Amidst the dust and heat waves, the blue figure that should have been reduced to charcoal actually propped itself up on the ground and stood up shakily.
Fafnir's golden vertical pupils suddenly contracted.
How is this possible?
This is impossible!
There should have been nothing left but a pile of completely vaporized ash, the last trace of a lowly creature's existence.
But now, that Earth Dragon was actually still standing.
He supported his body with his front claws, sliding down from the depression in the rock wall.
Large patches of scales were charred and curled, revealing the bright red tender flesh beneath; he looked extremely wretched and miserable.
But he wasn't dead.
Not only did he withstand a full-powered [Flamethrower] without reservation, but his injuries were also recovering rapidly.
How is this possible?
Fafnir's mind buzzed.
A mixed-blood Earth Dragon, not even a Sub-dragon—how?
On what basis?
He was a Level 35 pure-blooded Red Dragon, an elite of the Dragon Academy; this strike was enough to melt city walls and dry up rivers!
Even an adult Rock Sub-dragon of the same Level would have no chance of survival!
This lowly reptile... how?!
"Heh..."
In the brief moment Fafnir fell into self-doubt, the little thing covered in black smoke raised its head.
He seemed to have grown a bit taller, and he grinned with his slightly narrowed maw, revealing a smile that made Fafnir feel extremely uncomfortable.
It wasn't fear, nor was it begging for mercy, but a kind of... expression mixed with mockery and excitement, looking at him like he was a fool.
Is he laughing at me?
An unprecedented sense of humiliation and rage instantly crushed Fafnir's reason.
"You seek death—!"
Fafnir opened his massive jaws again, and deep in his throat, Fire elemental energy even more violent than before began to gather.
This time, he would blow this bug, along with the entire cave, into dust!
"Bye-bye!"
Caesar laughed wildly in his heart.
I was waiting for this exact second of you being dazed!
Real men never look back at explosions, but truly smart people always know when to run!
Caesar frantically poured all his recovered stamina into his legs.
His body, which had just recovered due to the level up, groaned under the burden once more.
Without any hesitation, he suddenly raised one foot and then used all his strength to stomp down hard!
[Bulldoze]!
At the same time, another completely different energy surged from his body, frantically pouring into the ground beneath his feet.
[Sand Tomb]!!
Rumble—!!!!
This vibration was more intense than any before!
If the previous [Bulldoze] only cracked the ground, then this time, with the enhancement of [Sand Tomb], it was a complete structural collapse!
Centered on Caesar's landing point, the entire cave floor instantly collapsed!
The hard rock layer was like a biscuit crushed by a giant force, and countless hideous cracks spread frantically in all directions, reaching the cave entrance and Fafnir's claws in the blink of an eye!
"Roar?"
Fafnir had just recovered from his shock and was about to gather a second [Flamethrower] when the ground beneath his feet began to shake violently.
The ceiling of the cave groaned under the burden, and countless huge rocks mixed with soil crashed down like a waterfall!
A secondary collapse!
This was no coincidence at all!
This lowly Earth Dragon had been calculating against him from the very beginning!
He had already hollowed out the foundation of the nest, preparing this mutual-destruction escape route!
"Roar—!!!"
Fafnir let out a roar of rage.
He wanted to rush in and tear that cunning bug into pieces.
But the rolling thick smoke and the falling boulders, falling like a waterfall, instantly blocked his path.
The scorching Dragon Breath hit the falling rocks, merely exploding into useless sparks.
His vision was completely blocked; he could only feel that the Earth Dragon's aura was rapidly falling toward the depths of the earth along with the collapse!
Amidst the chaos, Caesar used his last bit of strength to lunge forward, his large mouth precisely biting the tail of Cecilia, who was already scared silly and paralyzed on the ground.
"Wu—?!"
Cecilia only had time to let out a short cry of distress before being dragged by a huge force, falling together into the dark abyss formed by the collapse.
At the last moment before being swallowed by darkness, she only saw Caesar's wide-open maw and those golden vertical pupils that were frighteningly bright in the dark.
Heh, didn't expect that, did you? This was all part of Lord Garchomp's—escape route!
"Bastard!!!"
Outside the cave, Fafnir let out a heaven-shaking roar.
He dispersed the dust in front of him, only to find that the original cave entrance had been completely blocked by tons of rocks and soil!
The auras of that Earth Dragon and Silver Dragon were rapidly falling toward the depths of the earth.
He angrily spat a Dragon Breath at the pile of collapsed rocks; the scorching flames turned the rocks red-hot but could not clear a path in a short time.
Played!
He was actually played by a lowly Earth Dragon!
From the very beginning, his goal was not to fight, but to escape!
He lured him into attacking, used the stiffness and shock after his attack to create chaos, and then fled!
A great humiliation!
Fafnir hovered in mid-air, a never-before-seen rage burning in his golden pupils.
He watched helplessly as those two weak life-auras completely disappeared from his perception, falling into that legendary rift in the earth that even True Dragons rarely set foot in—the [Dragon's Spine Mountain Range].
"I will definitely find you... and then, tear you into pieces!"
...
Whoosh—whoosh—
The wild wind whistled in his ears.
Caesar and Cecilia fell into this bottomless dark rift along with countless huge rocks.
"We're going to crash, we're going to crash, we're going to crash...!"
The weightlessness and the fear brought by the rapid descent made Cecilia instantly forget she had Elemental Wings; she could only close her eyes tightly and let out cries of distress of unknown meaning.
She didn't know what "crashing" meant, but the Little Earth Dragon often said it, and over time she learned it too.
As for Caesar, it was a completely different feeling—
Pain.
A pain completely different from being burned by fire or hit by giant force was bursting from every cell deep within his body.
It was the pain of evolution, forcibly triggered under the threat of death!
The Dragon Bloodline that had accumulated to its limit within his body, as well as the massive energy just obtained from killing a large number of monsters, could no longer be suppressed.
Like a bursting flood, it frantically washed through and transformed his body!
Crack, crack...
Bones were breaking and then reorganizing in a more solid and rational way.
His originally round and somewhat cute body was stretched out during the rapid fall, becoming more aerodynamic, presenting a smooth spindle shape.
Those deep blue scales became deeper and denser under the surge of energy, their edges glinting with a cold metallic luster.
The funny large fin on his head completely disappeared, replaced by huge protrusions suddenly growing from both sides of his head, like jet engine cowlings!
On his back, a sharp dorsal fin broke through the body!
On the outside of his forelimbs, a pair of huge, scythe-like fin-blades also grew!
His limbs elongated, becoming more vigorous and powerful.
The round claws turned into hideous, white, single-toed sharp claws.
Along the sides of his thighs, rows of jagged white bone spurs connected, full of primitive aggressiveness!
An unprecedentedly powerful force surged and roared in his brand-new body!
Speed, strength, defense, perception... everything was undergoing a world-shaking change!
During this fall, the cold System notification sound rang out in his mind one after another like heavenly music.
[Ding! The host has completed the first morphological evolution, successfully evolving into [Garchomp]!]
[Ding! Level Up! LV.23 -> LV.24!]
The evolution was finally complete!
...
As if breaking free from some invisible shackles.
Caesar suddenly opened his eyes!
He was no longer that ugly-cute Gible, but a Garchomp whose size had more than doubled and who exuded the aura of a dangerous predator!
As the System notification faded, the violent energy inside his body instantly found an outlet, docilely merging into his brand-new limbs and bones.
The heart-wrenching pain receded like a tide, replaced by an indescribable sense of control full of power!
Caesar released his bite.
Cecilia, whose tail had been bitten, who had been in free-fall the whole time, and who was already in a state of witlessness, let out a scream and continued to fall toward the abyss.
But in the next second, a claw covered in deep blue hard scales and with sharp white claws grabbed her by the back of the neck.
Cecilia looked up in terror.
Before her was no longer that ugly-cute, round, Trashy Earth Dragon.
He was replaced by a brand-new monster twice the size of before, exuding a fierce aura.
His body presented a perfect streamlined shape, the cone-shaped objects extending from the sides of his head were full of power, and the arm-blades on his forearms and the dorsal fin on his back glinted with cold light.
In that slender, large maw, sharp teeth were interlaced, and the golden vertical pupils were cold and sharp, no longer having even a bit of the clumsiness from the Gible period.
"What... is this?!"
"You..."
Cecilia looked at this face that was both familiar and strange, and for a moment was actually unable to speak.
Caesar ignored her; he felt the brand-new power surging through his body.
Speed, strength, defense... everything had undergone a world-shaking change.
He could even feel that his four new fins were not just decorations or weapons.
When the wind swept across the fin-blades, he actually felt a strange urge to glide with the wind.
The shackles of the Earth Dragon seemed to be starting to break!
He looked down.
The bottomless darkness was like the wide-open maw of a giant beast.
This was the deep rift of the [Dragon's Spine Mountain Range], an unknown territory where even True Dragons would not easily set foot.
Danger?
Of course it was dangerous.
But in Caesar's eyes, there was no fear, only increasingly burning ambition and excitement.
He grabbed Cecilia and stretched his brand-new body, the dorsal fin on his back drawing a graceful arc in the air.
"Come, I'll take you to unlock a new Pokédex entry."
His voice had also become deeper and raspier than before.
In the next second, Caesar adjusted his posture, like a top predator, and actively dove toward that endless darkness!
Come on, a new hunting ground—!