Iron Hammer was the first to arrive on the scene.
Close behind him were Borent and Tasha.
The moment they saw the two black dragons, a look of unmistakable excitement and greed flared in their eyes.
But then, their gaze fell upon the mangled, unrecognizable corpse on the ground.
From the severely corroded longbow lying beside the body, they could guess that this was likely their half-elf companion.
This sight caused all three of them to hesitate for a moment.
Sensing the arrival of the enemies, Irene glanced back.
Taking advantage of their brief hesitation, she shouted to Daviel, who was raring to go:
“Go!”
She spread her wings, and as the surrounding mana surged, she flapped them powerfully, launching herself into the sky.
As a rather unconventional black dragon, Irene felt absolutely no shame in fleeing.
They were outnumbered; only a fool would fight them head-on.
Besides, this was deep within the Great Gana Forest—Mother Dragon's territory.
If these people dared to pursue them, Irene wouldn't hesitate to wake Mother Dragon.
When that happened, a cranky Mother Dragon would definitely crawl out of her lair and kick their asses!
Daviel had wanted to fight, but hearing Irene's shout, and fearing his older sister's wrath, he could only spread his wings in frustration.
Still somewhat disgruntled, once he was airborne, he flipped a middle finger at the three newly arrived adventurers.
He taunted them in fluent Common Tongue:
“Come up and bite me if you have the guts!”
With that, he slapped his own dragon rump and soared upward, ignoring the murderous glare of the dwarf rushing toward them.
“They killed the long-ears! Borent, don't let them escape!”
Iron Hammer bellowed, brandishing his holy flail.
Tasha also looked toward their captain, though there was little grief in her eyes.
When they had decided to hunt dragons, they had already prepared themselves to die in the Great Gana Forest.
Adventurers, after all, were just a bunch of people who traded their lives for coin, risking it all on every venture.
To them, witnessing death was as common as eating or drinking.
It was just that this time, the one who died happened to be their teammate.
Borent averted his gaze from Alvin's corpse, letting out a heavy, melancholic sigh for a fallen comrade.
Only then did he unhurriedly pull a gold-bordered parchment scroll from his storage ring.
“Don't worry, they won't get away.”
Irene had originally thought these adventurers would use ranged attacks to stop them from leaving.
She had already braced herself to take a few Fireballs.
But to her surprise, they faced no attacks or interference whatsoever.
Having smoothly cleared the dense canopy, Irene took a refreshing, deep breath of the high-altitude air.
She prepared to lead them toward the dragon lair.
But right then, she suddenly felt something was off.
The mana keeping her aloft had vanished.
It felt as if she were piloting a plane soaring through the sky, only for the engine to suddenly disappear.
A plane without an engine would plummet from the sky.
And without the support of magic, Irene was rapidly dragged downward by gravity.
Daviel was also falling from the sky. Even though he flapped his wings frantically, he couldn't stop his descent.
Without the lift provided by magic, a dragon's highly un-aerodynamic body made it almost impossible to fly using only wings that were extremely disproportionate to its bulk.
Crack, crash... screech—
Boom! Boom!
After snapping countless branches, Irene managed a rough landing using all four limbs and her tail.
Muddy water splashed over three meters into the air!
But that was the extent of it.
Falling from a height of just over twenty meters wasn't enough to injure a dragon's robust physique.
In comparison, Daviel's landing was much more casual—he had plunged headfirst.
With his multi-ton weight and falling velocity combined, his head and most of his neck were now buried in the dirt.
Daviel's body wobbled as he tried to pull his head out of the ground,
but the waterlogged soil was too sticky, and his first attempt failed.
He immediately tried a second time.
Bracing his front claws against the ground, he kicked hard with his hind legs,
and with a loud pop, his head finally came free.
Shaking his head and spitting out the mud in his mouth, Daviel was just about to curse when he noticed his sister was in a standoff with the adventurer party.
So, imitating her, he widened his eyes and glared fiercely at the three adventurers opposite them.
The area fell dead silent, save for the pattering of the rain.
Neither side chose to strike immediately.
Even the hot-tempered dwarf cleric, Iron Hammer, was firmly held back by his captain, Borent.
Both sides seemed wary of each other.
And indeed they were.
For this dragon hunt, the adventurer party had originally drawn up a complex plan.
Everyone had a specific role and position to play,
ensuring nothing would go wrong.
But now that Alvin was dead, half of their original plan was instantly rendered useless.
For them, they could only play it by ear now.
Irene was equally wary of them.
She hadn't expected these guys to have prepared a magic scroll capable of preventing flight.
Anti-flight magic, even at its lowest level, required a highly complex magic circle to cast.
Therefore, they usually existed as part of composite city defense arrays.
To condense such a complex magic circle into a tiny magic scroll was unimaginably difficult.
Even the lowest-grade, watered-down version of an anti-flight scroll—which only worked for a very brief duration—was extremely expensive and rare.
It seemed these guys had spared no expense.
Yet, despite being thrust into danger, Irene felt no fear.
In fact, she felt a slight urge to engage in a thrilling, grand battle.
Of course, the prerequisite for such determination...
...was that after quickly analyzing her own trump cards and the possible methods the enemy might possess...
...she was certain they were not far from the dragon lair.
As long as she made enough noise, she could draw Mother Dragon out of her slumber to rescue them.
During the hatchling protection period, having Mother Dragon around was practically a life-saving talisman.
Judging by these guys' behavior, they clearly had no idea Mother Dragon existed and had mistaken them for two wild hatchlings.
Otherwise, they wouldn't have come to hunt dragons so openly.
When Mother Dragon arrived in her grumpy, newly-awakened state, a single breath attack would send these guys straight to Baator to chat with some lovely succubi, free of charge.
Of course, since it was free, it would be a one-way ticket.
The kind you never return from.
After a brief standoff, Irene broke the silence first, speaking in the Common Tongue:
“Are you coming at us one by one, or all at once?”
Since she was still a hatchling, her voice sounded somewhat childish.
“Ah, so it's a beautiful young lady black dragon!”
Borent feigned surprise.
He carefully stowed the single-use, area-of-effect anti-flight scroll back into his storage ring and sheathed his broadsword behind his back.
Stepping forward, he performed a strange, formal bow.
“My lady, I don't believe we need to be so hostile. We could certainly talk things out.”
“Heh,” Irene sneered.
She didn't believe a single word coming out of his mouth.
Having just attacked them, now he wanted to talk? Did he think these two black dragons were as gullible as white dragons?
However, Irene didn't lose her temper on the spot.
Possessing the memories of two lifetimes, she was much more cunning than an ordinary hatchling, knowing full well that stalling for time was to her advantage.
Perhaps if she stalled long enough, the anti-flight magic would wear off.
Then, the two of them could happily slip away.
That would be far safer than fighting these guys and creating a ruckus to summon Mother Dragon.
Having analyzed her options, Irene put on an innocent, naive act and spoke:
“What do you want to talk about?”
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