Aurina’s words had just fallen.
“Clap clap clap.”
A burst of applause came, “Good, good, good….”
Richard immediately pointed his sword tip toward the direction of the applause.
In a barely noticeable shadow, countless shadow birds from who knows where gathered together.
It passed through the stone pillar—a person cloaked in a cape woven like black crow feathers.
Frostsilver’s expression was calm: “Thousand-Crow Eye.”
Only Aurina had a face full of pride; she understood the applause—it was applauding her.
“You two-faced unicorn sorceress,” Thousand-Crow Eye laughed. “I knew early on you harbored disloyalty; you actually tried to frame me.”
“Maybe not?”
Frostsilver said. “You have no right to judge my loyalty to allies.”
Thousand-Crow Eye’s face was masked under a layer of mysterious shadow; two points like starlight eyes looked toward Frostsilver.
Frostsilver frowned; she only felt Thousand-Crow Eye’s gaze like a scraping knife, scraping over her soul.
This feeling made her sense of crisis surge—it had been a very long time since anyone could read her heart.
“The medal of Frostfluff Yari—you still keep it close,” Thousand-Crow Eye said. “Tsk tsk, didn’t expect the always sharp-tongued and disdainful of arcanists Frostsilver sorceress to have an unknown side.”
Frostsilver remained silent, secretly casting a spell, but she only felt someone wrestling with her.
The stale air in the entire treasury was stirred by invisible hands.
Richard said, “Where are you hiding?”
Right, where was he hiding?
There wasn’t much place to hide here.
Aurina fell into thought.
“Regret, doubt, wavering, and paranoia,” Thousand-Crow Eye looked toward Richard and laughed.
“The dragon-slaying hero isn’t as devout as in the legends—what drives you here? The inertia of the first half of your life, revenge, or seeking justice for yourself? But I dare say, faith and devotion are placed far back.”
This was the first time Richard encountered this situation; he always had divine grace protecting him, invulnerable to all spells.
Not to mention being mind-read, but he immediately focused on the matter at hand.
Frostsilver, who had failed in the secret spell duel, suddenly shouted, “Attack!”
A light power immediately infused into Richard and Aurina’s bodies—it was an acceleration spell. Richard struck fiercely, like a tiger.
Carrying Aurina, he strode forward; the heavy armor on his body clanked.
Even Aurina, with her thighs clamped tightly, her body jerked backward, forcing her to grab Richard’s helmet.
“I know where you’re hiding,” Aurina suddenly lifted her head, her face full of confident smile, her index finger slightly bent pointing at Thousand-Crow Eye. “You must be hiding in the Dread Dragon’s shit pile.”
“Ridiculous, even bringing a child,” Thousand-Crow Eye’s figure blurred, retreating backward at extreme speed—he was basically flying.
“Hold!” Frostsilver said. “Bouncy ball!”
A bouncy ball composed of force fields appeared out of thin air around Thousand-Crow Eye, precisely enclosing him inside.
Force fields could only be destroyed by very few means; this bouncy ball could trap enemies offensively, or protect oneself defensively to avoid harm from others.
Even better, generally speaking, the target’s magic resistance couldn’t affect it.
The pale purple bouncy ball trapped Thousand-Crow Eye inside.
Richard trusted Frostsilver; he stepped over the treasure chests on the ground, directly lunging forward in a bow step.
Under the acceleration spell and his own immense strength.
Richard flew across the ground, crossing nearly ten meters in one go.
The acceleration was so great that Aurina’s legs loosened, directly falling off his head, then immediately hugging his neck with her slender hands, her whole body fluttering like a red flag behind.
Before Richard’s bow step lunge, his sword tip had already lifted; as he leaped into the air, the sword tip was in position, pointing straight at Thousand-Crow Eye, the sword tip flashing white light, like a swordfish leaping from under the sea surface.
At this time, only a spell similar to short-range teleport could escape the bouncy ball; Richard had seen plenty.
The fire scale accessory on him could give him a similar ability.
Frostsilver’s eyes burst with blue light: “Dimension anchor!”
She instantly cast the spell; blue light shot from her fingertip, hitting the unavoidable Thousand-Crow Eye.
The blue light turned into a semi-transparent ship anchor, directly hanging on his ankle, sealing his escape route by teleporting out of the bouncy ball.
Between Richard and Thousand-Crow Eye, only a layer of nearly pseudo-invincible bouncy ball remained.
But Richard believed Frostsilver could dispel the bouncy ball the moment his sword tip approached, letting his sword tip pierce Thousand-Crow Eye.
Her reaction was timely; he had never seen any caster cast as fast, accurate, and ruthless as her.
Thousand-Crow Eye merely waved his slender fingers, his whole person turning into a shadow, directly passing through the bouncy ball, drifting like a ghost. Richard stabbed empty air, his center of gravity shifting forward and losing balance; he went with the unbalanced forward momentum, running straight to stab at Thousand-Crow Eye.
He was fast, comparable to a armored warhorse charging. But Thousand-Crow Eye was faster, flying high up: “I set a trap here long ago!”
Thousand-Crow Eye raised his hand; the surrounding shadows all jumped, turning into blue, ever-changing flames.
Countless flames constantly changed forms, sometimes red birds born from desire fire, sometimes blue birds dying in fire; the joyful cries of birth and the mournful screams of death rose and fell with each other.
The twisted fires moved; they were formless devils, holding burning flames in their hands—though weak, everyone claimed they could incinerate all things in the world.
Only the Dread Dragon’s breath could surpass them.
Thousand-Crow Eye shouted, “Die in the fire.”
Richard had no worry at all; he directly flickered and disappeared into the air, appearing next moment beside Thousand-Crow Eye in the air, his greatsword chopping straight down at the head, the greatsword’s white light overwhelming all miscellaneous lights.
Thousand-Crow Eye screamed, raising his hand to block, but under the greatsword’s chop, turned into a flame, dissipating into the air.
The fire demons below all threw flames at Richard; those flames had various shapes, but all seemed to have eyes, pouncing at Richard.
Blue flames surrounded Richard in an instant; he was confident having slain a dragon, bathed in dragon blood, henceforth unafraid of flames.
But he discovered his armor was twisting and dissolving, a stinging pain assaulting him from all over.
This wasn’t just flames!
Richard fell toward the ground, half-kneeling on landing, smashing the ground with a fist to steady himself.
Due to inertia, the damaged shoulder armor directly fell to the ground, looking like foam dissolved by gasoline.
“I always like this move,” Thousand-Crow Eye appeared.
“No one can see through it—alright, you go first now.”
Blue light surrounded Richard in an instant; he disappeared immediately.
Frostsilver instantly identified this as a maze spell. In a short time, Richard had to challenge the maze with his own brain.
“Crackle!”
Thunder roared echoing in the treasury.
Lightning flashed and thunder boomed; dust on the treasure chests jumped up, the dancing lightning electrocuting dozens of emerging fire demons to death or injury, leaving only seven or eight.
“Ow!”
Aurina falling from the air, supported herself with one hand on the ground to dodge the thrown flames.
Thousand-Crow Eye tried to cast a spell to capture Aurina, but the unformed spell directly disappeared under a rose-red light.
Frostsilver saw through his spell and directly countered it.
“You don’t think about taking her away.”
Saying so, Frostsilver was considering escape routes.
Too many resources wasted on Thousand-Crow Eye’s fake body; none of them saw the flaw, plus the surprise attack had failed—this wasn’t important; more importantly, her own secret….
“Your operation has already failed,” Thousand-Crow Eye flew in mid-air and said. “The entire palace’s people are alerted, and I’m very curious what your secret is?”
As he spoke, his eyes like starlight in the night grew brighter, looking toward Frostsilver.
Aurina didn’t know where she got a long pole from; she ran up, pole-vaulted toward Thousand-Crow Eye, waving her hands in the air like a cat pouncing at a bird.
“Delivering yourself?”
Thousand-Crow Eye was very curious what this baby dragon girl was thinking.
Earlier, he observed from the dark; to avoid detection, he first observed the two “adults'” thoughts and tailored illusions to deceive them.
So, Thousand-Crow Eye cast his already sharp and profound eyes toward Aurina.
Aurina only felt some annoying little bug nailing her skull.
Gah, besides the strongest little bug, who dares touch this king’s skull?
Thinking so, Aurina’s hand forcefully slapped her head, as if grabbing some slender bug and yanking it.
Thousand-Crow Eye’s eyes directly exploded, bursting out red flames, as if seeing something he shouldn’t.
Just then, Aurina’s petite figure blocked his anomaly, because she had arrived before Thousand-Crow Eye, kicking at him with one foot, shouting: “Gah!”
A soft white little foot—just one kick; theoretically far less terrifying than Richard’s ordinary sword.
But Thousand-Crow Eye still turned into a mass of shadow, drifting to dodge Aurina’s kick. Aurina kicked empty air, her foot pushed off the wall and made a U-turn kill.
“This ends here!” Thousand-Crow Eye’s eyes like fire; he opened his long sleeves, a blue light net pouncing toward Aurina.
At this moment, Richard appeared in a burst of blue light; he luckily walked out of the maze.
Frostsilver immediately opened her mouth, spitting out a word: “Swap.”
She could directly swap two friendly creatures.
The petite figure before the light net disappeared, replaced by Richard’s big guy’s figure; he slashed with his sword flashing white light, directly breaking the light net.
Thousand-Crow Eye was startled; he couldn’t turn into shadow again in a short time, so he immediately used a life-saving wondrous item.
“Life protect!”
Extremely fast speech; immediately, hundreds of flesh people sleeping in cocoons far away shared life with him.
At the same time, flickering flames ignited on Thousand-Crow Eye, immediately forming solid armor according to his will.
Thousand-Crow Eye didn’t seek to avoid injury, but not to die in one hit—that was hundreds of lives.
Richard’s holy smite chopped into him. In an instant, hundreds of lives escaped the prison of “life” by death, blood dyeing the cocoons red.
As for the flame armor on Thousand-Crow Eye, it had no presence at all, like some costume draped on, its only use decorative.
Thousand-Crow Eye died.
Richard had just landed when he heard Aurina’s full-of-energy voice.
“Mine! This is mine!”
Aurina pounced from somewhere toward Thousand-Crow Eye’s corpse—he had become a pile of blue light dust.
From it, she grabbed the most expensive wondrous item, a blue eye-shaped accessory.
Richard glanced and said, “It has the aura of an evil god.”
“Anyway, the valuable ones are all mine,” Aurina said while grabbing the broken light net her tail caught. “I licked it.”
She made as if to lick, but seeing the “black hill” nearby, said, “This king will lick it outside.”
Unfortunately, on the way out, Richard forcibly confiscated all the spoils, to distribute later.
Aurina rode on Richard’s head, hands forcefully smashing his helmet: “Give back my spoils! You thief!”
Richard hurried to run toward the exit; Frostsilver added from behind: “He’s robbing.”
“No, it’s stealing! Stealing!”
Richard: “Frostsilver, no need to quibble with her.”
“There is a need,” Frostsilver said. “Dragons can’t accept their strength being inferior, leading to no wealth, so they usually say stealing. I’m making her face reality.”
“Then what?”
“Nothing.”
“You’re not retaliating, are you?”
“Just letting her experience dragon life’s helplessness early,” Frostsilver said. “How could I hold a grudge against a little girl?”
“The door’s here; we’re going outside,” Aurina couldn’t wait, kicking the door from atop Richard’s head. Richard quickly assumed a horse stance. Aurina kicked the door open with one foot: “…. Give me the spoils—wow, so many hard-shelled little bugs.”
Outside the door, the plate-armored guards were in chaos, charging here, about to surround this only exit watertight.