Chapter 171: The Importance of Good Physics
When Cheng Tian first saw the Amphibious Azure Fire Dragon's stats, his immediate reaction was, "A bit weak."
This was clearly a direct result of the boss units he had defeated in previous main story quests, each more exaggerated and abnormal than the last, which had caused a cognitive breakdown in his understanding of what a boss's stats should be.
In terms of health, the Amphibious Azure Fire Dragon initially seemed on par with the Sun God Kukulkan, but in terms of size, it was at most comparable to Cheng Tian's Red Loofah, about 20 meters from head to tail.
Aside from its unexpectedly high Spirit and Charisma, its Strength and Agility were comprehensively weaker than both the Red Loofah and even the Crimson Tyrannosaurus.
But Cheng Tian quickly realized that the Amphibious Azure Fire Dragon's seemingly poor physical attributes were only because its strength lay not in directly confronting top predators on land, but in leveraging terrain advantages like lava caves and lakes to further weaken opponents, securing kills and prey.
No matter how imposing the Crimson and Scarlet dragons were on land, once they fell into water, their ecological niche with the Azure Fire Dragon would swap, turning them from hunter to hunted.
However, Cheng Tian had sealed off its lava cave—its Own field damage —by flooding it, forcing it into the cold lake water.
Although this was also one of its home territories, as long as Cheng Tian didn't enter the water and didn't give it a chance to display its aquatic combat specialties and death roll, it wouldn't be easy for it to harm Cheng Tian.
The Sun Fist's 'Sunlight Radiance' lasted only for an instant, but it caused almost irreversible visual damage to the Amphibious Azure Fire Dragon.
As it thrashed wildly in the water, its retina still retained a dazzling white glare that wouldn't easily disappear.
By instinct, the Azure Fire Dragon tried to alleviate this pain through a death roll, but it was just a waste of effort.
But soon, it felt its hard metallurgical scales being attacked.
Cheng Tian, now on the shore, had re-entered his Drill Tank, raising the vehicle with its hydraulic system, and from his elevated position, began to fire volleys at the Azure Fire Dragon, which was churning up a large amount of foam.
However, the effect was far worse than imagined.
On one hand, the lake water absorbed the impact of the Vulcan machine gun bullets; on the other hand, the Azure Fire Dragon's scales were quite formidable.
[Metallurgical Scales: Passive Skill. Through deep integration with the Black Spade Red Dragon template, the Amphibious Azure Fire Dragon gained the ability to inhabit lava. When it is submerged in lava, its scales instinctively absorb heavy metal components from the lava and adhere to the scales.
The areas with attached scales will gain a constant effect of Physical Damage -15 points; when a single instance of damage is less than 15 points, it will not penetrate the defense; each metallurgical scale has its own additional health.
After accumulating 210 points of damage, the scale will break, revealing the underlying flesh, and the damage reduction effect of the metallurgical scales will become ineffective. Only then can further attacks damage the Amphibious Azure Fire Dragon's main body.
The Amphibious Azure Fire Dragon can temporarily extract heavy metal components by burrowing into flowing lava to repair its metallurgical scales, including scales that have already been shattered. The repair amount is 50% of the scale's maximum health, and heavy metals can be extracted once every 5 minutes.]
With this unique set of metallurgical scales and the characteristic that over 70% of its body was covered by them, the Amphibious Azure Fire Dragon's actual health was far higher than it appeared.
Except for its eyeballs, mouth, and abdomen, to truly damage the Azure Fire Dragon's health bar, one first needed to break its armor.
And merely breaking the armor wasn't enough; it could actually repair its scales by bathing in lava... just like a Lavaragon.
All of Cheng Tian's tanks were equipped with Vulcan machine guns. While versatile, this also meant their single-shot damage was no different from standard heavy machine guns, both in the 18-22 damage range.
Even if it always hit for maximum damage, it would only inflict 7 points of damage when striking the Azure Fire Dragon.
Theoretically, it would require concentrating 30 hits on the same scale to break through it and cause damage to its main body.
Of course, one could also choose a single drill impact to directly pierce its scales, creating a large hole in its flank that could spill its intestines.
However, the opponent would not easily come ashore to give Cheng Tian an opportunity for a drill impact.
But with its lava cave sealed, the Amphibious Azure Fire Dragon also lost the possibility of repairing its scales, so every shot it took reduced its survival rate.
As Cheng Tian was dealing damage, Irene also woke up from her 'Egg-Hoarding Maniac' state, put away the eggs, drew her bow, and, with her eyes closed, fired three high-arcing elf arrows in quick succession.
They struck the Azure Fire Dragon, which had stopped its death roll in the water, without missing.
Whether it was a skill or just pure technique, the first arrow embedded itself in a scale, and the second and third arrows successively hit the tail end of the previous one.
The three arrows, connected end-to-end, actually managed to forcefully pierce one of the Azure Fire Dragon's scales!
The first Elf Arrow, far more resilient than imagined, completely broke through the scale, with more than half of its shaft directly embedded in the Azure Fire Dragon's body.
The beast's pained roar was muffled by the lake water, but judging by the large number of bubbles spewing from its mouth and the spreading, diluted bloodstains, that hit must have been quite painful.
"Tsk~~ It submerged."
When he saw the Azure Fire Dragon, after taking a round of his output and Irene's triple arrows, rapidly diving with its health and mana bars, Cheng Tian couldn't help but click his tongue.
The opponent chose the optimal strategy: diving.
Because if it dove deep enough, Cheng Tian and his allies on land would have no way to reach it.
And unless he had lost his mind, he wouldn't choose to pursue it alone in a single-person submarine.
"Don't worry, it won't stay submerged for long."
Irene, hearing Cheng Tian's mumble, gave this reply.
"How so?"
Cheng Tian, lowering the hydraulic lever, asked curiously.
"The second additional enhancement effect of my Elf Arrows is 'Prevent Self-Healing.' As long as that dragon beast doesn't have powerful self-healing abilities, the skin and muscle pierced by me will be unable to heal, forming an open wound.
"And if it continues to forcefully dive under such circumstances..."
"I see, it's an internal and external pressure imbalance."
"Bingo~"
Hearing Cheng Tian provide the correct answer, Irene snapped her fingers in approval.
The power of nature is great; water pressure will equally apply the appropriate pressure to all living things.
While the Amphibious Azure Fire Dragon could freely dive into deep water regions far deeper than a single-person submarine, that was predicated on it being completely intact.
As the water depth increased, pressure began to act on the Azure Fire Dragon's body. The Elf Arrow, which had caused penetrating damage but temporarily acted as a plug, was also gradually squeezed out of the wound as the pressure increased.
By the time it was completely ejected, the blood inside its body began to spray out of the open wound like a plastic bag of fresh milk with a small hole bitten in it, gushing outwards under pressure.
But for the Azure Fire Dragon, whose eyes had not yet recovered and was still continuously diving, it only felt its body gradually becoming weak, and an unprecedented coldness assailing it, until it completely lost consciousness.
Cheng Tian and Irene, who had waited by the lake for a long time, watched as the Amphibious Azure Fire Dragon floated to the surface, belly-up.