"The red dragon will naturally not allow too many monsters around its nest, so the Ferenz clan can often enjoy peace and quiet. Only this year..." Gabo responded to Petrit's words and shook his head.
After a period of time together, Gabo seemed to have figured it out and began to communicate with the Fuchs dwarves in the team. Although they were not close, they gradually began to have a tacit understanding of some Mahakam customs.
In fact, Petrit still had some opinions about Sieglin, but Gabor was an exception. After all, Gabor had done something that could be called "betrayal of the clan" in order to stop Sieglin from slaughtering Fuchs, which made Petrit feel uncomfortable with Gabor.
With Lann's mediation, the relationship between Gabor and Petrit has eased a lot. This is a good start. Later, the leaders of the two clans in Cintra were also these two dwarves. Their easing of the relationship can also make the two clans get along more harmoniously in the future.
At this moment, Gabo was explaining attentively, and at the same time he looked at Petrit, as if there was some other story about the red dragon.
However, he found that the Fuchs dwarf was suddenly attracted by something. Not only Petrit, but everyone in the team except Gabo was looking in one direction.
In the snow-covered Mahakam Mountains, a rising black barrier suddenly appeared at some point. It was the thick smoke from burning materials. This level of fire was definitely not caused by the burning of one or two trees. Even if Lan En and the others were told that a whole village was on fire, they would believe it.
Petrit muttered to himself, "There seems to be a black pine forest in that direction. Could it be that it was struck by lightning and caused a forest fire?"
Lann frowned, because he found that the direction of the fire was the direction of Milva's mark. After the fire started, Milva and Kolgrim suddenly stopped moving.
"There hasn't been much thunder in the weather lately, Petrit."
Gabo shook his head, but he didn't expect that before he finished speaking, a loud "thunder" sounded in everyone's ears.
“Ahhh——”
This wasn't some thunder from the sky, but a roar from a ferocious beast! In the entire Mahakam, the only one who could make such a huge noise was the one that Petrit had just been admiring.
Red Dragon, Kelturis!
“Kerturis?” Petrit jumped up. “It finally came to help the Ferenz clan clean up the monsters around them?”
Unlike the excited Petrit, Lann's expression was not optimistic. He looked in the direction of the billowing smoke and the deafening dragon roar, and estimated that it was the place where Milva and Kolgrim's marks were.
Something must be wrong.
“I don’t think it came out to help clear the monsters.” Geralt had the same idea. “The emotion in that roar was wrong… The emotion in that roar at the foot of Mahakam was also wrong.”
The next second, a bright emerald light emanated from Lann's body, and this time the [Teleport] skill was activated without any hesitation.
"Kolgrim and Milva are in that direction. I'll go check the situation first, and you guys just head towards the fire."
After leaving these words, Lann disappeared from sight, leaving everyone looking at each other in bewilderment.
"Speed up," Geralt said. The Cintra knights and other warriors responded with a roar, and the sound of horse hooves suddenly became as rapid as a storm.
Among the crowd, only Saskia had a different expression. When she heard the dragon's roar, she began to feel an indescribable worry.
…
Lan's vision gradually became clear, the bright white spots began to fade from his sight, and the surrounding scenery began to become clear.
The first thing that came into my ears was the shouting and screaming that came one after another.
Lann activated [Flash] without hesitation, and the bright emerald light enveloped his entire body again. The effect of the skill slowed down the time around him as if it had been pressed 0.1 times. Although Lann's movements were also slowed down, his thinking did not stagnate.
This allows him to quickly scan the situation on the field and mobilize his thinking to make a response plan.
This time, he chose Milva as his target for [Teleport]. The most eye-catching person now was the surprised female attendant in front of him. The snake-faction demon hunter Kolgrim was not far away from her, and behind him were scattered Cintra soldiers. These rigorously trained soldiers were unable to form a decent formation at this moment.
Trying his best to turn his sight, Lann saw quite a few dwarves around his own people. There were probably hundreds of them, some of whom had beards but looked slightly younger - compared to Gabor and his men - these dwarves were very close to the Cintrians, and some were even retreating behind the cavalry, trying to seek shelter.
But there were still some dwarves far away from Lan's team. They looked more brave and skilled in fighting, better equipped, and older. Moreover, they also had an ornament that Lan was very familiar with - the squirrel's tail.
Scoia'tael!
These non-human guerrilla forces, who are currently lurking and causing trouble in the eastern region of the Northern Kingdom, really appeared in Mahakam just as Helela said!
This group of Scoia'tael were all pure dwarves, and perhaps that was why they were able to penetrate deep into the mountains. They kept a considerable distance from Lann's team, and there was even a hint of confrontation between them.
I don’t know if they are enemies, but at least they are definitely not friends.
And Lann still remembered why he came here: because of the fire that rose straight into the sky and the dragon's roar that shook the earth.
This time, before he could avert his gaze, he could already faintly feel his cloak being blown by the hot wind, and the scorching waves of fire were about to lick his body.
There were his own soldiers in front of him, and there was no room for him to dodge. Lan En didn't even turn his body, but just turned his wrist and palm backwards.
[Alder Seal·Bone-piercing·Magic Explosion]!
The next second, the scorching flames and the biting cold wind collided fiercely. Lann felt his magic power value dropping like diving, while the giant dragon on the other side that was spewing flames did not give in.
The air at the junction of hot and cold kept twisting, compressing, and evaporating. The small open space experienced the two extremes of ice and fire, and finally at the extreme point -
With a loud "boom", an explosion occurred!
A huge shock wave swept in all directions, and the confrontation between the flames and the cold wind finally stopped.
Lann seized the opportunity to cast a layer of [Quenn Seal] on himself, and then flew backwards. In mid-air, he also pulled Milva to save her from direct damage from the explosion, and finally the two of them crashed into the group of guards behind them.
"Lord Lannister!"
Without having time to respond to the excited shouts of his attendants and soldiers, Lann shook his head and jumped up without support. After Lann appeared, the people on the Cintra side felt a backbone, and the originally loose formation suddenly solidified.
Lann stared at the enemy without looking away: "What is the current situation? Someone tell me briefly."
Looking at the young dwarves running around, the Scoia'tael dwarves who were close to the team, and the dragon who was confronting Lann, Kolgrim jumped nimbly to Lann's side and began to explain -
…
After the troops were divided into three groups, Kolgrim and Milva came to the Ferencz clan first. With the letter from the great elder, they communicated with Vawřínek Ferencz quite smoothly.
They soon joined the dwarf "clean-up" team, and with their rich experience in demon hunting, they helped the Ferencz clan eradicate monster nests one after another.
If things continue to develop in this way, Kolgrim and Milva will be able to easily cooperate with the dwarves to successfully clear out the monsters around the [Witch's Lair], and when Lann and his party arrive, they will be able to start discussing the issue of rewards and support.
The turning point came not long ago when the wandering dwarves returned home.
As the young people who had gone out had not returned, Kolgrim and his companions went to the foot of the mountain at the request of the parents of the dwarves of Ferenz. With the keen senses of the demon hunters, they soon found the traces of a large group of dwarves. However, when they found these young dwarves, they found that there were also Scoia'tael with them.
As a guerrilla force fighting against humans, the Scoia'tael has always been short of manpower. The racial conflicts in the North are not as severe as in Lan's memory. Unless there is an indelible hatred between them and humans, most non-human races living in human society still want to live an honest life.
So the Squirrel Party targeted the dwarves who were returning home after their travels. Most of these dwarves were bullied in human society and planned to return to their hometowns to live. They had a natural rejection and even hatred of human society, which made them a good source of soldiers for the Squirrel Party.
For this purpose, the Scoia'tael sent a large number of dwarf members to infiltrate Mahakam. They blocked the way of the wandering dwarves returning home according to their respective clans, trying to persuade them to join the Scoia'tael before they returned to the gathering place.
Kolgrim saw the Ferenz dwarves just as the Scoia'tael had just met them. If they hadn't taken these young people who hadn't formed a faction into consideration, the Scoia'tael would have fought with the Cintra humans long ago.
Now one side wants to bring the wanderers back home, and the other side wants to recruit soldiers to "resist human tyranny." The young people of the Ferenz clan are also a little wavering. The two groups of people stayed at the foot of the mountain for several days, and the Squirrel Party also had several frictions with Kolgrim and his men.
During this process, the Scoia'tael and Cintra teams were constantly harassed by the surrounding monsters, but they were able to barely cope with them.
Until the red dragon descended from the sky.
…
The story was not short, but Kolgrim spoke very quickly and was good at grasping the key points, and he explained the situation to Lann in a few words.
"So the most urgent situation now is to deal with this dragon." Lann concluded, "But we can also defend against those Scoia'tael."
Kolgrim nodded heavily.
At this time, the dragon had recovered.
In the confrontation just now, Lann looked a little embarrassed. After all, the same volume of shock waves will have different effects on people of different weights. Compared with Lann who rushed to meet the attack and flew backwards, the giant beast in front of him just shook his head, just like a human facing a slightly stronger mountain wind.
Not only did he not suffer any damage, he was even eager to try. The Red Dragon felt that if there had not been the explosion caused by the extreme cold and heat just now, his dragon flame would definitely be able to overwhelm the opponent's cold wind.
Lan took a deep breath. After all, the one in front of him was a dragon, and he was now truly an enemy of the dragon.
Dragons were originally supposed to be classified as [remnants]. It was said that they were native species of the continent and had been living there until today. However, because there were so many types of dragons, and some of them were too powerful, scholars classified them separately as [dragons]. Even monsters that looked a bit like them could be classified as [dragon-like creatures].
It is said that dragons were once common creatures on the continent. They were considered to represent magical energy and had ruled the continent many times. In the days when various monsters harassed the lives of the people on the continent, dragons were the worst of them: their dragon fire was the nemesis of cities, and their strong appetite and insatiable collecting addiction were the nightmare of mankind.
A scholar once wrote in a book about dragons: The best strategy when facing a dragon is to pray to all the gods. Atheists are better off running away first, as they may be able to live a few more heartbeats.
It is rumored that when the warlocks created the demon hunters, their main purpose was to enable them to take on the responsibility of slaying dragons. What is quite dramatic is that the demon hunter heritage is now almost extinct, and dragons have almost disappeared.
Now the number of dragons that can be found in the north and south can be counted on one hand, including various smaller and inferior creatures. Ged had hunted a green dragon in Skellige, and according to him, the guy was not much bigger than a horse.
But the dragon in front of him was obviously not the kind that could be easily hunted.
It lay on the ground with its body crouched low, and its body looked like a crouching fortress.
Its dark golden vertical pupils stared at Lann intently. Even though it had lived for thousands of years, it had never seen a human with such extraordinary power. The speed of its spellcasting was almost equal to that of the strongest known human warlock, but the way it appeared was not a warlock's portal.
And looking at this human who suddenly appeared, he was not dressed as a warlock, but rather like a——
"Demon hunter."
It was as if a large bell was struck in midair, forming the shape of these three words. Every vibration of the sound could cause the chest and abdomen of those who heard the same frequency to tremble, making people feel uncomfortable. And this sound came from the dragon's throat.
Lann drew out the Sword of the Lady of the Lake without giving in, and responded to the other party's greeting in a calm, steady, yet sharp as a sword voice:
"Red Dragon!"