Chapter 506: Remember: Dragons Are Natural Disasters.

Chapter 506: Remember: Dragons Are Natural Disasters.

The griffons and hippogryphs were, naturally, different from those I’d seen in the Kingdom of Griffons, Artorias, even if it was mostly due to the red-orange coloration of their plumage and the fact they had thick, scale-like carapace on their legs. In addition, they were far larger and had shorter, duller talons with raven-like beaks, instead of their usual raptorial ones.

Probably an adaptation to the local fauna and flora. Evolutions, provided by the System and done with the help of mana, should, after all, fit your build and the local environment, and I could understand why these birds had hardier beaks and talons to pierce through the carapace of all these magma-dwelling monsters. Regardless, these monsters were only ranks D and C, even though the flock itself was large enough to be considered a platoon.

They heavily outnumber us, but ... do I even have to participate?

Without a single order from either Vifi or me, the eight wyvern retainers instantly burst into action. Although, I couldn’t help but notice that the two groups were working independently from each other. Considering the birds’ rank, I didn’t think I needed to worry about the dragonkin’s safety, but looking at them fighting like this did still make me feel a bit nervous.

An invisible line was created between the two flights as they made space for each other to fight with their respective element. The twins fully utilized their ice spells and draconic abilities, while the six fire wyverns used their flames. I could hear them talking telepathically and through Draconic, but neither side seemed willing to cooperate with the other.

Or, to be precise, it looked more like Shay and Beth had no intentions of working together with their fiery counterparts. The talk we had before didn’t seem to assuage their worries.

Then again, they didn’t need the help against foes of this level. Like birds-of-prey, the twins were darting around the battlefield, dog fighting the griffons and hippogryphs with barely any issue. In fact, they looked almost like jet planes as they zoomed around, slamming their frozen armored wings to decapitate or heavily injure the birds, while also casting spells and using their ice abilities to disturb the flock.

Meanwhile, the fire wyverns’ attack plan looked far simpler, although it was effective at the same time. Instead of overpowering the birds with raw stats and magic, their rank Cs were herding their enemies with fire attacks and roars into a killing field, where their stronger rank Bs dealt the finishing blows through large-scale fire breaths and inferno spells.

Neither side faced any difficulty, even if their tactics were completely different from each other. While the former focused on pure speed and the trust and cooperation between the partners, the latter group showed a plan where even their “weakest link” could properly contribute to the battle to ease the strain on the stronger members. It just made me wonder what they could have done if they just worked together.

Early growing pains. Forcing teamwork when the twins fear being replaced will only make them feel less adequate. Have to ease into it somehow, but how?

Once the fighting stopped, the fire wyverns began dragging all the bird corpses over to me, offering them to me as tribute. Apparently, they wanted me to eat it. Raw.

I looked over to the wyverns. [“So, this was normal?”]

When they were escorting me out of the Belzac forest when I was still a rank C, the twins and their boss, Asterios, hunted down monsters for dinner and were against Saori and me cooking it into something edible to preserve the “fresh, bloody taste.”

Shay closed his eyes, looking a bit ashamed. [“The oldest and strongest eat first, while the young eat last. The flight leader has priority over everybody, and this becomes more complicated when a true dragonkin comes into the picture. You are our master, so any prey must first be served to you to divide however you wish.”]

Like a lion pride, in a way. The male leader doesn’t always hunt, but he gets first dibs even if his pride does all the work.

In the end, I pocketed a total of 47 griffons and hippogryphs into my [Storage Magic], deciding to treat everybody to a meal later on. Maybe some buffalo wings or nuggets would help everybody warm up to each other.

For now, though, the awkward atmosphere was still present, with the twins standing around me to block the fire wyverns from coming any closer to me. With this setting, we took flight as I scoured the place, trying to find Ryra and our clan’s mines.

This can’t be it, right? This is far too wide and looks more like an open area than a place for miners to work in.

After what felt like ten minutes, I decided to ask the fire wyverns for directions.

[“The Kargryxmor mine is your destination, princess? Your highness, then you should have told us earlier; the way to the mines is directly next to the entrance to this section of the magma fields.”]

[“... You kidding me?”] I felt flabbergasted, trying to think back. [“No, that can’t be right. I know that was a dead end. I am pretty sure this is the only opening in the tunnel.”]

[“The former nest for God Kargryxmor is on the highest floor of this mountain, and the former entrance required you to go through this magma field to reach it. However, when the dragonewt miners began operating the mines for profit, they made a separate entrance just for themselves to avoid the lunacy of the monster spawnings in here. The tunnel is dark, no? You missed the entrance due to that.”]

I jerked my head back, squinting in confusion at my own mistake. What he said did make sense, and it did confirm I technically didn’t make a directional mistake since we could still reach the mines through this area. Regardless, I didn’t believe going around seeking trouble was the right decision here, so I told everybody we would go back.

Ryra is probably gonna be angry ... Or, knowing him, he probably wouldn’t care. Probably taking a nap.

With a big sigh, we turned around ... only for the ceiling and ground to start shaking, as if an earthquake was happening. I couldn’t feel the tremors as I was in the air, but seeing pebbles and stalactites falling down while numerous monster hordes fled as if they instinctively knew what was happening made me realize I should have asked for directions just a bit sooner.

Ah ... trouble always seeks me. Right, how could I forg—WOAH!

[Danger Perception] rang like the alarm bell of a police car, vibrating my neurons into action to tell my body to jerk back. I did exactly as the skill wanted me to, even casting [Hydra] to tether the wyverns to me as I flew backwards with my rocket boosters, just in time to avoid the ceiling collapsing.

As the rockfall crashed onto the ground and into the magma, my eyes widened in horror as I saw a massive dragon and a drake just as large emerge from below. One was completely red-brown and looked pretty similar to the standard four-legged, winged dragon that Mom and I resembled, while the drake had a bulky bear-like physique with giant, boulder-sized carapaces protecting its body.

Both released bomb-like roars as they clashed, slamming their gigantic fore limbs against each other like sumo wrestlers. As the drake was the first to land, it rolled to the side, creating some distance from the fire dragon as the rockfall subsided, fully revealing how massive these two beings were.

Around the sizes of Mom’s retainers. Are they rank S or just very large rank As like Ryra?

[“Just fly away! Don’t turn into collateral!”] Vifi shouted, fear and panic clear to hear. If even she didn’t want to mess with this fight, then I had no chance to do it either.

[“We’re retreating, hang on tightly on the slime!”] I ordered before I played [Dragon Fire]. Just loud enough for the wyverns to hear, but not enough for it to echo over to those titans. [“Vifi, act as my spotter!”]

[“Understood!”]

[Musical Resonation (Minor)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]

As I turned around, a shockwave caught my body, causing me to tumble in the air as I desperately tried to stabilize myself. As my world rotated, I caught glimpses of the fight just as the two dragonkin began utilizing their elemental prowess, with one shooting out magma while the other unleashed a fire beam.

Just as I thought things couldn’t possibly get any worse, more of these guys suddenly fell into the magma chamber, totaling 14 of these massive beings, seriously making everything feel cramped. They were divided into a group of seven each, with every member having an opponent to fight. I wasn’t sure what caused this, but seeing the ferocity of their slashes, bites, and abilities, it felt like both sides fully intended to kill, or at least critically maim, the other.

Fully focused on my own survival, I blasted away with Vifi’s instructions. Sadly, no matter how fast I was, the battle was spreading as the dragonkin were flying and dodging around, filling the massive magma chamber with the bone-rattling power of 14 natural disasters.

“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust,” would probably have been the perfect description of this destruction if this battle hadn’t taken place in a magma chamber. The rivers of molten stone and ore continued flowing as if nothing had happened, as the inferno these dragonkin left behind was just... part of the scenery. If I hadn’t seen how this place had initially looked, I probably wouldn’t have felt so sad about it.

My goodness, all the damn destruction. If these 14 had appeared in New York or any city on Altrust, they would have turned everything into an apocalyptic setting.

[“Found a cave. Looks large enough for you to enter with all the wyverns, so let’s try that. Should lead us into another place, maybe,”] Vifi said, directing my attention to our exit. [“Pierce through with your usual lava manipulation. Cave probably won’t—”]

[“Lady Hestia!”] Beth shouted. [“You should hurry up, I don’t have a good feeling about that!”]

I flicked my eyes back to the dragon battle, noticing how from this distance, they looked almost as large as my dragon hand ... Which said more about their size considering how far I’ve gotten, but that wasn’t the important point. What mattered here was that the initial two dragonkin were expanding their chests with their mouth glowing yellow.

Dragon breath! I quickly concluded, as I noticed the other dragonkin way back there recoiling back in terror, each and every one of them ignoring their opponent in order to flee from the scene. They were literally scrambling through the hole in the ceiling, pushing and kicking each other, even their own allies, in a desperate attempt to escape.

Seeing these humongous beings run just horrified me and it became abundantly clear I had to get the hell away before everything became even more hellish than it already was. Going into the cave wouldn’t help me right now, it was better to follow the dragonkin!

[“Change of plans, we’re going up!”] I declared before shooting up like a missile while channeling a [Hellflame Breath]. Once I made it high enough, I unleashed the inferno in my mouth, drilling through the ceiling while activating my Territory.

Thank goodness, neither of them are—

Hostile Territory detected!

Retract, retract, RETRACT!

My mind started panicking as I remembered that bone-chilling moment after I lost my Territory dispute against the Prince of Envy, which led to my wings blowing up from the arcane corruption. Mom saved my life after I gambled it to heal her soul, but I wasn’t sure if she could make it all the way to here if I got into trouble again ... Maybe I shouldn’t have told her off and to not act like a helicopter mom.

In any case, the dragonkin’s Territory wasn’t as threatening as I had thought, what with all the elemental chaos happening at the epicenter of the battle. I was still being affected by the aura attack, but it only got warm around me, actually helping me melt through this heat-resistant stone ceiling without my territory.

As it began to melt, I activated [Obsidian Blaze] and began swimming through it, but the timing wasn’t good. Just as I entered the ceiling, the dragonkin unleashed their breath attack. The impacting blast exploded like a bundle of dynamite, increasing in intensity by the glow of the fire. First starting at dark red until it shined a brilliant, but terrifying white, before everything inside the magma chamber was enveloped by the destruction.

Ground zero. It felt like somebody just dropped a meteor on the area, one far larger than I usually could produce. After all, I was still in the impacted area as well, even this far out.

Hydra, harden up!

Crystallizing the giant slime ball into corrosive obsidian and using the surrounding magma as an additional bulwark, our group, thankfully, made it out of the explosion alive. Honestly, the distance probably mattered the most here in our survival, so I was grateful for having scale-dust in this situation.

Still ... the landing wasn’t so nice.

They nodded, prompting the others to do the same.

[“Food is hard to come by where we live, your highness,”] the fire wyvern leader added. [“Dragonewt food is quite foreign to us, even if we had heard it was good.”]

[“Well, if you six wish to work for me, then you should start integrating yourself into Loatryxian culture. I like going around in my dragonewt form, you see,”] I said, causing the leader to nod in understanding.

Satisfied, I then turned to my companions, happy to see Vifi gorging everything down. On the other hand, the twins worried me a bit as their faces betrayed how uncomfortable the heat was for them. They couldn’t sweat nor could they release their body heat through steam, and while they were enjoying their meal, it did make me feel bad to see them like this.

As I was taking out some cold water from my storage, one of the rank B fire wyverns suddenly approached Beth. The ice wyvern stared at them in confusion, clearly unwelcoming.

[“Radiate the heat through your mouth,”] he explained.

Beth tilted her head. [“What?”]

[“You’re overheating and don’t have the natural heat resistance of us fire dragonkin, so if you wish to regulate your body temperature outside of magic, pant. Open your mouths and gargle, which will cause your body to shake a bit, rattling your scales to allow them to release the heat,”] he explained. [“Also, this isn’t Frozen Nest where you have to keep your wings tightly together. Flutter your wings, let your webbings move around freely. There is a lot of air movement in the magma chamber due to the gasses being released from the mushroom forest thermoregulating everything, so use it to cool down. It won’t help all too much, but it is better than burning up, ice wyverns.”]

Shay and Beth looked at each other, before they started doing as the fire wyvern said as they let out exhausted pants, sounding slightly relieved after a while.

Thank you for taking the first steps for them. Shay, Beth; you guys won’t get replaced. You two are already too ingrained in my life to leave.

Showing a small giggle, I left the wyverns alone to “play” amongst themselves as I filled my stomach with four pots of delicious stew. Time flew by once again as I began to rest my full stomach, enjoying the rather raucous surroundings caused by the talkative wyverns.

It all ended, however, when I heard a loud roar coming from underneath. The wyverns thought it was time for us to leave, looking worried and even hurrying me to stand up, but I stayed down as I recognized that voice.

There he comes.

[“Little scamp, where are you!”] a flustered, almost terrified voice filled my mind as it echoed throughout the magma chamber, probably reaching even the escaped wildlife with how often he was repeating it.

It was my lazy-as-hell brother, Ryra.

Letting out an annoyed sigh after he repeated the same cry for the tenth time, I connected myself to him telepathically. [“I’m up here. Got some stew if you’re hungry.”]

After some moments passed, a giant earth dragon jumped through the hole created by the breath explosion, darting his head around before he finally located us. With impatient steps, he ran over to us, kneeling down as he inspected me with widened eyes.

[“O-oi, what in Father’s name happened to you! Why are you on the ground? You got hurt, right? Shit! Shit, shit, shit!”] he shouted. [“Big brother and mother are going to kill me for this! Oi, Hestia, tell me—”]

[“Big brother, I’m totally fine. I just ate too much ...”] I pointed at the still eating Vifi, prompting her to wave at my brother before continuing her meal as she patted her bloated stomach with satisfaction. [“So ... what took you so long. So we can tell out mothers all about our trip, you know.”]

[“I-I ...”] he stuttered, looking petrified as he tried to find the correct words. [“Y-you know ... just waiting at the entrance as I told you I was going to. I-I was expecting you to come, okay! Why did you take so long and why in Father’s horns did you have to enter the damn magma chamber! Shit!”]

[“You probably saw the massive ‘fuck you’ that was left downstairs, right?”] I asked.

[“How could I have not! Everybody probably felt it when those two damn Dragon Rulers fought against each other! Dammit, dammit, how could it have escalated like this!”] he complained, prompting me to snap my head up, suspicious about his last sentence.

[“‘Escalate?’ Hold on, you knew something about this, right?”] I pressured him to speak, causing him to freeze up. [“People don’t say ‘escalate’ to describe a situation that randomly happens. They usually say, ‘How could this happen while I’m supposed to take care of you.’ Your tone is also ... weird. You don’t exactly sound surprised at all, just guilty that it happened.”]

[“I-I—Krak!”] Ryra broke under the pressure, biting his lips as he continued talking. [“I-I’m sorry, okay! I didn’t think telling them why we’re here would cause something that drastic! I didn’t think they would try to fight you to get the right to meet you first. I didn’t expect them to be so focused on fighting that they nearly blew you up down there! I’m sorry I didn’t think you might have gone into the magma chamber instead of meeting me at the mine! Shit!”]

... Okay, I heard Dragon Rulers. I knew Vifi’s flag would come biting us in the tail eventually.

I glanced over at the demonkin in question for a moment, seeing her stare at my brother with dull eyes, as if she had heard enough to understand the situation. Yes, Vifi, this was what we called tempting fate.

Turning back to Ryra, I had to calm down my panicked big brother. [“Ryra, just saying, but this is my fault. I should have asked the wyverns for directions first, instead of assuming a large magma area was the way to our clan’s private mines. I got myself into trouble here.”]

[“That ... That still doesn’t absolve me of everything! Even if you and I keep the truth away from Mother Melloxtressa, her damn wyvern retainers here have the responsibility to tell her everything truthfully! I’m screwed! I nearly got you killed under my watch! Arrrgh, why did this have to happen again?!”]

Again? Hold on, did something bad happen between Neill and Ryra?

I groggily stood up to fly up to him, using my scales to grab his face to force him to focus on me. [“Bro, come on, get yourself together! Even if you think this is your fault, you aren’t the only one at fault. Just saying, but some big ancient dragons almost committed manslaughter on the youngest princesses of their empire, but most importantly, almost killed the daughter of the second rank SS dragon in the empire.”]

[“... I think I know where you are going with this, but those ancient beings won’t care that much. Father has a responsibility to protect his people and if your mother tries to attack them out of revenge for hurting you, Father won’t stay cooped up in his nest. He will fight, and that will destabilize our kingdom,”] Ryra explained. [“Which will only make things even more complicated! They are ancient enough to know about the civil war and none of them want a repeat, so if we’re going to cause trouble, it will only make everything worse for everybody. I’m so screwed!”]

Ah, there is his timid side that Kramps talked about. He’s scaring himself, at this point.

[“You really can be dramatic when you stop being so lazy, Brother ... Haaa, okay, tell me. Why did they exactly fight? You mentioned they wanted to meet me?”]

[“Y-yeah. The duo rulership of Inferno Nest belongs to the Dragon Ruler of Fire and the Ruler of Volcanoes, and both sides have their own agendas to speak with you. You know, they support Brother Kahalameet, but each side does it for subtly different reasons, even if both agree to do so to keep the empire stable,”] he said. [“That’s why they fought, and I think the Ruler of Fire won.”]

[“Good. Then everything can be solved through some discussion. We can absolve you of any fault if we make those elder scales apologize for hurting me. After all, I have witnesses.”]

I turned to the wyverns, prompting the twins to stand up tall and loudly proclaim, [“We have!”] all while the fire wyverns cowered, looking at them as if they were crazy for trying to speak up against a true dragonkin.

Shay sneered, [“If you wish to serve Lady Hestia, then know well that she is the daughter of the Sixth Empress of the Empire of Kargryx, Melloxtressa! The SS rank [Diamond-Powder Fimbulvetr Dragon]!”]

[“What are some rank S dragons to us retainers?”] Beth grimaced. [“Arrogance for lowly lesser wyverns? Maybe, but why are you bowing your heads to someone below your station? Stand proud, for you don’t serve ‘a dragon,’ you serve Princess Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor! Raise your heads if you wish to call her your mistress!”]

[“And there you have it.”] I turned back to my brother. [“I don’t know if you knew this about me, but I’ve spoken with quite a number of important people, even those stronger than me. I think we can solve your problem ... and also see what the hell those dragons want to talk to me about.”]

[“... Digging right into the core of the world, huh? Fine.”] Ryra sighed. [“Just don’t provoke them too much, all right? Please?”]

[“I’ll try.”] I smiled. No promises here.

[“... Better than nothing.”] He nodded before turning around, only to stop. [“Uh, that smelled good. Can I have some stew?”]

[“... Ah, uh, sorry, that was kind of a joke because you took your time to come search for me; its all gone. I’ll make you some more later.”]

[“...”]

Okay, now I feel bad!

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