Chương 8: Reborn as the Dragon: — Chapter 8 - Dragon's Nest Defense Battle

"Fugan branch — good for coughs? Not bad."

"Lianxing leaf — moistens the lungs? Very nice."

"Bloodgrass Mushroom — replenishes blood, mildly toxic? Passable." Braving the downpour, Su Nian cut through the jungle at a swift, low glide, pushing deeper with each pass. His Insight Technique swept ahead of him in every direction, and whenever he spotted a useful herb, he snatched it up in his mouth and kept moving. But after a full circuit, he still hadn't found a single thing that could treat heart failure. Not that it was surprising. On Earth, heart failure couldn't be cured, only managed.

But this was a fantasy continent. Anything was possible. Maybe he just hadn't found it yet. He hoped these herbs could at least buy Anna some time. Holding that thought, Su Nian followed the stream back toward the Dragon's Nest. CLANG! Metal on metal, distant, but unmistakable. And beneath it, the ragged sound of human shouting.

"People?" His dragon face crumpled. He'd been human once, sure, but he was an evil dragon now, and the last thing he wanted was anything to do with this world's humans. The wounds the grand mage had blasted into him weren't even fully healed yet. Standard procedure: the farther he stayed clear, the better. He was still only a third-tier juvenile dragon. His entire body was a walking treasure hoard. But not wanting trouble didn't mean trouble wouldn't come looking.

The sounds of fighting were closing in on the Dragon's Nest. Whoever was being chased seemed to be making for the cave to hide. In rainy weather, forest caves were practically guaranteed to be occupied by monsters. The group being hunted clearly had no brains, running straight toward danger, as if the cave wasn't already a death trap the moment they walked in. Su Nian didn't care about any of that. What he cared about was his starting accessory. His SSR-tier treasure.

If a bunch of humans came stumbling through that cave and something got scratched or jostled, she could be gone just like that. And if she was gone, who knew how long it would take to find another one, let alone spirit her away so cleanly a second time. Absolutely unacceptable. He went up the tree on all fours. Wing beats were loud and obvious; crawling was quiet. He used the hiss of the rain for cover and threaded through the jungle, closing in on the sounds of combat. A male human knight. A female human mage.

Being run down by what looked like a mercenary company, similar gear on all of them, and a black viper emblem stitched to their coats.

"My lady, get inside! I'll hold them here!" The knight planted himself at the mouth of the Dragon's Nest, voice tight with urgency. [Wells: Level 21, Knight (Trivial for you)] You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

[Selena: Level 18, Fire Mage (trash)] [Black Viper Mercenary Band: Levels 16–20 (a bunch of trash)] [But there's kind of a lot of trash] The system's information panel locked in smoothly with the freshly solidified Insight Technique, giving Su Nian a clean read on everyone below. Bluntly: he could handle any one of them in isolation. The numbers were the problem. If they coordinated, things got messy. More importantly, Dragon's Breath was still charging.

He didn't have enough built up to cut loose with a full blast. He watched the knight anchor the front line while the mage lobbed fireballs with one hand and shuffled backward toward the cave with the other. He couldn't wait any longer. Su Nian pulled up the modification panel. The ideal picks were the Efficient Breath Sac and Compressed Breath, but they ran two thousand and three thousand system points respectively.

He cast them a brief, mournful glance, then split his thousand points evenly between Primary Steel Claws and Primary Steel Scales. [Ding! Modification initiating immediately. No pain. Very fast. Host need not worry.] The system was telling the truth. Compared to the agony of modifying his eyes, this was nothing. His body stiffened for a moment, a faint tingling itch spreading across his scales, and when he checked himself over, his scales had taken on a faint metallic sheen. His claws had grown slightly larger.

The milky white had shifted to something silver-gray, as if they'd been dipped in metal. [You've been upgraded. Now go!] That last line came from the Primary Insight Technique. Su Nian had never killed a person before. But half a dragon's instincts and a lifetime of absorbed survival logic helped him clear the first psychological hurdle without much friction. He'd drunk blood. He'd eaten raw meat. He was an evil dragon. He dropped the herbs onto a branch, drove off the trunk with his hind legs, and launched.

An arrow from a bowstring. Wings snapped open. He came down out of the dark canopy, ferocious and direct, angling straight for the mage. Team fight rules: take out the squishy caster first. Any self-respecting dragon would have announced its arrival, a thunderous roar, wings spread wide, all the appropriate ceremony. Su Nian wasn't doing that. He was going for the cheap kill. And he wasn't exactly majestic anyway. His hardened claws sheared through the falling raindrops.

In the darkness of the jungle, with the rain eating every sound, he was the most dangerous thing in the forest, and no one knew he was coming. His tail swept behind him for balance. Both hind legs swung forward, claws fanned open. A hawk in a dive. He hit the mage with his full momentum. His claws drove into her shoulder and slammed her flat to the ground. She'd been sheltered all her life. Nobility, comfort, safety. Nothing had prepared her for this.

The knight still hadn't turned around when Su Nian bit down, mage's shoulder, neck, most of it gone at once.

"Ptooey~" [Killed Level 18 Human Mage. +10 System Points.] Su Nian's eyes were cold and steady. The mage's body cooled quickly against the wet ground. His dragon instincts were clean about it: this was his territory, and she had threatened what was inside. She had been beautiful, too. Genuinely, startlingly beautiful, the kind of face that would've obliterated anyone back on Earth. Didn't matter. Life was already hard enough out here. Whoever threatened him, he killed. First time killing a person.

He looked at the body. A flicker of wrongness rose from somewhere deep, then smoothed over, just like that. His humanity wasn't gone. But if the Su Nian from Earth had been Lawful Good, then fusing with Waterhouse had split the difference. The combination had landed him squarely in Chaotic Neutral. Killing: acceptable. Eating people: let's not get carried away.

"Black dragon!" The shout came from somewhere inside the Black Viper Mercenary Band. The knight spun around a beat too late, and saw Selena in a spreading pool of blood, and the black dragon standing over her with murder in its eyes.

"Selena!" His face cracked open. Every vein in his eyes surfaced at once. The hands around his sword creaked with the grip. When he looked at Su Nian, there was nothing left in him but rage and grief.

"I'll kill you, kill you, I'll KILL, " He'd forgotten the mercenaries entirely. All he wanted now was to put the black dragon down and give the girl he loved something that resembled justice. [Knight running dangerously hot (21–30)] The Primary Insight Technique stamped an arrow above his head. No reason to meet that head-on. Clear the trash first. The decision snapped into place in an instant. Minions before the boss fight.

Su Nian slipped the knight's sword with casual precision, tail already swinging, and then the entire dragon was moving, low and fast as a leopard, driving straight into the Black Viper Mercenary Band and the dozen fighters packed inside it. Up ahead, an Anna dropped. ➤ Next: Rainy Night Slaughter