15:00 AT, Day Thirty One | Cinder Keep Camp

  A giant beast hovers in the sky.

  It is nearly 15m long, covered in vibrant red scales. It’s head has a pair of very scary horns and its mouth looks like it is ready to swallow us whole. Its long talons look about ready to slash us into ribbons.

  “Hey Ko. It seems we have found the beasts of this land.” Ray says, a hint of excitement in her voice, despite the terrifying sight.

  “You sound way too excited, darling.”

  “Can you blame me! We get to fight a dragon. That's like, the coolest thing that one can do!”

  “Dragonslayer Ray and cutest in all the universe, does have a nice ring to it.” I say, matching Ray’s fervor.

  The dragon descends, crashing down into the middle of our camp with a grand roar. Destroying hundreds of vessels that can't make it out of the way.

  “So darling, you up for a bit of dragonslaying this evening?” I say, offering my hand to Ray.

  “Aww, are you asking me out on a date? That sounds wonderful, lead the way!” Ray says, placing her hand on my own, devilish smirk on her face.

  We take off into the air, ready for our date. I think dragonslaying is a pretty typical activity for dates, not that I've ever really thought about date potential. This seems pretty normal. However, there are other things – like detonating fusion bombs – that are also fun date activities.

  The dragon lets out a roar and swipes its talons across our undefended camp, creating a vast swathe of destruction. We need to take this guy out pronto, before it can completely cripple us.

  I line up a {Rock Summon} and {Rock Crush} and throw the massive rock right for its head. Only for it to easily dodge out of the way at a speed that should simply not be possible for such a large creature.

  It turns towards us and spews a massive gout of fire at us, which we are forced to spin around. The smell of sulfur and the familiar smell of charred flesh fills the air as some unfortunately do not dodge the attack.

  Ray and I charge in and strike the dragon repeatedly. I manage to sink my spear in a few times, but at least half my attacks just bounce off the hard scales. Ray fares a little bit better, able to succeed by sheer volume of attacks.

  The beast roars as it bleeds blue blood from the dozens of cuts around its body. It manages to get a nice hit on my side, leaving a nice cut that is going to hurt later for sure.

  A wave of fire rushes towards me, and I don't quite dodge away. But it seems that my shields manage to deflect most of the blast. I am now very grateful for that new necklace, without it I might be a nice chunk of charred Ko at this point.

  I do test out my pistol, though predictably it does absolutely nothing. It seems smaller calibre ranged weapons truly aren't as useful when surrounded by such powerful materials and technology. But still, a good shot in a weak spot could easily change the fate of an encounter, so I am still glad to have it, just in case.

  The beast seems to realize it can't really hurt us, and instead turns its attention to the army that is still assembling and organizing. Several people have started shooting, but nothing but the high caliber rifles and artillery make it through. Whoever designed this beast must've really liked armor.

  I remember a videogame that I used to play, it was all about dragons. There was always this one spot on the dragon that had a patch missing scales, just under its chin. I move to investigate the beast, and surely enough, underneath its chin it lacks any scales.

  “It’s chin is a weak spot!" I shout to Ray, who is currently busy hacking at its legs. She looks over and gives me a nod of conformation. In a stunning feat of acrobatics she spins around the beast as it tries to swallow her whole and manages to latch onto its chin.

  The beast thrashes and goes crazy, spewing fire in all directions as it tries to shake her off. Unfortunately for the dragon, once Ray latches on, it's impossible to get her off. Something I am also quite familiar with. I almost feel a bit jealous of the beast.

  Ray’s blades relentlessly chip away at the dragon until with one last roar and flame blast, it collapses and goes still.

  Ray rushes over to me immediately and gives me a big hug, both of us absolutely soaked in the blue blood of the beast. We look like a pair of absolute maniacs, It must look super romantic to those watching.

  I take a glance around the camp, it seems we lost several encampments, perhaps 5% of our total troops were lost. It's unfortunate, but we did bring a quite large force, nearing 10,000 soldiers, into the zone. We expected some massive resistance, considering how hard zone 2 ramped things up.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Though, we weren't expecting a single beast to jump us and take out 5% of our forces. Off in the distance, I can hear Emil shouting orders to form scouting and reconnaissance parties and set up a line further out to warn us of any encroaching beasts. It seems our previous early warning systems were simply not large enough with how fast the dragon could travel

  “Ko, that was so much fun! I hope we get to fight many more of those dragon fellas. You're such a genius, figuring out that it had a hidden weak spot!” Ray says, leaning against the massive leg of the dragon corpse.

  “Oh that? That was nothing, I just remembered that dragons in fiction often had weak spots, so I just looked for one on instinct. I am also excited to fight more dragons with you, darling.” I say, kissing Ray (for a long time).

  We picked up the trophy from the dragon and the massive corpse disappeared, apparently it's simply called a dragon, meaning that there are much stronger beasts lurking in this zone.

  The camp quickly returns to normal, though with added security of course. Everyone settles in, and Ray lays her head down in my lap with a look that says ‘headrubs or death.’ While I am all for a little bit of death here and there, I comply with her request and she quickly drifts off. She must've been exhausted from all those fancy acrobatics she did.

  After a few headrubs, I also drift off into a nice dreamless sleep.

  When I awake, somehow I have ended up back in Ray’s lap. I open my eyes and she is just watching me, with a faint smile on her face. She looks absolutely stunning, something about the yellowish hue, it seems to work really well with her cuteness.

  “Darling, you are super duper cute.” I say, starling her a little bit.

  “Geez, Ko. Do you really have to complement me the instant you wake up? Can't you at least give me a few moments to prepare?” she says, trying to hide her face with her hands as she starts to blush.

  I sit up and reach for her face, prying her hands away and holding them on my own. Her face is beet red, guess she really wasn't prepared. I lean in and give her a kiss, which seems to calm her a bit.

  “So Ms. Dragonslayer, are you ready for a day that is bound to be full of dragonslaying?”

  “Of course, and I wouldn't want to do it with anyone else besides you, Mr. Dragonslayer.”

  The camp gets packed up and we proceed further into Cinder Keep. The weather is nice and warm at a seemingly steady 60 degrees, after a while it seemed to stop getting warmer. Which is nice, we don't have to worry about our water supplies spontaneously boiling off.

  The loss from last night’s attack was a bit unfortunate, but we (aka Emil and Linda) quickly reorganized and everything is back to normal, though a few hundred soldiers less of course.

  We even form a few groups that rotate at the edge of the convoy with heavier rifles that can pierce dragon scale. They have been nicknamed the Avis squadrons. Perhaps we should consider making a more regular squadron of anti-tank weaponry once we get out of the arena.

  I definitely want to build a lot of mass drivers on City Stelarum. After all, giant cannons that can fire projectiles and materials into space are just cool, even if not really that practical logistically.

  Ray, who is leaning against me, suddenly jumps up when we hear a massive roar over the horizon. “Ko, I think it's showtime once more!” she says, excitedly.

  I can't believe I am so in love with this girl, it's amazing.

  The enemies are a group of what appear to be minor dragons, only around seven to nine meters in length. Though their scales are just as tough. It seems that they all have different weak spots as well. Sometimes it's the chin, or the back of the knee, or even under the base of the tail one time.

  Between Ray, the Avis and myself we quickly dispatch the dragons and continue on, steadily crawling our way across the harsh terrain towards the center. Once we get about 50km into the biome, we come across a massive river of what appears like a molten rainbow, flowing from who knows where. It seems to be moving quite fast, so we inspect it.

  Apparently it's not molten rock, but rather liquid mercury. Sitting at a nice 270 degrees, it's not the most dangerous, but we have to ensure our toxic filtration systems are working well. Though, Ray does point out that it looks quite beautiful, and I have to basically hold her in a full-body lock to prevent her from trying to swim in it.

  We have to hastily construct a bridge to move our troops across, unfortunately losing a few people in the process as they fall into the rapidly flowing mercury.

  We cover a lot more distance, crossing over a few more rivers along the way. At one point we even come into a dead end where we seem to get surrounded by tall mountains. So naturally, we just blast our way through with lots of explosives.

  However, when we come out the other side, we see something that is very not ideal.

  A massive nest of dragons. There must be at least five hundred of them, though thankfully it seems most of them are under 10m long. Unfortunately, a few hundred meters from our entrance point sits a massive 50m dragon, which must be one of the majors.

  Some people scream, some cheer. The clink of weapons reading and rifle mounting can be heard. The commanders shout orders and people move into position, ready to face the upcoming challenge.

  Naturally after a quick kiss and hug, Ray charges right into the fray, quickly taking down a dragon before anyone else can even get a shot off.

  I must be the luckiest guy in the entire universe. After all, I've got the cutest, coolest and most insane girl in the universe as my girlfriend. I bet there are a whole lot of people that are super jealous of me. I can't imagine what she sees in me, but oh well, im not gonna complain.

  The only thing I can do is ensure that we win. No matter what Ray and I face together, we will overcome it, together. Naturally, we will also find time for lots of hugging, kissing and headrubs, the three most important things in all of the universe. So, bring it on.

  End of Chapter 121

  Next: Chapter 122 | I Want To Go Home.

  If you are enjoying the book, you could follow, favorite, rate, or review it, I'd really appreciate it.

  Read Ahead of Royal Road on my

  Checkout the official