Lord of Cinder in American Comics

Chapter 289: The Enemy-Luring Trap

Ross didn't know what to do about the reason the Knight Commander gave.

It's not uncommon for people to retaliate against the grievances and hurts they suffered in the past.

Moreover, the Knight Commander explained the danger level of this place from the very beginning. He said that as long as he was led into the trap and a death was reported, Ross would be finished.

Moreover, another small team was ready to make a move, just to scare him, and had no intention of killing him.

After the knight commander finished speaking, he left. Ross understood that the knight commander's words were just a reason for him to withdraw. Everything now told Ross about the danger of the environment.

Ross, being a soldier, understood that this was just a tactic to force him to leave so that the camp would return to its original order.

This is because Ross is the only ordinary person in the main camp, and the resources and effort required to take care of him would be enough to bring most of the original operations to a standstill.

Lost in his yearning for power, Ross fell asleep silently.

There is no night at the Earth's core; the very center of the Earth constantly emits light. While Ross was in a deep sleep, the noise outside woke him up.

The sounds of armor rubbing and heavy objects being dragged rose and fell, prompting Ross to get up and check the situation outside.

Pushing open the door, Ross saw the well-trained Lothric Knights, in groups of three or five, using chains to pull a several-meter-tall, rock-clad, eight-legged arthropod towards a prepared open space.

"Rookie, go check if the target has arrived yet!"

Upon hearing the shout, Ross silently climbed to the highest point of the camp and took on the role of observer.

In a team, only one person will be called a newbie or have the nickname "rookie." Only newcomers will have this nickname.

Ross didn't argue; he simply followed orders and completed the task. The most important thing in a team is to demonstrate your value in order to fit in.

On a tower in the camp, Ross picked up a telescope hanging on the wall and searched for targets.

This was clearly a decoy operation. In a place surrounded by such large creatures, the arthropods were the bait, and the target would only be the even larger ones.

This is also why Ross didn't ask about the target; asking would only make him look stupid.

Soon, Ross spotted his target: a creature resembling a marine iguana, crawling swiftly towards him on all fours.

"Target spotted! 30 degrees to the left of the camp's main gate, 2 kilometers away, speed 60 kilometers per hour."

Underground, it's not as easy to distinguish north from south as it is on the surface, so Ross could only report his findings in the most concise language.

Having received the information, the knights quickly fell silent, and the camp instantly became quiet, with only the scraping sound of arthropods being bound to the ground remaining.

Ross, who had no choice but to hold his position without receiving any new orders, saw the creature that had been two kilometers away stride confidently toward the perimeter of the camp.

Only then did Ross realize that he had underestimated its size. This lizard, which lay on all fours, was over fifteen meters tall and nearly eighty meters long. Its thick back was like armor, covered with protruding dorsal fins.

The barricades and walls surrounding the camp were easily breached, as if made of paper.

The original campsite was turned into a complete mess, but the four-legged lizard only had eyes for the food that was about to be eaten.

Those arthropods, the four-legged lizards, devoured them one by one, their hard shells easily crushed and swallowed by their mouths.

Just as the four-legged lizard was feasting, the knights of Lothric surrounded it with chains.

Before the four-legged lizard could react, the chains, reinforced with wedge-shaped stones, were easily bound and restrained by the Lothric Knight.

Ross was somewhat incredulous. He had seen videos of Ash participating in the battle to hunt down the giant beast, where various weapons were used to bombard it, but they couldn't kill the mutated giant crocodile.

But now, the four-legged lizard, which is only slightly smaller than the giant crocodile but lives in a much harsher environment, has been bound hand and foot by the knights of Lothric.

Just as Ross was observing the four-legged lizard's condition through his binoculars, the Knight Commander's voice rang out from beside him.

The knight commander, who hadn't uttered a sound, said, "Today I will teach you the swordsmanship of Lothric. Tomorrow morning we will leave here and head to a new destination..."

Ross lowered his binoculars, looked at the red light emanating from the knight commander's visor, and said, "May I ask you a few questions?"

"Say"

Ross asked, "Are these large lizards our target?"

The knight commander said, "Yes and no. These four-legged lizards are just our means of transportation. After observing them for so many days, we've found that they can carry heavy loads and move quickly, making them excellent vehicles underground..."

Ross was puzzled. In his view, this creature, which could withstand direct hits from missiles and heavy weapons, was the perfect weapon. It would become the best battlefield killer once it was tamed and trained.

Taking this opportunity, Ross continued, "Doesn't this lizard fit the bill? In my opinion..."

The knight commander quickly interrupted Ross, clearly annoyed. He understood Ross's meaning and said in an unfriendly tone, "Shut up! What do you know! Even if the knights of Lothric ride this kind of trash vehicle, they'll become a laughingstock!"

"If it weren't for Ash protecting you, and if an ordinary person saw these scenes, we would kill them and then obliterate their soul!"

Ross was somewhat shocked; these knights had very high standards for their mounts and didn't even want to hear such things.

Looking into the Knight Commander's eyes, Ross said solemnly for the first time, "I'm sorry, I don't understand the reason..."

Upon seeing Ross apologize, the red light in the Knight Commander's eyes lessened slightly as he said, "Just this once. And remember, the strongest members of the Knights of Lothric are called Dragoons. We are all members of the Dragoon Order. Don't let me hear you make such low demands of your war comrades!"

Dragoons! Ross instantly understood the source of these knights' arrogance. He understood the feeling: once you've piloted an F35, you'll never want to pilot a P51 again.

The tradition of this knightly order made it an insult for them to use a four-legged lizard as a vehicle.

Dragons are powerful symbols in any culture, and this knightly order actually has dragons as their battle partners.

'Or perhaps they once had dragons as their fighting partners.'

Ross silently muttered these words to himself, not daring to say them aloud, since he hadn't seen a single dragon here.

However, the Knight Commander wasn't having any of it. He saw Ross's look and said disdainfully, "Rookie! If you look at me like that again, I'll dig them out. Just because we don't have many dragons doesn't mean we don't have any!"

This time, I'm looking for a mount that can be widely adopted by my brothers. If you can complete my training, I don't mind taking you to Lothric to see a real dragon..."

At this point, Ross instantly straightened up. As the Thunder General of the Air Force, he had seen all kinds of aircraft on Earth, but the Flying Dragon…

Flames began to blaze in Ross's eyes as he stared longingly at the Knight Commander, as if to say: Come on, train me to your heart's content!

"Rookie, go and kill all the mosquitoes you missed yesterday, then I'll teach you Lothric swordsmanship..."

A few days later, Ross sat on the four-legged lizard, watching the scenery around him gradually recede, and he nervously clenched the muscles in his arms.

A few days ago, after learning the complete set of sword techniques, he almost ate both legs of a rock hermit crab. He estimated that the meat alone weighed several hundred kilograms.

He didn't die from overeating; in fact, the knights around him were mocking him for eating too little and calling him a weakling.

Now, he is about to have another meal on the back of a four-legged lizard. Looking at the campfire, Ross felt that he needed to practice his swordsmanship a few times to get some exercise before the meal.

Ross swallowed the food in his mouth with difficulty, and only breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the empty bowl of food in front of him.

After the meal, it was time to rest, and only then did Ross have the time to check his condition and observe the knights around him.

After two days together, the atmosphere among these knights told him that they had experienced a major blow. They learned from some of the knights that someone had broken through the high walls of Lothric and killed their few remaining dragons.

The knights remained tight-lipped about the man who had caused them such great losses, daring not to mention his name at all.

Similarly, Ross also received news that Ash had gone to a place called Ancient Dragon Peak and brought back dragons for them, which prevented the legion from losing its last line of defense.

At the same time, looking down at the back of the body beneath his feet, Ross felt an even greater longing for the Knights of Lothric.

The four-legged lizards that were struggling in the camp just a few days ago are now perfectly cooperating with the knights' actions, leading them to their destination.

This indicates that the knights of Lothric possess a sophisticated method for taming large creatures, or rather, for taming dragons.

Just as Ross was pondering, the four-legged lizard beneath his feet stopped, and the knight commander shouted, "We've arrived! Be careful and on guard!"

After saying that, the knights on the back of the four-legged lizard jumped down and turned their backs to the lizard to form a defensive formation.

This is a rocky area with various rocks intersecting each other, resembling upright blades.

A knight carrying a greatsword, after everyone had landed, swiftly beheaded the four-legged lizard, causing its blood to spray everywhere.

This was yet another trap to lure the enemy, except that the trap itself was these Lothric Knights.

"On its head!"

One knight issued a warning, but the others did not look up rashly; instead, they rushed forward to avoid the impending attack.

On another continent overhead, the knights found themselves extremely close to the continent beneath their feet; the giant beasts overhead could reach them with a simple leap.

Now, a head resembling a skull, with limbs arranged in an M-shape supporting a slender body, fell from the continent above.

The giant lizard, a creature that had been lurking underground on Skull Island, now appeared before the knights.

Ross vaguely recalled a few reports he had seen before, which seemed to mention the creature in front of him, but before he could recall it in detail, the knights around him rushed forward.

Chapter 290: Dragon Riders

Unlike before, the knights carefully avoided the giant skeletal lizard's vital points in this battle, only inflicting some non-fatal wounds on it with their weapons.

Some knights even got so caught up in the fight that they reportedly chopped off a toe from a skeleton, prompting the knight commander to reprimand them.

Faced with these insurmountable enemies and feeling the increasing damage to its body, the Skeleton Giant Lizard suddenly crouched down, then leaped up and fled towards the continent above.

"First squad, pursue them, make sure to leave a mark. The rest of you, set up a temporary position on the other side and build a cage..."

The knight commander gave the order, and a three-man squad quickly adjusted their position and charged toward a knight carrying a greatsword.

The knight leaped up and stepped on his greatsword, then was violently thrown away, thus artificially transporting his own troops to another continent.

The others weren't in such a hurry. They paired up, with one person slightly bending over and holding the shield on their shoulder. As the other person stepped onto the shield, the knight suddenly raised their arm and sent the knight flying to the other side.

The one who remained quickly found another to team up with, and so, only the Knight Commander and Ross remained in place.

Ross was eager to try, but he could see disdain in the knight commander's visor.

Before he could even resist, Ross was grabbed by the belt by the Knight Commander and then thrown to the other side like a hammer.

Then, like Saitama leaping onto the moon, the Knight Commander crouched down and then jumped up, instantly overtaking Ross who was still flying in the sky.

Ross felt the change in gravity. For a pilot, the change in the direction of gravity was commonplace. He quickly adjusted his body in the air and fell towards the ground.

Seeing that Ross hadn't fallen, the knight commander quickly turned his head away, refusing to look at him.

Ross didn't notice the Knight Commander's subtle movements. Instead, he looked up at the sky with some curiosity. The change in gravity meant that the mass was mainly concentrated between the two continents. Only then did he believe that he was currently at the Earth's core.

As for the giant skeletal lizard, Ross recalled some of the special creatures encountered during secret operations reported by pilots in previous classified reports.

Ross looked around. The knights quickly cleared out a campsite. Judging from the structure and layout of the camp, it was a permanent, long-term camp.

Having found the Knight Commander, Ross said, "We can follow the Skeleton Giant Lizard's tracks to the surface; this should help us obtain supplies and relevant information..."

Ross's words did not receive a reply from the knight commander. It was not until he had arranged the entire camp that he said to Ross, who was following closely behind him, "Do you think we don't know what's going on up there? The place we are standing on is called Skull Island. Not far from Skull Island is Yamatai, where demons are currently building their nests."

Returning to the surface would undoubtedly be a provocation against the demons, and such an unnecessary price would be paid with the lives of our brothers. I know you are a commander, but my own brothers, every single one of them, is important…”

The Knight Commander's words shocked Ross. For Ross, human lives had become just a number, and the deaths brought by war had numbed him.