Chapter 482: Chapter 248: Reduced to Ashes
Flame.
The beginning of the story starts in ancient times, a raging fire swept down by lightning in the storm, devouring the forest; it is the spark ignited from the clash of stones in the hands of bipedal apes in dark caves.
Countless years have passed, and sentient beings have long been accustomed to this fiery substance.
Dispersing darkness, bringing warmth, forging tools...
Even an illiterate countrywoman who has never stepped out of the fields or valleys understands how to light wood and use its scorching heat to cook meals.
But to this day, it has never been tamed.
Raging through urban areas, burning forests... even the faintest flame on a candlestick can lead to a catastrophic disaster devouring countless lives.
Xia Nan, of course, understands its power.
From his past life, the profound lessons inherited from humanity’s history over millions of years have deeply instilled in him the potentially extreme adverse effects of this substance.
And because of this, the repeated teachings and precautionary measures under the strength of technology allowed him to survive the most dangerous events related to it before his crossing.
Which were nothing more than a kitchen fire caused by his poor cooking skills that flared up from the stove and was finally subdued by calmly covering the pot to cut off oxygen.
Since coming to the Aifala Continent, thanks to the throwable tool called "kerosene bomb," his encounters with flames have significantly increased.
He barely experienced a few situations close to what could be called a "fire disaster."
Yet perhaps due to his far superior non-human physical constitution, he understands clearly that even if the flames reach nearby, he can easily break through using battle skill and burst speed.
His fear of fire has actually decreased quite a bit.
Under normal circumstances, this mindset was supposed to be recognized soon when he first faced a Level 5 or above mage or magician and encountered the legendary "fireball technique."
But now, it was swiftly brought forward just as he had newly earned his Professional Level and stepped onto the path of a professional.
The opponent was not the imagined frail and adorable slender spellcasters wielding small magic wands.
Instead, it was replaced by an adult Red Dragon with a Professional Level as high as "17," capable of easily destroying a medium-sized town.
The imagined possible encounter with a "fireball technique" was also replaced by the legendary "Dragon Breath," well-known but never seen before.
Hiss—
It was a low and ominous strange hum.
Like a vast amount of gas being poured into some narrow space, making dangerous sounds when highly compressed.
Like a volcano about to erupt.
The air trembled, overpowering the sound of wind and rain.
Thanks to the swift reactions under keen perception, Xia Nan was the first to regain control of his body under the suppression of the Dragon’s Might, looked back at the source of danger, and "luckily" captured a complete scene of a giant dragon spewing Dragon Breath.
Covered with fire-red scales, the sinister and gigantic head slowly reared back, the neck muscles taut and bulging like steel cables under dense scales.
Then, a heart-stopping brilliant white flame, edges gradually fading, illuminated its internal blood vessels and bones, piercing through the gaps in the scale armor, rising clearly from the chest and abdomen, coursing through the neck, and as the dragon’s jaw gradually opened, intensely gathered at the throat.
No roar.
The explosion in the air was a suppressed hiss akin to a high-pressure furnace bursting.
"Boom!!!"
Incredibly concentrated, the flame flow turned into a pillar of fire connecting heaven and earth, enveloped with the scorching white mist of evaporating rainwater, filled with pure golden light inside and diffusing explosive orange-red on the outside.
No need to deliberately aim at any precise area.
Occupied airspace impeccably secured from above and the continuity of an adult Red Dragon’s Dragon Breath.
Made it seem like a fiery red bomber, speeding past, even from several hundred meters away, intense flame flows had already reached the ground, trailing towards the escort squadron with its swiftly moving body and slightly tilted head.
Xia Nan’s first reaction was, of course, to flee.
As soon as the suppression of the Dragon’s Might began to wane, and he turned back to capture the Red Dragon’s figure, an illusory wolf’s head already formed around him.
And just as his mind raced, legs moving, pondering which direction to run in, in such an open environment, leveraging the explosive power brought by [Teeth Hunting] to escape from the Dragon Breath.
Not far ahead, a similarly panicked yet inexplicably serious shout suddenly rang out.
"Come close to me!!"
The voice belonged to Hai’an.
This son of the Neum City Lord, the protection target of the escort squadron, and the only team member who had not yet obtained a Professional Level.
At this moment, his body was already enveloped in a layer of translucent light emitting a vibrant green glow, which was gradually spreading outward, bearing strong natural implications.
There was no doubt this was the precious trump card he brought from home for self-defense.
In fragments of a second, thoughts whirled through Xia Nan’s mind.
Too brief, that Xia Nan had just barely converted Hai’an’s words in the Universal Language into an understandable meaning, and was already weighing the pros and cons and feasibility of "escaping using [Teeth Hunting]" and "approaching Hai’an to utilize his trump card defense" in his mind.
Firstly, regarding the former... can I really escape?
If the Dragon Breath follows its current trajectory, sweeping across the earth in a straight line, he might narrowly evade the flaming coverage by running at a ninety-degree perpendicular angle as the Breath sweeps past.