Arad slowly walked, the veins on his arms bulging as he got ready to strike the stalker.
Swosh! The stalker’s presence disappeared. He faded into the crowd outside of Arad’s senses.
Arad kept walking, waiting for the stalker to reveal himself. He knew that he was awaiting an opening to strike. Shortly after that, Arad reached the end of the street. He now has to cross a large bridge that linked two different sections of the city together with a large river flowing below it. 𝒷𝒹ℴ𝓿𝓁.𝓬𝓸𝓂
The bridge wasn’t empty. But just as full as the streets. Arad could see a caravan with slaves chained behind it, slowly walking.
The slaves were mostly women and children, the ones that sells well. Arad could even see several mothers carrying their babies with them. He could feel his blood boiling from the inside.
^Slaves are suffering outside of the kingdom’s regulation.” All of them looked starving and only wore old rags.
[Probably kidnapped by bandits.]
Arad walked. And his determination to burn the city to the ground grew larger and larger.
Thud! Arad walked beside the slaves, his body standing like a massive boulder beside walking twigs. Arad’s eyes glared at the slaver with a burning rage, sending a silent threat.
Dragons never forget and hold grudges. The scene rubbed Arad the wrong way, and he already decided to make the slaver pay for it.
The slaver felt Arad’s gaze burning on his skin. He got the attention of a dragon, and it’s in his interest to give it back.
“Sir, could I help you with anything?” The slaver looked at Arad, rubbing his hands with a sweaty forehead. He’s been in this city several times and could tell when someone directs bloodlust toward him.
Arad stopped and glared at the slaver. [We’re being followed. Cut the conversation immediately.]
“Nothing, it’s a waste seeing them shriveled and wearing nothing like that. Treat them better,” Arad growled and turned to leave.
The slaver bowed, “Sorry, sir. I will make sure they are well-fed and dressed for the auction. I have no interest in selling low-quality slaves. It’s just that we’ve been walking for a long way, and we can’t carry too much food.”
Arad kept walking without saying a word.
CLING! A faint light flashed in the distance. A finger-sized knife flew through the air.
STAB! The knife hit one of the slaves carrying her baby in the shoulder. She gasped, stumbling back, falling from the bridge in the blink of an eye.
A dragon hard-wired to reproduce, seeing a mother and her child almost dying triggered a violent response. What if that woman was Aella, and the child was his? His mind skipped all checks and reached a single moral conclusion of his own.
The veins on Arad’s arms and legs bulged out as his eyes turned yellow. BAM! He lunged after the woman, leaving claw marks where his feet were. With a single hand, he held to the edge of the bridge, and with the other, he caught the baby. His legs wrapped around the mother’s waste, preventing them both from falling into the violent river.
The woman gasped, looking up to see Arad hanging with one arm, carrying her between his legs and her child in his arm. “I will get you up,” Arad said with a smile.
SWOSH! A dark shadow fazed across them with a flashing light. The women couldn’t see it clearly, but Arad did. It was the stalker.
SPLASH! Arad’s throat split open, and blood poured down on the woman. ^He went for my neck without hesitation.^
[Arad! Drop the woman and heal!]
^No way!^
Arad tightened his muscles, pulling his entire weight with a single arm and jumping back into the bridge. Arad dropped the woman on the bridge and covered his neck with his now free hand before handing her the baby.
CLANG! The stalker appeared out of nowhere as Arad was handing the baby to his mother and attempted a stab. Luckily, the knife hit one of Arad’s bones and couldn’t pierce deeper.
“Tch! There shouldn’t be bones there.” The stalker growled, glaring at his knife as he rolled away from Arad.
Arad was a dragon and not a human. He has more ribs, and they get in the way of a heart stab from the back.
Arad glared back at the stalker. He can’t talk because of his throat injury, but his sharp glare says everything.
“Why aren’t you dropping dead? I cut your arteries and windpipe, and why I couldn’t reach your heart?” The stalker looked at his knife, “This one is sharp, so my weapons are clean.”
“You…” The woman gasped with tears in her eyes, looking at her bloodied clothes. Her body started shaking. She had seen such an injury not long before. Her husband died to one when she was kidnapped.
That amount of blood only mean that he was dead, and she couldn’t think knowing he was about to die.
Arad looked around. He was fine but cannot heal in front of people.
“Well, it doesn’t matter.” The stalker waved his knife, “You should be dead. That only means you will fall at any second. All I need is to make sure you won’t heal.” He intended to stay at a safe distance and watch Arad bleed to death.
Arad looked at the stalker. Enraged for the first time in his life, he won’t even bother eating such a man. People like him who attacks mothers and their children are only meant for the dirt.
Arad’s eyes flashed red, and the stalker felt his eyes tearing and burning, but he wasn’t blinded. His level was far above Arad that the skill failed.
The stalker knew that Arad wasn’t done, or that a last-ditch attack was coming.
Arad’s eyes quickly shifted into yellow as his claws extended and his body hair grew slightly.
The muscles in his legs contract as the claws held traction to the ground. BOM! Arad lunged forward at an incredible speed, swinging his free arm at the stalker.