I'll never get tired of this. The feeling of running along the rooftop of the manor, jumping around while using my magic to get from one place to the next. I'd enjoy this feeling more if I had the time, but I have a request to complete.
I lead Nat and Iris as we move from one wing of the manor to the other and head for the garden.
Despite what Nat and Iris say about each other they both can use basic magic fairly well and are athletic enough to keep pace with me.
Looking back the dragon is frantic in his bubble carriage. Guess he's not used to heights.
Soon our journey along the rooftops ends and we reach the courtyard and garden of our residence. This place is considered my own personal gateway to the outside and holds a small enough passageway in and out of the manor.
"Follow me." I tell the others as I head down from the roof to the small garden below.
Iris and Nat look at me confused at first as I walk alongside the shrubby.
"So what's your plan next?" Iris asks "I hope you don't expect us to scale the wall."
"This." I say as I feel the leaves lessen and allow my arm to sink right in. I push aside the branches showing a small opening leading out forming a small tunnel. I'm not too sure why such an opening exists, but from the looks of the crumbling wall. It's an undiscovered, natural, secret exit that I doubt anyone knows about. If they did, they would've sealed it close by now.
I start to go through the shrubby past the wall and motion for the girls to follow me through. It's a very short path that leads us outside past the wall and barrier. It only takes a couple steps and moving past the bushes on the other side to end up outside undetected.
"We actually got outside past the barrier." Iris says surprised. "I honestly didn't think we'd get this far. To sneak past a barrier through such a crude metho--"
"Who cares how we did it. We're all set to go now." Nat says nudging Iris with her elbow.
I smile before reaching into my bag and pulling out the beast encyclopedia from it. The book itself has a map of the area certain monsters are found in. It may be crude, but if we use the monsters in the area as a guide we should be able to head in the right direction.
"Nat. Can you tell which way is-?"
"Shhh." Nat lit up with a hand to me.
<"Hey! We're outside now right?"> the dragon growls out only to get shushed by Nat.
Nat motions us towards a set of patrolling guards which were wandering around on their patrol route. Not good.
"Okay." I say to them softly
I guess we need to be quiet and sneak past them. It might be hard with a dragon in tow, but if worse comes to worse.
Splash!
My thoughts are interrupted as water hits us from the side. A glance is all I need to see the dragon out of the water prison and on the ground shaking his fur dry.
I guess we didn't need to carry him all the way there, just until we were outside. Well at least he knows we're trying to help him...or not.
The second he finished shaking himself he ran for the tree's.
"Hey!" I called out, but before I could even give chase Iris spoke up.
"Not good." She says opening her book. "We've been detected and the knights are gathering here "
The sound of knights gathering caught my attention and I turned to Iris and Nat. "Come on. We're going after the dragon."
The two of them ran behind me as we ran after the dragon, or at least down the path we think he took. It's hard to figure out where he went exactly but given the alternatives, which were captured from the knights, this was probably the best route.
As we ran I peeked behind to check and see our situation better. Nat was easily keeping pace, no surprise from one who's aspiring to be a knight. Iris is...well she's keeping up. Seems like she switched from running to leaping with magic. Yeah, that suits her style of movement better anyways.
Behind us is; one, two, three...twelve knights following us? At least three of them are mages too.
"You three! Halt!" A knight called out to us.
"When has saying that 'ever' worked?" I retorted.
"Gaaaaaaaah!"
The sudden scream from a distance caused me to light up. Someone just yelled deeper into the treeline. It doesn't take a genius to know it was the dragon in question.
"Sounds like your dragon friend ran into the knights." Nat says
That's not good. If we heard that, then the knights definitely heard that. That means they'll quickly head towards the sound to surround him. I look back to my two friends to see Nat sharing a look with Iris who simply nods.
What? So, these two can work together?
Iris turns around opening her book as Nat suddenly lunges forward grabbing my waist.
"Strengthen. Accelerate." Iris casts.
As soon as she does Nat glows slightly and then we're off like a shot from a gun.
"Gnn!" Nat kept running with me under arm before swinging me around to carry me bridal style. "Okay. Better."
"Nat what are you doing?" I ask.
"That snake decided to stay behind and slow the knights down." She explained, "I'm going to get you as close as possible to your dragon, as crazy as it sounds."
"You figured this all out with a single glance?" I asked surprised.
"I know the snake better than you think. We do fight every day afterall." Nat grunts out
Is this an example of love and hate not being opposites?「Danger Detection」
Before I could think about it any more, danger detect's warning caused me to light up. "Nat--!"
Nat was already jumping back, right as a cluster of earth spikes started to rise from the ground. The cluster then continued running along a path before being cut away by something. That something turned out to be the little dragon. It was very fast and quickly cut down each spike that came up to target it while making his way to a nearby tree. It then began jumping over the treeline before someone I didn't want to see stepped forward.
It was Asceline, wielding her lance. When she pulled her lance across her body readying to swing I turned to Nat. "Brace yourself!" Asceline's weapon glew for a second before she quickly swung at the air in an open space. A white crescent of white launched out from the sword's path towards the air at a quick speed.
The crescent hit the dragon and knocked him out of the air with a single slash.
Air Cutter. A skill used by swordsmen to attack enemies at a distance without use of magic. Its no simple skill to use especially with a piercing weapon like a lance, however Asceline is no simple knight.
Is it alive or dead? After an attack like that I have very little idea and frankly don't want to find out the latter. However from that height and impact even if it survived I doubt it would be able to avoid recapture.
"Nat! Throw me!" Nat looked at me like I was crazy. Which was fair. It's a crazy request but we didn't have time. "Nat! Quick!"
Nat grunts as she crouches slightly only to toss me upward. I quickly twist into position myself before kicking off a tree while calling out "Wind". With wind surrounding me I launch towards the free falling dragon and catch him in my arms. I pull him close to my chest, rotating mid air and cradling his head before rolling across the ground coming to a stop as my back hits a tree.
With several grunts I look down and check the dragon. He still looks to be breathing, even with the large gash on his back.
Appraisal
Male Magma Dragon Wyrmling (Variant)⛓🔴
[Status Restrained] [Bleeding]
HP: 10231/21600
MP: 12⛓/1000
SP: 41⛓/1000
ST: 20%
ATK: 124⛓(12400)
DEF: 66⛓(6600)
SPD: 72⛓(7200)
INT: 350
Skill:⛓
「Scratch Lv10」「Slash Lv1」「Kick Lv1」「Tail Sweep Lv6」「Tail Whip Lv3」「Small Bite Lv9」「Killing Bite Lv4」「Sneak Attack Lv1」「Wind Control Lv1」「Wind Magic」「Fire Cowl Lv1」「Dragon Breath Lv 5」「Mana Breath」「Fire Dragon Breath」「Water Dragon Breath」「Wind Dragon Breath」「Earth Dragon Breath」
「Fire Resistance Lv10」「Fire Nullification」「Wind Resistance Lv2」「Electricity Resistance Lv3」「Plasma Resistance Lv1」「Fear Resistance Lv2」「Pain Resistance Lv16」「Concentration Lv2」「Perseverance Lv1」「Accelerated Thinking Lv2」「Danger Detection Lv3」「Weak Point Search Lv2」「Dismantling Lv3」「Cooking Lv1」「Tracking Lv3」「Stealth Lv2」「Teacher Lv5」「Climbing Lv3」「Dig Lv7」「Dragon Language」「Observation Lv10」「Appraisal Lv1」「Comforting Lv3」「Dragonize Lv1」「Skill Unlock Lv1」「Wind Blessing」「Hidden Lv???」「Fortune Trader」「Hyper Growth」
The dragon gives a weak growl as he looks up at me. Good. He's still alive.
"Don't worry. I gotcha." I say with a small grunt try to stand up while holding him close in my arms.
His eyes shift to infront of us as I look up to see Asceline and several knights gather up around me. Not good.
"Maria! What are you doing out here?" Asceline asks, pointing at me.
I pull the dragon closer to me but stay silent. I look around trying to find a good escape route even going as far as to look back over at Nat. Nat however was being held down by a couple knights in pain.
I look back at Asceline who was approaching.
"Stay back!" I call, pulling out my wand from my pocket and aiming it at her. I form the circle for wind blast in the air with my mana and aim it at Asceline.
She stopped before me looking me over. "Listen runt. This isn't like when we were kids playing around. This is serious business. That thing in your hands is a very dangerous monster and not to be taken lightly."
"He's not a monster and he's not an object." I say sharply. "He's a living being with a family, and we actively took him away from his home for no reason."
"There is a reason, Maria." Asceline replies. "But the reason doesn't concern you in the slightest."
"If you can't explain it to me then I don't see why I should listen to you." I answer, readying my spell.
Asceline huffs and suddenly, my wand is knocked away out of my hand and Asceline puts her lance in front of my face. "I don't need to explain myself, you're outnumbered, out ranked, and out of options." She lowered her gaze as her red eye glared at me with a threatening gaze. "Give up."
I shuddered as I felt the cold her cold gaze on me, but I grit my teeth and pulled the dragon closer to me. Why was I so hellbent on protecting this little thing? Maybe it's a sense of justice of doing the right thing. Maybe guilt of what my family did wrong. Maybe sympathy of being dragged from your home and thrown into an unknown land. Maybe it's just me being rebellious and trying to spite my father and siblings. It could be any of those things, all of them or even none.
Regardless of the reasoning I refused.
"No." I snap back. "I won't."
"Maria." Asceline glared more.
"I said No!" I replied louder. "I'm not backing down from this! I won't be ignored and have my words dismissed as nonsense! If you're not going to listen earnestly then why the hell should I!?"
Something is surging.
"I am not going to be pressured by some name that rejects me simply from not being strong enough, nor will I be tied down by their members who don't trust my words."
I can feel something deep inside me growing.
"So go ahead and give me all the threats you want. I'm not holding back or backing down anymore!"
As I say this a sudden gust of wind blows and forces me to shield my eyes. It goes on for several seconds before subsiding.
When I look back, I see now standing between my sister and I, was a woman of dark black hair, with a large, brimmed hat like one you would find on a witch or sorceress, as well a short black dress with a violet trim to them, and thigh high boots of a similar design. Her attention didn't seem to be on me but forward.
<"Are you alright sweety?"> The words hit my ears, but they sounded different than what was said.
I hear a small growl from the dragon.<" Mom?">
It was then I realized that the dragon in my hands was gone...wait, mom?
She's your mother!?
<" Don't worry, you're safe now."> she says as a glow comes off her hand. <Just rest for now.>
<"Wait. What do...you...grrr...">
"Little fella!" I call out wanting to move to check on him but...
"Now then." The woman's voice called as the air around felt hotter...no colder? "How should I go about punishing you? ~"She turned her head back towards me as her sharp green eyes pierced my heart to the core.