Goblin Heavy Dependence

Chapter 249 Turned to Ashes
flame.

The story begins in ancient times, with a raging fire that engulfs the forest as lightning strikes during a storm; and sparks that fly from the friction of stones between the hands of a two-legged ape deep in a dark cave.

Over the years, intelligent beings have become accustomed to this kind of hot substance.

Dispel darkness, bring warmth, forge tools...

Even illiterate rural women who have never left their fields and mountains in their entire lives know how to light firewood and use its heat to cook meals.

But to this day, it has never been tamed.

Sweeping through cities, burning forests... even the faintest flame on a candlestick is enough to cause a monstrous disaster that devours countless lives.

Xia Nan was certainly aware of its power.

His profound lessons from his past life and the millennia-long history of humankind made him acutely aware of the extremely adverse effects that such substances could cause.

And it is precisely because of this that the repeated instruction and the insurance measures provided by technology allowed him to experience the most dangerous events related to it before he traveled through time.

It was just that during one of his cooking sessions, his poor skills caused a fire to erupt from the stove and surge in the wok—which he calmly contained by covering the pot with a lid to cut off the oxygen.

After arriving on the continent of Aifara, thanks to a throwing item called "fire oil bomb," he had significantly more contact with fire.

I barely survived a few scenes that came close to what was called a "fire".

Perhaps it was his superhuman physical abilities, far surpassing his previous ones, that made him realize that even if the flames got close, he could easily break through using his combat skills and speed.

His fear of fire actually decreased considerably.

Under normal circumstances, this mentality should only be taken seriously in the near future when he faces the legendary "Fireball" spell for the first time against a mage or warlock of level 5 or higher.

Right now, however, he has been significantly accelerated just as he has recently obtained his professional level and embarked on the path of a professional.

The opponents were not the delicate, frail spellcasters wielding tiny staffs that one might imagine.

Instead, it was replaced by an adult red dragon with a challenge level of "17", capable of easily destroying a medium-sized town.

The imagined "fireball" was replaced by the legendary "dragon's breath," which had been heard of but never seen in person.

hiss--

It was a strange, low, and ominous hum.

It's like the dangerous sound of a large amount of gas being poured into a small space and then compressed to a high degree.

It resembles a volcano about to erupt.

The air trembled, drowning out the sound of the wind and rain.

Thanks to his keen perception and quick reaction, Xia Nan was the first to regain control of his body from the dragon's oppressive power and look back at the source of the danger. He "luckily" captured a complete scene of the dragon exhaling its breath.

Covered in fiery red scales, its ferocious and enormous head slowly tilted back, its neck muscles, like steel cables, taut and bulging beneath the dense scales.

Immediately, a chilling, fading white flame illuminated the blood vessels and bones within its body, penetrating the gaps between its scales, starting clearly from its chest and abdomen, rising all the way up, sweeping across its neck, and accumulating dazzlingly in its throat as its dragon mouth gradually opened.

There was no roaring.

The explosion in the air was a suppressed hiss, like a high-pressure furnace exploding.

"boom!!!"

Incredibly condensed, the flames transformed into a pillar of fire connecting heaven and earth, carrying with it the scorching white mist from the evaporation of rainwater, a pure golden light churning within and an explosive orange-red spreading on the outside.

There is no need to deliberately aim at a specific area.

The air superiority firmly held from the heavens above, and the continuous breath of the adult red dragon.

It was like a fiery red bomber, speeding past, and hundreds of meters away, the blazing flames had already landed on the ground, dragging the escort team along with its high-speed moving body and slightly tilted head.

Xia Nan's first reaction was, of course, to run away.

As soon as the dragon's influence began to fade and he turned around to catch a glimpse of the red dragon, the illusory wolf head had already condensed around his body.

As his mind raced and his legs moved, he pondered which direction to run in in such an open environment, hoping to use the explosive force of [Fang Hunt] to escape the dragon's breath.

Not far in front of them, a similarly panicked yet inexplicably serious shout suddenly came.

"Come closer to me!!"

The one who spoke was Hai'an.

The second son of the Lord of Newm, the person the escort team was protecting, and also the only member of the team who had not yet obtained a professional rank.

At this moment, his body was already enveloped in a semi-transparent light shield that emitted an emerald green glow and was gradually spreading outward, exuding a strong sense of nature.

Without a doubt, this was the valuable trump card he brought from home for self-defense.

Thoughts swirled in my mind in a fraction of a second.

It was too brief. Xia Nan had barely translated the common language spoken by Hai An into a meaning he could actually understand when he was already weighing the pros and cons and feasibility of the two approaches: "using [Fang Shou] to escape" and "approaching Hai An to use his trump card for defense."

First, regarding the former... can I really escape?

If the dragon's breath had followed its current trajectory, sweeping across the earth in a straight line, he might have been able to escape the range of flames at a 90-degree vertical angle as the dragon's breath swept past.

But what if the red dragon spotted itself, or for some other reason, merely tilted its head slightly?

With the [Iron Bones] feat only targeting physical damage and the plate chainmail's fire resistance being negligible, he would undoubtedly be burned to ashes by the flames.

But what if we change our approach and pin our hopes on Hai'an's trump card—that emerald green light shield—to withstand the breath of such a fully grown red dragon?
Success will naturally bring all good things.

However, if the protective shield fails to hold, they will still inevitably be burned to ashes.

How should I choose?
The vast difference in strength meant that with just a casual spit from the red dragon, Xia Nan was plunged into a near-death situation.

Neither of the two options is entirely certain.

The brief and hurried time was simply not enough for him to conduct in-depth, detailed, and comprehensive thinking and make a judgment that maximized his chances of survival.

Xia Nan decided to trust her intuition.

hold head high--

The illusory wolf heads surrounding him did not disappear, but his lower legs, which were originally moving backward, suddenly changed their force and pushed off the ground!
Muscle power bursts forth.

Almost simultaneously, Wood, who was not far from Hai'an, and Violet, who was second only to him in the squad behind him, entered the light barrier that spread around the half-elf.

Sava is positioned in the front row of the team, and his main role is to assist in the attack.

Her dragon lineage made her performance particularly poor during her last encounter with the red dragon.

But unexpectedly, her rest in Molten Scale Town these past few days seemed to have helped her figure something out.

The hatred between the two races was transformed into resistance to fear.

He recovered from the oppressive power of the dragon even faster than Wood.

Without the slightest hesitation, in an extremely dangerous situation, they obeyed Hai'an's instructions and moved closer to him.

In the blink of an eye, the vast majority of the escort team members had gathered within the light barrier surrounding Hai'an's body. Except... Luca.

With his strong physique, he serves as the tank in the squad and always stands at the forefront of the team when traveling in the wild, clearing the way for his teammates.

He is undoubtedly a professional, but having grown up in the Wycliff family in Newme City, his professional level, acquired through resource allocation, seems like a product of an assembly line. Perhaps this allows him to perfectly fulfill the guard duties required by the family.

However, they also lack the mental fortitude and willpower that adventurers of the same level gradually accumulate through countless missions.

To be honest, Luca's reaction to Longwei was not at all clumsy.

Even when Xia Nan stood inside the light barrier and watched the other person turn around and run towards the crowd, his expression, though flustered, was still composed; he wasn't completely at a loss or in a state of panic.

However, the reaction was a little slow.

Two steps.

Just two steps away from the light barrier, it became the boundary between life and death.

"boom!!!"

Accompanied by a deafening buzzing sound, the golden and red flames had already plowed from afar to nearby.

Looking into the distance, what was just a terrifying pillar of flame now filled the entire field of vision.

A devastating heatwave surged outwards from the dragon's breath, distorting and expanding the scorching air to form visible, blurry ripples.

The hard rock surface softened and flowed like hot wax. The solid stones that had stood for countless years in the barren mountains melted and steamed with a "sizzling" sound, dissolving into the depths of the flames.

On the field, no creature could withstand even a second of such an exaggerated surge of flames.

Luca continued his forward charge, his contracted pupils reflecting the emerald green light shield so close to him, and the figure within it.

But the next moment, a scorching and explosive gust of air surged from behind.

He didn't even need the golden dragon breath that exuded a destructive aura; the faint orange-red flames that spread outwards from its outer edge were enough to devour his life.

This is a fine iron armor specially forged by a skilled blacksmith hired by the Wycliffe family. It can withstand a full-force attack from a goblin bear without breaking through its defenses.

At this moment, it is no different from the weeds that can be seen everywhere on the ground.

In an instant, it turned into molten, thick liquid iron.

Skin and flesh were not separated in any order; they charred and scattered in an instant. The bones inside might have lasted for a slightly longer, indescribably short time, but then they too were reduced to a few barely recognizable pieces of charred black.

Before the eyes of the guards, Luca was swallowed by the dragon's breath.

The airflow carried by the flames left him with nothing, not even the remains of his body; the charred, black fragments vanished into the air like ashes.

All that remained was the oval-shaped, silvery-white metal block called "Dream Corridor Terminal," which he had kept close to his body.

There was no time to grieve over Luca's death, nor to marvel at the high fire resistance of [Dream Corridor], which withstood the dragon's breath without sustaining any damage.

The next second, the pillar of flame swept past Luca's corpse and landed on the light barrier.

Tremor.

Before it could even last half a second, the emerald green, translucent light shield that enveloped everyone was already covered in cracks as it trembled violently.

The scorching heat caused the air inside the enclosure to fill with scalding white mist.

Xia Nan could faintly hear a crisp cracking sound suddenly coming from the half-elf's body.

At the same time, accompanied by the violent tremors that threatened to collapse the light shield, Hai'an's face suddenly turned pale with despair.

Just when Xia Nan thought the emerald green light shield above his head could no longer hold, a faint blue light suddenly flashed in the corner of his eye.

His gaze unconsciously drifted towards that direction.

Violet was holding her unique, entirely gray-white staff, the light emanating from the deep green, transparent black opal inlaid at the top of the staff.

His lips moved as if he were chanting some kind of incantation.

The pale blue light, as if guided by some unseen force, covered the light shield that was about to collapse.

It held on for that crucial 1.5 seconds.

Only after the dragon's breath swept over it did it finally shatter, turning into countless specks of light that vanished into the air.

Before me lay a scene from the abyss of hell, as if I had entered another realm.

The air was filled with what looked like a misty forest, thick and scorching water vapor.

The soil and gravel vitrified under the impact of high temperature, forming a molten trench on the ground that stretches straight to the hillside and is invisible from the other side.

Even if you're just standing still and breathing, the burning pain that rushes into your nasal cavity and flows down your neck to your chest and abdomen is a reminder of what just happened here.

The dragon's breath has passed.

Are we all safe now...?

of course not.

An ant that, in a fit of rage, should have been crushed to death.

But unexpectedly, it survived the noble, sacred, and fiery dragon breath, instead of being burned to a crisp as expected.

This was no longer a simple provocation for the ever-proud and arrogant Red Dragon.

Rather, it is an insult to one's own noble bloodline.

Without the slightest hesitation, when "Krogbarry" discovered that the tiny insects, which should have been burned to ashes in the flames, were still standing safely in place after the dragon's breath.

Accompanied by an angry dragon's roar, a brilliant white light was brewing once again in its chest and abdomen.

A new wave of dragon breath is about to be released with the flapping of its giant wings.

But at that moment, a familiar silvery-white hue suddenly appeared in those golden vertical pupils.

This is the root of its fury these days.

—That treasure that the damned, despicable thief stole from the dragon's nest while I was away.

"Buzz boom."

Deep within its throat, the blazing flames symbolizing the dragon's breath quietly dissipated.

The white fog in the air was stirred up by the airflow, its wings swirling the dense rain and mist falling from the gray-black leaden clouds in the sky, sweeping and swirling outwards to form blurry air currents.

Sharp dragon claws embedded themselves in the ground, reflecting the fiery red flames overflowing from the edge of the dragon's snout. The ferocious dragon head was partially obscured by rain and mist.

A massive, oppressive shadow instantly enveloped everyone present.

Good news: They survived the dragon's breath;
Bad news: The red dragon, which was just passing by, landed right in my face.

(End of this chapter)