Thousand-Faced Dragon

Chapter 361 Guerrilla Dragon
A peaceful day begins with a bloody battle between them.

"Ouch!"

The roar of the dragon still echoes in our ears all day long, and the hydrological monitoring station built on the edge of the spring is now a mess.

Minced meat and fur were everywhere. Bloodied bones of animal companions littered the ground, and there were claw marks of a dragon on the rock walls. The Great Druid Koror's animal companion, the mutated bear monster "Bronze Crown," had been chewed into a bloody mess and stuck to the wall.

This is not hunting; it's merely venting anger, or rather, intimidation.

The claw marks and undigested bits of flesh on the rock face seemed to declare that no one could escape; everyone would be my prey.

"Waaah, my bronze crown, we promised to live a good life together."

The high druid, born of the deer clan, cried like a child. To him, this animal companion of thirty years was not only an extraordinary comrade-in-arms who had grown up together, but also a childhood sweetheart, or something similar but inconvenient to state.

"From now on, in the cold nights, there will be no more of your warm fur and embrace."

It's quite normal for druids to act strangely, especially since they can actually turn into bears. After crying for a bit, the archdruid returned to normal.

Because of his grief, so many of his "animal companions" were embracing him that he was directly crushed beneath them.

Wipe away your tears, life goes on. Saying goodbye to one family member doesn't mean saying goodbye to many others.

"Waaah, Bronze Crown, how could you leave us when you were only in your thirties?"

Moreover, perhaps he foresaw all of this from the very beginning.
"Are we still letting our animal companions guard hydrological stations, water sources, and mining areas in the wild?" The silver-clad druid found the druid leader.

It appears that the deal with other religious groups has fallen through, and perhaps it's time to cut losses with the remaining inventory.

The druids in the story are often covered in fur and penniless, but they are not poor.

When it comes to spending money, they can always produce rare monster materials, gold ore, magic gems, and so on. Some of their doctrines despise currency, one of the symbols of civilization, and even regard accumulating wealth as a folly (according to extreme druids, anything beyond one's living needs is a waste).

But nature is a true treasure trove, and the great druids who can communicate with nature can often easily obtain treasures that other races cannot.

However, the rule of not keeping more than the limit on personal property makes most druids seem rather "primitive".

While doctrine is one thing, the fall of pious individuals is also common. Druids are not all truly fanatical believers; in fact, they do have an internal operating mechanism.

This verdant garden has actually accumulated a lot of treasures in this magical realm over the years. Various rare magical materials and ores are only one aspect. The various powerful magical creatures and the cubs of magical animals have earned it the reputation of "beast taming paradise" in the natural faction circle.

"Damn it. It still hasn't taken the bait."

The giants led by the Forest Giant, seeing the devastated hydrological station, had no choice but to abandon another trap.

The core team members had already begun to withdraw, entrusting the guard of important resource points on the periphery to their "animal partners".

This was a pre-planned strategy, essentially using animal companions as bait in an attempt to hunt the evil dragon.

No matter how powerful that dragon is, it is still all alone and needs to fight for its own survival.

Dragons are not a weak race that likes to hoard food, and their hunting range is limited when they cause trouble for the Druid Order.

The animal companions and summoned creatures sent out to guard important "sub-bases" were a reluctant choice to avoid personnel losses, but they were also bait to lure the dragon. But now it seems that the bait has been eaten by the other side, and every ambush has completely failed.

This is extremely rare for druids, because mid- to high-level archdruids all have a similar ability to "become one with nature," making it easy for them to merge with the natural world and thus difficult to detect during ambushes.

Druids also possess the ability to sense life, but now that seems meaningless.

The chewed-up crumbs laid out in front of them were a clear sign of mockery.

This habit of chewing but not eating is also a way of saying, "Your poisoning is meaningless." It's likely that these days, the dragon hasn't even been hunting in the surrounding area, but has simply risked flying dozens of kilometers to hunt in the territory of other powerful creatures.

The cunning dragon was even more adept at fighting than expected. "Let's gather all our animal companions," sighed the Forest Giant, Korluna, making the most difficult decision.

She had already seen it; once the trap was confirmed to be removed, the dragon would destroy everything around it bit by bit.

Some supplies can be collected and returned to the camp, but the large "treasure troves" such as the ore warehouses and fur and bone warehouses are probably destined to be lost.

She never imagined that a mere young dragon (only recently reached adulthood) could push Green Garden, home to a population of double-digit giants and four archdruids, to such a state.
"We know too little about the Gem Dragon."

Of the three common true dragon species, gem dragons mostly live in other dimensions, and information about them is extremely scarce. They often return in large numbers during the Demon Tide, and during the last Demon Tide, Kolluna was not yet born.

The Order is quite powerful; in a direct confrontation, the Sapphire Dragon would be dead. However, the constant ambushes, infiltrations, reconnaissance, and assassinations have brought the Order, which has an absolute advantage in strength, to the brink of collapse.

In fact, if it weren't for the druids' ability to harness the power of nature to create "food and water," they would have already collapsed.

While walking along the road, a giant spider suddenly fell from the rock wall, unleashing a series of slashing dragon claws and bites that could wipe out half of a small team.

While they were sleeping soundly, the evil dragon that had been lurking and swimming in the rock face suddenly surfaced and swallowed the bed and the person whole with its gaping maw.

They finally managed to trap him in a cave, sealing off the surrounding rock walls and blocking the teleportation of traditional magic. He escaped using his psychic teleportation ability.

Color-changing ambushes, wall-penetrating ambushes, teleporting ambushes—this guy never engaged in a head-on fight from beginning to end. He would basically attack once and then run away without even checking the results.

This is precisely what brought the cult to the brink of collapse.

This dragon may only be at the level of a standard adult dragon, but its ability to hold grudges and its lone-wolf guerrilla tactics are simply outrageous, and the current environment of the Great Demon Realm is very suitable for it.

On one hand, the mana consumption is always sufficient; on the other hand, the Nature Order's spellcasting is actually hindered. They can neither defeat the enemy nor escape, and the Green Garden is even gradually losing the possibility of escape.
"But if this continues, we will eventually be gradually exhausted."

Druids understand nature best, which reminds them of migrating herds of cattle being targeted by predators like lions and wolves.

The best outcome is to migrate as a group while they are still able to move. In this process, the weak, the old, and the young become necessary sacrifices. The worst outcome is to stay put and wait for a member of the tribe to be carried away from time to time, eventually leading to the annihilation of the entire tribe.

"The reinforcements should arrive soon in ten days."

"Reinforcements? How could we possibly have reinforcements here? Even if they did come, could they handle that dragon?"

"Yes, this time the experts who came are dragon hunters."

Kolluna said this, but in reality, she was not sure at all, otherwise she would not have waited another ten days.

She even suspected that all of this was a dream caused by her mental breakdown, or a lie woven by the evil dragon with psychic powers. But the giant's legacy told her that the chances were true, and that the legendary heroes and their spirits were on their way to save her and her companions.

"Hopefully, they are the true heroes."
-
Meanwhile, Rean, whom he had placed great hopes on, was also struggling blindly and arduously in this land.

Some have even become complacent.

It took a lot of time to adapt to the environment, and a lot of time and energy wasted fighting with the monsters and monsters around them. But even so, Rean still did not let the temporary team head straight to the expected destination.

"Dragon hunting is similar to assassinating a leader. The first attempt usually has the highest success rate. Dragons are the most difficult to deal with because they not only have strength, but also the tactics and patience to use that strength."

If possible, Rean hopes that the first encounter will be the last.

But it seems that luck did not favor them.

Before they could find the real dragons or adapt to the environment, Rean and his group encountered their dragon relatives: a large group of carnivorous dinosaurs and sub-dragons!

This seemingly random encounter began in a canyon near a water source.

(End of this chapter)