Ancient Dragon in Arknights

However, this kind of stimulation is still a significant blow to Azure Star, which values ​​its partners.

Chapter 145 New World - Dragon Transformation

"damn it!"

As one of the hunters' pillars of support, Azure Star is not only extremely efficient at completing missions, but also very restrained in her words and actions.

Everyone on the investigation team respectfully addressed her as Lady Star, but she was never arrogant, which was one of the reasons why she was so popular.

But now, even she has to swear. Nesario once again traded his life for hers; thanks to him, the legend of Azure Star continues, and she escapes death again, but the heaviness in her heart deepens once more.

After she finished cursing, she immediately got up and moved. The thunderous power contained in the Qilin Twin Blades began to surge rapidly. It had fought countless battles with Azure Star and had long established a deep connection with its master. At this moment, Azure Star's emotions affected its weapons.

But the azure dragon, having landed a successful blow, seemed to have no intention of continuing the pursuit. It had already shown earlier that it did not harbor much hostility toward humans; its only aversion was to Neltharion, the half-human, half-dragon freak.

At this moment, the freak had completely dissolved under the high temperature; while the tiny human was no longer a concern for it.

Its control over its body has increased even more, and its originally weak and powerless wings have become strong and resilient under the nourishment of energy—the Sky-Covering Wings open and flap, and countless blue energy beams and rays fall from the wings, making it seem as if it has truly become a burning sun, flying continuously towards the top of the cave.

"They've already mastered flight... No, we must stop them."

After Neltharion disconnected, the winds in the cave gradually went out of control. They were no longer the support of the Azure Star, so they naturally wouldn't carry her straight up into the sky. She could only revert to the hunter's original methods, continuously firing flashbangs and projectiles at the increasingly distant azure dragon.

But this creature was naturally accustomed to bright light. The flash exploded in front of it, but the flying dragon was not affected in the slightest.

"*Hunter slang*!"

Azure Star slammed the stone in her hand to the ground, feeling utterly defeated—she had boasted beforehand, but her teammates had been killed and the target she was hunting had escaped, resulting in a complete loss.

Azure Star was deeply worried. Her and Neltharion's lives seemed utterly insignificant in the face of the emergence of the azure dragon—this dragon seemed to be chosen by heaven, its body a culmination of the energy accumulated from the deaths of countless ancient dragons. Once it truly matured and reached adulthood, it would be a catastrophe for the entire world!

The only chance was now—to kill it while it had just hatched and was incredibly weak. That was the only chance to defeat it. But now, it seemed that opportunity had been missed...

"It can't end like this! We have to catch up; Nesario's sacrifice cannot be wasted."

The legendary hunter's resolve was unwavering; after a brief moment of sorrow, boundless fighting spirit surged—so what if it can fly? The number of dragons defeated by Azure Star could stretch from the Ancient Forest all the way to the Wildspire Waste. Even this exceptionally large one could be brought down!

Just as Azure Star was filled with frustration and preparing to find a way out of the predicament, what was Neltharion doing?

When he was hit by the burst of ley line energy, he felt most of his body melt away. If it weren't for the fact that his hybrid body of Kushala Daora and Nergigante was tough enough, he might have been completely vaporized.

With such severe injuries, even if he didn't die immediately, he had no hope of recovery. The Nergigante's regeneration requires time and energy, and clearly, both are currently severely lacking.

Nesario quietly awaited his death, feeling quite guilty.

That unique dragon was clearly a special individual; even though it had just been born, its combat power was already considerable. Now, its mastery of its own power had reached a new level, and all the pressure rested on the shoulders of Azure Star alone.

'I'm sorry...'

Neltharion has given up, but if fate can favor the Netherworld Dragon, it can certainly favor him as well.

The ley lines breached by the attack were not yet fully closed—and the heavily wounded Neltharion was falling straight into the depths of the ley lines.

The energy flowing between the ley lines is the life energy of the entire New World, and its concentration is incomparable to that of one or two ancient dragons—even the legendary forbidden beings could not condense such abundant energy.

Nesario's injured body recovered rapidly under the influence of abundant energy—his charred organs and skin healed quickly, and his condition was improving.

But after his body was repaired, the surrounding energy did not decrease at all—like water flowing downhill, abundant energy continued to surge towards Neltharion, the point of consumption.

Anything can become unimaginable once it gets out of control—Neltharion's body rapidly expanded under the constant influx of energy, his skin constantly bursting, repairing, bursting again... Eventually, Nergigante's genes began to run rampant and out of control.

If someone is lucky enough to survive in the ley lines, they will witness an unbelievable scene—a human being becomes a bloody mess under the constant impact of the ley line energy, but then quickly recovers, only to have the newly formed flesh become twisted and swollen.

Ultimately, through constant damage and repair, Nesario has completely transformed from "he" into "it".

'Where am I? I'm still not awake? Could it be...?'

Neltharion felt as if he were being immersed in boiling water, and he suspected that he had fallen directly into underground lava. Indeed, there was abundant lava beneath the Elder Dragon's Recess.

'Was it the skeleton of the Steel Dragon that saved my life? Since I'm not dead... I'll try to escape!'

Neltharion began waving his hands, trying to swim upwards—a strong sense of air being torn apart came over him, and as the distance increased, the G-force on his body continued to rise; Neltharion felt a little uneasy, was this speed too fast? Was his physical strength really that great?

After climbing for a while, Neltharion finally saw the exit of the "sea"—a broken hole, beyond which lay the Dragon Crystal Cave, radiating white light.

"Azure Star! I'm back!"

Neltharion loudly announced his return, then flew out of the cave at incredible speed—accompanied by the earth-shattering roar of a dragon.

"?"

Azure Star, my throat! ? .jpg

"Nergigante?! Why is it here... This makes things even more troublesome!"

Nesario's vision was extremely sharp at that moment—it spotted Azure Star climbing up the straight wall in an instant, but Azure Star's attitude towards him was not exactly friendly.

This was the first time he had ever seen such sharp hostility in the eyes of Azure Star.

Click!

"!"

Distracted by the unexpected enemy, Azure Star's movements became more exaggerated, causing the grappling hook above her to snap instantly—she was about to fall from mid-air!

Chapter 146 Dragon Knight!

"Roar!"

Seeing the Azure Star plummeting towards the ground, the "Nergigante" roared and then folded its wings, crashing into the wall.

There's no escaping it!

Even the highly skilled Azure Star couldn't quickly reposition herself to dodge Nergigante's attack during her fall. She cursed her bad luck under her breath and then closed her eyes in despair.

But the expected devastating blow didn't come. Instead, there was a huge impact and tearing sound—and the hard, thorny cushion behind me.

Opening her eyes, Azure Star witnessed the most bizarre and outlandish scene of her entire hunter career—Nergigante had caught her! At that moment, the pitch-black ancient dragon used its claws to firmly anchor itself in the crystal wall, and even freed one claw to catch Azure Star... She even saw a hint of mockery in its eyes.

Initially, the distance was too great, and only a general outline and color could be seen with the naked eye. Now that the distance is so close, Azure Star can finally see the specific details.

While this "Nergigante" shares most of the characteristics with Nergigante, it also has several features that are seriously different from Nergigante—double-folded, interlocking sharp steel claws, an excessively long, thick, and sharp tail, and its spines are not the grayish-white of keratin but instead shimmer with a metallic sheen, and behind its large black horn are two pairs of smaller secondary horns... It's like a peculiar Frankenstein's monster.

Even more coincidentally, Azure Star knows such a Frankenstein's monster.

"Nesario?"

Azure Star herself didn't know why she thought that way. This was a complete ancient dragon, but... she had a gut feeling that this guy was Neltharion.

"(nod)."

Upon hearing the call of Azure Star, the ancient dragon in front of him actually nodded in an extremely human-like manner, his eyes revealing a sense of "teachable" approval.

"Damn it! Is it fun to scare me?!"

Upon receiving the response, Azure Star could hardly believe it, followed by an overwhelming surge of excitement and exhilaration.

She slammed the hilts of her twin swords into Nesario's claws, simultaneously expressing her anger; his shout had quite frightened Azure Star.

"Roar..."

Nesario didn't waste any time on small talk. He made a soft sound in his throat, then looked around—the meaning was clear: "Where did that big guy go?"

"That ancient dragon has mastered the skill of flight, and it's flying upwards. We have to stop it; this is our last chance!"

"Roar!"

The terrifying-looking ancient dragon gently placed the little figure in its hand on its head—although it was covered with many black thorns, one could still stand in the gaps; Azure Star quickly adjusted her posture and casually placed her hands on the two black horns.

The ancient dragon knight of the new continent is born!

Realizing she was flying on an ancient dragon, Azure Star felt as if a switch had been flipped in her heart. She even felt her legs go weak and her hands kept stroking the huge black horns on either side of her.

If only there were a mirror right now, then—Azure Star could see the infatuated smile on her face. (Refer to Hange's expression when she first boarded the Titan in The Retreating Dwarves.jpg)

Knowing the target's location, Nergigante ripped its claws out of the wall, causing the previously unbreakable crystal to shatter instantly.

The next moment—a black curtain of light opened, and with a burst of air currents, a black dragon charged towards the sky.

......

The wings of the Netherworld Dragon continued to burn because it was constantly increasing the output of its wings in order to fly out of this deep pit. Since the sublimation process had been interrupted, there was no other way but to find a new place to continue absorbing energy, adapting to its body, and trying to develop into a mature form.

This process varies depending on the availability of energy, so the three pairs of luminous organs on the dragon's head of the genie lamp constantly flash—it is searching for new ley line nodes.

"Roar--!"

A chilling roar filled with murderous intent came from behind. Before the Netherworld Dragon could even confirm the other party's figure, it was quickly overtaken by the Netherworld Dragon in the whirlwind—like a black storm.

Coming to its senses, the Netherworld Dragon saw a "little dragon" less than half its size hanging high in its path; the aura emanating from the creature made the Netherworld Dragon feel physically uncomfortable, as if it had encountered a natural enemy.

While it wasn't enough to warrant a hasty retreat, the feeling of unease was still quite unpleasant.

A threatening growl began to emanate from the throat of the Xeno'jiiva, but the smaller dragon above seemed not to hear it.

It looked the Netherworld Dragon up and down repeatedly, its gaze eventually settling on its wings.

"Roar!"

As if it had confirmed something, it began to make up its mind to launch an attack.

It took off again for a distance, then its muscles tensed up—black metallic spikes began to grow rapidly on its raised right claw.

At the same time, the Netherworld Dragon also felt a strong sense of crisis, but it was not yet proficient in flying and was too big, so it could not dodge - a thick white laser beam shot out from its mouth, using offense as defense!

The black dragon began to swoop down, easily dodging the oncoming laser beams with a few agile rolls, changes of direction, and sudden stops.

Finally, [Thorn-Breaking Annihilation Spin - Heaven] accurately struck the head of the Xeno'jiiva. But this was not the end; Neltharion quickly pursued.

The fully evolved forms of Iron Crush and Steel Slicer Tail are no longer the small, cute things they used to be!

"Nergigante" swiftly extended its claws—the folded composite steel claws sprang out rapidly, slashing and swinging together, easily tearing one of the Xeno'jiiva's wing membranes to shreds; then came an aerial version of a giant spin—the surging flames and massive slashes surpassed those of a young Nergigante, leaving a wound tens of meters long on its huge, dark blue body.

The Xeno'jiiva, which was not good at flying to begin with, could no longer withstand this combination of blows—it staggered and plummeted towards the crystalline rock layer below.

Has Neltharion's attack ended? No—there's still one more move to unleash.

"hiss------"

The air seemed to be sucked out by a giant bellows, emitting a sharp whistling sound. All the airflow in this space was sucked into Neltharion's mouth, and under the manipulation of the Steel Dragon's power, the originally gentle airflow was quickly compressed and became violent.

Finally, a whirlwind breath capable of shattering the ground flew towards the crashed Xeno'jiiva.

boom!