Countless thoughts raced through Elliot’s mind, but his pace never slowed.
Speed had always been one of a ranger’s greatest strengths.
Even in the pouring rain, he quickly began pulling away from the black dragon behind him.
Now that he knew it was there, Elliot was confident he could dodge another breath attack before it reached him.
Then, just as he was about to break out of the trees, a black shadow dropped from above.
Another black dragon!
Boom!
Elliot threw himself backward at the last possible second, narrowly avoiding being crushed into paste.
The dragon slammed into the ground with enough force to send muddy water exploding in every direction.
Before Elliot could recover, a thick tail covered in black scales tore through the rain with a sharp whistle.
Wham!
This time, he couldn’t dodge.
The tail struck him squarely and sent him flying backward.
A mouthful of blood sprayed from his lips.
Before he even hit the ground, danger exploded through his instincts.
Elliot twisted his body in midair with the agility of an experienced ranger.
A stream of Acid Breath passed just inches from him.
He landed hard.
Burning pain immediately spread across his back.
Elliot knew without looking that some of the skin had probably been dissolved.
The two black dragons had him trapped between them.
The pressure was immense.
Fortunately, heavy footsteps were already approaching from the distance.
His companions had clearly noticed the commotion.
He only needed to hold out a little longer.
Darrien lunged.
Elliot rolled desperately to the side, avoiding the pounce while drawing his bow.
Ignoring the agony in his shoulder, he loosed an arrow at the dragon in front of him.
Whoosh!
He aimed for Darrien’s eye.
But the injury to his shoulder had robbed the shot of both power and accuracy.
After a short flight, the arrow failed to cause any damage at all.
Darrien simply snapped his jaws shut around it.
Evelyn seized that brief opening.
She unleashed Acid Breath.
Elliot was still holding his bow when his eyes went wide.
There was no time to dodge.
All he could do was throw both arms in front of his face.
The moment the acid engulfed him, the arms shielding his head went completely numb.
Thud.
What remained of the half-elf collapsed onto the ground.
It was barely recognizable as a body.
Acid still clung to the corpse, hissing as it continued eating through flesh and equipment.
Through preparation and surprise, the adventuring party had lost its first member.
“Three left.”
Evelyn wiped a trace of acid from the corner of her mouth.
The words had barely left her when heavy, rapid footsteps sounded behind her.
Then came a rough shout.
“It’s the two black dragon hatchlings!”
Bruno arrived first.
Garrett and Talia were right behind him.
The moment the three adventurers saw the dragons, excitement and greed flashed openly in their eyes.
Then they noticed the ruined corpse on the ground.
The badly corroded longbow beside it made the identity obvious.
That had been their half-elf companion.
All three slowed for a moment.
Evelyn glanced back at the newcomers.
The instant she saw their hesitation, she shouted at Darrien.
“Go!”
She spread her wings.
Magic gathered around her body, and one powerful beat sent her shooting upward.
Evelyn had never been the sort of black dragon who cared much about heroic last stands.
They were outnumbered.
Only an idiot would stay and fight head-on.
Besides, this was deep inside Blackbriar Forest.
This was Selvira’s territory.
If these people wanted to chase them, Evelyn was more than happy to lead them back toward the dragon lair.
If they made enough noise to wake Selvira...
Their mother’s temper after being dragged out of sleep would handle the rest.
Darrien had clearly wanted to fight.
But after Evelyn shouted at him, he reluctantly spread his own wings.
He still couldn’t resist one last act of defiance.
As soon as his body left the ground, Darrien raised one claw and extended the middle digit toward the three adventurers.
Then, in perfect Common, he shouted,
“Come up here and bite me if you can!”
He slapped his own backside for emphasis.
Then he climbed higher while Bruno stared at him with murder in his eyes.
“They killed Long-Ears! Garrett, don’t let them get away!”
Bruno shouted, swinging his holy flail.
Talia also looked toward her captain.
There wasn’t much grief in her eyes.
The moment they decided to hunt dragons, every one of them had already accepted that someone might die in Blackbriar Forest.
Adventurers made their living by gambling with their lives.
Every expedition was another roll of the dice.
Death was as familiar to them as eating and drinking.
This time, it just happened to be one of their own.
Garrett looked away from Elliot’s corpse and sighed.
There was still a trace of discomfort in his expression.
Then, without any hurry, he reached into his Storage Ring and pulled out a parchment scroll trimmed in gold.
“Relax. They’re not getting away.”
Evelyn had expected the adventurers to use ranged attacks to stop them.
She had already prepared herself to take a few fireballs on the way out.
Strangely, no attack came.
She broke through the dense canopy without resistance.
Evelyn drew in a deep breath of cool air and prepared to lead the adventurers toward the dragon lair.
Then something felt wrong.
The magic holding her aloft vanished.
It was like flying an aircraft through the sky only to have the engine disappear without warning.
An aircraft without an engine fell.
And without magic supporting her body...
So did Evelyn.
Gravity seized her and dragged her downward.
Darrien dropped from the sky as well.
No matter how violently he beat his wings, he couldn’t stop falling.
Without magical lift, a dragon’s enormous body made absolutely no aerodynamic sense.
Their wings were nowhere near large enough to keep their weight airborne through muscle alone.
Crack! Crack! Snap!
Boom!
Evelyn smashed through countless branches before managing something resembling a hard landing on all four legs and her tail.
Mud and water exploded more than ten feet into the air.
That was the worst of it.
A fall of a little over sixty feet wasn’t enough to seriously injure a dragon’s powerful body.
Darrien’s landing was much less graceful.
He came down headfirst.
With several tons of dragon behind the impact, his head and most of his neck disappeared straight into the mud.
His body wobbled.
He tried to pull himself free.
Nothing happened.
The rain-soaked soil had become too sticky.
Darrien planted both front claws against the ground, kicked hard with his hind legs, and tried again.
Pop!
His head finally came free.
He shook himself violently and spat mud out of his mouth.
Darrien was just about to start cursing when he noticed Evelyn already facing the adventurers.
He immediately widened his golden eyes and did his best to glare at the three humans with equal seriousness.
The forest suddenly fell quiet.
Only the soft patter of rain remained.
Neither side attacked immediately.
Even Bruno, the most hot-tempered member of the party, had Garrett’s hand firmly pressed against his shoulder.
Both sides were wary.
And for good reason.
The adventuring party had originally prepared an elaborate dragon-hunting plan.
Every member had been assigned a specific role.
Everything had been designed to minimize risk.
But Elliot was dead now.
Half their original plan had died with him.
From this point on, they would have to improvise.
Evelyn was equally cautious.
She hadn’t expected them to bring magic capable of shutting down flight.
Even the weakest anti-flight magic normally required a complicated magical formation to cast.
It was most commonly incorporated into the layered defensive arrays protecting major cities.
Compressing a spell that complicated into a small magic scroll was no simple task.
Even a weakened version that suppressed flight over a limited area for only a short time would be rare and extremely expensive.
These people had clearly invested a fortune into this hunt.
Still, Evelyn wasn’t afraid.
If anything, a small part of her was beginning to look forward to a real fight.
Of course, that confidence came only after she rapidly reviewed everything she could do, everything the enemy might have prepared...
And confirmed exactly how close they were to the dragon lair.
All Evelyn had to do was make enough noise.
Sooner or later, it would wake the dragon sleeping underground.
As long as Evelyn and Darrien were still under maternal protection, Selvira was effectively their emergency escape card.
Judging by these adventurers’ behavior, they clearly had no idea an adult dragon was nearby.
They must have assumed Evelyn and Darrien were independent young dragons.
Otherwise, there was no chance they would have come hunting so openly.
Once Selvira arrived in a foul mood after being woken up...
One breath would be enough to give these people a free trip to the Nine Hells of Baator.
Maybe they could chat with a few succubi once they got there.
The ticket was free.
Unfortunately, it was also one-way.
After the two sides stared each other down for a while, Evelyn finally broke the silence.
Her Common was clear despite the youthfulness of her voice.
“So, are you coming at me one at a time, or all together?”
Garrett blinked theatrically.
“Oh? So one of you is a lovely young lady.”
He carefully returned the single-use Area Anti-Flight Scroll to his Storage Ring.
Then he sheathed his broadsword and took a step forward.
Garrett performed an unfamiliar formal gesture.
“Miss Black Dragon, I don’t think there’s any need for this to become unpleasant. We can talk.”
Evelyn gave a quiet snort.
She didn’t believe a single word.
They had just attacked her and Darrien, and now he wanted to talk?
Did he think black dragons were as gullible as white dragons?
Still, Evelyn didn’t expose him immediately.
Two lifetimes of experience had made her far more calculating than an ordinary young dragon.
And right now, time was on her side.
Maybe if Garrett kept talking long enough, the anti-flight effect would expire.
Then Evelyn and Darrien could simply leave.
That would be much safer than fighting these people and hoping the noise brought Selvira over.
After quickly weighing her options, Evelyn deliberately softened her expression and tried her best to look like a naive, inexperienced young dragon.
“What do you want to talk about?”