Chapter 5

 

I watched the skies, amazed  as always to see one flying overhead.  They were becoming more and more numerous as I got closer to my destination but still, for me it was a truly breathtaking thing to see another dragon.

 

I’d spent the last ten years wandering the lands, trying to find a place to call home.  Over that time I have grown considerably and now stand head and shoulders above a horse. My horns and my spikes had lengthened as well and I’ve sprouted wings. 

 

It was quite a surprise one day, to look in my reflection and find the leathery curtains extending from my back.  Despite the fact that they were still too small to lift me off the ground, I was still excited by the prospect of flying one day. Though right now the best I could manage was some light gliding whenever I jumped from a high place.

 

Because of my size it had become far too difficult to hide, and as a result I was forced to forsake the safety of the treetops. Although most animals would avoid me I still found myself under attack from humans.  At first I was scared of their constant harassment, but eventually I became dull to it when I realized that the men who came after me were nothing but farmers and village folk.

 

It appeared that knights and soldiers didn’t tend to live in smaller human settlements, they lived in places called “Cities”.  Or at least, that’s what one of the humans who tried to hunt me said, before I turned him into ash.

 

It was a game I found myself playing with them. Whenever humans tried to attack me I would kill all but one of them, and then I would let him live for as long as he could tell me interesting information about the humans society.  Then, after I exhausted them of any useful information, I would burn them with my <Flames of Wrath>.

 

It was amazing some of the things that humans would remember when their lives were on the line, like the man who used to work for the local lord.  I had so many questions for him that he got to live for a full night and day before he ran out of things to tell me about.  It was almost a shame when I burned him but, at the very least, I was courteous enough to grant him a swift death.

 

Because of my game I learned much about the humans world, from the hierarchy of their government to the general geography of Estora and the neighboring countries.  It was during one such game that I learned of a rumor about the nation of dragons living within a forest that lined the southwest border of the country.

 

Within the forest there were said to be numerous dangerous monsters. Entire packs of Dire Wolves roamed the land and powerful monsters called “Chimera” and “Manticore” were as common as deer and rodents. And at the very center of the forest there was a stronghold where lived hundreds, or even thousands of dragons.

 

Of course, I didn’t believe him right away.  I had long since given up any hope of finding another one of my kind, and the pursuit of companionship had lead me to nothing but trouble and pain in the past. However, seeing as I was doing nothing but wandering around, eating and killing everything that got in my way, why not see if the rumors stood up to scrutiny?

 

That was three years ago. 

 

As it turned out the forest where dragons supposedly lived had its edges infested by human towns. It wasn’t hard to see why humans would choose to live around a place like this of course, the outskirts were teeming with game and the wood from the trees here was said to be sturdier than average.

 

Though to me it burned the same when I tore through one of the villages lining the forest outskirts.

 

Then, two years ago, I finally saw one-  another dragon!  It was much larger than I was, at least as big as a house, and yet it soared through the sky with grace and finesse. It’s color, a beautiful shade of  red, refracted in the sunlight as I watched the dragon fly toward the forest center until it disappeared into the horizon.

 

“That is what a civilized being looks like.” is what I thought.

 

No human could ever match the sophisticated beauty of a dragon in flight.  The ape-like humans were simply too dull and stupid to comprehend it. It was no wonder they attacked my kind on sight, how would they ever compete against such obvious strength and intelligence if they didn’t kill when we were babies?  They would never understand it…

 

“He understood…” came a niggling thought from the back of my mind. I winced. Now wasn’t the time to be digging up bad memories.  If that stronghold exists then I had to find it.

 

I knew I was getting close. The time between seeing my first dragon and my second was nearly a month. Now, a year later, I saw dragons flying overhead daily. Some of them I even recognized, like the dapple green dragon that flew back and forth over my head at least once a week.  

 

A week later my patience was rewarded at last.

 

As I was walking through a particularly dense patch of conifer trees I noticed an unnatural blot on the horizon.  I squinted my eyes to get a better look and, In the distance, I saw a castle as big as a mountain!  It towered over the trees and cast a shadow on the surrounding area. From massive openings in the walls I saw dragons- hundreds of them! Flying in and roosting on the bulwarks, or diving from the buildings terraces only to spread their wings before they hit the ground and glide back up high into the sky.

 

I had found it at last, The Dragon Stronghold.  I would finally take my rightful place, among my own kind.  In my heart I felt a familiar flutter of hope, the kind I thought I’d forgotten. The kind that I thought died with...

 

I shook those thoughts out of my head.  I was home.

 

That night I could hardly sleep for the excitement I felt. The dragons of the Stronghold spent the dark hours between dawn and dusk lighting up the sky with their flames.  It was a bit of an ego boost when I saw that most of the dragons were breathing red and orange fire. Perhaps that meant I was a little special, even among dragons.

 

I finally fell asleep when the moon had reached its zenith in the sky, and I woke up nearly as soon as the sun peaked up over the horizon.  Despite the paltry few hours of rest, I was buzzing with energy as I performed my morning hunt.

 

I started the final leg of my journey so early in the morning, though it wasn’t until evening that I finally reached the entrance to the stronghold.  I’d underestimated the sheer size of the castle. In and of itself it could have housed the entirety of the Forlorn Forest, where I was born.  

 

Even the entrance was gigantic. It was a massive set of double doors, one hundred meters wide and three hundred meters tall.  There was a single, large dragon laying down in front of the entrance and, though he appeared to be sleeping, I could sense great power coming from him. 

 

 He was roughly twenty meters in length, with nut brown scales, ivory white spikes and a peculiar crest above his eyebrows that I hadn’t seen on any other dragon.  His build was also stockier than the dragons that had flown by me on my way here.  

 

When I approached he flicked a single eye open and kept it trained on me. 

 

“I haven’t seen your like around here, hatchling. Whereabouts do you hail from?”

 

“I was born in the Forlorn Forest, a few hundred miles east of here.”

 

The dragon raised his head and eyed me. For a moment his eyes flickered from brown to yellow and I felt a cold chill. What had he done?

 

“Hmph, I can’t appraise you.  You’re a peculiar one aren’t you?  What business do you have here, small one?”

 

So that’s what it was. A skill that lets you see your opponents stats, abilities, name, and even their blood type at a high enough level.  No wonder it was blocked, <Avenger Lv.4> prevents anyone from being able to read my status, mortal enemy or not.

 

“I have come here to live among my own kind.  I grow tired of humanity and their constant attacks, I wish to find a place that I can call home.”

 

The dragon paused for a moment after hearing me.  Then burst out laughing.

 

“Gahahahaha! Is that right?  Well then, by all means, you may enter.  Just try not to be too shocked when you see what it's like to live among dragons.”

 

I really didn’t like the way he said that.  As if wanting to live a peaceful life among other dragons was a laughable desire.  Had I hyped myself up too much?

 

“Very well then, I’ll be on my way.  Thank you for letting me through…?” 

 

“Terero, Guardian Terero.”

 

“Thank you Terero.” I said, walking around the dragon.

 

“Oh you’re very welcome.” He said, still guffawing to himself.

 

Finally, I was inside the Stronghold.  Despite Terero’s foreboding reaction, I was still astounded by the castle interior. The ceilings of this floor were hundreds of meters higher than the door frame, and the entrance hall itself was colossal, easily capable of fitting several villages within its walls.

 

Lounging around the hall were many dragons, all with varying colors and many sporting features I hadn’t seen before on dragons. One such dragon had scales that looked metallic. Another sported feathers instead of scales. Two conversing at the far end of the room, in front of another colossal doorway, had webs between their toes and fins along their backs instead of spikes.

 

Dragons, apparently,  were far more diverse than I had thought. Though every one of them was much bigger than I was, with the largest being the web-toes. The two of them must have been over thirty meters long, standing ten meters tall at the shoulders.  

 

None of the dragons paid me any mind as I walked through the hall, approaching the second doorway .  However, when I got close the web-toes stood in front of me, blocking my entrance.

 

“Hold it.  We don’t allow weaklings like you in here.” Said the web-toe on the left.

 

“You’re new here, aren’t you? So let us tell you how it works.” chimed in the web toe on the right.

 

I got the feeling that these two were going to get on my nerves.

 

“Oh? And how does it work?” I said sardonically.

 

“Past this point here lies the food court. Every day the Dragon Emperor sends out his hunters to find prey and bring it back here for the High Dragons and Noble Dragons to eat. After they finish The Greater Dragons and Major Dragons get to have their fill.  Then the rest of us get the leftovers” said the left web-toe.

 

“I fail to see your point.”

 

“Thing is, we’re pretty big despite not being all that high ranked. We need a lot more food than the rest of you.” Said the right web-toe.

 

Ah, so they were strong arming the weaker dragons so that they could get more food than the rest of us.  It didn’t really matter to me since I did my own hunting, but…it would likely affect my standing around here if I let myself get pushed around by these two.

 

And besides that, I despised people, or dragons, like this who tried to use their power to intimidate others.  I felt no great power from these two, not like the power I felt from Terero.  They were big, but that was all they were.

 

“So” said the right web-toe “you’d best just turn around and wait until we get done with what the others leave. If you’re a good little hatchling we might even save you a morsel.”

 

The two of them were chuckling to themselves, having done what they thought was a good job intimidating the new guy.

 

As for me, rather than reply, I simply walked past them.  It wasn’t worth listening to the two of them anymore.  They didn’t notice until I was already half way past their giant bodies, but when they did notice they were enraged.

 

“Hey! Did you not hear us? You have a death wish or something?” Shouted the left web-toe

 

“I heard you, it’s just that I see no reason to obey you.  I will go and enjoy a meal, you two can stay here, intimidating the few dragons who are weaker than you are.”

 

“You little insect! So that’s how you want it to be, eh? We tried being nice, but it looks like you need to be taught a lesson about respecting your superiors!” yelled the right web toe.

 

He whipped around and stood directly in front of me, and used the <Intimidating Roar Lv.1> skill, but one of the skills I acquired while traveling, <Earplugs Lv.6>, prevented me from taking any kind of debuff from sound based attacks. I simply kept walking forward toward the entrance of the food court.

 

The left web-toe then jumped in front of me and used a skill called <Leviathans Gaze lv.1> which paralyzes the victim for a set amount of time based on the level difference between  them and the user.  But I retaliated with my own paralytic skill, <Gorgon's Eye Lv.4> which both nullified his skill and paralyzed him in return.

 

By this point I was right in front of where the two web-toes stood blocking the doorway with their massive bodies.  Both of them were positively livid that such a small dragon had managed to counter them and it looked like they were about fed up with me.

 

“You brat! That’s it, time for you to learn the difference between a shrimp like you and real dragons like us!” shouted the paralyzed lefty.

 

“How dare someone as small as you make a mockery of dragons as big as we are!”

 

Both dragons opened their mouths and from within their maws I could see magical energy gathering. It wasn’t fire breath. It coalesced into something more viscous, like water, only pressurized to an extreme point using magic.

 

Bloodline Skill <Water Breath Lv.1>

 

The words popped into my head, just as all of their other skills had. 

 

-Must be a member of a Leviathan race

-Must be compatible with water magic

 

A skill unique to water dragons and leviathans, the weaker version of Hydro Breath.

 

(Minor Water Dragon Akawa) gains the ability to exhume a blast of pressurized water.

-Locked-

-Locked-

-Locked-

-Locked-

 

There it was, all the details of their skill laid bare before my <Predation Lv.10>.

 

Whereas before the skill could only give me a vague idea of my opponents danger level, now it could accurately assess stats, magical ability, battle experience and it could even see through skills. The only drawback was that the enemy had to activate the skill before Predation would tell me it’s abilities, whereas an appraisal skill, like the one Terero had tried to use on me, would give you all of that info plus a full list of your opponents skills.

 

In the time it took for me to assess all of this information the two web-toes had fully prepared their attacks and were about to fire them on me.  Their eyes held the light of victory, as they were sure I wouldn’t be able to retaliate against their two pronged assault with just ordinary dragon flame.  

 

“You two are pathetic. It’s no wonder you’re stuck picking on weaklings.” I said, utterly bored.

 

<Flames of Wrath Lv. 4>

 

We launched our attacks at the same time, but there was simply no way their party tricks would match my flames.  The jets of water they shot out were powerful enough to cut through stone, but they met my flames and evaporated near instantly. And it didn’t stop there.

 

These two worthless goons used their size to bully the weak so I rightly punished them. I baptized them in my fire, and cooked them until they were both blackened and covered head to webbed toe in burns.  To be honest, the smell of cooked fish was making me hungry.

 

When I finished, the two of them were lying belly up after having fallen backward into the food court.  I walked in, expecting to find a room that was even bigger than the entry hall had been. And much more packed with dragons. All of whom were staring at me, the five meter long dragon who had just toppled a pair of giants.

 

Suddenly, I felt a presence. A presence so powerful that it shook the very nature of my understanding of the world.  Up until not I had met fairly strong beasts, the strongest being Terero, who met my expectations for what a powerful dragon would be like.

 

But this presence dwarfed that on a scale I couldn’t comprehend.  To put it simply, if the two web-toes were a drop of water then I was a puddle. Terero would be a pond and this presence would be an ocean.

 

“Who dares disturb my meal?” said a quiet voice.

 

I didn’t have to look for the speaker. There, in the back of the room, sitting upon a colossal carved throne sat a massive black dragon.  And he was looking right at me.

 

He was easily three times the size of the web-toes, but unlike them he projected power beyond my cognition.  His scales shone like polished gems, his claws were each the size of a house and the horns on his head, while shaped identically to mine, were each as large as the twin dragons I had just fought.

 

His eyes were like setting suns, giant red orbs that seemed to look through me in a way that even appraisal couldn’t.  Upon his head sat a crest, not unlike the one Terero had, but much larger and colored gold. It starkly contrasted to his black scales, yet served to give him a distinguished appearance, even among dragons.

 

It was clear as day where the power I felt boring down on me came from. That I had gotten into a fight and nearly burned two dragons to a crisp in front of this being may be the last mistake I ever make. 

 

For right now I stood before none other than the Dragon Emperor.