“We’re this close but we still can’t hear it, the dragon must be calm or at least trying to keep low!” The dragons’ wings are similar to the human heart, they flap gently when they are calm and relaxed. However, as soon as they get angry they start flapping like a dragonfly, rumbling the whole mountain like a raging storm.
“They are smart right, can’t we just ask it to change location?” Sofia asked trying to find a way other than fighting. However, Cain shook his head.
“Typically there isn’t any talking when meeting a red dragon, it will just pounce at us immediately. We should try to drive it away without confrontation.” Cain pointed toward the mountain, “Red dragons love high perches. We should dig underneath the mountaintop and cause a landslide. That would cause it to think of it as a natural occurrence and it will for another place to nest. This plan will work as long as the dragon doesn’t already have eggs.”
The girls looked at him with wide-open eyes, except Gracie who just nodded to the absurd idea.
“C-cause a landslide?” Leyla gasped, “What of it reached the farm. And you want to destroy a natural location?”
“If we fought the dragon most of the mountain would be burned to ash, your farm and the whole mountain are going to the ground.” Cain’s eyes flashed for a moment as his expression changed.
“Hold tight!” Cain grabbed jumped to hold the horse’s rein as he yelled. It was in the next moment that the girls felt the bone-burning sensation, an ember hot pulse of Mana follow by an earth-shaking roar.
ROOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR! The carriage vibrated violently as they felt their teeth rumble, Alice could feel the booming in her chest from the roar! The horse panicked but luckily, Cain had already grabbed the reins from Leyla who was crying.
“What is this?” Selena yelled as she tightly closed her cat ears, ~ The dragon roared, It’s fighting something~
The earth started to shake as the roar faded and a booming rumble echoed. “Where is it?!” Sofia screamed, ~It should be quite far away so we’re safe here, probably!” Sofia mustered all her strength and courage to look from the carriage to the mountains.
In the distance, she saw a massive tree trunk racing through the sky. A massive dust cloud started to engulf the mountain quickly as a massive figure flew into the sky. It was quite far away but they could quickly recognize it, that intensity and concentrated violence. It was a distinct sight, as they could not avert their eyes from the draconic figure.
A massive red body sprinkled with small black scales, massive wings that flapped fast enough to be invisible, the air twisting around it from the heat. The dragon violently plunged onto the ground head first causing a massive earthquake enough that the carriage was lifted from the ground.
“But we’re so far away!” Alice gasped as she held tightly to the seat. “It’s crazy-nya!” Selena was grasping with her claws to not be thrown away, Sofia and Gracie grabbed onto each other, and Cain grabbed Leyla who almost fell under the horses’ hooves.
“There is no chance we’re fighting that, grasp tightly.” Cain signaled to the Dragon fang who were in the other carriage to stop and tie the horses. It was best for them to wait until the dragon calmed down to keep traveling.
They stood and watched the forest get decimated in the distance. Massive trees were flung into the air in the dust cloud, with each passing moment the earth shook.
“It’s holding back, it hasn’t used its breath for a while,” Cain said as sweat dripped from his forehead, “Killing that thing would be nothing short of an S-rank mission!” Yamauba said as she realized what Cain meant, her face turned pale from the thought.
“I wonder what it’s fighting to be taking this long. Most things should be dead by this time.” Cain’s words reached deep into his companion, looking at his tense face only amplified their anxiety.
After a few moments, the rumbling stopped and the dust started to clear as they saw the dragon flying away with his wings flapping slowly. “The fight is over, let’s keep moving!” Cain said and reached to the Carriage before he got stopped by Daraku, “We should abandon the mission, I never knew the difference between an adult and a young dragon is going to be this big!”
Cain looked at him with an empty expression, “I told you at the guild it was a bad idea, we already took the quest and we’re finishing it.” Cain didn’t intend to get close to the dragon, he will only force him to move away by creating an artificial landslide. “I have a plan that will work as long as we don’t get caught by the dragon!” Cain then explained his plan to Daraku and the rest, “So you’re saying as long as we follow this to the end, we’re going to finish this quest?” Daraku said with a stunning face.
“The guild has considered this quest as an A-rank. If we reported the dragon strength, it will be changed into an S-rank, you might have a chance to rank up!” Cain smiled at them, It wasn’t just dragon’s fang member that could rank up from this quest, Cain’s Cobra’s fang was almost guaranteed a rank up if they contributed to an S-rank quest.
“This is a lifetime chance!” Yamauba said as tightly gripped her staff.
“I still want to go home!” Sofia complained, “Have some courage, look at how excited Selena is!” Alice told her as she point to Selena’s wiggling tail.
“What do you think?” Cain asked Gracie who didn’t show any change in her attitude, “I’m scared but I don’t want to get back.” She replied calmly without showing any signs of fear.
“What worries me is that it didn’t use its breath and was that strong!” Sofia cried, “Dragons aren’t stupid and they won’t cause a wildfire without a reason. They can spam the breath with as low as just 12 seconds cooldown.” Cain said striking fear in them even more, it was for the best so they won’t get any stupid idea to get close to the thing.
But there was something he was hiding, the black marking on the dragon’s body was a dangerous sign. It meant that they weren’t facing an adult but an ancient dragon. What they just saw was more than just holding back, it was playing around with its prey, and that is why the fight took so long. Its breath was far strong than an adult and the cooldown is far lower at just about 6 seconds. The reason he stopped the carriage is that the dragon noticed their presence.
That was true, Cain reacted before they could feel the dragon, Mana. It was because he could feel the dragon’s detection magic cover the whole place.
“Let’s hurry to the farm, we have a lot of work waiting for us!” Cain jumped into the carriage.
Even though it was an ancient red it didn’t attack them immediately, negotiation could be possible which excited Cain. This was truly a lifetime chance.