53 The Chieftain of Centaurs (1/2)
That night, the skies of Vance City weren’t peaceful.
It was at a small market outside a mining area. It is also a place where many underground trade deals were done.
After all, this market is rather far from the city and there are only broken slums in the surroundings. Movements would leave behind trace, making it hard for an ambush to succeed, thus effectively preventing assaults from other gangs.
Even so, there is still a messy graveyard here that is used to bury those unlucky fellows who thought that this was a safe land but still ended up sleeping here.
The residents here are also used to overlooking the scene of 2 trading parties failing to come to an agreement and breaking out in a fight.
At this moment, another trade wasn’t successfully negotiated and the both parties came to blows. If I have to point out something was different about it, then I could only be say that the scale of this conflict is slightly bigger…
The injured Ancient Red Dragon is howling in agony. The big window opened in its abdomen bleeds continuously and its wings are tied together tightly by a pitch-black spider silk, unable to spread it open at all.
TL: I will just stick closely with the author’s use of his, her and it
”Want to eat, but Ah Pa don’t allow…”
The gigantic eight-legged spider keeps harassing her, the mysterious venom that it left on her paralyses her physical body. In a state of dizziness and blurred vision, she was completely unable to leave the surface.
”Crimspur! If you continue acting so indecisive, our agreement will be cancelled. You will have to face the wrath of us, the Royalty Faction. Or maybe, do you think that your strength can rival with Ya Ding Si, your scheming can compare with Lionheart. If so, you can just wage war on us directly. Do you want to try to see if the 12 Senators will just end up with 10 Senators before you can return to Xiluo!
TL: Ya Dang Si -> Ah Dang’s full name (Still looking for a better name)
The roar of the blue crystal Bone Dragon in the sky made the indecisive two muster up their determination.
”The Corroded Plains of Ants!”
Following the furious howl of the Ant King Lamost, the Soul World that belongs solely to him activates and the entire world changes. The badly injured Dragon Queen Molly is forcefully dragged into a decayed plains.
”Bzzst.” ”Sisi” A bizarre sound coming from the movement under the ground of the plains could be heard, making one instinctively feel threatened.
Soon after, ant holes open one after another and a beige-colored giant Ant Soldier appears from within. They aren’t very strong individually but what that causes fear is their endless numbers.
It wasn’t long before the deserted land is full of holes. Below each and every hole is a kingdom of an ancient foreign ant-shaped race. Responding to the call of their king, countless Ant Soldiers opens their own ant hole. They are the soldiers and servants of the king when he was still alive. Just that this time, from the look of their Soulfire burning in their blue-green eyes, they are a member of an undead army.
Before Lamost was killed, he was the king of an ancient bug tribe. When his corpse was resurrected as an undead, his kingdom revived along with him.
The long years have caused their physical body to become mostly decayed, resulting in their strength being diminished significantly, but his endless people is still his pride.
The Ant Warriors raise their oddly-shaped spears and wooden barriers and shouts their cheer before charging in fearlessly. The Elephant Ants which are about the size of a small hill serve as their War Beasts while the Flying Ant Officers carried Poison Sac Bombs filled with acid and begins their strafe of death. The Ant Queens standing at the very back starts to release their Dark Witchcraft which is long-lost in history.
In an instant, the powerful Dragon Queen ends up being lynched by the army of Ants. When she kills one, ten others rush up to fill their place. Her Dragon Breath burns hundred Flying Ants to their death, but thousand more appear afterwards. Furthermore, the troublesome Death Curses and Dark Witchcraft is fatal and dangerous.
There isn’t a single Undead Senator that is easy to deal with. Lamost may be weak individually, but he has a strong Soul World to make up for it. It is just that his powerful Soul World ‘The Corroded Plains of Ants’ depletes his mana extremely quickly, so he doesn’t use it usually, causing his ranking to be on the lower side.
”Hmph! An idiot who uses Soul World to make up for his lack of strength. If Ya Dang Si didn’t harass the Dragon Queen, she would be able to fly and the first thing she would do is to kill you even at the risk of aggravating her injuries. Idiot, individual strength is the basic and the most important of all.”
What Gria said is the truth. For powerful fighting races like Undead Lords and the Dragon Tribe, their overwhelming talent restricts them for developing their own path suited to them. While their talent may be able to overpower them, but it also means that the level of the other techniques that they learn will be much lower. However, for them to face the weak mortals, just using their physical body would suffice.
TL: Meaning they focus on their race talents rather, causing other aspects to be lacking
In fact, in the eyes of a portion of extremists, mortals must cultivate to reach the height as them and they view this fact as an evidence of their great strength and their high-born. If they need strength, they just need some time to retrieve it from their bloodline. Things like cultivating and studying aren’t needed for them.
Of course, there are also quite a few who are like Einz Mezus, who despite being an Ancient Red Dragon but reached quite a scary level of attainment in the field of both Wind Magic and Fire Magic.
However, those are like Little Red are still the minority. Most of the members of the Dragon Tribe still depend on their physical talent to feed themselves. They normally just sleep and wait for them to evolve by themselves with the flow of time. In fact, there are quite a few Dragon Tribe who don’t have Soul Imprint. But, simply by using their fearsome physical body and basic strength (basic stat), it is not that difficult a task to tear apart a few Legend-ranks.
As for Undead Lords, there are quite a few who are born strong that acts that way as well. Even more so, Ah Dang is a monster without any notion of power rank. However, even SemiGod Humans have to be careful around him.
Fine, our Lord Gria will never admit that she doesn’t have a Soul World at all and she is very envious of this powerful Soul World, especially when this Soul World has been praised by a certain someone and acknowledged by the masses.
”Hmph, what the Soul World that is the closest to the level of Undead Emperor. It is just that he has the same type of Soul World as the Emperor, that’s why his one has been overestimated by quite a bit. What is the use when he can only sustain it for 3 minutes? Look, it is already revealing its true form.”
The situation of the fight below changes. The panting Lamost finally finds himself unable to sustain his Soul World. As the illusory world starts to shatter, the heavily wounded Dragon Empress starts her counterattack.
Crimspur stands in front of Lamost to guard him. With a strong physical body, he makes up for them deficiency of the Ant King. On other days, they have always teamed up like that. However, this time, from the look of the black figure that is suddenly descending from the sky, there is no chance for him to strike.
”Die!”
Gria dives and sends a fatal Phosphorus Dragon Breath down, plunging the lands into a sea of green flames. This kind of vicious poisonous flame is extremely acidic. If it gets on you, it will immediately penetrate the bones and burn it to ashes. Even if it is Molly, in the face of this dangerous sea of flames, she could only retreat.
Her movement to dodge the flames gave Ah Dang an opportunity. From the form of a Spider which represents binding, he turns into an ink-green big-mouthed monster in a distortion. With the entire body of a gigantic deformed monster that seems to have only a mouth remaining, he uses his short legs to jump up in a manner reminiscent of a frog. Opening his wide mouth that is big enough to bite into mountains, he actually directly swallows the Dragon Queen!
”…This isn’t eating. This is attacking!” For delicious food, Ah Dang is enlightened for once.
With her life in danger, the Dragon Queen gives a final look at her wings which is bind and corroding under the spider silk. Then, with a twist of her body, she actually retreats a few steps in an awkward position in midair.
”AHHHHH…. OWWWWWW!!” Even so, in the next second, dragon blood and a shriek of agony fills the air. The Dragon Queen has just suffered a heavy blow.
With that mouthful from Ah Dang, her two dragon wings disappear. But the Dragon Queen smiles in response.
”Like this… I can finally fly.”
The vicious Dragon Queen actually took the initiative to gift her own wings to Ah Dang. After getting free from the spider silk which restrains mana, she regains her ability to fly. Losing her 2 wings as support, it will be more difficult, but the ability to fly of the Dragon Tribe doesn’t just depend on their wings.
Using all of her remaining mana to fly, a formless wind lifts the Dragon Queen’s massive wounded body and lifts her up rapidly.
Without any consideration about her mana consumption, her speed is actually much faster than usual days. Even without the support of her wings, for the Red Dragons who are the most skilled in flying techniques among the Dragon Tribe, it isn’t difficult for her to shake off a Bone Dragon who is known to be slow.
Her calculations are well done, but…
”OUCH! Who is so inconsiderate, flying around with their eyes closed!!”
TL: She says ouch in English.
The Dragon Queen who is anxious to flee accidentally bumps into a gigantic Dragon who ‘happens to be passing by’. If it was just a normal Young Dragon (within 10-meters), he would have been sent flying by the Dragon Queen. However, the one she bumped into just had to be an Ancient Red Dragon (30-meters and above) as well!
”Flying with your eyes closed, changing your path randomly and flying against the direction of the lane. Where did you learn your flying rules from? Aren’t you afraid that 12 points will be deducted from you at one go, causing your flying license to be confiscated?”
The Ancient Red Dragon who is full of nonsense yawns and gazes downwards curiously.
”Ohhhhh. Isn’t this my vicious old mother who ruthlessly killed her own husband, 1 son and 3 daughters? Why, are you so lonely that you can’t sleep that you sneaked out for a walk in the night? Hehe, looks like we are on the same line. Should we fly together?”
Molly, whose magic power and wind current which has been messed up by the crash, can only dive down straight like a metal ball. In the end, she realized that the flow of current has been completely controlled by the other party, causing her to be unable to even float. In the end, she gives up the useless struggle of flapping the remains of her wings, frustrated. She dives down straight like a piece of rock.
Below, the Undead Lords are waiting for her while sharpening their blades. In the end, she could only helplessly scream at the Dragon.
”Einz Mezus! You won’t die a proper death!”
Little Red simply yawns in response, turns around, glides away and continues on her walk, leaving behind just a single message.
”Old one, your teachings back then aren’t wrong. The howling of a loser is really hard to look at.”
TL: ?? -> Can mean old mother, albeit in a disrespectful way. It is also how the Dark Elves often refer to themselves with. In this case, it is a bit like a gangster-like way to refer to yourself.
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The heavy black clouds crush the sky of Vance City. As the date to the auction draws closer, the atmosphere of the city grows more and more tense and suppressing.
A large portion of underground city lords didn’t leave after the Conference. That auction which hasn’t been publicized anyhow has already spread across the entire city. In their eyes, the show is just about to start. The new and old Autarchs are sure to cross blows on the auction, causing a change in the splitting of powers in the entire underground world.
A true God Equipment is going to be auctioned. An item that involves the absolute treasure of Xiluo’s royal authority is going to be auctioned. The intelligence network of the kingdoms and their Thief Guild isn’t just for show. A month is more than enough for the news to spread furiously on the surface.
As the city is quite close to the tunnel leading to the surface, the city is already full of experts coming from different land and different races. At the very start, the Beastman Sovereign has tried to seal the tunnel but very quickly, he realized that it was an arduous and impossible task. The allure of the God Equipment is too great. The normal Beastman Soldiers are meaningless to experts and if they happen to piss off the other party, they might just end up erased.
After their sentry posts has been cleaned more than 10 times, even though the order to seal up the path has yet to be lifted due to the ‘dignity’ of the Autarch, but in reality, the leader of those sentry posts has already been changed into the old and the weak. Of course, the soldiers who are being treated as cannon fodders aren’t foolish too. They gamble, play mahjong, drink alcohol and everything else except for stopping the passersby from the surface in the sentry post. The sealing order has just become the ears of the blind — decoration. Once again, the Lion King’s reputation goes down.