Watching the red dragon slaughter his companions at will and close in step by step, Bennett finally made up his mind—there was no fighting this damned spellhoarding red dragon head-on. His only choice was to abandon the adventuring party he had worked so hard to assemble and flee this place of death.
*Damn it, I have to get out of here.*
"Forgive me, everyone, but... I am still walking the path toward truth." Bennett offered himself a high-sounding excuse.
As a wizard, he naturally possessed no shortage of escape methods.
He pulled off the silver pendant hanging from his neck, upon which was engraved a delicate little door.
"Dimension Door."
He muttered the words under his breath while offering a silent prayer to the Goddess of Magic.
A magical aura flared from the pendant. The space beside Bennett warped and folded instantly, followed by the slow emergence of a door-like spatial rift. On the other side lay Port Victoria, his warm and familiar homeland.
Bennett's face lit up with wild joy, and he sprinted toward the planar gateway.
"Fantastic! I can finally leave this godforsaken place—"
Yet before the words had finished leaving his mouth, the shadow of the red dragon's wings swept over him. The Globe of Invulnerability enveloping Cassius smoothed out the surrounding Weave without mercy. The spatial rift knit itself closed, the planar fabric stabilizing as though not a single ripple had ever stirred it.
"Where do you think you are going?"
"Uninvited guest."
The red dragon looked down upon the wizard from above, his massive head appearing exceptionally ferocious.
Bennett tilted his head back to gaze up at the dragon. His hands shook around his staff, cold sweat pouring down his forehead in sheets, his face contorted into a forced smile that looked worse than crying.
His wizard robes seemed to detect danger and automatically cast a Shield spell over him, but this brought him not the slightest sense of safety—only an odd prickle of embarrassment.
"I... I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere,"
Bennett replied, trembling from head to foot.
"What did you come here to do?"
A trace of mockery showed in Cassius's golden eyes.
This party, half of whose members he had already slain, unquestionably ranked among the elite of adventuring companies. Most were high-tier veterans around tenth level. Had they encountered an ordinary young red dragon, they might very well have succeeded in their hunt. Unfortunately for them, they had crossed paths with Cassius.
Even so, Cassius was no purebred red dragon obsessed with mindless slaughter. Adventurers came in an endless stream; butchering them all yielded little benefit. It was far better to wring every drop of value from them.
"I..."
Hearing the dragon's question, Bennett was struck utterly dumb.
He glanced aside at the few surviving members of his party, who were likewise shivering uncontrollably, incapable of uttering a word.
They could hardly tell a cruel, bloodthirsty, and toweringly arrogant red dragon that they had come to slay him, could they? He would reduce them to cinders on the spot, if not skin them alive and swallow them whole.
Yet right at that critical moment, when the tension hung thick and suffocating and the red dragon's patience was beginning to fray—
A bard summoned the courage to step forward.
This bard had handsome features and wore emerald-green robes, a finely crafted lute slung across his back. At the moment, however, he looked thoroughly disheveled. His robes were tattered, marked by numerous scorch marks—scars clearly earned in the one-sided battle that had just transpired.
His name was Eugene, and he had come to pen an epic of the dragon slayers.
Just as everyone, including the red dragon, assumed this poet was about to deliver some impassioned, heroic declaration—
Eugene dropped to his knees without hesitation and cried out, tears brimming in his eyes:
"O legendary Dragon King of the Flying Flame! Your talons can tear any foe to ribbons, your fire can reduce all creation to ash, and your might is enough to strike dread into the hearts of the gods themselves! We merely followed in your wake, yearning to behold your true majesty, only to inadvertently trespass upon your domain...
"This was truly a sacrilege! Those who fell have already paid for their rashness with their lives, while the rest of us humble, wretched beings are willing to become your eternal, loyal servants, attending your side forever. If we can only gaze upon your magnificent form, even death would be a worthy reward!"
"This... this..."
This poetic tirade of flattery left everyone present slack-jawed. But soon after, they had no choice but to drop to their knees as well, begging the red dragon for mercy.
*Damn, this guy's actually a talent, isn't he?*
Listening to the bard's rhythmic, melodic brownnosing, Cassius could not help marveling inwardly.
The red dragon exhaled a blast of sulfurous, scalding heat that made the eyes of everyone present sting and water, yet not a soul dared flinch.
"Well said."
Kneeling on the ground, Eugene breathed an instant sigh of relief.
He raised his head slightly and saw that the red dragon's expression seemed to have softened a bit. He rejoiced inwardly: *All dragons truly are vain beyond measure! Thank the gods, the intelligence was real!*
Just as the adventurers thought they might be spared, basking in overwhelming relief, the hobgoblin troops led by Duoluo encircled them on all sides.
"It only lacked a bit of genuine passion."
Cassius was no simple brute with muscles for brains, and he was naturally not foolish enough to be taken in by a lie riddled with so many holes. He merely found the sycophancy amusing.
"Men, drag them all down to the dungeon,"
the red dragon ordered casually.
"Yes, Master!"
Duoluo hurriedly cupped his hands in obedience, leading his tall, burly dragon-blooded hobgoblins forward to haul away the kneeling adventurers with rough, unsparing grips.
Beneath the red dragon's watchful gaze, no one dared resist, for they knew full well what would come of it—the bones of their fallen comrades were not even cold yet.
The ogre mage Langpu arrived fashionably late, wobbling through the air before slamming onto the ground with a loud thud—it seemed his Fly spell was still far from practiced.
Yet Langpu was brimming with excitement, his face glowing with the joy of a bountiful harvest. "Master, look! I knew these adventurers would hide here! Haha, this giant boulder looks completely natural, but in truth, I placed it here on purpose! It's the only spot nearby where one can spy on Bedrock Fortress!"
He pointed toward the runes and continued,
"Every time those adventurers hide here, they always trigger my Glyph of Warding first, getting blasted half to death, which then chain-triggers my Alarm spell. And when they try to flee through the passage in the back, there's another automatically triggered Web trap waiting inside, followed by a boulder rolling down. What a pity it didn't trigger this time."
A trace of disappointment tinged Langpu's tone.
The corner of Cassius's mouth twitched slightly, leaving him momentarily speechless.
Langpu promptly asked, "Master, what should we do with these adventurers?"
"Go strip that wizard of all his magical gear and bring it to me, especially that Dimension Door necklace. Then hollow out every spell stored in his mind. After that, whether he lives or dies doesn't matter—you can either keep him to turn into a dragonblood minion to help you out, or kill him to eliminate future trouble.
"As for the rest, kill half, and intentionally let the other half escape—though make sure they believe they broke out by their own strength.
"As for that bard..."
A teasing look crept onto Cassius's face.
"Make him a secretary and have him write some PR articles for us. Post someone to check his progress. If he doesn't hit twelve thousand words a day, he doesn't get to rest. Even if he has to chug invigorating potions, make sure he keeps pumping them out."
"Yes, Master!"
Langpu could not help admiring inwardly that when it came to tormenting people, the master was indeed on a completely different level.
Chapter 64