usenovelgroup Chapter 29 Night Raid
Chapter 29 Night Raid
Night had fallen, and in the deep ravine formed by the overlapping of two low hills, a large number of orcs were quietly gathering.
Their grey-green faces showed no superfluous expression as they silently arranged various equipment and weapons—long ropes with iron hooks, giant nets woven from tough cow sinew, blunt-tipped javelins, longbows, and heavy arrows—clearly, they had made thorough preparations long ago.
Anything involving dragons is always fraught with danger, let alone capturing several red dragons alive. Even if they are just young dragons, their destructive power should not be underestimated.
When all the orcs had arrived, an orc wearing simple leather armor stepped forward.
He was exceptionally tall, with a ruddy complexion on his grayish-green face. He took the lead and set off with the team toward the low hill not far away.
Moments later, they had approached the cave on the hilltop.
The tall, muscular orc leader gave a gesture, and immediately four orcs pulled open a huge ox-tendon net; three of the strongest orcs stepped forward and followed closely behind, heading deeper into the cave together.
…………
Thor, who was fast asleep, suddenly opened his eyes and raised his head from the smooth cobblestone platform. His keen hearing caught the sound of approaching footsteps, which were particularly clear in the silence.
Only when a true dragon transcends age and enters its deepest sleep can it be killed by an assassin who sneaks in while it is asleep.
Even so, once attacked, they would wake up immediately and launch a frantic counterattack.
On ordinary days, they are like alert wildcats, their bellies and paws pressed against the ground, able to accurately sense the slightest vibrations from the earth.
"What's coming? There are quite a few of them. Are they boar-men? No! These cowards wouldn't dare step into the cave without my permission."
A jumble of thoughts flashed through his mind, and in an instant, Thor reacted.
He raised his head and took a deep breath, his chest and abdomen bulging up like a balloon, his whole body lifting off the ground.
The oil accumulated in his unique glandular organs flowed back down his esophagus into his throat. After being heated at high temperatures, it mixed with the inhaled air and turned into thick smoke that billowed out from the corners of his open mouth.
The air inside the cave was already stagnant, and the thick smoke quickly filled the entire space, swirling and spreading towards the cave entrance.
The orcs who had just entered the cave were immediately engulfed by a thick cloud of smoke, their vision blurred and they could see nothing at all.
Just then, a spark suddenly appeared.
The gas frog is named "gas frog" rather than "poison gas frog" or "smoke frog" because the gas it emits is explosive.
After the oil in his glandular organs had evaporated into flammable smoke that filled the entire cave, Thor immediately exhaled a scorching dragon breath.
"boom--"
A deafening explosion rang out, and the entire hilltop seemed to tremble.
The relatively sealed cave was like the barrel of a cannon at this moment. The gunpowder was ignited, and a huge tongue of fire, more than ten meters long, spewed out from the cave entrance.
The orcs who had just stepped into the cave were instantly blasted away by the massive wave of flames. Their skin was burned and covered in blisters, and their hair was burned off completely.
The orcs waiting outside the cave were not spared either; swept by the firestorm, they were all thrown about like tumbling gourds.
Thor was also propelled by the enormous impact, his back slamming heavily against the cave wall.
But the dragon's powerful physique only caused him a dull ache. The swirling flames were nothing more than a gentle breeze to him, having no effect whatsoever.
Sistana and Kalp, who were fast asleep, were also thrown by the impact and crashed into the stone wall next to Thor.
They were sound asleep and completely unprepared when the excruciating pain jolted them awake, causing them to let out a bewildered roar.
"What's wrong? What happened?"
"Damn it! How did I get flying?"
Thor glanced at the two dragon-losing guys and roared with a hint of disappointment.
"You two idiots! The enemy has already reached the cave entrance, and you still don't know what's going on! It's unbelievable that I'm related to you guys who are even worse than boar-men."
As soon as he finished speaking, he suddenly flapped his broad wings, and a gust of wind swept out, dispersing the smoke and dust that filled the cave.
Then, focusing his attention on the spinning wheel in his mind, he pressed hard on one of the squares, grabbed the burning charcoal that appeared, and quickly began to gnaw on it.
Sistana and Kalp, their minds still hazy from the impact, finally snapped awake. They jolted awake, raised their heads, arched their backs, and searched around for the so-called enemy.
Before they could even make a discovery, the 5-kilogram piece of burning coal had already fallen into Thor's stomach.
The stomach and intestines, like a high-temperature furnace, rapidly digested these high-energy polymers, releasing a continuous stream of heat.
The crimson scales on his body shone brightly like burning flames under the heat, and writhing tongues of fire began to emerge from the corners of his mouth.
The air around him, distorted by the intense heat, made Thor's figure appear somewhat blurry. He pushed off with all his might and charged straight towards the cave entrance.
Several orcs who were less seriously injured heard footsteps coming from inside the cave. They quickly got up from the ground, spread out huge ox-tendon nets, and blocked the cave entrance.
This giant net, woven from the tendons, hide, and plant fibers of the Great Horned Bull, possesses exceptional resilience. Even a mammoth, renowned for its strength, would find it difficult to escape once caught in it.
As soon as Thor rushed to the cave entrance, he was met with a large net covering him. Before he could even spread his wings, he was slammed to the ground.
He struggled to swing his claws, biting the mesh and tearing at it, only to find that it was incredibly tough and he couldn't tear it with his current strength.
If an ordinary fledgling dragon were caught in this net, it would probably be helpless to escape.
But he was different; he was a red dragon—the most powerful and tyrannical of all dragons.
The burning coals he had just ingested were ground into dust by his powerful gizzard and bone plates, mixed with the magic power gathered from his basal blood vessels, and surged into his upper stomach, turning into a deep breath that Thor exhaled.
The orange-red flames started as a single wisp, but in an instant, they swelled in the wind and transformed into a wave of flames over ten meters long.
As Thor's head swung, terrifying flames instantly engulfed the space within a radius of several dozen meters.
The four orcs holding the large net, seeing the raging fire approaching, dared not linger and scrambled away into the distance.
When Thor's breath ended, the ignited coal dust did not immediately go out, but continued to burn on the ground, turning the ground around the cave entrance into a sea of fire.
Even the toughest beef tendon and plant fiber cannot withstand the scorching heat of thousands of degrees.
The giant net hanging on Thor didn't require him to pull it anymore; it snapped and fell off with a series of cracks in front of the shocked gazes of the surrounding orcs.
The ferocious red dragon, bathed in raging flames, proudly raised its head, its outstretched wings casting a vast shadow of death, and began to roar.
"You lowly maggots, how dare you trespass into my territory! Let the flames burn you all to ashes!"