The saliva dripping from the dragon’s mouth, carrying strong corrosiveness and high heat, passed through the layered canopy and finally landed on the moss-covered tree roots.
With a soft “sizzle,” the emerald fern leaves instantly withered and charred, emitting a wisp of pungent blue smoke, startling an insect that was camouflaged like a dead leaf into flapping its wings and fleeing.
For the predator at the top of the tree, this was just an insignificant appetizer.
Balthazar’s abyssal vertical pupils did not look at the group of strong adults gathered in the center, protected by layers of others.
His gaze, like the most precise fire-control radar, locked onto a sub-adult Triceratops on the edge of the herd that had drifted slightly away from the main group due to its greed for tender shrubs.
That big guy weighed about five or six tons, its gray-green skin covered in rough, pebble-like nodules, and while its three long horns had not yet reached their full length, they were still enough to pierce the armor of a jeep.
It was oblivious to the death god from the sky, still flicking its short, thick tail while chewing on juicy plants.
“Boom—!”
There was no warning, not even a dragon’s roar.
The towering ancient tree that had supported Balthazar for several minutes shook violently, and a massive amount of leaves fell like a rainstorm.
Amidst the flying green leaves, a pitch-black bolt of lightning tore through the humid air, carrying terrifying kinetic energy like a falling meteorite as it plummeted straight toward the lone Triceratops.
His five-meter-long body, aided by gravity and the wings he had abruptly folded at the last moment to reduce wind resistance, created a visible white shockwave in the air.
By the time the Triceratops finally felt the terrifying wind pressure from above that made its soul tremble and tried to lift its head, it was too late.
“Crack!!!”
It was the most direct and brutal sound of metal colliding with bone.
Balthazar did not use his flame breath; instead, he used his hind claws, which were comparable to heavy hydraulic shears, and the massive potential energy from his dive from hundreds of meters up to precisely and ruthlessly pin into the connection point of the Triceratops’s wide neck frill—the spine.
The originally indestructible keratin head frill, which could even withstand the bite of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, was like a crisp biscuit before this strike capable of crushing rock.
Accompanied by a bone-chilling crack, the multi-ton giant beast collapsed with a crash, not even having time to let out a scream.
Its limbs lost the brain’s command in an instant, leaving only the muscles twitching meaninglessly.
Black-red blood gushed out like a fountain from the shattered spine, splashing onto Balthazar’s dark iron chest armor.
However, the moment the scalding dinosaur blood touched the Ferro-Dragon’s constantly high-temperature scales, it hissed and turned into a layer of blood-red steam, shrouding the monster from another world in a bloody mist.
“Roar—!!!”
Only then did the distant Triceratops herd react.
They let out terrified and angry roars, and the strong males instinctively formed a circle, attempting to use their forest of long horns to defend against this black demon that had descended from the sky.
But Balthazar didn’t even glance at them.
His barbed dragon claws dug deep into the flesh of his prey beneath him, pinning the still-twitching corpse firmly into the mud as if securing a dinner plate.
Immediately after, his maw, filled with sharp teeth, opened to its limit and bit down fiercely onto the severed neck, exposing the tender red meat.
“Rip—”
A large chunk of bright red muscle, still attached to skin and sinew and pulsing, was torn off raw.
“Gulp.”
There was no need to chew; the meat, weighing dozens of kilograms, slid directly down his long-starved esophagus.
That long-lost, vibrant warmth exploded instantly in his stomach.
This was not cold metal, nor was it dull mana crystals; this was blood, this was meat, the most primitive fuel of life!
He let out a satisfied and greedy low growl from his throat, buried his head again, and began to feed frantically on the massive corpse.
Under the terrifying aura mixed with dragon might and the smell of blood, not a single one of the surrounding Triceratops dared to step forward; instead, they began to retreat step by step, eventually triggering a chaotic rout with a mournful cry from the leader dragon.
“Huff… huff…”
Balthazar had just swallowed the last bite of tender neck meat from the sub-adult, but this was merely an appetizer.
The hunger that had been slightly soothed was now like a demon thoroughly awakened by the smell of blood, roaring even more greedily in his furnace-like stomach.
He jerked his head up, his dark iron maw stained with blood and meat scraps twitching slightly in the air, his vertical pupils instantly constricting into pinpricks, piercing through the smoke and dust of the chaotic stampede, locking firmly onto the largest target.
It was an old guy who had clearly lived for a long time.
Its body length was nearly nine meters, like a moving hill.
Its dark brown skin was covered in scars from battles, and the edge of its head frill even had a piece missing—clearly a king that had survived countless fights for mating rights and encounters with predators.
Even while fleeing, it remained at the rear of the herd, using those three long horns as thick as battering rams to drive the restless Young Dragons forward, attempting to maintain the order of the herd.
[Old guy…]
Observing all this, Balthazar’s mouth curled into a ferocious arc, revealing the row of sharp teeth still dripping with hot blood droplets.
[The meat… must be… very chewy.]
“Boom!”
The ground shook violently.
Balthazar did not spread his wings; at this distance, taking off would only waste time.
He chose the most primitive and violent method of pursuit—a charge.
Pushing off with all four limbs, his five-meter-long steel body, like an out-of-control heavy armored train, smashed directly through a giant boulder blocking his path, rushing toward the flank of the old leader with irresistible kinetic energy.
The old Triceratops clearly felt the killing intent behind it.
It let out a long, low growl like a steam whistle, choosing not to continue running but instead showing the resolve of a leader.
It braked sharply, its massive hooves plowing two deep trenches in the mud, then turned its enormous head, aiming those three deadly long horns at the charging black demon, preparing for a desperate fight to the death.
“Roar—!!!”
It roared, trying to scare off its opponent with its presence, just as it had once scared off those young Tyrannosaurus Rexes.
But what it faced was a dragon.
[Too slow.]
Facing the long horns capable of piercing his abdomen, he did not slow down; instead, he displayed astonishing agility completely inconsistent with his size.
At the moment of contact, his spine twisted violently, and his front claws pressed onto the edge of the old Triceratops’s head frill, leaping sideways by using the leverage.
“Bang—!!!”
A muffled thud.
Balthazar’s thick tail, covered in black crystal bone spurs, like a battering ram, used the centrifugal force of his rotation to slam fiercely into the relatively fragile flank of the old Triceratops.
The multi-ton giant beast was actually knocked sideways by half a meter under this monstrous force, its limbs buckling as it let out a pained cry.
Before it could steady itself, a black shadow had already enveloped it.
Balthazar’s massive body rode directly onto its back, his sharp dragon claws digging deep into its thick back skin, anchoring himself like a grappling hook.
Then, his head, burning with greed, lunged down, avoiding the hard head frill, and bit down on the thick spine of the old leader’s neck.
“Crack… sizzle…”
Balthazar was in no rush to snap its neck, instead enjoying the thrill of controlling life and death.
He could feel the old guy’s still-powerful heart beating violently, and the scalding, energy-filled blood was rushing frantically down his throat.
[Your experience… your strength… your flesh.]
He let out a malicious low chuckle in the mental link, his dark red eyes reflecting the old Triceratops’s gradually dilating pupils.
[All belong to me.]
As the last trace of life faded from the body beneath his claws, the old and tenacious Triceratops leader finally turned completely into a motionless mountain of meat.
Balthazar slowly released his locked dragon jaws, and his dark iron teeth pulled out from the depths of the mangled spine, bringing up a few strands of sticky, dark red blood.
He straightened his long neck, raised his head high, flared his nostrils, and took a deep breath of the air filled with the scent of rust and death.
“Huff…”
Two streams of scorching white mist puffed from his nostrils, instantly cooled by the surrounding humid air.
Although the hunger originating from the depths of his soul was still burning like an insatiable fire, it had calmed down slightly compared to the torture from before that felt like it was going to melt his internal organs.
Although his stomach was not yet full, this first bite of fresh, living flesh had acted like a shot of adrenaline, allowing the long-lost sense of power to refill every muscle in his body.
He lowered his head, his vertical pupils, which had shed their frantic red glow and returned to a calm dark red, slowly scanned the trophy beneath his claws with the scrutinizing gaze of a dragon counting gold coins.
This old guy…
is really big.
Even though it had fallen, its massive flank still looked like a thick wall.
Beneath that rough, scarred skin were muscle groups as hard as rock, polished by the passage of time.
Compared to the sub-adult from before, which tasted tender but was slightly thin, this was the real main course.
Balthazar extended his tongue, covered in fine scales, and licked a fragment of meat stained on the corner of his mouth, savoring that rough yet powerful texture.
[Good… meat.]
His raspy voice rolled deep in his throat, every syllable sounding like two pieces of rough pig iron rubbing against each other, carrying a majesty that made the jungle fall silent.
[Although a bit old.]
[But it has plenty of energy.]
He lifted a front claw, the one used to suppress the opponent’s head frill, which still had some skin flakes scraped off during the Triceratops’s death throes.
He shook it off nonchalantly, then turned around, his strong tail sweeping across the muddy ground, snapping an unlucky sapling in his way in half.
His gaze crossed over this massive corpse and landed on the sub-adult Triceratops nearby, which had already been half eaten.
Two of them.
Over ten tons of fresh meat and organs combined.
If it were an ordinary predator, facing such a mountain of meat, it would probably never finish eating it before it rotted.
But for a Ferro-Dragon that was in a rapid growth phase and possessed the cheat-like metabolic ability of [Metal Digestion]…
Balthazar’s vertical pupils narrowed slightly, a hint of almost greedy pleasure flowing in his eyes.
[This… only counts as… half-full.]
He lowered his head, opened his massive maw, and bit down fiercely onto the old leader’s most succulent belly.
[Need… more.]