16 Chapter 16

Vesuvius flew around the peak of the mountain to search for more prey.

"Ding! Ding!" weird sound similar to that of multiple pieces of glass hitting against each other come to form the opposite mountain.

Vesuvius immediately turned to look for its source. Something glittering flew from the opposite mountain, and soon more of it showed up, quickly moving towards the dragon. Vesuvius flapped his wings and sharply dived downwards. Just a second later, at least a dozen sharp icicles flew above him.

"Ding! Ding!" echoed again, and more icicles fired toward the dragon. They were moving extremely fast, skipping the wide volley between two peaks just in a matter of seconds. Vesuvius turned sharply, avoiding the icicles.

'Not good! I hope it is not what I think it is.'

Vesuvius darted in the direction of an attack until he heard again that ringing sound. He moved quickly to the side even before he could see the glitter of the sun reflected by flying shards of ice. Vesuvius was sure that the ice wouldn't easily penetrate his scales, but he wanted to avoid another of their effects.

The small dragon was flying as fast as he could to get close enough to see his attacker.

"Ding! Ding!" another salvo of sharp pieces of ice flew towards the dragon. He quickly moved behind a tall boulder sticking out of the depths of a valley.

Multiple shape pieces of ice hit the rock, shattering at its surface in a loud noise. The thin layer of ice immediately spread through the surface of the stone, covering it in white.

'Just as I thought... It's good that I dodged it.'

Vesuvius remained hovering behind the stone as a magical circle appeared in his mouth, and a sphere of flames quickly started to grow inside.

He stuck out his head from behind the rock and released his fireball in a relative direction of the attacker.

"Ding! Ding! Ding!", another barrage of ice spikes flew towards the dragon's head peeking from behind the stone.

Fireballs and icicles flew at great speeds meeting midway. Icicles that directly touched the fireball melted and turned into raindrops, before dropping towards the ground. However, the rest of the magical icicles resisted the high temperature around the fireball and continued in their trajectory.

Vesuvius immediately retracted his head back behind the rock, and soon more impacts hit the rock again, covering it in even more ice with remaining icicles harmlessly flying by the side of the rock.

"Bang!" fireball finally reached the mountain causing a small thermal explosion as it reacted with something extremely cold.

'Is it death? No, I guess I got no XP.'

Vesuvius briefly stuck out his head, noticing something shiny reflecting sunlight in a circle of melted snow.

Vesuvius saw his mana steadily drop, and he felt his wings getting sore thanks to their continuous flapping needed to allow him to hover behind the stone spike.

'This needs to end quickly.'

He returned to his cover, and another fireball quickly formed in his mouth, growing in size and temperature.

The dragon stuck out his head and released a fireball towards the glittering object on the opposite mountain peak.

"Ding! Ding! Ding!" immediately after he heard the sound of another incoming barrage, he flew higher and darted forwards like a rocket. Before him was nothing but depts of the valley with no place to hide or cover.

"Ding! Ding!" sharp ice fragment that glittered under the clear sky flew towards him at a shocking speed. He sharply moved to the side, dodging them.

However, shortly after that, another "Ding! Ding!" echoed through the deep valley, accompanied by more ice projectiles.

The small dragon couldn't change his direction sharply enough twice in such a short interval, so he opened his mouth and breathed a veil of flames to welcome incoming icicles.

Icy spikes flew through the flames, seething with steam as a portion of them evaporated. However, most of them flew through the veil of flames, only decreasing in their size. The small dragon slightly tilted his wings avoiding a portion of the incoming projectiles.

Few shards directly hit the dragon exploding upon the touch with his scales. This layer of ice quickly spread from the places of impact, slightly slowed down by the fire nature of the dragon.

An uncomfortable cold feeling akin to holding an ice cube in bare hands spread all the way into the dragon bones.

The small dragon quickly started to lose height as he couldn't properly move his wings. He opened his mouth and spat a stream of fire in front of him. His body flew through his own flames, ice on his body melting enough for him to move his wings and stop his fall.

The small dragon finally got close enough to see his target with his zooming dragon eyes. A giant lizard, the size of a motorcycle, stood on the mountain peak. Its whole body was covered in beautifully glittering but deadly sharp crystals of ice. Its long tail was pointed towards the dragon, with new crystals of ice quickly growing from its tip.

It was another major predator that lived in the cold places like mountains that most of the players adventuring through the mountains consider even deadlier than a yeti. They could accurately fire hard to avoid ice projectiles that could freeze their targets in a matter of seconds. Mountains gave them the perfect hunting place as they could easily snipe enemies from a long distance.

The dragon flapped his wings and turned to fly directly at the lizard.

"Grahh! How dare you interrupt my hunt. I will melt you!" the dragon's cold voice started to echo through the valleys between peaks bouncing off the stones.