Blacktooth Reef, the southernmost island occupied by the Lizardman tribe, was currently shrouded in a clamorous atmosphere of victory.
Even the salty, fishy sea breeze couldn't disperse the excitent and greed saturating the air.
On the roughly constructed platform at the island's center, piled high were the sunken treasure chests they had just snatched from right under the Black Dragon Saga's nose.
Moored at the harbor were a full five wooden ships.
"Crash!"
A sturdy wooden crate was roughly pried open by a Lizardman warrior using a spear, its contents spilling out.
Several exquisite golden vessels reflected alluring glints under the sunlight, and besides those, there were plenty of heavy gold coins!
The Lizardman chieftain, Toxa Blackscale, flicked out his forked tongue, emitting a hissing laugh of satisfaction. His rough claws greedily scooped up a handful of gold coins, feeling their cold tallic texture.
"Roar! Look, Chieftain Toxa! Human treasure! Enough to trade for ten shiploads of salted fish and iron spearheads!"
A Lizardman warrior, his scales stained with battlefield filth, excitedly hissed. The surrounding tribesn waved their poison-tipped bone spears, unleashing deafening cheers and strange cries, slamming their long tails against the rocky ground, kicking up clouds of dust.
Toxa shoved a gold coin into his mouth, biting a dent into it with his fangs, his eyes gleaming with pride and ferocity. "That cunning Black Dragon, he ran fast enough! A pity, we were just that close!"
"If we could have brought back that Black Dragon's head too, stripped its scales, gouged out its eyes... Hmph, that would be true fortune! A living, breathing Black Dragon is worth far more than these dead objects!"
Toxa's thick foreclaw slamd hard against the edge of the treasure chest, his tone thick with regret. "Next ti! Next ti we encounter those green-skinned frogs and their dragon master, we'll leave none alive! Their scales, their wealth, their islands... all will belong to the Blackscale Tribe!"
The revelry on Blacktooth Reef continued, the clamor shaking the heavens.
Yet, at that very mont, an old Lizardman with dull scales and a hunched back burst from the crowd, pounding his withered chest, his cloudy eyes filled with terror. "Fools! You've invited a great calamity! That is a Dragon! Plundering a dragon's wealth, injuring its followers, you're courting annihilation for our tribe! How could we possibly be a match for a Dragon?"
The surrounding young Lizardman warriors were startled by this sudden roar, then erupted into even louder jeers and mocking laughter.
"Has the old one been blinded by the treasure?"
A Lizardman warrior brandished a goblet he had just looted, his scaled tail whipping the ground excitedly. "That Black Dragon couldn't even dodge a ballista bolt, what kind of Dragon is that? One more ti, and we'll skin it and present the hide to Chieftain Toxa!"
"Exactly!" another Lizardman chid in, greedily eyeing the gold coins on the platform. "With these, we can trade for more weapons! Who cares what dragon, if it dares co, we'll shoot it down for dinner!"
Chieftain Toxa listened to his subordinates' wild boasts, grinning smugly to reveal a mouthful of fangs. "Hear that, old bones? Those dragon calamities from your stories are long outdated! Now, it's the era of the Blackscale Tribe! If that Black Dragon dares to attack, it'll just be the perfect appetizer for tonight's feast! I've never tasted dragon at before!"
"Look at us now!"
Toxa suddenly spread his arms wide, displaying his new iron-inlaid scale armor, the poison-tipped spears gleaming coldly in his warriors' hands, and the several powerful steel heavy ballistae mounted on the ships' prows. "All this we earned with wisdom and courage! That Black Dragon is the proof! If it dares co again, we'll just test if these new bolts can pierce its heart!"
The surrounding Lizardman warriors erupted into another wave of fanatical hisses and cheers, their greedy gazes constantly sweeping over the treasure on the platform, as if already seeing more glittering golden trophies piled high across the island.
The old Lizardman's cloudy eyes filled with utter despair.
He trembled, his voice almost drowned out by the clamor. "Wisdom? Courage? Toxa! That was bought with wreckage! With that White Dragon corpse that drifted here by chance from the ice fields! It was a gods' accidental blessing, it does not an we truly possess the power to slay dragons!"
The smugness on Toxa's face froze for a mont, then transford into deeper anger.
The reason the Lizardn had been able to transform themselves was entirely due to the White Dragon corpse they had stumbled upon.
When Toxa first discovered that nearly frozen young White Dragon corpse on a drifting ice floe, even approaching it was filled with boundless terror.
But soon, they realized the White Dragon was already dead. Under cover of darkness, they mustered the strength of the entire tribe and cautiously towed this priceless 'treasure' back to a hidden reef cove, then waited for the human smuggling caravan.
The trade changed everything.
The greedy glint in the human caravan leader's eyes when he saw the White Dragon corpse was sothing Toxa would never forget.
They exchanged fine weapons, sturdy wooden ships, precious iron implents, even a few magic scrolls, for this 'Dragon corpse' that had made the Lizardn restless.
It was precisely this windfall that ard the Blackscale Tribe to the teeth in a short ti, propelling them to beco the most powerful Lizardman force in the nearby seas, unifying all the Lizardn.
"Silence!"
Toxa harshly cut off the old Lizardman. "That White Dragon corpse was the opportunity granted by the great 'Semyuania' for the Blackscale Tribe to rise! Proof that we are the true masters of this sea's future! As for those green-skinned frogs and their Black Dragon master, they are rely the first stepping stone on our path to true power!"
"After the celebration, we head south! Wipe out the Bullywugs, turn those islands into our fishing grounds and fortresses! Kill that Black Dragon, then trade its corpse with the humans again. Sooner or later, we will replace the Fishn, beco..."
Toxa's ambitious roar was abruptly cut off.
"ROAR——!"
A shocking draconic roar echoed from the southern sea.
Not just him.
All the reveling Lizardman warriors on the platform fell silent as if seized by an invisible giant hand, their hisses and wild laughter vanishing instantly.
A primitive, oppressive aura descended from all directions, the air seeming to solidify, even the sound of waves crashing against the reefs becoming distant and muffled.
Toxa jerked his head up, only to see the thick sea fog over the northern horizon being violently torn apart by raging air currents!
Four enormous, ferocious dragon silhouettes, radiating different auras of terror, like vengeful spears charging from the abyss, were hurtling towards Blacktooth Reef at a speed that seed to tear the sky itself!
At the lead was a dragon form as dazzling as erald, its streamlined body brimming with power and lethal elegance.
Close behind it was an even larger dragon, its scales like flowing molten rock, blazing crimson. The draconic roar just now had been issued by this Red Dragon.
The following two dragons, one black and one white, seed far less terrifying in comparison to the two leading ones.
Why are there four dragons?!
Why, so many dragons?!
After a stunned mont, Toxa imdiately reacted, shouting sharply, "Quick, to the ships, man the ballistae!"
But before the Lizardn could even react, the Red Dragon Tyrone had already opened his maw wide. The breath weapon he had charged to its peak, like a bursting dam of magma, carrying the terrifying high temperature to incinerate everything, poured down upon the fleet the Lizardn relied on for survival!
Crimson flas instantly engulfed the two ships closest to the harbor.
Flas like a molten torrent swept through. The two ships instantly erupted into towering infernos, their wooden structures crackling and popping, transforming into soaring pillars of fire, painting the sea surface a blazing crimson!
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