Chapter 168: Flame bone dragon

The Flame Bone Dragon roared, its enormous body being pulled sharply to one side. It tried to flap its wings to regain balance, but Laira pulled on the fishing line again, using the force from the Boundless Fishing Rod to swing beneath its abdomen.

The scene in the sky immediately turned into two streaks of light constantly colliding. On one side was an enormous body formed from fire and bone, each flap of its wings creating a storm of flames. On the other was Laira’s much smaller figure, moving so quickly that she was almost impossible to see clearly.

Shockwaves spread from every collision. Rocks were blasted into the air, while lava from the fissures below was shaken hard enough to erupt into the sky before falling like a rain of fire.

Mumu immediately expanded its barrier even farther, the transparent yellow gel covering the entire area where Ethan stood. Every time a drop of lava fell, the barrier dented inward before bouncing back, causing Mumu in the middle to shake continuously like a ball being tossed around.

"I’ll start collecting first." Ethan looked at the countdown, confirmed that Laira had completely drawn the Bone Dragon’s attention into the sky, then turned toward Ruo Yan. "We shouldn’t let all these bones go to waste."

Ruo Yan immediately understood what he meant. She raised a hand, and Soul Threads as thin as hair instantly spread from her fingertips and wrapped around the Undead Mage. The puppet had only recently been freed from its job as fishing bait, and the blue flames inside its eye sockets had not even had time to show relief before it was dragged straight toward an enormous monster skeleton lying nearby. It stood still for several seconds, then slowly lowered its head as though it had accepted its fate.

"Undead Mage, gather all the valuable materials and bring them here," Ruo Yan said in a very gentle voice. "Be careful. Don’t let the lava damage the bones."

The puppet could not answer. It simply raised a hand and used deathly energy to wrap around a thigh bone more than ten meters long before dragging it toward Ethan. Although the skeleton was so heavy that it carved a deep trench into the ground, the Undead Mage still worked very steadily. Ethan watched the scene and could not help feeling emotional.

This puppet had just gone through the Lava Sea, been thrown down as bait, and now it had been dragged onto a battlefield to work as a porter. If Ruo Yan really repaired its armor later, Ethan felt that they should also give it a new cloak, at least to compensate a little for the psychological trauma that technically did not exist.

Ethan reached out and touched the bone that had just been dragged over. The Eye of Truth swept across its scorched black surface and quickly confirmed that condensed veins of fire-element energy still remained inside. Without hesitation, he activated Decomposition. The monster bone separated into blocks of dark red material, while the remaining essence transformed into small crystals. The parts that had been too heavily eroded by fire-element energy became materials that could be used to reinforce equipment. Everything flew into his storage space one after another, making Ethan increasingly satisfied.

"That skeleton over there." He pointed toward a long-dead monster with six horns. "Take the piece of armor embedded in its chest too."

Ruo Yan nodded and controlled the Undead Mage to continue working. Before long, empty patches gradually began appearing across the battlefield that had originally been filled with bones and broken weapons.

Ethan decomposed the parts that no longer had value, while keeping the metal, bones, crystals, and equipment fragments with special structures. Ruo Yan used her Soul Threads to sort them into separate groups, while Mumu blocked the flames and secretly swallowed several small crystal fragments Ethan had not yet collected.

In the sky, the battle between Laira and the Flame Bone Dragon became increasingly intense. The skeletal dragon had tried several times to ignore Laira and charge directly toward Ethan because its pursuit target was clearly the participant ranked first in the challenge.

However, every time it changed its flight path, Laira’s black fishing line appeared in another position. Sometimes it wrapped around a wing, sometimes around its neck, and once it even hooked directly onto a rib before pulling so hard that the dragon’s entire body was dragged off course.

Eventually, the Flame Bone Dragon was completely enraged. The two flames inside its eye sockets erupted, lava along its spine surged violently, and its entire right wing suddenly transformed into an enormous blade of fire. It twisted its body in midair, the skeletal wing cutting out a dark red arc as it slashed directly toward Laira.

Ruo Yan saw the attack and slightly tightened the hand that was sorting materials. Ethan also raised his head, but he showed no intention of intervening. Laira had once dragged the Giant Lava Octopus, more than eighty meters long, from the bottom of the sea onto the stone shore.

Although this Flame Bone Dragon was terrifying, its strength did not necessarily exceed that monster by much. Moreover, this time she did not need to pull something heavy out of lava. She only needed to beat it until it could no longer continue the pursuit.

Laira did not dodge. She pulled the Boundless Fishing Rod back into her right hand, then clenched her left fist. The Thunderfire that had been wrapped around her fingertips instantly spread across her entire arm, the red flames intertwining with purple-white lightning to form a dazzling glow. Just as the flaming wing blade was about to strike her, Laira suddenly accelerated, her body becoming a straight line that shot through the gap between the wing bones.

Immediately afterward, she appeared directly in front of the Flame Bone Dragon’s enormous skull.

"Go down."

Laira’s voice was not loud, but it was extremely clear.

Her fist, wrapped in Thunderfire, slammed directly into the left side of the Bone Dragon’s skull. The instant her fist struck bone, the sky seemed to be torn apart by a bolt of lightning. The impact exploded so loudly that the entire battlefield shook, and the skeletons on the ground shattered into pieces at the same time.

The Flame Bone Dragon’s head was knocked violently to the side, its nearly seventy-meter-long body completely losing balance before flying straight toward the nearest volcano.

BOOM!

The Bone Dragon crashed into the side of the volcano, the impact so powerful that half the mountain collapsed. Lava poured from the crater like a waterfall, while glowing red rocks scattered everywhere. Mumu immediately raised its barrier higher, while Ethan merely lifted a hand and used Decomposition to destroy the rocks that were about to fall onto the collection area.

The Flame Bone Dragon struggled inside the rubble. It had just tried to use its wings to push itself upright when Laira appeared on top of its head. She planted one foot on its frontal bone, her right hand gripping the fishing line wrapped around its neck and wings, while her left hand grabbed its largest bone horn. The terrifying strength from her body forced the Bone Dragon’s skull deeper into the molten rock below. The monster roared, the flames inside its eye sockets erupting several times, but every time it tried to lift its head, Laira pressed down harder, causing the lava beneath it to splash outward.

"Ethan said we only need to hold you here." Laira lowered her head and looked at the flames inside the Bone Dragon’s eye sockets, her voice still carrying a trace of amusement. "So lie still for a while."

The Flame Bone Dragon struggled again, but after that punch, long cracks had already appeared across its skull. Laira’s fishing line tightly bound both wings, while her foot pinned it to the ground as though she were stepping on a rock. Every attempt to struggle only caused it to sink deeper into the volcano.

Ethan looked at the countdown, which still had nearly three hours remaining, then glanced at the Flame Bone Dragon lying motionless in the distance with Laira stepping on its head. He bent down and picked up a fragment of an ancient sword the Undead Mage had just dragged over, a satisfied smile gradually appearing on his face.

"Keep it like that," he said. "We still have a lot of bones left to collect."

The blue flames inside the Undead Mage’s eye sockets flickered strongly once. The puppet looked at the bones stretching across the battlefield, then at the Flame Bone Dragon being firmly restrained by Laira, before finally turning very slowly toward Ruo Yan as though trying to confirm that it had heard correctly.

Unfortunately, Ruo Yan merely smiled before extending her Soul Threads toward an even larger skeleton in the distance.

"Hold on a little longer," she said. "After we clear this round, I promise I’ll repair your armor."