Chapter 713: The Fainted Dragon

Every inch of its body ached.

The Lightgreen Gem Wyrm's head swam with dizziness, yet it dared not pause even for a moment. Its body lay in tatters, and its soul-bonded rider had fallen in battle.

In all its four centuries of life, this was the most harrowing experience—it had never suffered so greatly, not even during those early years spent hiding in the wilds.

It hated the sea.

Yet because of Ka Erluo and the Kingdom of the Eagle, it had been forced to cross a thousand miles of ocean to fight here. Had it triumphed, it might have feasted upon victory’s spoils—but instead, it had suffered a devastating defeat, nearly losing its own life on the battlefield. That Archmage standing atop a seashell, and that frenzied Fire Dragon Knight—both left it deeply shaken.

"Ka Erluo is nothing but trash!"

"If not for the Dragon Knight backup plan, how could I ever allow such a hothouse flower to ride me? Fighting alongside him shackled my power—damn him! Damn him all to hell!"

"Roar!"

Fury surged from the wyrm’s breast as it let loose a thunderous cry.

But the movement tore open the wound on its neck, sending forth a fountain of ichor. Startled, it snapped its maw shut, fearing it might bleed out completely. Even a dragon at the height of its power still feared death—at least in the prime of its strength, the Lightgreen Gem Wyrm had no wish to die.

"I must flee!"

"Flee from this cursed place and return to the Kingdom of the Eagle!"

"Now I must heal—I need sanctuary, and only the Kingdom of the Eagle can offer me true refuge!"

The Lightgreen Gem Wyrm pressed onward through the sky, though each beat of its wings grew heavier, and its eyelids felt weighed down by iron. It longed to soar above the clouds, but its failing strength dragged it lower and lower until it skimmed just above the waves. Every flap sent white-hot lances of pain slicing through its battered frame.

Painful as they were, these torments paled before the insidious fatigue creeping into its limbs.

"I cannot sleep—if I fall into the sea, I will perish!"

The wyrm kept reminding itself, struggling to shake off the encroaching exhaustion. But the harder it fought, the weaker it became—just like in that earlier battle beneath the arcane onslaught, when Ka Erluo's fumbling incompetence trapped them between the Archmage and the Dragon Knight, leaving them helpless prey.

How long had it flown?

The wyrm could not say. Only that the sky had turned pitch-black, and stars gleamed beyond the veil of cloud. Without nourishment, its wounds refused to mend, and flight drained what little strength remained. It could feel itself growing weaker, slower.

The relentless drowsiness seized the opening, nearly pulling it into unconsciousness midair.

Memories flickered through its mind—a phantasmagoria of its past: the newborn wonder and confusion toward the world, the years of evading hunters in the untamed forests, and the fateful encounter with that knight from the Kingdom of the Eagle, just before adulthood.

It had not been a pleasant meeting.

The knight and his men had come to capture it, and in the end, it had fallen into their trap. It had held its head high, refusing to yield—but could not resist the siren promises of rare potions, exquisite delicacies, and burned-bone wine. In surrender, it allowed the knight to mount the Dragon Tooth Platform.

After the soul struggle,

the wyrm became his steed.

Together they waged war for sixty years, until time claimed the knight’s mortal form. Then, the wyrm took residence in the aerie built by the Kingdom of the Eagle, becoming the realm’s warden drake. Whenever a promising Dragon Knight candidate passed its trials, it would undergo another soul struggle.

Over the next three hundred years, it had ridden with four knights in total—Ka Erluo was the sixth, and their bond was newly forged.

"The bloodlines grow ever weaker! You cannot raise a true Dragon Knight in a greenhouse!" The Lightgreen Gem Wyrm had long since abandoned any reverence for the sacred bond between dragon and knight.

Perhaps it still remembered the first knight who rode it—the first to share a soul-bond, branded upon its very being. All who followed were mere empty formalities, never again achieving that unity of spirit, that deep communion of minds.

"Was it Ka Erluo’s panic that shattered our bond, or was it my own scorn that drove us apart?" It wondered in despair.

The drowsiness deepened further.

Shaking its head vigorously, even at the cost of reopening the wound on its neck, it managed to regain a shred of awareness. Just then, a peculiar fragrance drifted into its nostrils, making its already glazed eyes grow even duller. Its movements grew sluggish, gradually straying from its path.

The moon stood high in the sky.

It was midnight.

Bewildered, the Lightgreen Gem Dragon unwittingly followed the scent to a small rocky island, surrounded by reefs and rock walls, with only a tiny grove of trees at its summit. At the center of the grove stood a dead bush, its lifeless branches sprouting a few tender shoots.

The fragrance emanated from those shoots.

By now, the Lightgreen Gem Dragon was completely spent. With great effort, it landed in the island’s grove before collapsing beside the dead bush, unconscious.

The dragon's warm blood oozed slowly from the wound on its neck, trickling through the crevices in the rocky ground toward the roots of the shrub where the tender shoots had begun to sprout.

...

The scene shifts back to the sunlit afternoon sea.

Carllo Violet had fallen, and the Lightgreen Gem Dragon had fled—the battlefield changed in a flash, everything happening too suddenly to react.

"Carlo!"

Watching Carlo plunge into the sea, Alonso Cyclamen felt his guts wrench. When he had set out in high spirits, he never imagined that a proud Dragon Knight could perish in these waters.

But now was not the time to dwell on Carlo’s death—it was a matter of life and death whether he himself could escape.

Daring not to linger in this magic-scarred battlefield, he faced a barrage of powerful spells that surged toward him the moment the Lightgreen Gem Dragon fled. Made worse by the restraint from Sapphire Dragon Knight Andrew Sapphire, and the sudden turn of Fire Dragon Knight Liszt Tulip charging straight at him, the odds were dire.

Against such overwhelming odds, a single misstep could easily lead him down the same path as Carlo, meeting his end in these waters.

With a defiant roar, the bronze dragon carrying Alonso wheeled around. Enduring several heavy blows, shielded by its thick scales, it forced its way out of the magical onslaught. Without a backward glance, it fled in the direction it had come, not daring to pause for even a moment.

He didn’t even spare a threat.

"Acheronides, after them!" Liszt, astride the exhausted Fire Drake Rio, who was panting heavily, gave chase for miles before the bronze dragon vanished beyond the horizon, too far to catch.

As for Acheronides—

Without the ability to fly, catching up would be pointless.

Thus, Alonso was allowed to escape. Shooting a resentful glance at the horizon, Liszt pulled out handfuls of magic potions from his storage ring and tossed them over. Rio swallowed them whole, glass vials and all, the restorative effects slowly easing its exhaustion.

Liszt himself quickly downed several potions, refilling his drained mana.

Only then did he call out to Acheronides, "Let’s head back."