BXBX NOVEL Chapter 361 A dragon's hunting day
After spending a whole night with Selena, Cain woke up in the morning feeling sore. That girl was more energetic than she was ever before.
As he stretched and walked outside, Zaleria was already up and sitting at the camp.
“You’re early.” Cain approached her.
“Yeah, there are a lot of powerful monsters around here.” She said with a smile.
“Are they dangerous?” Cain was serious, if Zaleria called them powerful, they are a problem.
“Ah, no. Nothing like that, I mean strong by normal standards. For me, they are a nice meal and a good source of Exp.” She replied immediately.
Cain understood what she want, “Want to hunt them?” She must be either hungry or want the exp.
“Why not, let’s do a hunting trip. You will be the only one hunting and I want you to avoid flying or using your flames for the offense. Setting limitation usually result in a harder fight and more Exp, the knowledge of fighting without your full power.” Cain suggested..
When everyone got out they found Zaleria in her dragon form. She has tucked her wings down so much that they became flush with her back. Seeing her stretch like a cat was weird.
“Get up and hold tight, I can’t guaranty a smooth trip today.” With her warning, everyone held tightly to her back as Cain grabbed onto the wings on her head. [Invisibility] Cain hid himself and the girls leaving Zaleria exposed, she was to fend for herself.
The hunt was ON.
Zaleria used her sense of smell to pinpoint the direction of the monsters around her. She could feel Cobras, giant bears, treants, basilisks, and more. This place of the forest was extremely dangerous and filled to the brim with A-rank monsters, some were even S-rank. But to a dragon-like her, facing an S-rank monster was no harder than a man facing a chicken. That at least applies in the human kingdom where the standards are low.
Zaleria started running and Cain was surprised how he almost felt no shaking, on top of that, her steps were silent. Zaleria was using stepping on the tip of her claws, using all the joints in her fingers and wrists to absorb the shock and vibration which made her steps both silent and smooth.
With her camouflage, she was as good as invisible.
Her first target was a big crimson cobra, the moment the girls saw it they got ready for a potential fight. To their surprise, the fight ended before it could even start.
Zaleria didn’t even both slowing down let alone stoop. Mid-running, she bit the unsuspecting Cobra’s head and crushed it, she then slurped the whole thing like noodles.
“This is a red dragon in its natural habitat, an unfair force of nature,” Cain whispered to the girls
One monster after the other, Zaleria kept killing and devouring to the point it became scary. The only way that Cain could find to stop an attack from her was to detect her beforehand, which was hard, and then find a way to block the first strike. Only them a monster would be able to fight against her.
That was until their target was a group of Ogres, five to be exact. Normally, Zaleria would just burn them in an instant with her breath but Cain told before not to use it.
Zaleria leaped in and killed two Ogres with her front claws, one with her jaw and one with a tail slam. This meant that one survived, which made Zaleria feel like playing a bit.
Quickly undoing her camouflage, the ogre glared at her in terror. But turning his back on such a monster only meant death so picked up his club and roared. Thud! Taking a heavy step, he swung at her right side.
Zaleria acted surprised and leaped backward avoiding the attack with a graceful move. She silently landed on her hind feet and kept eye contact with the ogre.
Slowly prowling around her prey, she sent a low growl after the other, as if intimidating him to turn back and run. Her tail started shaking like a rattlesnake but silently, and the colors on her back started flashing. From dark red to bright red, sheds of yellow and white kept moving from the back of her neck to the base of her tail.
All those colors meant nothing but they acted as an intimidation to the ogre. He couldn’t guess their meaning and each time she did something, he would put his guard up for a potential attack.
Then suddenly she leaped at him while backing down, that was an unexpected attack so the ogre tripped as he tried to jump away.
Zaleria didn’t miss the chance but she also didn’t want to kill him yet. She instead knocked him to a tree with her claws and roared.
After taking the hit and crashing at the tree, the ogre stood with a grin on his face. His should wasn’t broken and the wounds she left him weren’t that deep.
“Hey Zaleria, don’t toy with the poor thing. Alice would get angry.” Cain told her as he was sensing Alice’s magic almost boiling.
Understanding that not all people like to toy like this before hunting, Zaleria sighed.
THUD!
Her body disappeared from the ogre’s vision before it turned black. She leaped at him faster than he could comprehend and dismembered his body and the tree behind him with a single claw strike.
After making sure she ate everything, Zaleria kept going on her killing spree while approaching the capital for a whole day.
As the day went by, Sofia realized one important thing, Zaleria ate more than her own weight. It was impossible for her to believe that all of those monsters are inside her stomach. She got an unbelievable answer for Zaleria.
“We dragons have powerful a stomach, we usually digest a full meal in a minute. Almost everything is absorbed with minimal waste.” Zaleria said and Sofia looked at Cain for an explanation.
Cain explained briefly.
Dragons’ stomachs are a mess of elemental energy [Fire in Zaleria’s case] and a powerful digestive acid. And on top of that, a lot of powerful muscles that crush everything. They also have wide throats and a low gag reflex so they can swallow big prey’s whole. Unlike snakes they don’t need special jaws, their powerful neck muscles just force the food down.
Cain then poked Sofia’s side and whispered in her ear, “That explains your special skill.” She punched him in the guts with a red face.
“By the way Cain, tomorrow we will pass by my hut. Please be ready.” Zaleria told him before they all headed back into the mansion to spend the night.
Today was Alice’s turn and surprisingly she asked Cain if Gracie could join them. When Cain asked why she replied that she needs to eat.
“Is that true Gracie?” Cain asked and she nodded.
“I need to eat once every two days, preferably each day,” Gracie said with a straight face.
Cain looked toward Sofia and Selena and they nodded, “I’m sure Marina won’t oppose, Gracie will have a turn each day in addition to her own day for special needs. The only condition is that she supports the other ones during their days.”
The girls agreed on certain roles. For example, today is Alice’s day, so she takes priority. Gracie needs to be obedient and respectful, and on the other hand Alice will be obliged to let her eat one load at least. Those rules only applied at night, so if Cain grabbed one of them at day it didn’t count.
With that decided, both Gracie and Alice walked with Cain to his room.