“We have to move out, NOW!” Cain said as he hurried down dragging the girls with him. “It noticed us so we better be careful.”
“Wait slow down, what are you talking about?” Sofia asked being confused at seeing Cain panic for the first time. “She is right, calm down for a moment!” Alice added up. “Are we fighting it-nya?” Selena had her eyes sparkling, to her it was just a big hunt.
Cain immediately stopped. He should tell the girls how grave the situation is. “That dragon over there can see us. I would guess she might even be able to hear us. It is possible she already heard us talking about our plan and is just tolerating our existence here, the fact we’re still alive is just from her mercy.” Seeing them from the distance was a freaky deed worthy of how extreme the dragons are. He had thought she was an ancient red but this was even more impressive. Her gaze reminded him of the monstrous witch Zaleria, she would send him on a mission a few days away then she would call and give him orders as if she could see him.
“I can’t calm down until I’m certain she can’t detect us. And don’t even think of fighting her, you wouldn’t amount to more than a bee to a human!” Cain shouted, as he disassembled the tower and rushed to the farm.
“What about the mission? We have to finish it!” Alice said trying to slow Cain down.
“Who cares? She has not damaged the farm yet and is tolerating us staying here. I bet that if we tried to drive her out we would only end up enraging her. To her, we are like bugs living in her backyard, one wrong move and she will torch us out!” Alice flinched when Cain shouted. he wasn’t joking or trying to be nice. She could feel the fear in his voice, this might be where they die and he believed that.
“So the mission-nya?” Selena asked genuinely and he replied instantly. “Cancelled, we can’t take her on!” She nodded silently following him.
~The mission isn’t canceled yet, you’re the only one I can trust to not alert the dragon. We’re going to pretend to retreat and then go with the plan. ~ Cain used him [Message] to talk to Gracie whose face didn’t change at all, ~Just follow my orders for now.~
As soon as they reached Isaac’s house Cain shouted to call everyone out. Dragon’s fang rushed out as they expected it to be a dragon attack, Isaac quickly ran to the door even though his wife was telling him to not strain his body.
“We’re abandoning the mission. The dragon has spotted us.” Cain said directly. The first one to object was Takeshi as he frowned on the idea of running from a fight.
“Gracie, take go inside and explain what happened to Yamauba and Miko. You don’t want to be between me and Takeshi in a heated argument!” ~This is just to find a reason to separate. When inside use sign language to have Yamauba cast [Soundless]. I will take Care of the rest~
“Cain but…” Before Sofia could finish her words, Cain’s sharp glare made her stop. To her, it was clear that he has other things on his mind. Little did she know that a wrong move from them and they all would be killed by the dragon.
Gracie dragged the other three and asked Yamauba and Miko to follow her inside. Yamauba naturally refused to want to stay by Takeshi’s side, which proved troublesome. Cain wanted her inside as she is the only one besides him who could use [Soundless] and [Message] The two spells that allow them to talk without the dragon noticing.
Luckily, Daraku seems to have noticed that Cain is acting weird and guessed that he needs to play along.
“Miko, go with them. Takeshi tells Yamauba to go inside as well, things might turn ugly here!” Daraku said with a smug as he cracked his fingers and walked between Takeshi and Cain. This might seem like the way a rogue would act, going for violence first, but it wasn’t the case. All the dragon’s fang members knew that Daraku is the Calm one, in a normal scenario he would stay back and wait for an opportunity to strike, walking to the front like this meant he was up to something.
As they understood that something was up, Yamauba waited for Takeshi to tell her to go inside before pretending to be angry and storming inside after Gracie and Miko.
“The dragon can see us, she is just allowing us here. This is her territory now!” Cain said with a strong voice.
“We can’t abandon the mission, you also said that we could finish it without fighting her!” Takeshi screamed with a deep strong voice.
“Yeah, the mission would yield a lot of money and fame. Chicken out on your own!” Daraku said with a smile.
At this moment, Cain felt a small wave of Mana coming from the house. Yamauba has used [Soundless] as Cain wanted.
~The dragon can see and hear us, we’re going to pretend to abandon the mission!~ Cain’s words rang in the women’s heads inside, All of their faces changed except Gracie, half of them made a sound of surprise but it was muffled due to [Soundless]
Cain then slowly explained what happened to them as he was arguing with Takeshi and Daraku.
~Go explain what I just said to Leyla, make sure to be well hidden and have [Soundless] up!~ Yamauba agree as she could understand how absurdly strong that dragon could be. They have to act in secret.
The girls did pretend to be screaming and yelling inside as if they were arguing, tricking the dragon was important.
After a few minutes, Cain decided to pretend that he had enough, “I’ve had enough, do what you like!” Cain stormed inside to grab the girls, and head back to his tower. Daraku took it as a sign to do the same and he stormed to Miko and had Takeshi do the same and storm to Yamauba.
Yamauba took that chance to explain to both of them what the plan was. She as well explained it later to Leyla while Cain returned to tell Isaac that they are leaving and explained the plan to him.
After about an hour they were ready to leave, the two groups kept pretending to be at each other throats while loading the carriage. The plan was that they would move until Cain is sure they are out of the dragon’s detection range and then create a small operation team.
The team is comprised of him, Yamauba, and Daraku. Their mission is to sneak back in and destroy the dragon’s peak and lair. They are the only people skilled enough or have suitable magic to sneak without any sound or being seen.
“Sorry for this but we can’t drive the dragon away, please find another part.” Cain slightly bowed to Isaac as they were about to leave.
“Your soul is even bigger than mine, how is that possible?” A woman’s voice whispered in his ears as he felt her embrace as if blacking out for a moment “Of course since I’m…” The two-spirit stones inside him rumbled as they cleared the charm. Cain immediately returned to his senses, the cursed woman was hugging him from behind. They couldn’t detect her coming and her mere presence was enough to charm everyone.
[Thunder step] [Enchanting] [Enchanting] [Enchanting] = [Chain Lightning] Cain’s body got engulfed in raging lightning as he quickly turned and kicked the woman in the guts. She didn’t even move but he was thrown back. [Sylph’s tiny hut] [Enchanting] He forced the spell to be cast instantly [Enchanting] he then forced her range to expand.
Cain knew the woman well, in his past life she was the first being he wanted to skin alive. He couldn’t miss her face, Mana, and horrid smell. She was the older sister of the witch who enslaved him and the bitch who sold him to the dragons to be experimented on.
“Morena!” Cain screamed his lungs out, [Earth wall] [Enchanting] [Enchanting] [Enchanting] [Earth’s Gaping Maw] A gigantic Jaw of stone opened from underneath Morena and closed on her in the blink of an eye.
[Fireball] [Enchanting] [Enchanting] [Enchanting]. [Hellfire] A rumbling ball of black flames launched from Cain’s hand and into the jaw, exploding with enough magic that Yamauba fell to her knees, the heat alone was enough to ignite the hay bales stacked to the side and set the small grass of fire.
“Ara, you how did you know my name? I’m sure I never used that in public for the last two hundred years!” The jaw quickly melted to a green goo and Morena walked out unscathed, “Now I want you even more!” In an instant, she was at Cain’s face with a crazy smile on her face.
CLANK! The sound of cracking metal rang through the farm as Takeshi Smashed the witch’s face with his sword.
“It didn’t even leave a scratch on her, don’t let your guard down!” Cain screamed as loud as he could.
“Calm down I know.” Takeshi looked at his sword melting, “Who the hell is she?”
His words made Cain remember to apprise her, in his past life he didn’t have the system at the time so he didn’t see her stats.
“How could this be?” Cain stared at her in shock as her tongue extended to lick her face clean from the dust.
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‘She was a dragon all along?’