Steel steam and flame

"The airdrop location is thirty or forty kilometers away." After a brief pause, Mishuer listened to the information in the communication and added, "The number is twenty, plus the ground teams coming from all over, it should be It’s enough for us to delay Cassia.”

"Whether it is successful or not depends on the final result of Nicholls before we can make a decision. This will be the only effective basis for us to face our target Cassia later."

"In addition, I would like to trouble Miss Komishur to inform the other three dragon knights on the fleet to prepare for battle. The enemy team's information should be synchronized with Cassia, so the enemy should be one step faster than us." Sasse Er never moved away from the vision connected with the dragon. "In a frontal battle on the ground, judging now, without Mr. Zero and the experimental subject, there is really a certain danger. The speed, strength and flexibility are all top-notch, with the Taking into account the existing intelligence and Cassia’s own rich experience, this is definitely not a battle that can be easily dealt with.”

But Mishul replied in a matter-of-fact tone: "The target is someone who has passed the assessment of knight attendants, and it will definitely be difficult to deal with. In terms of the intensity of competition, you dragon knights will definitely not be able to appreciate it because of your status as someone who came from a military school. All kinds of things that Cassia has experienced. Not only us, but also Cassia, are all excellent candidates stacked up by 'death' from a group of people. In terms of judgments and attitudes towards various things, Captain Sasir , you can indeed learn a lot of useful things from us.”

On the other side, Jeremy, who had already evacuated several thousand meters, received a call from Komishur. He shook his head and sighed: "You shouldn't have come down." Jeremy regretted it. He would never let himself fight Cassia head-on. .

"Don't worry, it's just delaying. No matter what, you'll just follow him." Mishuer comforted her. After seeing the breath that spanned thousands of meters, she felt exactly the same as Jeremy.

"Of course I'm not afraid of procrastination and stalking. What I'm afraid of is that we are following behind the target and suddenly find that the target has stopped moving or disappeared. He either stands there waiting for us to get closer, or suddenly appears in front of us. This is the scary situation. You know how scary the surgeon is in the scaly state. If you rush into the encirclement regardless of the consequences, you can only hope that you are not too close to the target." Take a deep breath. Jeremy calmed down and said, "I will ask someone to take care of the experimental subject team. You and Sasir will observe carefully. If there are special circumstances, remember to notify me at any time. Of course, if you receive an order to retreat, please inform me as soon as possible." transmit signal."

"Troublesome." Jeremy cursed as he put away the communicator, then identified the direction and led the team to the area where the experimental subject was about to land.

,,,,,,

"I heard that this state called 'scaling' is the most top-notch surgical ability in your Saint Dorag Empire. To use it, you not only need talent, but also a huge amount of resources and time. The entire learning process is accompanied by high risks, and the slightest carelessness will cause alienation of the body?" Nichols took a deep breath, twisted his neck, and looked at Cassia, who had withdrawn the revolver.

"That's true. It's one of the top surgical development projects. The difficulty and resources mean that if you want to use it, you must be a person with strong talent." Cassia admitted generously.

"Then do you think I have talent?" Nichols' laughter made Cassia smack her lips, but he continued, "You know, this so-called 'scaling' ability, as a dragon knight , with a little practice, you can master it proficiently. To a certain extent, there is no time limit for us dragon knights to use this state."

"Well... then I have to thank you, respected Dragon Knight. You let me get another good piece of information."

"You're welcome. Anyway, you will disappear forever with this information soon." This time, it was Nichols' turn to wave his hand with a magnanimous look, "As a polite response, I need to give you Time to rest, or give you time to enter the 'scaled' state?"

Cassia shook her head and explained patiently: "Actually, you don't have to worry about me, just be yourself. I am in an indifferent mood, and if I am in the scaly state, I can enter it at any time. The process is very fast. In the blink of an eye, the scales Just cover my whole body. If you look at me like this now... Well, let's put it this way, I have to find a way to give you more time, because if I am in the scaly state, you really can't last very long. Time. We are both in the scaly state, but there is a visible gap in our performance between you and me."

"Whether you have the ability to transform into a scaled state is not the only criterion for judging strength." Cassia's final words were very slow, "In summary, you will not become stronger because of the scaled state, so you can only deal with Without the dragon yourself, this state is completely enough."

The choked laughter was full of anger, and Cassia responded to Nichols's angry laugh with a sincere smile. He told the truth without any lies.

"Yes..." Cassia wanted to say a few more words to get as much information as possible. But the opponent had already jumped up from the dragon's back, jumped thirty-four meters, and landed on the ground with a crash.

"The soil has only sunk a few centimeters, and it seems that the weight does not exceed 300. By analogy, the muscle strength and bone density are only at the upper-middle level, not as good as the surgeon who pushed the bone hardening to the final stage." Cassia still Without moving, "The worry just now is unnecessary. You dragon knights only have a layer of skin in the scaly state. I have no idea why the 'scaling' ability has become one of the top surgical development projects in the empire."

For Nichols, the distance of about five hundred meters was only a breath or two. The high-temperature heat dissipating throughout his body made him feel very comfortable. These were the manifestations of overflowing and dissipating power. The target was getting closer to him, and when he saw that the opponent was still standing on the edge of the bulge, Nichols stopped thinking about it and completely allowed himself to enter a state of high concentration during the battle.

"I think you'd better wait until your dragon has the ability to move before launching an attack." Cassia did not forget to remind him, but looking at the enemy rushing towards him at high speed, he finally sighed.

The black shadow leaped, just as Cassia expected. Nichols didn't explode at his ultimate speed until he got close. In the blink of an eye, he was beside him, and punched his head hard with a punch that broke the air.

The body just took a step back, and Cassia simply dodged the punch. The price paid was that the torn trousers were completely shattered into pieces under the instantly bulging muscles. The wind whizzed past the side of Cassia's head. Seeing that the punch failed, Nichols immediately turned his fist into a claw, bucked it back to the weak-looking neck, and kicked the opponent with one foot simultaneously.

Cassia's figure suddenly distorted, and she continued to move a little ahead of time, successfully dodging subsequent attacks. The air in front of him was surging. After transforming into scales, Nichols had indeed greatly improved in strength and speed. After all, the dragon tissue in his body truly came from the dragon itself. It can be regarded as one-third of his body at this moment. One is that it is directly carved out of a dragon's body.

The short explosions in the air continued, and Nichols' subsequent attacks became faster, but after a breath or two, none of the attacks could really touch Cassia's body. All failed, and what was hit was just the afterimage left by Cassia's movement almost out of thin air.

"Ah..." Nicholls shouted loudly as he retreated a few meters away. The black scales all over its body are raised at the same angle, and countless high-temperature heat streams spurt out, distorting the surrounding air. Immediately, the upturned black scales closed together in unparalleled tacit understanding. At this moment, Nichols' body that was nearly half-expanded suddenly shrank. It was like the moment when a balloon was popped. When Nichols' body shrank back to its normal size, there was no transition process, as if the expanded body was burned out of thin air this time.

With more than a dozen wisps of white smoke coming out of his body, Nichols' body temperature increased further. It was estimated to be 70 or 80 degrees at this moment, but there was still a big gap between Cassia's normal body temperature of 100 degrees.

"Buzz..." The black scales vibrated at high frequency in a very small range and made multiple buzzing sounds, and a high-temperature heat stream that distorted the air was sprayed from Nichols' mouth. It was a posture that seemed to be exhausted. Nichols arched his body like a beast, his hands could almost touch the ground, and turned into a miniature baby dragon without a thorny tail and wings.

"Boom!" The soil under Nichols' feet splashed back more than ten meters, and a pit of one or two meters formed on the ground under the tremendous power of his legs. He turned into a black shadow. At this moment, he visually ignored the distance in space. He suddenly appeared in front of Cassia, turning his body and sweeping past with one kick.

The air exploded during the squeeze, and Cassia crossed his arms to block the kick in front of him. The power was transmitted rapidly, and the clothes on Cassia's back immediately became fragments. The resulting impact used him as the radiating point, spread out in a trumpet shape toward the back, and brought about a gust of wind.

Cassia's feet had sunk into the ground, and the soil was submerged up to her calves. One kick didn't work. After another kick, Nichols' body seemed to have become thinner and he moved one after another. There was no gap between consecutive kicks and he connected smoothly. The explosions stacked together to produce violent air explosions. Nichols' attack frequency became faster and faster. The huge force penetrated Cassia's body and dissipated into the visible wave impact formed around it, completely covering it. When a three- to four-meter-long ravine was plowed on the ground, Cassia was completely sunk into the soil below her knees.

"Buzz..." The buzzing sound resounded again, the frequency almost doubled. Nichols stood up straight, and when he punched out, all the black scales on his arms and body were completely raised, and high-temperature jets gushed out. The ground beneath the two of them exploded immediately, soil mixed with broken tree roots and sawdust flying, and Cassia flew backwards ten meters away under the punch. He flipped around in the air, his body immediately regained his balance, and when he landed on a leaning ancient tree, he immediately moved nearly two meters sideways.

Nichols followed closely, and the next moment, Cassia's impact point directly exploded a deep pit about two meters in diameter, and all the tree trunks there turned into fresh sawdust that shot around.

Cassia didn't stop at all, using the surrounding fallen ancient trees as landing points, and moved flexibly. But at this moment, he could no longer distance himself from Nichols, who looked like a beast behind him. Whether he is attacking, pursuing or moving at high speed, Nichols is no longer standing. He is almost a beast on all fours. With a violent aura all over his body, his flexibility has increased far more than his speed and strength.

Black flowing shadows danced on the ancient trees, like a stream of light that was constantly refracted. After dozens of turns, the black stream of light caught up with Cassia's afterimage, and the sharp claws spread out and slashed away. However, Cassia suddenly turned sideways, opened his clenched fist, and a blazing white light immediately bloomed, covering everything around him. The flash bomb failed to affect the black flowing shadow's movement at all, and it couldn't even cause a slight delay to it.

Cassia was thrown away from the bright light that had not yet disappeared, twisting her body in the air, using the attack power of the black shadow following her, adjusting her posture and landing smoothly.

"Okay, the test is over." Cassia opened her mouth and said calmly in the language of the Flame Alliance. When she turned around on the spot, the black shadow's punch missed. Just as she was about to turn around and swing the punch, a thunderous sound rang in her ears. . Then he looked away, and Nichols realized that the distance between him and Cassia suddenly widened. When he reacted, his flying body landed on the ground, and he took several steps back to stabilize his balance. There was an uncontrollable warmth in his throat, and it was only when blood foam spilled out from between his sharp teeth that Nichols noticed the pain in his chest.

After coughing a few times, Nichols looked at Cassia and took a few deep breaths when he saw several torn wounds on his hands and feet exposing bright red muscles. The next moment, Nichols' perception completely condensed, and Cassia suddenly disappeared in front of him. The ground shook slightly, and Cassia fell beside him. Nichols quickly defended, but an elbow was already on his neck. Nichols' upper body first bent to the side, and then flew directly out under the blow.

After breaking several tree roots one after another, Nichols tried to adjust his body. Cassia, who was chasing after him, punched his flying body to stop forcefully, causing a dent in the ground under the bombardment.

Nichols exhaled uncontrollably, with a large mouthful of blood foam escaping from his sharp teeth. Then he was shoveled out of the pit by Cassia and flew towards his dragon. After landing and rolling for several times, Nichols stood up and rushed straight towards the dragon, regardless of what was behind him, climbed on its back and stood firm, then looked at Cassia, who was not chasing after him a hundred meters away.

"As I said roughly just now, you dragon knights only have a layer of skin in the scaly state. I don't know why the 'scaling' ability has become one of the top surgical development projects in the empire." Cassia continued. After retreating a few dozen meters, he clenched his fist and the bones crackled, "It seems you didn't put it in your head."

"However, I was really surprised at first to see how easily you could rely on dragons to enter the scaly state. Although most of the time in the past, my process of entering the 'scaled' state was similar to yours in principle." Cassia exhaled and looked at her hands with torn skin, "Here, first of all, thank you for letting me get some new information again."

"I don't know if it's correct, please confirm. First, after the huge body shrinks, high-temperature jets begin to overflow. This is a manifestation of the overflow of energy and then the release of heat. I understand this very well. Because we The energy storage method at the current stage does not support the full use of these things, and some will always be wasted. The source of your energy is the dragon tissue that enters your body. Those dragon tissues are actively decomposing, and this process Somewhat like the 'withering' phenomenon of imperial surgeons. But what happens in your body is an active process and can be controlled by your will. Of course, if there is consumption, there will be replenishment. Combined with your sentence of 'no time limit' not long ago In other words, it would be better to call it this way if your body has become thin and..., 'animal-like'. The animal-like state should have a time limit. Once the energy is exhausted, it cannot be maintained."

"However, I think as long as the dragon is by your side, you can continue the 'beast transformation' and scaly state indefinitely by contacting the dragon again after a period of time and allowing the dragon tissue to enter the body again. ? It’s the action you are making at the moment. Although you hide it well, it has no effect on me."

Seeing that Nichols did not answer, Cassia continued: "The second point, this is what I found strange at the beginning, and it is also the explanation of my own words. Your body's strength and foundation are very weak, so I think your dynamic vision Probably can't keep up with the enhanced speed. I also observed it during the battle, because during the perception, whether your sight or perception, the time to lock on me is intermittent, not continuous. I tested it later and it was confirmed by the flash bomb just now. My guess is that it is also consistent with your title of Dragon Knight. In the scaly state, within a certain range, you can probably share the sight of the dragon without direct contact with the dragon, right? I don’t know other than that, you What else has it always shared with dragons?"

"In addition, the most important point is that in addition to the super strong defense, the function of scale formation is to increase the body's basic strength and speed. But your foundation is too weak, resulting in the enhancement even after entering the scale state. , but the base value is too small, so even if the enhancement is multiplicative, the final increase result you get is still not good. In the empire, one of the important reasons why scaling is a top-level development project is that there are people who can develop it, even if it only relies on All basic abilities can be at the top. In addition to this time, the development of scaling abilities has many pre-development projects. This is a systematic and huge ability, not something you can simply get. Comparable."

"So what if you know this information? Sometimes knowing too much can cause a psychological burden on yourself and bring more despair." Nichols jumped off the dragon again, took a deep breath, exhaled, and soothed his body, "You didn't react In other words, if you want to kill me, you have no other way except the breath you just breathed not long ago. As long as you are around the dragon, the injuries you just caused to me can be recovered immediately." Black Scale Micro Moving, heat surged from Nichols' body again. The energy he consumes is not a burden at all compared to dragons.

"There are many ways, it just needs to be tested. Next, I will let you know what method it is." Cassia smiled, and then the afterimage disappeared, and then a translucent human figure that was knocked away appeared in the air. aisle.