‘It’s been a while since I slept so peacefully.’
After sleeping for a while, Elijah finally woke up in his dorm room at Shield, he just got done with a few missions the association sent him too, He had already gotten an earful from Sir Oliver for his repeated absence.
‘I should be more punctual.’
He got up from his bed, almost a bit too quickly. The world wobbled in front of his eyes and he almost fell down, going towards the shower to take a bath, he realized how much of a mess his room was.
Keep in mind, it was pretty difficult to make an entire floor this messy, especially when one took his nature into account. He had been so busy as of late that he was becoming less and less of a proper human being, His entire room was also covered in the stench of monster blood and flesh.
And to top if off, he was feeling strange ever since he lost the duel against Alan in the tower of trials, although due to the unnatural kindness Alan displayed at the end, he was still able to heal his brother.
As the cold water hit his robust skin, he felt weird. He knew he shouldn’t be feeling disappointed, he knew he lost a fair fight, and didn’t lose anything… Yet he couldn’t shake that feeling off.
Was it the blood of a Fire Dragon, one that never admits defeat? Strange, he never felt this way before when he lost.
‘Maybe I am… maturing.’
He thought, perhaps after spending more time as a dragon, he was losing his human side and becoming more… Draconian. He hoped he wouldn’t reach the point Alan had reached, where The ended human lives as if it was nothing.
‘Cold…’
A single word rang in his mind, as he rested his head on the wall, embracing the cold droplets of water attack his skin.
‘Cold…’
He had been so busy after turning Ragnar into a fire dragon, He had to participate in a special ritual that turned him into one, and had to use a great deal of his own blood.
The regeneration of a dragon was great, his was especially better than most, but it couldn’t compare to Alan’s. That monster could regenerate an entire limb in a few seconds. His regeneration was especially annoying. Elijah suffered greatly due to it in their duel.
‘Cold…?’
The word stopped ringing in his mind, and he raised his head, towards the shower head. Steam was rampant. The water was near boiling temperature, yet it was as cold as tap water to him.
‘… I think I need to rest a bit more before going to Gigantia for that special mission…’
That would prove to be hard, he had already delayed that expedition ever since he found Gary, Harrison wouldn’t let him delay it any longer, and it would affect Serena’s reputation if he delayed it too.
Serena was already doing a lot for him, he couldn’t afford to be lazy when she was doing so much work.
Exiting the shower, he looked in a mirror, his robust skin, which appeared flawless despite its strength hid powerful but lean muscles, which were supplied with fiery blood that was the pride of every Fire Dragon.
His incredible charm was brought down a bit due to the dark circles underneath his eyes, yet he still looked pristine and proper. Even with a creased uniform.
He looked at the time, and decided to clean his room up later. He had already missed a lot of classes, he should still be there for the challenge.
The new first years, which was called the golden age this time…
‘… Don’t they call us the golden age every time?’
The populace called the students that were with Him, Alan, Sabrina, Serena, and the rest the golden age…the students before them were also called the golden age…and the ones before that too.
‘Every age is the golden age, I guess.’
He had a bit of a chuckle hearing that, especially since this ‘golden’ age had done something no other age had succeeded at.
They issued a request to challenge their senior students, and Elijah didn’t know what the management was thinking when they actually agreed to it. When he was a first year, some students outside the top ten had done the same.
But they were rejected, It was okay though, since they were most likely doing it so that the top ten of his era could beat the second years of the time, so they could feel a sense of superiority.
He didn’t understand people who would feel superior to others because of the efforts of another, he didn’t understand them at all.
After their request was granted, most of the second year top 10 had received multiple letters, each being a duel request. Elijah was the only one to not have received any duel request, it was surprising how barren his mailbox was.
His friends made a joke out of him for that, saying that he was too weak that the first years didn’t think fighting him was worth it. Everyone knew they were scared shitless, though, because everyone on Earth had seen his prowess during tower of trials.
Elijah had only lost to Alan, and that was saying something.
‘Oh yeah, I wonder why that student didn’t give me one.’
What was his name?
He forgot the name of a particular student who was pretty ambitious and arrogant, who made
a bold claim that he would defeat every top ten student of his year.
‘He was pretty ambitious.’
Elijah remembered how he stated that the first target would be Henry, his dear friend, then he would move onto Lucas, then to Alex, then to Elijah, and then Alan himself. One by one, he would defeat them all without losing even once.
It was kind of bizarre, considering how confident he was, and how he wasn’t even the top student in his year. That spot had been stolen by Alan’s subordinate, another fellow dragon who had quite the peculiar name.
‘Kazikato… right? I wish he sent me a duel, though.’
He thought as he made his way towards the stadium where the duels were to be held, a sandwich was dangling from his mouth, barely able to keep its shape. It was soon devoured in
a single bite.
All dragons had voracious appetites.
He was pretty sad that Kazikato didn’t send him a duel invite, while Elijah was less enthusiastic about fighting the rest, he would have been thrilled to fight Kazikato, someone who almost beat Alan once according to the rumors. Besides, his fight with Alexander, which The later watched as a recording was superb.
Though neither of them would be able to fight to their full power in Shield, it would still be entertaining. He would have loved to accept Kazikato’s duel request. Sadly, both he and a few
others from Twilight were missing.
Apparently on an important mission, the guild leader of Twilight entrusted on them. He was surprised how Sir Oliver gave his permission for that… That man had more influence and might than even the guild leaders of the top three guilds.
He finally reached the place where the duels would be held, sometimes he thought of Shield’s titanic size to be a terrible thing sometimes… This place was so big, he often lost his way.
He could hear the sounds from outside the place.
‘I hope I can meet Henry and Gary before their fights, a shame Gary didn’t make it to the top
ten though.’
His entrance was noticed by a lot of people, Henry waved to him from afar, the bastard had saved him a seat in this crowded place, thankfully. Gary was there too, Elijah remembered he was a bit shy and frail, but he didn’t think he would be this socially awkward.
“Your late.”
“Sorry, I slept in.”
“Are you okay these days? Take a rest, man.”
Henry was worried about his health, despite being half the reason why Elijah couldn’t get a
proper rest. He always called Elijah when he was bored and would waste time in the most useless of activities.
Elijah was all in for some fun, but too much was too much. He began to worry if his friend was
alright.
“Joshua Gutberg wins!”
The teacher responsible for the duels called out. It was their homeroom teacher. A second year student won and left the first year haggard and out of breath.
Although Elijah hadn’t seen how the fight progressed due to his late arrival, he had an idea
that the first year lost a bit pathetically…
The teacher announced the names of the next students who would be fighting, but Elijah
didn’t really hear it. He was busy talking to Henry.
“Where is Serena?”
“Your girlfriend is busy with some other things, She did some wild shit.”
“What?”
“She got a lot of duel requests, so she beat the first person so bad the rest just surrendered immediately. The poor dude was humiliated… She is having a private meeting with Sir Oliver
or Vice Principal Elena.”
”
That… did seem something Serena would do in order to save herself some time and effort.
Though, he hardly had an idea how bad she beat the poor guy that challenged her first… he
still prayed for him.
Moving on, he turned to Gary, the second human on Earth to have awakened with the extremely rare attribute of… space!