Dragons

In-between chapters I accidentally forgot to include my newest Patrons...sorry about that. I've decided to include all of them in this announcement and use this as the week to have them included in the shout-outs.

I watched with cautious amusement as Redline crept through the house like a ninja. Keeping close to the walls, checking every open room as she passed, even the ones that were barely open. These halls were huge! Easily large enough for one of those horse things to walk through comfortably--maybe even run through--and tall enough for a giant to stand in without hitting their head...at least three meters, almost four!  

Suddenly Redline froze, just passing one of the doors that looked like it was closed, but upon opening it revealed a floating red orb of light glaring into the darkness. 

"Hi Pops. It's been a quite a night hasn't it?" Red squeaked and the orb narrowed slightly. The door opened further and revealed the other ominous orb. I noticed that Redline was backing away towards me with a hand at her side, seemingly ready to grab a knife or something...

...Surely this wasn't an enemy? The aura that the obs emitted were enough to make me want to flee the scene, screaming for my life. 

{Skill Level Increased: Fear Resistance (Lv. 7)}
...
{Skill Level Increased: Fear Resistance (Lv. 11)} 

With each level in Fear resistance I was able to think more clearly and by the time the person had come into view it had reached level 15 and the effects were still pushing my body to flee, but Redline seemed to recognize this person, so hopefully they weren't an enemy... 

"Redline Crimson. It has indeed been quite the night." The man spoke, his voice was deep and commanding. If it wasn't his presence alone that made me submit it would definitely have been that tone he was using...How was she still able to stand in this? "You better have a very good explanation for not only taking a job that was meant for more experienced Hunters, but also for making me worry and coming home so much later than usual..." 

"I do. I have a perfectly good explanation right here!" She motioned to the space I was standing, or rather next to it as I'd moved to be as far away as possible from the large scary titan of a man.

"..." The man wasn't pleased with her reaction and sighed, "Young lady. I know that you are having trouble believing that I'm only doing what's best for you, but blaming an invisible friend isn't going to help you..." 

"But he's right here!" Red said looking in my direction desperately, "I promise you Pops, I'm not making all this up!" 

I mean, she did help me out earlier to keep Cinder from taking my head, but still. I don't know if I want to reveal myself to this monster. The aura that this man was putting out was still leveling my (Fear Resistance) higher and higher as time went on, causing it to pass into the Twenty mark before slowing down and seemingly stopping at level 23. By that point the Fear I was feeling diminished greatly but I couldn't help the fact I was still shaken up from this encounter. 

My body just wouldn't stop shaking...dammit. 

"Oh wait. He's probably shaken up from your aura, being this close to someone over level two hundred and inducing a (Fear Aura) at a high level would do that..." Redline murmured, probably coming to the understanding that I was in no way going to reveal myself, and likely thinking I'd already run...

"What are you mumbling about now?" The light of the room turned on and it only seemed to enhance the effect the man's eyes had as they seemed to glow that much brighter; He was...something? I didn't really understand what I was seeing: his skin had a sort of reddish hue to it and there were two crimson horns on his head that extended at least a foot and a half from spots just above each eyebrow. He had claws on each finger in place of nails and his muscles and veins seemed to push out against whatever kind of tight, thin shirt he wore... 

I didn't realize I'd actually taken a step back until Red spoke again, "Pops can you tone down the (Fear Aura) a bit I think you may have knocked him out..." 

"Okay who's this 'him' you keep speaking of and why aren't you taking this seriously?!" The man hummed, "Perhaps I'm being too light on you after all..." 

"What?! No! I just...fine!" Redline then went into why she took the job and how she encountered me, all the way up to this meeting. The man's expressions developed into a deep frown and he looked straight at me as a pulse of energy penetrated the area...It lasted just a moment, but as soon as it passed over me I could feel that he saw everything about me. Probably even information that I had yet to known myself, and there was a few moments of silence as he processed this information. 

"I see...Young lady you are certainly in a lot of trouble, but I'll decide your punishment for this at a later time. For now I want to know a few things: First, did your targets know that there was a (Young) Dragon in the cave that they were aiming to loot?" 

"No. I don't think they believed there to be anything there in the first place to be honest..." 

"Alright. Second, who have you told about this (Young) Dragon and how much?" 

"The only people that know about him--to my knowledge--are the Head night guard of the second district's Northern gate and the Captain of the Guard, Cinder..." There was a nod of the man's head and while I had the chance to, and due to my nagging curiosity I wanted to (Spy) on Red's father. It seemed like he was her father anyways, maybe not by blood but certainly by bond...

"Good. That's a much better outcome than I was expecting..." The man said and I slowly crept my way over behind Red to hide between her legs. "Lastly, have there been any odd occurrences since the time you left the cave and meeting this creature, something you haven't yet covered?" 

"Hmm. No I don't think--Oh, wait there was a strange venom like substance that I found afflicting the corpses of my targets." Red turned her head over to the spot I'd been, eyes narrowed, "I'm guessing that they were killed by Sc'the since I certainly didn't get the chance to..." I huffed and grinned in amusement as she jumped a few feet in the air upon hearing my exclamation so closely. "Irritating invisible dragon..." 

"That dragon is using a form of invisibility that is at a far higher grade than you or I could ever achieve anytime soon, even at my level, so don't fault yourself for not noticing or being able to sense where he is." The man--Pops she called him--revealed and I looked at him curiously. 

He knew what kind of invisibility I was currently afflicted with...Would he know how to help me turn off more of it than I was currently able to? 

"Did you take samples?" Pops looked at Red expectantly and she nodded, pulling out six small vials. 

"Yeah. I took three from each corpse just in case any of them broke..." The vials were immediately snatched from her hands and carefully set into a sort of Crystal Chamber. Pops' aura flared again and he looked at me menacingly. I hid further behind Red, careful not to touch her with any part of my body. 

"You haven't been touched or scratched have you?" He growled, his eyes glowed brighter and his aura constantly pulsing now. 

"No! Sc'the's barely so much as tapped me a few times now, and every time on clothing. I haven't been poked or scratched at all since meeting him! Why are you overreacting so much about this?!" Red yowled stepping forwards towards her father with a defensive posture. Pops seemed to study her expression, and her aura for a moment before receding and returning back to the slightly oppressive aura he had. 

"Good. I don't know what I would've done if you had been..." He whispered, but Red's hearing--and subsequently mine--caught it. 

"What? Why?" She looked at the crystalline chamber holding the vials, "What's so special about this stuff that caused you to react like that?" 

Pops held up the vials and looked at them cautiously, "Each of these contain lethal amounts of 'The Immortal's Bane.'" 

"No way; I thought that wasn't a substance able to be created naturally by any living creature due to it's toxicity and sheer greed for Life Energy?" Redline stated, looking at the vials with fear and a sense of admiration...? 

"Yes, and I saw to it that every instance of it's known creation was destroyed permanently." Pops seemed to glare past the vials and into my very soul and I just shrunk in on myself. Utterly trapped, with no-where to go that I knew as safe, and completely at the mercy of the man should he decide to just kill me then and there. "Each of these vials is enough to severely cripple a person of my level and kill someone at yours thrice over..." 

I saw as Red's tail puffed up in fear and she looked at me with a series of emotions: fear, apprehension, and then it shifted into understanding as she seemed to remember something. 

"So that's why you haven't so much as nudged me. Those horns of your's are probably as sharp as the rest of you, and I can't imagine how getting scratched by your claws would turn out like...actually, I think I do..." 

"Hmm?" Pops inquired and Red recited how the bodies of John and Damien looked to her. From the venom in their veins to the paleness of the other and the signs that his soul had been sucked out of him by force...I looked around, avoiding his gaze as he once again looked towards me with minor amounts of hostility. 

"You sucked the soul right out of a level 40 with minimal issues?" I shook my head at him quickly and alternated my feet thinking of how to best show that he was weak. The man's pulsing continued at a constant rate now that he knew I was in the room and I was feeling calm enough to let him visibly see at least a part of me. I cautiously stepped into the room the he'd been in and went over to what I assumed was the kitchen. 

Taking a moment to taking everything in made my curiosity go through the roof but I stuffed all of my inquiries for a later time...but that didn't stop me from grabbing one of the pillows with my tail and squeezing it occasionally as I went along. I rose to put my fore-paws on the counter-top and looked for anything that I could ruin of little value once again. 

Nothing...I didn't even find anything that looked like a note-taking or writing tool in the entire place and the only thing big enough, and at a comfortable level was the table...

...sorry, I thought and scratched my claws through it's beautiful marble-like surface, hopefully their math system worked similarly to my old one: 

I
-- III+/I,III
--
--
--
--
--I+/I,III
--I+/I,III

II
-- III+/I,III
--
--
--
--
--II+/I,III
--II+/I,III

When I was done I frantically put X-marks next to each value that showed they were weak and hoped that they understood what I was trying to show. 

"It seems to be much smarter than it's age implies..." Pops said and Redline nodded. I internally cursed myself for not being more careful with my intelligence level. 

"Yeah. He's shown himself to be pretty smart, and I had no idea that he was barely a day old until this evening with our incident with Cinder at the Guard's Headquarters..." Red admitted, chuckling at a memory a moment after, "But so far it's helped to understand him: he even used a stick of Glowing Powder to draw all over the Captains door just because he was hungry." 

That got a chuckle out of Pops and it eased my mood a little, but it didn't help that much as they both came over and studied my doodle...

"I'm guessing that this was their individual values and you're trying to say that they were severely weakened when you killed them?" Pops asked and I nodded eagerly, stopping myself to draw a check-mark on the table. "Which was the one you sucked the soul out of?" I drew a line under Damien's name and waited for a moment while the man thought. 

"Alright so seeing this and what you described their injuries to be I can't imagine Sc'the's strong enough to do that again to someone unless they are severely weakened before hand, though it seems that he still gains energy from their souls if the deceased is in the general vicinity of the (Young) Dragon..." 

"Sooo..." Redline asked, stepping over to sit on the couch and I looked at Pops expectantly. 

"So it means that he'll be staying for a little while...at least until I am able to get a way to the Dragon Empire's border without causing too much of a ruckus with the higher ups..." Pops said walking over to the door. He looked at us for a moment before leaving, "Don't think this means you are off punishment Red. It will just have to wait until I get this all sorted out; I want both of you staying out of trouble for the majority of the time Sc'the is staying with us, and under no circumstances is that dragon to be in the same room as you...ever." I nodded quickly and tapped the table audibly as another pulse of power went through the area. 

"Good." He then left and I let out a relieved sigh and collapsed onto the soft carpet lining the floor. 

"I guess bringing you along ended up helping me after all...at least for a little while." Redline sighed and put a head on the pillow opposite of myself. "I'm going to take a nap now, be careful of where you lay down as I'm sure neither of us want you accidentally envenoming me accidentally..." I shuddered to think of what could happen if I was to accidentally endanger Red's life...

I nodded in agreement, even if she couldn't see the motion it felt necessary to do, and moved to find a safer place to doodle without disturbing Red's rest...

Dragons

This was surprisingly a hard chapter to write...I couldn't get Pop's character down good enough for it, but I think that I did good enough of a job with it. 
Hopefully you enjoyed! See you in the next one!

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Edit: Announcements look so much better on ScribbleHub than they do on Wattpad, and I'll likely be updating more frequently here, but may slow down occasionally (like after this month). I only write chapters on Wattpad thanks to its easy-to-use updating software and the lack of risking getting all my work expunged because I refreshed the page without saving X_X