The Lord of the Rings: Lords of Middle-earth.

Chapter 719 Dragon Shadow!

"Such a strong smell of blood! Even if it's not fresh anymore..." Kaldor said solemnly, buzzing flies all around, which made the dragon extremely irritable.

“...Grandpa!” Weiss looked at the ruins of the village and immediately ran towards home.

“It’s been several days! These bloodstains have dried up!” Caslo frowned as he looked at the purplish-black bloodstains on the ground.

“Go check on your student… I have a feeling something’s wrong with him!” Cardo nodded to Caslo. He seemed fine now, but he’d probably be acting strange soon.

"Grandpa! Grandpa!" Weiss's wailing burst into the ears of the man and the dragon with explosive speed.

"Damn it! He didn't even need to look to know what had happened!" Caslo's face darkened.

……

"Teacher... Grandpa... Grandpa... Waaah~" Weiss, distraught, hugged a corpse that had begun to rot and stink. From the corpse, one could vaguely make out what the old man looked like when he was alive.

"Knife wound! A heavy knife! It doesn't look like a human weapon!" Caslo squatted down and carefully examined the wounds on the old man's corpse before looking up at Weiss. Weiss was holding the rotting corpse, sobbing, his eyes staring blankly at the door, where a trail of blood stretched all the way to the old man's body. A kitchen knife stained with a few specks of black blood lay on the ground beside him.

"Something's not right! Why is this place so chaotic? The composition is so complicated!" Kaldo's voice was filled with doubt.

"What did you find?" Caslo casually dragged Weiss up, frowning at the stench emanating from him. He quickly channeled his dragon power over Weiss's body. The dead are gone, but the living must go on. Weiss was easily infected with disease, and his grandfather in heaven would surely not want his grandson to be harmed by the plague he had caused.

“It’s a dragon!” Kaldor’s first words sent a jolt through Caslo.

"Impossible! We've never seen a dragon in the Dark Forest! It must be a wyvern or a wyvern!" Caslo blurted out.

“Dragon power won’t deceive us! Feel it for yourself! And look at the plague spores on these corpses! This is a demon dragon!” Kaldo said calmly.

"Holy crap!" Caslo carefully sensed the residual power around him and discovered that it was dragon power of the same origin as his own! And it faintly carried the pressure of a giant dragon!

"So can anyone tell me what happened here?" Caslo squinted as he looked around. From what he had just seen, he had spotted at least three groups of corpses: orcs, villagers, and mercenaries from the Second Son Mercenary Group! That's right, there were quite a few mercenary corpses around the village!
"The most urgent task is to find that dragon! He should be judged by the silver dragons for wantonly slaughtering innocent people!" Kaldor urged. Letting a chaotic and evil dragon run rampant would probably keep everyone awake at night.

"Don't rush, let's figure out what happened first! Evil isn't the power itself, but the people who use that power!" Caslo didn't lash out at the strange dragon that had appeared on the scene. "Figure out what? Figure out why the dragon slaughtered the village? Let me tell you! Humans are nothing but ants in the eyes of dragons! Don't think you're so noble! Destroying you... what does it have to do with you?" Kaldo sneered. Wild dragons are naturally not as easy to talk to as they are. A wild dragon's good and evil can change in an instant; clearly, they had encountered an evil one!
"..." Caslo was speechless for a moment, and looking at the dazed Weiss in his hand, he suddenly felt a pang of heartache.

"I just saw it, they were just short of using forbidden spells! The entire village and its surrounding area are riddled with craters from dragon language magic and magic scrolls! It seems these mercenaries were dealing with this dragon for a while!" Kaldo sighed as he looked at the mercenaries lying dead everywhere. They were like ants trying to shake a tree.

"That doesn't make sense! Why would those orcs be here?" Caslo asked, pointing at the gruesome corpses of the orcs around him.

……

“Wash yourself properly! It’s unhygienic there. If you don’t want to die of disease, stay away from there! Your grandfather is dead, but you have to live well for him!” Caslo urged from outside the tent, while Weiss’s sobs could be heard from inside.

"What a damn world!" Caslo spat.

"What is this place that's worth the Second Son Mercenary Group coming to? I just counted at least a hundred mercenary corpses!" Caslo scratched his head, utterly bewildered, staring at the village ahead. He and Weiss set up their tent upstream, away from the village, at a water source. After all, he couldn't possibly take Weiss into a village littered with corpses. Although he wasn't afraid of the plague, it would be fatal for Weiss, a newly initiated apprentice knight, to get infected! Not to mention that these diseases were fueled by the dragon power of a demonic dragon!
"Yeah, I can understand orcs and mercenaries, but what's this dragon doing getting involved?" Kaldo was incredibly confused; this inexplicable fellow human brought him endless bewilderment.

"A dragon...a dragon? Good heavens! No way? They've got their eyes on a dragon?" Caslo uttered this seemingly absurd conclusion, because the orc corpses only had traces of magic and external wounds caused by the mercenaries' weapons. In other words, the unknown dragon hadn't attacked the orcs. For a dragon, facing a group of ants was naturally insignificant, unless these ants had some connection to them.

"I wonder if this dragon has been tamed or allied with the orcs!" Caslo took a deep breath and said with some horror. After all, they were facing the Dark Alliance, which had once allied with the evil dragons. The elves had survived, so there was no reason for those dragons, who lived longer than the elves, to die in their sleep! If it was just an alliance, that would be better, since it was perfectly normal for the Dark Alliance to have evil dragons. But what if it was a tamed dragon with a contract...? Caslo really couldn't imagine what an orc dragon warrior would look like.

"I guess so! Those mercenaries must have wanted to slay the dragon!" Kaldo sighed. Judging from the corpses at the scene, the mercenaries' equipment was quite luxurious. After all, they were all descendants of noble families and had some extra wealth. However, their equipment was hardly better than paper when facing the dragon's attack.

"It was probably the orcs who first sneaked into the village and assassinated the outermost residents, and then they were discovered by the mercenary group. They fought a great battle... The orcs were no match for them and were driven out of the village..." Caslo reconstructed the scene based on the condition of the corpses at the scene.

“Some of the escaped orcs were chased and killed by mercenaries outside the village, and then they encountered dragon breath falling from the sky…” Caslo frowned as he looked at the village, which was almost reduced to ruins.

“That’s quite possible. After all, that mercenary group always wants something, and slaying a dragon is a good target!” Kaldo agreed with Caslo’s analysis.

"You think it's really about slaying dragons? The most precious thing about dragons isn't their corpses!" Caslo's expression shifted several times.

"Huh? You mean dragons..." Kaldor's dragon eyes widened in surprise at Caslo's guess. Had those mercenaries gone mad? How could they possibly withstand a raging dragon?
"I just don't know if they succeeded. Since ancient times, wealth has been a powerful motivator! People will die for money, just as birds will die for food! These second sons who want to rise above others and become nobles will not let go of any possible opportunity!" Caslo shook his head. Kaldo understands human nature but cannot see into people's hearts!
I fell asleep last night and forgot to post it...