Bear School Astartes

”Bang!!!”

A loud crash, mixed with an angry and piercing roar.

The main gate of the Lonely Mountain Kingdom, which had not been opened since it was broken through by Smaug’s sudden attack.

The level of the Dwarves’ construction and aesthetic taste made this colossal stone door, carved out of the mountain, have an angular and geometric beauty within its solid mass.

The two armed Dwarf Warrior statues flanking the gate, as tall as the gate itself, were not just decorations but further enhanced the gate’s structural resistance.

But today, the massive towering stone door was blasted open from the inside out!

Smaug’s wings and claws crashed against it, and the momentum of his own body, the weight and strength of the dragon, and also the weight of the gold from the pool of gold it had bathed in...

This stone door could not withstand it at all!

The golden dragon, glistening all over, gasped for breath as it barreled out of the Lonely Mountain, with rubble and debris shooting out like raindrops.

After stumbling a few steps on the ground, Smaug’s golden wings spread out and flapped towards the sky!

The immense wind pressure, even though the surrounding ground was already bare rock and soil, Smaug’s take-off still managed to fan away half a meter thick of dust within a thirty-meter radius around the mountain’s hard surface!

Only revealing the large rocks composing the mountain below!

The dragon soared into the sky due to this powerful wind pressure.

As it flew in the sky, its wings folded as its whole body spun, and then it opened its wings to gain lift at the fastest rotation.

During this spinning, a layer of high-temperature liquid gold on its surface was flung away by the centrifugal force.

From below, in the deep night, Smaug almost in that spinning instant exploded with a plume of golden mist on its body, the eye-piercing colossal form reverting back to its original reddish-brown skin.

These liquid gold droplets, after being flung off, solidified into droplet-shaped gold beads in the cold wind.

Falling like bullets from the sky, rattling upon impact with the ground.

The mass of the gold was too heavy; a ton of gold if cast into a cube would only be about thirty-seven centimeters per side.

About the size of a computer case.

And for a layer to cover Smaug’s enormous form, turning it into a magnificent, glittering golden dragon, the weight must be at least over a hundred tons!

And Smaug, even with its chest nearly crushed by the high-temperature liquid gold, forcefully took flight carrying over a hundred tons additional weight!

When the dragon had flown far away, Bilbo, Rong Buqiu, and the Dwarves finally caught up to the already destroyed main gate of the Lonely Mountain.

”What have we...done?”

Watching the dragon head straight for Long Lake Town, Bilbo was in a daze, murmuring softly.

-----------------

In Bilbo’s view, though Long Lake Town had been severely damaged in last night’s Beastman invasion, they glanced back on their way to the Lonely Mountain.

The townspeople of Long Lake started moving out of the town like an ant migration, heading towards the ruins of the abandoned River Valley City.

But surely they couldn’t have finished in a day, could they?

The town was not lightly damaged, but wouldn’t moving entail gathering belongings? Who would willingly leave their property behind?

For several hundred people in Long Lake Town to pack up in three days, Bilbo thought that would be fast.

And even if they had moved, what then?

This area, due to Smaug’s threat, had gradually been abandoned, and by now only a few places left could be inhabited.

The abandoned Lonely Mountain, the ruins of River Valley City, and Long Lake Town, gone.

Smaug had just emerged from the Lonely Mountain, raging with anger, and if it didn’t see anyone in Long Lake Town, even the dragon wouldn’t be stupid; it would know there’s only one place left the townsfolk could have gone.

However, Bilbo felt an involuntary guilt for involving others in his own affairs, and the consequent anguish it caused.

Yet this Hobbit, who had ventured from the Shire, did not know—

There were indeed people in Long Lake Town now, and they intended to seize this opportunity to slay Smaug.

Lann’s strategic planning took the lead, while Bard contributed his trust and prestige among the townspeople.

The combination resulted in incredible efficiency.

The whole several hundred people of Long Lake Town, including the morning’s search and calming, had actually been relocated by dusk.

This kind of efficiency would have left Bilbo, the Hobbit from Hobbiton in the Shire, and even Bard dumbfounded.

But Lann had anticipated every step, and with the strategy set, the Demon Hunter collaborated with the bio-brain in his mind to devise numerous guidelines addressing various details and oversights.

Thus, during the population transfer, Bard felt everything flowed effortlessly.

If any problem arose causing the team to stall, Lann would promptly appear as if expected, solve the issue, and the team would then continue forward.

This level of strategic planning and command capability even caught the attention of Elf King Thranduil.

Although he could achieve this level in his Kingdom, the basis for such efficiency in the Woodland Kingdom was that its Elves had lived under his rule for at least a few thousand years.

Rather than the ability to plan and coordinate, it’s more about the tacit understanding accumulated over time, along with the extraordinary average quality of the elves.

In short, in less than an afternoon, they managed to evacuate the residents of Long Lake Town, built on a giant rock in the center of the lake.

Only Bard, Thranduil, and twenty elite elf archers, along with Lann, were left.

Thranduil had no intention of letting himself and his warriors fire the black arrow.

In his words: Elves are never quite comfortable using the creations of dwarves.

The black arrow is one, and so is the wind crossbow.

And to Thranduil, Bard’s archery skills were quite decent, not much different from his elite archers.

Lann felt at ease letting Bard hold onto the black arrow, considering his capabilities, family grudges, and Bard’s sense of responsibility for the townspeople of Long Lake Town.

Approaching dusk, Lann and Bard walked together on the paths of Long Lake Town, which, though dilapidated, still occasionally had intact houses.

They had to go door to door lighting lamps or adding lamp oil, so from above, the town would still look lively.

Bard just poured a small saucer of lamp oil from the oil jug, then lit the wick on the saucer and placed it in a glass lantern.

He looked up, and through a crack in the building ahead, he could see the distant snow-capped mountains shimmering in the golden sunset.

There was no movement there yet, but Bard already felt a growing unease in his heart.

No matter how you analyze it, facing Smaug was an inevitable situation.

Yet the inherent wishful thinking of all living beings kept surfacing.

Maybe it’s not that bad, maybe the dragon is still asleep, maybe the dragon is off hunting...

But in the end, Bard had to face reality and let out a sigh.

”Take this.”

A voice came from beside Bard as he sighed.

Bard, brought back to reality, raised his hand to catch a small bottle Lann tossed to him over a canal.

It was a special thick glass bottle containing a liquid as viscous as oil.

”What is this?”

Bard examined the small bottle and asked.

Across the canal, Lann also happened to light a candle and place it on the candlestick.

”[Advanced Dragon Race Oil], a specialized poison I often apply to weapons when facing dragon beasts... Though I haven’t used it on a dragon like Smaug, its inherent toxicity is strong enough.”

The Demon Hunter fixed the candlestick in place and turned to look at the human archer.

While demonstrating the smearing motion with his hand.

”Apply it to the tip of your arrows... I’m a monster hunter, and though I haven’t dealt with this kind of dragon, it’s always better to stack more damage, right?”

Bard didn’t know what a ’dragon beast’ was, he just knew this evil dragon Smaug. But he agreed with Lann’s logic.

If he’s going to fight Smaug, he should use every means available.

”Do you have more?” Bard shook the specialized glass bottle at Lann, ”The black arrow is long and big, wouldn’t using more be better? I heard you wizards have plenty of strange things, why not take them all out this time?”

Lann, who was working on the next lamp, raised an eyebrow but couldn’t be bothered to correct Bard’s term bent by the dwarves, instead reaching into the alchemy pouch at his back for more.

Then he threw several small triangular packets made of oil paper over the canal to Bard.

Bard quickly caught them all.

”[Loose Golden Resin].”

Lann indicated to Bard through a pantomime how to use it.

”Tear a small hole in the oil paper and rub it on your weapon. It can make your weapon temporarily emit golden lightning, but the duration of the golden lightning is short, at most half a minute, so you’ll have to seize the opportunity.”

”There’s a type of dragon that is particularly afraid of this golden lightning, but again, I don’t know how it will react with Smaug.”

”Thanks.”

Bard earnestly placed the [Advanced Dragon Race Oil] and [Loose Golden Resin] into the inner pocket of his worn leather coat, pressing the pocket location firmly after taking his hand out.

”By the way, where are the elves?”

Bard began lighting more fires and glass lanterns along the road, speaking to Lann suddenly.

”Don’t worry, I’ve given them their share. [Advanced Dragon Race Oil] is enough for all twenty of them to coat the tip of each arrow.”

While talking, Lann shook the oil jug in his hand to check how much lamp oil was left.

”There’s not much [Golden Resin], but I’ve provided them with other support.”

[Golden Resin] was a memento Rong Buqiu took with him when he left the Flame World, so there wasn’t much. It was all sourced from Losric, originally a part of the Dragon Hunter Kingdom.