Chapter 19: The Dragon’s Return to the
“Roar—”
With a loud roar, the red dragon fpped its wings and swept past Rock Fortress.
The uards on the ground immediately waved their clubs, cheering, while the wyverns stationed oher side of the gate stretched their necks and raised their heads, letting out long cries to wele the return of their ir’s master.
Upon Cassius’s return to the Giant’s Maw Cave, even the Chimera approached respectfully, not daring to show the slightest .
“Langpu, how have things been these past few days while I was away?”
Standing before him, the ogre mage was now wearing a finely crafted pair of silver-rimmed gsses, which he had clearly stolen from somewhere. The small gsses struggled to sit on his rge head, making for an oddly ical sight.
Langpu adjusted his gsses deliberately, unfurling a scroll and flipping through it carefully as he spoke: “The Embers now has 38 ogres, 435 goblins, 26 wargs, 27 bugbears, 121 kobolds, and 15 wyverns.”
He paused in his report before saying, “Three days ago, Hobgoblin Leader Dolo sent out 27 warg riders to the Lost Mihe losses were heavy; only six riders returhree of whom were ihe remaining 21 warg riders are missing.”
“Where is Dolo?”
“He’s still at the goblin camp. The goblin camp and the kobolds’ overpped, so he’s busy tearing down those pups’ s,” the ogre mage said with a sly gleam in his eye.
“Uood. tiudying your spells,” the red dragon replied, his toral.
“Lord Dolo, you ’t tear this down! We have eggs to hatch here,” the kobold leader with the golden tooth said, smiling obsequiously as he looked up at the t hobgoblin.
“Get out of here, you filthy pups. Don’t get in our way,” Dolo waved his hand impatiently.
Gold-Faated a moment but still blocked the hobgoblin, saying, “Sir, we specifically reported to Overseer Langpu, roved it. ging things st minute seems a bit unreasonable, wouldn’t you say?”
In the hobgoblins’ warlike eyes, these weak kobolds were worthless, not even fit for on fodder, especially as their intel had ily led to the loss of dozens of warg riders, earning Dolo repeated mockery from Langpu.
Thinking about it, the hobgoblin leader grew even angrier, his already red-brown face flushing further as he kicked the kobold away and spat at it.
“Langpu, Langpu, Langpu again. What’s an ogre worth anyway?”
“If it weren’t for him getting reized by the master, I’d have—”
Just as he was about to kick the kobold again, he realized his shadow was now covered by a massive silhouette, and the kobold looked up with a look of relief.
“You’d have done what, exactly?” The red dragon’s voice was cold.
Dolo’s face immediately underwent a plete transformation, switg to a fawning smile as he turned and said, “Master, you’re back! I apologize fleg to greet you at the gate and wasting time here instead.”
Gold-Fang, meanwhile, k on the ground, snot and tears streaming down his face as he cried, “Master, please defend us kobolds! Lord Dolo means well, but without a , how will we...”
Dolo shot him a vicious gre, then turned back to Cassius with a sycophantic smile: “You misuand. I was supervising the stru progress at the goblin camp when this pack of kobolds came and disturbed things, so I—”
Cassius had had enough of the fard cut in directly: “Enough, Dolo. Make room for the kobolds. Don’t stir up any more trouble.”
Gold-Fang, satisfied, kept p out words of praise, his lips moving so fast they nearly left a blur.
“Oh, great master, your merd justice are unmatched, your power…”
“Go bad tinue w on your .”
The red dragon ignold-Fang’s fttery and instead spoke casually to the hobgoblin, “Bring the surviving warg riders. I want to see what exactly caused them to suffer such heavy losses.”
Hearing the mention of the warg riders, Dolo grew a bit uneasy, but seeing the red dragon wasn’t particurly angry, he sighed in relief ao carry out the order.
With the howls of wolves, several wargs carrying goblins rushed out from the barracks, gathering submissively before the red dragon.
The six goblins before him looked terrified, most of them injured, with one barely held on the back of a warg, covered in charred wounds and ed in medial herbs, looking like it wouldn’t survive long.
Dolo cracked his whip, anding harshly, “Tell hty master what you experienced.”
“It… it was a terrifying monster,” one of the goblins said.
“It ate everyone,” added another.
“It… it was a shadow.”
Much like the kobolds’ earlier description, they spoke of a creature that devoured everything, its form obscured in the dark mine, appearing as only a vague shadow, but rge in size.
“Is there no useful information at all?” the red dragon demanded.
Sensing the red dragon’s frustration, Dolo cracked his whip louder, yelling, “Your cowardly retreat has shamed our master. Now you have a ce to redeem yourselves—’t you be of any use?”
Although afraid of the whip, the goblins truly knew nothing. They were too dim-witted to even i a det lie.
Dolo looked up at the red dragon with a pleading expression, “Master, trust me once more. I’ll make these wastes useful, ime, I swear…”
Just as Cassius was starting to feel disappointed—
The goblin lying on the warg’s back weakly opened his eyes and struggled to speak in broken words, “I… I saw… lightning… it… it could use lightning, blue…”
The goblin’s mind was already half gone.
But evidently, the lightning had left a deep impression on it.
Lightning?
Blue lightning?
Could it be a blue dragon?
But Cassius quickly shook his head. Blue dragons prefer deserts, not the depths of dark mines, and their pride would never allow them to hide in darkness.
Besides, blue dragons are notoriously territorial; they wouldn’t tolerate kobolds or smugglers intruding into their domain.
“It seems I’ll have to go personally and iigate,” thought the red dragon.
Uhe current circumstances, sending minions would only deplete his forces further. Acc to the warg riders’ descriptions, even if he sent wyverns, they’d likely just be themselves up as easy prey.
And he wasn’t about to let this gold mine escape his grasp.
