Grinding as a Witcher - 180 (Patreon)

Chapter 180: Submission

“Save me?”

Keltullis’s eyes were full of wariness.

Alvin spread his hands. “You don’t believe me?”

“First, in your current condition, it would be very easy for me to cut off your head and put it above my fireplace as a decoration.”

“So I have no reason to lie to you.”

“Second, there’s something I want to understand. From what I’ve learned, you had an agreement with Brouver, the Elder-in-Chief of the Dwarves. They offered you tribute, and in return, you lived peacefully alongside each other on Mount Carbon. Why did you break that agreement?”

At those words, anger surged into Keltullis’s eyes. She struggled to raise her head and let out a low growl.

“An agreement? What hypocrisy! Dwarves, Elves, Humans. They’re all hypocritical races.”

“Oh? I’m listening.”

Keltullis sighed. “Yes, they brought tribute, including a plump sheep. But there was poison hidden inside that sheep. They broke the agreement first. They were the ones who tried to harm me!”

Alvin glanced at her. Indeed, the first time he had seen Keltullis high in the sky, he had already noticed that something was wrong with her, and that she was covered in wounds.

Even with help from the people of the Margraviate of Talgar, the creatures living in the Dragon Mountains were not true dragons, but merely ordinary Flying Drakes.

Distinguishing Flying Drakes, Draconids, and true Dragons was actually quite simple. All one had to do was look at their wings.

A Flying drake’s wings were connected to its forelegs, much like a bat’s, and most of its weight rested on its powerful hind legs.

True dragons were different. Put simply, they were like lizards with wings. They had four fully developed limbs and were much larger.

Their scales were also far tougher, which meant dragon-slaying arrows designed to deal with flying dragons were far less effective against true dragons.

Clearly, Keltullis had already been ambushed before she reached the Dwarf town.

Alvin clasped his hands together and spoke calmly. “My lady, I believe what you’re saying. But I’m a Witcher, and I trust my professional knowledge even more.”

“Ordinary poisons shouldn’t have much effect on a dragon.”

Before Keltullis could answer, Alvin continued.

“When I was studying the Dragon Bestiary, an old Witcher once told me that dragons, like Witchers, have an extremely high resistance to poison.”

“There was once a town that was constantly troubled by a dragon. A shoemaker named Sheepbagger came up with a way to deal with it.”

“He bought a sheep in town, slaughtered it, and stuffed its belly with hellebore, belladonna, hemlock, sulfur, and shoemaker’s resin.”

“To make certain, he even bought potions from local apothecaries who believed in spirits and other such things.”

“Those potions were full of mercury and silver compounds. Combined with everything stuffed inside the sheep, the result was among the deadliest poisons in the world.”

“Even we Witchers wouldn’t willingly touch something like that.”

“The shoemaker then tied the poisoned sheep to a wooden stake. Before long, the dragon swooped down from the sky and swallowed the entire sheep in one bite.”

“At first, everyone thought the poison had worked. The dragon began flying unsteadily and soon crashed into a patch of woodland.”

The Red Dragon Keltullis gave a mocking snort.

“Then they were about to have a very bad day.”

“Exactly, my lady. They sent two warriors to check whether the dragon was dead, which was obviously a foolish decision.”

“The moment those two Humans approached, the dragon tore them open with its claws, devoured their entrails, drained their blood, then staggered back into the air and flew away.”

“The story became a famous dragon-slaying tale and has been spread far and wide by minstrels.”

“And that dragon was only a relatively small Green Dragon. Its resistance to poison was already that formidable. As a stronger Red Dragon, your resistance should be far greater.”

“And if things became unbearable, you could simply vomit the poison back up.”

Keltullis’s pupils contracted. “They provoked me first. How is that my fault?”

“It isn’t. I was only curious about why you became so furious. Now I understand.”

As he spoke, Alvin’s gaze fell on her soft abdomen.

“That poison wasn’t meant to kill you. It was meant for something else.”

“You’re pregnant, aren’t you?”

The stone cave fell utterly silent.

Keltullis’s expression turned savage. Her body trembled, tearing open her wounds and sending fresh blood trickling down her scales.

“Human, what exactly did you come here for?”

Alvin rose to his feet as well. “The Dwarves already fear you. One Red Dragon alone is more than they can bear. If there were an entire brood, Mount Carbon would never know peace again.”

“Shut up! I came to this mountain first. My nest has always been here. The Dwarves are the invaders! Neither I nor my children have done anything wrong.”

“Thud, thud, thud...”

A dull sound came from outside the cave, cutting their conversation short.

Both of them were extraordinary beings. Even from several hundred meters away, they could clearly hear iron boots brushing through the undergrowth.

Alvin dusted off his clothes. “Look. The Dwarves are here. Among them is a knight named Eyck. He’s nowhere near as willing to talk as I am. He considers every monster a thing of filth. Truthfully, I respect him. He’s a knight who acts more like a Witcher than most Witchers do.”

“You have two choices.”

“First, stay here and defend this cave and your child. I’m afraid that won’t end well for you.”

“Second, come with me and leave this place.”

Leave this place?

Keltullis froze. She finally understood exactly what Alvin wanted.

“You want me to submit to you?”

Keltullis gathered what strength she had left. A savage presence erupted from her body and surged toward Alvin.

How could a Dragon ever bow before a Human?

“Why should I? When our kind ruled this world, you Humans were still fighting hyenas for scraps!”

Alvin merely looked at her from the corner of his eye, his golden cat-like eyes utterly indifferent.

Against the terrifying presence of the dragon, an even more violent pressure erupted from his body. It shattered Keltullis’s aura in an instant and crashed down upon her.

[Magic-Suppressing Domain] and [Abyssal Gravity Domain] unfolded at the same time.

All magical power within the stone cave seemed to congeal. The very space around them grew thick, like a mire, until even breathing became difficult.

Gold coins sank beneath the crushing gravity and piled atop one another. Porcelain shattered one piece after another, the sound echoing endlessly through the cave.

Pebbles rained from the ceiling. The stone walls could no longer withstand the pressure and began to split apart as vast, spiderweb-like cracks spread across them.

As Keltullis felt the power of those two Domains, her already weakened body collapsed back onto the ground. Fear and dread filled her fierce eyes.

What was this?

Never in her entire life had she felt such suffocating pressure.

It made her very soul tremble.

“No?”

The man’s cold voice echoed through her mind.

Keltullis could not stop trembling. At that moment, a forbidden word surfaced from the inherited memories deep within her bloodline.

Domain.

A power only gods could possess.

“Wait... I submit...”

Alvin withdrew his Domains.

“Good. You should be glad you made the right choice. Even if you don’t care about yourself, you should at least think about the child in your belly.”

With that, he raised his right hand. The Spatial Ring on his ring finger flashed with silver light.

A grayish-white shadow darted toward the cave entrance like a slithering snake.

...

Outside the cave, deep within the dense forest, a Raven perched on a tree branch with its head tilted to one side, its crimson eyes watching the approaching group.

A Dwarf in padded armor walked at the front, a long-handled dwarf axe strapped across his back.

Behind him came a Knight-Errant in chainmail, followed by five Talgar knights whose armor bore intricate patterns.

Rodney had braided his brown beard. As his short legs carried him forward, the braid swayed back and forth around his navel.

The group stopped beside a patch of bushes.

The pungent, scorching Dragon blood had melted away the thick layer of snow covering the ground.

Eyck stared intently at the cave entrance ahead. He made the sign of the cross over his chest and murmured a prayer under his breath.

“May the gods have mercy. At last, we’ve found this foul creature.”

“Ha!” Rodney the Dwarf pulled the long-handled axe from his back. “The brave knight’s right. That beast deserves to die here. I’ll chop it into pieces myself.”

Eckhart of Talgar remained cautious. “Gentlemen, the beast may already be wounded, but we still cannot afford to let down our guard.”

“My attendants and I will set up the heavy crossbow nearby. You two go into the cave and lure it out.”

“One more dragon-slaying arrow should finish it.”

Rodney snorted. “Do we really need to go through all that trouble? That flying lizard ate the poison you gave us, and after the fight earlier, it can barely fly. We could just walk in and kill it.”

“What, are you worried it’s got a mate waiting inside? Don’t be. It’s the only female lizard in the whole Mahakam Mountains.”

Eckhart frowned.

The poison used against Keltullis had indeed been brought by them.

The Margraviate of Talgar had close relations with the Ferenc Clan, which had suffered greatly from dragon attacks over the years.

The Ferenc elders had quickly thought of their friends at the foot of the Dragon Mountains.

Talgar had considerable experience fighting dragons.

As luck would have it, Talgar had recently developed a need for weapons, so the two sides had readily reached an agreement.

Once the dragon was eliminated, the Ferenc Clan would help Talgar persuade the Dwarf Elder-in-Chief to assist them in forging weapons.

At the same time, the Ferenc Clan would no longer have to devote so many resources to fighting the dragon and could instead turn its attention toward resisting the Elder-in-Chief’s oppression.

Both sides stood to benefit.

And just as they had hoped, the Elder-in-Chief’s prestige had clearly suffered after the recent dragon attack.

That was precisely why Talgar had come up the mountain so thoroughly prepared.

Otherwise, who would go to the trouble of carrying a heavy crossbow and dragon-slaying arrows with them?

Transporting those two things up the mountain alone had required considerable effort.

Eyck tightened the fastenings on his clothes. “Master Dwarf, Knight Eckhart has a point. We should prepare for every possibility.”

Rodney merely continued to grumble.

Suddenly, a dull sound came from the cave entrance.

Everyone immediately lowered themselves behind cover.

“Hm? Is that beast coming out?”

“No. Those footsteps are wrong. Much lighter.”

Under their wary, astonished gazes, a pitch-black silhouette slowly emerged into the sunlight, revealing grayish-white skin.

At the end of its long, slender neck sat a bald head. It had no cheeks and barely any eyes, only two tiny, lifeless orbs. Its mouth stretched almost to the sides of its skull, exposing rows of sharp teeth.

From a distance, it looked almost faceless, a sight that sent a chill down the spine.

“Gods above... does that beast really have a mate?”

Rodney sucked in a sharp breath and cried out in shock.

Eckhart immediately ordered his attendants to set up the heavy crossbow.

Eyck rose from the bushes, gripping his spear in his right hand and holding his shield in his left.

“By the gods, it’s a Slyzard! I cannot stand by while such a vile creature remains in this world.”

With that, he leveled his spear and charged toward the Slyzard.

The wind whistled past him as a cold flash of steel shot forward.

“Clang!”

The sharp spearhead struck the Slyzard Golem squarely in the chest, producing a piercing metallic sound.

Eyck’s pupils contracted.

A tremendous recoil traveled up the spear shaft and slammed into his right arm.

The spear in his hands had been specially modified. Like a Witcher’s Silver Sword, it had been coated with silver and engraved with runes by a master smith from Novigrad.

A blow like that would have left a wound even on the Red Dragon Keltullis.

Yet the Slyzard before him did not move an inch. There was no pain in its eyes, only deathly stillness.

The tough flesh across its chest, stretched taut like cowhide, caved inward beneath the spearhead but suffered no damage whatsoever.

How was that possible?

Eyck was stunned.

Whatever this creature was, it was no ordinary Slyzard, nor was it a Drowner. Slyzards knew pain.

During that brief moment of distraction, the Slyzard Golem’s long neck suddenly shot forward. Its enormous mouth opened wide as it snapped at Eyck’s shoulder.

Eyck hastily withdrew his spear and dodged aside, narrowly escaping the bite.

The Slyzard Golem did not pursue him. It simply remained at the cave entrance.

Eyck seemed to notice this and moved in again, but no matter how many times he attacked, he could not harm the creature at all.

A short while later, Eckhart finished assembling the heavy crossbow and loaded a dragon-slaying arrow.

“Move!”

Eyck heard the warning and immediately threw himself into a sideways roll.

“Whoosh!”

A shrill sound tore through the forest.

The rapidly spinning arrow carved a perfectly straight black line through the air, moving as fast as lightning.

The Slyzard Golem twisted its neck toward the incoming arrow at an almost absurd angle, nearly ninety degrees. No ordinary Slyzard could have done such a thing.

“Roar!”

With a low growl, a beam of deep-blue flame erupted from its throat.

In an instant, the dragon-slaying arrow was reduced to ash.

The blue fire continued onward and punched straight through the heavy crossbow in the distance.

Eckhart cried out and grabbed one of his attendants, pulling him aside.

“Boom!”

The heavy crossbow collapsed. Its steel components melted away, leaving behind only charred wooden wreckage.

“I swear by the Talgar Eagle, I’ve never seen a monster like this! That thing is absolutely not a Slyzard!”

Eckhart’s face twisted with anger and distress as he drew the knight’s sword at his waist.

Rodney swallowed hard. Some instinct told him that this monster would be even harder to deal with than Keltullis.

“Maybe... maybe we should head back first?”

His courage was beginning to fail him.

“No! The Holy Book says the world was once a magnificent garden, entrusted by the gods to Humanity. We cannot simply stand by and do nothing!”

Eckhart’s voice was firm.

“That beast seems unable to leave the cave entrance, and it doesn’t appear to be alive. We can use that to our advantage. We’ll slip inside, cut off the Red Dragon’s head first, then come back and deal with it.”

Rodney hesitated, then admitted that the knight had a point.

If they failed to deal with Keltullis now, she would undoubtedly become a serious threat to the Ferenc Clan in the future.

“All right. I’m with you. You’re a dragon-slayer, just like Brother Yarpen. I trust you.”

Yarpen Zigrin was a renowned dragon-slayer who had once killed the giant dragon Ocvist. His feat was still sung of by wandering bards to this day.

Eckhart’s expression hardened.

For Talgar. For the honor of his family.

As a knight, this was what he had been waiting for.

Suddenly, the sound of flapping wings reached their ears.

“Caw, caw, caw...”

Sunlight struck the Raven’s black feathers, scattering into a dazzling array of colors.

The group instinctively looked toward it.

They all saw the pair of crimson pupils turning slowly, flickering with a green gleam like a cat’s eye set aflame.