Chapter 25: Counter-Kill
Livia Kelsina Novati propped up her battered body, standing firm before the pile of treasure, blood streaming down her entire form.
The wound on her left wing was deep enough to reveal bone, several chunks of flesh had been bitten off her hind leg, and her tail was densely covered with tooth marks. Every movement sent a piercing pain through her. Blood flowed down the gaps between her scales, pooling into a small puddle at her feet before slowly seeping into the crevices of the coins, staining the gleaming gold a dark crimson.
Over a dozen Fire Hawks formed a semicircle, blocking all her escape routes. Pairs of sinister green eyes glinted with malice in the darkness.
Caesar Torsayesumola stood just three meters away, wearing an expression that was both innocent and vicious.
"Sister, I'll ask you one last time," she drawled. "Leave, or die?"
Livia said nothing.
Her gaze swept past Caesar, landing on the passage behind her, and then on an inconspicuous turn at the end of that passage.
Behind that turn was a fork leading to the Lava Lake.
Further down that fork lay a place she had discovered by chance three years ago but had never dared to use recklessly—
a sulfurous gas venting zone.
Beneath the ground lay an enormous quantity of flammable gas, concentrated to a level where a single spark could blow half the volcano sky-high.
From the moment she was ambushed in the main hall, her seemingly desperate retreat, her step-by-step defeat, had all been meticulously calculated.
Deliberately showing weakness, deliberately taking injuries, deliberately feigning defeat—all to make Caesar overconfident, to lure her into chasing her all the way into this death trap.
Now, Caesar had indeed taken the bait.
Only fifty meters remained to the sulfur venting zone.
Livia took a deep breath, the furnace core within her chest slowly activating.
But this time, it wasn't to breathe fire, but to suppress.
She focused her draconic might, pressing it down with all her strength, piercing through the rock, through the soil, through dozens of meters of the earth's crust, directly into the underground cavity that held the vast quantity of gas.
Her intangible draconic might acted like a giant hand, forcibly holding those restless gases within the rock layers, preventing even a wisp from leaking upward.
This was geological knowledge etched into her bones from her past life:
the three elements for a gas explosion—flammable gas, oxygen, and an ignition source.
There was enough gas underground, but sealed by the rock layers, it couldn't come into contact with oxygen or open flame. All she needed was to wait for the gas to fully permeate the area, then provide a single spark...
Boom.
While maintaining the suppression, Livia continued to retreat imperceptibly.
Caesar remained completely unaware. Her attention had long been captured by the two mountains of gold before her. Her eyes shone so brightly they seemed about to glow, the tip of her tail quivered slightly, and a faint purr rumbled in her throat—an instinctive reaction Dragons simply couldn't hide when faced with immense treasure.
"Sister, you really know how to hoard," Caesar took another step forward, drool practically dripping from her maw. "So much more than me. I've been gathering for ten years in my pathetic lair, and I don't even have half of this."
Livia took another step back, her voice calm. "Do you want it that badly?"
"Of course I do," Caesar pressed her advantage, taking another step closer. "Will you give it to me?"
"No."
Caesar let out a scornful laugh, shedding the last shred of her pretense. "Then I'll just have to take it myself."
She raised a hand and gestured.
The remaining twelve Fire Hawks, as if possessed, lunged forward simultaneously!
Livia opened her maw and unleashed a blast of platinum-white flame, sweeping it across the front line. The three leading Fire Hawks were instantly incinerated into charcoal. Yet the remaining nine charged forward fearlessly, frantically flanking her from both sides, their sharp claws and beaks striking at her body with reckless abandon.
She whipped her tail wildly, smashing two away, her foreclaw flashed out to crush one, and she twisted her head to sink her teeth into another's neck before flinging it away with force.
In the chaos, one Fire Hawk seized the opportunity to clamp its jaws onto her already grievously wounded left wing.
Agony exploded through her. Livia's entire body shuddered violently, her legs buckled, and she nearly collapsed to her knees.
Caesar's maniacal laughter rang out immediately. "Sister, you're truly finished! Can't even stand steady, and you still dare to fight me?"
Gritting her teeth, Livia brought a claw down hard, crushing the Fire Hawk's skull.
But more Fire Hawks swarmed in, biting her legs, her tail, her back. Wounds tore open one after another, blood flowed ever more freely, and her vision began to blur and darken.
Enough.
This distance, this position, was enough.
The spot where she now stood was only twenty meters from the sulfur venting zone.
Livia took a deep breath and abruptly released her draconic suppression.
Deep underground, the gas suppressed for years instantly broke free. Like a breath held for centuries, it surged frantically upward through cracks in the rock, flooding into the passageways, saturating every inch of space.
On the surface, invisible bubbles began to seep from the stone cracks of the Treasure Room.
Colorless, odorless, formless.
But Livia's senses were crystal clear—the gas was filling the entire space, its concentration skyrocketing, reaching the critical point where the slightest touch would trigger an explosion.
Caesar was still crowing triumphantly, her words growing increasingly venomous:
"Hand over the eggs! I'll feed your whelps to the Fire Hawks, one by one! Starting with the one with the blue markings! That mixed-blood bastard deserves—"
Her voice cut off abruptly.
Because she saw Livia, covered in blood and swaying unsteadily, suddenly smile.
It wasn't a smile of despair, but the smile of a hunter watching prey step into a trap—a smile of absolute confidence.
"What are you smiling at?" Caesar was taken aback, a flicker of unease rising in her heart for the first time.
Livia didn't answer.
She simply slowly raised one claw and lightly snapped her fingers.
The friction of her claw-tips produced a minuscule, insignificant spark.
The spark drifted down, landing precisely within a rock fissure from which gas was furiously venting.
The next instant—
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM—————————!!!
A cataclysmic explosion instantly swallowed everything.
In the final second before the blast wave hit, Livia spun around and threw herself with all her might into a narrow fissure deep within the Treasure Room—an escape route she had prepared long ago, so narrow she could only squeeze in sideways.
The moment she wriggled inside, the violent shockwave swept past, barely missing the tip of her tail. The entire Treasure Room was blasted skyward.
Flame, shattered stone, scales, and flesh mingled together, flying backward in a frenzy.
Propelled by the shockwave, she tumbled a dozen meters through the fissure before crashing hard against a rock wall and coming to a stop. Her ears rang, her vision swam with darkness, her mouth filled with the taste of blood and choking sulfur. There wasn't a single part of her that didn't ache.
It took a long while before she could barely manage to push herself up. She looked back over her shoulder.
Outside the fissure, the Treasure Room she had inhabited for over twenty years was completely gone.
In its place was a massive crater over thirty meters in diameter. The crater walls were scorched black and glossy, still smoking. The bottom was covered in a thick layer of ash, within which one could vaguely see melted coins, clumped together and fused with the rubble—a pitiful sight.
At the edge of the ash, something moved.
Livia narrowed her eyes.
It was Caesar.
She rolled out of the ash, a wretched sight. Half the scales on her body were charred, her right wing was blown to tatters with only half remaining, the bone of her left hind leg was exposed. The entire Dragon lay on the ground, trembling uncontrollably, emitting weak, pitiful whimpers.
The flock of Fire Hawks she had brought was completely annihilated.
Over a dozen charred corpses lay scattered across the crater floor. Some still smoldered, others were completely burned to cinders. The air carried a bitter, acrid smell of scorched flesh.
Caesar lifted her head, her gaze fixed fiercely on Livia, her eyes churning with insane hatred:
"You... you actually dared to scheme against me..."
Livia said nothing. She crawled out of the fissure and slowly walked toward her, step by step.
Caesar tried to flee, but her hind leg was completely broken, making it impossible to stand. She could only lie there, watching Livia draw closer and closer, the ferocity in her eyes gradually shifting to fear.
"Sister..." Her voice began to tremble. "I was wrong... I was truly wrong... I shouldn't have come to steal your lair, shouldn't have tried to take your treasure... Let me go this once..."
Livia stopped before her, looking down at her silently.
Tears instantly welled up in Caesar's eyes, streaming down her face in a pitiful display:
"Sister, we're blood sisters... born of the same mother... You can't kill me..."
Livia remained silent for three seconds, her tone icy and devoid of any fluctuation:
"When you charged in and bit my wing, why didn't you think we were blood sisters?"
"When you set fire to my treasure, when you had the Fire Hawks attack my belly, why didn't you think of it then?"
"When you said you'd take my eggs to feed to the Fire Hawks, why didn't you think of it then?"
Caesar was left speechless by the questions, her tears flowing even more freely.
"I... I was just saying it... I wouldn't actually do it..."
"You would," Livia cut her off directly. "You're exactly like your mother. You mean what you say, ruthless and vicious."
Caesar's face instantly paled.
Livia stopped looking at her and turned to walk back toward the fissure.
After a couple of steps, she paused and, without turning her head, tossed out a final sentence:
"Get lost. Don't let me see you again."
Caesar froze in disbelief, unable to believe she was being spared just like that.
She stared at Livia's retreating back, stunned for several seconds. Then, from the depths of her despair, a surge of viciousness erupted. She snarled with ferocity:
"You'll regret this! I swear you'll regret this!"
Livia's steps didn't falter; she paid no heed.
"I'll go join the Metallic Dragon! I'll expose you!" Caesar shrieked hysterically from behind. "You consorted with a Blue Dragon, bore mixed-blood bastards! A Five-Color Dragon mating with another Five-Color Dragon—Tiamat won't spare you! Bahamut will show you even less mercy!"
Livia's footsteps hitched almost imperceptibly.
But she still didn't turn around.
"Just you wait!" Caesar's voice grew more distant. "I'll make sure the entire Dragonkind knows your disgrace! Just wait to be hunted across the entire continent!"
Livia didn't listen further. She walked straight into the fissure and proceeded along the passage leading to the Lava Lake.
The curses behind her grew fainter and fainter, eventually vanishing completely.
After walking over a hundred meters, a familiar red glow illuminated the path ahead—the Lava Lake had been reached.
The lake surface, over fifty meters wide, churned slowly with magma beneath, steaming with heat. A few lava fish floated belly-up on the surface, evidently killed by the shockwaves of the recent explosion.
Livia glanced at them, having no mind to care for these small fish.
She walked to the lake's edge and slowly lay down.
Her entire body ached as if about to fall apart.
The wound on her left wing still oozed blood, the bite marks on her hind leg burned fiercely, the gashes on her back felt like knife cuts, painful with every movement. The three eggs within her belly stirred violently, as if reproaching her: *You nearly blew us all up just now.*
Livia closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
The next moment, she stood up and slowly walked into the Lava Lake.
The temperature of the magma was just right for a Red Dragon, like sinking into an incredibly comfortable hot spring. The thermal currents enveloped her entire body, seeping into every wound, sterilizing, staunching blood flow, and accelerating healing. She kept only her head above the surface, lying motionless in the warm magma, quietly recuperating.
This soak lasted a full three hours.
By the time she climbed out, her wounds had all formed thick scabs, and most of her strength had returned. She shook off the clinging remnants of magma and began walking back the way she came.
Returning to the Treasure Room, now transformed into a massive crater, she froze on the spot.
The thirty-meter-wide crater was still there, the ash remained.
But amidst the chaotic wreckage of ash, a pile of items surprisingly remained—
a heap of coins that had melted and then re-solidified. Though fused with rubble, they were still coins;
several gems that had cracked from the heat. Cracked they were, but still usable;
a few magical weapons warped by the flames. Their blades were bent, but the gems on their hilts remained intact;
most crucially—that bag of adamantine was completely unscathed!
Adamantine had an extremely high melting point. The explosion's temperature hadn't affected it at all; it lay safely buried in the ash.
Livia was silent for three seconds.
Well then. Explosion or not, salvaging what she could was better than nothing.
She jumped into the crater, crouched in the ash, and began diligently sorting through the wreckage. This went on for half an hour.
Finally, she managed to gather a small pile of belongings: melted coins worth roughly over a thousand, seven or eight cracked gems, three warped weapons, plus that one bag of perfectly intact adamantine.
She stuffed all of it beneath her scales, climbed out of the earthen pit, and returned to the main hall, which was still relatively intact.
She lay down in her old spot, where she had slept for over twenty years, and took out the salvaged items, piling them beside her.
It was a pitiful haul, but at least she wasn't completely back to zero.
Just as Livia let out a sigh of relief, preparing to close her eyes and rest for a while, a violent stirring erupted from within her belly.
It wasn't the usual gentle shifting, but a frantic, chaotic thrashing, as if something was desperately eager to break free from its shell.
Her eyes snapped open. The entire Dragon went rigid.
It couldn't be...
Now?
Talk about timing...