-Irvan-

Despite my best efforts, I was not able to find my mistress in the end, however, I'm sure that I heard her say that they would be going to Nera's kingdom so at least I knew the general direction I had to go to.

I've been pondering the reason why she wanted to leave me behind, after she trapped me with a chain there was a brief moment when I actually considered the possibility that she was serious about not wanting me as her underling, but then the white girl gave me a magic item that will allow me to find them again, of course, to think that there would be anyone who would not want to have a powerful dragon such as myself working for them is absurd.

The item in question is some kind of compass that will point in the direction of my mistress when she uses a certain spell, but before that, I'll have to prove my worth, that's why I decided to visit the beastkin country located to the west of the Agua kingdom.

My mistress is clearly already the most powerful being in the world, but if she wants to become the queen that she's meant to be she will need to start gathering followers. The bestkin have always been a race that respects strength above all else, so it should not be hard to convince them, this is how I'll prove that I'm worthy to stand at her side.

Still, it took me a while to find a settlement, this entire country is covered by a dense forest that blocks my vision from the air and there are no roads for me to follow anywhere...

"Anyone in there who thinks they can fight, come out right now!"

I wait for a bit in front of the village I found, after a short while, two or three dozen beastkin of all types come out armed with a variety of weapons.

"What is a dragon doing at a place like this!?"

"My name is Irvan, I'm a servant of the queen of darkness, the strongest being in the world, I'm here to give the people of this country the chance to become her first subjects"

"What are you talking about? We already have a king, we're not going to follow someone else just because you say that they are strong"

A king? I thought that the beastkin just followed whoever was the strongest among them, and they should be happy to join someone as overwhelmingly powerful as my mistress, could it be that they don't know about her?

"Do you lot not know who the queen of darkness is? She's the one destined to rule the entire world, including this small country of yours"

"What!? I don't know what you're talking about but we are not going to surrender without a fight!"

"Hehehe, many others stronger than you have tried to oppose her before and she crushed them all without mercy"

I'm not sure if that's actually true, but it will be easier for them to surrender if they believe that it is. My mistress should be happy when she hears that I've been working on her reputation.

"A bunch of lowly animals like yourselves should be happy that I'm giving you the chance to serve of your own free will"

"What!? Animals!?"

"Who cares if he's a dragon!? Let's teach this idiot a lesson!"

All of the beastkin warriors come charging at me at once, but when I strike at the ground with all my power, the tremor causes more than half to fall to the ground.

"How weak..."

The others all jump at me and strike me with their weapons, but only two or three of them are able to make me feel any pain at all, when I start hitting back with my claws, they fall with a single strike each.

"Impossible, even if he's a dragon he should not be this though"

"Ah, you might have had a chance against an average dragon, but I'm the one chosen by the queen of darkness, now you see the power that..."

I stop talking when I notice that all the beastkin seem to no longer be listening to me, and I can hear a strange rumbling noise in the distance, what's going on?

I fly up over the trees and see a cloud of dust coming this way at a high speed, I can see several trees being sent flying into the air wherever it goes, what in the world is that thing?

"Oh no, it's her!"

"This dragon must have caught her attention!"

"Quick! We need to evacuate the village!"

All of the beastkin are leaving, whatever that is, they are clearly more afraid of it than they are of me, or rather, they have forgotten about me entirely.

I turn around to face the cloud of dust, preparing myself for whatever is coming.

And what's coming is... a cat beastkin girl, her long brown hair gives her a rather wild appearance, she's also wearing very little clothing and her breasts are huge...

"You dragon! I won't let you bully this village anymore!"

"Wait, who..."

Without waiting at all, she jumps directly at me and gets ready to punch, not having any time to think I try to punch her back and our fists collide with each other.

"Nya!!!"

"Nya?"

I lose the match of strength, actually, that's an understatement, I get sent flying backward into the village and crash trough a few houses, my arm almost got broken.

And did she really say nya? Cat beastkin are ashamed of acting like cats so they usually avoid saying that, then again this girl seems to be rather shameless...

"Nyahaha! For someone so big you're really weak!"

"You are the one who's stupidly strong!!!"

She comes after me again and keeps punching me over and over, I'm somehow able to avoid direct hits by keeping my distance, but each time she strikes, she causes a shockwave that hits me anyways and demolishes more of the houses around us.

"What are you doing!? Weren't you supposed to be protecting this village!?"

It seems like I have no choice but to use my fire breath at full power.

"That won't work on me!"

She... just punched the fire away...

What!? How did she do that!?

*Bang*

Before I can react, she grabs my head and slams it against the ground leaving a small crater.

"Ouch"

"So, will you give up now? I might forgive you if you beg"

She's looking at me with a smug smile.

"No, this is not it..."

It's true that she's completely overpowered me this entire fight, and yet...

"Your strength is too wild, it doesn't seem like you're in control at all, even if you keep beating me, I do not feel dominated"

"Eh?"

"This is nothing compared to the absolute terror that my mistress can make me feel, you're far inferior to her!"

"Nyaaaa... I think that I hit his head too hard..."

It seems like this girl has nothing other than brute strength, in that case, all I have to do is fly up until I'm out of her reach and she won't be able to attack me at all!

"Hahaha! What are you going to do now!?"

Instead of answering, she jumps into the air, and then keeps jumping, on the air...

"What!? How!?"

She jumps above me, then flips her body around and kicks me with incredible strength, sending me back down to the ground.

"Time for the finishing move!!!"

Kicking the air above her, she comes down at me like a meteorite, if I get hit by that I'll be done for! And there's no way I'll recover from my fall in time to dodge.

However, I still have a way out, before she hits me, I transform into my human form, becoming a smaller target causes her attack to miss.

*Crash*

Being so close to the impact I'm sent flying and get hurt quite a bit... if that had been a direct hit I might have even died...

I see the lower half of the girl's body sticking out from the ground in the middle of a massive crater, it seems like her upper half got buried when she hit the ground head first, and she's not moving at all...

"Uh... are you alright?"

When I get close, I notice that she's still breathing, so at least it seems like she's alive, but she got knocked out.

If she's unconscious, it means that I won the fight, right?

Yeah, let's say that I won.

"Uh? What's this?"

The magic item that can lead me to my mistress just got activated! My victory against a strong opponent must have served to prove my worth to her!

"I'll go there as fast as I can!"

-Luna-

I was wondering how Arana was planning to take us to the capital quickly, but she just called that dragon from before... does she want us to ride him, she cannot be serious.

"Mistress! Thank you for calling me! Was my victory enough to gain your approval?"

Victory? What victory? Does this guy think that I know what he was doing when I wasn't around?

"Ara, do you think that this dragon can fly fast enough?"

"Of course! A dragon's body is made for flying you know, they are fast and do not get tired quickly. Hey! How long would it take you to take us to the capital of the Agua kingdom?"

"To the capital? I think it would take around 80 minutes"

Really!? That's very fast...

"By the way, why is your hat a diffe... Ouch!"

I was only barely able to close his mouth in time...

"Ara, do we really have no other choice?"

"Not any that I can think of"

But I got rid of him just the other day, to ask him for help now would be too embarrassing. And it would make it way more difficult to refuse his offer to become my underling, I'm afraid that I'll end up getting stuck with him for real...

However, I really seem to be out of options right now, desperate times call for desperate measures.

"Dragon... I need yoruhepegh"

Ugh... I got overcome with disgust at what I was about to say and the words got all tangled up in my mouth...

"Well, we all need some yoruhepegh every once in a while, but I don't see how he can help you with that"

And now Arana is making fun of me!

Fine... I'll say it.

"I need your help"

"Of course mistress! It will be my honor to carry you!"

So how am I supposed to sit on top of a dragon? He's too big to sit the same way I would sit on a horse... Arana is just sitting cross-legged in front of me, I guess I'll just do the same.

And as expected, as soon as he takes off, the sudden acceleration causes me to fall from his back.

forli

I could not think of anything interesting for Irvan to do to prove his worth, so I took the chance to give a preview of a character that won't be properly introduced until much later.