At that moment, within the Bone-Eroding Swamp, the black dragon mother was still guarding her treasure trove, sound asleep, utterly oblivious to the fact that a dragon-slaying party was already plotting her demise.

Saron was busy in his cave, engrossed in his study of magical combinations, with Hannah, the ever-present tag-along, and Emily nearby. "If I can just sync the Pulse of the Earth with that Scouting Spell, I might be able to detect underground ores," mused Saron, working on a new magical concoction. His understanding of the Feast had deepened, prompting him to start preparing combinations of ingredients. And he knew well that as the Feasts progressed, the ingredients would need to be more numerous and of higher quality. The only way to enhance the stacking effect was through relentless experimentation.

However, a series of roars echoing throughout the mountains disrupted his train of thought.

"What's going on?" Saron growled, stepping out of his cave irritably.

"Saron, a large human army has come, the same humans as before. They've already entered the forest, shouting slogans about slaying the dragon!" Hannah reported anxiously.

"Dragon slaying?" Saron was puzzled. They should have attempted that feat a long time ago if they were truly capable. The last encounter with the black dragon mother had left them thoroughly humiliated, and yet here they were, shouting about slaying her once more. If they were daring to chant such slogans, it meant they might actually have some assurance of victory over the black dragon mother.

And that wasn't good news for Saron. While the black dragon mother hadn't fully lived up to her responsibilities as a mother, she had provided a safe haven for Saron. The human warriors and various formidable magical beasts didn't dare to intrude into the Bone-Eroding Swamp out of fear of her might, granting safety to Saron and his company. As long as they didn't seek death, they wouldn't find it.

As for the dragonlings' hunt, they could always resort to eating dirt if necessary; a black dragon wyrmling wouldn't care about such hardships.

Except for those meat-loving red dragons...

...

"Your Highness, is this really the best approach?" Leo watched with unease as hundreds of soldiers marched forward, chanting their dragon-slaying battle cries. He had originally planned to lure the black dragon out and have Rawel ambush it with a Forbidden Spell to secure the kill. However, Rawel, eager to flaunt his strength in front of the woman he desired, had decided to engage in a grand battle with the dragon face-to-face.

"We are the regular army of the Del Kingdom; what honor is there in an ambush?" Rawel declared sternly to Lora, as if taking the honorable route would showcase his masculinity.

Lora hadn't expected Rawel to be so reckless, but she smiled and played along: "You're right, Your Highness. This is a perfect opportunity to demonstrate the might of the Del Kingdom to the rest of the continent!"

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And just as they had anticipated, the black dragon mother was enraged by their provocation. As soldiers chanted, a massive shadow took flight from the distant swamp. The black dragon mother, sixteen meters long, soared over the soldiers like a small mountain.

"Damn humans, you dare to disturb the great mother of dragons again?" she bellowed.

Acid rained down from the sky, and before some soldiers could react, their bodies were corroded away.

"Ah, damn it, someone help me!" One soldier's face was eroded by the acid, and in a frantic attempt to wipe it away, he inadvertently tore off his own eyeball. Their armor stood no chance against the breath of a mature black dragon.

"Save me, Goddess of Life!"

"I want to go home!"

"I don't want the gold anymore!"

...

The black dragon mother looked down at the carnage among the soldiers with cruel satisfaction and opened her massive jaws wide.

"Mist Spell!"

Releasing her draconic magic, she summoned a cloud of poisonous miasma prevalent in the Bone-Eroding Swamp. Under the effect of the spell, it spread towards all the soldiers, engulfing them like a monstrous entity devouring flesh.

Before the soldiers could recover from the shock of the first dragon breath, they were enveloped in a deadly miasma. The miasma churned out goblins, gnolls, and dire wolves—all vicious creatures and devoted followers of the black dragon mother. Accustomed to the swamp's toxicity, they moved with ease within the miasma, brutally slaughtering any life in their path. Some gnolls even began to devour the human soldiers alive.

Meanwhile, the black dragon mother soared above Leo and his company. "Humans, you shall pay the price!" she thundered. To her, the end seemed certain as an overwhelming draconic presence bore down on Leo and the others, a crushing ancestral force.

Although Leo's companions wanted desperately to flee, they remained dutifully by Rawel's side. Rawel himself was nearly paralyzed with fear. "Your Highness, use the Forbidden Spell!" Lora urged frantically.

"Yes, the Forbidden Spell!" Rawel, snapping out of his panic, hastily produced a terra-cotta-colored scroll. Channeling his magical energy, he activated it, stirring the surrounding earth elements.

The black dragon mother sensed danger and unleashed her breath, but just before it reached them, it was halted by a semi-transparent barrier—a result of Rawel's expensive enchanted weapons at work.

At the same moment, Saron looked up, feeling something amiss with the earth elements around him. Hannah and Emily looked up too but saw nothing. "What's wrong, Saron?" Hannah asked, puzzled.

"The earth elements are behaving strangely, like there's some kind of magic..." Saron didn't finish his sentence when suddenly the sky was filled with fiery meteors hurtling down.

The entire Bone-Eroding Swamp, including the nearby forest, was engulfed. "This is a Forbidden Spell!" "Meteor Shower!" Saron recognized it from a magical scroll he'd seen before, but he lacked the necessary magical power and spell model to cast such powerful magic himself.

"Run!" Saron didn't hesitate and started sprinting to safety. "Wait for us, Saron!" Hannah and Emily followed, not daring to take to the skies as the falling meteors made such an escape suicidal.

Thunderous booms echoed as the meteors struck the forest, leaving soldiers and the black dragon mother's minions alike in despair, unable to evade the onslaught. After shattering a meteor with a swipe of her claw, the black dragon mother fixated her gaze on Leo and the others.

"Damned humans, possessing Forbidden Magic!" She roared, scales shattered and body marred by the impact.

"Prince Rawel, had you informed me that your Forbidden Spell was an area-of-effect Meteor Shower, I would not have brought a single soldier here. This is nothing short of a massacre. We could have used the Meteor Shower alone to effect," Leo lamented, witnessing his soldiers being pulverized by the meteors without a chance of survival.

"Leo, how dare you question my decisions!" Rawel retorted angrily. "A mere city lord questioning me? A few soldiers lost is nothing; dying on the path of slaying a dragon is an honor for them. Once we slay the dragon and claim her treasure, we can recruit as many soldiers as we wish!" Rawel declared, watching the black dragon struggle against the meteor shower.

Leo was furious but felt powerless to change the situation. "However, the Meteor Shower is an area spell; it appears unable to kill the black dragon, only inflicting some damage," Lora chimed in, trying to diffuse the tension. She was right; the Meteor Shower was designed for use on a battlefield, not for inflicting high damage to a single target.

"Heh, don't forget, I have another Forbidden Spell scroll!" Rawel boasted, hinting at another devastating magic at his disposal.