Chapter 19: The Spitting Contest
Three days later.
Livia lay sprawled in the main hall of the crystal cave, her scales still possessing a subtle, lingering soreness as if she had just been thoroughly worked over.
Talos Thunderhowl squatted opposite her, the tip of his tail tapping the ground intermittently. His gaze drifted aimlessly, like a reclusive, socially anxious dragon who had just realized he forgot to turn off the stove but was too embarrassed to admit it.
The air was eerily quiet, like two dragons on an awkward blind date who had locked eyes but had no idea what to say next.
Finally, Talos couldn't hold back. He cleared his throat and adopted a solemn air. "According to draconic tradition, a courtship ritual must be performed."
Livia slowly raised her head. "What ritual?"
"The male dragon displays his strength." Talos immediately stood up, puffing out his chest, drawing in his stomach. His blue scales shone blindingly under the crystal light. "To allow the female dragon to confirm that the male she chose is strong enough to protect the lair and the eggs. This is an ancient draconic custom spanning tens of thousands of years, reportedly established personally by Tiamat."
Livia was silent for three seconds.
Images from her past life's 'Animal World' flashed through her mind: peacocks displaying their tails, stags fighting, roosters battling...
So, regardless of the species, impressing a mate always requires showing off muscle, right?
"Fine," she got up and patted her scales. "How do we display it?"
"Follow me."
The two dragons passed through the underground tunnels one after another and squeezed out through a crack in the rock.
Outside was the Crystal Desert at high noon. The sun baked the sand until it was scorching hot, and heat waves shimmered in the air, distorting objects in the distance into wavy patterns. The continuous sand dunes shone white under the sunlight. When the wind blew, fine crystal particles danced everywhere, creating fleeting rainbows.
Talos chose a relatively flat patch of sand and carefully drew a line with his claw.
After drawing it, he stepped back two paces to examine it, then used his tail to smooth and flatten the sand along the edges—
The ritualistic nature of a fastidious dragon strikes when you least expect it.
"First event: Dragon Breath distance competition." He retreated behind the line, looking serious. "Dragon Breath is the foundation of a dragon. The farther you can spit, the greater your lung capacity and combat strength. When Bahamut established trials for the Metallic Dragon, this was the first item. Fair enough, right?"
Livia nodded. "Fair."
Talos took a deep breath.
His chest expanded rapidly, and tiny electrical currents popped from the gaps between his scales. The air was immediately filled with the ozone smell preceding a thunderstorm. The sand grains on the ground vibrated slightly from static electricity, and the sand near his feet turned faintly black from the charge.
The three-second charge was complete.
He suddenly opened his mouth.
A thick, pillar-like bolt of lightning Dragon Breath erupted!
It was blue-white, dazzlingly bright, as thick as a dragon's waist. Where it passed, the air tore open with a screeching sound. It plowed a deep, scorched trench directly into the sand, instantly melting the sand into glass, with thick smoke billowing up.
The lightning pillar raced forward and slammed violently into a dune three hundred meters away.
"BOOM—!!"
The dune exploded on the spot, sending waves of sand dozens of meters high crashing down everywhere.
When the smoke and dust cleared, there was a large pit, over ten meters in diameter, in the center of the dune. The pit walls were scorched black and shiny, and residual, crackling electricity remained at the bottom.
Talos closed his mouth and turned to look at Livia. His tail couldn't help but twitch upwards, his pride impossible to hide. "Three hundred and seventeen meters," he reported his score. "Last year, I competed against a Bronze Dragon; he fell short by forty-two meters. That dragon was named Elderman; he talked too much, and after losing, he grumbled for three days straight."
Livia didn't say anything and calmly walked to stand behind the line.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
The paths of Red Dragons and Blue Dragons were completely different—Blue Dragons charged electricity, while Red Dragons burned furnaces.
The core deep in her chest heated up crazily. Magma-like heat surged through her blood vessels, and her scales began to grow hot, causing the sand beneath her feet to immediately start melting.
She opened her eyes, her vertical pupils flashing brightly.
She opened her mouth.
A pillar of platinum-gold flame erupted!
The temperature was absurdly high. Before the flame even touched the sand, the ground had already melted and flowed, and the air warped into transparent vortices from the heat. A wave of heat swept out, making the entire desert look as if it had caught fire.
Four hundred meters.
The pillar of flame struck a large, half-exposed boulder four hundred meters away with precision.
The stone didn't shatter or crack.
It—melted.
Starting from the top, it turned red, softened, and flowed, becoming a pot of bubbling, molten rock porridge that streamed down the dune, sizzling loudly, sending white mist soaring into the sky.
The three-meter-tall boulder melted halfway in the blink of an eye, and the bottom of the pit still bubbled with magma.
Livia closed her mouth and calmly turned to look at Talos.
Talos's entire draconic face instantly turned black.
A shade of ashen blue that even his blue scales couldn't conceal.
His mouth opened and closed, then closed and opened again, like a fish suffocating on land. His tail froze mid-air, his eyes wide open, his pupils shrinking into thin slits.
He stared at the smoking lava rock for a very, very long time.
Finally, he managed to squeeze out one sentence: "You cheated."
Livia raised an eyebrow. "How did I cheat?"
"Female dragons naturally have greater lung capacity!" Talos's claws were trembling as he pointed at her righteously. "Your ribcages have one extra vertebra compared to males, giving you fifteen percent more lung volume! This is unfair! Tiamat certainly didn't consider this when setting the rules!"
Livia slowly retorted: "The rules didn't specify separate male and female divisions."
Talos choked on the spot, unable to draw a breath up or down.
He flicked his tail irritably, pawed a hole in the ground, then compulsively filled the hole back up. After fussing back and forth for a while, he finally gritted his teeth. "...Second event!"
"What is it?"
"Arm wrestling!"
Livia was bewildered. "How do dragons arm wrestle?"
Talos didn't explain; he acted immediately.
A flash of blue light, and he began to transform—bones cracking, his body shrinking, limbs thickening, tail shortening. Three seconds later, a three-meter-tall Blue Dragon-half-beastman stood in his place.
He was covered in fine scales, muscles bulging, arms thick as tree trunks, clearly radiating maximum strength.
He extended his right claw, palm open. "Like this."
Livia stared at the claw, which was larger than her head, in silence for three seconds.
Right, so close combat, huh.
She also flashed red light, transforming into an equally three-meter-tall Red Dragon-half-human in place. Her fiery red scales were sleek and capable, her lines tight and powerful, clearly looking like someone not to be trifled with.
She extended her hand and grasped his claw.
Scales scraped together with a rustling sound. Talos's palm was large and steady, exuding an overwhelming sense of power. The key point was—it was excessively clean. There wasn't a speck of dirt under his fingernails, and it carried the faint scent of ozone from a recent cleaning.
Livia almost burst out laughing.
This was the fastidious dragon who spent 3.5 hours polishing his scales every day?
Talos's gaze was as serious as if he were going into battle. "Ready?"
"Ready."
"Begin!"
He exerted force violently!
A colossal power, like an avalanche or a tidal wave, pressed down from his palm, nearly forcing Livia to the ground instantly. She immediately planted her feet firmly, driving her legs deep into the scorching sand. She twisted her core and managed to withstand the pressure.
The two were locked in a stalemate.
Talos's face flushed crimson, his muscles strained and bulging, veins popping on his forehead. He growled through clenched teeth, gripping her claw tighter and tighter. Two deep pits were stamped into the sand beneath his feet.
Livia only felt her finger joints cracking and the muscles in her arm shaking violently, but she refused to let go.
She took a deep breath, concentrating all her strength into her arm, and suddenly pressed down!
"CRASH—!!"
Talos's palm was violently slammed into the sand, his entire arm sinking into it. Sand splashed all over his face, and he tilted to one side, nearly falling flat on all fours.
He stared at Livia with wide eyes, disbelief etched on his face. His jaw nearly hit the ground; you could have dropped a dragon egg straight into his mouth.
Livia dusted the sand off her hand and calmly announced, "You lost."
Talos was silent for three seconds, then suddenly lunged forward and grabbed her hand, turning it over and over to examine it frantically.
He felt her knuckles, squeezed her palm, pressed her wrist, and touched her bones, his gaze as focused as if he were appraising a peerless treasure, muttering under his breath.
Livia felt a chill run down her spine. "What are you doing?"
"Are you a male dragon disguised as a female?" Talos suddenly looked up, his expression so complex it could fill a long novel. "This bone structure, this muscle density, this strength... You are absolutely not an ordinary female Red Dragon! None of the Red Dragons I've met can do this! Who exactly are you?"
Livia pulled her hand back. "I am a female Red Dragon."
"Impossible!"
"Believe it or not."
Talos stared at her for a very, very long time.
The sun quietly shifted, shadows slowly moved aside, the wind hissed past, and a sand worm in the distance poked its head out to take a look, then quickly shrank back in fright.
Finally, he stood up, shook the sand off his body, and turned toward the crack leading to the lair.
He stopped after two steps, glanced back at her, his expression so tangled it looked knotted.
Livia slowly followed behind him, delivering a light, finishing blow:
"Hey, you lost. According to our agreement, mating time."
Talos froze mid-step.
"Or perhaps," Livia said calmly, her words carrying extreme destructive power, "Blue Dragons all like to go back on their word? The surname Thunderhowl must be quite famous among Blue Dragons, right? If it gets out that a Blue Dragon refused to honor his loss in a courtship challenge—"
Talos's entire tail instantly stiffened.
He spun around sharply, his face flushed crimson, his teeth grinding audibly. Filled with humiliation yet stubbornly defiant, he finally forced out a single sentence through clenched teeth: "...Follow me."