'White Eagle!'
Ethan called out to White Eagle in his heart.
Under the Eagle Eye state, White Eagle shared a tacit connection with Ethan. It understood immediately, so it quickly looked in the direction Daji was staring at.
Sure enough, inside the mist, a red figure was rapidly closing in on Ethan.
Ethan let out a cold laugh. He once again set up a burst arrow and locked his eyes on the red shadow in the mist, ready to shoot at any moment.
Even though Ethan had the Precision skill, if the distance was too far, the arrow's speed would drop. By then, the Red Dragon would snatch it with a single claw, and it wouldn't be worth it.
He didn't have many burst arrows left to begin with.
After clearing the Nightmare Rat Cave last time, he only had four usable burst arrows left.
He had just wasted one more.
Now there were only three left, so Ethan had to be extremely careful.
Otherwise, without this kind of special effect arrow, dealing with a flying giant creature like this would become unbelievably difficult.
'One hundred meters left.'
Ethan measured the distance between himself and the Red Dragon with his thumb.
Distance between two points times 10 equals the target distance.
'Fifty meters left.'
Ethan's arrow was already itching to fly.
But he forced himself to hold back.
The closer the distance, the less time the Red Dragon would have to react.
Fifty meters was nothing to a Red Dragon that could fly, practically something it could cross in the blink of an eye.
At that moment, Ethan finally released the fully drawn bowstring.
Whoosh!
The burst arrow shot out again.
But Ethan didn't stop. He immediately drew another burst arrow and fired a follow-up shot.
'No way. If one arrow can't kill you, then two definitely will.'
In the blink of an eye, the first burst arrow reached the Red Dragon.
But at that moment, Ethan suddenly saw a huge red exclamation mark.
And next to it was even a flashing motion icon. It was the first time he'd ever seen this symbol appear.
In that instant, Ethan chose to trust the system.
He immediately darted to the side, scooping up the fully tensed Daji as he rolled into the house.
"ROAR!"
The Red Dragon spewed a torrent of blazing flames, lighting up the night sky.
Ethan didn't take the flames head-on, but even inside the house he could feel the sudden burst of brightness.
Right after came an explosion of scorching heat at his back and a huge wave of force pushing against him.
"Holy crap!"
This was way too outrageous.
Ethan had only been in this world for five days, and now there was a fire-breathing dragon. How was anyone supposed to survive like this?
As for the two burst arrows he'd fired earlier, under such extreme heat, forget exploding, they melted so completely that not even a trace remained.
The Red Dragon missed its mark.
It immediately turned mid-air and flew off again.
"This is way too hard to deal with!"
Ethan stared at the single burst arrow left in his hand, feeling a headache.
Three burst arrows wasted in a row, and still he hadn't managed to take down the giant dragon.
Now with only one burst arrow left, the chance of killing it was nearly zero.
Thinking of this, Ethan quickly opened his storage and searched for anything he could use against the Red Dragon.
Soon, he spotted the acid and the Nightmare Rat King's Blood.
The acid had some lethality, but it probably couldn't pierce the Red Dragon's scales at all.
"Too weak!"
'Not good.'
But the Nightmare Rat King's Blood.
[Nightmare Rat King's Blood: Cannot be consumed. Can be used to refine magical items. Increases spiritual power of the item.]
"This one is worth a try."
Ethan originally wanted to craft ten more arrows, but making them required time. The Red Dragon was probably circling above at this very moment, watching him like a hawk.
If Ethan showed even a hint of his fighting intent fading, the Red Dragon might dive down to attack immediately.
So he couldn't waste time.
Thinking this, Ethan simply smeared the Nightmare Rat King's Blood onto his last remaining burst arrow.
No idea if the effects would stack. But he had no better options. All he could do was gamble and hope a bicycle turned into a motorcycle.
Swish!
The burst arrow in Ethan's hand flashed with a gold light.
Then the originally bronze arrowhead turned into a jade-like green, even carrying a faint translucent texture.
[Nightmare Burst Arrow: Being hit by this arrow is absolutely a nightmare experience. Special effects: Burst, Automatic Forgetting]
The effects actually stacked.
A regular burst arrow had now become a Nightmare Burst Arrow.
This arrow inherited the Rat King's magical ability: automatic forgetting.
The same ability the Rat King forgot to use on Ethan back when it ran away, the Forgetting Spell.
This ability looked a bit mediocre, but used at the right moment, it could be incredible.
For example, during a fight, your opponent suddenly can't see your weapon.
That was just nasty. Vicious.
But…
"I like it!"
Ethan was overjoyed.
He quickly mounted the Nightmare Burst Arrow onto the short bow, keeping his eyes on the sky.
Good thing White Eagle had leveled up, extending the Eagle Eye effect to half an hour.
More than ten minutes had passed already, yet Ethan still hadn't gotten anywhere near hitting the Red Dragon.
Of course, the reason he hadn't was probably because Red Dragons didn't have any fur to touch in the first place.
"Eeek!"
At that moment, White Eagle cried out in the air.
Ethan understood what it meant. The little guy felt useless for not being able to help and was discouraged.
It wanted to help Ethan.
"Perfect."
Ethan narrowed his eyes.
They'd clashed twice already, and Ethan could tell the Red Dragon was afraid of his arrows.
Otherwise it wouldn't have used its Dragon Breath like that.
So even though the arrows had an automatic forgetting effect the moment they were fired, the Red Dragon might still notice Ethan's movements.
Then the Red Dragon might simply unleash another Dragon Breath.
At that point, forget the Nightmare Burst Arrow, even a bullet wouldn't make a difference.
If Ethan could coordinate with White Eagle and have it draw the Red Dragon's attention, then he could sneak attack from behind.
The plan was dirty, but effective.
"White Eagle, after you fly up, just circle around randomly and draw its attention," Ethan communicated through their mental link, "Then I'll fire from behind. No problem, right?"
"Eeek!"
White Eagle responded.
It then did exactly what Ethan asked, flying into the air and circling around wildly.
Meanwhile, Ethan slipped back into the villa, used the system to recycle a pane of glass from the window, and hid behind the opening with his bow ready, waiting to snipe the Red Dragon.
Sure enough, the Red Dragon was drawn by White Eagle and quickly dove down.
But just as Ethan thought it was going to attack White Eagle, he was stunned to notice the Red Dragon fly right up to White Eagle and strike a flamboyant pose.
Especially the umbrella-shaped frill around its neck, which spread open at once.
It shook its head and wagged its tail in front of White Eagle.
It even fanned its wings toward White Eagle with its backside, moving in a super weird way that did not look like an attack at all.
In fact, now it looked more like…
'Courtship? Huh?'
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