Technological Wizard - Chapter 31

Chapter 31: The Kidnapping by the Large Dragon

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Boom! Boom!
Amid the loud booming noises, a black four-wheeled horse carriage was closing in on the palace. The driver was a brawny man clad in black clothing, bulging with a full set of chain mail underneath. Upon a closer look, he was the third steward of the KGB store.
There were many brawny men dressed similarly in the horse carriage. Their gazes were calm and slightly excited, since they were about to execute a critical mission.
The brawny driver in black kept whipping the horses to make the carriage go as fast as possible. At the same time, he shouted to his companions in the carriage, “You all know the key to this mission very well: speed! We must get Prince Richard as fast as we can and then quickly withdraw our troops. We must clear every obstacle we might encounter at all costs. Now, let’s check the equipment!”
“Yes.” The brawny men started moving immediately, and they began to inspect the packages of various sizes around them. These packages contained several technological weapons that were ahead of the times. For example, there were war knives made of special alloys, crossbows capable of shooting accurately even at a range of more than 200 meters, and powerful yellow powder explosives.
Boom. Boom.
As the carriage moved, the brawny driver in black suddenly noticed something and looked up. His eyes widened and he gaped. “What…”
Meanwhile, in the palace, all of William’s soldiers were staring at the sky with shocked expressions. “Thi- this…”
Frowning slightly, Richard also looked up, and his eyes narrowed.
A large shadow swept across the sky without warning, and a terrifying monster suddenly roared and landed. Both its wings flapped slowly as it bent its neck slightly and opened its mouth.
Richard immediately remembered the large blurry shadow he had seen several times during astral projection, when his consciousness had been drifting in the night sky.
This…
Roar.
There was an earth-shattering roar. The shadow spewed an enormous ball of scorching flames, which spread all over the palace like lava, making the raindrops in the sky boil away in steam. Building after building caught fire.
Under the dim sky, the flames flickered and reflected the stupefied faces of the people.
A dragon had appeared unexpectedly, crashing in the middle of the palace without a warning.
“Dragon! It’s a dragon!” someone yelled. Everyone then started to scream and dispersed like wildfire, fleeing anxiously in all directions.
At that moment, there was no longer a difference between a prince or a soldier. Under the flames of the massive fire-spouting dragon, everyone ran as fast as they could, like fleeing bugs.
Richard did not know where the soldiers had taken his brother, but the entire square soon became empty. The palace behind him was burning. Richard squinted his eyes and sized up the dragon circling in the sky.
The dragon continued to wreak havoc, spewing large balls of flames and igniting various parts of the palace. The creature was spreading fear in all directions.
Richard’s eyes flashed.
It was obviously a Western dragon, one of the magical creatures recorded in The Writings of Monroe. It had a body similar to a lizard, with wings on its back, and it looked at everything with its enormous eyes and vertical slit pupils, opening its mouth from time to time to spout flames.
“This is interesting,” Richard said.
However, he squinted his eyes the next moment.
His vision suddenly blurred, and the dragon swooped down suddenly. As the creature dived, he felt the air around him rise forcefully, his robe rustling.
The next moment…
In the palace.
The soldiers had calmed down after much difficulty, and they were fetching water to fight the fire.
A few soldiers were carrying the unconscious William and shouting repeatedly, “Doctor, the king has fainted! Doctor, hurry here!”
Outside Blue Lion City, in the courtyard of an abandoned village, bodyguards crawled out of the tunnel, one after the other. Bill glanced at the palace and saw the flames getting higher and higher. His eyes flickered, and he muttered, “Your Highness.”
In Blue Lion City.
On the green-stoned pavement, the carriage had already stopped. The brawny driver in black stared at the flying black shadow and the black spot on its back. He cursed, “Damn! The dragon has taken His Highness away!”
“What- what should we do then?” The brawny men in the carriage were stunned.
“What can we do? Follow the strategy Prince Richard prepared and implement the fourth plan.”
“Yes.”
Puff, puff, puff.
The dragon flapped its wings and flew higher. Richard was sitting on the dragon’s back and inspecting some gadgets in his suitcase. Although some of these objects were small, they had amazing powers. Some of them could be modified for a high-altitude gliding escape.
After inspecting them, Richard felt slightly more at ease. Although the dragon under him had not shown ill intentions, he was still used to finding ways to protect himself.
Glancing at it, Richard recalled what the dragon had just said, and his eyes flickered. “Gregory, right? Well, you said you kidnapped me to find a playmate for your daughter. That doesn’t sound like a good reason, right?”
Roar!
The dragon did not answer and kept flying higher and higher. The temperature began to drop.
Richard heaved a sigh of relief. He glanced at the dragon and tried to get some other answers.
“How can you fly?”
The dragon was silent.
Richard began to guess. His gaze fell on the entire body of the dragon, and he stared at its wings for a while. He shook his head.
As a rule, a living creature or thing could not fly on its own even if they wanted. There had to be some logic and science to it. In order to fly, one had to possess either a special body structure, like a bird, or a unique power source like an airplane or a rocket.
In terms of appearance, the dragon obviously did not conform to the special body structure of birds. In order for birds to fly, all parts of their bodies had had to develop through evolution.
For example, the feathers outside were not only to keep them warm, but also to form a streamlined shape that would reduce air resistance.
Their bones were thin, light, hollow, and filled with air. The skull was fused, and so were the many other bones in their bodies. Their ribs had hooked protrusions to connect them together, which reduced weight and strengthened their flying.
They also had special paired lungs and a simplified excretion system. All of this ensured that birds could fly with the least possible resistance, as they flaped the two wings that enabled them to soar the sky.
In comparison, the dragon only had scales and no feathers. And in order to support its enormous body, its bones were completely solid, dense and strong.
Its two wings only flappled occasionally, mainly for the purpose of adjusting height and direction. The resistance to gravity was negligible. Even if it were beating its wings, with the dragon’s size and weight, it would have not been able to fly unless it reached a frequency of hundreds of flaps per second.
However, the reality was that the dragon was flying smoothly in the sky.
Richard pursed his lips. Could there be a special power source in its body? Something similar to the engine of an airplane?
Well, he was not seeing a propeller and, obviously, there was no turboprop engine either. In that case, it could be something similar to a jet engine—the inner body pushing out gas at a high velocity constantly, forming a powerful force called thrust that enabled flying.
Logically, the gas had to come out at the rear, meaning that…
Richard stood up suddenly, walked to the dragon’s back and tried to look under its tail.