The most sensational news in the Seven Kingdoms right now was undoubtedly the disappearance of Divine Chosen One Linde Terra along with a sea dragon while he was hunting it.
Many people believed Lynd was certainly dead this time, because they learned the entire process and how enormous that sea dragon was from the trade guild executives and their guards who sailed with Lynd.
Even though those people repeatedly emphasized that Lynd had sustained no injuries when he wounded the sea dragon and sank it to the bottom of the sea, and that he had wounded it with an absolute advantage, few still believed them, thinking they were merely covering up the fact that Lynd had perished with the sea dragon.
Many felt this perfectly fit the story of a legendary hero: a legendary hero emerges, achieves unparalleled feats, and then, in an incomparable battle, perishes with their opponent—this was practically the standard template for any legendary hero.
Precisely because of this, the number of people who admired Lynd did not decrease; instead, it increased.
Although the Lord of Summerhall was missing, or dead, no one would consider this an opportune moment, because the administrative system Lynd had established continued to operate perfectly even without him, and Nameria still remained in Summerhall, presiding over various affairs, allowing Summerhall's administration to run smoothly, just as it had been before.
Perhaps to warn some ambitious individuals, or perhaps to display Summerhall's current strength, which remained incredibly powerful even without Lynd.
Nameria suddenly dispatched the newly formed Chosen Legion and Miracle Port's garrison, using a merchant convoy attack as a pretext, to conquer the unclaimed lands in the southwestern Red Mountains.
Then, in just a few short tens of days, this force swept through and annihilated more than a dozen Savage Tribes and bandit gangs, completely taking control of this mountainous region that others considered worthless.
In this war, twenty-six Stone Giants wearing bronze armor and equipped with massive shields and bronze war hammers also participated, demonstrating unparalleled combat power, leaving those secretly observing speechless.
Additionally, among the many generals, Daisy Mormont, the female commander of Miracle Port's city garrison, performed exceptionally, single-handedly slaying ten Savage Tribes leaders and over forty savage warriors.
After this territory was secured, Eagle's Nest Fortress upstream on the Veil River and Night Song City across from Prince's Pass also signed mutual defense pacts with Summerhall after Summerhall sent envoys.
Almost simultaneously with Eagle's Nest Fortress and Night Song City signing their mutual defense pacts, Stonehelm in the Stormlands surprisingly also signed a mutual defense pact with Summerhall, which surprised many people.
One must know that the Sven family of Stonehelm was no small family; they were one of the prominent great families in the Stormlands, significantly larger than families like Eagle's Nest Fortress or Night Song City, with strength almost comparable to the rebuilt Tengshi Town. Yet, such a great lord would sign a mutual defense pact with Summerhall without any warning, making people feel that Summerhall's influence had not diminished because of Lynd's incident, but rather showed a trend of strengthening.
At the same time, in the forbidden zone within the Godgrace Mountains, surrounded by massive shattered rocks with a grassland and lake in the center, an enormous dragon lay not far from the lake, and beside it lay a person. Compared to the dragon's colossal size, the person's figure was much smaller; just one of the dragon's eyes was already about the same size as the person.
This dragon and person were the sea dragon and Lynd, who had disappeared in the Dorne Sea two months ago.
Both of them lay on the ground, their rising and falling chests and heavy breathing indicating they were not dead, but seemed to have fallen into a deep sleep.
The first rays of morning sun pierced through the distant mountain peak, casting light upon this forbidden area and falling upon Lynd.
The discomfort caused by the sunlight passing through his eyelids made Lynd frown, and then he suddenly opened his eyes, sat up from the ground, and looked around in a daze.
When he saw the enormous sea dragon lying beside him, he immediately came to his senses, stood up from the ground, and searched for the Lost Knight's Greatsword, because the presence or absence of the Lost Knight's Greatsword had a huge impact on Lynd's combat power.
With the Lost Knight's Greatsword, he possessed combat power akin to a god, capable of easily killing the sea dragon before him, but without the Lost Knight's Greatsword, even if he could use the Dragon Feast Ritual power from his heart, he was not confident he could deal with this giant beast.
However, at this moment, the sea dragon's heavy and rhythmic breathing also stopped, and then its incredibly massive dragon eyes opened, looking directly at Lynd beside it.
Lynd's body instantly tensed, then he used the power of the Dragon Rune from his heart and his ideokinetic ability gained during the second Dragon Feast Ritual to accelerate his movement speed, quickly moving to a blind spot close to the sea dragon's body but out of its sight.
Facing a magical creature with such a massive body as a dragon, turning and running is useless; the best way to deal with it is to use the dragon's own massive body to create blind spots, hide, and seize opportunities.
When Lynd disappeared from the sea dragon's sight, the sea dragon also stood up from the ground, and as if it could sense Lynd's position, its body shifted sideways, while its long neck curved, perfectly spotting Lynd, who hadn't managed to move with the dragon's body yet.
Lynd didn't think much and continued to evade, because he knew very well that at this moment, he could not stop; stopping would likely expose him to a series of attacks from the sea dragon.
And so, the man and the dragon played a game of hide-and-seek; one quickly hid in a blind spot, the other quickly moved its body to find the hidden person, and the surrounding grassland became muddy from the dragon's trampling.
Although Lynd had been extremely careful, while fully concentrating on moving, he still didn't pay attention to the ground beneath his feet. He accidentally stepped into a sticky mud puddle, slowing his movement by a beat. The sea dragon's body quickly turned, and its massive tail swept out, then, like swatting a fly, it sent Lynd, who had just pulled his foot out of the mud and had no time to dodge, flying. He fell heavily to the ground and slid a considerable distance before stopping, leaving a trail on the grassland.
Although Lynd's body was already very strong, far exceeding ordinary people, it was clearly insufficient compared to the sea dragon's size and mass. For the sea dragon, it was merely an unintentional tail sweep, but for Lynd, it was an impact like a speeding dump truck.
His entire skeletal structure felt as if it had been shattered, and he was disoriented from the impact, taking a long time to regain consciousness.
However, when Lynd opened his eyes again, the sea dragon's enormous head was already before him, its open mouth constantly exhaling a putrid stench, and its dragon teeth crisscrossed inside, looking like a guillotines.
However, what Lynd found strange was that the sea dragon did not take this opportunity to attack him; instead, it examined him with a look of concern, and after seeing him wake up, it even retracted its extended head.
At this moment, Lynd also saw that his Lost Knight's Greatsword was still stuck in the sea dragon's head. The power of the Dragon Rune was still active, having formed a block of ice on its head, and electric Sparks occasionally emerged from the ice.
This Dragon Rune power, enough to be fatal to ordinary people, only caused discomfort to the sea dragon. Lynd felt that it wanted him to pull out the Lost Knight's Greatsword.
"What's going on?" Lynd was stunned. He suddenly realized that he could perceive the emotions of this sea dragon before him, just as he could perceive Glory's emotions.
At this moment, he could also feel a sense of closeness emanating from the sea dragon, which was also similar to Glory. It was precisely because of this that the sea dragon did not attack him, and even earlier, it wasn't trying to attack him either, but genuinely believed Lynd was playing with it.
Feeling that something was amiss, Lynd, after confirming that the sea dragon would not threaten him, seriously recalled his memories before waking up. As a large amount of memories were awakened, he gradually understood what had happened.
When he sank to the bottom of the sea with the sea dragon that day, he felt that the lightning power generated by the Thunder Dragon Rune, after being diluted by the surrounding seawater, was no longer sufficient to harm the sea dragon, so he switched to the Ice Dragon Rune.
While creating a temporary space with the Ice Dragon Rune, he was also trying to freeze the sea dragon's brain with the Ice Dragon Rune, killing it directly from within.
However, an unexpected event occurred at this moment: the Golden Finger progress bar, which had been inactive, suddenly filled up, and without any reaction from him, it automatically activated, automatically selecting the third character template. At the same time, it also automatically triggered the Dragon Feast Ritual, and the Dragon Feast Ritual no longer drew residual power from dragon bones, but directly from the sea dragon beneath his feet.
He had fainted due to this accident at the time, but it seemed the sea dragon did not faint immediately. Instead, like a biological instinct, it fled back to its lair when it sensed danger, and after returning to its lair and feeling safe, it also fainted.
The automatically triggered Dragon Feast Ritual during the unconscious process produced some effects that Lynd himself did not know. This mental connection between him and the sea dragon was one such effect, just as Glory had developed a mental connection with him when he merged with the second character template, Lost Country Knight, that day.
However, unlike drawing power from accumulated dragon bones, this automatically triggered Dragon Feast Ritual drew power directly from the sea dragon, and the sheer amount of power drawn directly caused this hill-like sea dragon to faint along with him.
Although he was unsure how many days he had been unconscious, based on the time consumed by the previous Dragon Feast Ritual, it should not have been short.
Moreover, performing a Dragon Feast Ritual directly from a dragon's body was unprecedented in the Lost Country Knight's memories. Their Dragon Feast Ritual only had two types: either drawing from dragon bones or drawing directly from the dragon's heart. Drawing directly from a living dragon's body was a first.
This also made it impossible for Lynd to determine if there were any unknown side effects to this method of Dragon Feast Ritual. Since drawing directly from the dragon's heart would cause the Lost Country Knight to fall into a state of madness and their eyes would turn blood-red, then drawing power directly from the dragon's body would certainly have significant side effects.
Thinking of this, he immediately got up and rushed to the lakeside, looking at his eyes and other conditions in the lake's reflection. After finding no changes, he breathed a slight sigh of relief.
At this moment, the sea dragon suddenly roared loudly at him, then shook its head in front of him, and then lowered its enormous head, like a warship, to the ground.
Lynd immediately understood the sea dragon's meaning. After a brief consideration, he decided to resolve the sea dragon's problem. So he stepped onto the sea dragon's mouth, climbed onto its head, and walked to where the Lost Knight's Greatsword was stuck.
Sensing the Dragon Rune on the Lost Knight's Greatsword, Lynd immediately sealed the active Ice Dragon Rune and Thunder Dragon Rune. The ice on the Lost Knight's Greatsword immediately shattered, revealing the sword body.
Lynd reached out and pulled the two Greatswords from the sea dragon's head, sheathing them. Some blood emerged from the wound as the Greatswords were pulled out, but as the muscles around the wound contracted, the wound quickly closed and rapidly solidified into a scar.
Feeling the Lost Knight's Greatsword being pulled from its head, the sea dragon comfortably shook its body, and its damaged wings involuntarily flapped. However, because Lynd was standing on its head, its head remained still. Lynd could feel that the sea dragon was very happy at this moment, and he could also feel its affection for him growing stronger.
Lynd leaped from the sea dragon's head, using the power of the Storm Dragon Rune to fly a distance, landing steadily on the ground. Then, he carefully examined this enormous sea dragon.
Undoubtedly, in terms of sheer size, this sea dragon was definitely larger than Vhagar and Balerion, which he had seen in the Red Keep's cellars. Its head alone was already roughly the size of his four-cabin warship, and with its mouth open, it could bite through any warship currently on the sea.
Its body was even more massive; a rough estimate from head to tail would be over two hundred meters. Because it was a wild dragon, its body appeared somewhat slender, but slender did not mean not strong; in fact, the undulating muscles beneath its dragon hide clearly showed its strength was enough to tear apart any obstacle.
However, this slender build instead made its head appear exceptionally large, giving it an incongruous 'big-headed doll' look.
Additionally, it had spiky dragon bones from its spine to its head, and its pitch-black dragon scales were also covered in spiky keratin, making it look very ferocious overall.
Its body didn't look particularly robust, but it was long and slender, like its long neck and tail. Its forelimbs were extremely strong, superior to its hind limbs, and its four sharp claws were huge and sharp, feeling like blades.
Its wings were badly broken, with many holes, and many of the supporting bones were fractured. Although they had healed, they had grown misaligned and twisted together, preventing it from flying and thus evolving from a flying dragon into a sea dragon.
Only another dragon could cause such extensive damage to a dragon, and judging by the wing injuries, they must have been sustained a long time ago. This couldn't help but bring two names to Lynd's mind: Glutton and Sheepstealer.
In Lynd's memory, these two dragons were the only ones on the continent of Westeros whose ultimate fate was unknown. Given the current dragon's enormous size and ferocious appearance, it was more likely to be Glutton.
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