Chapter 151: Forest Dragon
“Misha, he’s dead. There’s no point going back for him!” a man urged William’s mother towards a cave entrance before she could turn around and run away for the second time. Two other villagers were waiting for them at the entrance, ready to seal the cave with the Earth Element at a moment’s notice.
“He’s still alive, I swear! There’s no way he can be dead after all that!” Misha cried as she recalled the kind words Torc said while defending her from a group of Wind Wolves that had torn down her home.
“You have to live, for William’s sake! One day he will be strong, and he needs his mother alive when that happens! I’m just an aging man, with nowhere to go and no one to live for. The least I can do is help a friend in need…”
The flashback cut short as the man urged her once more. She wiped the tears away from her face and nodded, unwilling to put anyone else in danger for her selfish reasons. Misha only wished that Torc would come back safe and sound so she could thank him.
Oh William…I hope you’re doing alright wherever you are…
***
“This is not okay. I am not fine!” William screamed out loud as he ran from a Forest Dragon with bright green scales, its wings flapping at high speed as it zoomed through the sky of the 149th floor.
It was flying after him with rage in its eyes, completely ignoring the Starmetal Bow Puppet that fired arrow after arrow in its direction. Sticking out of its rear end in a very sensitive spot was an Earth Spike that William had launched while searching for the dragon’s weakness.
While the attack had a decent effect, it also incurred the dragon’s wrath, its eyes turning red while it chased William without abandon. The Forest Dragon was slightly faster than William, even while he was enhanced by an improved Perfect Array of Speed, only slowing down to shoot another fireball at William’s backside.
If the Forest Dragon could speak, it would probably say something like “You want to put sticks up my *ss? I’ll burn yours to a crisp!”
William controlled the Starmetal Bow Puppet to fire off more arrows, hoping that one of them would cause even a small amount of damage and spread the poison throughout the Forest Dragon’s body. Unfortunately, this plan was doomed to fail as the dragon was just way too fast and its hide was too tough.
The webbing that made up the dragon’s wings was the weakest part of its body, but the flapping motion sent every arrow that approached them straight downward, missing the dragon entirely.
The only option would be to target the same place as last time, but the dragon’s tail was protecting that spot like a national treasure. It waved its tail back and forth to swipe away any arrows that even came remotely close.
William ran straight towards a wall while the dragon’s attention was divided between him and the Starmetal Bow Puppet. The second he came close, he placed his foot on the wall and leapt backwards in the other direction, completely reversing his momentum.
The Forest Dragon didn’t notice how close it was to the wall until it was too late. It was unable to make such sharp turns, so it crashed face-first into the stone brick, smashing a couple teeth and cracking a horn.
Its rage grew more intense as it realized William had played it for a fool, a wave of flames flowing from its mouth and engulfing the entire floor.
There was nowhere for William or the Array Puppets to stand that wasn’t covered in flames, so they had no choice but to endure the heat. William didn’t bother wasting the durability of his Forcefield to defend against the flames, given that he had A-Rank Heat Resistance and an S-Rank Fire Element, but the Array Puppets weren’t so lucky.
They were made of the Plant Element, which was partially resistant to fire because of the moisture and vitality in the wood, but once that was consumed, the fire had fuel to thrive. A set of Fire Resistance Arrays activated, protecting the Puppets from critical damage, but they were still disabled and unable to continue fighting.
William stored all of the Puppets in his Space Ring once the flames died down, bringing out two replacement Puppets- one to hold the Starmetal Bow and the other to protect William from the dragon’s physical attacks with the Epic Longsword.
He didn’t have a Longswords Talent, so his skill with the weapon was limited to his knowledge of Swords, Glaives, and Spears, but it was enough for the time being. He no longer had a Glaive to give the Puppets, and the Sword of Shifting Sands was more useful in his grasp.
The Forest Dragon had regained some clarity and noticed that William was trying to replace his damaged Puppets. It would ready a second flame breath, but that attack took too much stamina and required it to build up some air in its lungs first.
Dragons could breathe in Mana to naturally gain strength, automatically converting it to Spirit Qi if needed with no Cultivation Technique required. It was actually quite overpowered, but that always seemed to be the case with dragons.
They could choose not to convert the Mana and instead pull it into their lungs to prepare a flame breath attack, but this would take longer or shorter depending on the intensity of flame they planned to use.
Since it had just used its flame breath, it would need at least thirty seconds before it could gather enough Mana to do it again with the same intensity.
The Forest Dragon swooped in, entering close-range as it swiped with its claws at the Starmetal Bow Puppet. William had already positioned the Longsword Puppet close by, so it was easily able to counter the dragon’s attack with a strike of its own.
The Array Puppet performed an overhead swing with the longsword, slicing off the dragon’s claw with one clean swipe. The Forest Dragon was powerful, but neither its attack nor its defense could compare to the Nemean Lion. It roared in pain as the claw fell to the floor, just in time for a poison-tipped arrow to travel down its throat and spread its poison throughout the dragon’s body.
The Bow Puppet had used the same approach against the Forest Dragon as it did against the Nemean Lion. The only problem was with the dragon itself. Its sheer size allowed it to resist such a small amount of poison, meaning it would take quite a few more arrows before the dragon would weaken.
William expected this and controlled the Bow Puppet to fire as many arrows as it could at the softer parts of the dragon’s body while it was in close range, taking advantage of the reduced distance to achieve pinpoint accuracy.
The act was a bit risky, since the dragon could seriously damage the Bow Puppet, but nothing ventured nothing gained. William was willing to take the risk in order to raise his chances of winning the fight. A dragon clearly wouldn’t go out in a short amount of time, and William didn’t want to fight another battle of attrition, especially when he was in a time crunch.
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