The Red Dragon Just Wants To Do As It Pleases

"I hope this time, it'll give me and the old pals a good chance to stretch our muscles."

Albert picked up an entirely crimson potion from the ship's railing, bit off the cap, and poured it into his mouth. The warrior's features soon tensed up, and his skin turned visibly red at an alarming rate.

Ah! This sensation is so thrilling, even better than strong liquor.

He had stumbled upon this stuff during his arrival in the Valden Kingdom, where a noble highly recommended it to him, claiming the potion was made with Dragon Blood.

Initially, he was furious because he felt cheated; the concoction had none of the pungent, fiery kick typical of Dragon Blood products!

But Albert, who quickly belched a gout of fire from his throat, soon fell in love with this concoction called the Anger Potion.

Just as he usually did, he held his breath, letting the fiery surge rampage through his lungs and digestive tract.

Suddenly, he heard a warning from the Lady of Strategy:

"Be on alert, warriors. That dragon has noticed you."

Albert was about to exhale a satisfying burst of fire, like a Red Dragon, when he heard the Lady of Strategy's voice. Instinctively, he looked towards the distant continent's clearly visible coastline and saw a Red Dragon yawning atop a towering volcano.

Albert felt belittled by a dragon.

Wait, why can I see its expression so clearly from this distance? How big is that dragon?! Weren't we told it was an adult Red Dragon? Its size... it's almost like an ancient dragon, isn't it? Lady, say something, will you?

He thought he had heard her voice, but it was quickly drowned out by a sudden gust of wind beside his ear.

Why has the wind suddenly picked up?

The sails billowed and the masts creaked as their ship practically flew towards the continent, seemingly propelled by both a sudden tsunami and a violent storm.

The weather, which had been gloomy for the past week, had suddenly cleared up?

Then Albert and his 'Chosen brothers' stared dumbfounded as a cumulonimbus cloud rapidly formed above the coastline, then spiraled down towards the volcano's mouth—no! It was drawn into the chest of the Crimson Calamity.

So, it was the Red Dragon, inhaling! Damn it, is that Red Dragon's chest the eye of a typhoon?

The Red Dragon continued to inhale. Albert, however, could hold his breath no longer; the suffocating image of the catastrophe nearly made him forget to breathe.

PFFT. A tiny flame escaped from his rear.

In that moment, Albert felt his world freeze for an instant.

If my brothers saw this, I'd be the laughingstock of the Hall of Valor for ten thousand years!

ROOOAAAR!!!

It wasn't so much a breath as a blast of light. A silent shockwave, outspeeding sound, arrived first.

A sword, imbued with a majestic aura and capable of slaying gods, instantly tore through the coastal barrier, piercing the sea's surface.

Albert and the other Chosen warriors immediately used the ship as a springboard. Drawing on their superhuman strength and the God-given Dance of the Air, they leaped into the sky. Though Albert had already drunk a Flame Immunity Potion, he still felt as if he were sitting atop an erupting volcano. He was flung high into the sky—had there even been any clouds left—then blown far away like volcanic ash. After an unknown amount of time, he crash-landed harshly onto dry sand.

Wait! Weren't we at sea just now? How did we end up on land so suddenly?

It took several seconds for Albert to gather his wits. Before him lay a vitrified crater, four to five hundred meters in diameter and over a hundred meters deep. In the distance, a tsunami thousands of meters high was receding into the sea, while on the continent, the volcano itself was collapsing, and layers of coastal forest turned to charcoal. He finally understood.

He hadn't landed on the continent; he had fallen into the crater the Red Dragon blasted into the shallow continental shelf.

What kind of monster IS this?!

「...」

No, I must go back and check. I have a feeling something's not quite right. David really couldn't comprehend what could possibly drive a Legendary to the Old Continent.

"Are you out of your mind?" Attilicia, who had just heaved a sigh of relief, immediately shrieked as if her cloaca had been stepped on, protesting vehemently. "Even if it is about your mother, what good will rushing there do?"

But recalling her son's hot temper, she quickly adopted a more sensible tone, "Listen to me, let's just do what we can. Your mother is a legend, after all, a Legendary Red Dragon. Even if some other Legendary comes to bother her, she has more than enough means to handle it."

"But she's still sleeping! If I go back, at least I can warn her," David retorted and started flying back when his wings suddenly stiffened. He muttered, "Seems like... I don't need to anymore."

BZZT... Hiatt, the Drow in his claws, was also so shocked that his spirit wavered, causing a brief interruption to their 'Telepathy'.

"Is this still Dragon Breath...?"

He saw a second sun suddenly rise on the eastern horizon. It expanded silently, just like the depiction in *Oppenheimer*.

But the father of the atomic bomb had only created a 19-kiloton device.

This thing before him looked more like a hydrogen bomb.

Watching the tsunami surge towards him, David finally understood. When Tania had told him about seeing their mother, Pafila, use her Dragon Breath to fish—an act so powerful it stopped the strait's current—she had been damn serious!