POV The troublemakers that are asking for a beating:
A small group sat on a terrace, overseeing the arena below them. The benches around them were packed with shouting and cheering people, packed head-on-head.
The magic circuits embedded within the towers faintly glowed, cooling down the heated air searing out of the lake of bubbling lava underneath them.
The shouts of the surrounding crowd were deafening. Yet, it was perfectly silent around the four players, a faint, almost undetectable barrier of mana separating them from the rest of the audience.𝑶𝔳𝗅xt.𝒸𝑶𝐌
“What the hell is that thing?” All four of them stared at the monster in the arena. It looked like a wyrm, but there was something different about it.
Its body was covered in tough-looking silvery armor, which was highly unusual for wyrms.
Just looking at it was enough to bewitch their hearts, the mesmerizing combination of silver, crystal clear water, and pristine diamond-like crystals giving it an ethereal beauty comparable to that of angels.
However, the fear of it was still present in their heart. It would be terrifying if it just turned the girl into ash with its breath, but it would be something humans could understand.
However, its opponent just fell dead to the ground, without any signs of battle or struggle, filling everyone’s hearts with fear.
‘The things that one can’t see are the scariest ones.’
It was disturbing news for them, especially with what it meant on a bigger scale.
The tall blonde-haired woman, who looked stoically like some kind of a noble, murmured to her colleagues, “This is already a second wyrm that has appeared in the kingdom. It feels like the dragon is building an army here. An army that could potentially become extremely terrifying if left unchecked.”
The dragons were already dangerous foes, but a dragon with an army was a nightmare. It was a nightmare that was too terrifying to even think about.
The nerdy-looking player in glasses and dark hair also murmured, souring the mood with even more bad news, “Also, this whole murder plan was a debacle… They didn’t even react, and most people don’t even care. I am telling you, captain. We need to stop acting so rashly. This time nothing bad happened, but who knows how it will go in the future.”
The murder plan was simple and elegant, with plenty of possible positive outcomes, ‘If nothing else, we would at least probe their security.
‘And at best, it would make the inexperienced government of monsters act in some rash way that would paint them as a horde of tyrants.
‘On top of that, even if they acted correctly, there is a chance that the spread of rumors would cause chaos and potentially tarnish their name.’
He wanted to see the kobolds flood the street, aggressively interrogating everyone they caught while putting everything into lockdown.
However, to their dismay, nothing of that kind happened, as no one put any importance to it, most of the people only suspected that it was nothing more than just some attempts by other players to improve their chances of winning or manipulating bets.
It wasn’t even enough to damage their name, as it was a common occurrence that happened during almost every significant event.
And the small number of players that they instigated were ignored.
‘When a scheme fails, it is annoying, but when it is ignored, that is infuriating!’
“I, the great wyrm Venenumius, shall teach you, mortals, the power of the dragon kind!” The wyrm in the arena loudly spoke, its voice perfectly harmonious and clear, sounding almost like flowing water, bringing comfort and fear at the same time to anyone who heard it.
The whole audience turned silent as the pair of golden eyes swept through them.
The wyrm gave the dead silent audience one last glance, and then it flapped its beautiful wings, the sunlight, and orange radiance from magma refracting within the thousands of tiny crystals.
The wyrm shot towards the sky, its body vanishing on the horizon in a blink of an eye, leaving behind only the dead girl’s body.
The next moment, an explosion shook the arena, the highest floor of one of the towers exploding in a ball of fire.
A barrier raised at the last moment and brightly glowed as it absorbed and contained the whole explosion, ripples passing through its surface.
The whole arena exploded into panic, the crowd turning into a berserk stampede as everyone turned to run.
The people pushed against each other as they all ran, trying to get away as fast as possible.
“Get out of my way!”
“Ohh, have mercy!”
The four players look at each other in confusion, “Wait, this wasn’t us!”
“Who dared?!” The next moment, a voice that shook with their own souls came out of nowhere, resonating through the whole city, everyone freezing as if they turned into stone statues.
All four of them turned to panic, knowing that this would shatter all of their plans. Whoever blew up the tower enraged the dragon.
POV Vesuvius:
The dragon shrouded in the impenetrable black clouds glared towards his city, his head high above the ground, towering above the surrounding lands.
The small elf still lay in the grass sprouting around her, her face still pale after the great burden on her body.
‘Should I do it? Is it even possible?’ He looked at the elf with a conflicted look. On one hand, he recognized her as his best, oldest, and most loyal minion. However, he knew that the world around him was full of enemies, just waiting for his moment of weakness to strike him down, ‘No, I can’t afford to do it now. I don’t even know what it would do.’
The dragon flapped his huge wings, sending waves of wind and smoke through the valley as his body slowly lifted from the ground, the golden and purple light occasionally leaking through the black clouds.
A crown of elements materialized around his head, its golden radiance connecting with horns, incorporating them into a massive glowing crown that would put any mortal king or emperor into shame.
His mana poured into it, burning and turning into a thin trail of golden energy. The huge river of mana all turned into a pathetic stream of golden energy. All of it gathered within his heart and condensed into a single, brightly glowing droplet.
‘This whole thing just showed me that the divine energy is even more useful than I originally thought.’
His eyes fell upon the crystal still lying on the ground as the single droplet of divine energy moved from his heart, flowing through his veins.
Immediately a wave of golden energy passed through his whole body, the magma flowing within the cracks of his armor becoming fully golden.
The next moment, all of it gathered on the tip of his finger, glowing as if he had a sun impaled on his claw, the golden light refracting within the millions of crystals decorating his body.
The crystal floated up into the air, his wind pulling it straight towards his glowing outstretched claw.
‘I wonder if I can store it, outside of my body.’
Finally, the claw and the crystal touched, and the dragon released the energy gathered on the tip of his claw.
The divine energy surged out, and instantly the whole crystal cracked and exploded into millions of pieces of shiny shrapnel that dispersed in all directions.
A wave of mana with a trace of divine energy swept through the lands, everything turning into ash as it vanished into oblivion.
The dragon’s horns glowed as he moved his will and domain, deflecting the energy away from the still-unconscious elf.
‘Nope, this doesn’t work… I guess divine energy can’t be stored in mana crystals.’ Still, he didn’t regret it, knowing that the more such experiments he did, the more accurate his overall picture would be.
The next moment he froze and another loud explosion echoed through the mountains, coming from the direction of his town.
His golden eyes turned towards it, penetrating through the layers of clouds as if they weren’t even in his path.
He saw the magic barrier raise and isolate the whole explosion, the shockwave still sweeping through the arena and sending ripples through the lava-filled caldera.
“Who dared?!” His voice boomed across the valley and mountains, everything shaking under the powerful voice.
His eyes shone brighter than ever before as he stared at the aftermath, the shouting people, the moving kobolds, and a group moving straight towards the citadel all in his sight.
The dragon flapped his wings, and his body shot forward, with lightning channels crackling around him as he shot his body toward the horizon.
He could teleport, but he was sure that he could reach it even faster just with his own wings.
He ignored the petty crimes and the murders committed by the mortals, but this was too much. He would find and destroy the culprits, he wanted to burn them alive, finger by finger and bone by bone.
The golden and blue lightning crackled within the clouds, the electricity sparkling around the dragon’s conductive armor, as he shot forward, quickly accelerating, the city getting closer and closer with every passing fraction of a second.