Red Dragon Emperor

Underdark.

Jose stood in front of the entrance of a huge slanted downward passage, looking at the entrance of the black hole with both eyes, and the lava-like dragon pupils looked like two burning flames in the darkness.

Beside the huge red dragon, the lord of the gray dwarves, Moraine Steelbeard, is as small as a wooden pier standing next to a large truck. He is wrapped in steel, leaving only two eyes and nostrils outside. Manshi's sledgehammer was bigger than himself, and he was filled with the aura of a strong man.

A pile of steel cans stood behind each of them, with dwarves on one side, kobolds on the other, and some light-packed ogres and gnolls at the end.

At this time, it has been a day since Moraine Steelbeard sent an envoy to visit the Red Dragon. Just as the Red Dragon thought, the gray dwarves had no choice. Steelbeard Castle and Red Castle quickly signed an offensive and defensive alliance contract, so The red dragon appeared here to help the gray dwarves solve their troubles.

The red dragon stepped its head slightly into the crypt, sniffed, and discerned the odor molecules in the air. There are many information hidden in the odor molecules: the faint smell of sweat left by the dwarf miners, the stench of rotting corpses, and the unspeakable Rancid taste.

"Emmm..., a familiar taste," the red dragon closed his eyes, and a name that he had almost forgotten appeared in his mind-Termode's spider.

He recalled in his mind the scene when he led troops to attack the large drow elf city-state of Black Bone City. When he was about to win a complete victory, the drow priest of Black Bone City summoned a legendary Termod Devil spider.

The Termode spider caused him a lot of trouble at the beginning, dragged his hands and feet, and almost caused the Forsey Kingdom to lose the war.

The thoughts in Jose's mind were like electricity, combining the information provided by the gray dwarf lord-Molaine and the odor molecules in the air, he was almost sure that the legendary spider that came out of the deep dark area was the Temod spider, but it wasn't him at the beginning. The one you met, you have to wait until you meet to know the answer.

The light and darkness in his eyes were uncertain, and he turned to Moraine Steelbeard who was aside: "Your Excellency Moraine, you can send someone in."

"As you wish."

After finishing speaking, Moraine Steelbeard waved back and called some dwarves. These dwarves were not wrapped in iron cans like their kin. They were wearing leather armor, with daggers in their belts, and hand crossbows hanging behind their belts. They were The elite scouts of Fort Steelbeard are responsible for scouting the way forward.

"Enter the Blackstone Mine as planned!"

"Obey! Your lord!"

The dwarf scouts accepted the order with a solemn face, and then under the leadership of the captain, they bypassed the red dragon and their own lord, and filed in from the entrance of the Blackstone Mine.

The dwarf team was about to sink into the mine, and Jose turned to Soda Bloodtooth. Under the command of the Red Dragon, the legendary orc Graham Stonehammer was the best at fighting, and Hogg was the most capable leader. Both of them had important things to do and couldn't get away, so he brought the slightly inferior Soda Bloodtooth as the commander of this operation.

The red dragon nodded slightly to Soda Bloodtooth, the garrison officer and kobold chieftain of Oka City understood, and waved forward, a mixed team of kobolds and gnolls ran from behind, followed the dwarves into the mine Hole.

They are the regular army scouts of Forsythe Kingdom. There are twenty-five of them in number. Among them, the Jackals are the elite recruited from Hogg who guards Darkmoon City. They are all veterans who have experienced many wars.

The scouts of the Fersai Kingdom are as well-equipped as the dwarves. They all have professional level and have received professional scouting training. To deal with the gray dwarf scouts, it is no problem to fight two scouts with one.

Taking advantage of the gap between the scouts' investigation, Jose said to the gray dwarf lord at the side - Moraine Steelbeard: "Your Majesty Moraine, please tell me in detail how you met the Temod spider."

Moraine Steelbeard glanced at the red dragon beside him, and fear flashed in the depths of his pupils. In name, Steelbeard Castle and Forsyth Kingdom were equal allies, but he knew in his heart that the strength between the two sides was Completely unequal, just one red dragon and one dragon can destroy one's own Steelbeard Fort.

Therefore, when facing the red dragon, he lacked confidence,

Appears cautious.

The gray dwarf lord lowered his head and said: "Half a month ago, the manager of the Blackstone Mine hurriedly came to report to me that they dug through the mine veins and dug out a dark area. I attached great importance to this at that time. If there is something wrong, immediately lead the guards to the passage to investigate."

He paused, sighed, and continued: "At this time, it's also my fault for being too greedy. I didn't plug the loophole immediately. I was thinking about exploring the Underdark to see if I could find some minerals useful for Steelbeard Castle. I didn’t find it, but I did find the Termode Demon Spider.”

"It was a forest full of spider webs. When I saw the forest, I had a bad feeling in my heart and ordered to retreat, but it was a step too late. We alerted the owner of the forest, and countless spiders rushed out of the forest. When I came out, they were everywhere, and I took my subordinates to kill them, but I met the Temod spider."

Speaking of this, Moraine stopped to take a deep breath, adjusted his mentality and continued: "The Natmod spider is too scary, the speed is too fast, it uses the spider silk to play with me in the air, I can't even Approaching it, I escaped with great difficulty, and used my last strength to blow up the passage of the mine, and ordered the Blackstone Mine to be abandoned. I thought it was over like this, who knows...who knows..."

"Who knew that the spiders dug through the mine and occupied the entire mine. We didn't discover their existence until they ran out of the mine and attacked the village. There is no way. Steelbeard Castle is the home we depend on for survival. I had no choice but to organize soldiers to clean up the spiders, but we couldn’t fight them, the Natmod spider shrunk in size with magic, and I lost, even worse than before.”

"Your Majesty Jose will know what happened later."

Jose squeezed his chin, analyzing the words of the gray dwarf lord in his mind: "You mean, the Natmod spider has shrunk in size? And you lost the battle in the mine more thoroughly?"

"Yes, originally it was like a hill, but when I met it in the mine, it was only... only as big as the iron furnace we used to forge iron, but I feel that it is stronger, emmm..., maybe not Stronger, but because the terrain is too narrow and I can't dodge effectively."

The red dragon nodded: "No matter what, the Natmod spider has a strong ability to cast spells, otherwise, its size cannot be reduced so many times..."

Jose calculated in his mind, judging the spellcasting ability based on the reduced number, he judged that the magic spider's spellcasting ability was stronger than that of ordinary legendary extraordinary beasts, but it was not as strong as the legendary Mages.

"Can handle it."

"..."

Time passed little by little during the conversation, and an hour later, the scout in charge of exploring the path sent two people back to deliver the message.

The kobold scout knelt in front of the red dragon on one knee: "Your Majesty, after we entered the mine, we found some spiders, but there were not many spiders, and they were not strong."

"Huh?!" Jose looked at the gray dwarf lord beside him, waiting for his explanation. After all, he said that there were a lot of spiders in the mine.

"How is this possible?"

Moraine Steelbeard was surprised, and looked at the duergar scout who came back with the kobold with questioning eyes.

The gray dwarf scout said, "My lord, that's true. Those spiders are gone, and most of the ones left are weak."

At this moment, Moraine Steelbeard was also a little confused. He thought about it and turned to the red dragon aside: "Your Majesty Jose, maybe something happened to the Natmod spider. I definitely did not deceive you."

"I believe you," Jose nodded. He really imagined the words of the gray dwarf lord, because he didn't need to lie to him. After all, the red dragon and his party came to help Steelbeard Castle solve the troubles.

"Perhaps something has happened to the Temod Demon Spider..."

The red dragon bowed his head and thought for a moment, then made a decision in his heart, shrunk down in size, and took the lead to walk towards the mine: "Let's go, since we've come, let's solve the trouble by the way, so as not to make another trip later."

For the Red Dragon's plan to solve the trouble once and for all, Moraine Steelbeard naturally agreed, and he followed suit.

After walking through the mine for a long time, as the scouts reported, there are not many spiders, and their strength is relatively weak. If they wear good armor, even ordinary gray dwarves can defeat these spiders.

Traveling all the way, it didn't take long for Jose and his party to leave the mine and came to a deeper dark area.

Going out from the exit on the rock wall and jumping down a distance of three meters, Jose stood on the ground in the deep dark region, looking around, the ground was shrouded in darkness like a thick fog at dusk.

Compared with the surface dark area, the light here is even dimmer, as if the fluorescent rocks and luminous plants are covered with a layer of gray, and the light is weakened.

But the Red Dragon knew that it wasn't that the light of fluorescent rocks and luminous plants had weakened, but that the energy concentration of dark elements in the deep dark regions had increased.

On the surface of the earth, dark elements account for about 0.3% of the total amount of air elements, and in shallow dark regions, dark elements account for a few percent of the total amount of elements, and here, the proportion of dark elements has reached an astonishing Three percent, ten times higher than the outside world, the enrichment of dark elements has affected the light in the entire dark region.

"Your Majesty Jose, that's the direction," Moraine Steelbeard pointed into the distance, and there was a blurry outline in that direction, which even the red dragon couldn't see clearly because the distance was too far away.

"Let's go, we'll meet the Natmod spider for a while, maybe we're still an old friend."

Led by the red dragon, the group continued to set off, stepping on the characteristic grass in the Underdark region. The grass in the Underdark region is thick and dark green, with jagged edges and burrs. It is estimated that no animals will eat it on the surface.

Gradually, the red dragon and his party got closer and closer to the forest, and Jose was able to see the forest clearly.

As Molini Steelbeard said earlier, this is a terrible forest, with spider webs wrapped around dead tree trunks layer by layer, without a single leaf, even the grass around the forest is full of spider webs, the ground Small spiders crawling around, dense enough to make trypophobia scream.

Jose sniffled, the air was filled with the smell of decay and dust, like an old house that hadn't been cleaned for many years, which made him feel a little unhappy.

With a thought, the spider webs on the Red Dragon Grassland spontaneously ignited without fire, and the fire spread to the surroundings and continued to expand. The fire light tended to the eternal darkness of the dark area, burning away the smell of decay.

"It feels better now," the red dragon muttered to himself, while staring in the direction of the spiderweb forest, he could feel a powerful energy source approaching.

rustle!

The dense rustling sounds, from far to near, became more and more clear.

After a while, everyone saw clearly the owner of the sound - the spider. The spider wave came out of the spider web forest, and they filled every inch of the spider web forest as far as the eye could see, on the ground, on the trunk, and on the top of the tree. , there are slender giant spider legs with burrs everywhere, and the eight eyes shine brightly.

The most terrifying thing is their mouthparts. The mouthparts with fangs open and close, making a low and menacing hiss.

However, unlike the gray dwarf team that was immediately besieged after being discovered, these spiders screamed fiercely, but they had no intention of attacking. Almost all the spiders looked nervously at the red dragon. , The spreading flame breath made them feel very uneasy.

"Battle formation! Ready to fight!"

Due to the unfamiliarity between the two sides and the different fighting styles, the gray dwarves and the people brought by the red dragon formed a battle formation separately.

On the gray dwarf side, these canned dwarves cooperated tacitly to form a shield wall, and sharp spears protruded from the gap between the shield wall, like a hedgehog.

On the Red Dragon side, sword and shield hands formed a circle, protecting archers, mages, priests and other professionals. As the spell sounded, each soldier was blessed with buff magic and buff magic.

Jose didn't need to form a battle formation, nor did the steelbeard lord - Moraine Steelbeard. He held a giant sledgehammer that was out of proportion to his body. Standing beside the red dragon, the light gray of a legendary warrior emerged from his body. The air is deterrent to the spider swarm with its teeth and claws.

Unlike the lord of the gray dwarves, who was ready to fight, Jose's posture was casual, and he even thought about turning on the [data-based vision] to observe the composition and proportion of the spider swarm.

The main force of the spider swarm is middle and low-level extraordinary spiders, and there are relatively few high-level and above spiders. Only 31 master-level spiders were found. You must know that there are at least half a million spiders covering the forest in front of you.

Five hundred thousand extraordinary spiders, plus one legendary-level Termode spider, this power is enough to destroy a medium-sized kingdom if it is on the surface.

The spider swarm was powerful, but Jose was not afraid at all, because long, long ago, the crowd tactics formed by the weak had no effect on him, and just expanding the burning ember domain was enough to prevent spiders below high ranks from getting close.

Even if he doesn't use the Burning Field, if he lies on his stomach and let these spiders bite, the spiders of high level and below can't break through the defense, and the master level spiders are still worth seeing.

The powerful aura approached quickly, and Jose sensed its aura, obviously not the opponent he met in Black Bone City before.