Chapter 104: The Cruciatus Curse

As one of the three Unforgivable Curses, unlike the Avada Kedavra curse, which was used to take life, the Cruciatus Curse was essentially the most vicious dark magic spell created for torture. This torture included not only the physical body but also torment of the soul. Even those with the most resilient will could not withstand such pain, and prolonged torture could even cause mental breakdown, turning people into the living dead. Beyond Kael's expectations, the power of the Cruciatus Curse against Smaug the dragon even exceeded that of the Killing Curse. Under the torment of the Cruciatus Curse, Smaug didn't even have the strength to take flight. He could only roll and writhe painfully on the ground, letting out screams and moans. "Spare me! Wizard, spare me, I surrender!" Smaug finally couldn't bear it and began to beg for mercy. Everyone looked on in shock at the dragon begging painfully before Kael, unable to recover for a long time. The dwarves were especially shocked and conflicted. Smaug, the dragon who had caused the dwarves such heavy losses and forced them into exile, had actually been tortured into surrender by Kael? Kael wasn't fooled by Smaug's honeyed words. Although the Cruciatus Curse could cause the dragon immense pain, it wasn't lethal. Once he stopped the spell and gave it a chance to breathe, it would immediately revive and become even more difficult to deal with! So he concentrated all his malice and increased his magical output. "Crucio!" "Ahhh!!!" The dragon let out an even more agonized scream. In its violent rolling and struggling, the surrounding mountain was constantly being destroyed. Smaug was tortured to the point of wishing for death, but his consciousness hadn't been lost. He gathered his last burst of strength and struck his tail like a battering ram precisely at several giant stone pillars that served as supports. The pillars instantly crumbled and shattered under the heavy blow, and without support, the main entrance's mountain structure rapidly collapsed, with countless boulders falling down. Faced with countless falling boulders, Kael had to divert his attention to cast a protective spell on himself. Taking advantage of Kael's distraction, Smaug seized the opportunity, quickly spread his wings, and soared into the sky, flying toward the distance. "I will remember today's humiliation, wizard! I will have my revenge! I will turn everything you care about to ash!" As he departed, Smaug still issued threatening words. The dragon's gaze fell on the brightly lit Lake-town in the distance, his eyes full of vindictive malice. "You will be the first target of my revenge! You will bear my endless wrath!" Seeing the dragon flying toward Lake-town, Gandalf looked anxious and worried. "Smaug is going to destroy Lake-town! We must stop him!" "I'll chase him!" Kael grabbed his broomstick to give chase, but was immediately stopped by Gandalf. "I'm coming with you!" Time was urgent. Kael and Gandalf had no time to speak with Bilbo and the dwarves. They immediately mounted the flying broomstick and chased after the dragon at top speed. As for the Lonely Mountain, without the dragon, there was no need to worry about their safety. The dragon was very fast. By the time Kael and Gandalf caught up, the dragon had already begun breathing dragon fire above Lake-town. Lake-town below had fallen into chaos and terror. The Master tried to flee with a boat full of gold, silver, and jewels, but because he brought too much and it was too heavy, he and the entire boat of treasure were burned to ash by dragon fire. As a descendant of Girion, Lord of Dale, Bard took out his ancestral Black Arrow and came to the highest tower, aiming at the dragon in the sky, trying to find an opportunity to hit the dragon. Seeing this scene, Kael and Gandalf didn't hesitate much and charged directly at the dragon. "Kael, get me above the dragon! We must stop Smaug from continuing his madness!" Gandalf shouted loudly. Without hesitation, Kael raised the broomstick head high and shot straight up into the sky at a ninety-degree angle. The broomstick carried both of them directly above Smaug's head. Without waiting for Kael to react, Gandalf immediately jumped down from the broomstick, landing heavily on Smaug's back and raising Glamdring to thrust it forcefully into the dragon's back. The dragon's scales were very hard. Even Glamdring only penetrated halfway before getting stuck there. For the massive Smaug, this was like a toothpick stuck in flesh. Painful but not fatal. Discovering Gandalf had landed on his back, Smaug kept turning in the air trying to shake him off. But no matter how he shook, Gandalf held tightly to Glamdring embedded in the dragon's back, like an unkillable pest, making Smaug very annoyed. He couldn't continue breathing fire at Lake-town below and turned his head to breathe fire at Gandalf on his back. "Crucio!" Kael's attack followed immediately. The dragon's body stiffened, letting out a painful scream as his body rapidly fell downward. Just as he was about to crash into the lake surface, the dragon spread his wings and flew up again. The cunning dragon used the falling distance to avoid the Cruciatus Curse attack, not giving Kael another chance to get close. Seeing the dragon playing guerrilla warfare with him, Kael noticed Bard on the tower below aiming at the dragon with the Black Arrow. Remembering that he probably didn't know about the dragon's weakness yet, he immediately flew over. "Bard, there's a gap in the dragon's chest scales! That's where your ancestor Girion shot off a scale with the Black Arrow. Try aiming there." Hearing Kael's words, Bard's eyes lit up, and he immediately searched for the weak spot on the dragon's chest. Meanwhile, Kael continued riding his flying broomstick in pursuit of Smaug, wanting to drive him toward Bard's position so Bard could once again accomplish the feat of dragon-slaying. The dragon was just too difficult to deal with. He now only wanted to use the inertia of fate to see if he could finish off Smaug. Smaug was already wary of Kael's Cruciatus Curse. Seeing him approach again, he immediately accelerated to maintain sufficient distance. But the trouble wasn't just from Kael. Gandalf, on his back, struck hard at his back with his staff. The massive impact from the staff instantly made the dragon feel as if struck by ten thousand tons of weight, directly causing him to tumble downward, nearly crashing heavily into the ground. Kael also caught up and immediately followed up with a Cruciatus Curse. The dragon instantly wished for death, fleeing desperately toward Bard's direction, completely unaware that a Black Arrow was aimed at him ahead. "For Lake-town! For Dale!" Bard roared and used all his strength to shoot the Black Arrow. The Black Arrow flew directly toward the gap in the dragon's chest scales. Just when everyone thought the Black Arrow would successfully hit, it was caught by a giant claw. The dragon caught the incoming Black Arrow, his eyes showing mockery. "Did you think I would fall for the same trick twice after being fooled once?" He then threw the Black Arrow high up, tilted his head back, and breathed scorching dragon fire, quickly melting it into molten slag. He directly applied the molten slag from the Black Arrow to the gap in his chest scales, filling the opening. This scene greatly disheartened Bard. Kael was even more shocked. He had originally thought Bard would successfully kill the dragon as in the original fate. But he hadn't expected such a huge change to occur. However, thinking about it carefully, it was understandable. In the original trajectory of fate, Bard's ability to kill Smaug was also due to various strokes of luck and chance. Most importantly, at that time the dragon had no opponents at all. Even when leaving the Lonely Mountain, it was because he knew Lake-town was cooperating with the dwarves that he wanted to take revenge on the humans of Lake-town. So Smaug largely died from arrogance and carelessness. But this time was different. Smaug had been severely wounded by Kael and others and forced to flee from the Lonely Mountain. His mindset had completely changed, becoming very careful and cautious. Naturally, the success rate of killing him with the Black Arrow was much lower. [Chapter Complete] *** Want more? Check out my Patreon for: ✓ Advanced chapters of all my stories ✓ Exclusive novels & fanfics ✓ Early access content [email protected]/meowthtl ???? 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