Flight

Accompanying her voice was the descent of burning steel wreckage.

It was the debris left behind by the explosion of her dragon-type power armor.

These fragments rained down from the sky alongside the downpour.

Falling like meteor fragments, they inevitably triggered a wave of commotion below.

At the same time, the rain washed away the billowing dust and smoke.

Inside the deep crater gouged out by their plummet, two figures were revealed.

Robo was in a wretched state.

His robe was not only caked in filth but also riddled with gaping, drafty holes.

Furthermore, his neck was held in the iron grip of a dragon claw covered in black scales.

He was suspended in midair, dangling like a helpless chick.

His bloodshot eyes bulged, any semblance of noble poise completely gone.

In truth, if his magical equipment hadn't functioned at the final moment, his fragile body would have been reduced to a bloody paste after falling from such a height.

By comparison, Irene fared slightly better.

In her human form, the only sign of strain was the patches of dragon scales that had emerged on her face, which normally remained hidden beneath her skin.

The dragon wings and tail on her back bore prominent scorch marks.

This was only because she had evacuated her armor in advance.

Otherwise, she would have been dead or crippled by now.

This realization left Irene with a cold sweat of lingering fear.

Since her birth, this was only the second time she had found herself in such a perilous situation.

The last time she had faced such danger was back in the Great Gana Forest, when she crossed paths with that band of boneheaded adventurers.

On the surface, however, she maintained an air of nonchalant calm.

She glared fiercely at the man in her grasp.

“It's over, Lord Mage.”

Then, she tightened her grip, intending to snap his neck.

A suffocating wave of panic immediately flooded his brain, and Robo's face flushed a violent, sickly purple.

He wanted to struggle, but at such close range and with his throat clamped shut,

he had absolutely no opportunity to cast a spell and escape.

Even the magical equipment on his body had been mostly ruined during the impact.

He could only kick his legs weakly, raising his aching arms in a desperate, futile attempt to pry open her dragon claw.

“I surrender!”

Even on the brink of death, the Archmage still didn't seem to grasp the reality of his situation.

Though disheveled, he did not appear entirely panicked.

His crushed windpipe could no longer function, preventing him from speaking aloud, so he resorted to sending a mental transmission.

“My father is Duke Edliman, ruler of the Duchy of Reny.”

“If you spare my life, he will pay a ransom that will surely satisfy you.”

“Ransom?”

Hearing this, a touch of mockery flashed in Irene's golden eyes.

She did not slacken her grip even a fraction.

Instead, an amused expression appeared on her face.

In this medieval-like fantasy world, when human nations waged war, they rarely killed high-ranking figures.

Instead, they would keep them alive,

waiting for the prisoner's allies or backing factions to pay a hefty ransom.

Once paid, the captive would be released.

This practice was normally quite appealing to greedy chromatic dragons.

It was the very reason why so many legends of dragons kidnapping princesses existed.

But Irene was not a typical chromatic dragon.

“Your offer is indeed tempting,” she said mockingly.

“But...”

Her tone turned ice-cold. “...I'm not interested.”

“You can't kill me!”

Hearing the cracking sounds coming from his neck as his vision began to darken, Robo finally panicked.

He could keenly sense the raw, undisguised killing intent radiating from Irene.

“If you kill me, the Human Kingdoms will never let you off! You have no idea what you're up against! You are bringing about your own doom—”

“Oh.”

Irene narrowed her eyes, and her claw suddenly clenched with explosive force.

Robo wanted to say more, but the chance would never come.

His eyes bulged, protruding as if they were about to pop from their sockets.

The veins on his neck stood out in thick cords.

After a brief spasm, his legs went completely stiff.

He was dead.

The fire elements in the air gathered, condensing into a tiny flame.

It drifted down, igniting the still-warm corpse.

Even under the torrential rain, the flames surged higher and higher.

It completely enveloped the body, ensuring there was absolutely no chance of any post-mortem surprises.

“I'll be waiting.”

Only after finishing her sentence did Irene finally release her grip,

letting the blazing corpse fall limply to the ground.

It slowly crumbled to ash within the magical fire.

The nearby human soldiers who witnessed this scene were instantly consumed by absolute terror.

Before they could even wail, a shrill, agonizing shriek tore through the sky and pierced their ears.

Looking up, they saw that of the two dragons that had been locked in a fierce duel, only one remained—a black dragon wearing iron underpants, glowing with a prismatic light.

The other wyvern had had one of its wings brutally torn off.

It was now plummeting from the sky, a broken ballista bolt still lodged in its body.

It fell like a kite with a severed string.

Before the wyvern even hit the ground, a crowd of hulking figures clad in black armor had already gathered around its landing site.

Behind them lay the mutilated corpses of giant wolves.

Faced with this sight, any sane person knew the battle was over.

The human soldiers could no longer suppress the mounting terror in their hearts.

Some threw down their weapons, screaming that they surrendered.

Others turned and fled for their lives.

It wasn't just the common soldiers.

Even the mage and cleric regiments stationed in the rear had already made the wise decision to flee the moment Robo fell.

They were merely mercenaries, fighting only for coin.

Now that the battle was lost, they had no intention of staying behind to die a pointless death.

The only ones who remained were the loyal wolf riders.

They fought on relentlessly, trying to hold back the Imperial Guard in a desperate attempt to save their master.

But...

their efforts could not change the outcome.

The beastkin and half-beastkin roared and wept!

They surged forward in hot pursuit!

After paying a heavy price in blood and the lives of their kin...

...they had finally won!

Even faster than them was Irene.

The vengeful little black dragon reverted to her true form. Spreading her massive wings, she tore through the curtain of rain at breathtaking speed.

Catching up to the fleeing soldiers, she unleashed a merciless onslaught without hesitation.

With her devastating acid breath and a massive barrage of spells, she annihilated almost all the fleeing mages and clerics in a matter of moments.

As for the ordinary human soldiers...

She didn't care much about them. Seeing that some had already fled into the distance, she recalled her pursuing forces.

She simply watched as the defeated remnants wailed and fled this cursed land.

She did not do this out of mercy.

These routed soldiers no longer posed any threat.

Chasing them down would only waste her mana.

What Irene wanted was for them to carry the news of their utter defeat back home.

In this battle, both she and Daviel had revealed themselves in broad daylight.

The Duchy of Reny had made a massive spectacle of declaring war beforehand.

Even if she slaughtered every last invader, she couldn't guarantee that someone wouldn't use magical means to spy on the situation.

Total silence might only pique the curiosity of those with ulterior motives.

But letting these broken survivors spread the news of their defeat...

The fact that they had wiped out two Gold Rank experts and an entire duchy's army...

was a level of power that would make the Human Kingdoms hesitate, especially since Legendary experts could not be easily deployed.

It would serve as a sobering bucket of cold water for any other greed-blinded fools.

...

Yet, when the survivors who managed to escape finally made their arduous trek back through the tunnel...

enduring the surprised and contemptuous glares of the dwarves as they re-entered the Duchy of Reny...

all they saw was a raging, towering inferno.