POV Vesuvius:
The whole sky darkened with thick black clouds forming on the sky out of nowhere.
The mass of clouds kept moving forward, spiralling around a large black, purple glowing object as if it were a hurricane’s eye.
Vesuvius flew across the sky, with everything around him blurred.
The predominant colour gradually turned from green to grey as the landscape quickly changed from verdant green valleys into grey mountainous regions full of cliffs, mountain lakes and canyons.
The dragon flapped his wings, stopping mid-air, his eyes catching the movement of giant reptiles in the air.
“Graahhhh!” the dragon opened his mouth and growled so loudly that the waves formed in the mountain lakes spread across the mountains.
The growl carried a straightforward order: Group up!
“Grahhhh!” screeches and growls responded from all directions, large black and grey beasts rising towards the sky, quickly turning from the tiny dots on the horizon into a car and van-like draconic beasts with enormous wings.
The dragon remained to hover high in the sky, watching with his golden eyes as the beasts slowly formed into a large flock circling around him in the dark clouds, the sounds of wings and screeches coming from all directions.
Suddenly the dragon’s eyes went wide as he noticed a few beasts.
‘There you are!’
The black smoke swirled around them, hiding most of their features with only a yellow light passing through and showing the outlines of their bodies.
Pitch-black volcanic armour with cracks glowing with yellowy magma covered their bodies that were much larger and more imposing than even dracodactyls, each of them big as two vans put behind each other.
Imposing horns crackling with lightning crowned their heads, two on the sides and one on the snout. The air around them shivered in the heat searing out of their black bodies.
Ding!
//
Analyze result:
Species: High Volcanic Dracodactyle𝗈𝗏𝗅xt.𝗇t
Level: 42
Danger level: Deadly
//
‘They are beautiful! They fill their role of mounts for my knights. Especially after the marrow.’
Vesuvius wasn’t naive and knew he could conquer the kingdom with only his strength.
But without forces maintaining it, controlling the population, collecting taxes and dealing with issues, it would be more of a hassle than a profit for him.
‘I can’t be everywhere at once, and even if I could, it would eat too much of my time. That is why I need an army and knights that will work like my extension.’
That wasn’t all that made the dragon happy as he gained more data for his future projects, ‘While transformed while still in the embryonic stage, they will take on more of my strength and better utilise the blood.’
POV Tanya:
The explosion of flames spread and formed a massive fiery ball, blasting the knights into the distance in their semi-molten armour, the runes on them flickering for the last time before breaking down.
“Ahhh!” the knight wailed on the ground as their skins and flesh burned while they cooked in their own armours.
A woman stepped out of the flames. Her dress turned to ash, revealing her pale and smooth skin licked by the surrounding flames.
Long curled horns that looked like hot iron grew from between her black hair with few red strands.
“Hahaha! Finally free of my act!” she was tired of constantly hiding and pretending to be a human.
She just stood there in the puddle of molten stone. Her naked body obscured only by the flames, but she didn’t care, enjoying her newly gained freedom.
“Such a shame. I always thought that you had a talent. But you weren’t content with it, you wanted more, so you drank the blood of a monster. Taking shortcuts isn’t the path of magic. That will lead you only more and more astray from your humanity.”
The old voice came from the sky, followed by screeching spikes of pitch-black glowing ice.
The four spikes fell from the sky like comets.
Before she could even react, the ice spikes pierced through her legs and arms. Her body smashed against the hot stone ground, getting pinned down like a butterfly.
Mana from her body was seeping out, getting devoured by the black ice.
“Why have you done this? With more patience, you could have reached much higher. Instead, look how deep you have fallen now. This is all the fault of your stupid father, who couldn’t even recognise your talent.”
“Ohh, it is too late anyway, my master will descend upon this kingdom, and you and all that stood against him will burn into cinders and ash.” she refused to scream or beg, her pride not allowing her to show even a tiny bit of weakness as chains of ice descended from the sky, wrapping around her body.
The old man in a black robe landed near her, ice spreading from under his steps, “Don’t worry, child, I will purge this vile blood out of your body and heal you.”
POV The random group of players from the last time:
The small group of people still stood on the street watching even before them. None of them dared to move there, the storm of fire and ice still in their mind.
Then suddenly, a message appeared before their eyes.
Ding!
// New unique quest:
Objective: Find a way to contact and warn the Vesuvian Kingdom that their agents were compromised.
Alternative Objective: Free the captured woman
Reward: Depends upon your actions and decisions.
Do you wish to accept?
//
The players looked at each other with questioning looks, unsure about what to do.
“I am not sure about this. We can end up in jail if something goes wrong.” A tall skinny man shook his bald head.
His two friends looked at him with their bodies trembling in excitement.
“But we are talking here about a quest involving whole kingdoms. There must be some insane reward for it!”
“Exactly, at best, if we continue like this, we will end up in mediocrity, but this quest can propel us high towards the sky!”