Ashen Dragon

Chapter 197: Chapter 123: Fleeing the Famine
 

The monster was still wriggling towards Mantou, and the twisted human form stitched on it reached out an arm towards him:

“Why… aren’t you talking…”

“I still want to… hear a story…”

“Valena is so lonely here by herself…”

Mantou’s expression was filled not only with fear but also with the heartbreak of another romance gone wrong. It was already bad enough to discover that online love was a fraud in reality, but to be deceived by an illusion in a game world too!

Indeed, humans are visual creatures, and Mantou was no exception.

“Monster, give me back my heartfelt love!”

“Give me back Miss Valena!”

In a fit of rage and sorrow, Mantou drew his Silver Sword from his waist and slashed fiercely at the monster.

Not far away, Xin Dog also bent his bow and released an arrow that could pierce armor.

“Clang! Clang!”

With two crisp sounds, sparks flew as both the sword blade and the arrow were deflected by the monster’s tough, thick skin and extremely hard scales, causing no damage at all. The flesh continued to wriggle, and a tentacle covered in slime reached out and wrapped around the Silver Sword, swallowing it whole.

“Why… do you… hurt me?”

“Mantou… Brother…”

“Why does everyone… do this?”

The human-shaped mass of flesh wriggled, changing its voice from a soft, sweet female tone to a low growl, and finally into a cacophony of mixed, shrill voices that sent shivers down Mantou’s spine.

The mass of flesh squirmed and quivered, transforming into various twisted shapes on the spot.

“Then I’ll just… keep you here forever!”

Xin Dog, seeing that their attacks were ineffective, immediately shouted to Mantou: “Run! Run fast!”

“This thing isn’t something we can defeat!”

“How was I supposed to know—”

Mantou, on the verge of tears, quickly followed Xin Dog, running away in a panic.@@novelbin@@

Xin Dog said gravely, “This so-called cabin and girl were all illusions. Luckily, I bought a Potion of True Sight in advance, which lets me see through illusions. Otherwise, you would have died here for sure!”

“That cup of tea was definitely problematic. If you had drunk it, you would have become a slave here completely.”

Mantou looked back at the potion on the ground with lingering fear, then looked around. What he saw were cold metal walls covered in blotchy blood stains, the huge claw marks of unknown creatures, and chaotic, bizarre symbols.

A moment later, the long-silent monster moved again.

“Why—”

A chilling, overlapping voice echoed.

The roar seemed to be produced by many organs vibrating together. In it, Mantou could hear a girl’s call, a frost wolf’s howl, a giant’s bellow, and even the anger-filled roar of a White Dragon. It made both Mantou and Xin Dog shiver in terror, temporarily paralyzing them with fear.

“That’s Dragon’s Might!”

“This monster is likely of the Dragon Bloodline!”

“Damn it, dragons in this world have such unique tastes. They must be really starving to go after something like this.”

The familiar sense of oppression made Xin Dog’s alarm bells ring.

But Xin Dog quickly snapped out of it, shaking off the abnormal state. He looked up at the monster, which was closing in and waving its tentacles, then glanced at the terrified Mantou. In an instant, he thought of a solution.

“Roar—”

Another dragon roar echoed.

But this time, it was Xin Dog’s Dragon’s Roar Charge.

Facing a roar born from Cassius’s strength and possessing a higher essence of Dragon’s Might, the horrifying stitched beast was temporarily stunned, and the flesh tentacles aiming at the two of them momentarily froze in mid-air.

“Smack!”

Xin Dog slapped the terrified Mantou awake.

“I can’t hold it for long. The monster is waking up soon. Run!”

Mantou, clutching his slapped-red face, gritted his teeth and took off, fleeing with Xin Dog.

“Xin Dog, you damn well had a personal vendetta.”

“Didn’t I just wake you up? You were nearly making out with that stitched-together mess. Embarrassing.”

“You—”

Mantou’s face darkened instantly, so much so that it could drip water. He wondered whether he should kill Xin Dog to ensure he didn’t leak the shameful incident that could lead to his social death.

If the scene just now was recorded and posted on a forum, he would lose face and likely become the subject of a classic video like “Swashbuckler and the Old Vampire’s Unspeakable Thirty Seconds,” attracting countless viewers.

“Brother—”

“Come back and stay with me!”

That “sweet” voice made Mantou’s hair stand on end and his scalp tingle.

The monster behind them wriggled closer, its entire body of scales trembling. Luckily, its three-meter-tall body was too large and twisted to move quickly in the narrow passage, with the flesh scraping against the walls.

This allowed them to widen the distance and escape through a hidden door, narrowly avoiding Valena’s pursuit.

“Come back!”

At the last moment of their escape, Valena opened her horrifyingly wide mouth, with blood strands linking her jaws. From deep within her throat, a terrifying icy breath erupted. The freezing air instantly condensed the surrounding mist into ice, and even the door they passed through was covered in a thick layer of frost.

“Phew, phew…”

“Xin Dog, you should have just let me die in that false paradise…”

Mantou muttered softly as he seemed to savor the previous tenderness but immediately turned sullen when recalling that creature’s true form.

“What in the world is that thing?”

“It’s your dear Miss Valena.”

Xin Dog taunted in a deliberately saccharine tone.

“Shut up—”

Mantou’s face turned beet-red, looking utterly dejected. Still reeling from his dashed fantasy of companionship with a beautiful girl, he could hardly come to terms with the reality that the “beauty” was a monster stitched from corpse parts.

Xin Dog rolled his eyes at him in disdain: “You spineless fool, no wonder you’re single.”

“That last breath attack was terrifying. If it hit us, we’d be frozen solid. From what I know, that must be the Bloodline of the White Dragon from the five-colored dragons. White Dragons are known to inhabit the Anzeta Great Wilderness.”

He then observed their surroundings, rubbing his chin thoughtfully: “As for this place, it should be the legendary Polar Night Demon Tower. It’s at least a hundred years old. Supposedly, it contains terrifying beings, with very few survivors ever escaping it.”

Mantou suddenly remembered something and asked: “By the way, where’s War Maniac Bro?”

Xin Dog shook his head: “No idea. We lost him when we encountered those Gnolls. But War Maniac Bro is mentally strong and once crushed a Succubus with sheer will in a previous game. He wouldn’t make such an elementary mistake like you.”

Mantou’s face turned red with frustration, but he was speechless.

“I—”

Xin Dog patted him on the shoulder and said solemnly: “Mantou, I advise you to take care of yourself.”