Chapter 49: Dragon-annihilation Missile, Successfully Crafted!
After about ten minutes, Bloom slowly sat down.
Behind Bloom, laid two to three Dragon-vanquishing Fruits.
Bloom carefully cracked open the hard shell of the three fruits to reveal a foul-smelling liquid within them.
The liquid was extremely corrosive to humans. Should even a single droplet make contact with his skin, said patch of skin would immediately shrivel and die off.
However, it was also this corrosive property that enabled it to soften the tough scales of dragons.
Once softened, dragons, which usually had no other weaknesses aside from their reverse scales, would become full of weaknesses.
At that point, even a fisherman’s harpoon was capable of piercing through the weakened dragon’s defenses!
Nevertheless, while powerful, the Dragon-vanquishing Fruit’s effects did not last long.
Its corrosive effect will wear off once 30 seconds had gone by, and the dragon’s scales would regain their hardness.
Further behind Bloom, stood a huge magical contraption. At first glance, one would assume that it was a cannon.
In actuality, it was indeed a cannon. It was a magical cannon which weighed hundreds of pounds, and the only reason Bloom was able to effortlessly lug it around was due to his mechanical arms.
Otherwise, one would most likely be crushed to death if they tried to carry it.
Within the barrel of the cannon, a missile-shaped conical steel cannonball had been installed. It was engraved with several complicated, yet intricate magic patterns.
Bloom brought out the missile and opened the missile’s head to reveal a groove within it. Following this, he poured the juice of the Dragon-vanquishing Fruit into it. Then, the fine patterns that were carved onto the missile began to emit a dark purple light.
“Dragon-annihilation Missile, successfully crafted.”
Looking at the cannonball in his hand, Bloom’s weathered face could not help but reveal a smile. For a moment, he was filled with great elation.
The missile was a contraption that he had been working on before he left the kingdom. Alas, Bloom’s genius was not recognized yet back then.
Although they were aware of his rich knowledge of dragons, they treated him like an outsider when it came to magic tools. They doubted that he was capable of crafting a Dragon-annihilation Missile.
Nevertheless, as things now stood, the only long-range weapon that rivaled the Dragon-vanquishing Ballista in strength was the Dragon-breath Bolts.
However, the Dragon-breath Bolts were close-range artillery shells. Should they be fired from a long distance, their power would be greatly reduced.
As such, the Dragon-breath Bolts were awkward to use in actual combat.
To make things worse, the Dragon-breath Bolts required 2 seconds to accumulate energy. Dragons were not stupid, and thus, they would not sit idly by as the weapon charged itself.
As a result of this flaw, more often than not, the humans would need to risk their lives to utilize the Dragon-breath Bolt.
As such, once the Dragon-vanquishing Ballista was successfully developed, the Dragon-breath Bolts were instantly ignored.
While the cheap costs of the Dragon-breath Bolts had made them easy to manufacture as compared to Dragon-vanquishing Ballistae which required the body parts of dragons, it did not make up for their fatal weaknesses.
The ability of the Dragon-vanquishing Ballistae to use long-ranged attacks was crucial to humans.
On the other hand, although the range of the Dragon-annihilation Missiles were not too different from the Dragon-breath Bolts, the greatest benefit was that they did not need to be charged.
All it took was a simple pull of a trigger, and thus, even regular humans were capable of firing it.
A sense of pride welled up within Bloom as he observed his grand creation.
Had he developed this weapon back in the past, he would not have lost his arms in the first place.
…
Back to Max’s side.
After having a sumptuous breakfast with Mia, Max took her out of the lair.
However, before leaving, Max made sure to craft three dragon skeletons out of the bones he found within the lair.
After all, as far as the humans were concerned, their mother, Agatha, was still residing within the northern desert. However, to Max, the desert was now an indispensable base for his future operations.
Max did attempt to hide Mia on the ground. Instead, he flew high into the sky. He would hide her up there instead.
The weather that day was not bad. The sky was filled with dark clouds. It was an extremely rare weather in the desert.
Through the cracks within the clouds, Max would occasionally catch glimpses of the situation below him. On the other hand, the humans were clueless as to what was happening in the air.
“Brother, why are they attacking us?”
In the sky, Mia asked Max in confusion.
“There are all sorts of reasons, sister.”
Max looked into the distance. He had already noticed the large army advancing rapidly from the northwest.
There were over 30 thousand soldiers in the army, and each of them was armed to the teeth. They carried all sorts of stellar equipment with them.
Moreover, the muscular man in the lead looked like a difficult individual to deal with.
“System, show me his stats.”
“Ding dong.”
“No problem, showing stats now.”
[ Name: Felix ]
[ Race: Human ]
[ Current Rank: Platinum ]
[ Age: 47]
[ Maximum Lifespan: 96 ]
[ Attack: 30 (Normal human 12) ]
[ Spell Strength: 29 (Normal human 3) ]
[ Defense: 14 (Normal Human 5) ]
[ Speed: 9 (Normal human 8) ]
[ Magic: Ripple Overdrive[1], Oath of Gold and Stone, Profound Protection, Casas’ Bonfire ]
[ Remarks: A close-combat mage who cultivates both magic and martial arts. He possesses extraordinary attack and spell strength. He can be considered a powerful existence within the human world. ]
…
After looking at Felix’s stats panel, Max clicked his tongue.
‘To think there exists someone who rivals my strength within the human world!’
While Felix was no monster like Tahir, his attack stat was close to Max’s own!
Fortunately, Felix’s defensive ability was not that impressive. Max was certain that he had the upper hand in a one-on-one battle.
Moreover, brute strength was not the only ability that Max possessed. The massive amount of abilities and spell strength that he had obtained after devouring Tahir had also given Max’s a huge advantage over Felix.
‘The army would reach our lair in ten minutes or so.’
“Mia, once they enter our lair, unleash your Lightning Breath on them. Understand?”
Mia nodded her head, but she was slightly confused.
The memories she had inherited had told her that sneak attacks were unbefitting of the noble race of dragons.
However, as it was an order from her brother, she did not hesitate.
…
[1] I believe that this is a reference to Hamon Overdrive from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure.
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