In the small cabin nestled in the forest to the east.
Mount Huolong.
This was the place where the fire dragon was first discovered, so it was given a straightforward, easily understood name.
A few days ago, for some objective reasons, Gong Qu and his companions took a break to recuperate.
On this early morning, after a good night's sleep and warming up, the four members of the Fire Dragon Subjugation Squad used a teleport anchor to arrive at the foot of a mountain.
"Remember to watch your positioning during the fight. If the aggro shifts to Ying or Lisa in the back row, you'd better run first and don't get greedy. Especially you, Ying."
"Alright, I get it! Let's go hunt down that big lizard already! I owe it a tail-slap payback!"
Ying looked a bit more mature than before, but that recklessness of hers was still impossible to tame. The moment she opened her mouth, she broke character.
Seeing even the most excitable of them quiet down, Gong Qu took a step forward.
"All units ready! Fire Dragon Subjugation begins!"
Keqing, Ying, and Lisa stepped forward in unison, each putting their foot down.
The four of them stood shoulder to shoulder, brimming with confidence and courage for the battle to come.
If this were a movie scene, their faces would surely be lined with the invincible aura of Araki's manga.
...
"Roar!"
As they reached the mountain's summit platform.
The fire dragon immediately noticed the four tiny figures, and two of them were already familiar to it.
Without so much as a roar of warning.
A massive fireball came crashing down from the sky.
"Scatter!"
Gong Qu's commanding shout rang out.
The team instantly understood, dispersing in all directions.
But their overall formation held firm. Meeting Keqing's gaze, Gong Qu summoned a vine as thick as a barrel from the ground. It twined around Keqing's waist, launching her skyward.
The fire dragon had never seen such a curious technique before and arrogantly waited for their attack to commence.
Keqing didn't hesitate, hurling a lightning wedge straight at the dragon.
"Don't blink!"
With her sword pointing upward, she instantly teleported to the lightning wedge's location.
The wedge exploded, releasing countless arcs of electricity that lashed at the giant dragon.
But the dragon's scales were incredibly tough, and those few sparks barely left a scratch.
Yet Keqing had plenty more tricks up her sleeve.
After two consecutive lightning slashes that made the dragon wince in pain,
She immediately triggered her elemental burst.
"Shadow-strike, sword unsheathed!"
Zzt, zzt, zzt!
Her diamond sword slashed tirelessly at the dragon's scales, inflicting only a faint sting.
The proof lay in Gong Qu's eyes, the dragon's health bar hardly moved at all.
Enraged, the fire dragon's mouth filled with searing flames, ready to incinerate this pesky little cat.
But it wasn't the dragon's turn yet.
"Hee-ya!"
Ying, holding her enchanted bow, released a wind-infused arrow that whistled through the air and lodged deep in the dragon's upper jaw.
Scalding dragon blood dripped down.
"ROAR!"
Writhing in pain, the dragon soared even higher, but by then Keqing had already been caught by the vine, slowly lowering her back to the ground.
BOOM!
A thunderous roar shook the skies.
A moment ago, the sky had been clear, now it was shrouded in a mass of black clouds.
"Lightning strikes can really hurt, you know."
Lisa, gripping her legendary wind chime staff, summoned a terrifying thunderstorm. At this high altitude, her cooldown time was cut by more than half.
Crack! BOOM!
Light flashed before the sound, followed by a shockwave that spared no one.
Nature's fury was unleashed mercilessly upon the fire dragon.
Even with its high elemental resistance, getting struck by millions of volts of electricity left the dragon reeling. It crashed straight down from the sky.
"Now's our chance!"
Gong Qu plunged his longsword into the ground, unleashing a torrent of Dendro energy that sprouted countless vines and roots. These plants grew rapidly, forming a cradle that caught the dragon in its brief daze.
Only this cradle was more like an inescapable prison.
Soon, only the dragon's two wings were exposed.
"It's bound tight! Keqing, let's go! Focus our fire on its right wing! Once it loses mobility, we can kite it on the ground!"
"Got it!"
Keqing downed a blue potion to ensure her elemental burst had zero cooldown, then, like Gong Qu, was hurled by the powerful vines straight at the dragon.
"Heeyah!"
Gong Qu, with no concern for elegance, executed a mighty mountain-cleaving slash.
With the strength of a Minecraft Creator-in-training, easily exceeding hundreds or even thousands of tons, he struck the dragon's wing root.
RAAARGH!!
The pain snapped the dragon out of its daze, but the resilient vines held fast, binding it so tightly it could only struggle in vain.
Gong Qu was flung back, his diamond sword stuck fast in the dragon's sturdy bone.
Keqing quickly closed in, unleashing another elemental burst.
This time, she didn't slash at the wing membrane like a gentle massage, each strike landed squarely on the diamond sword embedded in the dragon's wing root.
The diamond sword, like a giant nail, was driven deeper and deeper with every blow, nearly severing the dragon's wing entirely.
But the dragon was a legendary creature, after all.
Within seconds, the wound Gong Qu had cut began to burn with flames, as though it intended to fuse the severed limb back with fire.
"Not a chance!"
Gong Qu approached again, dumping an entire barrel of water over the dragon's head.
The infinite water source, capable of quenching even magma, cascaded down.
The dragon's regenerative flames, which could have repaired the limb and broken free of the vines, lost much of their power.
"Now! Hit it with everything we've got!"
Ying nodded silently, half lidded eyes focused on the dragon's gaping wound.
In that moment, she was no longer her usual goofball self, she was a battle hardened Valkyrie.
Lisa gathered an even more fearsome storm, preparing for a final, devastating blow.
As for the two close-range fighters, their methods were simple yet effective.
One kept hacking at the dragon's wound, preventing it from healing.
The other reinforced the vines every time the dragon's struggles broke them, maintaining control.
"I'm ready! My darlings, back off!"
Gong Qu and Keqing exchanged a look, and Keqing was the first to retreat.
Gong Qu unleashed another surge of Dendro energy, wrapping the dragon's body tightly, leaving only the injured right wing exposed, then focused on maintaining the buffs for his three companions as he began to withdraw.
Ying put away her bow and drew the Primordial Jade Cutter, her eyes calm as she counted down the seconds until Gong Qu was clear of the blast zone.
"3!"
"2!"
"1!"
"Let it thunder!"
As Ying's elemental power combined with Gong Qu's Dendro energy, a powerful elemental reaction was triggered, a rare supercharged reaction in the Minecraft world.
In that instant, Lisa brought down a lightning spear like divine judgment itself.
BOOOOOM!
A bolt of lightning that bridged heaven and earth stole away all the light around them.
Amplified by the supercharged reaction, the already ferocious lightning rampaged down the dragon's wounded wing,
Then ignited the dragon's internal combustion organs.
The resulting explosion was so massive that even Gong Qu hadn't anticipated it.
A massive mushroom cloud rose from the earth.
Author's Note:
Hey everyone,
I just wanted to take a moment to thank you for reading and supporting my story so far. It truly means a lot to me.
Lately, it's been tough. The market is getting quiet, and the motivation to keep going is slipping. But I really want to finish this story not just for myself, but for all of you who've followed it until now.
If you've been enjoying the journey, I humbly ask for your support. Even just one Power Stone from each of you would help so much. It's not just about numbers, it's about knowing someone out there is cheering for this story to continue.
Your small support gives me big motivation. Let's reach the end of this journey together. 💙
With gratitude,
—MrBehringer
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