As the fire dragons flew, even without visual confirmation, they could convey information to each other by the constant fanning of their wings or by sensing air pressure, thus determining their positions and achieving coordinated maneuvers.
Regarding body movements, while fire dragons did not have highly standardized actions, their stable family structure meant that young dragons would always follow their parents, allowing them to inherit learned movements and achieve consistency.
Li Fan was still contemplating the reasons behind the fire dragons' synchronized cooperation when the mischievous fire dragon fully charged its fireball and unleashed it with an open mouth.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Li Fan knew from the trajectory that it wouldn't hit. However, what he didn't expect was the sudden puff of black smoke that appeared before him.
Little Dummy had also charged up a fireball.
Was this an alternating attack?
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Releasing fireballs simultaneously while flying, Little Dummy's execution was clearly less fluid and relaxed than Mischief's.
The hit rate was even less to be mentioned; they were all wildly off target.
But the Qilin Dragon, sensing the incoming fireballs, would naturally have to shift its body and alter its flight path to evade.
As the saying goes, "It's not as good to shoot accurately as it is to hit well."
The Qilin Dragon dodged and weaved, only to collide with a wildly off-target fireball.
Amidst the black smoke, flames erupted. The stumbling Qilin Dragon, ignoring the burning flames on its body, quickly corrected its flight posture.
Mischief, moving at sufficient speed, had already caught up and was flying above its rear.
If Mischief's legs were not injured at this moment, diving downwards and grasping with its claws would have posed a significant threat to the Qilin Dragon.
Mischief realized it had gained an advantageous position but couldn't pose a threat to the opponent, letting out a frustrated roar.
After Little Dummy responded with a roar, Mischief continued to accelerate straight ahead.
Seeing Mischief overtake it, the Qilin Dragon sensed that something was wrong and wanted to change direction immediately. However, Mischief circled around to the front, its wings swiveling to complete a beautiful glide turn before charging head-on from the front.
Realizing that it couldn't avoid this collision, the Qilin Dragon accelerated while lowering its head, its sharp broken horn pointing forward.
Mischief didn't dodge; instead, it raised its head and charged head-on.
Clang! Squelch!
Half of the broken horn embedded itself into Mischief's head carapace, and blood oozed out.
The Qilin Dragon tried to push forward, but in horror, it discovered that its joint was bitten by Little Dummy and was being pulled backward.
The two fire dragons pulled in opposite directions, and the Qilin Dragon's body, stretched by the two forces, began to contort.
Clang!
The broken horn stuck in the carapace snapped into two pieces.
Freed from the restraint, the Qilin Dragon had just kicked Little Dummy away with its claws when Mischief's sharp teeth bit down on its wing.
The Qilin Dragon tried to curl its body and kick upwards, but before it could prepare, Little Dummy's powerful front claws grabbed its spine from behind.
The three dragons became entangled. Li Fan also wanted to help, but they were not on the same plane. Even if he didn't swing his greatsword downwards with standard technique, he was still too far away.
Li Fan simply lay on Little Dummy's neck, gripping the Dragon Slaying Greatsword, and repeatedly jabbed downwards with the tip of the blade.
Without a powerful swing, the attack's force was naturally limited, but any hit was a gain.
"Hey! Hey! Hey!..."
Under Li Fan's targeted jabs, not only did a wound appear on the Qilin Dragon's back, but flames also ignited within it.
The Qilin Dragon turned its neck, looking at Li Fan through the wound.
"I'm just poking around casually. You do your thing, don't mind me... Hey! Hey!"
Li Fan said, then continued to poke downwards fiercely.
Roar! The Qilin Dragon let out an angry roar!
It seemed to be expressing, "Damn you! You're poking me! And you're being polite about it!"
With Little Dummy and Mischief tearing at it, the Qilin Dragon completely abandoned wing flapping and entered a state of rigid preparation.
Li Fan, who was jabbing enthusiastically, noticed that the broken-blade scales on the dragon's back were regenerating at a visible rate and realized something was wrong.
With one wing and its back being gripped and torn, the possibility of the Qilin Dragon breaking free solely through its body strength was already slim.
Could it be... that it intended to use the broken-blade scales to escape?
No, at this distance, if it unleashed a large number of scales to explode, how would the Qilin Dragon itself defend against them? Or was it assuming its life was threatened and wanted to go for a mutual destruction?
Through observation, Li Fan realized that the broken-blade scales were indeed an excellent offensive weapon.
The problem was that these backward-growing scales also served a defensive purpose, so the Qilin Dragon would selectively launch scales during combat to seek a balance between offense and defense.
If it launched them without reservation, it would undoubtedly unleash extremely terrifying output in a short period.
He hadn't expected that even at this stage of the battle, the Qilin Dragon still had a trump card...
"Little Dummy! Retreat!"
Li Fan gave the order.
He believed that Little Dummy might be able to endure it in its current state, but he and Mischief would be in grave danger.
The male Dragon Slaying equipment had little exposed skin, but Li Fan, to suppress assimilation, had only worn three pieces.
If he were hit by just a few fragments, the lacerations would be even worse than those on Eudora.
Little Dummy hesitated for a moment, and then, with great coordination with Mischief, they both released the Qilin Dragon.
The Qilin Dragon fell a short distance and regained its balance. Instead of fleeing, it flung broken-blade scales towards the sky.
What was it doing?
Before Li Fan could figure out the situation, the broken-blade scales reached their apex and began to descend, colliding with those subsequently flung out.
Crack! Crack!
Countless shimmering golden light spots exploded in the sky, forming a brilliant band of light.
Li Fan realized something was wrong and quickly looked down.
He noticed that the terrain below looked somewhat unfamiliar, appearing to be the edge of the Forest of the Ancients.
"It's... calling for reinforcements! Quickly, retreat!"
Li Fan urgently shouted to Little Dummy, flapped his wings, and quickly turned his body around.
Mischief, with half a broken horn still stuck in its head, followed closely behind.
Sensing that Little Dummy was intentionally slowing down, Li Fan looked back.
He saw that Mischief was flying lower and lower, and as it flapped its wings, blood dripped down like rain.
"Mischief, you need to learn to hold back a little..."
Li Fan sighed.
A fierce combat style could indeed compensate for a slight gap in experience.
However, in this battle, the Qilin Dragon had made more than one contingency, and even its flight direction was towards the territory of its clan.
Li Fan took out a Poké Ball, intending to try and capture it. At that moment, two sharp screeches sounded from behind.
In the distant sky, two Qilin Dragons, one in front and one behind, were pursuing them. Judging by their appearance, the heavily injured one was not among them.
The worst had happened...
Li Fan's gaze darkened.
When a Poké Ball captured something in mid-air, it wouldn't hover. If the capture was successful on the first try, it would be fine.
Even if it fell to the ground, the Poké Ball was so small that the pursuing Qilin Dragons would have difficulty detecting it, let alone realizing that Mischief was inside.
If it failed, and Mischief was released from the ball, it might not even be able to maintain its current gliding posture.
With its claws severely injured and falling to the ground, being surrounded by two Qilin Dragons would be a near-certain death scenario.
Li Fan held the Poké Ball in his hand, hesitating.
Mischief felt its wings becoming heavier and heavier, and with each breath, the air pressure it generated grew weaker.
Just as it felt it couldn't hold on any longer, a shadow descended from above, and a pair of powerful claws gripped Mischief's back carapace.
Mischief felt its entire body being lifted.
Roar! Little Dummy let out a low growl from below, flapping its wings even harder.
"Mischief! Hold on! We're not far from the fire dragon gathering area of the Forest of the Ancients. They won't dare to be arrogant there."
Li Fan shouted.
Roar! Mischief responded, spreading its wings horizontally and holding them steady, entering a gliding posture.
Tears of glowing dragon tears slid from Mischief's eyes. It twisted its neck and looked back at the two Qilin Dragons rapidly approaching.
Mischief suddenly began to shake its back, as if trying to break free from Little Dummy's claws.
"Believe me! Little Dummy will be fine! You are the one in danger now!"
Li Fan said.
Mischief lowered its head for a moment and stopped trying to break free.
He still had a flash bomb on him, but the Qilin Dragons were currently just pursuing him. What if one of them wasn't blinded?
Perhaps he could try to recall Mischief into the ball when they were about to catch up. This way, the Poké Ball would fall to the ground, and the Qilin Dragons would have difficulty detecting it.
Even if the capture failed and the Poké Ball shattered, Mischief should reappear on the ground.
Then he could recall Little Dummy into a Poké Ball, and both would be safe.
Wait, what about himself...
Li Fan scratched his head, feeling like he was facing a dead end.
On the summit of a mountain, an old fire dragon that had been watching the excitement might have gotten tired of flying and was resting there.
Hearing the commotion from high above, the elderly male fire dragon looked up with interest.
Seeing the pursuit unfolding, the male fire dragon was stunned for a moment.
A flicker of his youth passed through his clouded eyes.
He twisted his neck to the side, raised one wing, and plucked a jade-green scale embedded in his wing membrane from beneath the wing bone.
He scraped the ground with his claws a couple of times and dug a pit.
After placing the jade-green scale into it, he buried it with his claws.
Whoosh~
As he took off, the elderly male fire dragon did not glide from a high perch as usual.
Instead, he leaped and flapped his wings vigorously to take off.
Just like when he was young.
Roar! Hearing a dragon's roar like a great bell, Li Fan's eyes lit up, and he looked down.
"Ah? Sir... couldn't you just not come?"
Li Fan had observed for so long that he recognized the elderly male fire dragon at a glance.
The elderly male fire dragon flapped its wings rapidly and soon flew alongside Little Dummy.
Li Fan couldn't confirm the other party's identity at first, but upon seeing the dense, circular bullet marks on its mottled carapace, he immediately made a deduction.
These marks were left by cannonball fragments that had ricocheted.
He had seen them in the research laboratory of the Dragon Calendar Academy.
This elderly male fire dragon was the gluttonous snake that chased after airships demanding meat!
The gluttonous snake didn't seem too surprised to see a human riding on Little Dummy's neck.
However, upon seeing the broken horn of a Qilin Dragon stuck in Mischief's head, it let out a questioning cry, seemingly curious about this peculiar appearance.
Roar!
Little Dummy roared fiercely, telling the gluttonous snake to stay away quickly.
The next moment, the gluttonous snake did leave, but it slowed its wing beats and hovered in place.
"This is?"
Li Fan was a bit bewildered.
Dark smoke puffed from the gluttonous snake's mouth, and it roared at the two pursuing Qilin Dragons.
"Senior Gluttonous Snake! From now on, my airship will be your banner!"
Li Fan clasped his hands together and thanked its retreating back.
He didn't understand the reason for the gluttonous snake's actions.
Logically, only young fire dragons like Mischief would engage in such irrational behavior.
But since the other party had stepped in to rescue them, there was no possibility of dissuading it now. The only thing to do was to flee quickly.
"This area has both forests and caves, and it's also the edge of the fire dragon habitat... Land quickly!"
Li Fan didn't want to waste the opportunity the gluttonous snake had bought him.
To speed up, Little Dummy plunged straight down. It wasn't until it was less than twenty meters from the ground that it spread its wings and glided through the forest.
Screech! Clatter!
Countless tree branches were broken by its wing bones.
The reason Little Dummy chose to glide at extremely low altitude through the forest was that the forest's color was similar to its own carapace, serving as camouflage for female fire dragons.
This way, even if the Qilin Dragons were still pursuing from above, it would be very difficult for them to lock on.
Thump!
Its claws came loose, and Mischief fell to the ground.
Little Dummy, exhausted, had its claws so numb that it could only make a hard landing.
Fortunately, its speed had decreased significantly. It slid along the grass for less than a hundred meters, knocked down two large trees, and finally came to a stop.
Li Fan, holding onto a bug thread and hovering in mid-air, jumped to the ground.
The gluttonous snake let out a muffled roar. Li Fan, based on the direction of the roar, deduced that it was coming from the ground.
Then, two Qilin Dragon roars were heard, followed by a series of pained cries.
Although he couldn't see the scene and translate the roars, Li Fan found it not difficult to imagine the situation over there.
"Since you helped me escape, I'll help you once. If I really can't save you, then there's nothing I can do."
Li Fan released Nene, asking her to help take care of Little Dummy and Mischief first.
Mischief should be watched from a distance, as it hadn't been captured yet.
Coo!
Nene found a small branch to stand on, and as expected, the branch immediately bent to the ground under her weight.
Li Fan ran towards the source of the roars, pondering which ball would be best for capturing an elder monster.
After much thought, he still felt that a Great Ball would be the most reliable.
His rescue method, of course, was not to engage in a head-on battle with the two Qilin Dragons.
Instead, he would use flash bombs and Poké Balls for a vanishing act.
After about seven or eight minutes, Li Fan arrived at the scene and hid in the bushes.
The gluttonous snake, lying on its side on the ground, was covered in wounds, with fragments of its carapace scattered everywhere. It looked extremely pathetic.
But what Li Fan couldn't understand was that even though it wasn't being attacked at the moment, the gluttonous snake was still roaring with all its might, letting out extremely pained cries.
The two Qilin Dragons were also speechless.
Whoosh~ A dragon-shaped shadow swept across the canopy of the forest.
The two Qilin Dragons looked up simultaneously.
They discovered a single female fire dragon poised and ready to take to the air for battle.
For most monsters, distinguishing individuals within their own species might be easy. As for other species, unless they had extremely obvious traits, they generally couldn't tell much difference.
Therefore, even if it wasn't Little Dummy, the two dragons could still regard it as a target.
Whoosh~ Another shadow swept by! Another male fire dragon hovered in the air.
Since they were not heavily injured, the two dragons quickly noticed the difference.
However, their fighting spirit had not diminished.
Whoosh~ Whoosh~ Whoosh~....
Several dragon-shaped shadows flew in continuously, gathering more and more.
Looking at the dozen or so fire dragons hovering in mid-air, the two Qilin Dragons involuntarily began to retreat.
Seeing that someone had their back, the gluttonous snake's cries became even more pathetic.
"No wonder they say old ginger is spicier..."
Li Fan, hiding in the bushes, couldn't help but sigh.