Chương 179: Reborn as the Dragon — Chapter 179 - Encirclement and Suppression

Boosted by a warrior's strength, javelins flew farther than arrows and hit harder. Sakura Island No. 2 Starter Village had made a habit of hunting the giant beasts near their borders with exactly this method. Didn't matter how tough the target was. Even a Caimen Shield Pig couldn't shrug off a full-force javelin throw from a warrior player. The dragon in the sky might block a few. But quantity becomes quality. There were so many javelins. How could he possibly block them all? Akatsuki Akase closed his fist.

His chest was full of anticipation. Facing that locust-swarm of incoming javelins, Su Nian looked utterly unbothered. He cracked his dragon maw open slightly, and Anna on his back moved almost in perfect sync. The instant the javelins entered Dragon Speech range:"Zun Haal Viik!" [Disarm] One voice: hoarse, low, resonant. The other: clear, sweet, soft. The two Dragon Speech invocations overlapped and merged. Su Nian's range had shrunk a size due to Heart Failure.

Anna had only just learned the word, so her range was limited too. But stacked together, the two of them covered every last javelin. All of them stopped. Every menacing javelin hung suspended in mid-air, going nowhere. Under the influence of that rule, their kinetic energy simply ceased to exist. Instantaneous velocity: zero. Then gravity took over. The javelins began to fall, raining straight back down onto Sakura Island No. 2 Starter Village.

Gravitational acceleration did the rest, they picked up speed fast, streaking down as dark blurs.

"What just happened? That's impossible!" Akatsuki Akase was stunned. Not one javelin had touched the dragon. Not a scratch. Not even a graze. What were those two strange words? Did they just... control space? Was something this powerful really something players at their current stage could fight? The shields the Sakura Players had pre-cast finally activated, just not for the reason anyone intended. Instead of blocking dragon breath, they were blocking their own javelins falling out of the sky.

The shields shattered one by one under the rain. The Sakura Players were in agony. They had picked up the rock and dropped it square on their own feet. Recasting shields required a cooldown. And the dragon breath was already coming. Rolls-Royce, faster in the air, led the charge. He came in hot with pure rage toward the humans below, tilting his breath glands and unleashing a stream of liquid fire. Brass Dragons only had two breath types: sleep gas, and linear fire.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Compared to Su Nian's, Rolls-Royce's fire breath was more concentrated, more focused, less of an area wash and more of a high-pressure jet. It hit like a firehose made of flame. The center of the starter village went instantly to hell. Dozens of Sakura Players were blasted off their feet by the force of it and torched mid-air, reduced to charcoal before they hit the ground.

Those who still had shields scrambled for cover. Rolls-Royce fired his breath dry, then pulled back to a safe hover and began chanting. He was done playing. He would not give these humans a single moment to breathe. And right then, Su Nian's breath bombs landed. They'd taken longer to condense this time, which meant some loss of power. Didn't matter. The Sakura Players were packed so tightly together that the effect was still devastating. BOOM. BOOM. Two mushroom clouds climbed into the sky.

Su Nian folded his wings and cut through the black smoke, already moving on. Behind him, Sakura Island No. 2 Starter Village was scorched earth. The scene shrank into the distance.

"Aardeelementenslapenindeaarde, luisternaarhetbevel..." [Earth elements slumbering within the ground, heed the dragon's command, become blades, pierce my enemies.] A dark amber magic circle bloomed on Rolls-Royce's chest. Simultaneously, a much larger one spread across the ground of Sakura Island No. 2 Starter Village, the two formations locked onto each other across the distance. The earth elements beneath the entire starter village erupted. The surviving Sakura Players felt the ground buck and heave.

Instinct kicked in, they scattered, hunting for corners and triangular spaces to shelter in. But it wasn't the earthquake that was going to kill them. It was the earth spikes. They punched up from underground, each one over a meter long, thick at the base, tapering to a razor point. They appeared completely at random, but the density was merciless. Almost every player had one coming up directly underneath them.

In an instant, a mass of Sakura Players were skewered from below, impaled clean through from the base of the body to the top of the skull. After those several waves, the Sakura Players were essentially wiped out. The veterans from Sakura No. 1 and No. 6 Starter Villages, who had already died repeatedly, cycled back into respawn queues, many of them now staring at wait timers of three or four days. The Sakura Island No. 2 players respawned at their own homes within the village.

Akatsuki Akase took the moment and opened the all-channel broadcast. Two dragons, both airborne. Javelins couldn't reach them. Magic damage wasn't enough. They were out of options. Staying in the village and trading deaths would just burn through everyone's respawn counts for nothing. He knew how to read a situation. Retreating was humiliating. He knew that. But as long as the green hills remain, there's always wood for a fire. That much he understood.

"Everyone! These two dragons are beyond what we can kill right now. Please scatter and flee in different directions — make for other starter villages."

"I am sorry I could not lead you in avenging this humiliation. I will take point and draw their attention — go!" Every respawning No. 2 Starter Village player saw Akatsuki Akase's pinned message, big and red at the top of the channel. It stung. Nobody liked it. But they couldn't argue with it, either.

"Run!"

"We'll get another shot at them later. Not today."

"We got complacent. We need real anti-air capability, better weapons, better tools. This can't happen again." The Sakura Players argued and debriefed in the channel simultaneously, weaving through the ruins and ducking under the circling dragons as they poured out of Sakura Island No. 2 Starter Village in every direction.

"All monsters — attack!" Su Nian raised his head and roared. The Dragon Speech hit like a thunderclap, rolling across the open land in every direction. The monsters that had been encircling the village's perimeter didn't need a second invitation. They surged. A three-in-one starter village this size, he and Rolls-Royce alone couldn't root out every last player. Even with Scent Whisper helping track them, it would be brutal work. You train soldiers for a thousand days to use them for one.

These monsters had been sitting around with nothing to burn. Let them run.

"Brother, Anna wants to go too~" The soft, pleading voice came from right behind him. He felt it before he heard the next part, small hands and feet shifting across his scales, Anna pulling herself up along his body until she reached his shoulder. Her warm breath brushed against his ear.

"Alright." Su Nian nodded. Anna had real combat ability now. Getting her into the fight, building her instincts, that was good for her. He wasn't so rigid that he needed to keep her locked behind him at all times. The more practiced she got with her skills, the more naturally she'd be able to use her power, and the better she'd be at keeping herself safe. Still, he turned his head slightly, voice firm.

"You can join in. But you stay with Hui Tailang and the others. Don't leave their line of sight. Don't push into the crowd." She nodded right away, face lighting into a bright smile. Her eyes curved, her expression warm and lovely, like a summer lotus just opening.

"Anna will listen to Brother~" Aow aow aow. ➤ Next: No Escape