Chapter 47: The Smartest Bandit in the World (1/2)
As usual, both dragons opened their duel with their elemental breaths, Icefang unleashing ice, and Vainqueur a torrent of flames.
Of course, fire won.
Vainqueur’s flames pushed Icefang’s breath back, but the frost dragon skillfully dodged. The red dragon pursued him across the skies, knowing his rival wouldn’t stand a direct hit; he did notice that Icefang had grown faster and sleeker since their last duel, centuries ago.
“You may have become an [Emperor], Vainqueur, but I have leveled into the best classes this system offers!” Icefang raised his hands, manifesting star-shaped blocks of ice between his claws. “[Ice Shuriken]!”
He launched them at his rival, the projectiles moving in angles which Vainqueur himself couldn’t predict. The dragon disintegrated a few but had to fly around to dodge the others.
“[Otaku no Shunshin]!” Icefang joined his claws into a series of strange hand signs, his very body blurring.
Icefang’s evasion has increased by three stages!
“[Spell Purge]!” Vainqueur activated his own trump card, moving to catch Icefang in close combat and dispel his protections. However, his attempts to claw at Icefang proved fruitless; the slippery ice dragon danced around his blows like an eel.
“No magic, Vainqueur!” Icefang boasted. “All talent!”
“Stop!” Manling Victor shouted. “Please, stop!”
Vainqueur brushed off his chief of staff and prepared to blast Icefang from the skies with his breath, but his friend moved between the two rivals. “Minion! Get out of my firing line!”
“Your chief of staff is wise to surrender!” Icefang declared, interrupting his assault to gloat. “I am the wronged party there! Even your minion can see that!”
“Wronged party?” Vainqueur sneered. “What is my crime, being better than you? If so I confess!”
“Your taunts! You think I could forgive your insults to my social position?”
“What insults?” Manling Victor asked, constantly positioning himself so Vainqueur couldn’t attack without hurting him, much to his annoyance.
“His messages! Five times! Five times this month I try to complete a quest, only to find you,” Icefang pointed an accusing claw at his rival, “stole the glory from me and taunted me about it! All of this because you couldn’t handle the immense overnight success of my adventurer company!”
The admission was enough to make Vainqueur stop… if only to laugh. “Success?” Vainqueur couldn’t believe the nerve of this poser. “You named it after the second most precious metal!”
“Silver is good enough to make up most of a hoard!”
“That’s impossible,” Manling Victor interrupted. “His Majesty has been resting on his hoard for a month, and he completed only one quest last week.”
“Resting on your hoard for a month? How could any dragon waste that much time?” Icefang sneered, proving to Vainqueur that he had absolutely no taste.
“That is a rich dragon thing, you cannot understand,” the Emperor of Murmurin mocked his rival.
“Do you dare repeat this—”
“Your Majesty, High King Icefang, if I may—”
“It is High King President Icefang now, manling, with a capital H, K, and P,” the frost dragon interrupted Manling Victor. “I can tell the difference.”
“High King President Icefang, what was the content of the taunting messages?”
The frost dragon spat a block of ice to the ground below. “‘Guess who grabbed all the silver first? With love, your social better, Vainqueur!’”
Vainqueur frowned. “That was the same wording which you left in that pyramid.”
“What is a pyramid, a place for paupers?” Icefang asked.
“You have not been to the dungeon in the desert?” Vainqueur asked for confirmation, more and more puzzled.
“Why would I go to a desert? It is full of sand, it dirties my perfect scales.”
...
...
“Someone tricked you,” Vainqueur taunted Icefang. “Shame on you.”
“Well, Your Majesty, someone tricked both of y—”
“I knew it was a set-up, minion,” Vainqueur reassured his chief of staff. “No dragon could be vile enough to deface an artistic mural, not even Icefang. Obviously, someone tried to disguise their crime against dragonkind by lying, poorly.”
His rival scoffed. “You think I will believe this, Vainqueur?”
“Icefang, I swear on my minion’s head that I did not lower myself to insulting you.” He was already ridiculous without the red wyrm having to do anything. “And I will never let him die again, so be assured that Vainqueur Knightsbane’s honor is goldclad.”
“You, Slayer of Furibon,” Icefang turned to Manling Victor. “Do you swear on your head that he is telling the truth?”
Vainqueur’s chief of staff looked at his master with intimidated eyes, before nodding at the frost dragon. “I swear. We don’t have anything to do with this, and in fact, I suspect the one responsible pulled a similar stunt on us.”
“Mmm…” Icefang, while having poor taste, at least had the sense to recognize the truth. “Then whom could have slighted me? The messages were written in old dragonian.”
“A fairy,” Vainqueur guessed. “This would not be the first time they tried to divide dragonkind, and one attempted to ruin my Bragging Day.”
“Melodieuse would be the obvious suspect, but something has been bothering me,” Manling Victor said. “How can the responsible know Your Majesty would raid the Tower of Sablar?”
“Minion, that was no tower, but a pyramid,” Vainqueur insisted. “I will not allow improper grammar in my chief of staff.”
“High King President Icefang.” Manling Victor marked a short pause at the name. “Why did you attack us now?”
“The manling adventurer guild informed me of an unclaimed bounty in this stinking city,” Icefang replied. “That I could get paid by eating a certain Manling Garland.”
“I will not let you, Icefang!” Vainqueur roared. “He is mine! He slighted me personally!”
“I reached this city first!” his rival roared back, claws extended. “Find another quest! The money is mine!”
“Please, great noble dragons!” Manling Victor put himself between them. “How about we settle this with a compromise? We get Garland, and in exchange, V&V swears off any quest in the old Harmonian League.”
“What? Minion, you cannot suggest…” Vainqueur stopped himself, before pondering the matter thoughtfully. “Ah, I understand. Us fighting is exactly what the fairies want.”
“Yeah, they probably set you up hoping one would kill the other, or that they could finish off the wounded winner.”
If so, they had drastically underestimated Vainqueur, if they thought Icefang had a chance. “It is my duty as the noblest of dragons to take the high road,” the Emperor of Murmurin declared. “So I will deign to accept this wise peace settlement until I can eat the true miscreant.”
The frost dragon smelled a trap, but also an opportunity. “Mmm… I will deign accept this show of apology.”
“This is no apology,” Vainqueur glared at his one true nemesis. “I can get richer than you without questing in this land!”
“My company’s hoard has grown bigger than yours ever was!” Icefang lied brazenly.
“Laughable!” Vainqueur replied, his pride unable to let that slide. “And I will prove it! By the end of the harvest season, on the eve of Halloween, our adventurer companies shall compare their hoards, and mine’s shininess shall prevail over yours! The loser will recognize the winner as the greatest dragon in the world!”
“I relish the challenge!” Icefang accepted, before storming off. “You shall bow before my hoard, Vainqueur!”
Vainqueur seethed at his rival, watching him disappear beyond the clouds. “Manling Victor, I am proud of your plan,” he told his minion, once Icefang out of earshot, “This is the perfect win-win scenario.”