Whoosh… Whoosh…
The shriek of displaced air was deafening. From an altitude of over a thousand meters, the mutant wyverns tucked their wings, plummeting like guided cruise missiles.
Thien Anh had just managed to haul Lam Linh into the concrete reinforced tunnel leading to the bunker when…
KABOOM! THUD! CRASH!
The earth shuddered violently, a localized tremor reaching eight on the Richter scale. Cement dust rained from the tunnel ceiling. The impact of several dozen tons of biological mass hitting the ground created a terrifying seismic backlash.
Thien Anh, mid-sprint, slammed his heels into the floor, his boots leaving scorched skid marks on the concrete.
"What are you doing? Run! It's coming in!" Lam Linh shrieked, her limbs flailing in a blind panic.
Thien Anh turned back calmly, a lethal glint in his eyes piercing the gloom.
"Run where? This is my home turf."
He pointed toward the hatch opening.
"This tunnel is reinforced for stress; its diameter is only three meters. Those leathery bastards have wingspans dozens of meters wide. They have long necks, but their torsos are massive. They can only stick their heads in."
A predatory, ruthless smirk curled the corners of his lips.
"If it dares to poke its head in here, I'll blow its brains out."
Before the words fully left his mouth, the light from the hatch was abruptly extinguished.
A gargantuan head, covered in jagged, ash-grey scales, forced its way into the tunnel. Burning golden eyes the size of serving bowls, with lethal vertical pupils, scanned the darkness before locking onto the two small preys.
It was the alpha—the two-headed wyvern.
"ROAAAAAAAR!"
It unhinged its massive maw, revealing rows of jagged, dagger-like fangs matted with gore and rotting flesh. In the confined space, the roar resonated and amplified, becoming a sonic shockwave that slammed into their eardrums.
"Urgh!"
Thien Anh winced, feeling as if needles were being driven into his brain.
Lam Linh, however, could not withstand the sheer, primal pressure. The putrid stench geysering from the monster's mouth, combined with the aura of an apex predator, snapped her fragile nerves.
She collapsed to the floor, her body turning to jelly. A warm, wet sensation spread through her clothes. She had lost control of her body in absolute terror.
"Get inside! Move!"
Thien Anh didn't blame her. He signaled Thien Lang. The wolf lunged forward, grabbing Lam Linh by her collar and dragging her behind the armored steel bulkhead that separated the tunnel from the living quarters.
Thien Anh slammed the bulkhead shut. The silence was instantaneous, thanks to the thick acoustic insulation. But through the surveillance monitors, he saw the wyvern outside relentlessly ramming its head into the tunnel walls, trying to wedge itself deeper.
"Mutt, watch her. Little Thanh, prep the latch."
Thien Anh lunged into the armory. He didn't reach for a rifle. Instead, he hauled out a piece of "heavy hardware": a modified shoulder-fired RPG with a thermobaric warhead.
He donned specialized noise-canceling earplugs and gripped a massive titanium alloy riot shield.
"You want to stick your head in the trap? I'll give you something hot to chew on."
Thien Anh signaled Azure Sky.
"Open the door!"
As the steel door creaked open, the snarls and the stench flooded back in. Thien Anh stepped into the tunnel corridor, his shield braced firmly in front.
The wyvern, seeing its prey return, unhinged its maw in anticipation.
Thien Anh dropped to one knee, propping the RPG onto his shoulder. The distance was less than ten meters—a suicidal range for an anti-tank weapon in a confined space. But he had no better option to punch through those dragon scales.
"Eat this!"
Fwoosh!
The rocket shrieked out of the tube, trailing a long tail of fire. It flew directly into the wide-open, blood-red gullet of the monster.
The moment he squeezed the trigger, Thien Anh discarded the launcher and performed a violent tactical roll back toward the safety door.
"Shut it!"
Azure Sky used her tail to flick the emergency lever. The 30cm-thick steel door slammed shut just as the thermal backwash of the explosion hit.
KABOOM!!!
The entire bunker shuddered. Despite the closed door and earplugs, Thien Anh felt his chest tighten under the sheer atmospheric pressure.
On the thermal camera outside, a gruesome scene unfolded.
The rocket had detonated deep within the dragon's throat. The thermobaric warhead incinerated all available oxygen in the tunnel, turning it into a localized sun.
The wyvern's left head detonated like a pulverized watermelon. Gore, bone fragments, and brain matter splattered across the tunnel walls, staining the white snow outside a visceral red.
The dragon shrieked in terminal agony with its remaining head. It wrenched its scorched neck out of the hatch, thrashing wildly on the ground, flattening the surrounding trees in its death throes.
The lesser wyverns, seeing their alpha maimed—one head completely vaporized—erupted in a panic. They abandoned their assault, flapping their massive wings to bolt into the bruised sky, leaving their leader to die in the dirt.
Thien Anh watched the monitor, exhaling slowly.
"Good. They know fear. But it's also a nuisance. These things are intelligent; next time, they won't be foolish enough to stick their heads in a hole."
He turned back to Lam Linh. The girl was huddled in the corner, her face burning with a deep, humiliating crimson, tears welling in her eyes as she tried to hide her wet clothes.
Thien Anh pulled out his earplugs and approached her. His voice was as steady and matter-of-fact as ever.
"It's fine. Fear is a survival instinct. A girl facing a monster the size of a building without fainting on the spot is impressive enough."
He pointed toward the bathroom.
"Go wash up and change. You'll catch a chill like that."
Lam Linh kept her head low, whispering a faint "thank you" before bolting into the shower like she was running for her life.
Thien Anh turned to Thien Lang and Azure Sky, the lethal assassin's smirk returning to his face.
"Alright. The danger is gone. Now, it's time to harvest the spoils."
He slung an electric chainsaw onto his shoulder.
"Let's go. Today, we eat dragon meat."