The next day, Raphael was blissfully asleep in the ocean of gold.
Not until a sliver of late summer morning light pierced through the broken mountain top and illuminated his closed eyelids, did he drowsily open his vertical pupils. The golden irises dilated lazily, like a languid housecat.
The entire golden sea then began to churn in waves, tossing up piles of coins and golden ornaments into the air. Huge "hills" bulged up from the "surface", eventually breaking through to expose the vermilion scales underneath.
In a daze, Raphael lifted his body above the golden sea. With a flick of his tail, he plopped down, back legs splayed out with dragon claws dangling between his thighs. His head gradually sank lower, as if ready for another nap.
Ultimately though, he was still pulled from his slumber by the events from last night that kept plaguing his mind. Shaking out his wings, he slowly took flight, preparing to leave Pillar Mountain.
"I used to have plenty of time to sleep, but was tormented by poverty. Now that I've amassed a sizable fortune, I've lost my leisure instead."
Raphael reflected on how, ever since being drawn to the human world by gold, he spent his days constructing defenses to protect these beloved golden treasures.
Yet whenever alone savoring the wondrous aroma, he couldn't help but feel anxious at the thought of losing such immense wealth and the emptiness that would follow.
This compelled him to painstakingly deal with worldly affairs, robbing him of true freedom.
"But it's all worth it! As long as my gold remains under my control, even into the grave," Raphael proclaimed, gazing down at the boundless golden vista that never failed to fill him with confidence and drive.
"A few jewels are missing from the mountain's heart though - Nana has that sapphire pendant, I'll retrieve it later. But the ruby necklace and amethyst crown are gone, those four humans must have taken them! I'll need leverage to get them back!"
Raphael couldn't help but think of his most prized treasures once more.
Though the mountain essences had repeatedly displayed their enigmatic and extraordinary nature, his first impression was of unparalleled, rare jewels - the embodiment of his collection that could not be lacking.
"Alvis likely won't waste time helping me find them, he has his own ambitions and may try to seize my treasures himself. I need to form a special, confidential organization instead - one where only I know the truth."
Raphael's thoughts wandered to the future, but when the crisp air and blazing sunrise enveloped him completely, he cast aside such idle musings and focused wholly into a warrior's stance!
With a mighty flap of his four wings, the ensuing gale and turbulence churned the surrounding clouds into chaos!
He streaked like a crimson meteor directly southward toward Oakland!
Down below, the Erl district had begun its workday early. Countless munitions were being transported from the riverside alchemical plants, while a life-sized crimson dragon statue was being carved in the city center.
...
Akuniryas had also awoken early and was already in the Oakland area.
Exiting his military encampment, he surveyed a scene of bustling activity before him.
Engineers were constructing underground fortifications, using basic earth magic in conjunction with alchemical equipment for unparalled efficiency compared to conventional sites.
Legions of soldiers were also training, while many anti-air batteries and griffon landing ground were being installed and built. A group of battle dragons even lay quietly in the training grounds, listening to human instructors lecture on aerial warfare tactics.
Temporary harbor facilities lined the riverbank.
Every day, merchants from all Natterian regions received orders from the Imperial War Department to produce and transport food, munitions and matériel by wagon to the rail stations along the "Western Star" Line, sending them onward to Potan City.
The area was already under martial law, with supplies being ferried in batches from requisitioned ships straight to the Oakland garrison.
"This time we should be able to subdue that dragon," Akuniryas thought to himself, approaching the vanguard of his own regiment awaiting his orders.
"Today we'll continue drills on dispersing to evade area-denial dragon breath attacks, practice with the anti-air batteries, and familiarize ourselves with enhanced anti-dragon performance on the modified bowguns. Any questions?"
"Sir! When will we attack?" a young Oakenburg soldier raised his hand, having fortunately avoided the dragon rampage by being stationed elsewhere.
"Unknown," Akuniryas replied. "But no later than late September, as the Molton River enters its flood season around mid-September annually."
"This year's levee workers in the Morey Plains were driven off by the evil dragon though, so flooding is certain. While modern alchemy and magic prevent loss of life, the roads will become an impassible quagmire, severely hindering our mobile arcane artillery's maneuverability, and the underground works will be rendered useless."
Just as Akuniryas was about to add some morale-boosting words, his peripheral vision caught the overcharge detection meter mounted in the camp. The previously steady waveform suddenly spiked with multiple peaks flashing more rapidly!
Shrill warning sirens immediately began blaring all around!
"Take cover, quickly!" Akuniryas shouted to his troops, leading the way to the nearest underground entrance.
Having rehearsed evacuating to the underground fortifications within half a minute, the soldiers swiftly disappeared below the surface.
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This was to prevent the evil dragon from catching them exposed again and indiscriminately wiping out the base - preserving their fighting strength remained paramount.
Raphael had yet to reach Oakland, the ruined city still beyond the horizon.
"Intercepting me so soon? Humans must have mastered tools for tracking my movements!"
His blood-red vertical pupils spotted distant heat signatures taking flight, along with three draconic hostiles flying in tight formation toward him at speed.
"Hmph!"
Raphael disabled his snake-eye spell, irises reverting to a dark gold.
He then drew some blazing adamantite from his spatial ring, crushing it precisely in his steel-hard fangs into a fine powder before swallowing it into his gullet.
Feeling his blood, mana and muscles ignite, Raphael's abdominal cavity blazed white as a radiant breath attack lanced forth directly ahead!
The three fully armed battle dragons in the distance all wore bizarre, misshapen helmets.
The face portions seemed made of transparent glass, constantly auto-generating numeric codes around the periphery to digitize and display the dragons' vitality, mana and status data.
"Evade carefully! Watch for the enemy trying to close for melee!" their draconic flight lead warned its wingmates.
One corner on their visor HUDs showed the overcharge detection waveform.
As the peaks breached the critical threshold like in their countless prior drills, they executed evasive maneuvers!
The lethal radiant breath swept between the formation before dissipating once its energy was spent.
The battle dragons immediately cast with their claws, wearing alloyed gauntlets to coordinate spell angles, ensuring accuracy while protecting their catalytic talons.
Six lightning bolts converged on Raphael from multiple vectors as he finally got a good look at his dragon opponents.
"Why are these dragons all purple?"
Raphael immediately noticed the unnatural hue, as if they'd been stained with dye.
Their frames were further downsized, measuring only around 11 meters by his estimate. Yet their wingspans were vastly increased, the main and auxiliary wings chained together into a conjoined dual-wing structure.
Not wasting any more thought on it, Raphael harmonized his flight magic, physical might and Heartforce in a burst of speed that shattered the sound barrier, charging straight at them!
The lightning bolts lost their target and detonated prematurely.
"So fast!"
In the blink of an eye, the three dragons caught a glimpse of the crimson dragon barrelling towards them, their hearts skipping a beat as they froze momentarily.
But in that short window, Raphael had already unleashed his assault!
A radiant breath roared forth instantaneously, coupled with phantasmal Force Claws reaching out to strike!
Raphael concentrated all his might on a single purple dragon, intent on rapidly culling this threat.
The targeted dragon snapped to and reacted at the last second, wings furiously beating to narrowly evade as the radiant breath seared through its hind leg!
The Force Claws raked across its back, but only found specially alloyed armor plating that mitigated both the magical and physical trauma.
The other two dragons' counterattacks had arrived.
Lightning bolts and thunderstrike bursts crackled with orange-yellow electrical fury towards Raphael's back. Sensing the destructive force incoming, his four wings instinctively jolted, allowing an inconceivable midair twist to dodge the brunt of the assault.
White honeycomb barrier lines then flickered across Raphael's body as he roared and flapped hard, relentlessly pursuing the wounded purple dragon!
Breath, lightning, weaving, feinting charges!
Raphael dueled all three battle dragons simultaneously, leveraging his formidable airmanship to weave between them, disrupting their coordination and preventing them from disengaging together or risking higher-tier area spells that this agile crimson might evade, shattering their combined firepower.
"It can keep up with me like this?!"
Even after a lengthy 10-minute running battle, Raphael still could not get into decisively close quarters with any of the purples.
Though he could unleash breakaway sound barrier speed bursts, those were only for linear charges - push too hard and these three might regroup into a solid formation.
So he maintained an extremelylimit yet controlled velocity, jinking all around them.
Yet these three purples showed no signs of falling into the same hopeless chase that ensnared the griffon knights. Their aerial skills and speeds matched Raphael's own.
"Ah, this must be the benefit of being a dwarfed! Reduced weight and optimized physiology coupled with customized gear to elevate them to my caliber of speed, relying on spellcasting firepower as their primary threat. Even 'spell immunity' falters before such numerical saturation!"
Raphael gradually deduced the human's tactics - using knowledge, calculation and miniaturization to bridge the innate gap, something he had no ready solution for.
"Still, I haven't gone all out, just probing their full capabilities. Enough play for now, farewell."
Glancing at the "sluggish" griffon squadron still inbound, Raphael sneered and began channeling power into his wings.
"Watch out, it's going to burst again!" the purples warned each other as their overcharge detectors spiked wildly once more.
But instead of any cataclysmic ultimate technique, Raphael simply plunged like a meteor, disappearing from view.
"Damn, it's attacking the garrison! Alert ground forces, defend positions!" the wounded captain roared in anguish as they raced to relocate.
In a blink Raphael arrived over the garrison - no one there just like fort Kiel.
Over a hundred lightning energy orbs then materialized, converging on the airborne crimson dragon!
"Dispersing your anti-air batteries in hidden emplacements to ambush me, such painstaking efforts!"
Raphael casually wove between the anti-air barrage, scanning in vain for their actual placements, all camouflaged by human deception tactics.
"No need to root them out one-by-one though, I'll leave these anti-air toys for Alvis to deal with."
His tone mocking, Raphael's dark golden, malicious vertical slits then fixed on the distant warehouses and harbor districts.
"Say farewell to your provisions!"
Raphael threw his head back in a booming laugh, his abdominal chamber rapidly shifting from pale white to brilliant gold as a searing flame breath lanced out towards the Oakland garrison's food and munitions depots!
Upon contact, the dragon breath immediately radiated outwards, demonic flames ravaging the Imperial allied forces' vital logistics!
Thunderous explosions erupted in the armories one after another, as the alchemical wards stabilizing their enriched fissile stockpiles succumbed to the inferno, finally releasing their pent-up devastation!
Weaving through the air, Raphael blasted continuous breath towards the harbor, encampment, airfields, training grounds - immolating the entire Oakland garrison!
Sensing an incoming threat, he rapidly beat his wings to relocate just as a combined higher-six-tier area strike assaulted precisely where he'd been hovering!
The cataclysmic assault barely rubbed his wingtips, instead demolishing the remaining surface facilities into an irradiated wasteland.
"Not my problem, hahahaha!"
Raphael laughed uproariously watching over a hundred of their deployed field manacrystal cannons get obliterated in the very same bombardment - turns out he'd mainly targeted structures like warehouses, leaving the exterior training complements untouched.
"See you in two days!"
Enough for now, Raphael beat all four wings and rocketed skywards, riding the high altitude jetstream currents back towards his lair.
The three purple dragons eyed each other uncertainly. Their orders were to intercept the crimson dragon, but now it seemed to have disengaged - should they pursue or not?
"Hm? The Commander's hailing me?"
The lead noticed a pulsing crystal sigil flashing on his visor HUD - the built-in communications function.
"General Cornet, I apologize. The enemy's burst speed proved too extreme, it controlled the engagement while we could only react defensively."
"Save it! Chase that bastard down and demolish its lair!"
Cornet's irate voice blared back.
The captain hesitated before carefully replying, "But our spies and Morey operatives haven't transmitted the interior schematics or intel yet. We don't know what new defenses might be waiting there now. And my hind leg is injured, it may be too reckless to-"
"Who's the Commander here? We've already lost huge amounts of matériel! Our timetables are affected! We must retaliate, or it'll only get harder once they're ready!"
"As for injuries, aren't you issued self-regeneration scrolls? Use them! Empire has plenty of money! Empire raised you to obey orders! Now attack!"
"Yes sir…"