Chapter 277 - The Scale: Dogfight (1/2)

Gronn flew in place, innately directing the flow of wind generated from the beating of his enormous wings around himself in such a way that he could hover naturally despite his sheer size. His yellowed eyes narrowed as he clenched his armor-plated jaws. He sensed the air around him, feeling the vibrations of movement flow past him from the wind.

It reminded him of the past, when he was a little salamander trying to survive in the harsh waters of the Valian mountain ranges as the humans called them. His senses had always been alert to the flow of power in the water, the vibrations of every creature that swam and dove, for at a moment's notice, he could be killed.

It was a feeling of alert instinct that came only to those that were hunted. The type of instinctive feeling that came only when death was near. A feeling he had long thought he had forgotten.

Gronn grunted and drew his wings together in front of him. They were almost as large as his entire body and were like twin greatshields, plated in thick black scales as they were. At their ends, two long, serrated, and curved spikes of bone sprouted.

Valerikynthimos would not lower herself to fighting him unless she had to. She would send her emerald wing dogs to do the job instead.

One of them approached, speeding forwards in an eager rush to obey his higher. His long, serpentine form streaked through the night sky. His for long, insectoid wings fluttered rapidly beneath his carapace plated head. His draconic eyes lit up green in the dark, and when they trained on Gronn, the pincers at the sides of his head opened up in a shrill roar before he curved his lengthy body, shooting out several spines attached along his back.

Gronn pushed his wings back, propelling him forwards as he closed his eyes, letting his armored eyelids cover the soft organs beneath. Three spines bounced off his sturdy armor, durable even among dragon kin, and he thrust out his wings, crashing the bone spikes at their tips into the body of the emerald clan drake.

The drake shrieked as the two spikes crunched through its carapace without meeting a shred of resistance, tearing through the length of its thin body and popping out the other side. Gronn opened his jaw, and sparks showered from his lips as the armor plating them scr.a.p.ed against each other.

Gronn's jaw was enormous, comprising nearly half his head in a strong overbite, and it was heavily padded not only with thick black armor-like scales, but also highly dense and powerful muscles.

Among dragons of his tier, Gronn's bite force ranked near the top, and combined with his brute force and immense regeneration, he did not think himself prideful to believe himself near the top of the normal dragons, especially within a close ranged brawl.

Though, compared to Valerikynthimos, a higher blood even among the higher ones, he was still nothing.

Gronn bit down into the emerald clan drake, and his jaw completely snapped the drake in half. He spat out a chunky mass of crunched up carapace and bloody flesh, and the two halves of the drake fell lifeless and curled up down to the ground so far below.

Gronn growled as he covered his head with his wings. Countless spines battered him from every which way, but none of them could pierce his hide. Notably, though, they all aimed near his head, knowing to try and gouge out his eyes. From the flow of vibrations in the wind, he guessed there were seven drakes from the amount of spines hitting him and the direction they came from.

They were all pitiful weaklings, and stacking seven of them together would do nothing to Gronn. But they knew he had to take the offensive for Valerikynthimos was coming.

Gronn pushed his wings forward, blowing himself backwards, as if to escape. Immediately, he could feel a difference in vibrations in the air. One of the emerald drakes was surging forward, trying to cut off his escape with its pincers, for though its spines were unable to harm Gronn, its pincers could pierce his scales and potentially even impart enough venom to harm him through his regeneration.

Gronn expected this, and when he sensed the drake was near, he flicked his wide, flared tail back, stopping his flight and turning him right around to bite down on the drake's head. He spat out a pulped up drake head as another corpse fell down below.