Lucas glared down at the fire-breather as he slumped his claw in its chest. But not at once. Little by little, his sharp claws dug from its skin, then to its flesh. Tearing, fabric by fabric, until the bones could be seen. Once the bones were in sight, he used his palm to stomp on it, leisurely.
They were surrounded by fire, so the last remaining wyvern could not attack Lucas. Meanwhile, the fire-breather struggled. Lucas wanted to see it struggle—struggle for every breath until he finally kills it.
The fire-breather could not move its head due to the injury to its neck. So, its tail screamed through the wind and impaled Lucas’s right wing and back. But Lucas remained adamant. He didn’t even flinch. He continued crushing the fire-breather’s ribs.
The fire-breather growled in pain. It retracted its tail and struck, again and again, yet to no avail.
After the ribs, Lucas finally stomped on its heart and relieved the wyvern of its misery. Lucas was in no way satisfied. Had it not been for the fact that he reached his metal limit on holding off the urge to hibernate, then he would not have killed the fire-breather until it realized its place.
But then, after killing the wyvern, he stumbled upon a fact.
‘What place?’ He wondered. Torturing was never his style. In fact, as an assassin, his job was to swiftly kill the target and escape. But, now, even going as far as to receive injuries on his back, just so he could spend a few more seconds tearing apart its flesh.
For now, he shook off such thoughts. There were more urgent matters on hand.
Blood constantly poured out of his back. He sprung his head back. To his surprise, he found the last remaining wyvern had fled. The fire-breather had blocked the exit with its flames. But those flames did not burn high. The wyvern flew above those flames to escape.
Lucas felt more beseeched by his own body to slumber. But not yet. He circled back, near the fire-breather's corpse. And feasted with haste.
Soon, starting from his tail, his muscles began to feel numb. Lucas resisted with all his might. He knew his body better than anyone. Ways to preserve, heal and evolve, came from his very instinct. He knew if he fell asleep now, the flesh stored inside him wouldn’t be enough to heal all his injuries and risk a permanent wound.
Due time, even his limbs fell asleep. He fell on his face but kept consuming and consuming until he lost consciousness.
Once he lost consciousness, then, it was all darkness, until he heard an elderly voice,
“So, how are you feeling, Lucas?”
“That’s not my name,” said the 9-year-old, caged inside a prison with handcuffs on his hands.
“It is from now on. You killed 24 students yesterday. One of them was my son. His name was Lucas. Now, that name belongs to you.”
‘Quiet’ Lucas’s head felt dizzy. Even though he didn’t want to wake up, he stumbled upon a terrific discovery during his sleep, which prompted him to wake up. He took a long breath and stirred his head.
The ground looked dried. Remains of the free-breather and other wyverns still rested on the floor. Looking at how much they had festered, he estimated he was asleep for at least five weeks.
He crawled near the remains of the wyvern whose skull he had crushed. In a hurry, he tore through, its festered muscles, and gnawed on its heart.
Then spitted out the rotten heart. It was not the same. Initially, he had anticipated it would take at least months of hibernation until his wounds healed. Only then would the hibernation for the succession from a hatchling to an infant dragon would start. But he was wrong.
During his sleep, he experienced intense calefaction. That process accelerated his healing.
He glared towards the remains of the fire-breather. It was its heart that triggered the abnormal healing. The fire-breather’s heart possessed a unique essence that the other wyverns did not. That essence was what allowed the fire-breather to breathe fire.
Through his snout, Lucas took a long hefty breath. The winds swirled around him.
The blood-red stripes on his back shimmered. His lower neck emitted red light like a bulb. The light started to spread from his lower neck to his mouth.
Aiming towards the remains of the fire-breather, he let out a growl immersed with the fury of fire.
Scorching red flames engulfed the remains. The inner layer of his fire was coloured like the red moon, while the outer layer had a shade of the sun.
He circled his head, spreading his flames throughout the cave. The remnants of all other wyverns turned to ashes. Even the supposedly fire-resistant skin of the fire-breather couldn’t resist the fury of Lucas’s flames.
‘No one asked for your response’ He ignored the screens. Relying on her was never a part of his plan.
The flames he spread had already dissipated. He noticed the fire-breather’s fire had more longevity than his.
But it was ok. Lucas’s eyes shone as he saw the changes in his body first hand. He felt his size had increased by folds. He was at least twice as large as the fire-breather. He now had five claws in each arm. His black-bat-like wings had increased their wingspan by at least a quarter. His scales had hardened. His tail looked more scaled and sharpened. Even in such a short time, he had grown immensely.
But he was still a hatchling. He woke up from mid-hibernation because he craved more. More hearts like the one fire-breather had. Just eating one had incited tremendous changes within him. Just one heart was able to heal all his wounds. He felt the changes that would occur when he consumed as an infant won’t be as tremendous as the changes which would occur as a hatchling.
But Lucas felt off. His size had increased, and his power had grown. He knew by folds, but how much fold.
He sighed.
He regretted not measuring his limits after hatching, like his bite strength. If he did, he could have now compared what kind of rocks he would have been able to crush with his jaws back then and now.
For a moment, he found how she was able to read his exact thoughts extremely disturbing. But, that statement had hinged his curiosity. He wanted to see what kind of information was being recorded about him.
‘Then, let’s witness your usefulness.’
The only thing he found impressive was the scale and the status. But he still had slight doubts about its accuracy.
This made him further realize, he needed to feed more. And also hibernate more. His body needed an incredible amount of sleep to develop properly. The ideal scenario would be if he now consumed another fire-breather’s heart, then entered a long hibernation for ages. And woke up periodically to consume food. He thought how convenient it would be if he saw 4-5 hearts waiting in front of him to get consumed every time he woke up.
Thinking about future scenarios, he delved deeper into the cave. Ever since the beginning, there was a scent coming from within that bothered him. But, as he got inside, the size of the cave seemed to get more and more broadened.
His eyes widened as he saw the dead parent wyvern. On the far end of the cave, the corpse rested, its skin turned into stone. The corpse had four horns and a vicious looking face.
The wyvern looked like it was at least ten times bigger than Lucas. For a moment, Lucas was thankful that it was dead. And, there was no way that such a large creature could have entered through the waterfall.
Sniff!
The scent was light, but another distinct smell was being emitted from somewhere. Lucas climbed up the wyvern’s head and crawled near its nape.
His eyes narrowed as he saw a golden shaft. Seeing the fletching, he found out it either a big arrow or a spear. The part visible from the outside looked similar in length and wide as Lucas’s tail. The region around the nape where the weapon had penetrated had especially been hardened. There also seemed to be some incantations or letters inscribed on the shaft. Lucas could not read them. He didn’t even try to get closer. If that weapon was the reason for this parent wyvern’s death, then it was better not to get involved.
Sniff!
He flinched, as again, from the nape, he discovered another scent. It was similar to a wyvern’s, but not a dead one, but not also an alive one. It was different.
He travelled across the wyvern’s back and slid through its tail. He looked in surprise; he found shells all over the ground. They were eggshells—5 broken eggs and three still unhatched ones.
Right after seeing this sight, a fact flashed into his mind—a male wyvern, through its firey breath, passes new traits onto the egg.
Then an idea popped into his mind.
What if a dragon spread its fire around a wyvern’s egg?
Thanks for the chapter