Chapter 24: Dragon Profiling (1/2)
Sand. Sand. Sand.
Walking cactus!
Oh, it was dead.
Sand. Sand. Sand…
Vainqueur forced himself not to fall asleep out of boredom in the middle of the flight. He was sick of this endless desert, carrying his chief of staff in one hand, and a big, goatskin bag for princesses in the other. “Why am I flying invisible again?” the dragon asked his minion, who had insisted Vainqueur use his ‘Blinkblink’ ring. “And why didn't we bring the other minions?”
“Because otherwise Brandon Maure will have us shot on sight, and my [Cowl of the Reaper] grants me some camouflage.” The minion sounded tired, and just as bored as his master. “It’s better to travel light.”
“Minion, I meant why I should care if that fiend notices?”
“Because we are on a princess rescue mission, which means we need to be discreet. Otherwise, Maure will evacuate them elsewhere, and we may not know where this time.”
At long last, Vainqueur finally noticed their destination when he squinted his eyes at the horizon.
A rock the size of the Albain mountains’ tallest peak floated above the desert, a fortress-city built from red, bloody bricks; greenish stones below the flying structure released a whirlwind of swirling sandstorms keeping the city afloat. Vainqueur noticed a few flying creatures patrolling the skies near it, each of whom would make for passable snacks.
Instead of rejoicing at finally reaching their destination, Manling Victor let out a heavy, crushed sigh.
“Minion, why are you so down?” Manling Victor also sounded a lot less enthusiastic about this adventure than Vainqueur thought he would. Come to think of it, he hadn’t argued about Vainqueur bringing a princess bag, while the minion usually worried about everything. “Have you bred yet?”
“No. I tried.” The minion sighed, crestfallen. “But as it turns out, Allison likes girls…”
The dryad? “Minion, I am not that strict about minion harassment. You have my imperial permission to bestow your eggs on Manling Charlene, for example.”
“I’m pretty sure Croissant got there first.”
“Then eat him.” Vainqueur would have sworn the minion looked up at his master in confusion, but he couldn't tell with the cowl. “You are a chief of staff, he is below you in the food chain. If he bothers you, eat him. I have never devoured a werewolf before, but they must taste like a cerberus, strong and thick.”
“Your Majesty has eaten cerberi?”
“When I fought the fomors as a young wyrm with the rest of dragonkind. They kept sending monsters like cerberi to die to me back in those days.” Eventually, the fairy lords paid Vainqueur and his kin a large tribute of gold as an apology for falsely claiming to have created the world first.
Speaking of food, what was that scent in the wind? “I can sense we are being followed.” Vainqueur hummed the air. “It smells like a big bird, with a manling on its back.”
“Huh? We should be wary, it could be one of Maure’s men—”
“[Solar Judgment!]”
A beam of light hit Vainqueur in the back by surprise, the blast making him crash into the dry sand below.
[Solar Judgment] bypassed your [Fire Immunity]! You have taken heavy damage!
Once again, he felt that itchy sensation… “Minion, I do not feel well in my back,” Vainqueur said, opening his palm to find his chief of staff safe and sound. “What is this?”
“I think that it is pain, Your Majesty!”
Pain? Of course not, only mammals suffered from it.
Vainqueur glanced up at the one responsible for his back itches, a manling knight in heavy green armor. The treacherous creature rode the back of a golden lion, with the head, wings, and talons of an eagle.
A griffon! And an adult, meaty one at that!
“I doubted your guilt until I scanned your classes, Victor. [Monster Squire] and [Reaper]!” The knight pointed a shining blade at Vainqueur, who could tell it was a cursed fairy work meant to kill dragons. According to the voice, the knight was a female manling. “The unholy scion of a thief of souls and a necromancer, with a dash of scum! And your perks! [Helheim], [Channel Hellfire]! You reek of evil!”
“That armor…” the minion trailed, as the dust settled. “Holy shit, level sixty-six?”
“I am Kia Bekele, the Shining Knight of Gardemagne! Prepare to die, miscreants!”
Annoyed at the greenish knight not announcing his imperial name next, Vainqueur just blasted the bird out the skies with a fireball.
“[Bravewind!]” Much to the dragon’s surprise, the bird and its rider flew out of the way of his flames, carried by strong winds. They dived down as Vainqueur kept trying to blast them, moving at speeds that even the dragon had a hard time following. Before he knew what hit him, the knight slashed at Vainqueur between the neck and the shoulder, cutting a scale.
[Arondight] inflicted doubly effective [Fairy] [Dragonslayer] damage!
Like that damn lich, the knight and her flying cattle retreated before the dragon could poke them. Manling Victor tried to assist his master by blasting bluish hellfire at their foe, but she flew out of range and made a circle in the skies. Vainqueur suddenly wondered how she could notice him while invisible, with a glance telling him the sand on his body revealed his position.
Above, the knight moved to dive back, shining under the sunlight.
That female manling was eager to make Vainqueur live up to his name. “Minion, stay there,” Vainqueur ordered his manling, putting him on the ground with the princess bag. “I will take flight and deal with this flying snack personally.”
“Your Majesty, she’s the strongest adventurer in Mistral, and the slayer of King Balaur! Don’t underestimate her!”
“Balaur?” For once, this made Vainqueur pause. “The fomor?”
A mere manling riding a flying cow took down Balaur, the second greatest calamity of this age? When?
“[Spell Purge]!” Vainqueur snarled, revealing himself in his full draconic glory as his Perk negated his ring’s invisibility. “Fear my wrath, manling knight! You face Emperor Vainqueur Knightsbane, First of his name, Great Calamity of this Age, Emperor of Murmurin and the Albain Mountains, and Slayer of Furibon!”
“I know about the lich,” the knight said, raising her blade. “I would say thanks since we never got around to killing him before, but—”
“You knew about Furibon?” Vainqueur glared at the knight, suddenly outraged. “And you did nothing? Do you know what he was doing in that dungeon? Do you know?”
The knight paused, halting her descent. “Excuse me?”
“I am sure he must have sacrificed hundreds of baby princesses to prepare that dread, foul, evil spell! He was about to release it on the world before I stopped him! Do you know what he made me suffer through? The bloody war I had to fight? The sacrifices I had to make? Do you know?”
“Uh, no, I—”
“You would, if you were cultured enough to read The War of the Hoard!” Vainqueur kept ranting. “My minion was abducted and tortured by Furibon! The lich stole his vegetable and forced him to eat baby coins!”
“Your Majesty, maybe you are exaggerating there...”
“My minion risked his life to seal that foul lich’s soul away!” Vainqueur ignored his chief of staff and kept shaming the knight, who had lowered her sword. “We had to fight a horde of three hundred demons until he could become strong enough to imprison that depraved monster!”
“I, I…” The knight struggled to find her words when faced with her obvious incompetence. “I’m… I’m sorry, I didn’t know…”
“I am sick and tired of you manlings’ speciesism!” Vainqueur vented off. “I am being the best dragon adventurer to your backward species, and you deny me my rightful payments when I solve your problems! You even send thieves after my hoard, even after I worked hard to save the one true way of life from Furibon!”
“Your Majesty always says all species are equally inferior to dragons,” Manling Victor reminded his master.