Chapter 2: The Roar of the Dragon

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At the bottom of the valley on this dark night, the river still rushed ceaselessly forward. The sound of the flowing water echoed through the narrow space. On the riverbank, several lights were bobbing forward.

On the dark riverbank, four men were walking forward with lanterns in the rain. Three of them walked in front, wearing coarse cloth clothes and trousers soaked through with rain. They were all in their twenties or thirties. One hand held a gas lamp while the other held knives and clubs. Most of them were burly, with tattoos on their rolled-up sleeves.

Behind the three men was a man dressed much more stylishly. He was wearing a dark red suit, black dress pants, and a lined blazer. His face was pale and long and thin, with deep eye sockets, a hooked nose, and short brown hair. A cold glint flashed in his eyes, and he held an umbrella for himself.

On either side of the man, two strange hounds walked. They had hardly any hair and no ears. Their dark red skin and flesh were exposed directly. They were tall and emaciated, almost reaching up to the man's knees, but they were nothing but skin and bones, showing a deformed appearance, not like normal canines at all.

The man's name was Edric. He was a bandit. Or rather, to be more precise, he was the gang boss of the nearby Wokan Town, known as "Ed the Strange Hound".

Ed was sinister and ruthless. He was the local tyrant in Wokan Town, and no one in the town was not afraid of him. Relying on two strange hounds whose origin was unknown, Ed had fought his way to a high position in the gang battles. His two strange hounds were fierce like wild beasts, and it seemed that no matter how injured they were, they couldn't be killed, which made his opponents and even his subordinates fear them.

Strictly speaking, as a gang boss, Ed wouldn't usually do something as blatant as directly attacking a convoy. But this attack was because of some special circumstances.

He needed to get something from that convoy.

"Boss, I see the light. They're just up ahead!"

At this time, the subordinate walking in front of Ed reported after looking ahead several times. Hearing the subordinate's report, Ed nodded and then said coldly.

"Keep going. I hope the target didn't end up in the river..."

After that, Ed, along with his three subordinates and his two hounds, walked along the riverbank. Soon, they arrived at the location where the carriage convoy had overturned.

The bodies of men and horses were strewn on the riverbank along with the carriage compartments. It was precisely because of their pursuit that the convoy met with such a disaster.

Arriving at the accident scene, Ed surveyed the tragic scene in front of him and then gave instructions to his subordinates.

"Search separately. Remember, it's a white-haired girl about thirteen years old. Find her, dead or alive. It'd be best if she's alive..."

"Yes, boss!"

After Ed gave the instructions, his three subordinates immediately scattered to act. They began checking the surrounding bodies and looking inside the overturned carriages, while Ed, along with his umbrella and his hounds, stood on the spot, supervising his subordinates.

Ed's subordinates were slowly checking the scene. Since they were all gang members, they greedily grabbed all kinds of valuables during this process. They even directly searched the corpses, taking away all the valuables. Seeing this situation of his subordinates in front of him, Ed coldly scolded.

"Don't worry about the rest! Find the target first! Hurry up if you don't want to be fed to the dogs!"

Hearing Ed's scolding shouts, the underlings all stopped searching the corpses. Some of them cast a complaining glance at Ed who was behind them, but quickly turned their heads back in fear upon seeing those two strange hounds.

They all knew that Ed couldn't be defied, or rather, his hounds couldn't be defied either.

Those were simply the hounds of the devil, not normal creatures at all!

Filled with fear, Ed's underlings resumed their search. Gradually, two of them reached the farthest carriage. This carriage had toppled over on the sloping riverbank and was on the brink of falling into the river. Fortunately, a rein managed to hold it in place. The corpse of the horse tied to the rein was stuck between two rocks not far away.

Two gangsters climbed onto the overturned carriage to take a look inside. Their eyes immediately lit up. They saw that there were quite a few coins and jewels under the seats in the carriage, and the amount was substantial!

Seeing this, the greedy underlings who couldn't resist stole a glance at Ed in the distance. After seeing that he wasn't looking their way, they quickly reached into the carriage to pick up the money. However, the money was in such a difficult position that they couldn't reach it. As a result, the gangsters started pushing and shoving to squeeze into the narrow carriage, eager to grab all the valuables.

Just then, behind the horse's corpse not far away, a pair of scarlet eyes were staring at this scene.

Seeing that the prey had taken the bait, the white-haired girl reached out and drew a dagger she had picked up from the ground earlier. She slashed diagonally at the rein holding the carriage. The rein had already been cut before, so the girl easily cut the entire rein.

"Ah ah!!"

The carriage, losing its pulling force, immediately slid down the sloping riverbank into the swift-flowing river. The two gangsters who had just squeezed into the carriage didn't have a chance to react. Screaming, they slid into the churning river along with the carriage. Along with them were the valuables that Dorothy had collected beforehand and placed in the carriage as lures.

People die for money. Dorothy didn't believe that a group of bandits could resist the temptation of so much money!

"Beck! Wood!"

The screams of the gangsters attracted the attention of the others. Another gangster, seeing the carriage and his companions fall into the water, immediately ran to the riverbank to see if he could help. Just then, Dorothy, still in hiding, saw an opportunity.

"Hey!"

Without a word, Dorothy rushed out directly, charging at the gangster standing with his back to her on the riverbank. She rammed into his lower back with great force. Although she wasn't an adult, with a surprise attack from behind and no defense, Dorothy was strong enough to make someone lose their balance...

"Ah!"

With another scream, the gangster by the river was knocked off balance by Dorothy and plunged headfirst into the river. He was washed away by the swift-flowing river together with his previous companions, and Dorothy also struggled to regain her balance.

Three down... Now what...

Trying hard to suppress the panic welling up in her heart, Dorothy looked into the distance along the riverbank. There, Ed was glaring angrily at everything that had suddenly happened.

"Where did this kid come from... How dare you..."

Witnessing his underlings being tricked, Ed gritted his teeth and drew a revolver from his waist, aiming it at the girl less than ten meters in front of him. Just as he was about to shoot in a fit of anger, he saw the girl's figure in the dim light.

"A white-haired girl..."

Seeing this, Ed couldn't help but pause and gave up on the idea of shooting. Then he barked an order at the hounds beside him.

"Subdue that brat for me!"

At Ed's order, the two deformed hounds rushed out, dashing towards the girl ahead at full speed, ready to overwhelm and subdue her.

Facing the hounds roaring towards her in the rain, Dorothy had no intention of fleeing. She held her breath and facing the approaching threat slowly opened her mouth.

Then, from Dorothy's mouth came deep, ancient syllables as if from a distant time and space.

"—Fus—"

At this moment, the word uttered by this petite figure was like a war drum being violently beaten on the battlefield. It shook the air and lashed the gale. The ancient language from another world caused an extraordinary phenomenon.

An invisible and powerful impact rushed forward from Dorothy, dispersing the rainwater. The two hounds charging towards her were directly sent flying. Even Ed, standing in the distance, was affected. He was shaken off balance, slipped with both feet, and fell to the ground. As a result, the revolver in his hand slipped out.

Seeing this, Dorothy took a step forward, picked up the fallen revolver, held it tightly with both hands, and aimed it at Ed, who was struggling to stand up.

Looking up, Ed saw the black muzzle of the gun pointing at him. Panic showed in his gloomy expression, and then he quickly spoke.

"Wait! I didn't…"

"Bang!"

Dorothy didn't want to listen to the bandit leader in front of her explain anything at all, so she directly pulled the trigger. As the cylinder rotated and the hammer struck down, flames spurted from the muzzle of the revolver. The bullet fired from the chamber shot forward and penetrated Ed's chest at close range.

Then, the gang leader fell down with his eyes wide open, meeting his death in a way he had never imagined before.

"Whoo… whoo…"

Shaken by the recoil and sitting on the ground, Dorothy looked at the man who had fallen in front of her, gasping for breath. Her hands holding the gun were trembling involuntarily. Her heart was churning violently. No matter how forced by the situation, it was impossible to get used to shooting a gun and killing someone for the first time all at once.

'Whoo… You killed everyone in this carriage and killed Dorothy… You deserve to die…'

Comforting herself like this, Dorothy supported her trembling body and slowly stood up. Then she reached for her throat with one hand, recalling the ancient words that had caused an extraordinary phenomenon just by being spoken.

She knew what those words were exactly.

That was the Way of the Voice. In a game she had played before called "The Elder Scrolls", it was the Draconic language used by the dragons, a language containing powerful power! It was The Roar of the Dragon!

What Dorothy had just uttered was the first segment of the most classic dragon shout in the game, Unrelenting Force, that is, "Fus", which means "Force".

The dragon's utterance was a language so powerful that even a single word spoken was enough. In the world of "The Elder Scrolls", the dragons used this as a sharp weapon in battles. Every fight was a destructive "battle of roars". Besides the dragons and the gods, only extraordinary mortals and the Dragonborn could master such a language.

There was no doubt that this was an extremely powerful language, and such a language, which was only 3 characters long, required Dorothy to exchange it with the Common Tongue of Prit, which she had learned over the years and consisted of more than 3,000 words...

By this time, Dorothy roughly understood as well what ability she had acquired along with her time travel.

That is...

To exchange knowledge for knowledge.

Using the knowledge of this world to exchange for the knowledge of another world...