Chapter 20: Mountain Dragon

Seeing this Miss Cecilia once again ignore orders and charge into battle on her own, Audi felt a surge of irritation.

The rage inherited from the dragon bloodline had driven Lu Qiuchen to act impulsively, making her rush forward before she remembered she still had teammates behind her.

She knew that acting without warning like this would definitely upset Audi again, but there was no time to worry about that during battle.

I’ll explain later—right now, I just need to get through this fight.

While casting a freezing spell to immobilize the mountain dragon’s front claws, she shouted, “I’ll explain later! Help me hold it down first!”

Audi initially wanted to order a full retreat, but then recalled how knowledgeable this Cecilia princess had seemed about the demons. That gave him some confidence that she wasn’t charging in recklessly, not without a plan.

Anyone qualified to enter these ruins had to be at least Saint-ranked. Yet Audi had just witnessed this monster devouring the corpses of those same high-level adventurers.

His team only had two Epic-class members; there was no way they could outmatch those elite adventuring parties.

As the leader of two adventuring teams, he had to take responsibility for their lives.

He decided to send the Guardian Knights—those with the highest survivability—ahead to assess the situation. If the monster proved too strong, they’d abandon the princess and run.

If we somehow manage to kill this thing, I’ll deal with that princess properly once we’re out of danger.

As for whether they could actually defeat the monster or the demonic wyvern? He didn’t even entertain the thought.

After a brief hesitation, Audi gave his command. “Two Guardian Knights, move up and provide support. Everyone else, suppress it with ranged attacks!”

On the battlefield, Lu Qiuchen kept circling the mountain dragon, casting mid-tier ice magic to disrupt its movements—using the classic kiting strategy from the game.

Mountain dragons were the textbook definition of tough: thick-skinned, heavily armored, resistant to both physical and magical attacks. They lacked wings and were poor at mobility, but they wielded earth magic and could manipulate the gravity around them—making them a serious threat in close combat.

But to mages with spatial magic, they were just oversized target dummies.

The demon controlling the dragon had no good way of dealing with this and could only hope to slowly drain her mana and stamina, waiting for an opportunity to strike her down with a single blow.

Lu Qiuchen knew exactly what the demon was planning, and she scoffed internally.

If a forcibly matured, demonized mountain dragon could exhaust my mana, then the Silver Dragon wouldn’t be a true-blooded dragon.

At that moment, the two Guardian Knights arrived at the battlefield. Using their taunt skills, they diverted some of the dragon’s attention, giving Lu Qiuchen a moment to breathe.

Taking advantage of that opening, she began to explain her hastily constructed excuse to the others.

After introducing the Mind Fiend, she continued, “I rushed out earlier because the Mind Fiend had already sensed our presence. The mountain dragon can reshape terrain. If we had blindly entered the cave, we’d be at a severe disadvantage under its magical attacks.”

“Mind Fiends are a cunning type of demon. They can summon lower-class demons like nightmares to continuously interfere with us. In this kind of situation, even a small emotional fluctuation could let the nightmare exploit our mental weakness and break through. Our current mental state isn’t exactly stable, so this risk is very real.”

“Also, the materials from a Mountain Dragon are extremely valuable. We can’t pass up such a rare chance to take one down legitimately.”

“For those reasons, I’ve decided to deal with it here. My combat style is very effective against Mountain Dragons—I’m confident I can hold both it and the Mind Fiend at bay. You just focus on defending against ambushes from other demons, and pour all your damage into the Mountain Dragon.”

By the end of her explanation, Lu Qiuchen had unconsciously slipped into some in-game terminology, but she trusted that they would understand what she meant.

As for being a dragon herself and talking about hunting a Mountain Dragon… it didn’t really bother her much. Though she had somewhat come to terms with the fact that she’d become a dragon, it was impossible for her to abandon her human worldview so quickly.

Some of the more radical dragons didn’t even acknowledge Mountain Dragons—those flawed pseudo-dragons—as true members of their kind. And as for half-dragons… well, they weren’t even part of the conversation.

After hearing her analysis and reasoning, the others had to admit she made a fair point.

More importantly, the opportunity to slay a Mountain Dragon was simply too rare to ignore—especially for the two scholars who were practically drooling over the thought of dragon materials. They looked like they wanted to charge in right away.

They left behind one last Guardian Knight, Solin, along with the melee fighters unsuited for dragon-slaying. Their task was to keep watch for any surprise demon attacks. Everyone else joined the battle.

Once they entered the fray, they quickly realized just how easy this Mountain Dragon hunt was turning out to be. Many of the dragon’s actions were perfectly interrupted by ice-element spells flying in from afar.

The constant barrage of frost magic gradually slowed the beast’s movements, and the team could clearly feel just how strong Lu Qiuchen’s suppression power really was.

An adult Mountain Dragon typically had power around the Epic tier. Factoring in its massive physique, draconic spellcasting, and terrifying regeneration, it could easily rival the peak of the Epic rank.

Watching their companions fight alongside Lu Qiuchen—and seemingly with ease—Audi was forced to admit that, despite both being Epic-ranked, she was far stronger than him.

He also began to wonder whether the adventurers who’d died earlier had actually been taken out by a sneak attack from another demon. That made him all the more wary of any surprise demon ambushes that might come their way.

Lu Qiuchen didn’t care what they were thinking. She was here to prove herself—to show them her strength, and make them treat her with the respect she deserved.

I’m a pretty patient person, but I’m not going to keep putting up with people acting like I’m beneath them.

She didn’t immediately launch any attacks. Instead, she stood off to the side, channeling mana into her staff as she formed a massive, glowing blue orb that looked ridiculously powerful. Her lips moved as if she were reciting a complicated chant.

She was bluffing. With her magical ability, casting high-level spells didn’t require incantations nearly this long. But she didn’t want to shock them by firing off advanced spells instantly. So she was improvising a chant—one even she didn’t understand—to make it look appropriately dramatic.

When she finally finished, she inserted several pre-prepared advanced spells into the blue orb and launched it toward the Mountain Dragon.

The adventurers had done a great job keeping the dragon occupied, so it had no time to dodge. The massive orb exploded directly beneath it and turned into solid ice. From the chest down, the Mountain Dragon was completely frozen.

Sensing things were going south, the Mind Fiend attempted to flee from within the Mountain Dragon’s body.

But the moment it emerged, it was struck full-on by a beam of concentrated holy light.

Lu Qiuchen had already warned Tia to watch for the Mind Fiend’s escape attempt.

The massive creature shuddered violently. A gaping hole tore through its forehead, and its enormous body crashed to the ground, lifeless.

Its twisted tentacles continued to twitch and writhe on the ground, but it was already dead.

Lu Qiuchen recalled Phyllis snapping her fingers to summon fireballs so effortlessly. Trying to imitate her, she also snapped her fingers—but instead of a crisp snap, there was only a soft pa-ji.

…That was awkward.

Thankfully, the others were too focused on the fight to notice.

Even though the snap hadn’t made a sound, the spell still worked. The massive ice crystal exploded with a deafening boom.

The shockwave hit the wyvern’s soft underbelly, tearing its flesh apart. Blood sprayed everywhere, drenching both Guardian Knights.

With a final wail, the mountain dragon collapsed. Relying on pure instinct, it released one last blast of scalding dragon breath in a desperate death throe.

Seriel, now drenched in blood—whether her own or the wyvern’s, she couldn’t tell—rolled to the side just in time to avoid the flames. Looking back, she saw that the other Guardian Knight, Deron, was directly in front of the wyvern. There was nowhere for him to run.

“Teleport!”

A flash of silver light burst out. Lu Qiuchen blinked behind Deron and immediately cast another teleportation spell, dragging him away from the incoming dragon breath.

With her current level of spatial magic, casting back-to-back teleports was already pushing it. Her body shuddered slightly from magical recoil, but she quickly suppressed it.

Deron, saved from the brink of death, turned to her with overwhelming gratitude, thanking her profusely—which made Lu Qiuchen feel extremely satisfied.

Audi and the other melee fighters, who had basically done nothing the entire battle, now stared in awe.

They really did it… They killed the Mind Fiend and the mountain dragon!

Though thrilled, they also felt a pang of regret.

If only it had been some other wyvern instead of this stupid mountain dragon! Damn thing was totally anti-melee!

Grumbling bitterly, the non-participants began dissecting the dead dragon, venting their frustration with excessive force—as if they could make up for not fighting by butchering the corpse harder.

Meanwhile, Lu Qiuchen and Priestess Tia approached the corpse of the Mind Fiend—a grotesque, hulking octopus-like creature—and stood silently before it.

A clean-up strike was tradition. Thinking that, Lu Qiuchen gestured at Tia to cast a few more divine spells.

By now, Tia worshipped Lu Qiuchen after receiving several rounds of guidance. Without asking why, she immediately summoned two blasts of holy light.

The Mind Fiend didn’t so much as twitch. Lu Qiuchen nodded in satisfaction and turned to instruct the priestess beside her.

“Always make sure to finish off your enemies when cleaning up after a battle. This is very important.”

“Mm-hmm!”

Tia nodded vigorously like a pecking chick, engraving the lesson into her heart.

Clean-up strikes are important!

Elsewhere, a few others were trying to identify the unfortunate adventurers who’d lost their lives.

After a rough battlefield cleanup and some basic healing, the group left the area with satisfied smiles and an impressive haul of loot.

Everyone’s bags were stuffed to the brim. Audi and Trist even offered up their own spatial gear to help carry more.

They knew that once the guild took over this place, any unclaimed materials would go to the guild by default. Better to take everything they could now.

The mountain dragon’s scales were excellent for shield-making. The three Guardian Knights each selected a few intact ones.

The rogues hacked off the dragon’s claws, planning to forge them into daggers or short swords.

The two scholars wanted a bit of everything and only stopped once they literally couldn’t carry more.

The rest took whatever their class could use, or simply chose the most valuable materials to sell later for gear or gold.

Lu Qiuchen also took a scale. Even though she’d thought earlier that she wouldn’t care, seeing a dragon die with her own eyes still stirred some sorrow in her heart.

The only reason this corrupted mountain dragon went down so easily was because I kept it suppressed with Draconic Might.

Otherwise, a dragon like this—one on par with an epic-tier powerhouse—there’s no way a team of under ten, all Saint-rank except me, could’ve brought it down.

Using the route map, the group slowly made their way back to the surface, dragging all the dragon materials they’d harvested.