Chapter 1093 — The Joint Sea and Air Vigilance Ring
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 5
The representatives of the various nations wore all manner of expressions, but beyond the three great empires, their reactions shared one common feature: worry—unconcealed worry.
"May I ask something?" A tall, dark-skinned representative rose to his feet. He came from the northwestern frontier of the Augurey Tribal States, chosen as leader by several independent city-states north of the Mosswood, and he looked toward Metzen with a most solemn countenance. "How strong is the dragons' magic resistance? How tough are their scales? Forgive me—my question may be somewhat offensive, but it is of the utmost importance to us."
Metzen seemed to have anticipated that such a question would arise, for she appeared entirely unruffled, and even wore a faintly courteous smile as she answered. "There is no need for such formality. The dragons have come here wishing to establish equal exchange with the friends of the Loren Continent. As for your question... it is difficult to give a precise, quantifiable answer, for dragons differ in strength, and different dragon kinds have different inclinations of power.
"Broadly speaking, by the standard of an ordinary adult dragon—each magic resistance above average, sound health with no major ailments, carrying no specialized combat equipment—most spells below the intermediate rank do... zero damage to us. Intermediate spells can inflict some injury upon dragons, but a certain number and sustained assault are required, depending on the caster's power. If an intermediate transcendent who has only just broken through to that rank and whose mana reserves remain insufficient faces an adult dragon alone, the threat to us is still zero.
"High-rank to legendary transcendents can effectively contend with adult dragons, but the frail bodies of most mortal races remain a fatal weakness—to emerge unscathed from dragonfire breath, one needs the protection of powerful armor and shields.
"The above concerns only the dragons' magic resistance. As for the toughness of our scales... do you know those city gates cast whole from purple steel? Lay a finger's thickness of mithril plate over that, and a black dragon is about that level; dragons of other colors are somewhat weaker in scale toughness—equivalent to no mithril plating."
The leader from the northern city-states stood listening closely to Metzen's account, and after the dragon envoy's voice fell silent he pondered for a moment, concluded that it would be best not to utter any curses here, and with a sigh sat down.
Another representative could not help rising. "Then how are we supposed to... bring down these dragons whom, by your own account, Tarronde has 'expelled'? If they are all as powerful as you say, this plainly exceeds what many nations can cope with—perhaps a well-fortified kingdom's vital points might deal with such raiders, but ordinary border regions cannot necessarily count on great legions being stationed everywhere!"
"Dragon calamity"—for the representatives present this was undeniably an awkward yet unavoidable term. The envoy from Tarronde stood here bearing a desire for peaceful coexistence with the nations of the Loren Continent, yet those of their kin who had slipped from control were plainly not so harmless; who knew how many powerful dragons would harry the borders of the Loren Continent. These confirmed threats sent far colder sweat down the spine than the war of the gods, which had already ended.
"This is precisely what I was about to address," Gaoyang said, rising at that moment. He swept his gaze around the assembly hall, and only once every eye had settled upon him did he continue. "In founding this alliance, our first task is to resolve the 'security question'; therefore one of the alliance's initial duties is to deal with the hidden perils that threaten the safety of member states—such as dragons beyond control.