In the Barren Canyon, a biting wind howled through the exposed rocks, swirling snow dust across the desolate ground.
The sky was gloomy, the sunlight thin and weak.
Two petrified giant lizards lay lazily on a sun-facing boulder, their rough skin resembling weathered stone, motionlessly soaking in the faint warmth.
Not far away, a massive Red Dragon was unusually repeating a bizarre action.
It used its scaled body to violently slam against the steep cliff face. Each impact produced a dull, thunderous boom, sending rock fragments flying and dust billowing.
With its flesh and blood body, it crashed against the rock wall over and over again.
And at that very moment, Xia'er's figure shot across the sky from the north like a bolt of jade lightning tearing through the gloomy firmament. Her massive dragon wings churned the swirling snow dust within the canyon.
Her arrival instantly shattered the silence of the Barren Canyon.
The two petrified giant lizards, feigning sleep on the boulder, suddenly raised their rock-crusted heads. Their murky yellow eyes locked onto the uninvited guest in the sky, their throats emitting low, threatening hisses. Their rough claws instinctively dug into the rock as they entered a state of alert.
The Red Dragon that had been madly slamming into the cliff also abruptly stopped its self-abusive actions.
Amidst the cloud of flying rock dust, the Red Dragon's massive head jerked upwards. On its neck, covered in dark red scales, several fresh impact wounds were oozing tiny beads of blood, interwoven with numerous older scars.
When it saw clearly that the newcomer was Xia'er, an intense mix of pure delight and sheer combat intent instantly erupted in Tyrone's lava-like eyes, as if he had spotted his most desired prey or opponent.
Tyrone didn't even consider why Xia'er had come. His enormous body surged with power, whipping up a gust of wind as he launched himself from the shallow crater created by his impacts, heading straight for the Green Dragon hovering in the air.
"Xia'er!"
Tyrone's roar exploded like muffled thunder within the canyon, brimming with eager excitement: "Come on, let's fight!"
With that, Tyrone powerfully beat his wings, hovering before Xia'er. Scorching breath snorted from his nostrils in two plumes of white mist. His robust body, covered in old and new scars, swayed slightly, already adopting the most direct combat stance. It was as if the previous ramming had merely been a warm-up, and now the true release had arrived.
"Alright!"
Originally, Xia'er had come intending to have a proper talk with Tyrone, to persuade him to move to the Star Mist Archipelago and offer him an island as his territory.
But she hadn't expected Tyrone to be so brimming with fighting spirit upon seeing her, and Xia'er immediately responded in kind.
After all, at this current stage, finding an opponent whose physical strength was on par with her own was incredibly difficult.
The Frost Giants to the north mostly moved in groups, and Xia'er dared not approach them recklessly.
If she could spar with Tyrone to hone her skills, it would be a good alternative.
Before the words had fully faded, Tyrone's massive, dark red body shot forward like an arrow from a bow, wrapped in a wave of scorching air, ferociously pouncing!
Tyrone employed no fancy techniques; the Red Dragon's instinct was the most direct charge and bite.
His enormous maw opened wide, dragon teeth sharp as molten lava spears gleaming coldly, immediately aiming to bite Xia'er's relatively vulnerable neck!
Xia'er was well-prepared, possessing a deep understanding of the Red Dragon's strength and ferocity. Her wings gave a powerful flap, and with astonishing agility, she dodged sideways in an emergency flash. Simultaneously, her long, powerful tail lashed out like a heavy steel whip, tearing through the air with a whooshing sound, viciously striking at Tyrone's exposed flank as he pounced past!
Thud!
A dull impact sound echoed through the canyon.
Tyrone was knocked sideways by the blow, a sharp pain radiating from his scaled flank, but the Red Dragon's ferocity was now thoroughly ignited.
"Roar—!"
Tyrone roared in fury, twisting his body with the momentum. His thick forelimbs, carrying terrifying force, shot towards Xia'er, attempting to rip open that emerald scale armor with his claws.
The two young behemoths instantly became entangled, colliding in the canyon like two moving mountains.
The clash of pure physical strength was primal.
Claws scraped against each other's scales, producing grating sounds and showers of sparks. Dragon teeth sought every possible opening for a bite.
Tyrone's strength was savage and domineering; each collision made Xia'er feel her bones tremble.
Xia'er's movements, however, were swifter and more precise. Utilizing her comparative advantage in agility due to her slightly more streamlined build, she dodged Tyrone's most ferocious pounces, searching for openings to counterattack.
Rocks shattered under their rolling and crushing weight. Snow and dust were churned into a swirling cloud.
"Is that all you've got, Greenscale!"
Tyrone temporarily forced Xia'er back in a contest of brute force, his lava-like dragon pupils burning with fury.
He suddenly took a deep breath, his chest swelling like a giant bellows. A blinding orange-red glow ignited deep within his throat.
That was the Red Dragon's signature fiery breath, brewing!
Just as the torrent of scorching flame was about to erupt, Xia'er also opened her maw.
A cloud of lethally viridian poison mist took shape as well.
This was Xia'er's recently enhanced, Black Oil-boosted Green Dragon innate breath.
Among dragon breaths, the most powerful is actually the Blue Dragon's lightning breath, followed by the Red Dragon's fiery breath.
Compared to lightning and fire, the Green and Black Dragons' breaths are even less potent than the White Dragon's frost breath.
However, the Green Dragon's breath, enhanced by Black Oil, was somewhat different.
The ink-green poison mist spread out like a living entity, precisely meeting the torrent of flame Tyrone spewed forth.
Flame and poison mist collided violently in the confined space!
The high-temperature flames attempted to vaporize the mist, producing a sharp sizzling sound and billowing vast clouds of eerie green smoke.
But Xia'er's poison mist was exceptionally concentrated. The corrosive and hallucinogenic neurotoxins it contained saw their potency greatly amplified under the Black Oil's catalysis.
Although the flames consumed a portion of the mist, they couldn't completely disperse it.
A large amount of the poison gas, heated and made even more active by the flames, breached the firewall. Like maggots clinging to bone, it instantly enveloped Tyrone's massive head!
"Cough! Ugh—!"
Caught off guard, Tyrone inhaled a large amount of the toxic gas.
An indescribably cloying, foul stench assaulted his senses, followed immediately by intense dizziness and a feeling of suffocation!
His vision instantly blurred, as if countless green specks of light danced before his eyes. His brain felt as if struck by a heavy hammer, agony accompanied by a powerful wave of nausea.
His throat and nasal passages burned as if scalded by strong acid, the searing pain forcing him into violent coughing fits. The fiery breath he'd been building up was forcibly interrupted, leaving only a few unwilling hisses and sputtering sparks coughed from his throat.
His massive body began to sway uncontrollably. His attack rhythm was completely disrupted, his steps becoming unsteady.
And Xia'er, too, was directly struck by the fiery breath, her entire body seared!
However, thanks to years of accumulated Fire Resistance, Xia'er was long accustomed to it. Seizing the moment when Tyrone was disoriented and defenseless from the poison mist, she dove like a leopard that had been crouching in wait!
Her wings erupted with astonishing force, her entire body transforming into a bolt of jade lightning, slamming hard into Tyrone's chest!
Boom!
Already unsteady on his feet, Tyrone was completely thrown off balance by this power-packed collision. His enormous body toppled from the sky like a falling mountain, crashing to the ground and stirring up another cloud of dust.
Xia'er showed no mercy, immediately pouncing down. Her massive dragon claws clamped down like iron vices, instantly pinning Tyrone's struggling forelimbs. The coldly gleaming points of her dragon teeth hovered precisely over Tyrone's exposed throat—a vital spot left vulnerable as he gasped painfully from the poison.
One gentle bite would end this battle.
The icy killing intent and the lethal threat at his throat instantly froze Tyrone's struggling movements.
Tyrone panted angrily, his lava-like dragon pupils glaring fixedly at Xia'er looming above him, filled with humiliation, unwillingness, and disbelief.
The dizziness from the poison mist still assaulted his nerves. His muscles felt weak and sore. More importantly, the strength and breath attack he took such pride in had been broken and defeated in a head-on confrontation by his opponent using such a method!
The outcome was decided.
Xia'er slowly retracted her claws, and a panel materialized before her.
【Defeated Red Dragon 'Tyrone Killian Fitzwilliam'. Reward obtained: 'Fire Resistance' EXP +1, 'Strength' EXP +1, Spell: Scorching Ray.】
"Huh?"
Upon seeing the spell reward, Xia'er couldn't help but be taken aback.
With this... could she impersonate a Red Dragon?
Driving this strange thought from her mind, Xia'er looked towards the visibly sullen Tyrone, just about to say something when Tyrone suddenly spoke up, his voice gloomy and displeased: "How did you do it?"
"From sunrise to sunset, I've been training constantly. Whether it's Owlbears, Petrified Giant Lizards, or Hook-Tailed Scorpions, none were my match, easily crushed by my breath. But why could you ignore my breath, and why is your physical strength even greater than mine?"