Chapter 117: Acquiring the Dragon’s Blood
Lara stood inside the tunnel, only a few steps from the opening, watching everything unfold with bated breath. She could not remain still, her teeth constantly worrying at her fingernails as anxiety tightened around her heart.
The moment the dragon crashed into the enormous cavern, the fear she had been suppressing finally overwhelmed her.
She had heard countless stories about the dragon, but this was the first time she had ever seen it with her own eyes, and from such a terrifyingly close distance. The oppressive aura surrounding it was enough to make her instincts scream.
’It’s still in its humanoid form...’
Her gaze instinctively drifted toward the ground below, where she had prepared every trap Silas had instructed her to set.
’Things aren’t going according to plan.’
Then the dragon spoke. A moment later, Silas uttered words she had never heard before.
"Dreastare Ability."
His voice remained calm, yet carried an unmistakable weight. As soon as the words left his mouth, his eyes turned crimson.
Lara instinctively held her breath.
She had no idea what that ability was, yet simply looking into those crimson eyes filled her with an inexplicable sense of dread.
’Is this what he prepared to kill the dragon?’
Cher had already told her about Gaia’s Callings, and she later learned that Silas had spent all this time preparing a trump card for this very moment.
Naturally, her expectations soared. She expected something earth-shattering, a devastating attack powerful enough to bring even a dragon to its knees.
Instead... Nothing happened.
Several long moments passed in complete silence.
’What’s going on?’
Her heart tightened, and she found herself biting her nails once more.
Then the dragon suddenly began acting strangely.
It looked ready to charge at Silas, its body tensing as though it would strike at any moment, yet before it could move, it froze in place without warning.
Lara’s expression changed.
’Is it preparing some devastating attack?’
Without taking her eyes off the dragon, she silently ordered her babies to get ready. The Mana Squirrel Eaters behind her immediately tensed, awaiting her command.
She loved those little creatures more than she cared to admit. They had been with her longer than any other babies she had tamed, and despite their frightening name, she found them strangely adorable. Losing several of them to the dragon’s rampage while coming here still pained her.
Even so, she never hesitated. If sacrificing the rest meant saving Silas, she would do it without a second thought.
In the span of a few breaths, she had already planned everything. The moment the dragon would attack, she would send her babies to interrupt it while another carried the injured Silas away through the escape route she had planned right on the spot.
Yet... The dragon never moved.
It remained standing like a statue, as though it had fallen asleep with its eyes open. One minute passed, then another. The longer the silence continued, the more unsettled Lara became.
Eventually, suspicion replaced fear.
The dragon had remained motionless for over two minutes, yet Silas had not moved either. He simply stood at the edge of the cliff, calmly watching the dragon below, as though he had expected this outcome all along.
Then, without warning...
ROAR!
"I won’t fall for the petty tricks of a filthy ant!"
"We wiped out the Ashbornes fifteen years ago, and today I will erase their descendant as well!"
"NEVER!"
ROAR!
Out of nowhere, the dragon began roaring, shouting, threatening, and hurling insults, speaking as though it were in the middle of a heated argument.
The sudden outburst caught Lara completely off guard, and before she could make sense of what was happening, the dragon transformed.
It returned to its draconic form.
To Lara, it was nothing short of a miracle. The dragon had remained in its humanoid form for far longer than expected, threatening to render their carefully prepared trap useless. Yet now it had chosen the one form their plan had been built around.
BOOM!
Since she had laid the traps herself, the muffled crashes and spreading cracks that followed didn’t surprise her. The situation itself, however, did.
Almost instinctively, she turned toward Silas.
He still stood atop the ledge, watching the sudden turn of events with a quiet look filled with triumph, his expression making it painfully clear that he had expected this all along.
’He knew this was going to happen.’
’But... how?!’
The question would haunt her long after today. For now, however, another thought struck her, making her anxious again.
’It’ll fly away.’
The trap required the dragon’s true body, its massive frame, armoured scales, powerful claws, and immense weight to activate. But that also meant it could escape just as easily by beating its wings and taking flight above the cavern.
Yet when she looked back, she saw nothing of the sort.
The dragon was furious, but something restrained it. It no longer stood with the overwhelming dominance it had displayed before. Instead, it looked as though an invisible force was crushing it from every direction, leaving it unable to move freely or even unleash another roar.
Everything was unfolding more perfectly than she had ever imagined.
The sheer success of the plan left her standing motionless, unable to believe what she was witnessing.
"Lara... wake up!"
"GO... GET THE BLOOD!"
Silas’s shout echoed through the cavern, snapping her out of her daze.
Looking up, she saw him pointing frantically toward the dragon. For the first time since the battle had begun, urgency had replaced the calm confidence on his face.
She finally realised it. The moment they had all dreamed of had arrived. They were about to collect the blood of a living dragon.
"Damn... It’s really happening, just like he said a few days ago."
Without another moment’s hesitation, she sprang into action.
"Come on, babies. We have a dragon to bleed."
She urged her babies forward with an excited shout, kicking the Mana Squirrel Eater beneath her. The dozens of squirrels surged ahead in unison, crossing the distance within seconds before landing gracefully around the trapped dragon.
Only after standing beside it did she truly grasp its size.
Even battered and restrained, the dragon radiated an overwhelming presence that made her inwardly shaken. After a brief pause, she reached out and gently patted the shattered scales surrounding one of its deep wounds.
"If only I could make you one of my babies."
The thought left her with a trace of regret before she pulled out a large syringe attached to a bottle crafted from special glass. She drove the needle deep into the wound and immediately pressed the trigger.
The empty bottle slowly filled with shimmering golden liquid. It was dragon blood.
As soon as one bottle was full, Lara stored it away, replaced it with another, and resumed drawing blood without wasting a second.
Whenever the syringe pierced one of the dragon’s wounds or slid back out, the creature would flinch ever so slightly, sending an electrifying chill through her. After several close calls, however, she realised it remained trapped within its own mind, struggling against whatever nightmare Silas had forced upon it, looking even more powerless than before.
The equipment Cher had provided was just as extraordinary as the blood they were collecting. Without those specially crafted syringes and storage bottles, extracting dragon blood would have been impossible.
Unfortunately, they had only twelve bottles capable of containing it.
"I’m done here."
"So... do you want to kill the dragon too?"
Lara couldn’t suppress her excitement and even managed to crack a joke.
To the dragon, however, those words became the final weight crushing its already collapsing mind.
ROAR!
A deep, heavy roar rumbled through the cavern.
It was nowhere near the earth-shaking roars the dragon had unleashed before Silas trapped it beneath the weight of his crimson gaze. Yet it was unmistakably stronger than the muffled groans it had been making moments ago.
"No, run!"
Silas caught the change immediately.
Lara needed no warning. The familiar terror had already crawled back into her heart, telling her the dragon was beginning to break free from whatever curse Silas had inflicted upon it.
She leapt onto one of her Mana Squirrel Eaters, sent another racing toward Silas, and the two fled into separate tunnels.
Not long afterwards, the passages merged once more, allowing them to race side by side while dozens of squirrels charged behind them.
"Hahaha... we got it!"
"We actually did it!"
The moment she caught up with Silas, Lara could no longer contain her excitement. She pulled one of the bottles from her portable device and triumphantly waved the shimmering dragon blood before him.
The joy lasted only a heartbeat, then she spotted something wrong that killed the rest of the excitement and words in her.
Silas looked pale.
His breathing had become shallow, his body so frail that he seemed barely capable of remaining on the squirrel’s back.
"You really overdid it this time..."
Her voice softened as she recalled everything they had gone through.
From beginning to end, Silas had been the one carrying the burden, planning every step, constantly moving, fighting, escaping, and adapting while everyone else simply followed. Out of the entire team, he had rested the least and endured the most.
She had encountered the dragon only once, and that single meeting had left her traumatised. Silas had faced it again and again.
After studying his exhausted face for a moment, she let out a quiet sigh. Perhaps it was only natural for him to be this worn out. He deserved to rest.
ROAR!
Yet before she would tell him that, a muffled roar echoed from deep within the mine. This time, however, it was powerful enough to shake the entire tunnel.
Lara instinctively looked back, her face turning pale.
"I knew it..."
"We should’ve killed it back then."
Only then did she realise something.
Silas had planned every detail of the operation with meticulous precision, except for the escape. His plan ended with obtaining the dragon blood, mounting her babies, regrouping, and leaving the mine.
He had never once mentioned what they would do if an enraged dragon came after them. No matter how hard she searched her memory, she couldn’t recall a single remark or contingency for that possibility.
There was only one conclusion.
Turning toward Silas, she asked in a low, tense voice,
"Will the trap hold long enough?"
Silas merely shrugged, and her heart sank.