Chapter 319: Appetite

Starry Night tilted silently. Rosily, sitting alone on a branch, had her eyes closed, looking as if she had fallen asleep.

But she was indeed keeping watch. Eyes were too limited at night—better to rely on her ears, to search for presence through Soul perception, to probe with those whispers carried on the wind for sharper and more accurate readings.

The latter half of the night was already nearly half over, almost dawn.

Rosily suddenly opened her eyes. Her orange-red pupils glowed faintly. She placed her hands on the branch beside her hips, pushed lightly, and shifted her body half a meter forward.

She landed soundlessly on the thicker branch below.

She took [Cang] out from her gold ring and said to the four tents lined up beside her: “Something’s coming.”

Then light flared across her body, and she leaped from that branch to another tree.

Scarlett woke in less than a second after hearing the voice. She quickly crawled out of the tent and immediately cast her gaze toward the golden figure leaping between the trees.

And soon, she sensed it—a powerful presence not far away, charging toward them at incredible speed.

Enemy?

No…

This presence didn’t feel Human. Could it be… that Brass Dragon!?

But this wasn’t the Brass Dragon’s territory.

Perhaps it was precisely because this Earth Dragon had abnormally left its own territory that the previous Monster Tide had occurred.

At that thought, Scarlett lightly bit her lower lip.

In a single instant, Scarlett had worked all of this out. With the situation clear, she glanced at Rosily’s distant back—no bigger than a grain of rice—then withdrew her gaze and went to wake the other three members of the party.

Elqi woke up with a bewildered look on her face.

In this situation, she could still sleep well, mainly because of the impact of that scene during the day, plus being exhausted from walking the whole day.

Simona, while adjusting her Clothing, came over to Elqi who was still sitting blankly on the ground.

She placed her pale hand on Elqi’s shoulder. After the Cleric Miss softly spoke a word of praise to the Goddess, she then chanted Purification.

White light sank into Elqi’s body. Soon, the Magic User Miss who hadn’t fully woken up had her dazed eyes suddenly brighten.

Scarlett widened her eyes a little on the side and mentally complained.

Nice bedside manner, doctor.

The Purification divine art can not only cleanse Curses, but also wash away pollution on the Soul, and sort out the chaos and confusion of consciousness and thought.

Plus she had also hidden a Healing Magic, giving Elqi a bit of life energy so she could recover faster from just waking up and ease the soreness in her muscles.

After doing all this, Simona couldn’t help but let out a soft breath. She acted rather stiff in front of Elqi—even worse than when she was in front of Rosily.

“Miss Elqi, are you alright?”

“I’m fine, thank you so much, Sister Simona.”

Elqi woke up fully and gave Simona a forced smile. Though Healing Magic had been cast, some soreness still lingered in her muscles—or maybe it was just phantom pain.

Elqi crawled out of the tent and stood up. She summoned her Staff and cast Control Wind on both herself and Simona. Then she reached her hand out to Simona.

There was still a trace of weariness beneath Elqi’s eyes, but she pulled herself together with full focus.

“Sister Simona, take my hand.”

“O-okay.”

Simona squeezed her small hand. Seemingly casually, she lifted Elqi’s hand with her own, but in truth, she was wiping the sweat from her palm onto her cleric robe. After this little act full of hidden intent, she gently placed her hand in Elqi’s.

“Sorry for the trouble, Miss Elqi.”

“No trouble at all. If anything, I’m the one troubling you quite a bit.”

“No no, not at all!! I…”

Elqi was about to keep going when Scarlett promptly pulled them apart.

Scarlett said with slight exasperation:

“Let’s get to business, Missy.”

Elqi and Simona both fell silent at the same time.

As long as Rosily wasn’t around, the way they interacted was awkward. When Rosily was present, the two wouldn’t initiate conversation on their own—unless Rosily took both their hands first.

So, where was Rosily?

“Hey, look over there.”

Bella, the party’s ordinary female Sword user, pointed in one direction. Everyone’s gaze followed, and they saw a burst of brilliant light.

On the other side.

After informing the party, Rosily rushed forward to meet it head-on. She gathered her Sword Qi and wrapped it around her body—a skill she had secretly learned from Tristan.

The Magic Body Shield she used before was ultimately just a protective ability Magic Users employed.

Low-rank warriors also used it, but in the end, it couldn’t compare to body-protecting sword Qi formed when Magic Power was converted through Battle Technique into Qi and condensed around the body—offense and defense in one.

It was a bit like the elemental Magic’s Control Wind, both being buffs applied to oneself.

Rosily kept her gaze fixed straight ahead. Drawing a little closer, she could already feel the ground trembling, and the sound finally reached her ears.

Boom!

Loud crashes rang through the forest, as if the massive trees were being snapped and shattered with crackling sounds. But the bird-type Magical Beasts had long since fled this place, so no startled cries rose up.

Rosily dropped from the tree to the ground, halted her forward charge, and pushed the silver-white Sword Qi on her body to its absolute limit. Those wisps of Sword Qi had already been refined by her until they were as thick as dense mist.

She smiled and spoke to her Sword:

“Sister Cang, you’re good, right?”

“Mm.”

Cang rolled her eyes inside the Sword. How would she ever dare let anything happen to her young Mistress?

But the first layer of insurance around Rosily wasn’t her—and Rosily didn’t even know about the second layer yet.

After hearing the reply that everything was fine, Rosily grew even more confident.

Her orange-red pupils locked onto the Earth Dragon charging toward her with overwhelming momentum, hidden behind layers of giant trees. Yet the girl’s pretty, delicate face showed no fear in the face of danger.

Rosily gripped the Gray Sword tightly, poured her condensed Sword Qi into it, and swung a single horizontal slash.

A magnificent silver-gold light also carved through the giant trees along the way, hurtling toward the Dragon over a hundred meters away.

A hundred meters out, the Dragon-shaped Magical Beast stood over seven meters tall, covered in brass-colored scales and wreathed in a golden aura.

Sensing the attack coming at it, it lowered its head. A vicious gleam flashed through its vertical pupils.

The golden radiance and Rosily’s silver-white Sword Qi collided directly, erupting in a violent blaze of light, followed by a thunderous boom and powerful gusts of wind rampaging through the forest.

Leaves were blown from the ground up to a hundred meters into the sky. And with the impact of that clash, the view before Rosily suddenly opened wide.

An Earth Dragon Magical Beast over seven meters tall stepped forward on two pairs of legs, a faint golden aura perpetually radiating from its body.

Rosily lifted her eyes to meet the Earth Dragon standing fifty meters away.

Her eyes locked with the Dragon’s eyes.

The girl sensed hunger…

The Dragon’s hunger for her—and her hunger for this Earth Dragon.