Chapter 747 - 734: Searching for the Master
Chapter 747: Chapter 734: Searching for the Master
South of Dragon’s Roar Valley, a watchtower used to monitor changes in the valley had now fallen to ruin.
Charred wooden beams lay across the rubble, the ground mixed with human and various non-human footprints.
A few Dragon Beasts crouched at the collapsed tower, burying their heads in the corpses of soldiers.
Kobolds scurried amid the ruins, digging out dried mushrooms that had been stored as provisions.
Not every Giant Dragon in the Underground City of Dragon Cliff liked to fly out and hunt personally.
Therefore, the dragons’ servants, the kobolds, would domesticate some Dragon Beasts below Dragon Cliff to satisfy their masters’ appetites.
And now, these Dragon Beasts turned into their force in the assault on this human outpost.
The sound of Dragon Beast footsteps was mixed with the kobolds’ imperfect Dragon Language:
"Master... find the master..."
...
Earlier, above Dragon Cliff, kobold servants once belonging to different Giant Dragons huddled together under the same shadow.
They no longer differentiated between ’servants of the Red Dragon’ or ’servants of the White Dragon’.
All the masters were gone, and all identities lost meaning.
They curled up listlessly along the bare stone pathways of Dragon Cliff, gazing blankly at the sky, hoping to see the silhouette of a soaring dragon, but only a few Dragon Beasts flew above.
When the Giant Dragons left, they didn’t bring them along.
This was no surprise; Dragon Struggle forbade external assistance. Those proud and self-assured dragons never considered such kobolds, who couldn’t even speak Dragon Language properly, to be useful in Dragon Struggle.
In fact, dragons willing to discuss Dragon Struggle with their servants were already few and far between.
In the eyes of the dragons, kobolds were merely tools that could speak, tools that could curry favor, tools to clean their scales, tidy their nests, and even be casually grabbed and stuffed into their tooth gaps when hungry.
As for what these tools thought, they didn’t care. The kobolds felt the same way; it was ingrained in their bones from birth.
But this time, there were no masters!
After even the grand dragons left, Dragon Cliff was utterly empty.
Suddenly deprived of masters, the kobolds began to panic, become confused, and fearful...
Even the kobold shamans’ best efforts to soothe them failed to help.
At that moment, a special kobold stood forth.
He was half a head taller and more robust than his kind.
While other kobolds had bare pink-gray skin like freshly skinned rabbits, he possessed a layer of fine scales running from his back to the tip of his tail, shining with a somber iron-gray sheen under the sunlight—a result of being granted dragon blood, a mark of honor, and proof of power.
His name was Svirgis.
This wasn’t his original name; it was a name of honor bestowed by the masters after his strength and dedication had been recognized.
Svirgis stood atop a rock, its surface pockmarked by Dragon Claw scrapes, overlooking his kin below.
"If the masters don’t return, we’ll go find them!" His voice was fervently passionate, drawing countless kobolds’ gazes, "Find the masters, find the meaning of our existence."
At his call, tens of thousands of kobolds departed from Dragon Cliff, leaving behind the familiar azure skies, crossing through multiple spaces, reaching outside Dragon’s Roar Valley.
The kobold expedition had begun.
...
A new defense line, in a certain nodal city.
The commander looked at the mixed army of kobolds and Dragon Beasts outside the city, feeling a pang of fear.
At that moment, a mage galloped back from the kobold camp.
After the mage returned, the commander grabbed this practitioner of telepathy magic and asked, "What do they want?"
"These kobolds are looking for their Dragon Lords!" the mage replied, "They said they’re tracking the Giant Dragons’ trail and must cross here to continue their search."
"Letting them pass is simply impossible, certainly no room for negotiation..." The commander nodded gravely, pondering how much aid they needed from surrounding cities to hold back the army before them.
"Wait!" Suddenly, the commander thought of something, "They said they’re following the Giant Dragons’ trail, and the direction they’re coming from is..."
The mage standing by smiled bitterly and nodded, "I’m afraid it’s that White Dragon."
The commander now firmly believed that even if they let these kobolds pass, they wouldn’t find traces of their masters.
After all, the White Dragon had been dismantled by them, and the commander’s own sword hilt was even made with cut Dragon Scales, which if discovered...
The commander quietly swapped his sword for a relatively ordinary one.
...
The new defense line’s first genuine resistance against an army, unexpectedly, wasn’t against the Empire’s Demon Race but these kobolds.
The kobolds’ combat power was not weak. They, too, had shamans who could wield Magic Power, mighty Warriors, and domesticated various Magic Beasts.
While their magic wasn’t vast and their equipment quite primitive, facing the kobolds’ fresh combat style, the mere thousands of defenders struggled greatly.
If not for the powerful Defense granted to the cities by the new defense line and reinforcements from nearby cities, they might not have lasted even a week.
"Is there any more reinforcement? We’re already short-handed here." The officer defending the east wall asked, bandages wrapped around his head. He had just survived a dreadful battle, with many losses under his command.
The commander thought about it and shook his head, "There isn’t any more; our surrounding city reinforcements have all arrived, those farther away won’t get here for another two or three days."
"Damn it!" The officer lowered his head, "If only there were any dukes nearby."
The commander sighed, "There are dragon catastrophes all over now, the High Castle Fortress controlled by the Empire is making large-scale maneuvers, dukes and the mages from the Relic Association are all out dealing with those issues, afraid they’re unable to spare any effort."
The commander looked towards the distant kobold camp, where several Dragon Beasts had risen into the air – a sign of the impending attack.
He patted the officer’s shoulder, "Hang in there a bit longer, just hold on three more days, and more reinforcements can..."
"Commander! Commander!" A hasty soldier interrupted the commander’s encouragement. But after hearing the soldier’s report, the displeasure vanished from his face, "Commander, the hero is here! War hero Inanna has arrived!"
"Really?"
"Absolutely, Inanna’s pet, Number Four, has already arrived ahead..."
Before the soldier could finish, the commander heard one of the Mushroom Race members hum a tune within the Fungal Network:
"Glory~ Victory~ All become spoils of war! Dragon’s head~ Mighty’s Treasure Sword~ All enter my Mushroom House!"
"Victory, here I come!"
Number Four bounced onto the city wall, excitedly gazing at the looming kobold army.
He immediately noticed the extraordinary Svirgis—that set of scales was just perfect as spoils!
Without hesitation, he brandished his chaotic weapon... Mushroom Might!
...
A fearsome pressure descended upon the battlefield.
The defending soldiers suddenly felt weak and terrified, some even lost their grip and dropped their weapons, causing a significant stir.
The charging Dragon Beasts and kobolds were even worse.
The Dragon Beasts desperately ground to a halt, even when their kind crashed into them from behind, clawing deep furrows into the ground, unwilling to move even a step forward.
They made muted whines from their throats, their bodies collapsing, shivering with fear.
The kobolds fared no better, instinct instantly overshadowing everything else. In unison, they knelt, their knees hitting the rubble, cracking their heads and bleeding, yet none dared rise.
Momentary terror was followed by a rush of ecstasy among the kobolds!
They suddenly lifted their heads, eyes wide open, pupils reflecting the sky, the earth, the city wall... frantically searching for the great figure worthy of their reverent worship.
No sky, no earth... the dazed eyes eventually landed dumbly on the barely one-meter-high round mushroom form in front of the city wall.
Number Four was using a tentacle to scratch the edge of his mushroom cap, as perplexed as the kobolds, uncertain whether to continue according to plan and charge into the fray...