Chapter 144 – The Hot Road

A roar came from the north of the town, as if the rumbling of a train in the distance, not at all like a normal animal making a commotion.

The hiss lowered down a little before slowly becoming shrill, ending in a tugging walk that pulled the attention of all on the dock, on the shore, to the north.

“Don’t come back ……”

Those cries were too much for Jace to bear, and he barely managed to keep up with Grid, who was running furiously all the way, trying his best to forget the appalling sights of the town of Southsea, and running straight in the direction of the wooded area outside the town.

If it had been two weeks ago, no, if it had been two hours ago, he would have thought the decision was crazy.

But now, an unparalleled drive was pushing him to run toward that dragon, the injured people, the burned houses …… that griffin, and the dwarven knight, everything had to be accounted for.

More selfishly, he also wanted to participate in such a battle, even if it is really just “participate” or not, it is not a waste of this trip across.

Outside the town hordes of civilians took shelter in the direction of the southern wharf, while the called-up soldiers marched against the grain toward the woods, some of them militia and some even armed with farm forks.

But in this case, a long farm fork might work better than a sword. It was among these that Jace mingled forward, following the direction of that low roar. Most of them were as black and gray as he was, and some even had tear-stained faces, but none of them hesitated, and all of them rushed toward the forest like madmen.

Entering the woods he felt a wave of heat pounding from in front of him, and before he even saw the dragon’s shadow he already felt its power.

Jace just couldn’t imagine just a young dragon with such terrifying power.

Flying sparks came and flew between the trees, and many of the leaves had burst into flames, and some of the warriors dropped to their stomachs to escape the onrushing heat in the lowlands, and when the gust had passed rose again to charge forward.

Some archers could already be seen hiding behind the trees in front of them, and a military order was heard in the sound of burning fire, so it turned out that quite a number of Lordaeron’s soldiers had already chased after them to this place.

Feeling uncontrollably nervous, Jace feared that he would be blasted right out of the room by a ball of flame before he even saw what the dragon looked like.

Looking up, Grid had long since scurried out to the far front.

If he had any fear at all, the only source of that fear was the fear that the dragon would die before he got there, so much so that he wouldn’t be able to smite him with the hammer in his hand himself.

Dodging burning twigs and dead leaves as he advanced, Jace saw a middle-aged soldier in lockjaw armor holding a halberd beside him, lying down in a mound of dirt to catch his breath and wipe the sweaty stains of scorched ash from his forehead. He wasn’t a militiaman, but a harbor guard, covered in dust and black ash, and seemed to have just participated in the town’s firefighting or something, too, before answering the call to come this way to round up the fallen black dragon.

Seeing him reminded Jace of his own father, who he remembered as a child seemed to look like this every time he saw him coming back to see his mother and himself.

If a black dragon scurries to Briar, or even the perimeter of the king s city …… It really comes to that time, father, even if he is old, will probably take up his weapon and rush up to fight the evil beast like this man.

Jace glanced ahead at the shadow of the riverbank sentry tower swathed by the trees, and the indefinable burning stench from before continued to permeate the area, not unlike the mere charred smell of a blazing fire burning up, but the same kind of odor as the one he’d smelled in town.

And here, the odor is extremely strong.

Jace frowned, strangely after arriving here he felt the smell of déjà vu.

He held onto a nearby tree to catch his breath, he was indeed off his feet after running furiously for miles all the way from the coast with the fishers, not to mention that he couldn’t lift his arms in exhaustion when he reached the dragon.

Perhaps he had run so aggressively that he had smelled blood in his mouth, but after stopping and slowing down, the smell faded but didn’t completely dissipate.

Grid was already out of sight, when a heat wave came crashing down on him again, and Jace leaned back against the tree at hand to avoid being directly hit by it. The shockwave came more violently than the previous times, like being slammed in the back by the wind blowing out of a jet airplane, both ears were baked hot, and just this one time, his hair looked like it had been in the sun for a while.

Jace hastened to put on his hood, the stench that came from this hot wind made him cough, and the burning sensation on the back of his neck instantly brought back memories of where he’d smelled it before.

It’s Stone Fortress.

It was no one else who created the smell, but himself!

Shadow Flame …… No, if the one in front of me is a black dragon, then this is the real deal Shadow Flame ……

Jace remembered the day he had been on the stone fortress, and had suspected that the fire that had sparked on his sword was Shadow Blaze, except that he had thought that it was a terrible poisonous fire that only a black dragon could unleash, and that it had nothing to do with a mortal like himself.

It was only then that he realized that there was likely no difference in essence between the two, perhaps the Black Dragon released a purer, more perfectly blended one, while his was perhaps weaker and more fragmented.

But whether it was from the appearance of these flames or the smell they gave off, they all looked like the same thing.

Even Jace’s is a bit more evil, after all, the black dragons themselves have the power of the earth, in the ancient times before they were guided by the evil gods to fall, they spewed out a fiery flame that was burning magma …… And the one who helped Jace light that flame enchanted by a demon that was ignited by evil energy.

“Grady!” He yelled, but there was no response.

Jace inclined his head in the direction of the out woods, presumably Grid had run to the front of the pack and he would have to keep up.

The roar of that black dragon was close at hand, visible as it rushed out of the woods, and had to be prepared in advance.

He flipped through the pamphlet in which he kept track of spell incantations, casting a skillful spell of Arcane Wisdom on himself before memorizing the incantations for the Curse of Weakness and the Fear spells, fingering the mana potion on his clothing bindings, and clutching the staff in his arms.

Hopefully, with the enchantment of this staff, at least one of the Weakness Curse or Fear spells will take effect.

Thinking back to the cabin, he applied the curse of weakness to the Night Baron with his staff, and the panther was still able to hurt himself with his claws.

So in the face of such a real dragon, he was skeptical about whether or not his magic would actually work.

However, even if it only produced a little bit of utility, it could bring an advantage to the soldiers of the Kingdom of Lordaeron in surrounding that dragon, even if it wasn’t for nothing.

By now the fire had abated, and the shouts of the soldiers once again grabbed the momentum.

Jace tucked the pamphlet into his bag and walked out of the tree he had backed up against with the incantation he had just memorized, following the two touching up Lordaeron soldiers as they continued to push forward.

The trees were thinning, and the battle for the dragon hunt was close at hand.