Translator: AnubisTL
The Cracked Spine Hills were shrouded in smoke and flames.
Garos had torn through the ogre defenses with seven rounds of bombardment, leaving scores of ogre warriors and several sorcerers severely wounded or drained of energy, rendering them incapable of fighting.
When the smoke cleared, only the Gluttony Demon Karu remained standing amidst the ruins, the sole survivor of the Bonechewer Clan.
The monster was riddled with fragments of explosive scales, its iron-like skin cracked in a spiderweb of scorch marks. Its abdomen bulged grotesquely, like a massive, taut balloon.
Garos unleashed his last explosive scales at the Gluttony Demon.
Karu raised an arm to shield himself.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Explosions erupted, staggering the Gluttony Demon backward several steps. The scorch marks on its body deepened, and its arm was now a bloody mess.
Despite his disadvantage, the Gluttony Demon Karu showed no fear.
He tilted his head back, his gaze fixed on Garos circling overhead. "Dragon," he boomed, "you've exhausted your explosive scales. Yet I still stand on this earth."
Karu scoffed, taunting, "If you're so powerful, land and fight me hand-to-hand. Let me feel your true strength."
"Relying solely on flight and speed is the mark of a weak dragon. Even if you win, I won't acknowledge you."
In Karu's eyes, Garos was a dragon who excelled in speed, flight, and ranged attacks.
This cunning fighting style was unacceptable to the ogre, who revered strength and relished close-quarters combat. Karu would never follow a dragon who couldn't defeat him head-on with overwhelming power. Only absolute force could earn his respect and awe.
"Your words betray your foolishness," Garos replied. "But to demonstrate the vast gulf between us, I'll grant your wish."
Garos grinned, his scales gleaming like obsidian under the night sky, the lava-like patterns crisscrossing his body blazing with fiery brilliance.
He retracted his wings and dove downward.
This time, Garos didn't veer upward when he reached three hundred meters above the ground. Instead, he continued his straight descent toward Karu, his outstretched wings slicing through the darkness.
Facing the rapidly approaching giant dragon, Karu stepped forward, threw back his head, and roared.
Beneath his iron-black skin, earthworm-like veins bulged, and his straining muscles forced the fragmented scales on his body to pop off.
When Garos's dive brought him within a hundred meters, Karu suddenly opened his massive maw.
Instead of continuing to roar, he unleashed a cannonball of extreme compression.
Boom!
A colossal sphere—a mixture of fragmented scales, raging flames, and stomach acid—erupted from Karu's mouth with devastating force, hurtling toward Garos at blinding speed.
This seemingly brutish Gluttony Demon was surprisingly cunning in battle, even resorting to ambushes.
He had previously feigned a preference for close combat, only to suddenly unleash a powerful ranged attack as Garos flew straight at him.
Garos remained unfazed.
Six crystalline bones erupted with blinding crimson flames, allowing him to instantly change direction.
The mixed sphere narrowly missed him, slamming into the sloping hills behind him and creating a massive crater that shook the earth.
The Gluttony Demon charged toward the giant dragon.
The six-meter-tall monster left bowl-sized footprints in the scorched earth with each step, its black iron-like fists tearing through the air with thunderous booms.
Garos didn't dodge.
He lowered his altitude, descended closer to the ground, and shifted his center of gravity. The muscles in his right forelimb coiled like steel cables as his dragon claw prepared to strike.
Bang!
The shockwave from the collision of their brute forces sent rubble flying for dozens of meters around.
Karu's finger bones cracked under the immense pressure.
Its body felt like it had been hit by a train as Garos's relentless force drove it backward, its legs carving deep furrows into the ground.
Karu's arms clamped around Garos's dragon claw.
With a furious roar, Karu braced its right leg against the ground, twisted its torso, and attempted an over-the-shoulder throw, using Garos's unstoppable momentum to hurl the dragon away.
But against such a vast disparity in strength, the maneuver proved futile.
The force emanating from Garos's dragon claw far exceeded the Gluttony Demon's imagination.
Instead of throwing Garos, Karu found itself lifted into the air like a ragdoll as Garos swung his claw upward with a violent motion.
Crack!
Garos spun around, his dragon tail whipping through the air and slamming into the Gluttony Demon's body.
It was launched like a cannonball, tumbling across the ground and carving a trench hundreds of meters long. Along the way, it bowled over any ogres too slow to dodge, sending them flying like bowling pins before finally crashing into a massive boulder and coming to a halt.
Garos approached at a measured pace.
The Gluttony Demon's muscles were so massive they bulged visibly even beneath its thick dragon scales.
The Gluttony Demon had mistakenly believed Garos's strength lay in ranged combat.
This was a fatal misjudgment.
Garos excelled in close-quarters combat. To him, the aerial bombardment was merely a means of attrition.
Through relentless training and evolution, his strength had surpassed even that of his red dragon peers. This formidable physique was no mere showpiece.
The elite ogre warriors had already been crippled by the earlier bombardment.
Garos landed on the ground, but none of the ordinary ogres dared approach or interfere. They scattered, leaving the arena clear for Garos and the Gluttony Demon.
Suddenly, a towering black shadow leaped from the swirling dust and smoke.
Before Garos could approach, the Gluttony Demon roared and charged toward him with thunderous strides. Its massive, barrel-chested body gradually contracted, veins bulging across its skin as blood vessels glowed crimson. Its proportions shifted, becoming leaner and more compact.
Bang!
Dragon claw clashed head-on with the Gluttony Demon's fist.
The demon's arm trembled, its skin cracking. Gritting its teeth, it lunged forward, smashing its head against the Dragon Head.
Garos didn't flinch. Lowering his head, he met the charge head-on.
Clang!
The metallic clang of impact rang out.
The Gluttony Demon's horns scraped against Garos's faceplate, sending sparks flying but leaving only shallow scratches.
In contrast, the demon's iron-like skin was torn by the thorns on Garos's dragon face, and deep, bloody gashes marked where the dragon horn had raked across its flesh.
While dragon faceplates, composed of small scales, were typically not very durable, Garos was no ordinary dragon.
As part of his daily training, he routinely smashed his faceplate against hard metal ores, forging a thick, resilient faceplate and skin.
Blood streamed down the demon's face, blurring its vision. Staggering backward from Garos's headbutt, the Gluttony Demon reeled.
Garos spread his dragon wings.
The razor-sharp wing bones descended upon the Gluttony Demon's chest, colliding with its iron-like skin. Sparks flew as the bones tore through flesh and hide, leaving a horrifying gash across its torso.
The Gluttony Demon roared in fury.
Driven by pain, it lunged toward Garos.
But before it could close the distance, the thick, blade-scaled tail lashed out.
Boom!
The Gluttony Demon was sent flying, its body now crisscrossed with countless lacerations.
As it struggled to its feet, Garos had vanished from its sight. The surrounding light suddenly dimmed, as if something had blocked the moonlight.
A crushing wind pressure descended from above.
Garos hovered briefly in mid-air, the Heavenly Comet Wings erupting with fiery jets as he accelerated into a dive. His body plummeted like a meteor, crashing into the Gluttony Demon.
Boom!
The ground collapsed into a massive crater, sending earth and stone shattering in all directions.
The Gluttony Demon lay pinned beneath Garos's foot, its iron-hard body deeply embedded in the crater floor.
With the evolution of his wings complete, Garos could now unleash devastating attacks even without the momentum of a long flight. By channeling instantaneous bursts of power, he could amplify the force of his wing slashes, collisions, and other strikes to catastrophic levels.
(End of the Chapter)
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