Chapter 176 To Fight a Dragon 3 (1/2)

Arran sat cal down at the valley several thousands of feet below hih the dragon had still not calns of weariness While it was still violently thrashi+ng around and leaving giant cracks in the rocky floor of the valley, its ish, and it seey depleted further

Arran waited patiently The e, the better

Finally, well over an hour after Arran had reached the top of the cliff, the giant creature appeared to have reached its limit It let out a last vicious roar, then slowly lay down Perhaps the beast had realized there was no chance of catching its eneon lay down, Arran stood up Then, he sent a thin but bright streanal for Snowcloud

The brief spell of quiet in the valley came to an end almost inal, dull thuds began to sound from below as Snowcloud launched a series of attacks at the bottoh to shake the cliff, h to on raise its head instantly A moment later, it raised itself up, then started toward the noise By now, its ic, which Arran observed with some satisfaction — the weaker the beast was, the easier it would be to haron reached the foot of the cliff, Arran hurried a dozen paces back, then drew his starmetal sword

In the three weeks he had waited for Snowcloud and Crassus, he had already hewn deep cracks and fissures into the edge of the cliff, stopping just short of causing the entire edge to collapse

Nohen he struck the stone with all his ht, cracks instantly shot out and rumbles could be heard deep within the rock He struck several tirew louder

When he felt a slight movement beneath his feet, he immediately retreated a hundred paces, and not a e seemed to come apart, and hundreds of tons of rock plummeted into the depths below

Even if it was exactly what Arran planned and expected to happen, the sight of the collapse still filled him with awe Had there been a town at the bottom of the cliff, he was certain it would be coon rather than a town, and awe-inspiring though the sightwhether the devastating collapse had done enough dae to the vast creature

He quickly made his way back down the side of the cliff to see what har that the dragon had not soe the many tons of stone that should have rained down on it

As he reached the botto him, and from her excited expression, he could immediately tell that the attack had struck true

”We got it!” she said in a spirited voice ”Half the cliff cao take a look,” Arran responded, an eager s to the vast field of rock and debris that lay at the bottom of the cliff, and even as they approached, Arran could see that the dragon was injured badly Half its body was covered in giant pieces rubble, one of its wings looked to be shattered, and there were several gaping wounds on its neck and side

Yet for all its injuries, it was clear that the beast still lived, and as they neared it, Arran could see it was already trying to free itself frorabbed his bow, then shot several arrows into each of its already ruined eyes The dragon roared in pain, but the sound was far weaker than it had been before Clearly, its injuries were grave

Snowcloud turned to Arran with a shocked look ”We can't kill it yet!” she said, voice filled orry ”It has to recover from the poison first!”

Arran shook his head ”There's no chance of killing it right now,” he replied ”What we should do is worsen its injuries, so it takes longer to recover”

He was absolutely certain of this He had figured out long ago that the effects of Natural Essence were siic, and with as on's body held, he was confident that the creature could recover froht

What he orried about wasn't that they ht fail to keep it crippled long enough to starve it Once the poison's effects wore off, he expected it to recover at a terrifying rate, and the only way to defeat it would be to harm it while it was still vulnerable