1267 Agony Knight 1 (1/2)
”As for these little ones, as long as I'm a little more careful, they shouldn't be too much of a problem.”
Garen's heart was decided, and he left the team quietly, walking toward another corner. All the Dragon Whelps were distracted by the forces coming from the intense battle, so no dragon actually noticed his departure.
Following the wall of snow, Garen slowly walked to a crevice and listened to the commotion outside.
If he wanted to get the Ice Stalagmite, his current abilities were not quite enough, so he needed to use some other methods as well.
Garen walked around the site of the battle once. There was a team with a few Dragon Whelps hiding nearby, and he could feel their gazes burning into his back when he moved to certain areas. Some of those gazes clearly carried a warning.
He was unperturbed, continuing to search and remember the lay of the land around here.
A simple but somewhat brutal plan formed in his mind.
”Whatever, I just have to make sure Leona and the rest dodge it.”
Garen considered this simple plan over and over again, and finally decided to make his move.
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Deep within the snowstorm.
Outside the tunnel, it looked as though two circles, one large and the other one small, were huddled against each other.
In the first circle, there were several Giant Iguanas killing each other around a sharp and broken stone. In the second circle behind it, there were many Dragon Whelps lying in wait.
The whole thing looked like a skewer of candied haws.
One Dragon Whelp, on the other hand, flew out of the tunnel, upward and outward. Bracing against the wind and the snow, it landed on top of the candied haws' circular mountain.
The snowstorm was extremely dense here, so he could not see anything clearly at all. But Garen relied on his powerful memory and computational power to quickly find a spot above one of the hiding teams.
He carefully imprinted this spot into his memory, and then went in search of other spots.
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”Eh? Where did Garen go?” Leona noticed someone was missing from his team and was instantly confused.
”I saw him go out by himself, but I don't know what he went to do,” replied Saszt honestly.
”I keep feeling as though Garen's a little mysterious. I don't know if it's just me, but he seems to like being a lone dragon,” said Boris unhappily.
”I think so too, a little.” Leona nodded in agreement.
”He's just one Dragon Whelp, ignore him for now,” said Toni nonchalantly. ”It's fine for us to work together like this, right? If there are no problems, shall we just settle with this?”
”Sure. Once the battle starts, clear off the other Dragon Whelps first,” agreed Boris.
”Then it's decided.”
The two sides formed a temporary alliance.
The other Dragon Whelps did not have Enchantments, so they had no speaking rights here. They could not leave these leaders and operate on their own as Garen could. Without a Level Five offensive spell, they could not kill a Level Four Giant Iguana. Instead, they would be hunted down and killed.
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”Hmph, it seems that Toni got some support, whad'we do?” Inside another dug-out cave, several Dragon Whelps gathered together and discussed in whispers.
”It's fine, we just stay in here no matter what, and only go out once they've more or less settled their fight with the Giant Iguanas. They can have those few Crystal Cores, our true aim is the Ice Stalagmite!”
A Dragon Whelp with slightly red skin said softly.
”Can we really do that?”
”Of course, with my Magic Equipment, there won't be any problems whatsoever!” said the reddish Dragon Whelp confidently. ”Then we'll catch them all in one fell swoop! Heh heh heh… If they're seriously injured, we can demand that they hand over all the Crystal Cores.”
”Deth, you're a genius!” The other Dragon Whelps began to gasp in admiration.
”Good, as long as you guys get it. You won't regret following me!” Deth was extremely pleased with himself.
*********************
Garen lay sprawled on a very high cliff. Looking down, he saw that everything was completely white. He could not see or hear anything, the wails of the snowstorm drowning out the sounds from the Giant Iguana battle below.
He could not see or hear anything from up here.
But it was fine, Garen had already determined his location using his own sense of direction and memory. The Giant Iguana battlefield was directly beneath him.
Unlike the other Dragon Whelps, his intelligence far surpassed theirs.
The development of a White Dragon's brain was not particularly advanced, and so it was naturally no match for his seventeen points.
He calculated the process slightly.
Garen began to use his claws to cut through the hard ground with his Ice Pressure Blade.
He smashed and stabbed at the ground, and with each cut he carved out deep slashes. He had already memorized the lay and path of the land here.
Soon enough, he had dug a gaping hole out of this elephant-sized snowy cliff, such that it could fall at any minute.
He could only accomplish this because he had the Ice Pressure Blade, an extremely high-sharpness claw technique.
Without hesitation, Garen flew upward and then smashed his body down hard.
Ka-chak.