I Alone Regress in a Hero Party That Was Annihilated - Chapter 46

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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#46. Mountain Lord (3)

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There is a limit to the inhalation and exhalation that living beings can produce.

The world calls this lung capacity.

[Gruk!?]

Ice Dragon Adara had just reached the limit of that lung capacity.

The moment the Frost Breath bursting from her maw stopped, Adara was caught up in the avalanche.

Nature’s violent rampage swept away even the massive ice dragon’s body like a rotten piece of wood.

…Kwakwakwakwakwa-BANG!

The avalanche that engulfed Ice Dragon Adara came rushing all the way into Beauvoir Mine.

The ice dragon struggled with all her might to escape from the avalanche.

[Kraaaaaak—!]

Adara roared fiercely.

How had things come to this?

She had never faced such a crisis in the past hundred years.

Around her were only insignificant creatures like Ice Lizards and Sasquatch, and there were no Pureblooded Ice Dragons to be seen that could threaten her.

Despite being at the edge of the Great Mountain Range, it was a secret place where the energy veins of the main mountain flowed, so her growth had been smooth.

Her strength grew rapidly day by day, and her size became several times larger than before.

She had even gained a level of mana that transcended the innate limitations of a Lesser Dragon.

At this rate, she would have gained power comparable to the Pureblooded Dragon Clan within decades.

…Of course, there had been some troublesome incidents along the way.

Miscellaneous humans who seemed to have originally lived on this mountain.

They were making noisy sounds while digging the ground to extract black stone chunks.

Ice Dragon Adara had completely driven out the humans who had been living on that land from the beginning.

Whenever humans gathered, she would visit them day and night to kill and trample them all.

Whether old or young, she tore them all apart equally, so eventually they all retreated at some point and no longer appeared.

Ice Dragon Adara snorted with derision.

Weak creatures occupying good land deserved such treatment.

Good land should rightfully be occupied by strong ones like herself.

After that, Adara settled deep beneath the mountain and began absorbing mountain energy in earnest.

Another few decades passed like that.

While absorbing pure energy flowing beneath the mountain as usual, an incident occurred.

Someone began severing the energy veins of the Mörso Mountain Range one by one.

The pure energy that had been pouring in abundantly even while staying still began to cut off drop by drop, and her growth came to a complete halt.

Ice Dragon Adara was enraged.

What could have disturbed its rest?

Hot-blooded young Yate or Sasquatch perhaps?

Or maybe an old lizard that didn’t know its place, challenging a dragon?

If not that, then had some purebred crawled in from somewhere?

…But whoever it was didn’t matter.

This honeypot of a land could never be taken away.

Even if the opponent was another dragon, even a purebred superior species, there could be no retreat.

It would somehow tear apart and kill the insolent intruder.

It would protect its land at all costs.

Ice Dragon Adara thought so.

…However.

The intruder it encountered as soon as it emerged from the cave wasn’t as strong an opponent as expected.

A small child with white hair.

It was even a specimen of the inferior human species it had massacred en masse less than half a century ago.

Ice Dragon Adara couldn’t help but feel bewildered.

Was it saying that this mere small creature had challenged it by severing the mountain’s energy veins?

In the first place, it couldn’t understand how the mountain’s energy had been severed.

But there was no need to think deeply about the situation.

It was fortunate if the enemy was weak.

The awakened Mountain Lord intended to quickly stomp this small intruder to death and return.

However, the situation unfolded differently than expected.

The small attacker had white hair and white skin that blended indistinguishably with the color of the snowy field.

And with the white sharp object in its hand, it kept stabbing around the heel and ankle areas.

Ice Dragon Adara tried to find the enemy by smell, but strangely, chunks of meat emitting intense foul odors were scattered everywhere, making it quite difficult to distinguish.

Meanwhile, the wounds on its feet only continued to increase.

Adara could soon sense it intuitively.

The enemy before its eyes was not an ordinary human species.

Though its appearance might seem ordinary, even small and frail, it harbored unprecedented ominousness within.

The Ice Dragon’s instinct whispered.

It must not confront that human.

It was like a swamp with only a narrow entrance but no bottom—the moment one took even a single step, it would become uncontrollable.

…Should it leave?

Adara thought so for a moment.

But soon Adara changed its mind.

It dismissed the instinct’s warning.

It judged that there could be no human capable of instilling fear in the Dragon Clan.

This was the result of combining the immense power accumulated over the years, the arrogant nature unique to the Dragon Clan, and the experience of easily massacring the humans at Beauvoir Mine long ago.

Ice Dragon Adara continued to fight the enemy.

Believing without doubt that if it kept pushing forward like this, it would eventually be able to tear that small enemy to pieces.

…And that was a mistake, a very fatal mistake at that.

As a result of continuing to fight, Ice Dragon Adara was currently caught in an avalanche and being swept down deep into the mine.

[Kraaaaaaak!]

The dragon thrashed about.

Savagely and ferociously with its broken teeth and cracked claws.

Kwadrrrrrrrk!

Rocks, eternal snow, and pieces of wood in the avalanche scraped against its scales.

Small wounds were gradually accumulating on the hard dragon scales.

[Krwoooooooo!]

But Ice Dragon Adara endured all of this.

The avalanche would stop soon.

When that happened, it would dig through these obstacles and emerge to take revenge on its enemy.

Adara thought so.

Whooom!

At least until it was thrown onto the cliff inside the abandoned mine.

[!?]

It was so shocked that it couldn’t even scream.

The moment Ice Dragon Adara thought it had escaped from the avalanche’s grasp, it had to face the magma bubbling below the cliff.

A lava stream flowing with the mountain’s energy vein, a pond where all kinds of minerals were melting and bubbling, opened its mouth wide toward Ice Dragon Adara.

This was the source of heat that had been flowing beneath Beauvoir Abandoned Mine since long ago, a place that had been excavated by humans and revealed to the ground surface.

In other words, it was a furnace of molten metal that the miners from half a century ago had excavated by dedicating their blood and souls.

[Kraaaaaaaak—!]

Finally, the dragon’s body was thrown into the middle of the lava.

Splash—! Hissssss—!

Extreme burning pain constricted its entire body.

Its scales melted away, its muscles twisted, and its entrails began to cook.

Lava is originally a substance formed when rock melts due to extreme heat, so it was inevitably extremely hot and heavy.

The Ice Dragon struggled frantically, but there was nothing it could do about the lava that wrapped around its entire body heavily and stickily, constricting it.

Gulp— gulp— gulp— gulp—

Heavy and viscous lava rushed not only into its mouth but down its throat and into its belly.

All its internal organs were being cooked and burned, even boring holes through the inside of its belly hide.

…Crack!

Ice Dragon Adara drove its nearly broken claws into the cliff and desperately pulled its body upward.

…Crack! …Crack!

The cliff where it had driven its claws shook unstably, but there was no choice.

It had to climb up somehow.

Only then could it avoid melting away in that lava.

…Crack! …Crack! …Crack!

Adara crawled up the cliff with its battered body.

It looked no different from the geckos it had always despised.

[Grrrrrrrr…]

Adara exhaled a breath mixed with rage and inferiority.

If only it had wings, the mark of pure blood, it could soar up with one great sweep.

It wouldn’t have to struggle so desperately on the ground like this.

But yearning for what one doesn’t have only makes reality more miserable, it doesn’t make it better.

Ice Dragon Adara crawled up to the middle of the cliff with its teeth clenched until they nearly shattered.

Having lived crawling on the ground its whole life, it was accustomed to climbing cliffs.

Adara tried to climb up onto the cliff.

Just as it was about to extend one arm onto the ground above.

Whoooooosh—

Some tremendous force pushed Ice Dragon Adara’s body back down the cliff again.

[Gruk!?]

Adara confirmed the identity of what had pushed it.

Snow and ice that had rushed down from above.

It was a second and third wave avalanche.

Ice Dragon Adara was slammed back into the lava pit once again.

However, this time Adara wasn’t the only thing that fell.

House-sized ice chunks swept up in the avalanche also fell into the lava pool together.

The moment the massive and heavy ice blocks in solid form touched the lava.

Kwa-BOOM!

The solid skipped the intermediate liquid stage and transformed directly into gas.

A terrifying explosion occurred.

Massive icebergs burst forth from the lava with tremendous force, spewing out enormous amounts of steam.

Kwakwakwakwakwakwakwakwakwakwakwakwakwakwakwang! Rumble!

Chain explosions that shook the entire cavern.

It was as if a giant had pulled up an entire mountain and was shaking it violently in all directions.

Ice Dragon Adara was at the center of that violent upheaval.

Kwakwakwang! Perpung! Kururururuk! Bubble bubble bubble bubble…

The dragon’s death cry became indistinguishable, buried beneath the explosive sounds.

Flash! Rumble! Bang!

The entire mine was collapsing.

* * *

“…We’ll have to dig the mine again.”

Featherback clicked his tongue as he watched the collapsing Beauvoir Abandoned Mine.

The explosive force was much stronger than expected, but it didn’t matter.

This place received its designation as a Human Survival Impossible Zone because of Ice Dragon Adara’s existence, not because it was difficult to dig mines.

As long as the Ice Dragon was eliminated, they could dig new mines and conduct mining operations as much as they wanted.

“Next time, I should bring professional miners instead of prisoners. Should I call Rorschach and have him consider tax benefits to give to immigrants?”

While Featherback was making development plans for Meursault Mountain.

Kwa-bang!

A small explosion occurred in the collapsed abandoned mine zone.

[Kururuk… Grururuk…]

Ice Dragon Adara was still alive.

It crawled out through the debris of the abandoned mine with staggering steps.

Naturally, its body was completely battered.

The explosion created when the avalanche and lava met had torn the dragon’s majesty and fortress to shreds.

The scales on its body were as miserable as broken mirrors, and only a few remained.

One eyeball had burst and was dripping down, and bones and entrails were clearly visible on its side.

Its tail was no longer a whip that struck down the snow field monsters.

It was broken into pieces and tattered, looking like long stretched-out rags.

Sizzle sizzle sizzle sizzle sizzle…

The embers attached to its body had not yet been extinguished.

Like a frozen sea melting and creating endless waves of chaos, Ice Dragon Adara’s body was constantly collapsing.

[Hiss- Hiss- Hiss-]

A sharp metallic sound came from its lungs, pierced by broken ribs.

When Ice Dragon Adara emerged onto the snowy field with staggering steps.

“Excellent.”

Featherback greeted him.

“Defense and vitality rivaling that of a Holy Dragon. Especially those scales on the lower jaw and the fangs inside are quite sturdy.”

Ice Dragon Adara and Featherback stood facing each other in the middle of the Snowy Field.

“The teeth would be perfect for swords, and the scales for shields.”

[Grrrrrrrr—]

Though they were different species, the thoughts they harbored toward each other were exactly the same.

It was a truly vicious killing intent.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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