"Your wisdom is truly unmatched, Master Erwin!" Lanyon didn't pass up this opportunity to slip in some flattery toward Erwin.

Thus, an opening was intentionally left in the wall of snow and ice, and at this point, around a dozen of the Falcon Beak Lizards had already fled through it. They then turned back around to look at their brethren that were still caught up in battle and let loose a few urgent howls. The Falcon Beak Lizars that were still yet to escape heard those howls and turned to look at the opening in the wall. They also wanted to escape, but due to their decreased numbers, the Four Winds mercenary legion could now afford to spare five or six people per lizard, so all of the lizards were surrounded from all sides and unable to get away.

As a result, the Falcon Beak Lizards were unable to retreat, nor were they able to focus wholeheartedly on the battle as they were being distracted by their brethren that had already escaped. They were still struggling by relying on their thick hides and tough bodies, but they were slowly being worn down by Larwood and Kaiba's strategy.

The spear-wielding martial artists surrounded the Falcon Beak Lizards with their shields raised to prevent them from getting away, while the more agile martial artists like Georgina took advantage of their moments of distraction to slice viciously at their ankles. Upon experiencing pain from the attacks, the Falcon Beak Lizards would instinctively sweep their tail through the surrounding area in retaliation, but the spear-wielding martial artists were already prepared for this sequence, and they would immediately disperse.

As time passed, the 30 or so Falcon Beak Lizards that were still trapped had all sustained various injuries to their legs, and some of them were already unable to support their own weight as they collapsed to the ground and howled with anguish.

Erwin took a glance at the unfolding battle, and he discovered that at this point, it was just a waiting game for Larwood and the others to slowly slay these lizards. As for the Falcon Beak Lizards that had escaped, they could no longer bear to see the suffering of their trapped brethren, and they howled in farewell before rushing into the forest.

"They're not going to fetch reinforcements, are they?" Lanyon asked as he cast a concerned gaze deep into the forest.

"That's definitely a possibility," Erwin replied with furrowed brows. "Lead the magicians into the battle so we can end things as quickly as possible!"

Lanyon immediately did as he was told, and thus, Erwin was the only one left above the wall of ice and snow.

The rest of the battle took some time to complete, but with the magicians inflicting all types of negative status conditions upon the already wounded and demoralized Falcon Beak Lizards, all of them were finally slain.

At the conclusion of the battle, Larwood and Kaiba climbed onto the carcasses of two Falcon Beak Lizards before adopting some cool poses. Most of the people in the Four Winds mercenary legion hadn't faced any magic beasts in battle before, and they certainly weren't expecting to kill so many magic beasts here before they had even made it to the front lines in Burmen. Needless to say, everyone was feeling very excited.

However, right as everyone was basking in the joy of their victory over these magic beasts, a burst of violent rumbling suddenly erupted behind Erwin, followed by the sound of an earth-shattering roar. Judging from the sound, it seemed as if a dragon were approaching them!

A few more roars rang out one after another, and everyone was immediately rooted to the spot as they turned to look deep into the mountain ranges with blank expressions.

Erwin and Larwood were the first to return to their senses, and they yelled almost in perfect unison, "Run!"

"Larwood, don't forget to take these magic beast carcasses with you!" Erwin yelled as Larwood began to organize a retreat.

"Alright, I get it! Your greed is going to get you killed someday!" Larwood scoffed, then immediately instructed everyone to drag the Falcon Beak Lizard carcasses out of the valley as quickly as possible.

However, these magic beasts were far heavier than everyone imagined, and it was quite a strain even for four or five burly men to carry a single carcass. Lanyon and the magicians tried to cast levitation spells onto the carcasses, but the effect was virtually negligible. Somehow, the scales of these Falcon Beak Lizards were able to repel their spells, thereby rendering them largely useless.

Erwin peered deep into the forest with a tense expression, listening as the thunderous roars drew closer and closer. Countless birds were beginning to fly out of the forest in a bind panic, and it was as if a natural disaster were about to strike.

Amid the deafening roars, several Falcon Beak Lizards rushed frantically out of the forest. They were closely followed by a furious dragon with scorching flames burning all over its body. The dragon had emerged from behind a mountain, and there was a charred Falcon Beak Lizard held between its fangs.

Aren't those the Falcon Beak Lizards that just escaped? Erwin thought to himself in a bewildered manner. How did they run into this fire dragon so soon after getting away from here?

Erwin looked on as the Falcon Beak Lizards rushed toward the Four Winds mercenary legion with single-minded focus, and only then did he come to realize what those parting howls had entailed. They weren't abandoning their brethren, they were going to attract the fire dragon to this place so that they could take the Four Winds mercenary legion down with them!

"Shoot! Looks like I outsmarted myself," Erwin sighed with a wry smile. "I shouldn't have left that opening for them to escape, after all."

Thankfully, Larwood and the others were working quite quickly, and half of the carcasses had already been dragged out of the mountain range's entrance.

"Hurry up, Larwood!" Erwin yelled in an urgent voice as Larwood continued to bark instructions at the martial artists carrying the carcasses away. "I'll try and distract this fire dragon for a bit."

"Get back here! You're going to get yourself killed!" Larwood yelled as Erwin began to fly away from the wall of ice.

"He really is going to get himself killed someday," Kaiba sighed with tightly furrowed brows, then turned back to all of the martial artists as he yelled, "Hurry up! Let's get moving!"

The fire dragon spread open its wings, and a gust of fierce wind swept through the area as it descended behind the Falcon Beak Lizards. With an earth-shattering roar, a pillar of fire erupted out of its mouth, and all of the Falcon Beak Lizards caught in the path of the flames were instantly reduced to pieces of charcoal.

The wall of ice was also instantly decimated by the scorching fire, and the pillar of flames left a charred black path in its wake. The smell of scorched branches and fallen leaves was permeating through the air alongside a strange scent of burning beast fat, presumably from the Falcon Beak Lizards that had been roasted alive.

As soon as the wall of ice was destroyed, the fire dragon naturally noticed the mercenary legion, and its eyes instantly widened with excitement. It flapped its wings with renewed vigor and dug its paws into the ground, clearly preparing itself to pounce onto this newfound prey.

The members of the mercenary legion were able to suppress their own fear in the face of the Falcon Beak Lizards, but that was impossible in the face of the fire dragon, which was as massive as a mountain, and the only thought in their mind was to get away as quickly as possible.

However, without any orders from Larwood, none of the mercenaries dared to flee. Thus, even though their legs were trembling incessantly and they felt like they were about to soil themselves, they could still only continue to carry the remaining few Falcon Beak Lizard carcasses away.

Meanwhile, Erwin unleashed a string of instant-release spells, and even though they weren't able to harm the fire dragon at all, it was enraged and distracted by the provocation. Thus, it directed its attention toward Erwin instead, and Larwood and the others were able to heave a collective sigh of relief.

"Hurry up! Don't just stand around and watch!" Larwood urged as he began to help with the carrying of carcasses himself.

The roars that the fire dragon had just let loose had resulted in widespread avalanches on all of the nearby mountains, and massive volumes of snow were tumbling down from the peaks like unstoppable forces of nature.

Erwin led the fire dragon deeper into the mountain range, and thankfully for him, even though the fire dragon had wings, it was only able to fly for short distances at a time. Most of the time, it relied on its two hind paws to run along the ground. Even so, its explosive bursts of speed were enough to keep Erwin on his toes, and he was only just barely able to outrun the fire dragon with a combination of instant-release spells and space split techniques.

It was clear that the fire dragon had been thoroughly infuriated by Erwin, and it stopped in its tracks before releasing pillars of scorching fire up toward him. Its flames could instantly reduce Erwin to a piece of charcoal upon contact, and their temperature was far higher than the flames unleashed by Lana back on Haven Street. All of the tumbling snow and ice that fell into the flames were instantly reduced to water vapor.

Many parts of Erwin's robes had already been set alight by the dragon's fire, and the fire that was burning on his collar had already reached his hair, but he didn't have any spare capacity to snuff out these flames. Thus, he could only use space split techniques to teleport himself to the mountain faces around him before rubbing himself against the accumulated snow and ice to put out the fires.

I haven't even come into direct contact with these flames, and my clothes have already been set alight. If I get struck by one of these pillars of fire, I'll be killed on the spot! Erwin thought to himself as he panted heavily.

At this point, the avalanches were becoming more and more intense. Countless chunks of snow and ice were crashing down throughout the vast mountain range, and the entire area was being made to look like a waterfall of snow.

In the face of nature's wrath, even the fire dragon was feeling quite intimidated. It took one final glance up at Erwin, then hurriedly fled deeper into the mountain range to avoid the all-consuming avalanches.

Erwin didn't dare to stay here any longer, either, and he cast a levitation spell onto himself so that he could rise above all of the falling snow. As he flew back the same way he had come, he discovered that the entire forest had already been inundated by snow, and the snow was only just barely stopped after reaching the entrance of the valley.

Erwin finally allowed himself to heave a sigh of relief as he spotted the people outside the valley. As he landed on the ground, his knees were so weak that they almost gave out from under him.

Everyone instantly erupted into cheers at the return of their deputy commander.

"Holy shit, I don't know if I should praise you or shove my boot up your rear end!" Larwood said as he approached Erwin with an exasperated expression. "Do you get an adrenaline rush out of risking your life like this? Weren't you initially only planning to get one or two of these things? How did this end up becoming a one-on-one battle against a fire dragon?"

"I reckon he thinks he's already on Master Piro and Mistress Faye's level, so he's challenging dragons one-on-one for training," Kaiba chuckled, clearly very relieved to see Erwin return safe and sound.

"We already killed all those Falcon Beak Lizards, it would've been a massive waste not to secure all of their carcasses," Erwin replied with an exhausted smile. "Also, you saw how resilient the scales of those things are. If we can slice those scales off their bodies and make them into armor, the overall power of our mercenary legion will receive a significant boost."

What Erwin had said was very reasonable, but Larwood was still quite disgruntled by his reckless behavior, and he gave a cold harrumph in response.

"If I didn't draw the fire dragon away from us, it would've chased us the entire way back to camp, so I had no choice," Erwin sighed as he began to brush off the pieces of charred fabric clinging to what was left of his robes.

Lanyon didn't dare to interject, so he had remained silent this entire time, and he also began helping Erwin dust himself off.

"This was my fault to begin with. If I hadn't outsmarted myself and decided to release some of those Falcon Beak Lizards, the fire dragon would've never shown up in the first place," Erwin sighed. "At the time, I was worried that they would be backed into a corner if we didn't let any of them escape. I didn't think that these things would offer themselves up as bait to lure the fire dragon to us!"

"Oh, is that what happened? I thought they were just really unlucky and stumbled upon the fire dragon during their escape," Kaiba said with a bewildered expression.

"No, I was really close to them at the time, so I could tell that their goal from the very beginning was to lure the fire dragon to us so they could take us down with them," Erwin said with a shake of his head.

"Are those things really that intelligent?" Kaiba asked with a suspicious look in his eyes.

"You know, that really is a possibility," Larwood said with a contemplative expression. "Think about it: if these magic beasts were easy to deal with, would Prince Lazaar be sending all of those elite troops to guard the southern face of the Terarody Mountain Ranges each year? On top of that, the True Light Church also sends many magicians to join those troops each year as well. Judging from that alone, it's clear that they're quite troublesome to deal with."

"Let's talk about this another. For now, we should focus on transporting these carcasses back to camp," Erwin said as he grabbed a fistful of snow from the mountain behind him, then washed his own face with it. "I feel like I smell like a piece of roast meat."