Dragons begin with courage

But the warning came too late.

Samson's massive, tooth-filled maw suddenly opened, and deep within his throat, a point of intensely compressed, white light, brighter than the sun, instantly expanded—

boom!!!!!!

That wasn't a fireball, it was a torrent! A pure, incandescent breath of flame composed of destructive energy! It erupted at supersonic speed, distorting and blurring the very space it passed through! The bronze ground directly struck didn't melt, but instantly vaporized, leaving behind a bottomless chasm with dark red molten metal flowing along its edges!

Pacino, who was running at the very front and closest to Samson, didn't even have time to make any effective evasive maneuvers. Faced with absolute power and speed, a B+ class reaction was like something out of slow motion.

"President...save..." His last words were drowned out by the deafening explosions and burning sounds. Caesar only saw Pacino's figure disappear the instant he came into contact with the incandescent torrent, like pencil marks erased by an eraser—diving suit, flesh, bones, all human matter was instantly decomposed and vaporized under the high temperature of tens of thousands of degrees. There were no screams, no remains, not even a wisp of smoke remained. He was completely and cleanly "deleted" from the world.

A terrifying, fiery breath grazed Caesar and the others' noses, the scorching air sending them flying, crashing into the bronze spirits behind them, before they tumbled to the ground in a sorry state. Everyone felt a burning pain on their skin, and the air they inhaled was as hot as knives.

silence.

A deathly silence fell, broken only by the sizzling of the flames burning the bronze and the heavy, terrified breathing of the crowd.

A companion, right before their eyes, vanished in such an absolute and cruel way...

Despair, like the coldest venom, instantly filled everyone's hearts. Ahead lay the insurmountable Dragon Servants and Lord Flame, behind them the silently approaching Undead Legion, and to their sides stood the impregnable Bronze Cliff.

In a truly desperate situation, there is no room for luck.

However, dragons show no mercy and show no mercy in their slaughter. In the instant everyone was stunned by Pacino's "disappearance," Samson's massive body once again glowed with a terrifying red light, the surrounding air distorting wildly under the intense heat! Its molten gold-like vertical pupils had already locked onto its next target—Nono, who had just risen from the ground, her red hair disheveled. Destructive white light once more coalesced in its throat!

boom--!

A crisp, abrupt, and sharp cry, completely different from a dragon's roar, pierced the stagnant, deathly air!

A dark red streak, almost invisible to the naked eye, pierced Samson's neck, which was slightly damaged by the backlash of the King's Flame and whose scales were somewhat fragile, with a ballistic speed that defied common sense!

"Whoa—!!!"

Samson let out a deafening roar, a mixture of excruciating pain and fury! The bullet did not explode, but the dark red energy it contained, like a living venomous snake, instantly burrowed into the dragon servant's incredibly tough flesh and spiritual network, and began to frantically erode, peel away, and disintegrate its immense life force and the spiritual barrier unique to dragons!

Samson's mountain-like body suddenly lost its balance and crashed heavily onto the bronze floor, sending sparks and dust flying everywhere. It frantically tore at the wounded area with its claws, not hesitating to rip off large chunks of flesh and skin. The radiance of the royal flame flickered uncertainly in its throat before finally dissipating unwillingly.

"The Philosopher's Stone?!" Caesar's pupils constricted as he recognized the legendary warhead. The Fifth Element, a crystallized spiritual substance, theoretically the only weapon capable of posing a fatal threat to a Dragon King-level being. But clearly, this strike was insufficient to kill Samson at his peak, though it was enough to create a precious, fleeting opening.

"This way! Quickly!"

Not far away, Mai Shude's cold voice rang out. She knelt on one knee in the shadow of a bronze structure, the muzzle of her uniquely shaped, long-barreled sniper rifle still shimmering with subtle energy ripples. Her face showed no trace of the warmth of a "rescue," only the precision and calmness of someone executing a mission.

Immediately afterwards, she pulled a slender vacuum crystal tube from the equipment bag on her side, inside which rippled an eerie, dark golden liquid thicker than blood—it was extremely pure dragon serum, possibly even mixed with the blood of the "key"! Without hesitation, she smashed the crystal tube against the bronze wall that everyone had thought was a dead end!

Clap!

The crystal tube shattered, and dark gold liquid splattered onto the bronze surface.

An incredible scene unfolded: the thick, flawless bronze wall, as if corroded by strong acid or turned by an invisible key, rapidly melted and collapsed, revealing an irregularly shaped hole large enough for several people to pass through! Outside the hole, the eerie, still waters of the Nibelungen region were no longer present, but rather a surging, turbid river carrying silt! It was the real Yangtze River!

"exit!"

"We can go out now!"

The instinct for survival overwhelmed everything. The bounty hunters under the command of Shude Mai reacted the fastest, like trapped beasts that had caught a glimmer of hope, rushing towards the water cave and disappearing into the surging river.

"Everyone, evacuate immediately!" Caesar suppressed his turbulent emotions and doubts, and decisively gave the order. This was the only chance.

Ye Sheng pulled up Jiu Deya Ji, and Zero slid towards the cave entrance like a ghost. Caesar provided cover for the flanks.

Nono, however, fell behind, her brain processing a massive amount of fragmented information at an unprecedented speed.

"How strange." Nono was full of doubts. With her profiling ability and extremely high intelligence, Nono felt a strange feeling that she couldn't quite put her finger on. She felt like she was being pushed around, like she was on a chessboard, but she didn't know where this strange feeling came from. She just felt very strange!

"Where exactly did things go wrong? Where exactly is it...?" Nono clenched her fists and gritted her teeth; this feeling made her very unhappy.

Nono glanced back, not at Samson, but at Norton, the King of Bronze and Fire, who stood silently before the house.

Nono thought to herself, "Why did the King of Bronze and Fire suddenly resurrect? Why does he seem to have amnesia? Why is he in human form? What does it mean when he says he's not human? And what about Shude Mai and the others? Are they really here to stop us from planting the bomb? Why did they save me just now...? And," Nono stared at Norton in the distance, muttering to herself, "Why does Norton look like such a loser..."

How could a king, the supreme Dragon King, possibly look like a loser? Yet, at this very moment, this supreme king's eyes seemed to hold the same look as Lu Mingfei's, his face etched with misery. Beneath his supreme majesty lay an unfathomable loneliness.

Clang!

It was as if an electric current pierced through the fog in my mind! All the clues connected instantly!

"It's Lu Mingfei... I remember now, Ronald Tang, the guy in Lu Mingfei's profile who often plays StarCraft with him!"