Chapter 25: Chapter 25: The Dragon Mother's Pitfall
Dragons are magical creatures born with the ability to fly.
Upon seeing Muria fly into the sky, the young dragons unfurled their broad crimson wings and followed, with Cynthia and Renata being the least enthusiastic. These two young female dragons purposefully lagged behind.
In the sky, Muria, with his faster flying speed and more extensive flying experience, playfully toyed with the young dragons. He found it incredibly easy to deal with them.
Not to mention, among these six young dragons, there were two female dragons slacking off. His age, strength, and agility in flight were greater than the young dragons', and he also mastered all the attack spells from the first to the fourth ring. Muria could not think of any reason he would lose.
At that moment, Muria glanced below and was surprised, "To think they could still stand up. Should I say, as expected of one of the strongest dragon species?"
Below, on the granite slabs of the training ground, Auston shakily climbed out of a dragon-shaped crater created by Muria. After taking a few steps, his wobbly form steadied.
Auston squinted his crimson dragon eyes towards the sky, then spread his wings and, after a few running steps, also flew up to join the battle against Muria.
"Such vitality and physical quality, dragons are truly monstrous," Muria muttered, not realizing he was even more monstrous. "They're like steel and iron. I thought that fall would have deformed them, but they're fine."
Muria gained a new understanding of the physical quality and recovery abilities of dragons: "Seems like I need to show some real skills. If I'm going to win, it has to look good."
First-ring spell, Magic Missile!
"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!" Dozens of pale blue energy orbs were released by Muria, targeting each of the six young dragons and hitting them.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!" The energy orbs exploded upon impact with the young dragons, as Muria expected, causing no spell damage.
However, the shock from the explosions slightly affected the young dragons' flight patterns.
That's what Muria wanted. He flapped his large wings powerfully and swiftly charged at the group of young dragons. Before they could react, he grabbed one of their tails.
"Muria, no!" Albert, whose tail was caught by Muria, instantly became terrified. He helplessly watched as Muria lifted him over his head and then smashed him down.
Albert turned into a red comet, crashing into the ground with a "bang!" The impact created a crater, sending black and yellow soil flying and stripping nearby bushes of their leaves and most of their small branches, leaving only a few lonely trunks.
Muria looked at the dazed young dragon Albert and then turned away. It seemed he wouldn't recover for a while and wouldn't be bothering him anymore.
After several rounds of battle in the air, Muria once again seized a chance and grabbed the dragon he most wanted to catch—the youngest female dragon, Renata.
"Master Muria, please don't throw me down. I'm afraid of pain," the young female dragon Renata pleaded tearfully, looking like she was about to cry, which contrasted sharply with her ferocious red dragon appearance.
"There, there. I'll throw you into that lake, and after you're in the water, just pretend to be unconscious and don't fly back up," Muria whispered to the young female dragon who had secretly betrayed the others by regularly snitching to him about the other five young dragons.
"Okay!" The young female dragon quickly nodded. She didn't want to fight Muria, but to fit in, she had to join the others.
"Splash!" Muria kept his promise and accurately threw the young female dragon Renata into a freshwater lake formed by rainfall on the island.
The young female dragon obediently stayed underwater, not surfacing to fly up again. For dragonkind, surviving in environments as hostile as the Abyss, where even the air is poisonous, is trivial; water is hardly an issue, even if their attributes clash.
The rest of the young dragons didn't notice the young female dragon's absence, except for Cynthia, who had been slacking off with Renata from the start. After thinking for a moment, she came up with an idea.
After a few more exchanges, Cynthia deliberately approached Muria and was naturally caught by the neck.
"Can you throw me into the water like Renata? I promise I won't fly up again," Cynthia whispered to Muria.
"Of course," Muria replied, surprised but readily agreeing to her request. The physical quality and recovery abilities of dragons are too troublesome; without the option to kill them, Muria could only wear them out through exhaustion.
Inside the Crystal Castle, the Dragon Mother, Atreus, sat on her throne, watching the "live broadcast" and sighed, "The dragons of today are not as great as before. At least they were of some use, making young Muria study seriously for a while."
"But what about later? After Muria wins, he will surely become complacent and, like most dragons, do nothing but eat and sleep, becoming a useless dragon living off his talents," the beautiful girl mused worryingly on her majestic throne.
"Crack!" As the Dragon Mother pondered, golden lightning pierced the space beside her, and a black-haired, chiseled-faced, noble-looking young man in armor, accompanied by thunder and wind, stepped through the space rift to Atreus's side.
"Yo, Ansaul, how's it in the Abyss?" The Dragon Mother greeted the man beside her. He was her husband, Muria's father, the legendary titan, Ansaul Iapetos.
"Very satisfying," the black-haired youth said cheerfully, obviously in a good mood.
"How many demon lords did you kill?"
"I lost count, but at least six or seven."
"And their remains?"
"Sent to the elves."
"Oh!" The Dragon Mother, Atreus, nodded and ended the conversation. The thing she wanted was gone.
However, the Titan Ansaul, now in human form, laughed as he watched the crystal display in front of the throne.
"I didn't expect my son to have grown so much. He seems to be enjoying himself!"
"It's not just a moment; it's been thirteen years," the Dragon Mother suddenly became interested.
"Thirteen years? Time flies!" Ansaul nodded.
"Are you going to see Muria now?"
"What else?" Ansaul looked puzzled at the Dragon Mother.
"You can't go like this," the Dragon Mother said excitedly. "Muria has never seen you since he was born. As a father, you have been quite negligent. So, to make up for your mistake, you should prepare a gift for Muria."
"That makes sense." Ansaul nodded in agreement, then asked, "What should I give my son whom I haven't seen in thirteen years?"
"I have a suggestion," the Dragon Mother said, smiling. She waved her hand, and books floated around the throne through portals.
"These are all the books Muria has read in his thirteen years, excluding spell books," she explained.
Ansaul glanced at the titles: "The Hatching of the White Dragon Egg," "The Impact of Environment on Dragon Eggs," "The Necessary Conditions for Hatching
Dragon Eggs," "Caring for Dragon Eggs," "Research on the Birth Environment of Dragons"...
Seeing these titles, Ansaul concluded, "My son likes dragon eggs."
He then looked at the young red dragons in the crystal display and nodded thoughtfully, "He also likes raising dragons."
"Now you know what to give Muria as a gift!" the Dragon Mother said cheerily.
"Understood." Ansaul looked at the Dragon Mother. "How many red dragon eggs did you give Muria?"
"Not many, just six."
"Six!" Ansaul murmured and then tore space apart, leaving the Crystal Castle, "I'm going to prepare the gift. It might take some time."
Seeing her husband's parting words, the Dragon Mother nodded in satisfaction and leaned back lazily: "Muria should really thank me. If it weren't for my reminder, Ansaul wouldn't have thought to prepare a gift."
The Dragon Mother, Atreus, sighed without realizing she had set up her own child. In her mind, she was considering Muria's future. And indeed, that was the case.
Above the training ground, Muria playfully toyed with the four young dragons, with the young female dragons Cynthia and Renata obediently pretending to be dead at the bottom of a lake.
"So weak," Muria thought in the air. He watched the four young dragons, occasionally grabbing one to throw to the ground, creating dragon-shaped craters on the island.
He wasn't worried about the young dragons; Muria always saw them climb out of the craters and continue to attack him.
Suddenly, Muria shivered in the air, puzzled, "What's going on?" With his monstrous constitution, ordinary diseases were virtually irrelevant to him.
Muria didn't know that his father, the legendary titan Ansaul, following the Dragon Mother's advice, was preparing a "sincere" gift for their reunion.