Hot red blood splattered across Adama’s face as his blade slithered into the shoulder joint of a large crimson lizard, causing him to give a small grimace in pain. He immediately retracted Hearthblade and dodged to the side, evading the blast of orange fire from the beast’s open mouth. It tried to track him, but its wounded leg soon collapsed under its weight. With two flicks of his wrist, Adama wiped the blood off his face and brought his sword down in a decapitating strike. He stepped out of the way of the subsequent spurt of the creature’s lifeblood, deflecting the claw strike of a different monster as he did.

  Their party had been assaulted by a gang of Salamanders, large lizards loosely related to dragons. They’d been getting attacked by these things all afternoon, with little opportunity for rest. With burning blood that scalded anything it touched and fiery breath that had decent range, Salamanders were troublesome opponents at close and far ranges. Fortunately, they were largely Level 2, at worst Level 3, so they posed only a mild threat to Adama even when they surrounded him. Which they did right now. To an onlooker, the swordsman was a blur of white and green as he fought against a small horde of the red reptiles.

  Adama would have chosen to deal with them from afar, were he alone. Instead, he dived into the thick of the enemy, distracting them while his entourage shot arrows from afar. The elves were precise and deadly, making up for their weaker physiques with uncanny accuracy. Every arrow seemed to find an enemy’s weak spot, killing or debilitating numerous monsters in just a few seconds. Valar was particularly adroit, firing projectiles off at a blistering pace, but Theresa was nearly able to match him. With Adama to distract the targets, and finish them off when they were crippled, the party chewed through the first Salamander horde like a tornado through a shack.

  They couldn’t do the same with the next eight.

  The Salamander’s hot blood damaged even the magic fortified arrows the elves shot. They had brought a lot of arrows, but nowhere near enough to afford to lose dozens on them on every fight. Even if their arrows withstood the blood, harvesting them was time consuming and hazardous. The elves needed to pull back a bit, allowing Adama to do the brunt of the fighting. That didn’t mean he was on his own, however:

  “Mighty Protector!”

  Emi’s buff magic made the swordsman more deadly and much more difficult to damage. Adama’s reaction and movement speed reached all new highs, turning him into a killing machine. The Salamander blood had caused his uncovered face and hands to sustain some burns, but that was when he didn’t have Emi’s buff. Now, between the buff and his dragon’s hide cloak, he could wade through gallons of the stuff with relative impunity. Adama was an emerald eyed demon, hacking and slashing his way through monster after monster, never showing any appearance of tiring. The elves largely watched this spectacle in openmouthed disbelief. In one lull between battles, Valar couldn’t help an amazed comment:

  “I’m glad you’re our ally.”

  Adama just cracked his neck and gave him a feral grin, a few patches of blood still on his face:

  “I’ll bet you are.”

  And with that, they wordlessly continued onward.

  Most of the other places in the Valley of Dragons weren’t quite as dangerous as this one. Adama had chosen this route because it was the fastest way to get to a region commonly believed to be dominated by Sun Dragons. It just so happened that it was dominated by fire-based monsters and extremely deadly for most of its explorers. While Salamanders were annoying to deal with, they were the least of this region’s dangers:

  “ROAR!!”

  A massive, red winged creature soared overhead, spewing a torrent of blood red fire into their crevice. Adama was probably the only member of their gang who could have survived this assault without forewarning. Luckily, the powerful beats of the beast’s wings had been picked up in advance by the elves’ hearing, and Emi had erected her barrier just in time. Her translucent grey shield shone with the stress of the heat, Emi’s knuckles tightening on her staff as she fought to uphold the barrier. She wouldn’t have to wait long.

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  Adama lurked in the shadows of a cave far above, and he made his appearance in dramatic fashion. In a flurry of strikes, he planted several Rippling Swords into the sweet spot of the dragon’s neck, just under its jaw. It erupted immediately in a small fountain of blood, river of fire cutting off at the same time. With a shriek, the creature took off with another strong flap of its wings, leaving as soon as it’d come. Adama declined to give chase, allowing the Level 4 flame drake to disappear into the horizon.

  The dragons of the valley may have resembled some of their kin in the Dungeon, but they didn’t burn with the same reflexive hostility for Adventurers. They were still vicious, and would often attack on sight, yet different species had their own personality. Most were less insistent upon fighting to the death, compared to proper Dungeon monsters. It was one of the facts that allowed their party to venture into this region, despite the relative Level of the monsters.

  As they walked, another problem made itself manifest. The heat.

  The deeper they walked into the Valley, the hotter it got. The sun wasn’t particularly bright this far north, but the center of the Valley pulsed with an oppressive heat that radiated steadily throughout the entire location. The elves were built for a forest, not the desert, so the increasingly scorching conditions were doing a number on all of them. Adama kept a watchful eye over his compatriots, finally making a move when things got too bad. He pulled out a vial of orange liquid and turned to hand it to Valar:

  “Drink.”

  To his credit, the elf only hesitated for a moment before taking the potion and downing it. Valar’s complexion instantly improved, eyes widening in amazement as his body went from painfully overheating to pleasantly cool. Adama elaborated without being prompted:

  “Custom Fire Resistance potion. Won’t save you from dragon’s breath, but it’ll take the edge off the heat.”

  It was a custom version because, while was much weaker than the normal Fire Resistance potion, it traded that effectiveness for duration. Once they’d all drunk one, the elves should be okay for the next 8 hours. As Level 3 adventurers, Adama and Emi could take the heat and remain in fighting form, but Lilli and the others would need to rely on the potion to remain functional as they went deeper into the Valley. Naaza had given him the recipe, thinking they’d only need the potion for Lilli, but Adama had managed to mass produce it on their long journey here.

  Their party continued walking for a few hours, fighting off more Salamanders and some Wyverns, before deciding to take a break. They found a cluster of tunnels and set up camp, the others grabbing a few hours of rest while Adama stood watch. They woke up when the potions wore off, drinking another round before setting off again. Adama had only managed to make enough for 6 total doses for each of the weaker party members, so their time was limited.

  On the upside, eventually most of the locals seemed to take a hint and leave them alone. They still needed to hide from the occasional fire drake ambush, but word seemed to have gotten around to the weaker monsters that messing with their party was a fool’s errand. To make matters even better, they were approaching the region broadly known to contain Sun Dragons. Adama checked the map and saw that they were just an hour’s walk away. The elves still had 2 hours on their second dose of potion, so they were making good time. Yet as their party turned the next corner, their progress came to a screeching halt.

  Up ahead, a great quadrupedal beast stared at them with hateful dark eyes. Its skin was purple and rotting, absent enough in some places that midnight black bones were totally exposed. It lacked wings, but it was wide and tall, standing higher than three men even on all fours. The Plague Dragon gave a bloodcurdling shriek at the sight of the party, before proceeding to vomit a projectile of pitch-black sludge through the air. Immediately, Adama called for a retreat. The party turned back through the corner right as the flying gunk landed where they’d stood just a second before. The subsequent sound of sizzling rock told the party just how close they’d come to death.

  Adama’s mind was moving a mile a minute as he led the group in their retreat, running back the way they’d come. Why was a Plague Dragon here? Had it wandered in from one of the other areas? Should they turn and fight it?

  Plague Dragon’s were Level 4, like the fire drake. They were mindless, and relatively feeble in comparison to their other Level 4 contemporaries, but they made up for that with their poison. Even getting close to a Plague Dragon was enough to poison many, thanks to the deadly fumes its body gave off. Its blood was even deadlier, and Adama didn’t have much built-in resistance against poisons. His Abnormal Resistance was only I-grade, which would help him survive, though he wasn’t sure it would be enough. He had antidotes, but drinking those mid-fight was always difficult. Scaring it away would be next to impossible, as Plague Dragons were well known to be uniquely vicious and unwilling to retreat in the face of resistance. Even if he could beat it one-on-one, the others might be in danger. Not to mention the fact that they needed to conserve their resources for the fights ahead.

  So, Adama had given the order to run. They had plenty of time to pursue another route to the Sun Dragon region. He heard the Plague Dragon chasing after them, but its speed was nothing special. In these cramped confines, it would struggle to run them down, especially with Adama covering their retreat. He turned and watched as the fiend rounded the corner, firing off a few Rippling Sword and carving some chunks of flesh off the hideous abomination. The subsequent shriek was more annoyed than pained, though Adama watched as it slowed its pursuit marginally, wary of more surprise attacks. It gave a throaty cough, clearly preparing to shoot off another blob of poison, and Adama called out:

  “Lilli, magic sword.”

  The prum girl pulled out her red magic dagger, cracked from its usage in the Beol mountains. She tossed it to Adama’s open hand, and he used the blade to destroy the Plague Dragon’s incoming attack, waving it and unleashing a small wave of fire. Just as he did that, however, things went from bad to worse.

  Unbeknownst to Adama, there were several bags of bait that had been laid down in the rocks up ahead of them. They’d been placed by shadowy figures, who’d been tailing them this entire time. The bait had quickly attracted a significant group of Salamanders, and they milled about in one large group. The lizards hissed as they saw the adventurers, moving in to crush them with their superior numbers. Adama clicked his tongue in irritation.

  This was a trap.