Ran Away

"Capture me? Capture the great Smaug? You’re courting death!"

Smaug was furious. His entire body began to glow gold and red, the sign that he was about to unleash flames!

Because Josh used frost, Smaug could not understand why a half-elf could wield such a thing. He suspected it was likely because the half-elf carried one of the Lord of the Rings.

However, flames countered frost. That was why Smaug had not been too worried after awakening and restoring his vitality. Although this half-elf before him felt terrifying, Smaug was a dragon!

A creature born at the top of the food chain. This half-elf was at most comparable to Sauron, and Smaug countered him besides. What was there to worry about?

Josh had no idea what Smaug was thinking, but even if he had known, he probably would not have cared.

To be honest, Josh was rather curious. From what he remembered, it seemed that all dragons were very good at spitting things out of their mouths.

Of course, in some places it depended on their attributes. Wind dragons spat wind, water dragons spat water. But those were a minority. Most dragons specialized in breathing fire!

It was like an instinct of theirs, or rather, an innate talent shared by dragons in every world.

What frustrated Josh most was that these fellows were all exceptionally good at it.

Even the weakest dragons Josh had encountered—the dragons from the Wizard World—had possessed formidable fire breath. To be honest, Josh was very envious of such a talent.

But no matter how good one’s talent was, it was sometimes useless. Acquired effort was equally important, and of course, one’s luck and the limits of one’s world also determined how far one could go.

Josh’s luck had been very good. The place where he had transmigrated and been born had an astonishingly high limit.

On top of that, Josh himself was fairly diligent, and his luck was excellent as well. Therefore, Smaug, who could only breathe fire, could never compare to Josh’s upper limit.

Even if their individual strength was roughly equal, Josh possessed magic power while Smaug had none! All Smaug had was his body and his instincts.

Scorching flames surged forth. Smaug’s target was highly focused, so the temperature of his fire was extremely high.

After all, this was not fire scattered to burn everything around it. Dispersed power could not compare to concentrated power. The terrifying heat wave made even the dwarves standing nearby feel unbearably uncomfortable.

But that scorching sensation quickly vanished. It had come swiftly and left just as swiftly. The instant Smaug breathed fire, Josh cast Frost Magic and covered the entire underground palace.

The extreme Frost Storm and Smaug’s flames intertwined. This bizarre yet beautiful scene actually made the dwarves think it looked rather nice.

But when they considered the energy spilling from the collision of those two terrifying forces, they would never have associated it with beauty even in their dreams.

Smaug seemed to realize that his flames had no effect on the half-elf, so he decisively broke free from the ice restricting his movement and viciously swung his tail at Josh.

But he quickly regretted it, because he suddenly saw that some strange silver thing had appeared around the half-elf’s body.

Smaug was simply too large and too powerful, which meant he sometimes could not precisely control his own actions.

His iron-whip-like tail slammed toward the half-elf, but at that instant, he felt as though his tail had been severed!

That terrifying silver power seemed to be devouring his tail!

Honestly, if he had not personally experienced that horrifying and bizarre sensation, he would never have believed that anything could inflict such damage upon his hard scales!

Fortunately, Smaug still managed to pull his tail back, though several ice spikes pierced his body in the process!

Smaug was starting to feel afraid. Was this really a half-elf? And what the hell were those ice spikes? Why could they pierce his defenses?

Smaug stared fixedly at the half-elf, who remained utterly calm and now had two flame-like but exceptionally cold clusters of frost in his hands. After a moment of silence, he could no longer hold back.

"Who exactly are you? Someone like you cannot be a nobody!"

"Me? I suppose I’m not exactly a nobody now. My name is Josh. Well, I’m the Elf King of the newly established Elf Empire. That’s about it."

"Elf King? Are you the same kind of fellow as that Elrond?"

Smaug did not know what this newly established Elf Empire was, nor could he be bothered to ask. He had already learned what he wanted to know.

An Elf King who was a half-elf was not particularly strange.

Elrond was a half-elf as well, except he had abandoned his human traits and chosen his elven ones.

Although this fellow before him still retained human traits, the faint yet rich elven bloodline within him was not something Smaug could ignore.

Smaug even wondered when elves had acquired such extraordinary abilities.

In Smaug’s memories, elves had decent talent, but they would ultimately become people like rangers, because mages would never appear among them.

Mages were the most powerful weapons in this world. Since magic was far too terrifying, it was something that barely circulated in Middle-earth. The only people who wielded magical power were the Maiar, but they were bound by rules and could not casually use magic to attack others.

As for an elf like Galadriel, who could use offensive magic, she was simply a miracle!

But Galadriel’s magic was merely simple soul-attacking magic, something Smaug had known long ago. The magic usable or commonly seen on the continent consisted only of defensive and protective spells.

Yet the power this half-elf used seemed to be magic!

Could this fellow, like Sauron and those wizards, also be a Maiar? But Smaug quickly dismissed the thought. The Maiar had to follow the will of the gods. If the gods did not permit them to casually use magic, then they absolutely would not!

This fellow before him clearly did not care about any of that. Such terrifying power could not possibly be anything else!

This was definitely magic! A half-elf skilled in magic, using it with such proficiency and such tremendous power—Smaug began to think about retreating.

Smaug’s defenses were incredibly strong, but they were defenses against physical damage. Magic was mysterious and terrifying, especially when this Josh fellow was so powerful that he was practically on Smaug’s level!

If only a Maiar had appeared before him, Smaug probably would not have felt much.

Among all the Maiar, Sauron was the strongest, yet Smaug might not lose if he fought Sauron, because no matter how evil Sauron was, he still followed the rules.

As for the other Maiar? Smaug truly did not take them seriously. Perhaps only that fellow in white wizard robes was worth a glance. He had no idea what the rest even were!

Smaug believed that even a severely weakened Sauron could easily deal with them!

If Josh had known what Smaug was thinking, he would definitely have strongly agreed with him.

Gandalf, that Grey Wizard, had indeed been taught a lesson by a severely weakened Sauron. He had not even been able to protect the people beside him and could only watch helplessly as they died.

Unfortunately, Josh did not know, nor was he interested in knowing such things. He was studying with great interest the two clusters in his hands that looked like flames but were exceptionally cold. This was something he had recently been trying to create purely for show.

To put it plainly, this was an attempt to make use of Void Origin. Josh had not expected that after making so many preparations, he would succeed on his first try!

That was something Josh had never expected, though he thought it was rather nice.

Tsk, tsk. Does this count as imitating Chris?

Josh thought silently, but he soon thought of another fellow with a similar appearance. That fellow only looked like this in the early stages, though, and changed later on. Besides, that fellow wielded real flames, while Josh’s could be freely transformed.

Should I bring Garen’s greatsword over? I could pretend to be him for a bit.

Josh considered it privately, but quickly set the idea aside for the moment, because Smaug began attacking him with all his might.

To be honest, the attack was immensely powerful. Even without Battle Qi or magic power, Smaug’s raw strength was there. Even Josh did not dare to be careless.

Fortunately, Josh could freely use Void Magic anywhere outside the Muya Continent, so his Void Shield had never ceased. When Smaug swept his tail at him earlier, Josh had been completely unharmed, while Smaug’s tail had nearly been swallowed by the endless Void connected to the Void Shield!

But what Josh had not expected was that Smaug was indeed attacking at full strength, yet he merely breathed fire around Josh before smashing viciously into the stone wall nearby!

In an instant, rocks collapsed. Bright moonlight shone directly inside, and Smaug spread his wings and flew out!

Josh was dumbfounded. Garen was dumbfounded. Natasha was dumbfounded. Thorin and the other dwarves were dumbfounded. Even Bilbo and Bard, who had already been dumbfounded, looked even more stunned.

He ran? The mighty and incomparably arrogant Smaug, whose massive body made people tremble, this King of Evil had just run away?

They stared blankly at Josh, then turned to stare blankly at the dragon’s retreating figure. Aside from Natasha and Garen, no one could have imagined even in their dreams that such power lay within Josh’s seemingly frail body—power that had made a dragon choose to flee after only two exchanges!

But Bard quickly came to his senses. His face turned exceptionally ugly as he looked in the direction Smaug was flying, because that was Lake-town!