Arad glared at the sky, growling, ^This bastard,^
The dragon wasn’t willing to give them a moment of rest. He fully utilized his aerial advantage to throw rocks from a safe distance. He then dropped the second rock he carried.
Arad swung his palm up, touching the boulder as it reached the ground and sucking it into his stomach. CRACKLE! SWOSH! Lightning crackled on his shoulder while flames rose from his back, “It’s personal now,” He growled. He then lifted a fist-sized stone from the ground.
The dragon was out of stones. He could only carry two sizable ones. He stayed in the sky, looking down to see what Arad wanted to do.
Arad pulled his hand back, assuming a throw position.
The dragon smiled inside. There was no way Arad could hit him high in the sky.
[Void walk] Arad’s body disappeared, teleporting thirty meters into the sky and halving the distance between him and the dragon. BAM! Arad threw the stone as hard as he could, hitting the dragon’s left eye.
The dragon roared, growling in pain as Arad fell back down. CRACK! He landed on his legs, lifting another stone immediately. But the dragon fled the scene.
^The bastard got away,^ Arad growled inside. [Don’t worry, we will get him next time. For now, check on Aella.]
^That’s right!^ Arad calmed immediately, staring at Aella and approaching her.
“How is your leg?” Arad asked.
“I’m fine,” Aella replied.
Jack looked at Arad, “Just a healing potion and some sticks to support her leg, and she is fine.” He already gave her one of the potions he borrowed(Permanently) from Alcott and tied sticks to her ankle and tibia.
“Let’s find a safe place to rest in. A cave or under a big tree would be best,” Arad said, looking around.
Jack stood, “I won’t recommend a cave. The dragon might ambush us,” He looked at Arad, “We will only corner ourselves.”
“You could set your traps at the entrance,” Arad replied, staring at Jack.
“No,” Aella said, standing with Arad’s help, “The dragon will send his minions to attack. It will be useless.”
“What do you suggest then?” Arad looked at her.
“Let’s hide under a big tree.” She said.
Jack shook his head, “What if he started throwing burning wood down?”
[Most likely, he won’t. The dragon isn’t stupid to burn his territory. But he won’t mind a little bit of damage.] Mom explained.
“Let’s build a tent under a tree. I will start digging inside the tent for an underground shelter.” Arad said, pointing toward a large tree in the distance.
The three walked toward the three and looked around. The Area seemed calm enough.
“I will set the tent, and you Chief collect wood. Aella keeps watching the sky.” Jack said with a smile, putting on the tent and getting to work.
Aella couldn’t really move around easily, so her job was to keep an eye out for the dragon.
After a while, The tent was up with no problems.
“How do you feel?” Arad asked Aella.
“I’m fine. The potion seems to be working. I should be able to walk in an hour or two.” Aella smiled, looking up with a smile.
“Let’s get something to eat first. We can’t fight on an empty stomach,” Jack approached them with a smile, “Potions won’t work well either.”
Potions need the endurance to work. They are a magical item, but healing potions specifically don’t work as most people expect.
Usually, people see healing potions as magical items, which you drink and get better. They heal the wounds, but that’s far from reality. Those potions accelerate your natural regeneration, that’s all. If you happen to be starving, your body won’t have enough nutrients to heal itself, even with a potion.
There are rare cases when the potion works on a starving person, but they lose a lot of muscle mass.
After Jack explained how the potions worked and that Aella need to eat as soon as possible, he pulled their rations from the bag and started preparing the food.
Arad walked around the tree collecting sizable stones as Jack prepared the food. He needs to get ready for the next fight and ranged combat might be his only option.
[Try to get on the dragon’s back before transforming. If he saw you and managed to escape, chances that we won’t see him again are high.]
^Will he runs from a wyrmling?^ Arad asked.
[No, he won’t risk fighting an unknown wyrmling. Most likely he will keep avoiding us until he understands what you are and how to kill you.]
^And that won’t happen, so he will keep running away and wasting our time. How about I attack him inside his lair?^ Arad thought.
[His lair? That might work, except we don’t know where the lair is, and you can’t leave Aella and Jack alone.] Mom sighed, [With how you fought and how easily Aella got injured, the dragon would start targeting them instead.]
^How about I dig a hole, and we look for the dragon from the underground? He won’t be able to get us that way.^ Arad suggested.
[That’s a valid idea, but we still haven’t seen the dragon slimes yet. I’m worried about them.] 𝘦𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝑙.
^Slimes? They are weak, aren’t they?^ Arad thought, remembering how he fought slimes.
[Don’t underestimate slimes. If a dragon is keeping them, they must have something special.] Mom warned Arad, [For now, we’ll eat and discuss the plan with Jack and Aella.
^What might be scary about slimes? Do they get big?^ Arad asked.
[The intensity of their acid, special abilities, or sheer numbers. Even you would die if the hole you dug got filled with acid-spitting slimes.]
^I see.^ Arad thought about it, and it was a real problem.
After collecting enough stones, Arad returned to Jack and Aella as the food got ready. “What did you prepare?”
Jack smiled, “Nothing fancy. I’m not a cook.” He replied, “I just threw some meat on the flames for us, and gave Aella some greens. This time we had salt,” He smiled, shaking a small bag.
“Is salt rare?” Arad asked.
“No, not really.” Jack replied, “In some places, you can build houses with it, and in others, it’s unavailable the whole year.” Jack sighed.
“And how did you get that?” Arad stared at the fat, salt-filled pouch, that Jack carried. “I sure didn’t see any salt house around here.”
Jack smiled, “Actually, I didn’t steal it this time.” He looked at Arad with a grin, “I got it from Lydia. Albite I don’t know how she got her hands on this much.” Jack waved his hands, “But it must be legal. She’s a paladin, after all.”
“A gift from her?” Arad said, sitting beside the flames, “Let’s talk about the dragon.” Arad shifted the topic. Nothing would matter if they failed.
“Do you have an idea?” Jack looked at Arad with a serious face.
“I have one, but not sure how we will do it,” Arad replied.
“I don’t think the dragon will fall into a trap,” Aella looked at Arad.
“I was thinking of something else. How about we attack him in his lair?” Arad smiled.
“How are we going to do that?” Jack replied.
“It involves you digging, doesn’t it?” Aella looked at Arad, smiling.
Arad nodded, “Yes, I will start digging underneath the tent so the dragon won’t see me and will make our way to his lair from there.”
“My question is can you track him? Do we even know the location of his lair?” Jack looked at Arad, “And even if we got there, I won’t have time to lay traps or anything that could help us keep that thing from just flying away.”
“Jack is right,” Aella looked at Arad, “I’m the dragon who had planned to fight people inside his lair, that’s too dangerous.”
Arad looked at them, “Right now, we’re sitting targets for him to attack,” He smiled, “We need to get to his lair where he can’t fly away, and then I will kill him.”
“How do you intend to do that? From the start.” Jack looked at Arad.
“I can see magic, so we’ll use that to track the dragon to his lair.” Arad started explaining his plan, “Then, we’ll wait underground till the dragon leave and then get out to place the traps.”
Jack smiled, “The dragon comes back, gets captured by the traps, and then we gang on him. Seems like a solid plan A, so where is the B?”
“The B?” Arad said, looking at Jack.
“He means what if the dragon learned of our arrival and sent his minions instead?” Aella said with a worried face.
Arad thought about it for a moment, “We hide underground again and pretend to leave,” As Arad was speaking, Mom called him, [We can steal the dragon’s treasure. He would be pissed enough to attack us directly.]
“Or we can steal his treasure to force him to attack,” Arad added.
Jack glared at Arad, his chin resting on his hands, “Speak, I’m listening.”