A sudden deep, masculine voice boomed from the sides. “Heh! You two sure look happy. Who’s this? Did that loser nerd shapeshift to fulfill your fantasies of raising a child? Have you no shame?”
Both Lumi and Miri hissed threateningly at the newcomer together. “Dragnar…!” I got the distinct impression that I was a little cub who was protected by my feline parents from a ferocious predator.
I reluctantly turned my head in the direction of the voice. I had a bad premonition about this man. I had seen my fair share of scary creatures, like the war troll back during the goblin extermination, or more recently Mordecai and his monsterized human form was also up there among the more terrifying existences I’ve encountered.
This man, evidently called Dragnar, had been a figure best described as the embodiment of ‘dread’. His build was massive, probably slightly over 3 meters (~10 feet) tall. His giant muscles bulged beneath his rough skin that looked more like armor than an actual human’s skin.
I gotta admit, for the first time since my transformation, I felt small.
Dark fur-lined armor and rugged leather straps wrapped around his frame, enhancing the primal power he radiated. In his arms which were as wide as tree trunks he wielded an enormous double-bladed axe with ease – an axe that looked like it was crafted by runesmiths, if something like that class even existed.
His beard and hair were wild, untamed like the ferocious beast he resembled. Perhaps Dragnar’s most unsettling feature was the pale, ghostly green eyes that shone with a predatory hunger from their sockets. Tribal tattoos marked his biceps and shoulders, hinting at some ancient, barbaric tradition. There was something primal in his stance, like a savage energy that made the air suffocating with pure dread.
(Picture)
My two mothers stepped between me and him in a protective gesture and out of thin air they materialized their own weapons and armor. Probably to no one’s surprise, Luminara had a bow in her hands, but it wasn’t anything like I had seen before. It was almost as tall as the woman herself and made out of some thick, shiny metal. Instead of an arrow, she seemed to use something like a javelin.
This setup made me think of a giant slayer bow, which was probably not a coincidence considering the giant tank of muscle in front of us. Maybe a normal-sized arrow would just get shrugged off by his skin alone.
Stay connected via freewebnovel
Mearie instead resembled a Valkyrie from legends with her ornately decorated heavy armor, large shield, and spear. She took one step towards Dragnar to shield both Luminara and me.
I was honestly pretty surprised that both of my mothers turned out to be melee fighters, or perhaps there was another explanation behind this. I also didn’t expect hostilities to exist in this place between the inhabitants. I thought they were on amicable terms since they were sailing together in the same boat.
“Easy there, lionesses. If you keep baring your fangs at me with so much hostility I will take offense and kill you.” The giant of a man growled seeing their extreme enmity towards him. He was evidently quite surprised, though he never let go nor lowered his ginormous double-edged axe.
“Dragnar, if you hurt him we will never forgive you.” Mearie decreed.
“You know I can’t accommodate that request. I will attack him on sight, just as I’ve done all this time ever since he did that.” ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm
“It was not a request but a declaration. He is not who you think he is. He is our newborn son.” Luminara replied.
This only made the giant even more confused, as he began shaking his head disapprovingly. “You two have become delusional to this degree? I once thought of you both as honorable combatants, but this is such a sad sight to witness that I want to put you down for good now. Haah… But you will just revive and heal back to full health.”
Tension filled the air as the walking terror of a man monologued his thoughts out loud. Dragnar also confirmed what others have told me, which is that we can’t die here. However, I believe he is mistaking me for some other primordial, likely a sneaky ratty one.
“We don’t have to explain ourselves to you. If you want to fight someone to the death you should go find Malakar or Nyx. They are permanently bored, so they will surely play with you. Leave us alone now, Dragnar.”
The man in question grunted aggressively. “Something’s wrong here…”
“That’s because just like my mothers have said, I’m Quinlan, a newborn primordial. I don’t know who the shapeshifter is, but he certainly isn’t me.”
“Hoh? Your acting skills are fit for the Primordial Shapeshifter class, you bastard. It reminds me of the fact that I didn’t torture you this week yet. Move out of the way, you two. It’s time you finally wake up from these sad delusions of yours.” With that ominous sentence, he grabbed his giant axe with both hands, flexed his muscles, and roared in a dreadful voice; “[Anti-Magic Domain]!”
As soon as he bellowed this incredibly scarily sounding spell, an eerily glowing field expanded outward from his body, enveloping everything in a wide radius. My world lost its natural vibrancy with the colors fading into whites, blacks, and grays as an air of terror washed over me. I felt that I was a prey within this dominant predator’s domain.
My chest tightened immediately as if the very essence of life itself had been drained from me. I tried to feel for my mana by reaching inward like usual, but it was… just gone. Instead of the familiar warmth, I felt an aching emptiness akin to a cold sense of disconnection from the elemental forces I’d come to rely on.
Dragnar stood at the epicenter of this field and for now, he was still as he only radiated an intense sense of dread while staring at me with those ghostly green eyes of his.
“Curses! We can’t let him get to Quinnie!” Luminara shouted, to which Mearie only nodded.