507 Ice Dragon?

Having followed the blue dragon further into the cavern system, Asai began to scratch his chin in impatience as the two came upon a small human-sized door. One that certainly could not fit a dragon that was larger than a lorry.

"Colour me surprised..."

The blue dragon in question was soon surrounded by a gentle-blue glow, one that covered him from maw to tail, as it slowly shrunk its mass down before rising once more as a humanoid. A transformation, an innate ability that belonged to their race.

Blinking once, blinking twice, Asai couldn't believe his eyes. To discover the hidden puppeteer behind the kingdom of giants to be a fake-dragon, one that was actually a blue-skinned dekan who sported quite the large grey-beard. Clearly, the dragonkin was quite deep into his lifespan.

Helping himself to his belongings and furniture, Asai observed and scrutinized the dekan's belongings, in an attempt to remove the veils and to learn more of his current-target.

Strolling through the cosy-room, Asai found another room further in that consisted of only a deep hole in the ground, with mana empowered eyes, he saw through the darkness and found bones, carcasses and skulls that belonged to giants, evident from their sheer size and thickness. In another room, he found multiple sets of weapons, ranging from swords, axes, polearms and hammers, all clearly ceremonial in nature.

In another, he looked into an open chest to find a few skill-books, excited on finding something which was ridiculously rare, he quickly called upon the system.

[Mana Return]

15% of received and dealt damage converted into mana regen

[Mana to Health]

Consumes 10% of current MP, 1000% of consumed MP converted to HP

[Forefoot Swing]

Consumes 10% of current HP to deal 500% of consumed HP as damage upon target

[Dragon's Bite]

Absorb target's HP equal to 500% of Magical Attack Force, ignores 25% target damage drop

[Paradigm Shift]

+50% HP upon transforming into [Dragonling] +25% Damage drop during duration

Without regard to potentially being caught with his hands in the cookie-jar, Asai stored the rare-items into [Inventory] before finding only a large mass of pillows, in which he accurately assumed to be the dekan's bed.

"Asai~ I just took a look at those items you obtained, and... Sorry to burst your bubble, but they all have restrictions placed upon them. They're only usable by: Dragon Fighters, Dragon Knights and Dragon Sages. Err~ Dekans basically..." 

Lemon, who was actively trying to polish and further her partnership with the human, continued to scrutinize the books, as she dived into her own records and lists, in hopes of finding more information for the man.

"Thanks Lemon, appreciate it."

..

Scrutinizing the blue humanoid that was casually writing a report of sorts, Asai decided against playing the long game and slowly exposing such a figure, as a man who was up against time and in a hurry to finalize this alliance, as he hadn't a clue as to how long the prince of Del Lagos would be able to hold out for. 

[Phantom Menace] Summoned its three remaining shadow clones around the dekan who instantly felt the stir of magical-energy around him. Albeit, a second too late as 6 beautifully crafted katanas were already placed all around his neck. Forcing the elderly-dekan into a quick surrender as the original-Asai sat upon his desk spinning [Yomi] around his index-finger.

"So, mind telling me how and why you're controlling the kingdom of giants like this?" "I believe I've already figured it out, but it's still better to hear whatever official version this lizardman has to give."

"I- I am Azul Antiguo, as you have clearly seen, I am a dekan..."

[Azul Antiguo: Lvl 95] The system, confirming the name to be factual, swiftly updated the dekan's name tag.

As for Azul himself, he had kept both hands flat upon the desk before him, ensuring the human and his friends wouldn't be given any sudden-urges to turn him into sashimi. The dekan lowered his gaze just enough to see the many similar swords, and whilst he couldn't see the human's companions, he could feel [Blazing] [Frozen] and [Darkness] elements swirl dangerously close to the skin upon his neck. Thus, he believed Asai to have somehow managed to slip through his guard with a small party, which led him into feeling less inclined towards transforming and fighting off the intruders.

As for the human who casually sat upon his desk as if it were his own home, the man was spinning a golden-fang around his finger that was equally glistened [Divinity] as flickers of golden-light left an afterimage around the man's finger.

Whilst this wasn't what Asai had in mind, to trick the dekan into thinking he wasn't alone, he happily accepted the calm posture and response in which Azul took. In truth, Asai simply wasn't fully trusting in the rumours regarding elements and dekans, as such, he simply decided to utilize them all.

How Asai de Trichia saw it, was that if he really wanted to trick others, he would dress up in a wizard's cloak and a large pointy-hat. Pretending to be strong at magic, and weak and defenceless towards blades to encourage close-quarters-combat over ranged. Thus, he could manipulate the thoughts and experiences of other would be hostiles.

To add further disrespect, Asai pulled Cotton out of his shadow and planted the small white bird atop Azul's blue-head. And whilst Azul hadn't a clue as to how powerful the bird was, or its abilities, it felt further threatened as it refused to listen to its heart and to believe that such a thing was weak.

"Keep talking."

"Ahem* I was exiled from my kingdom, because I supported the younger prince who's faction loss... Predicting such a loss, I alone escaped from my ancestral home before wandering the lands until I found shelter here in Draftt. At first, the giants were kind to me as I delivered free insight upon the world, centuries down the line, the giants began to forget who I was as they weren't exactly the smartest lot...

Being more muscle than brains, they failed to record the true nature of my person, and this shelter they had given me soon became a royal-secret of theirs.

All it took, was for a random visit during one of the centuries, whilst I was training in dragon-form for them to start praying and worshipping me. They started to donate, offer and deliver offerings that provided me strength and growth. Further down the line, as the centuries continued, I kept eating what they delivered and I grew as big as I am today."

Azul smiled as he recalled his stroke of luck, and how he had literally achieved what his people back in Armenes had always wanted. To be worshipped like the celestial-dragons, like a god.

"You- You're surprisingly talkative aren't you?" "Especially when being held at gun-point."

Azul chuckled as he licked his pale-blue lips, seeing his dark-blue greasy hair fall upon one of his eyes, forcing it shut. Asai leaned on over and flicked it aside for him.

"Thank you human... It's not that we're friends, and that I have a loose tongue. You should understand that I am merely lonely. I have spent over a thousand years here pretending to be a dragon, and whilst that was fun, easy and enjoyable as I literally lived like a god, with all and any requests I had fulfilled at the simple promise of boons... I became lonely, as I wasn't able to talk to anyone about my true self at all... Bragging about his success is a dekan's most beloved pass-time after all-"

Tapping upon the papers he was writing on.

"-This was the best I could do... Keeping a journal, a record of my experiences, in an attempt to keep myself sane..."

Asai nodded in understanding. "I see... Makes sense I guess."

"And besides, my instincts tell me that you and I, we're the same, two peas in a pod if I may..."

"Explain."

Azul turned his face towards the human, regardless of the papercuts that drew blood from his neck from the blades that were still firmly placed upon it.

"You and I, we're both ability stealers."