Read Daily Updated Light Novel, Web Novel, Chinese Novel, Japanese And Korean Novel Online.
Stop Calling Me "Mate"! I Only Defeated You Once, Not Married You! (Web Novel) - Volume 8, Chapter 81: I Am the Silver Dragons Crown Princess
Volume 8, Chapter 81: I Am the Silver Dragons Crown Princess
This chapter is updated by JustRead.pl
Noa hopped down from the leopard’s head, made a quick check of Moon and the girls’ injuries, and, seeing nothing serious, finally set her mind at ease.“Big sister, is the fighting on the border over?” Moon asked.
Noa nodded. “It’s basically wrapped up. Anna is leading the cleanup. I came back ahead of time.”
“Oh, oh—are you hurt anywhere, big sister?” Moon asked with concern, hurrying up to run her hands over Noa and check.
Noa wasn’t sure whether this was genuine concern or an excuse to cop a feel, but she stood there honestly and let Moon touch her all over.
“No injuries. I’ve never seen that ‘near-ancient peril-form’ before, but it wasn’t too much trouble to handle.”
At that, Little Moon dove straight into her sister’s arms, threw her arms around Noa’s neck, and planted a hard kiss on her cheek, basking.
“Big sister is amazing!”
By now, Noa was used to Moon being clingy at any moment. Her big-sister complex was getting worse, but it was bearable. You got used to it—like going out with a soft, sweet-smelling, oversized dragon-girl charm hanging off you.
Noa rubbed Moon’s little head, then looked to Aurora.
“Those Wraith Night-Crows must have been rough. Tell me how you beat them.”
“Oh, oh, okay—so first we had Muse...”
But before Aurora could start the review, the ground under their feet trembled without warning.
Noa yanked Moon tight at the waist, NvIight (Original source) locking her in her arms, and thrust her other hand toward Aurora and Muse.
“Careful!”
Fortunately, Xiaoxue reacted just as fast. She ran to the two little dragon girls, used her adult height advantage, and scooped both into her arms—only then managing to keep her own footing.
“An earthquake?” Aurora blurted.
Holding Moon tight and bracing her stance as the shaking continued, Noa fixed her gaze on the ground, reading the frequency and amplitude of the tremors.
At length, Noa said:
“Doesn’t feel like an ordinary quake. At this point, I’m guessing it’s more noise kicked up by some peril-form we’ve never seen.”
Before her words fell, Sherry’s voice came from not far away.
“Your Highness! Your Highness!”
Sherry ran up at a half-sprint. She’d taken various wounds, large and small; bruises marred her delicate face, and she hadn’t even had time to clean up.
“Your Highnesses—are you all right?”
Noa shook her head. “What is it, Sherry?”
“Message from Foreign Affairs—an ultra-large peril-form has awakened. That quake just now was it shifting its body.”
Sherry rattled the words off—clearly the oppressive aura of this peril-form was intense.
A bad feeling rose in Noa.
“Just moving can shake the ground like that?”
Sherry nodded. “Yes. That’s why we’re calling it ultra-large.”
Aurora arched a brow, curious.
“That exaggerated? How big could it even be?”
“...
What... what even is that thing—how can it be that big?!”
At the Silver Dragons’ territorial border, young Aurora was completely struck dumb.
Half an hour earlier, she’d been skeptical about how exaggerated this “ultra-large” peril-form could be. Half an hour later, feeling the extreme heat pushed by its breathing alone, the girl felt her understanding of peril-forms edging toward collapse.
Because she’d fought on the front all night, the crown princess Noa was already spent in body and mind, but she still dragged her exhausted self to command here.
“Sherry, why did you bring the Highnesses too? This is dangerous. Get them out of here, quickly!” Anna urged.
Sherry scratched at her temple in embarrassment and gave a shy smile.
“I couldn’t help it, my lady—they insisted on coming.”
“Reckless...”
“Don’t blame Sherry, Aunt Anna,” Noa said. “Xiaoxue and the girls can take care of themselves. And Moon and the others really do need some live combat to grow.”
With Noa smoothing things over, Anna relented.
“Fine. But, Lady Moon, you and your Highnesses can only watch from the rear. You’re not to join the fight.”
“Yes, Aunt Anna!” Moon said, utterly solemn.
Anna wiped the sweat from her face and squinted toward the ultra-large peril-form ahead.
“Its body temperature keeps rising, which is driving the air temperature up. If we don’t finish this quickly, we could trigger a wildfire.”
Sherry stepped up as well, analyzing:
“And the rising temperature means the peril-form is waking further. I don’t dare imagine what it will be when fully awake—if it goes on a rampage, who could stop it?”
The ultra-large peril-form before them lay in a “prone” state.
“Even like this, its body is the size of a small mountain. It’s grown for decades—like a full giant dragon.”
That quake just now had been no more than it turning in its sleep.
“If it really goes mad—like Sherry said—no one will stop it.”
“The back looks like a bird’s wings, but the abdomen is more like an insect-type peril-form.”
Sherry’s brow furrowed.
“I’d bet on a hybrid peril-form.”
Biologically, peril-forms split into single-type and hybrid-type.
Single-types are like the Wraith Night-Crows and that leopard—each has a clear animal analogue in nature; their attack modes match those analogues, and so do their weaknesses. Easier to deal with.
Hybrid-types are different. They mash shapes together until they’re “unlike” anything—strengths and flaws mixed, weak points hard to discern.
Like the one before them: a hard shell and a body beyond reason. On raw stats alone, it was already a nightmare.
“Since it’s an undocumented near-ancient peril-form, we’ll provisionally code-name it ‘Mandrill.’”
With that, Anna gave orders to the guard corps:
“All Silver Dragon soldiers, hear me! Primary objective: defeat the Mandrill before it fully awakens. Secondary objective: drive it at least three hundred kilometers beyond Silver Dragon territory. If anyone has a way to put it back to sleep, report to me immediately. Squads One and Two, close from the left! Squads Three and Four, with me! Sherry, take temporary command of Squad Five; act on opportunity. Sherry’s personal squad: direct protection of the Highnesses. Move, now!”
The orders were crisp. The Silver Dragon troops began to move at once.
This wasn’t the girls’ first time this close to a battlefield, but it was the most “near-ancient” field they’d seen.
Their command, decisive efficient execution, and on-the-fly tactics were all the fruit of Rosvisser’s usual traning for these soldiers.
As for those three who could each hold off swaths of enemies alone—that sort of thing wasn’t the truest battlefield—call it clubbing fish.
Back to the point.
Under Anna’s lead, the Silver Dragon soldiers engaged the ultra-large peril-form Mandrill.
The opening went well enough: suppression spells slowed Mandrill’s awakening and kept its consciousness muzzy; at the same time, several other squads cast the kind of magic used to drive a beast away.
One way or another, if they had to kill this ultra-large thing, they at least needed it a decent distance from Silver Dragon lands.
And Mandrill, thick and sluggish, allowed itself to be herded, showing no obvious resistance.
Until...
A Silver Dragon soldier, using dragonfire, accidentally struck Mandrill in the eye.
“Damn!”
Realizing the situation was about to change sharply, Anna shouted:
“Fall back to a safe distance, now!”
Sure enough, a flash of burning pain jolted Mandrill.
Its eyes snapped open, those vertical pupils blasting murderous light.
The next second, Mandrill’s massive body slowly rose.
That simple act of standing blew nearby dragon-form soldiers off their stations.
Countless dragonfires and fire spells splashed its carapace without harming it in the slightest.
And when it stood to its full height, everyone present couldn’t help swallowing.
“This thing... even in my younger era, would have been an absolute powerhouse...” the ancestor said, stunned.
“Retreat! Retreat! Ugh!!”
Anna was still directing the withdrawal when a single tail sweep from Mandrill caught her.
That tail ran to hundreds of meters; when it struck dragon-form Anna, she bent in midair like a fly under a swatter.
Her whole dragon body went tumbling.
Sherry, fast as lightning, just managed to catch her.
Sherry brought Anna down to the ground. Anna was unconscious now, unable to command.
Sherry’s brows knit tight.
“Damn it... how did it come to this!”
Noa looked to the front. The sky seethed with Silver Dragon soldiers, attacking Mandrill again and again.
But their strikes were pinpricks—no substantive damage at all.
And that, in turn, utterly enraged this ultra-large peril-form from antiquity.
“Roooaaar!!!!”
Mandrill’s bellow shook heaven and earth. The shock wave from its voice obliterated the surrounding trees in an instant.
Even nearby peaks crumbled under the roar; the ground heaved again with violent tremors.
Even in dragon form, the Silver Dragon troops were as insignificant as gnats before Mandrill.
That crushing, terrifying aura filled Moon and the girls with raw fear.
Xiaoxue wrapped Aurora and Muse tight in her arms;
Moon, for her part, clung hard to Noa’s sleeve.
“Run! It’s about to go berserk!”
“Don’t... don’t eat me! Help! Help me!!”
We’re... not its match at all...
...
Despair rolled in like a black tide.
Cold sweat trickled down Sherry’s temple. She shifted back into full dragon form at once and said:
“Your Highness, I’ll get you out—up you go!”
Xiaoxue didn’t hesitate; she lifted Muse onto the dragon’s back.
“Princess Noa—Lady Moon!”
Noa’s eyes locked on Mandrill hammering the Silver Dragon ranks, watching her people go down one after another. A fire kindled slowly in her chest.
She pulled her gaze back, took Moon’s hand, and said softly:
“Link up with Sherry.”
“B-big sister... you’re not coming with us?”
“I have to stay and hold Mandrill, or no one gets away.”
“But Noa... You can’t be serious!”
Anna lurched up on Sherry’s back, hauling herself upright by the straps. “Princess Noa... you must go. If anything happens to you, I can’t answer to Their Majesties—”
“If everyone dies, you can’t answer either.”
Without another word, Noa scooped Moon up and tossed her onto the dragon’s back.
“But, Princess Noa...”
Sherry tried to speak as well.
“I am the Silver Dragons’ crown princess. Are you going to defy my order, Sherry?”
“Your Highness...”
In that moment, Sherry seemed to see Her Majesty’s shadow in Noa.
Cool, decisive, unshakably firm.
After a brief hesitation, Sherry spread her wings and took to the air.
Noa let out a long breath, picked up an axe from the ground, and walked forward on heavy steps.
She propped up a wounded Silver Dragon soldier. “Get to safety and rest.”
“Y-Your Highness... you can’t! You mustn’t—ugh...”
His wounds were too severe to stop her. He could only watch that small back walk toward Mandrill.
“Your Highness... Your Highness?!”
“Princess Noa! Stop her! Hurry! Ah... my leg...”
She passed through the battlefield. Around her were her kin, gravely wounded; behind her was the family she loved most.
Noa stopped, less than a hundred meters from Mandrill.
The contrast between the huge and the small had long since passed “exaggerated.”
It was an ant against an elephant.
Noa drew a deep breath and said quietly:
“Then we’ll use that one.”
The ancestor in her mindspace gave a dry chuckle.
“Good. Let’s go... Let’s do this, Noa!”
