24 Chapter 24

Dark smoke was emitting from the black dragon, slowly spreading through the canyon. One of the soldiers finally suppressed his fear and rushed towards the dragon with a sword high above his head, ready to strike down the dragon.

"Cough!" the soldier coughed up, halting his attack as he got into the black some, his skin immediately turning red from the heat. If he was a regular human from the earth, he would be probably already screaming on the ground, covered in blisters.

"Graaaah!" the enraged dragon opened his mouth, magma flowing out as the soldier slowly backed away.

"You cowards, kill that beast. I want its head hanging above my fireplace by the morning!" The soldier looked at the noble, but none of them rushed to attack. They were just regular soldiers. They weren't trained to fight against such monsters. All they were supposed to do was to fight criminals and the occasional goblin or beast.

The dragon kept looking at them without moving, letting his smoke slowly spread all over the canyon.

The soldiers and the noble were slowly backing away, not to get caught in the smoke that got so thick that they couldn't even see the dragon, only brightly glowing trails of magma.

Suddenly without warning, the dragon rushed out of the smoke leaving a trail of smoke as he ran towards the surprised soldier. They all froze as a van-sized beast rushed at them, ready to crush their bodies and mince their bones.

Few soldiers snapped out and rushed toward the incoming dragon with swords in their hands. The dragon swung his left front limb with massive claws burning in bright flames at the closest soldier. The soldier immediately rolled out of the claw's trajectory. However, the dragon swung his long tail at the rolling soldier, sending him flying towards the cliff.

"Crack!" sound of cracking stone and bones came from that direction as the man hit the hard surface of a stone cliff.

[+110XP]

The remaining soldiers spread, surrounding the dragon, their faces red from the heat.

"Cough!" coughing echoed through the canyon as the soldiers had trouble breathing in the thick smoke.

? Suddenly winds rose from the sword of one soldier with a feather on his helmet. Strong winds immediately dispersed all of the smoke in a circle around the soldiers. Suddenly invisible force moved on, suppressing the wind powers wielded by the soldier. The strength of the wind gushing out of his sword decreased rapidly, and black smoke again expanded towards the soldiers.

Vesuvius's eyes glinted as his plan worked, 'Now that they split away for the noble, I can burn them without damaging my precious treasure!'

The dragon opened up his mouth, and an even darker, super hot cloud shot out. Lighter smoke was immediately pushed away by the high-pressure, super hot cloud. The black cloud hit the soldiers, blasting them with a high-pressure and immense heat.

"Arhhh!" a painful shriek came from the soldiers hit by the cloud as massive glisters formed all over their bodies. A layer of hot ash covered their bodies, turning them into statues. The massive strength of the impact sent them flying, hitting the rocks behind them.

[+130XP]

[+120XP]

That was a pyroclastic cloud, probably the most deadly part of any volcanic explosion. It was a dark cloud consisting of immensely hot fumes from volcanoes and hot volcanic ash. Even though it wasn't even close to the temperature of lava, it more than made up for that with its sheer speed and amount. It could easily reach towns under volcanoes in a minute, blasting everything in its way.

The soldiers out of the cloud had terrified expressions even though they couldn't see anything through the thick cloud of smoke, only hear the screams of their friends.

"Fuck this! I will not sacrifice my life here!" one of the soldiers turned back and ran out of the canyon.

Nobleman looked at the running soldier, and instead of reprimanding him, he turned to run too.

"You two, buy me a time to escape, and I will richly reward your families!"

Vesuvius knew that he couldn't leave any witnesses alive, so he spread his wings, flapping them as he leapt out of the ground, temporary dispersing thick clouds around him. He flew above the heads of stunned soldiers and landed directly at the exit from the canyon, blocking their only escape path.

He grabbed the surprised running soldier with his draconic front limb, lifted him from the ground and squished, his eyes full of immense rage towards the thieves that tried to rob him.

"Squachh!" blood flowed out of the dragon's closed hand as he crushed the soldier inside of it. He opened his arm, revealing a disgusting red paste with white pieces of bones.

[+110XP]

Noble fell to his knees and started to vomit while sobbing.

A soldier with a feather on his helmet swung his sword towards the dragon in the distance, and wind formed around his blade before shooting out as a sharp fan-shaped blade.

Wind blade rushed through the air, clearing the air in its path. It hit the dragon, creating a deep gash in the black rocky armour. Blazing orange magma immediate flowed out from the crack in the armour, filling up the gash.

"Arghh!" dragon rage grew even more as he spoke in a cold, cruel voice, "Filthy lesser beings, how dare you steal from me and then damage my majestic armour?"

"Fuck, it can speak! It isn't drake but a wyrm!" The soldier in a feathered helmet panicked, his sword starting to tremble at the thought of enraging such a dangerous beast.

Above the lesser draconic species of wyverns and drakes were so-called higher draconic species that consisted of wyrms and ground dragons. The greatest difference in comparison to their lesser cousins was their intelligence. They were no longer just beasts but highly intelligent beings that surpassed even humans. Wyrms specifically were extremely intelligent with an immense aptitude towards their innate dragon magic. However, they had relatively weak, small and fragile bodies, making them inept in close combat. On the exact opposite side of the spectrum were ground dragons with immensely strong bodies that could easily crush their opponents just with their physical strength. However, they weren't even as talented in magic as wyrms and could not fly as they had no wings.

Vesuvius opened his mouth again, and a stream of blazing hot magma erupted from the depth of his throat, gushing towards the solder in feather helmet whose eyes were filled with resignation. Magma splashed over the two remaining soldiers killing them instantly.

[+110XP]

[+140XP]

Vesuvius looked at the noble, who immediately prostrated on the ground with tears and snot running down his red burned face, "Ppplease let me live, and I will make you rich! Yyes, that's right, I will give more gold than you ever saw."

Vesuvius looked with disdain at the noble and reached with his long claw towards the sobbing noble.