His keen hearing, a gift of his elven blood, detected the danger just in time.
Alvin reacted instantly, throwing himself to the side and rolling across the muddy ground.
“Damn it!”
A suppressed groan of pain escaped his throat.
Despite the sudden ambush, the half-elf ranger had managed to dodge most of the acid.
However, he couldn't completely escape the breath weapon, and a splash of it grazed him.
The flesh from his right shoulder down to his wrist sizzled, steam rising as the acid corroded his skin.
As a ranger whose primary weapon was the bow, while this breath attack hadn't killed him,
his corroded arm was clearly in no condition to draw a bowstring again.
Most of his combat capability was instantly neutralized.
With no time to think, Alvin scrambled to his feet and ran for his life back toward the cave.
He glanced back out of the corner of his eye.
When he saw what had attacked him, his pupils dilated in sheer shock.
It was a dragon!
A black dragon!
Judging by its size, this had to be the juvenile dragon their party had been searching for all this time.
But at this moment, there was no joy in his heart—only endless terror.
If their party had encountered this juvenile dragon fully prepared, they could have easily relied on their magic items and pre-planned tactics
to either kill or capture it.
But now, he was all alone, and his arm was severely injured from the ambush.
In this state, even as a Silver Rank ranger, there was a very high chance he would be slaughtered by this juvenile dragon, which was at most Bronze Rank.
After all, the racial disparity was simply too vast.
Alvin fixed his gaze on the direction of the cave.
His only option now was to sprint back to the cave and have that filthy dwarf cleric heal his wounds.
Though his mind raced with a thousand thoughts, his pace didn't slacken in the slightest.
As a ranger, speed was his greatest asset.
Even in this torrential downpour, he quickly widened the gap between himself and the black dragon behind him.
Now that he was on guard, even if the beast unleashed another breath attack, Alvin was confident he could dodge it in advance.
But just as he was about to break out of the forest, a dark shadow plummeted from the sky.
It was another black dragon!
“Boom!”
Alvin leaped backward by a hair's breadth, narrowly avoiding being crushed into paste.
The impact of the black dragon's landing sent muddy water splashing in all directions.
Immediately after,
a thick, black-scaled tail sliced through the rain and air, whipping toward him with a deafening screech.
“Bam!”
This time, Alvin had no time to dodge. The tail connected solidly, sending him flying through the air.
A large mouthful of blood sprayed from his lips.
Before he even hit the ground, a sudden, sharp alarm blared in his mind.
Relying on his exceptional agility, the half-elf ranger twisted his body midair, narrowly evading another stream of acid breath.
Upon landing, a searing pain radiated across his back. Alvin knew the skin on his back had likely already dissolved.
Surrounded by two black dragons from the front and back, the pressure on him was immense.
Fortunately, the sound of approaching footsteps echoed from the distance.
It seemed his companions had noticed the commotion.
If he could just hold out a little longer, backup would arrive.
Daviel lunged at him. Alvin hastily rolled to the side again,
dodging the pounce while drawing an arrow. Enduring the excruciating pain in his shoulder, he shot an arrow at the black dragon in front of him.
“Whoosh!”
He had aimed the shot right at the black dragon's eye,
but the injury to his shoulder severely compromised both his strength and accuracy.
After a brief flight, the arrow failed to inflict any damage. Instead, the black dragon caught it right between his teeth.
Seizing this brief opening, Irene unleashed a blast of acid breath.
Still frozen in his archery stance, Alvin's eyes widened. He barely had time to raise his arms to shield his face.
The moment the breath weapon engulfed him, he felt the arms protecting his head instantly lose all sensation...
Thud—
A barely recognizable corpse collapsed limply to the ground, the residual acid continuing to eat away at the flesh.
A low sizzling sound echoed in the damp air.
Through a carefully planned ambush, the adventurer party had successfully lost one of its members.
“Three left,”
Irene muttered, wiping the trace of acid from the corner of her mouth.
Just as she spoke, the heavy, rapid thudding of footsteps approached from behind, followed by a gruff roar:
“It's two black dragon hatchlings!”
Rate on N.U.
