Chapter 111: Escort Flight.
“Long time no see.”
Jié Jié gently rubbed the porcelain bowl with his wings lightly patting its body.
“Aaaannngg~”
The Male Fire Dragon softly intoned, his blue-golden pupils showing genuine joy.
As for the Investigator who was sneaking a peek, did the warmth between the Spiny Dragon and the Fire Dragon count as being out of character for dragons?
Jié Jié didn’t care; the Spiny Dragon was just a part of him. Hunters would probably fill in the gaps with reasonable backstory about raising the dragon.
“Where are the other dragons?”
His gaze scanned left and right as he let out a soft growl.
The understanding hadn’t faded over time. The Fire Dragon flapped its wings and flew into the sky, signaling for him to follow.
Jié Jié gave a quick glance at the Team Leader hiding nearby, then spread his wings and chased after the porcelain bowl, gradually disappearing from both their lines of sight.
“They’ve flown away. It’s possible that a Spiny Dragon raising a Fire Dragon is plausible since there have been sightings of adult Fire Dragons stepping aside when encountering their fathers.”
“But this kind of warm interaction is the first we’ve seen. If we take this information back, can we finally conclude whether Fire Dragons possess emotions?”
The Guild had posted a commission to collect Fire Dragon eggs. There were attempts to domesticate some monsters, but these creatures were often too wild to be tamed.
Fire Dragons possess high intelligence. From the moment they could see the sky, these creatures of the heavens seemed to find their pride and soul, acting as if they were above mingling with the beasts on the ground.
How could puny humans incapable of flight ever associate with Fire Dragons? The size difference was simply too great.
“Meow~”
“You mean… Fire Dragons have a tradition of driving grown children from the nest, but Spiny Dragons might not necessarily do so?”
Shān Máo nodded.
“True. We lack ecological knowledge about the reproduction of Spiny Dragons. These guys either sleep or are sleeping, and their temperament can be described as gentle. There’s indeed a possibility that they don’t drive out their young, meaning the young leave the nest on their own.”
The Team Leader processed the thought, understanding his Companion’s implication.
Besides expulsion, young Fire Dragons indeed actively leave the nest to expand their territory. With the Spiny Dragon showing tenderness without pushing them away, it makes sense that young Fire Dragons might develop a tendency to return the favor.
Sigh, nature is truly wondrous.
“Let’s give this info to the old man of the Dragon People Tribe later. Let’s try to catch up with them.”
The Team Leader looked from the hill at the direction the Flying Dragons flew off towards, taking steps to begin tracking them.
In the skies, the Male Fire Dragon flew alongside the Spiny Dragon.
“AAANG!”
The young Male Fire Dragon roared freely in the skies, unafraid of any Large Monsters, proudly proclaiming its existence without fear.
This confidence came from the Lord of the Tree Sea beside it.
More youthful dragon roars echoed from the surrounding areas below, as they soared into the sky, gathering around Jié Jié.
They only needed to be called.
The four young dragons maintained space for each other, only clustering together when faced with threats. In the past year, they had found the most suitable way to coexist.
Their alliance still existed, flying alongside the Spiny Dragon.
The roaring dragons disturbed other monsters in the forest, which looked up from the ground at the sky, watching the gathering dragons and quietly lowering themselves, fearing becoming an appetizer.
The “true” aerial dominators of the Ancient Trees almost approached, but froze upon meeting those golden dragon eyes.
Something familiar.
This Fire Dragon Jié Jié residing in the tree canopy was also somewhat familiar. He was the number one contender pursuing him more than half a month ago. Back then, he got beaten up by Jie Jie.
At that time, he was in the form of a War Fire Dragon.
“ROAR!”
Among the four young Fire Dragons, the largest one, Iron Pot, roared. Its body still bore bloody claw marks.
“ROAR!”
The Male Fire Dragon wasn’t scared off by Jié Jié. Being at a higher altitude seemed to give it extra courage?
A fierce wind blew, and the seemingly cumbersome body of the Spiny Dragon rapidly ascended in the invisible wind, carrying the surrounding escorting young dragons along with it.
The young Fire Dragons swayed precariously in the sudden strong wind until they stopped resisting it and followed the wind, thus regaining their balance while ascending.
Wind Pressure is almost ineffective against monsters rooted to the ground, but for flying monsters, it’s like removing the fire from under a pot.
A scorching Fireball exploded on Jié Jié’s body but didn’t affect the stability of the Spiny Dragon’s flight in the slightest.
The Lord of the Tree Sea coldly raised its head, riding the wind to pounce toward the Male Fire Dragon.
The Male Fire Dragon tried to climb higher to avoid it, but involuntarily dived down toward Jie Jie.
No, not a dive. No matter how the Male Fire Dragon pulled its wings, it couldn’t resist the attraction of the storm.
Jié Jié slightly opened his mouth, needing only a bit of Poisonous Fire Breath to make the wind form a colored Dragon Roll.
But remembering the presence of his children, he silently closed his mouth and looked at them expectantly.
“AAANG!”
Iron Pot aggressively rammed into the Male Fire Dragon’s wings, losing control of its flight due to the powerful wings of the adult Male Fire Dragon, falling from the sky.
A gust of wind lifted it up, helping it regain control of its wings and enter flight mode again.
“AAANG!”
The young Fire Dragons circled the wind, encircling the Male Fire Dragon.
Their Breath Weapons hit the Male Fire Dragon, making it hard for the once-skilled aerial combatant to maintain stability in the air, crashing toward the Spiny Dragon at the center of the storm.
Toward the Horn controlling the Dragon Wind.
Sssst!
The Horn pierced through the chest of the Fire Dragon, causing it to emit a painful groan.
The Dragon Wind entangled around the Horn twisted the toxins and flesh, tearing at its body.
The Spiny Dragon swung its head, hurling the Fire Dragon down from the high sky, plummeting toward the ground.
“Truly—”
The hunter climbing up the hill from the woods looked up just in time to see the Male Fire Dragon falling from the sky.
He couldn’t see the Dragon Roll formed by the invisible winds in the high altitudes, but he knew that in the original continent, Spiny Dragons, which were particularly clumsy in the air, were often fooled by agile Fire Dragons.
In aerial dogfights, Spiny Dragons should not have an advantage over Fire Dragons, but the Spiny Dragon before him was accompanied by four Fire Dragon wingmen.
“Even the airspace has been dominated by that guy, besides the ground.”
He couldn’t see clearly, assuming the Spiny Dragon’s victory was thanks to the assistance of the Fire Dragon offspring.
The flying dragons landed, and Jie Jie didn’t let his children toy with the dying Male Fire Dragon but delivered it a swift final blow.
It’s been a long time since eating Fire Dragon meat. Last year, too many Male Fire Dragons were killed, so afterwards, mostly expulsions took place.
The young dragons hovered around him, waiting for him to eat first.
The sharp claws tore open the Fire Dragon’s shell, and the mouth full of sharp teeth tore apart the fresh flesh and blood.
Only then did the young Fire Dragons start eating.
By the time the panting Team Leader arrived, only the corpse of the Male Fire Dragon remained.
“What a feast.”
The hunter chasing the Spiny Dragon into the Valley of the Ancient Tree looked up, his gaze passing through the broken dome made of roots and branches.
That giant tree was far away yet so close.
