naruto-story Chapter 450: The Rebirth of Hephaestus
Chapter 450: The Rebirth of Hephaestus
The young Blue Dragon had no idea why Gauss had grown stronger again, but that did not stop it from becoming afraid.It vaguely smelled the scent of death.
Anxiety began to sprout and run rampant in its heart like wild grass.
It was a noble Blue Dragon, how could it quietly die here?!
Thinking of this, it no longer intended to tangle with Gauss.
It wanted to survive!
The young Blue Dragon glanced at Gauss, who had kept a prudent distance the entire time, and realized this enemy was excessively cautious. He had only exchanged long-range magic with it, leaving almost no opening for a breakthrough.
But obviously, he seemed to be preparing some special method, something the rising momentum around him made clear.
This stalemate could not continue!
A warning bell rang in the Blue Dragon’s mind.
If it could not severely wound the enemy in a short time, then it had to find a way to escape.
So, several enormous thunder spheres more than three meters in diameter that hung around its body shot up toward the invisible barrier overhead with a thunderous roar.
The ball lightning collided with an invisible, insubstantial yet indestructible lock.
The thunder spheres detonated the instant they touched the Silent Birdcage. The Blue Dragon poured massive mana into its full-force strike, making the entire sky tremble.
Blinding white light swallowed half the horizon, and the aftershock spread outward in ring-shaped electric ripples.
Where it passed, even the air was ionized into pale blue plasma.
The Blue Dragon flew rapidly while staring fixedly at the invisible barrier above, its vertical pupils full of hope.
The barrier seemed to tremble violently under its full-strength blow, and through the thunderstorm’s core, the real sky beyond the barrier could be faintly glimpsed.
Unfortunately, just as a sliver of hope rose,
the barrier drew energy from elsewhere and the originally turbulent area quickly stabilized.
“Damn it!”
It cursed inwardly.
That blow had been no weak strike; had it fallen on a human town, it could have easily caused thousands of casualties.
But the Silent Birdcage was a golden-quality wondrous item with harsh usage conditions, not something to break so easily.
Most transcendents could not shatter it in a short time.
Perhaps it would only dissipate once its duration ended.
Of course, the Silent Birdcage could be used only under specific conditions. First, the enemy could not be too powerful. It could trap many transcendent-level creatures, but if faced with top-tier transcendent fighters or even stronger epic creatures, its effect was limited.
A casual strike from them might break the Birdcage’s threshold.
Second, the Silent Birdcage trapped both friend and foe, and provided no other assistance. If one’s strength was lacking, using this item was just drawing a prison around oneself.
So its use cases were limited.
It just so happened that Gauss could make use of it now.
In a few years, if Gauss grew stronger, this item might even be worthless to him.
After a brief depression, the Blue Dragon refused to accept defeat and began to condense its five-ring magic again, launching them together.
It seemed to want to make up quantity for lack of quality.
In the number of high-level spells it had mastered, most spellcasters could not come close.
Its maximum number of simultaneously prepared spells was several times that of a human genius caster.
And although the Green Dragon Queen had restricted their actions somewhat, she still supplied necessary training resources. With spells occasionally awakening from its bloodline, it had learned a great variety of magical types.
It tried all kinds of offensive spells, Dispel Magic, even space magic it was not fluent in.
But the Silent Birdcage’s effect was that if an attack’s power did not exceed its limit, it was extremely difficult to collapse. Trying to patch things with a flood of spells was delusion.
Moreover, Gauss was not idle; he continuously fired Magic Missiles and Confusion at it from behind to harass it.
In short, the young Blue Dragon endured immense pressure.
It worried the silver giant hand of control Gauss had might suddenly imprison it.
Although it thought its physical strength far exceeded the other three dragons, it did not want to test fate.
Just as the Blue Dragon fretted over whether it should lash out savagely at Gauss, the battle in the valley finally reached results.
First, the female Green Dragon. After Gauss dealt with another young Green Dragon, her situation gradually worsened.
Green Dragons among the chromatics were not renowned for physical might. The moment Bigby’s Hand seized them, without outside help they could only slide into death.
After all, she was an underage True Dragon; her level had not even broken into Transcendent. Under Gauss’s Dragon-Ghost Union, Gauss’s strength reached level 13, and his Bigby’s Hand, enhanced by ring ascensions, was simply beyond her ability to resist.
After holding on for a little over a minute, the female Green Dragon finally swallowed her last breath with hatred.
The moment she closed her eyes, the surrounding vibrant plants withered rapidly, as if mourning the True Dragon’s death.
And the young Black Dragon fighting Hephaestus fared no better.
It was already at a disadvantage in close combat.
Hephaestus’s body was larger; his dragonhide offered superior defense, his fangs and claws superior attack.
As for why he did not use magic or Acid Breath, he needed an opening to do so.
Black Dragons, as True Dragons, had magical aptitude, but it was limited to toxin and corrosion types, while Hephaestus flew faster.
Hephaestus tore at it frantically; the Black Dragon could not find an opportunity between flashes of lightning to cast magic back, so it relied on body instincts to fight.
Normally, when two great dragons brawl, even with a strength gap, they would not collapse within two minutes—True Dragons’ bodies were resilient, and even if injured they could recover quickly.
But the problem was that the first Green Dragon had died too easily; it hadn’t held out long enough.
That freed the first Bigby’s Hand used on the Green Dragon, which then became the final straw crushing the young Black Dragon.
It had to watch a hand closing in to seize it from the side, fend off the mad biting of the Red Drake behind, and with the Green Dragon Queen raising them, their practical combat experience was not rich—under such high pressure they naturally made forced mistakes.
Hephaestus clamped onto its neck, flung it to the ground.
The Black Dragon struggled, but Hephaestus’s strength was greater and pinned it to the earth.
After a few seconds of delay, Bigby’s Hand followed.
The silver giant hand slammed down on its body with tens of tons of terrifying force.
Thundering impact transmitted through its body into the ground, causing the soil for hundreds of meters to quake violently.
Black blood erupted from various parts of its body.
When the dust settled, the young Black Dragon could not move.
Its neck was held by Hephaestus’s bite, pressed to the ground.
Its torso was mercilessly pressed by Bigby’s Hand. The Black Dragon lay on its back in an unbearably cramped posture, like a goose resigned to being slaughtered.
Hephaestus looked at the weakened Black Dragon beneath him and a twisted pleasure flashed across his golden slitted pupils.
Is this a True Dragon?
It was nothing special.
Just a shabby, worthless creature!
Inferior kind like this commanding the life of a True Dragon?
Hephaestus felt a perverse delight.
The only regret was that the dragon beneath him was a Black Dragon, not a Red Dragon.
Otherwise his joy would be even fuller.
Under the coordination of the giant hand and Hephaestus, the Black Dragon gradually lost strength.
After a brief private high, Hephaestus did not forget his mission.
Gauss had emphasized this operation needed to be swift and decisive.
So he quickly reined in his pride.
Although he wanted to humiliate the True Dragon more, he decided to finish it cleanly.
Once decided, he suddenly exerted his upper body.
The neck muscles beneath his crimson scales bulged; tremendous biting force transmitted through his jaws into the Black Dragon’s neck.
Crunch!
The Black Dragon’s scales shattered under the piercing fangs.
Scales and the resilient dragon bone beneath could not bear the pressure and began to crack.
The Black Dragon’s vertical pupils snapped wide.
But it had no room to resist. The combined pressure of Hephaestus and Bigby’s Hand prevented it even from wriggling its neck.
Crack!
The first violent snap echoed through its neck—the first vertebra breaking.
Crack! Crack!
Then the second and third…
Finally, after reaching some limit, many vertebrae cracked like firecrackers in rapid succession.
Rip!!!
Hephaestus shook his head.
The Black Dragon’s hide was stretched to the limit by his fangs and tearing force; scales flew off in pieces, exposing the dark red muscle beneath.
The internal muscle fibers snapped like overstrained ropes.
Black-red dragon blood shot into the air.
Hephaestus tore off the head and nearly two meters of neck from the torso, holding the severed dragon head in his mouth, blood spattering all over his head. He tilted his head back and quietly enjoyed the searing dragon blood flowing over his face.
Lightning flashed deep in the sky, illuminating his blood-smeared face.
Hephaestus calmly savored this brief victory reserved for him, as if reborn.
Deep inside, a knot in his heart seemed to have been untied.
He might never become a giant with True Dragon heritage, but he could surpass them!
The dragon blood inside him began to boil.
If Gauss had been standing beside Hephaestus now, he would have clearly felt the draconic blood power within Hephaestus gradually thickening.
Like Dragonborn who undergo draconic bloodbath rites to trigger evolution.
Of course, unlike blessed Dragonborn, only a small portion of Hephaestus’s change came from the Black Dragon’s blood stimulation.
In the sky, Gauss casually flung spells, and finally, in a brief interval, he received two kill notifications from below.
A steady stream of draconic power surged into his body one after another.
“Killed Transcendent monster Green Dragon (young) *1”
“Killed Transcendent monster Black Dragon (young) *1”
“Transcendent Path: Kill 5 types of transcendent-level monsters (3/5). Reward: Randomly obtain one racial talent from a transcendent-level monster.”
“Because you killed a legendary species True Dragon, the title [True Dragon Killer] has increased (3/∞). Your attacks against True Dragons are strengthened and have a small chance to deal True Dragon-specific true damage.”
“Purple-quality racial talent [Dragon Breed] is drawing in bloodline energy...”
Perhaps because of his first experience, the bloodline absorption this time was noticeably faster. In a matter of a dozen seconds, Gauss had absorbed it all.
The purple glow of his racial talent [Dragon Breed] already showed a streak of gold.
Clearly, its quality had reached the peak of purple quality.
Still not evolved? Just a little short?
Gauss felt somewhat surprised.
Then he thought maybe dragon racial talents were simply too powerful.
In his perception, racial talents from different species, even if labeled the same quality, often had significant differences.
The dragon talent was undoubtedly superior to others; among the many talents on him, perhaps only that mysterious origin—Bigby’s Slime bloodline—could match the dragon talent’s level.
“So only...”
Gauss turned his gaze to the last Blue Dragon.
It was just unlucky. If the sacrifices of his three dragon companions could push Gauss’s Dragon Breed to gold quality, Gauss might have had a small chance to spare it.
Now that probability had fallen below ten percent.
First, his state had soared to a peak again after absorbing three dragons’ bloodlines; he remained strong.
Only three minutes had passed, leaving him seven more minutes.
Most importantly, his luck-draw was near its guaranteed reward. No one would give up at this moment.
True Dragons were not as common as roadside Goblins.
And underage True Dragons who came out to show off were even rarer.
If he missed this opportunity, who knew when Gauss could next absorb True Dragon bloodline.
Of course, Gauss could advance Dragon Breed later through accumulated Transcendent points in the next stage of Transcendent Path, but saving what he could now was still preferable—he had many talents waiting to be nurtured.
Another reason was that his first transcendent monster talent draws were nearly complete.
The first was Demon King Eden, the second was the Green Dragon, the third the Black Dragon. If he could claim the Blue Dragon, it would be the fourth in the prize pool.
At that point, whatever came from the top four would be a supreme talent.
Gauss felt the power of the [True Dragon Killer] title within him.
After the kill count rose from one to three, its effect seemed to have strengthened.
Its passive effect appeared to amplify attacks normally and occasionally trigger special critical strikes.
Critical attacks dealt greater destructive power and could apply armor break, reduced healing, and persistent damage among other bonus effects.
This title, it could be said, increased Gauss’s win rate against similarly powered True Dragons by at least ten percent.