We live at the foothills of Dragon Peak.
A Rampage of Earth Dragons
Speaking of earth dragons, it reminds me of the pack currently staying near Mistral’s village. They didn’t get angry even when I suddenly visited them.
Though they did threaten me.
And they listened, deep-hearted dragons who even helped in the formation of the Dragon Peak Alliance.
Since their personalities likely don’t change drastically based on their habitat, it must be for a very good reason that such gentle and intelligent earth dragons are rampaging.
With Tyrant and Yugra rushing ahead, our entourage heads for the mountainous region said to spread across the northern part of the capital.
We encountered a giant magic beast bird on the way, but Tyrant caught it with its claws and eliminated it in an instant.
And then, as the undulations of mountains began to appear before us as we hurried along.
We need to find out where the earth dragons are rampaging soon. Without even needing to strain my eyes.
A certain spot at the foot of the mountains was in a state of chaos.
As we approached.
Various rocks, large and small, were flying up from the ground as if defying gravity, exploding in the sky.
Above, over twenty wyverns, or rather, wyvern knights, were flying, intercepting the rocks flying from below.
And as we got even closer, five members of the Earth Dragon Knight Order were positioned on the ground, trying to stop the earth dragons’ rampage by building earthen walls, obstructing their path.
It had already become quite a serious situation!
Were the earth dragons moving in packs? I couldn’t see well due to the dust, but a considerable number were rampaging.
They let out roars that seemed to shake the ground, unleashing dragon arts indiscriminately.
“Move aside!”
“Don’t get in our way!”
“If you get in our way, we won’t show mercy.”
Along with the roars, the enraged cries of the earth dragons reached us.
Why on earth are the earth dragons rampaging?
Tyrant and Yugra ascend towards the clouds overhead, perhaps to assess the battle situation.
Earth dragons’ dragon arts can’t reach this altitude, after all.
Tyrant, looking down at the wyvern knights flying below and the earth dragons on the ground, rumbled his throat.
“The Dragon Knight Orders are not attacking, are they?”
Come to think of it, neither the wyvern knights nor the earth dragon knights are attacking the pack of earth dragons.
The wyverns use fire and dragon arts, but they are solely for intercepting incoming rocks; they don’t seem to be attacking the earth dragons on the ground.
“What does this mean?”
I don’t understand the situation.
They want to stop the earth dragons’ rampage, but they don’t want to attack them? Then how are they going to break through the current situation of the enraged earth dragons?
I probe the intentions of the Dragon Knight Orders and observe them. However, the Dragon Knight Orders seem to have no plan and are merely stopping the earth dragons’ fierce attacks and rampage.
“How tedious. Wouldn’t it be quicker to resolve this by killing them all?”
Thank you for your typically Tyrant-like remark.
But rejected!
I smacked Tyrant, and it rumbled its throat in displeasure.
As we observed from high above, perhaps noticing our lack of participation, a few of the wyvern knights ascended towards us.
“You dragon over there, how long will you stand by and watch! Come down and join us quickly!”
Their attitude was completely different from Anya, whom we met earlier. The wyvern knight shouted with an arrogant tone.
But there’s no dignity in shouting from a low altitude.
As expected, Tyrant and Yugra merely looked down with cold eyes, gracefully circling at a high altitude.
Perhaps wyverns lack our climbing ability, as their ascent stopped far below us.
And from there, the wyvern knights shouted, but neither Tyrant nor Yugra paid them any mind.
“Now then, what should we do?”
“Hmph. A tedious dispute. You want to join in something like this? Ridiculous. Fools should perish.”
It seems Tyrant and Yugra are not keen.
Why might that be?
Both of them seem to have some idea why the earth dragons are rampaging.
However, they are not readily sharing that information with us.
Are they telling us to think for ourselves?
“What shall we do?”
“Will we just stand by and watch?”
The Twin Princesses look at me with troubled expressions.
In response to Tyrant and Yugra’s unenthusiastic attitudes, not only the Twin Princesses but also Laira looked uneasy.
“Hey, Revalia. I want to talk to the earth dragons. Can you descend into the pack?”
“Are you an idiot? It’ll hurt if you get hit by flying rocks or dragon arts.”
“Ah, right. That’s obvious.”
I guess that would be too reckless.
I offer a bitter smile.
By the way, though I brushed it off lightly, it’ll just hurt? Not that we’ll die or be injured, right? I feel Tyrant’s extraordinary power around here.
That aside. Well, this is a predicament.
Since the Dragon Knight Orders have no intention of annihilating or repelling the earth dragons, the problem seems solvable if we can just stop the earth dragons’ movements.
I glance at Laira.
Perhaps understanding my expectations instantly, Laira’s eyes sparkle, and she nods silently.
“Revalia.”
“Rejected.”
“Please, somehow. I’ll grant one of Revalia’s requests next time too!”
Whether the “favor” strategy worked or not, Tyrant, though roaring with displeasure, begins its descent. No, wait, it folds its wings and starts a dive at a nearly perpendicular angle.
“Kyaaaaaaah!”
Everyone’s screams overlap.
Tyrant passes the wyvern knights flying below in an instant, dodging the rocks flying from the ground as it dives.
“L-Laira. Don’t close your eyes. I know it’s scary, but hang in there!”
I encourage Laira, who clings to me screaming. Laira’s abilities won’t activate without a strong will.
It doesn’t work when she’s closing her eyes in fear.
As I told her, Laira, with tears in her eyes, firmly opens them and stares intently at the pack of earth dragons rapidly approaching.
With a strong will, Laira declares,
“Earth dragons, calm down!”
Laira’s eyes shone a beautiful blue.
The earth dragons, noticing us diving from high above, try to attack.
But they become motionless in the same posture.
However, Tyrant’s dive does not stop.
“Kyaaaaaaah!”
With momentum, it plunges towards the ground.
At this speed, a crash into the ground would surely be fatal!
Our faces contort as we watch the approaching ground with no means to stop it.
And just before crashing into the ground!
Tyrant spreads its four large wings, top and bottom, and beats them fiercely.
That alone offsets the terrifying speed of the dive, and Tyrant, as if nothing happened, lands with its usual rough landing.
“You idiot, idiot, idiot!”
I repeatedly hit Tyrant to protest.
Laira managed to avoid losing consciousness by ahair’s breadth, but the Twin Princesses have fainted.
Oh, it’s rare for the Twin Princesses to faint. Their collapsing whilst hugging each other looked somewhat cute.
Oh, my thoughts are wandering too much. The earth dragons are the priority now.
Perhaps confirming our actions’ success, Yugra descends gracefully from above.
However, the Dragon Knight Orders are bewildered, unable to comprehend what happened. It’s understandable.
The Wyvern Knight Order circles overhead, confused, and the Earth Dragon Knight Order watches us from a distance.
Without waiting for everyone to arrive, I descend to the ground with Laira, leaving the unconscious Twin Princesses behind.
Tyrant landed precisely in front of the pack of earth dragons.
Taking Laira’s hand, I head towards the pack of earth dragons.
“I apologize for using such a forceful method, but I really want to talk properly.”
“Grrr, who are you?”
The pack of earth dragons begins to growl warily. However, they are under Laira’s control and none are rampaging.
“My apologies for the late introduction. I am Elnea Eris, the Dragon King of Dragon Peak. This is Laira.”
“A human, yet you are the Dragon King… You understand our language?”
“Yes. I can understand because I have a Dragon Heart. And I know that you earth dragons are not the type to rage needlessly.”
“A mysterious boy.”
As expected, earth dragons are gentle and intelligent.
When they understood that I could communicate with them, their wariness eased.
Just as I was about to sigh in relief as the earth dragons calmed down.
“Human! Return my child!”
While Laira’s control continued, an earth dragon revealed its anger and approached us.
The imposing giant that loomed over us approached with a ground-shaking power that made Laira tremble. I shielded Laira with my back and faced the one earth dragon that charged towards us, pushing aside its companions. I was about to unleash the power of the Dragon Jewel to its fullest and gather dragon energy to deploy a barrier.
However, in the end, it was unnecessary.
An earth dragon of a particularly large size stood before us and stopped the charging earth dragon. A deep bass sound echoed as the colossal bodies collided, but the earth dragon before me did not budge an inch.
“Calm down, Flurua. I understand your feelings, but this Dragon King can be reasoned with. We should convey our situation first.”
The particularly large earth dragon. Based on my experience, he must be the leader of this pack. And from the words of the charging earth dragon, who seemed to be its mother, I grasped the situation.
“Perhaps your young was kidnapped?”
At my words, the earth dragon’s head, which had been facing Flurua, turned towards me.
“Indeed. You humans stole Flurua’s child, who was still an egg, from our nest.”
At the words of the earth dragon leader, Laira and I were stunned.
I know similar situations. Or rather, I think I’ve been involved in one.
Just before summer. On Dragon Peak, we underwent trials to become dragon-human warriors. The task at that time was to retrieve an egg from a dragon’s nest and return to the village. However, it was a trap; the actual purpose of the trial was to make us think for ourselves and act as worthy dragon-human warriors.
But there was one dragon-human who messed up badly and actually stole an egg from a dragon’s nest, thereby failing the trial…
Putting aside such past events.
Even in this land, far from Dragon Peak, there were foolish individuals targeting dragon eggs. There are no dragon-human trials held here, so this was indeed a criminal who stole an egg.
“However, I don’t think it would be easy to steal an egg from an earth dragon’s nest?”
During the trial, the dragon-humans earnestly discussed how to steal the egg, and even they concluded it would be difficult. Yet someone managed to steal it?
“You seem to understand us well. We were not negligent in our guard to protect our precious young. However, that person slipped through our defenses and stole it.”
“It was a huge man! About twice your height, and hairless. Instead of hair, he had tattoos on his head. He was incredibly muscular, yet so fast!”
Flurua peeked out from between the earth dragon leader’s legs and implored me with a desperate expression.
“You saw the culprit?”
“Only for a moment. He was terrifyingly fast and skilled. He instantly disappeared without a trace, and we lost sight of him even though we pursued him.”
The fact that he could outwit the earth dragons is enough to know that the thief is no ordinary person.
“We pursued him, relying on the scent and faint traces…”
The earth dragon leader glared resentfully at the Dragon Knight Order.
So the earth dragons weren’t rampaging pointlessly. They were just chasing the thief to get their child back. Rather, the Dragon Knight Order was getting in their way.
It seems none of the dragon knights had a Dragon Heart, so they didn’t know why the earth dragons were rampaging. They were probably just defending so that the rampaging earth dragons wouldn’t approach nearby villages. But if this continues, the earth dragons will surely appear in human settlements in pursuit of the thief. And the Dragon Knight Order might not be able to maintain their defense forever. Most importantly, if we all stand by and do nothing, it will play into the thief’s hands. The egg will absolutely not be returned.
“Understood. In that case, I will find and retrieve the egg. So, can you all trust me and wait?”
At my words, the earth dragons stared at me, appraisingly.
“Do you have confidence?”
The earth dragon leader rumbled low.
“To be honest, I don’t know. There are few clues… However, I don’t think you’ll find it by going to human villages or towns. The thief will be hiding, and ordinary people don’t have Dragon Hearts, so they won’t even understand why you’re rampaging. In that case, I think I have a better chance of success.”
The earth dragons rumbled amongst themselves, discussing my proposal. However, no more constructive opinions than the one I presented emerged, and they eventually accepted.
“Dragon King, we entrust it to you.”
“Please. Please find our child!”
I nodded firmly at Flurua’s pained cry.
