Cheng Xiao struck a pose like Bruce Lee, hooking his fingers in a clear invitation to the Beastmen soldiers, a smug look on his face.

"Whoosh!" A whistling sound ripped through the air, and a massive fireball hurtled directly toward him. Startled, he launched himself backward, his feet digging hard into the ground. Where the fireball struck, a violent explosion erupted—its sheer force comparable to a fragmentation grenade.

The Shadowcaster held another fireball floating by his hand, cackling twice before his voice rasped out, "What luck! Two hatchlings discovered—no, wait, two Dragon Riders without their mounts! Truly fortunate! Slaying you will earn me a grand reward from the King, hahaha! Yes, the King shall grant me the greatest prize!" With a flourish of his hand, he hurled the second fireball over.

This time, Cheng Xiao showed no panic. He leaped back gracefully to evade the spell. Then, stomping the ground with force, he vaulted into the air, swiftly retrieving the Green Demon Skateboard from his spatial pouch.

Immediately, he was suspended in mid-air.

"Eh?" Everyone stared in astonishment at the Green Demon Skateboard. Such a small object could actually lift a person aloft—this clearly belonged to the realm of magic in their estimation. Especially when employed by a Dragon Rider, it might signify that the Rider could already wield the innate magic of a dragon mount.

"Hahahaha..." Cheng Xiao thrived on attention. Seeing everyone momentarily stunned, he let out an exaggerated, booming laugh, continuously making the Bruce Lee finger-wagging gesture of provocation. Of course, he wasn't foolish enough to remain stationary as a target. While performing these antics, he maneuvered the Green Demon Skateboard directly toward Dhesa, the Evil Shadower.

Dhesa was no fool; he was a Magician. Although he possessed some melee capability and considerable swordsmanship, compared to the exaggerated prowess of Cheng Xiao’s South Water Bird Fist style, his close-quarters combat skill was practically nonexistent. If Cheng Xiao managed to close the distance, Dhesa could very well be shredded into chunks of meat instantly. Seeing the Skateboard closing in at high speed, Dhesa spread both hands and began chanting.

By the time Cheng Xiao was five or six meters away, a pillar of fire suddenly erupted, blocking the path between them and forcing Cheng Xiao to change trajectory. Uninterrupted, Dhesa continued his incantation, and the area within a hundred-meter radius began to burn fiercely, engulfing the surrounding Beastmen soldiers and the protagonists alike in a sea of flame.

"Eragon, run! Get out of here! I'll handle this brute!" Cheng Xiao roared, guiding the Green Demon Skateboard upward into the sky. Intimately familiar with the plot, he knew the Evil Shadower was about to summon his enormous bat.

As expected, the flames surrounding Dhesa surged inward. The fire coalesced around him, then shot upward into a colossal pillar of flame. When the fire dissipated, a gargantuan bat, perhaps ten meters long, stood beneath Dhesa's feet—truly ferocious and exaggerated in appearance.

Standing on the bat's back, Dhesa let out continuous shrieks, hurling fireballs at Cheng Xiao as if mana were infinite. Cheng Xiao tried several times to approach on the Skateboard, only to be driven back by waves of fire or the bat's maw full of razor teeth. Eventually, the tables turned, and it was Dhesa who was pursuing Cheng Xiao across the sky.

"Activate Dragon Rider Side Quest: Rescue Eragon, and escort her and those willing to follow her out of the capital. All team members will receive 5000 Reward Points and one B-rank Side Quest. Should Eragon perish, all team members will be penalized 10000 Reward Points and two B-rank Side Quests..." "Dragon Rider Mission: Destroy the Royal City of Oergaecia!" At that moment, the announcement from the "Main God" suddenly resonated in Cheng Xiao’s mind. Startled by the intrusion, a fireball exploded mere meters from him. The air turbulence from the blast nearly knocked him off the Skateboard, but thanks to his agility, he managed to brace himself with one hand, flipped over, and stabilized once more.

"Has it finally started? Just as he predicted, this kind of side quest... does that mean it won't be finished anytime soon? Hurry up, Zheng Zha! This guy is too strong; I can't hold him off anymore!" At almost the exact same moment, deep in the Unfathomable Abyss far away, Zheng Zha roared aloud. His current appearance was utterly wretched: his entire body was scorched black, and the hand gripping the Tiger Soul Blade was split wide open at the tiger's mouth. He looked as if he had just been roasted over a fire, embarrassingly battered.

Before him, the pillar of flesh and blood continued to rise. He had already slain the Three-Headed Giant Hound and the Eight-Armed Three-Headed She-Demon; their corpses were rapidly consumed by swarms of smaller creeping things. But beyond those two demons, an even stronger entity stood before him.

It was a Balrog—a creature that had given the powerful members of several reincarnation teams agonizing trouble in the Lord of the Rings horror film world. Even then, that Balrog was not at its full strength; weakened, it was still terrifyingly formidable. Now, Zheng Zha faced a Balrog at its complete peak power, a monster whose might was comparable to his own "Annihilation" state.

This Balrog towered over ten meters high, radiating incandescent white flames that even his Red Flame skill could not entirely counteract due to the extreme heat. Coupled with the Balrog Sword, which matched the strength of the Tiger Soul Blade, and a flaming whip that could transform into fiery serpents, its power nearly rivaled the "Annihilation" state. Its only perceived weaknesses were slightly lesser agility and the inability to fly.

"Is this the enemy of ancient humanity? I truly wonder how our ancestors, when they were still apes in those ancient times, managed to defeat this Balrog," Zheng Zha muttered to himself while dodging the blinding white fireballs casually tossed his way. The explosive force of these spheres was alarmingly high, nearly a quarter the power of a miniature nuclear bomb. However, Zheng Zha’s speed allowed him to evade them easily; the Balrog's greatest flaw was its slow pace.

(It’s called a flaw, but it’s not a major one, really. To overcome cunning with brute force, I need to activate my "Annihilation" state to match it. And the "Annihilation" state has a time limit, while this thing doesn't. In other words, with the standard power of "Annihilation," this monster is sufficient to counter skill with strength. To defeat it, I would need to utilize mid-tier Fourth Tier strength or higher!) "Submerged Dragon Transformation!" Zheng Zha roared, finally unlocking his gene lock to the mid-tier Fourth Stage. His body rapidly expanded and swelled, finally entering the Submerged Dragon Transformation state. No longer relying solely on "Moonwalk," he finally achieved true flight, a pair of dragon wings beating behind his back.

(After the Submerged Dragon Transformation, the strength derived from "Annihilation" increases by a factor of at least ten. This should absolutely overwhelm this monster. But... if this Balrog is already this powerful, how strong must the creature below be?) Once transformed, Zheng Zha stared silently at the Balrog and, beyond it, the colossal blood cocoon resting on the floor of the abyss. This cocoon had expanded to a diameter of about 150 meters and was visibly inflating at a rate perceptible to the eye. As Zheng Zha confronted the Balrog, the pillar of flesh and blood had slowly ascended nearly a thousand meters. Though still far from the sinkhole entrance tens of thousands of meters above, the continuous arrival and entanglement of creeping things caused the pillar to grow steadily taller.

(This means if I can't stop the pillar from rising, it will reach the entrance in ten minutes at most. At that point, with the strength of this Balrog or the previous monsters, Chu Xuan and the others won't be able to stop them... unless they use the Magic Cannon! But by then, I’ll probably die here in the Unfathomable Abyss.) Zheng Zha let out a breath, his gaze sweeping past the Balrog to fix on the massive blood cocoon on the abyssal floor. That cocoon exerted immense pressure on him. Heaven knew what kind of creature would emerge from it. If it was a being beyond his current strength, he would have no choice but to fight desperately to escape. But if he fled upwards now, his comrades would likely... "To strike the rider, first shoot his horse; to capture the king, first seize the leader! Damn it, all or nothing!" Zheng Zha ignored the Balrog, spread his wings, and charged toward the colossal blood cocoon. However, having descended barely a hundred meters, he was suddenly hit by an intensely scorching presence from behind. The Balrog had leaped down from a height of nearly two thousand meters without apparent regard for its own safety. That searing aura was the Balrog whipping its flame whip toward him. Unprepared, Zheng Zha was snagged around the thigh by the fiery whip, pulled by the Balrog as they plummeted toward the ground.

"Damn it, even monsters are fighting desperately now? Desperately trying to stop me from destroying that cocoon? Not a chance!" Zheng Zha was thoroughly annoyed by the entanglement, and the searing sensation of the white-hot flames burning his flesh was agonizing—this was real meat being scorched, and he could smell the foul odor of his own burning flesh quite clearly. Most importantly... it was his flesh! "Die!" Zheng Zha roared, abandoning the struggle downward. Instead, he used the whip as a tether, violently slingshotting himself backward directly into the Balrog’s embrace. His "Annihilation"-level strength erupted wildly; he began tearing at the Balrog’s waist, trying to rip the monster in half... Simultaneously, the blood cocoon on the ground began to writhe irregularly—the precursor to hatching, it seemed...