CHAPTER 210: CHAPTER 105: PROBING! LOWER-RANKED HEROIC SPIRITS

The Catman Heroic Spirits summoned through ritual magic are incredibly powerful!

You can tell from their movements alone that they must have been seasoned hunters who had survived countless battles in life. These priestly Heroic Spirits are unnamed entities, likely warriors who died gloriously in battle without leaving their names behind. Duncan leans more towards the idea that they were anonymous figures sacrificed by the Catman tribe after death due to a lack of legendary level in life.

Cook, however, is a bit more remarkable.

His figure leaps out like a cheetah, his long knife drawn in an instant, followed by the Northern Bearman’s scream as a massive bear paw is chopped off on the spot.

Most Catmen are one-star or two-star units, but the summoned Heroic Spirits are at least three-star whiteboards.

The tide of battle reversed in an instant.

A renowned Praised Hunter joined the fight and immediately killed a bulky, obese Northern Bearman, and the injured part of his body showed no traces of blood.

These aren’t living beings!

The Northern Bearmen seem equally surprised that their enemies could summon Ancestral Spirits. One of the larger leader units growled in a peculiar voice, "Kill that priest!" (Bearman language)

"Disrupt their ritual."

Three burly Bearmen lunged forward like polar bears.

A Catman High-tier Hunter blocked in front, severely wounding one enemy before being torn to pieces, his scattered body parts showing no blood, only the Heroic Spirit’s body beginning to dissipate, dimming the glow of a cluster on the altar.

This spell is quite powerful.

The fierce combat reached a stalemate, with over a dozen Catmen dead or injured, one Heroic Spirit fallen, and another severely wounded. Only the Praised Hunter, Cook, retained some combat capability. But the Northern Bearmen didn’t fare well either, suffering significant casualties. If the fight continued, half of the tribe’s warriors might be lost.

But having reached such a dire state, no one could back down now.

The cold Northern Land is a monster’s circle.

All creatures that failed to seize territory were driven here. Although individually strong and ferocious, they still couldn’t compete with the pioneering Elf nobility. Every piece of land here was left behind by tribes that fought to the end. Losers either migrated to colder, more desolate ice fields or became food for the victors.

There isn’t enough to eat.

These two beast tribes couldn’t both survive here; eventually, one would be eliminated.

The juvenile dragon’s silhouette soared across the sky.

At this moment, Duncan had already locked onto a target, personally inclined to help the Catmen because their civilization resembled primal society, while the hostile Bearmen were nearly beast-like.

——Fierce Dive!

The juvenile dragon, like a fighter jet, dived down from the sky. The wind and snow made it difficult to detect, and by the time the whistling sound broke the air, it had already locked onto its target, descending rapidly.

In an instant, the Bearman leader attempted to dodge the dive.

But it was slightly too slow; the sharp Dragon Claw nearly split it open, causing scalding blood and intestines to gush out, its screams echoing across the battlefield.

"A dragon!?"

"Why is there a dragon here?"

Even though it was still a juvenile dragon, Duncan’s appearance struck a hint of fear in every creature nearby. The instinctive intimidation etched into their genes was something even the Northern Land’s monsters couldn’t resist.

Roar!

The juvenile dragon’s roar stirred the Wind of Magic.

In an instant.

The wind and snow swirled like a vortex. With a roar in Dragon Language, the cold currents swept frost forward, freezing a one-meter diameter, four to five-meter-long area into icy mist. As for the Northern Bearman ready to attack, the burly figure was pushed back more than a meter.

This wasn’t simple Frost Magic.

The juvenile dragon’s roar in Dragon Language acted like an Air Cannon. While the Wind of Magic transformed into a cold current, it also generated a strong push.

"Dragon Roar!..." The Catman Priest’s face was filled with terror.

Centered on the juvenile dragon, within a five-meter radius, countless frost and snow scattered, and even the snow beneath its feet was cleared in a pattern resembling a shockwave. Only when the Dragon Roar stopped did the blown snowflakes gently fall back down.

And by then, the juvenile dragon had already leaped out, tearing a Bearman’s face to shreds with one claw.

The grotesque scene resembled five daggers simultaneously slashing across a face.

"Has the Dragon Roar’s power increased?"

Duncan controlled the second human form to swiftly ascend. With one wave of sneak attack complete, he left immediately but still barely avoided a crude short spear thrown by the enemy, which hit the juvenile dragon’s back with a metallic clash.

Breaking through dragon scales with such inferior iron weapons was nearly impossible; all it did was cause bruising.

But the enemy’s strength was immense.

The juvenile dragon stumbled slightly and quickly soared to a height of over a hundred meters, completely out of the enemy’s attack range.

"That dragon is helping us!..." murmured a Catman Hunter.

With Duncan’s action, the outcome was decided.

Yet he didn’t remain, as the Catmen didn’t change to green marks representing allies, remaining as the neutral yellow units instead, and a few even carried faint red hostile marks.

After all, it was a dragon, and it was necessary to remain cautious.

Duncan feared staying for too long might provoke the Catmen to turn against him. Not all beings could resist the allure of a dragon.

A juvenile dragon itself is a huge treasure.

Even the dragon’s corpse, including dragon claws, dragon teeth, dragon bones, dragon hide, dragon blood, etc., holds tremendous value in this era.

Duncan maneuvered the juvenile dragon to gradually leave the battlefield, but he did not fly far and continued to hover in mid-air.

The Northern Bear-men soon collapsed in retreat.

Duncan considered pursuing them but decided against it after checking the energy bar; the juvenile dragon had not fully developed and its energy bar was less than half of that of unit one in human form. The previous hunting had already consumed a lot of energy, and with continuous flying and fighting, only about a third remained, requiring time to recover slowly.

On the battlefield, the Catman tribe watched the hovering juvenile dragon with trembling anticipation.

A Catman hunter stepped forward and asked the elder Priest, "What does the dragon want to do?"

"Why doesn’t it leave?"

The elder Catman Priest was also observing the hovering juvenile dragon. He glanced at the nearby corpses, pondered for a moment, and said, "Bring out all our stored food."

People hesitated slightly. A Catman Warrior whispered, "That is our last grain of food."

The elder Catman Priest’s eyes showed a hint of ruthlessness. Glancing at the Bear-men’s corpses not far away, he said in a deep voice, "Isn’t there food over there?"

"Go."

"Bring out all the stored meat, especially the juicy venison and fish."

The surviving Catman Warriors began to carry out the orders.

The elder Priest’s meaning was simple: use the tribe’s meat to feed the dragon. If they have nothing to eat later, they can directly eat these Northern Bear-men’s corpses.

"What are they doing?"

Duncan merely stopped to observe for a moment, and upon seeing the Catman hunters move a pile of frozen meat, he immediately understood their intentions.

Fine.

Consider it a protection fee.

Duncan didn’t need this meal, but he did need a meal to start establishing contact.

More than ten Catman Warriors placed a small pile of meat on a distant hillside, a spot from where the juvenile dragon could take off easily, and then retreated, leaving only the elder Priest standing a hundred or two meters away.

The juvenile dragon landed, sniffed, and then began feasting.

The dragon’s innate talent was very strong; it could detect the slightest off smell. Thieves trying to sneak into a dragon’s nest must use potions to remove all scent from their bodies.

Finally, it was full!

The juvenile dragon let out a screech, took to the sky, and disappeared, with the Catman Priest watching the dragon’s silhouette vanish into the snowy wind, deep in thought for a long time before returning to the tribe.

The initial tentative contact could be considered a success.

However, the juvenile dragon couldn’t speak other languages yet. Dragons need time to master various language abilities; not being able to communicate with language right now was still a bit inconvenient.

—— Innate Weapon - Claw Mastery: The juvenile dragon is already quite adept at using its innate claws and fangs to attack enemies. It can initiate combat form through its claws. Additional combat forms: horizontal sweep, tearing bite, swing.

Duncan checked the abilities and noticed a dim gray special ability.

It showed as inactive.

—— Cold Bloodline [Special Ability]: A unique bloodline possessed by creatures of the Northern Land, slightly enhancing its own cold resistance and lowering the survival adaptation temperature threshold.

(Inactive)

(Can be bestowed upon other creatures, converting them into a cold subtype).

The dragon’s innate bloodline was too strong.

The juvenile dragon was almost immune to conventional frost and cold damage; even magic had a hard time breaking its resistance. As the embodiment of magic, such a low-level bloodline side special ability, even if acquired, would not activate.

"Can it be bestowed?"

Duncan studied this a little, discovering that it seemed to be a dragon-exclusive ability, requiring some special materials to perform a ritual to convert certain creatures into a ’cold subtype.’

This ability, in a way, meant that southerners could become like Russians, just a bit more frost-resistant, ready to swim in winter.

Before leaving.

Using an overseer’s perspective, Duncan checked on the nearby Catman tribe, noticing that the marked elder Priest turned into a blue unit, while other Catmen mostly remained neutral, with very few retaining hostility.

For survival, to endure this winter, some female Catmen were already cutting up Bear-men corpses.

Born with bear hide coats.

As for other things, for the tribe’s survival, they ate with closed eyes.

Should the juvenile dragon ever get desperately hungry, it would eat anthropoid creatures, too, just the same. The Northern Land was very barren, with scarce resources, and only the South had abundant food resources. However, the southern hills were mostly occupied by Highland Elf nobles with development decrees; they were quite ruthless, having slaughtered several Giant tribes.

The Catman tribe had previously migrated to the hilly highlands, where Hill Giants were enslaved by the Elves, shackled with heavy chains, whipped to build majestic temples to the great Dark Elf Empress.

Forced with no other options, Feline Beastmen generally don’t like cold regions.

.........