner.
He had come too hastily to remember this detail, but Fisher had no other way now; he couldn’t just cover himself with leaves, could he?
“Fisher, look quickly!”
“…”
Fisher shook his head, retracting his gaze from the stream. It was at this moment that Emhart on his shoulder suddenly spoke up, pulling his attention back to the direction Emhart was indicating.
In the dense forest a little distance from the stream, many bodies of subhumans and human soldiers wearing the green Dragon Court’s flag lay haphazardly. Fisher guessed that it hadn’t been long since they died, probably just a few weeks, because the bodies were not fully turned into clean white bones.
Fisher walked over slowly, noticing that their equipment had been cleaned out, and around them, some ancient trees were broken in half while others bore bullet holes. These should be the battle scars of the Green Dragon Court soldiers before their deaths.
Fisher touched the place where a giant tree had been broken, then quietly spoke to Emhart, “We must be in the right place.”
“Yeah, there are no obvious signs of battle in the mountains ahead. It’s hard for the Green Dragon Court people to come up, and it’s also tough for the Red Dragon Court people to escape, so there are only small guerrilla traces. The forest ahead is at least a hundred kilometers long, and given this terrain, it’s really hard to get in without huge effort. Those guys have Nali’s support; didn’t they use magic?”
“They did, but it shouldn’t be a widespread attack. Also, the dragon people aren’t without magic; they had already been using magic back in the period of the Feimabaha Dragon Court.”
Fisher raised his eyes to look into the distance and saw many dead trees hanging over the cliffs of the mountain far ahead. Upon closer inspection, it seemed like a massive fissure and pit that spanned several kilometers had left its mark. Terrifying magic had pierced through the forest and mountains, wrapping the trees that originally grew on the ground hundreds of meters high on the cliffs, and they had not fallen down since.
The air was filled with the sounds of rustling leaves and buzzing of life.
In this stillness, where it seemed like there were no living beings left, only the sound of the breeze rustling through the mountain ridges and trees, Fisher’s mythical rank allowed him to hear an extremely subtle sound.
He raised an eyebrow and suddenly took two steps back.
Just as he retreated, two iron blades rushed through the air from the wind and struck into the tree where he had just stood.
Fisher looked, and indeed, they had penetrated deeply into the wood.
“Ugh!”
Emhart was about to say something when Fisher expressionlessly pressed him into his arms. Immediately, Fisher seemed to sense numerous life forms approaching him from a distance. Yet he appeared not to notice and remained still, waiting for something, as if afraid to make any unnecessary movement.
“Swish! Swish!”
The nearby forest began to move from far to near. Fisher raised his gaze, and what caught his eye were two grappling hooks slicing through the air toward him.
Fisher suddenly grabbed one of the grappling hooks; with a gentle pull, the two figures on the other end of the hooks were sent crashing uncontrollably into several trees heading his way.
“Boom! Boom!”
In pain, they had to temporarily release their grips to break free from the powerful force, leaving their weapons behind for Fisher.
“Bang!”
“Bang!”
In the forest, the sound of gunfire intensified again, but Fisher remained unhurried as he raised the retrieved grappling hook. The iron grappling hook flew quickly through the air, soon forming a web too intricate to be discerned by the naked eye, deflecting all the approaching bullets.
“Hurry, use magic! (Dragon Court Language)”
From a direction where no one could be seen, the voice of someone desperately shouting echoed. It seemed like this was the first time Fisher had heard their discernible words.
He abruptly stopped swinging the grappling hook and turned to look in that direction.
Not far away, about a hundred meters off, a figure covered in leaves had just brought a stone engraved with emblems to their mouth. Just as that crimson dragon race magic was about to ignite, the human man’s gaze struck him like a physical force.
He stared blankly, realizing that the man was writhing, lacking any human form, instead appearing like a black sea about to unleash a tsunami.
The figure’s complexion turned pale, and his soul was struck by an unknown impact, his head feeling as though thousands of steel needles were piercing through. Even the magic he was about to activate dimmed greatly.
“Ahhh!”
He screamed, quickly attracting the attention of his companions.
“Kaporn!”
From afar, the person who had just shouted “Hurry, use magic” rushed toward Fisher, seemingly holding a shimmering silver weapon.
But Fisher didn’t even glance at him; he simply shook the grappling hook in his hand. The hook swung towards the incoming figure like a mountain. He quickly raised his weapon to defend but was still swept back by that tremendous force, crashing into the surrounding woods, breaking several trees along the way.
“Crack, crack, crack!”
Fisher didn’t look over; he, having reached a mythical rank, certainly knew the appropriate level of force to use. He wanted his opponent to lose the power to resist without causing fatal harm. Therefore, while it looked fearsome, it was not yet life-threatening or seriously injurious.
Then, he stomped the ground and fiercely swung the grappling hook toward the ground.
“Rumble!!”
In an instant, it was as if mountains were being thoroughly penetrated. The shockwave raised by that terrifying force set the distant trees shaking, imprinting the power of this attack into the minds of those attackers.
With that, shouldn’t it quiet down?
Sure enough, many figures in the distance began to show signs of retreat upon witnessing the terrifying scene of battle. This was also Fisher’s intention.
He aimed to push them back, and they would undoubtedly return to report the news and request reinforcements. By then, he could follow them secretly, smoothly finding Raphael or the high-ranking members of the Red Dragon Court.
Looking at the majority of the opposing forces, who were beginning to retreat, even the two injured nearby on Fisher’s side readied to escape. It was at this moment that a sudden hysterical roar came from that direction.
“Ahhhhh!”
Fisher blinked in surprise and turned to look, only to see a blue figure, quick as lightning, burst forth from the retreating group. Ignoring the shouts and protests from their companions, this figure surged forward, entangled with two streaks of silver light toward Fisher.
These two streaks of silver light were sharp daggers.
“Hissssss!!”
The blue figure stomped on the standing trees, releasing a large amount of scalding steam. As the steam surged out, the scales on the blue figure’s body reflected a luster like electroplating, dramatically enhancing both its speed and power, shooting toward Fisher like a high-speed spinning top.
Yes, based on these previous characteristics, Fisher quickly realized that it was a blue-scaled dragon person.
“Swish, swish, swish!”
As those two silver streaks approached like lightning, Fisher paused for a second as if he hadn’t reacted, his movements becoming slower.
Got it!
In the mind of the spinning blue dragon person, this thought flashed in an instant, and she used all her strength to prepare to stab the person before her in the chest with her rapidly spinning blades.
But in the next moment, a twist of fate occurred.
The long-haired human suddenly reached out and caught the swiftly approaching dagger, but he didn’t grip it tightly to control her movements.
The blade contacted his skin, and one would think it would tear flesh; however, what entered the ears of the blue dragon person was only a piercing sound of friction.
“Zzzz!”
This guy is definitely a monster!
In that brief moment of contact that lasted only half a second, Fisher finally saw clearly that before him was a petite blue dragon person wearing a veil, but her entire body was obscured by the erupting steam, making her shape rather blurry.
She didn’t look at Fisher; the brief surprise from being blocked was only transient.
If this strike succeeded, it would be wonderful, but even if it didn’t, it didn’t matter, as her original goal was, after all, to go for the two injured ones behind Fisher.
Even though she was not yet an adult, this blue dragon person had become a battle-hardened warrior.
Fisher glanced at her concealed form beneath the cloak, noting that she had no items like “dragon horns,” which made him think unexpectedly.
In the next second, the blue dragon person utilized the reaction force from the collision of their two strengths to agilely leap up like jumping on a trampoline, soaring over Fisher toward the injured ones in the woods behind him.
Fisher certainly understood her intention and had originally no intention of stopping her. However, when he glimpsed the dragon person’s back, he suddenly changed his mind for some unknown reason.
This dragon person’s rich combat experience, speed, and decisiveness would likely catch a regular enemy off guard, but all possibilities would crumble before a mythical rank.
Without turning back, Fisher slightly flicked his wrist, and the grappling hook in his hand reacted to that immense force, suddenly swinging out. Just as the dragon person was about to jump into the woods, it sharply seized her ankle.
“What?!”
As the dragon person realized something was wrapping around her, she looked back in astonishment. However, with a gentle tug from the terrifying long-haired man, she lost control and was yanked toward him.
“Bang!”
“Damn it!”
The dragon person crashed down to the ground, and without losing a second, she aimed her dagger to cut the rope of the grappling hook. But before that could happen, the terrifying figure swiftly descended and seized her wrists.
“Captain!”
“Danger!!”
In the distance, all the soldiers who had been ready to flee dashed back, and the dragon person beneath continued to struggle fiercely, continuously releasing high-temperature steam. Her head jerked back sharply, lifting the veil slightly; she even aimed to bite Fisher’s neck.
“Roar!”
But Fisher merely stared at her, silent for a moment before cautiously asking, “Lal?”
The girl who had roared paused slightly. Even the scorching steam around her softened a little, calming her previously desperate expression.
“Let our captain go!”
“Let her go!”
The group of soldiers who had previously fled came rushing back, abandoning the cover of the trees to confront Fisher.
Upon closer inspection, these guys were either wrapped in dense leaves or tied with dry tree bark, humorously resembling a team-building retreat of ancient trees.
But it must be said that the effectiveness of such camouflage was quite remarkable. If it weren’t for Fisher’s already exceptional perception, he wouldn’t even know where they would spring out from.
Fisher paid them no mind, staring incredulously at the blue dragon person he was holding down, who had now grown and become robust.
Her originally graceful face bore signs of wild living but still could not hide her surprise.
After a lengthy silence, she finally fished out a name she thought would never be mentioned again from the ocean of memories, “Fisher?”
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