Chương 29: Reborn as the Dragon: — Chapter 29 - From Now On, Your Name Is Grey Wolf

The Gnolls had carved out their own tribe deep in the Silvermoon Forest, felling trees to clear a wide stretch of land and using the timber to build crude wooden huts. They had no allies. Or rather, when they were hungry enough, allies counted as food. The moment Su Nian's group drew close to the tribe, he caught the shouts and calls carrying from within. The voices were strange. Not the bark of dogs, not the howl of wolves.

Something in between, a guttural, engine-like rumble fused with wet clicking sounds, like a predator growling from the bottom of its chest. It wasn't pleasant to listen to. The patrol spotted them immediately. Gnolls in groups of three and five closed in fast, surrounding Su Nian and his Kobolds. Their eyes were cruel, lit with greed and just a thread of wariness beneath it. They stood close to two meters tall. Solidly built, every one of them. Hyena-like heads. Yellow fangs. Red eyes.

Thick, dark-yellow fur covering their bodies, the fur on their faces and backs running deeper, nearly brown, and several had coats patterned with black leopard spots. Their weapons were decent, a lot of it standard human military issue. And among every group of five, at least one had three or four human skulls swinging from its belt and a mountain wolf straining at the leash. [Elite Gnoll] [Level: 12 (Tier 2)]"Lowly Kobolds!"

An Elite Gnoll stepped forward, wolf in tow, glaring down at the group with savage contempt. Foul drool dripped from its tusked mouth as it issued its warning in a low snarl.

"This is Gnoll territory. Either get off our land, or get inside our stomachs." It raised its axe, dropped into a slight crouch, and drew one foot back. Attack stance. Ready. The only reason it was bothering with words at all was the terrifyingly massive Black Dragon standing behind these runts. Bolikri's heart was hammering. The Gnolls surrounding them were enormous, half again its height and twice its weight. But it forced the fear back down, because its master was right there.

This was what it meant to borrow a dragon's power. The great master had never lost. Not once.

"I'll count to three," Bolikri announced, jabbing a finger up at the Elite Gnoll's snout.

"Get your chieftain out here, or today's the day you all answer to Eresnu — God of Hatred and Slaughter!" It was all bluster, and everyone watching knew it. The sight of the small Kobold pointing at this towering beast and demanding a duel was genuinely comical. Still, credit where it was due, if this had been a cannon-fodder Goblin or a Gnome, they'd have already collapsed in a puddle of terror. Bolikri was holding together.

"Kobold." The Elite Gnoll's eyes narrowed to slits. Around it, the other Gnolls sank lower, a chorus of low rumbles building in their chests. Crimson eyes locked on target, waiting for the word.

"Do you understand what you're saying?" Bolikri gritted its teeth.

"Three!"

"Two!"

"ATTACK! Kill these fools! The chieftain has never tasted dragon meat. Today, every Gnoll feasts on dragon!!"

"ROAR—" The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. The Elite Gnoll didn't wait for one. It cut Bolikri off mid-count, swinging its rust-pitted axe straight down at the small Kobold's head. Then a thick streak of darkness flashed. The Elite Gnoll felt a sharp crack in its chest, and then it was airborne. It smashed through two trees, hit the ground, legs spasming, and went still. Chaotic evil races.

They truly wouldn't yield until they saw the coffin in front of them. Su Nian noted this with quiet amusement as he moved. He was a wolf walking into a flock of sheep. His thick dragon claw seized a Gnoll by the skull and, over its shrieking, squeezed. Red and white sprayed across his black scales, leaving thin, grim traces that caught the light. His arms. His horns. His tail. All weapons. His savage strength was such that any Gnoll he even grazed was either dead or wishing it were.

The ones brave enough to swing back left nothing but white scratches on his scales. By the time Bolikri and the Kobolds caught up with what was happening, the entrance to the tribe was carpeted in severed limbs. The smell hit like a wall, blood and something sharper, more foul, thick enough to taste in every breath of air. Broken Gnoll bodies arced out from inside the compound, thrown without ceremony, crashing down like trash outside the fence.

A line of scorching blue-green dragonfire carved through the settlement, trailing black smoke. It took no time at all. The entire tribe devolved into screaming chaos. Inside, Su Nian settled himself onto the chieftain's fur cushion. His black dragon claws, dense with corded muscle, held the Gnoll chieftain by its skull and lifted it off the ground.

"I heard," Su Nian said, his voice a hoarse, graveled rumble dredged from an abyss, "that someone here wanted to eat dragon meat." His sickle-curved horns hung inches from the chieftain's eyes, perfectly positioned to punch through and scramble whatever was behind them.

"G — Great Dragon Majesty." The chieftain's voice had completely abandoned dignity, trembling with raw fear.

"I... I never, I would never entertain such a ridiculous notion."

"The Gnoll tribe surrenders. We will become your vassals! No, your slaves! Your slaves, Majesty!" The chieftain was not exaggerating its terror. One moment it had been enjoying a perfectly pleasant afternoon on its fur cushion with a few female Gnolls. The next, this Black Dragon had come through the walls. It had never seen a Black Dragon like this. In its experience, Black Dragons were scrawny things. Ugly. Arrogant without the substance to back it up, squatting in swamps and eating rotting fish.

That kind of Black Dragon, the chieftain wasn't afraid of. With enough losses absorbed, it could probably have killed a Tier 3 juvenile. This one was different. The build of a Red Dragon, muscular, imposing, every line built for violence. Horns like curving blades. And that breath weapon. Blue-green corrosive fire, not the acid a Black Dragon was supposed to have. A single splash had burned through its hand in seconds. If it hadn't hacked the hand off right then, the corruption would have spread to the rest of it.

"Keh keh keh..."

"Surrender," Su Nian growled, the threat immediate and final, "or I crush your skull in the next second." The chieftain went limp. It hung there like a dead thing, every muscle gone slack, and let its mind open. It knew what was coming, a blood contract. A drop of dragon blood pressed into the chieftain's forehead and sank in. Su Nian felt the connection snap into place through his bloodline. He released the Gnoll and let it drop.

"Your name is Grey Wolf now."

"Starting today: ten kilometers in the morning, ten kilometers in the evening. Daytime, you take your Gnolls into Spear Boar territory. You pick a Spear Boar up. You put it down. Five hundred repetitions."

"On top of that, one thousand burpees and push-ups each day." He paused.

"That'll do for now." Grey Wolf knelt on the ground. It reached up and touched the black scales now fused to its neck, then looked up with careful deference.

"Great master... what are burpees and push-ups?"

"Bolikri will explain." Su Nian shoved off the ground with one hind leg, kicking a Gnoll corpse out of his path without breaking stride. He walked to the center of the tribe, launched himself into the air, and landed atop the bonfire frame. His enormous black form stretched wide over the settlement, looking down at everything below.

"Submit. Or die." The dragon roar broke over the tribe like a thunderclap. The battered, bloodied Gnolls looked at each other. Then they looked at their chieftain, already kneeling in service to the enemy. One by one, they pressed themselves flat against the ground, trembling. Su Nian could have simply walked in and forced the chieftain to sign a contract from the start. But a blood contract only covered the chieftain. He couldn't sign every Gnoll individually.

For chaotic evil creatures like these, a demonstration of slaughter was the only language that stuck. It was necessary.

[DnD-style Gnolls Later, after Su Nian's dragon influence gradually takes hold] Placing Anna fishing scene here ➤ Next: Imparting Without Reservation