The rat dragon before them wore a full body leather armor modified by dwarves, the black hardened leather made from the scales of Augustus's dragon. At its waist were the hammer-spear, bowgun, and arbalest custom-made in the Dragon Desert, now augmented with a miniature lantern and wand catalyst. On its back it carried a great bow and magic arrows. Its sharp claws adorned alchemical rings that amplified its strength, as well as a new batch of spatial rings from the territory.

"Runaways, is it? You humans really are ungrateful!" The rat dragon said disdainfully and with disgust, then began conversing with the blood wyvern beside it in draconic.

The patrol officers could not understand the dragon language, only able to anxiously watch the exchange between the two monsters with uneasy glances between each other, seeing the same panic in their comrades' eyes.

Because the patrol squad had evolved from the former controlling gangs of the twelve noble families, they were more aligned with being the nobles' enforcers and thugs, having little interaction with the elite dragon kin whom they still feared like ordinary people.

"Chief, why are we being so meek?" One officer with a crooked cap and bucked teeth tugged at the Karuk man's sleeve. "These monsters are a separate system from our patrol squad - we should be on equal footing."

The Karuk man immediately twisted that idiot subordinate's skin hard, nearly making him shriek in pain.

"Fool! If you dare act arrogant like usual, I'll kill you first!" he scolded in a low voice. "Do you do nothing but eat and sleep like a pig? Don't you realize who provides the food we eat every day? Do those dragon kin look easy to provoke?"

He inwardly cursed himself for ever taking on such a shortsighted idiot as his subordinate, determined to get rid of him in next week's squad reassignment.

Meanwhile, the rat dragon was discussing with the blood wyvern how to deal with the four runaways.

"Little brother, what's there to ponder? We just take these humans back, no?" The blood wyvern's personality was simple and brutal, not seeing it as an issue.

"Big bro, we can't be so rash. I'm wondering, we've been patrolling this area all day with you and our two other kindred keeping heat vision active. How could we have missed these four runaways?"

The rat dragon rested one claw on the hammer-spear at its waist while the sharp claws of its other hand flexed and caressed the alchemical ring.

"This could be a ploy by humans from outside. They've been wanting to take back the territory our Master has newly occupied. Just a few days ago, they infiltrated Mount Zhen and drove our Master into a frenzy, right?"

It recalled Alvis's teachings in the desert: "Intelligence and logistics are as crucial as battle itself! If the humans plan a large-scale attack on us, they'll surely send many scouts ahead - this could be one of them."

The blood wyvern originally cared little about the territory Raphael had recently occupied, simply following Zhen's orders day-to-day without much extra thought, finishing each mixed day, not having betrayed its master and thus reasonably loyal.

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But after the rat dragon's analysis, it immediately recalled the horrifying sight of their berserk crimson dragon master, that earth-shaking roar and skyfire breath still ringing in its mind like an alarm.

"You make a fair point." The blood wyvern nodded, using the talons of its wings to stalk menacingly toward the humans.

"Tell me everything that just happened!" It gave a low growl laced with a hint of murderous intimidation.

But the patrol officers only heard an strange inflection and grunt, staring back blankly with innocent eyes.

The rat dragon quickly stepped forward to translate for them. After exchanging glances, the Karuk man voluntarily stepped out to recount the events, though omitting their arrogance and ill intent toward Helen.

"So they don't even know where these four came from?" the rat dragon mused. "There are no wounds on the humans of our side, indicating almost no combat took place..." It couldn't help recalling the assassins who had tried to kill the human nobles, that level of capability would suit infiltrating for intelligence - these four suspects seemed too weak.

"Human youngling?" It glanced toward Misha and Heiss. "Along with that woman, likely a so-called 'family.' Dragging family along to gather intelligence? Seems too far-fetched!"

This line of analysis made it discard its previous notion - this appeared to be a mere runaway incident to be handed over to the patrol squad.

The blood wyvern also sensed something amiss and said in a bored tone, "Little brother, can we go now? This caliber dares infiltrate our nest? Last time that human female instantly killed three of my blood wyvern brothers!"

"Alright..."

The rat dragon pondered it over, indeed finding no issues as its tightened grip on the hammer-spear loosened.

But just to be safe, it went over to inspect each one individually.

"This is the smallest human youngling. Hmm…utterly harmless."

"A young girl? Just unconscious."

"The human female, likely the mother role? Why are her clothes so tattered?"

After checking the first three, the rat dragon found no issues.

It then approached the fourth person and saw the blunt trauma on his back and bloodied hair.

Its sharp claws grabbed a fistful of Alvis's hair to lift his head, revealing his face.

At first glance, the rat dragon noticed nothing, about to simply release him to rejoin the blood wyvern on patrol - they had just finished lunch and were heading back to their posts.

"Wait…that face seems familiar!"

It suddenly recognized him, flipping Alvis's whole body over and releasing fresh water from its spatial ring to wash away the mud covering his face.

The Karuk man and other officers felt their hearts skip a beat, puzzled why this rodent monster had simply glanced over the first three but was so focused on this fourth person.

Helen too anxiously watched as the monster handled her husband, thoughts turning to ancient tales of monsters eating humans.

As the mud gradually washed away from his face, the rat dragon's expression grew more and more shocked.

"What is the meaning of this?" The officers could all tell something was off, racking their brains over what connection the dragon kin could have with this human who appeared from nowhere.

But what alarmed them even more was that even the blood wyvern, who had been so dismissive of humans, now scrambled over in a panic, staring in horror at the fourth person's face.

"How…did you attack him?" The rat dragon's voice trembled as it asked.

Sensing grave danger, the quick-thinking Karuk man immediately shoved forward the one who had been guarding and struck Alvis. "It was him! I ordered them to peacefully apprehend the four, but he took it upon himself to attack with the iron rods!"

"What? Ch-…" The shoved officer tried to defend himself, but one of the smarter subordinates suddenly turned on him, viciously kicking his legs to drop him, then glaring murderously to silence any protest.

The rat dragon and blood wyvern watched this commotion impassively, exchanging a glance that conveyed they were of the same mind.

Fwoosh!

The blood wyvern suddenly took flight, blasting its virulent breath directly at the officers, who were caught completely off guard!

"Aah! My skin is melting!"

"No! No! Leave me out of this!"

To their horror, they found the areas struck by the breath agonizingly itching and painful. Scratching only ripped off entire chunks of flesh as easily as scooping pudding!

Then a putrid wind arose as the blood wyvern's wings unfurled in flames, ready to mete out punishment!