1609 Demi-Dragon Patterned Wyvern!
Darkness was all around. General Dresden was lying on the ground, panting heavily. He touched his forehead and came away with fingers wet with his own blood.
The old general struggled to get up to his feet. Beside him, whether it was the proud son of the lord Dongfan He or Jia Yuntian, or the other warriors of various backgrounds, each and every one of them were looking haggard. Their bodies were covered in mud and wounds. They were all at the point of exhaustion, currently sharing two jugs of nutrient solution. All of them were so exhausted that none of them had the strength to speak.
“General, you should drink some too.” Dongfang He handed a bottle over.
General Dresden nodded, took the bottle, and drank a few mouthfuls of the refres.h.i.+ng and slightly sweet liquid. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand before asking, “How is Christopher?”
!!
“Still unconscious. We’ve administered a sedative to him. Right now he urgently needs to rest,” a warrior proficient with medicine answered. Christopher was lying down beside him as he spoke, using a military blanket as a pillow and breathing evenly through his nostrils.
Dresden sighed, “It must have been really tough on him. Were it not for Christopher, we might have already gone off to meet our Demon Slayer ancestors already.”
The phrase ‘survivor of disaster’ could not be more appropriate to describe this bunch.
The moment the catastrophe struck, as the Demon Palace quickly sank and collapsed under the sea floor, the very land had fissured. Christie had risked his life and used his Shrinking special ability to shrink everyone’s bodies to the size of ants, allowing them to take cover in the gaps between the rubble, and thus they avoided a complete wipe.
When the sounds of the collapse had ended and everyone returned to normal size, Dongfang He had summoned his Armies of the Furious Inferno, while the other warriors unleashed their respective abilities as well, finally managing to dig out a path from beneath the rubble and escape with their lives.
Fortunately, they were still alive. But unfortunately for them, Christopher had already used up all his energy and was practically drained of it. The das.h.i.+ng young man currently looked like he was an elder in his sixties with a face full of wrinkles, already sleeping after being administered medication. No one had any idea how long it would be before he would wake up, or how much longer before he could make a recovery. There was a very good chance that he could never be a warrior again…
*Whoosh*
Dresden took out a flare from his spatial ring and raised it up after lighting it.
The light dispelled the darkness, and everyone turned around to look, only to find ruins that were even more spectacular to behold than the highest mountain ranges in the Lower Realm. The seabed of the North Sea was practically covered in debris, piled up so high in this underground cavity in the unknown depths that it was quite a breathtaking sight.
Dongfang He’s eyes were completely red as he looked about, dumbfounded.
It was like a room well over several thousand kilometers wide. The center had collapsed, splitting the room into two. The ruins before their eyes could very well have the bodies of Nikai and Xia Fan buried underneath, or maybe they were lucky and had managed to escape, so they were on the other side of the split.
“I hope Nikai is still alive. Xia Fan is fast, so perhaps they managed to slip away in the nick of time.”
Someone softly said that, in hopes of consoling Dongfang He. But Dongfang He had instead grit his teeth, preparing to summon his Armies of the Furious Inferno again. He would use them to dig through the rubble in search of Xia Fan and Nikai.
If a man who wished to stand upon the apex of the universe could not even protect the woman he loved, then what right did he have to continue living in this world?
That was the sort of man Dongfang He was. Failure was not a word in his dictionary, and even if his body wasted away from overuse, he would still be filled with a strong fighting spirit.
“Don’t be rash. Have none of you realized the even more serious problem? Since the entire North Sea has sunk to its seabed, then where has all the water gone? That was the North Sea, covering a total area of 14,335 square kilometers! The amount of water we’re talking about here is trillions of tons; it’s impossible for it all to disappear, just like that!” Dresden shouted.
Everyone hurriedly lowered their heads and found that though it was wet beneath their feet, there were traces of water that had once flowed around them. But aside from some puddles that had acc.u.mulated in some ditches, all the seawater had practically disappeared, as if some gigantic monster had drunk it dry. It was definitely abnormal!
Jia Yuntian squatted down, dipped a finger in a puddle, and tasted it. “It’s salty, so it’s definitely seawater.”
Everyone was confused. Since the waters of the North Sea had once flowed here, then there must be some other pa.s.sage that allowed such a copious amount of seawater to drain away.
“There’s a shaft here!”
“There’s another one here too!”
“Heavens, this place is practically like a honeycomb. Filled with shafts of unknown depths. The seawater must have flowed somewhere deeper, and because the rubble was all solid, it was stuck here.”
Because of the unique terrain structure, the sea water did not remain on this level and instead flowed to somewhere else even deeper. Meanwhile, the sediment and rubble were stuck here, obstructed by some sort of spongy composition underground.
*rumble*
A slight tremor was coming from the ground, along with a shrill cry. Dresden was startled, taking out three flares and dropping them down one of the shafts.
The bright flares descended the shaft very quickly, while everyone stood by the rim of the shaft to watch. The first bright light disappeared very quickly, and the second soon succ.u.mbed to the darkness as well. Just as the third flare looked like it was about to disappear, they saw a black figure dart by, quickly pa.s.sing by the white light and then turning to fly toward them.
“Something with wings… It looks like it’s currently flying our way?”
“It couldn’t be a monster from the scary Buffer Zone, could it…”
The warriors were all hesitating. Humans were beings that stuck to the mainland, and they had no knowledge of the dark expanse called the Buffer Zone. All they knew was that it was a very dangerous place, where few made it back alive despite the many exploration teams sent to explore the place.
The sound making the ground tremble was becoming clearer by the second, and everyone could hear them clearly by now. It was the sound of a large pack of flying creatures after they were startled, made by the flapping of countless wings.
*Zing*
Finally, the first creature came flying out of a shaft. It spread its two wings and soared upward, screeching like a very loud bat. The creature made a nimble turn in the air right after, and then swooped toward the humans, flas.h.i.+ng its white fangs.
*Crunch*
Jia Yuntian twirled his wrist casually and a blade flashed, cutting the flying creature in two. Blood spilled, and a thick rotting stench pervaded the air as the body fell to the ground like a kite with a broken string.
Under the light of the flare, they saw that this creature was similar to a mid-sized pterosaur. It was taller than a man, and hairless. It had a huge mouth, more than large and sharp enough to snip off a human’s head. Its two eyes were pitch black, and its skin was an unhealthy shade of white, with plenty of freckle-like nodules dotting it.
It was clearly already dead, yet the long mouth of this creature was still opening and closing repeatedly. Its powerful bite cracked a piece of granite, shattering it into hundreds of smaller stones.
Demi-dragon, a Patterned Wyvern!
Everyone sucked in a mouth of cold air, feeling their hearts suddenly stop beating.
There were plenty of Demi-dragons in the world, and many of them tended to carry some true dragon genes. However, the purity of their blood was very low and incomparable to the true dragons, thus they were called Demi-dragons.
According to the histories found in Subduing Demon City, there were so many sub-species of dragons that it was impossible to count them, coming in all shapes and sizes.
Some of these sub-species were completely unrecognizable due to genetic mutations and evolution. The Demi-dragons of the smallest size were no bigger than a human’s thumb, had transparent bodies, and were able to pierce through human skin and enter the human body, feeding upon the internal organs there. Once they had their fill, their bodies would turn as red as blood! They were called Bone Eroding Demi-dragons.
As for the Patterned Wyvern, the data stated that they were a social animal that had a very fierce nature. Aside from being carnivores, they could also survive by licking minerals and like in the dark. Their eyes had long degraded, but at the same time, they had developed the bat-like ability of echolocation, and were able to hunt for their prey even in the darkest of environments.
Patterned Wyvern’s mouths had a unique double layer structure, with the outer layer being as sharp as knife and able to pierce human flesh. The moment they got underneath the skin, the inner mouth would shoot out and insert itself into a human’s body like a balloon, thoroughly crus.h.i.+ng their internal organs and killing their prey.
People who were killed by these Patterned Wyverns would only be left with their skin and bones. Their brains and internal organs would all be mashed up and drunk down. The human in question would not instantly die, and was sometimes able to personally witness the shriveling of their abdomens. It was a painful and cruel way to die!
The situation was very clear. The ground around them was like a sponge, filled with holes, and was also the lair of these Patterned Wyverns. The collapse of the North Sea had sent the seawater flowing through these many holes, continuing its way down and waking these Patterned Wyverns.
Right now a pack of Patterned Wyverns was fleeing, and was about to encounter a group of humans that had incidentally been trapped by the collapse of the North Sea.
There was no way to avoid the battle at this point. “Quick, run! Leave this place!” General Dresden suddenly yelled, as his muscles swelled to the point it tore through his combat suit, revealing his hard muscles. There were plenty of deep scars all over him, acc.u.mulated over many years from when he partic.i.p.ated in the war between humans and demons.
His white beard drifted upon his chest. This old general looked like a completely different person. Using his old body, he stood in front of this group of the most exceptional young men from Subduing Demon City.
His veins were thick and green, and the Rune on his arm was a threatening dark cloud.
General Dresden did not hesitate at all and began activating his Bloodline. Every warrior from Subduing Demon City had demon blood, and by activating their Bloodline power, these warriors would enter a state closer to demonhood than human. The power they gained would be immense, but would push said warrior toward the brink of self-destruction.
“The generals that partic.i.p.ated in the last human-demon war have all died, and only I remain alive,” Dresden chuckled bitterly. “Failing to die in battle with everyone was a great regret of mine. After all, the best ending a warrior could ask for is to die on the battlefield, and have their name immortalized on a monument.
“But this isn’t bad either! I, who couldn’t die during battle, can at least protect the descendants of my old brothers-in-arms.”
“Quick go! I should be able to buy you all several minutes.”
“General! If we’re leaving, we should do it together!” Dongfang He shouted. He, who had desired to be a proud leader his entire life, could not accept fleeing and leaving others behind on the battlefield to die.
“THIS IS AN ORDER!” General Dresden’s face was suddenly stern and livid. “If you want to prove yourself, then stay alive and prove yourself on the real battlefield, NOT HERE! Until all the old men that partic.i.p.ated in the last great war have died out, none of you will be taking the limelight!”