Chapter 49: The Battle of Smaug (Part 1)

Smaug spread his wings and swept across the upper reaches of Lake-town. The violent wind kicked up flames from the buildings, and the scorching heat wave could be felt even from afar.

He let out a tremendous roar, carelessly displaying his soft underbelly, which was encrusted with gold and all manner of gemstones. Under the crimson firelight, these treasures flashed with a dazzling brilliance.

A monocle locked onto the soaring dragon.

Blazing fire spewed from the foul beast's maw. He circled high in the air for a while, the flames illuminating the entire surface of the lake. The trees along the shore were transformed into golden-yellow and blood-red pillars of fire, while pitch-black shadows danced incessantly at their feet.

Bard's sharp, hawk-like eyes stared fixedly at the circling Smaug, waiting for the dragon to make another reckless dive.

Suddenly, he shouted sharply: "Release!"

All the archers subconsciously loosened their bowstrings.

"Clang!"

The buzzing of the bowstrings merged into one, and a dense cloud of black arrows soared into the air, completely enveloping Smaug.

The arrowheads struck the scales and jewels, producing crisp "pitter-patter" and "rustling" sounds. The immense force caused the shafts to snap, and they rained down in disarray.

Smaug lowered his head indifferently, the fletching of the arrows ignited by the breath exhaled from his mouth. Like a rain of fire, they burned as they fell into the lake, hissing aloud.

Li Xia lowered his bow with a calm expression. His previous arrow had drifted away in a bizarre fashion, aiming straight for Smaug's lower regions and standing out conspicuously among the volley of arrows.

Even Bard couldn't help but glance over in this direction.

[Current attack failed to break defense, damage dealt: 0]

However, their attacks were not entirely useless. A few stray arrows were haphazardly pinned to an exposed patch on Smaug's left breast. They might not have even broken the skin, floating down limply as a gust of wind blew past.

That area was uncovered by any gold or jewels, and it was Smaug's only weakness. In the original story, it was precisely here that Bard struck with the Black Arrow, piercing Smaug's heart.

This scene was not only witnessed by Li Xia, but also by the other Apostles hiding throughout the town and silently observing through various means.

A message instantly flashed across the chat platform:

Claude (Brotherhood of Steel Reserve Member): "Everyone! Preliminary estimation places the physical defense of the left breast area at 3-4, slightly higher than 3! What are you waiting for?"

Suddenly, a beam of light shot straight into the sky from within the blazing Lake-town, blooming into a dazzling radiance.

Smaug let out a painful roar, his entire body stiffening as he plummeted straight down from high altitude.

Aaron Goul (Apostle No. ****): "[Slinger Flash Bomb] 2/3, two chances remaining."

([Slinger Flash Bomb]: Fires to inflict a blinding effect on monsters. If the monster is in the air, the blindness will cause it to plummet — Monster Hunter)

As soon as this message was sent, it was as if some switch had been flipped.

Li Xia finally witnessed a sight he would never forget for the rest of his life.

Beside sharp icicles were glowing arrows, and an RPG trailing a tail of fire flew past a grinning, demonic skull wreathed in smoke.

Machine gun tracer fire traced a magnificent line of fire across the night sky.

Shuriken dragged explosive tags, javelins trembled, muskets emitted billowing smoke, and boomerangs whirred loudly.

At this moment, this group of Apostles seemed like utterly frantic gamblers, hurling out every ranged means at their disposal.

As long as they could break the defense, it seemed they would dare to charge forward with weapons drawn, even against a god.

Mad and dense explosions detonated in rapid succession against Smaug's belly. This behemoth was actually beaten so hard that even its descent slowed down noticeably.

Under such attacks, Smaug's health bar finally dropped by a fraction.

Li Xia watched silently as data streams continuously refreshed within his monocle.

"Ballistic calibration complete! Target trajectory calculation complete."

He took a deep breath, the muscles in his arms bulging, and the yew bow in his hand curved to its limit.

A dotted line extended along the direction of the arrowhead, maintaining a slight arc.

"Whoosh!"

An extremely faint cyan light point lingered around the yew arrow, crossing space in the blink of an eye.

It drove fiercely into Smaug's left breast.

[Current attack strength 3 (+1), dealing a total of approximately 20 * 1.2 (draw weight bonus) damage. Factoring in physique and other related attributes, this attack dealt 1% damage to Smaug.]

1%...

Li Xia exhaled. This was still with the help of the horn's buff, which granted an extra +1 to attack strength. Without this attack strength bonus, this strike wouldn't even have broken the defense.

The yew arrow was 80 centimeters long. For Smaug, who had a body length of 141 meters, it was equivalent to poking him in the chest with the tip of a sewing needle.

Up to this point, Bard actually had the highest output. Astonished by the sudden appearance of so many inexplicable attacks within Lake-town, he did not stop his actions.

Instead, he loosed arrow after arrow, continuous and unending.

He just wondered why Bard didn't simply use the Black Arrow for a speedrun; could it be that he didn't know the Black Arrow could kill Smaug?

The stun duration of the [Slinger Flash Bomb] was less than five seconds. As it neared the ground, Smaug abruptly let out a painful roar, beating its wings to whip up massive air currents that churned the lake water into wave after wave of ripples.

An unprecedented rage surged within its chest. Reptiles... these cowardly, easily squashed reptiles had actually hurt it.

This anger turned into flames that gushed forth, long pillars of fire sweeping back and forth, igniting everything before them in Lake-town for half a day.

The leaderboard, which originally had 142 people, instantly dropped by 11 to become 131.

The chat group was refreshing frantically; at this moment, no one cared about those 10 points.

"Wait, where's the guy with the flash bomb? Keep going!"

"There's a hidden cooldown, using them back-to-back won't work. Wait another minute!"

"One minute? In one minute Smaug will have set all of us on fire like New Year's fireworks!"

"That layer of gold and gem armor is just too much of a nuisance!"

..................

In a corner on the edge of Lake-town, inside a room yet untouched by the chaos.

A few people were squatting by the window, covered in sweat, staring nervously outside.

A woman holding a rocket launcher turned her head, asking in a low, hurried voice:

"Test tube, how much longer?"

In the middle of the room sat a scattering of beakers and solvents. A man wearing a lab coat, goggles, and rubber gloves was carefully stirring the mixture with a glass rod.

"Almost there, while I infuse it with a soul........."

Test Tube reached out his hand, a fanatical and intoxicated smile on his face.

Talent: Solvent Sublimation!

A flash of light emerged from his palm, illuminating the prepared solvent.

"Now we're just waiting for the second control of Smaug."

Just as he finished speaking, a dazzling brilliance bloomed once more.

Smaug wailed and crashed heavily into the ruins of Lake-town.

Aaron Goul (Apostle No. ****): "[Slinger Flash Bomb] 1/3, one chance remaining!"

A figure suddenly rushed out from the house. His body was wreathed in cyan light, clearly having used a speed-boosting skill.

His white lab coat fluttered in the wind as he laughed maniacally and hurled the reagent in his hand with all his might, smashing it against Smaug's soft underbelly.

"Boom!"