[Enilla's home]

The next morning when Daranth awoke he found Enilla back in the cave, lazing around while watching Jennia train her skill in elemental control.

“Calmed down?” Darganth asked her.

“Somewhat.” She answered.

Hearing her answer Darganth nodded. Drawing on the atmosphere's mana he follows Jennia's example and trained for a while.

“When you want you can come with me later, I plan on destroying the human army near here.” Darganth suddenly says.

“I admit that wreaking havoc among them would be quite entertaining and help me fully calm down, but it isn't worth it. When I do that the kingdom is just going to annoy me again and they have some peak fourth ranks. They may not be dangerous to me, but I will have to keep them away for Jennia.” She says with a sigh.

“You mean the kingdom that will be destroyed in a short while?” This caused Enilla to look at him questioning, prompting him to explain.

“The king seems to be obsessed with capturing a dragon. While I don't know why they have yet to act, once I reach the steel mountains there will be quite a few dragons flying to his capital.” This caused Enilla to laugh.

“I knew that he is stupid, but trying to capture a dragon without a mythical rank among his men stupid? That trumps all I've ever heard.” She said in between her laughter while simultaneously thinking about his proposal again.

“Alright the army it is.” She added after a pause. This caused Jennia to look towards us, sending her mother a pleading look.

When Enilla let out a sigh after a few seconds she became delighted. Watching their exchange made Darganth chuckle slightly, causing Enilla to glare at him.

“When do we go?” Enilla asked after a while.

“Whenever you want, I haven't made any plans. The strongest among them is a third order aura soldier, so not something I need to prepare for.”

“Then lets go.” Enilla said and teleported all three of them to the army camp before he or Jennia could react. Even with his high affinity he couldn't even prevent himself from being affected showing how steep the power difference between them was.

 

[Army of the Bral kingdom]

The army was meanwhile completely unaware of the danger that would come for them. A short while before Enilla teleported them in front of the camp, the General received a visit from a high ranking noble.

“Duke Wallace, what is it that we owe the pleasure of your visit?” He asked the man standing one the opposite side of his desk.

“I was visiting some friends here together with my two children when received word that you had relocated you army's camp. Of course we became curious as to what could bring a man of you reputation to retreat.”

“Nothing major Duke, there have just been small problems in the area and this is a mere precaution. Whether or not we will return to our previous position fully depends on what the investigation I am currently organizing is going to reveal.” The general said.

Just as the duke wanted to answer two people, one boy and one girl, walked into the tent. Both were dressed in clothes of extremely high quality, wearing enough jewelry that its worth could pay the salary of every soldier in the camp for multiple months. The boy looked around 17, with the girl looking slightly younger at 16. From their

“Father, how come that they don't have dragon killers in this camp? I planned to show Helenia the greatest of our kingdoms weapons as she has never witnessed them, but there are none.” The boy said.

“That's because we are too far north for them.” The duke answered his son, though the latter continued looking at his father questioning.

“Young Lord, this far north there are no dragons. While the south has to compete with the kings of beasts, we normally have no need for such weapons. Though I currently wished we had some.” The general explained. At the last part the duke became intrigued.

“You wished you had some? Let me guess, it has some connection to the problem you mentioned?”

“Yes, your guess is correct duke, as expected of the southern wall. There has recently been an increase in beasts that flee from the forest, prompting me to send some men to investigate. While it isn't fully confirmed, the presence of a beast lord is likely with it being probable that it is a hydra.” This shocked the duke.

“How come I have not yet been informed?” He asked angrily.

“Because we only found out two days ago and have yet to confirm it. And my first priority after informing the king was to get my army out of imminent danger.”

Hearing this logical answer calmed the duke somewhat. Opening his mouth to say something, he was interrupted by a signal horn being sounded. Storming out of the tent all four found the sky darkened with the soldiers staring into the sky.

Following their gaze they found the gigantic figure of a hydra towering over them, one of its heads large enough to block the sun out completely. The other six of its seven heads looked at the camp from different directions, encircling them.

“You know, I am quite happy that I overheard you little conversation, it would have been a waste to not get some information out of the 'southern wall'. Maybe you even know more about the kings little obsession.” A voice behind them said.

Spinning around in shock, they found Darganth in his humanoid form standing behind them. While the general was shocked because someone sneaked up on him, Duke Wallace was trembling as he recognized Darganth's form.

As the duke tasked with guarding the steel mountains, he had come into contact with dragons often enough to know what kind of humanoid form they preferred. While some used the form of existing species, the mix between half-dragon and draconian in front of him is something he would always recognize.

Seeing his son grab towards his sword he moved as fast as he could to stop him. This earned him a surprise look from both his son and the general.

“I currently also wish you had some dragon killers.” The duke said while looking at Darganth.

“Oh, dragon killers? What funny toy did you humanoids invent now?”

“When I tell you, will you let my family go?” The duke asked, earning a himself a questioning look from the general. Daranth's expression meanwhile twisted into a sadistic smile.

“For just that? No. But when you would tell me such interesting things like why the king is obsessed with capturing a dragon? Then maybe.”

This caused the dukes expression to darken. He had always been loyal to the king, so to give away information like that would be normally out of question for him. But choosing between his two children and his loyalty? That was something he never considered.

While watching the internal conflict of the duke with interest, Darganth noticed the general moving. Pushing of the ground, he dashed towards him while encasing himself and his sword with whitish-blue ice element aura. Smiling at this struggle, Darganth stepped back out of the strikes range before using metal magic to form a replica of his favorite weapon.

In his hand now was a mix of a spear and a glaive, measuring nearly two and a half meters long. Its shaft had a length of one meter sixty, while being tipped with an eighty centimeter blade. This blade resembled a mix between an elongated spear tip and a sword, with it also incorporating the glaive's more rounded edge below the tip, instead of it being staight like on a spear. This resulted in a blade where the tip was followed by a gradual increase in width that curved into a slight concavity before curving back outwards abruptly and forming a guard.

Twirling the weapon in his hands, Darganth swung it in conjunction with a turn in his body, causing a devastating strike to aim at the general. Lifting his sword in a block, he barely managed to deflect the strike, but wasn't able to cause it to disrupt his balance. Before he managed to regain his balance, Darganth changed the momentum of his strike into a stab against the now defenseless general.

Twisting his body to the side, he evaded the largest part of the danger, but still received a deep gash at his side. Stepping back while holding his wound, he went on the defensive and waited for Darganth's next strike. Darganth instead returned his spear diaonally behind his back, holding it in his right hand with the tip pointing to the ground.

“I am willing to accept you offer.” The duke suddenly said, much to the generals shock.

“Oh, I didn't expect this. But the surprise is a welcomed one, as its rare to find nobility with sense in them. Well, it wouldn’t have mattered either way as you are an open book for me, but I will keep my word.” Before they could realize the meaning behind Darganth's words, the duke held his head and grunted in pain. Just as the general wanted to help him, the pain stopped and he stepped back while panting.

“Well that is unexpected, to think that you hold that much trust in such toys. And the king seems even more stupid than I heard, but whatever. The three of you can go, but don't even think about talking about what happened. Sadly I won't be able to stop the king from knowing that she is here, but I want at least my presence to remain unknown, understood?” He asked the duke.

“I'm sorry Norton, but my family takes priority.” The duke said before nodding to Darganth's conditions.

After receiving his agreement to stay silent, Darganth teleported the duke and his family away from the camp. Turning to Norton he found him getting more and more worried. From time to time he heard the cries and shouts of his men, but he couldn't take his attention away from Darganth.

Seeing this worry, Darganth slowly circled around him with a smile as he of course had seen what happened behind the general. Once he had turned around far enough, Norton widened his eyes in shock, something that quickly morphed into anger.

Now behind Darganth was a sight that he wished to have never seen. Surrounded by his men stood Jennia, the young hydra mercilessly ripping apart anyone who entered her reach. Those who tried to escape either found themselves teleported back or hit by either flames or explosions. Seeing his men being toyed with, Norton could no longer think rationally.

Swinging his sword and letting a crescent arc of aura fly from his sword, he followed behind and closed the distance to Darganth. Watching him sidestep his attack with ease, he tried again to hit him, this time by sending a sword thrust of aura forwards. Suddenly his instincts screamed for him to dodge.

Before he could react he suddenly saw Darganth's aura turn silver. Before he could even wonder why the phenomena looked like an elemental change of external aura instead of its activation, Darganth's pierced his spear forwards without caring for the attack flying towards him. In the second he finished the motion Norton felt as if his chest had been pierced. Before he realized what was happening, he felt his consciousness fleeting.

The last thing he saw was hit attack that had flown directly at Darganth curving away as if it was natural. Falling onto his knees first, Norton fell forwards with a hole in his chest. Stamping the butt of the spear on the ground, Darganth caused his body to burst into flames before turning around to Jennia.

“A warriors end?” Enilla suddenly asked from next to him. Only now did Darganth notice that her towering hydra form no longer blocked the sun, instead she stood next to him in a transformed state. She currently looked completely human, with her form being stunning enough to cause even royalty to fight for her.

“While he was by no means powerful, he valued his men. That is the least I can do after causing such a slaughter among them.” He answered her to which she nodded in understanding. Even if she herself didn't know aura, she knew at least the rudimentary customs that its users like to keep, no matter how few still follow them.

“While I don't know aura myself, I know quite a bit about its workings. That makes me wonder, what was that at the end, activating aura looks and feels different. Had I not seen the entire fight I would have said that you switched to space aura, but you clearly had no external aura beforehand.” She asked while still watching Jennia's fight attentively.

“Neutral external aura. One of the unfair unique abilities as you called them.” He said with a light laugh, “Normally using external aura without an element is impossible as it would simply disperse due to the nature of mana, but with enough skill any being with a mana heart can do it. Mainly due to its ability to use elemental control on pure mana, but there are other aspects to it.”

“I don't think that making fun of my choice of words is warranted, that is an unfair ability. Had you not mentioned it I wouldn't have known that you used external aura before. Dragons may be able to simply see it, but against everyone else it is a perfect secret weapon.” She complained.

“Maybe, but it is weaker than with an element so I rarely use it. It can also be found easily by sensing the mana. But that the ability to use elemental control over mana in general is extremely powerful is something I completely agree with.”

“At least you are aware.” She said, clicking her tongue in annoyance.

For the next few minutes Darganth simply watched Jennia's fight in silence. When she finished off the last few soldiers, he waited for her to walk over to them before conjuring a ball of water abover her. Letting it drop, she uses it to clean the blood of her despite rolling her eyes in annoyance that he didn't simply create a pool of water.

“Do you want to come back with us or go directly back to the city?” Enilla asked him in the meantime.

“I will go back directly, but as long as it isn't a problem I would visit afterward.”

“Of course.”

“Then we will see us again later.” With those words Darganth transformed back into his true form before flying up again.

 

Making his way back to the city, he teleports while flying between each teleport. While he could have reached it in just two teleports by using his entire mana for each, as he has no time by when he has to be back so he took his time.

Reaching the city at noon, he casts an invisibility spell around himself and flew down into the city. Searching for Allaire, he found her still on the ship together with most of the tribe. Flying there, he lands on the deck while transforming before dropping his invisibility.

Turning around with a smile, Allaire snakes her arm around him, pulling him into her embrace before giving him a passionate kiss.

“How was it?” She asked.

“Good. I even met the beast lord as well as her daughter. The city is quite lucky as the king will probably keep his army's a bit away.”

“How do you know?”

“Because any rational king would avoid angering a mythical rank hydra with both space and time as elements when they don't even have one mythical rank individual in their employment.”

“A hydra?” She exclaimed in surprise.

“Yes, a hydra. Talked with them for a bit yesterday and I plan to spend a few days with them before making the journey to the steel mountains.” This caused Allaire to raise an eyebrow.

“Which of the two?” She asked accusingly, causing Darganth to chuckle.

“Do you really think this way of me. I thought that my wife would have a good opinion of me.” He said with a grin while giving her another kiss.

“Oh, I didn't mean it negativity, its hard to seduce a girl in not even a full day.”

“Really? I find it rather easy. But no, I don't have anything with either.”

“I don't know whether to find that positive or not. One the one hand I love having you longer just to myself, but it also means that I will go from being your only focus, to sharing you with a large group. I don't know whether a gradual increase would be better.” She said with a sigh that was only half joking.

“When you want I can find myself someone before we travel to another world.” Darganth said with a teasing smile.

“Lets talk about this later, I still don't trust you that you didn't accidentally seduced one of them.”

“If I did, then her daughter. While I respect Enilla, I have no romantic interest in her.”

With a roll of her eyes Allaire turned around and said her goodbyes to her tribe. With her not being particularly close to any of them, she just talked a bit with Elstan and the other third order warriors. While they were sad seeing her leave, they had all expected it when they learned about her relationship with Darganth.

After twenty minutes she made her way back to him and the two teleported to the council. Arriving in front of the building, the two were lead to the room the previous meeting had been held. Waiting for about ten minutes, the last council member arrived, allowing them to start the meeting.