Dragonlord

Ep 101. Ludin. (4)

Ep 101. Ludin. (4)

Raizel blankly thought to herself, scanning her surroundings once more. Her father was still firmly standing before her, protecting the court mage behind him; her mother was approaching closer and closer, readying to attack.

‘I know. I’m not stupid.’

Her parents were long dead. What she was seeing weren’t her parents who’d returned to life, but their dead bodies being manipulated by a human mage.

They weren’t failing to recognize their daughter. It was just impossible to begin with.

And when her last spark of hope withered away, it only took a moment for the youngling’s longing to turn to menace.

“…Come to think of it, we never fought, did we?”

After gripping and loosening her fists several times, Raizel left behind her heavy heart, forcing out a smile instead. She’d entertained herself on numerous occasions through picking fights with other dragons; there was no reason to think this was any different.

If anything, it was easier. These two weren’t anything like their old selves.

‘This is nothing new. Nothing new…’

When her mother’s claws came rushing from behind, Raizel swiftly tilted her head to dodge the strike. The youngling’s fist shot upwards to bury itself in Ludin’s face, and she immediately took a step forward to kick at her father’s jaw after, sending them both flying off to the side.

After both specters were blown across the courtyard, Raizel threw a deathly glare towards Silas.

“Just you wait. You’re right after these two.”

“…”

Silas blinked in a burst of confusion and fear, watching the youngling walk away from him and towards her parents.

‘…Was she not far weaker mere moments ago? Not even a dozen soldiers could make the guardians budge…’

Of course, the battle wasn’t quite over; the dead were already back on their feet, ready to strike at the necromancer’s opponent. As long as their bodies and their summoner’s mana held, they would never stop.

The problem was, even Silas struggled to maintain control over the two dead dragons for very long. In exchange for being exceptionally strong compared to regular specters, maintaining control over the two steel dragons was burdensome even for the empire’s court mage.

And to make matters worse, Raizel was no longer toying around as she had against the soldiers. She, too, knew that destroying their bodies and ending their misery was all she could do.

Boom!

The two lunging specters were grabbed by their heads and nonchalantly thrown into the courtyard’s walls once again. As creeping terror began to overtake the court mage’s mind, he rapidly scanned his surroundings, searching for an available exit.

‘This isn’t a matter that will settle itself in mere seconds. I need to…’

“I told you to wait.”

In response to the ominous voice echoing in his ears, Silas’ body froze in fear, his composure beginning to crumble away. When he turned his head, he could see Raizel slowly approaching him from afar with a bored expression, as if the two corpses were of no threat to her whatsoever.

“…This is impossible. Even if you’re a dragon yourself, it’s two against one. How could-!”

“Seriously? Numbers? That’s what you were counting on? What a fucking idiot.”

As Raizel responded, a gust of air blew across the courtyard; both specters had emerged from the rubbles once more to protect their summoner and eliminate the threat at hand.

A mother falling down towards her daughter’s head, claws poised to tear it off; a father lunging from behind his daughter, aiming to pierce through her heart.

Both were quick, and remarkably strong. Had a regular dragon been in Raizel’s place, even in their proper forms, they would undoubtedly have struggled to fend off the two specters. Piercing their defense alone was a daunting task for many.

But Raizel wasn’t exactly a ‘regular’ dragon.

For decades, Raizel had been the dragonkin’s biggest problem child, often clashing against her friend for the title of being the strongest dragon alive. Despite her vulnerability to elements like fire, there was no dispute to Raizel’s physical capabilities being far above her other kin.

In comparison, her opponents were a pair of old, dead dragons locked in their reduced forms, robbed of their magic and experience. Struggling against them was unimaginable for the youngling; as long as she was willing to swallow down her hesitant heart, the entire fight was nothing to make a big deal out of.

‘…Laugh it off. This isn’t a big deal.’

Every time she’d strike at her parents, Raizel could feel something snapping inside her own head. She may as well have been hitting her own self.

But if she stopped here, then no one else would ever come to release her parents from this absurd fate. The kin’s elders certainly wouldn’t risk it; Raizel had never understood it herself, but they were all deathly afraid of the empire for some reason, even though they’d never tell her why.

So, if no one else would, she would. And no one could tell her to live otherwise.

Clang!

After stepping to the side, Raizel grabbed Ludin by the throat, using them as a shield to block her father’s lunge. Another step forward knocked the male dragon off balance, and the youngling was quick to stomp down on his chest.

Holding one by the throat, another beneath her feet, Raizel finally let go of the breath she’d been holding. She could feel the specters’ claws digging into the arm and leg that held them, but she couldn’t care less about physical pain.

“You know…I barely think of you two now.”

Compared to the life she’d led quarreling with others at the nest, recent events were nowhere near as hectic. In fact, the last few months had been the most docile period of Raizel’s life: she’d listened to others, worried for others. She’d even cried on occasion.

It wasn’t that anyone had told her to live this way. Even though she could’ve returned to the valley at any point, she’d chosen otherwise of her own accord.

Here, she’d found someone who was willing to show kindness; kindness not of fear or sympathy, but of pure affection.

And in a hopeful wish to lessen their misery and longing, Raizel had accompanied them all the way here.

“So go away already. I never want to see either of you again. I…”

Raizel tightened the grip on her mother’s throat, pressed down the foot buried in her father’s chest. Her own claws dug into their metallic skin, and the specter’s chest beneath her began to crook and break from the weight bearing down on it.

“I don’t need you two anymore.”

A cherished memory.

That was enough.

With a violent screech, her claws tore away her mother’s throat, severing head and body; her father’s chest became demolished underfoot, wrecking the ground beneath. The headless dragon refused to move after collapsing unto the ground, and her husband’s body was crippled beyond functioning.

The bodies soon lay motionless, crippled and emptied of their supply of mana.

“…”

After a long sigh, Raizel quietly rubbed at her eyes. Even though the specters hadn’t shed a single drop of blood, she somehow felt filthier than she ever had before; even though her wounds were barely anything of note, the encounter had hurt her more than any other.

When the steel dragon returned her gaze to the manaless court mage afterwards, his body froze in the middle of removing the rubbles covering a courtyard exit.

A wide grin spread across Raizel’s face.

“Don’t know how to run away, do you?”

“…Bloody hells.”

‘If I knew this would happen, I would’ve left the palace through his portal too…’

It was too late for regrets. Teleportation was useless with the surrounding rubbles limiting his vision, and Silas didn’t possess sufficient mana to escape in the first place.

After approaching the cornered mage, Raizel grabbed him by his hair and forced the mage up to their feet, whispering in an ominous voice.

“Now…how many pieces should I rip you into?”

“W, wait! If you let me go, I’ll tell you the emperor’s location!”

“Emperor?...”

After a moment of disinterested staring, Raizel burst into laughter.

“Hahaha! Seriously? That’s the best you have?”

“Anything!...Anything you’d like. I can offer you anything you’d want from the empire. Anything at all.”

“…”

With her free hand, the youngling softly held Silas’ right thumb. But she then proceeded to twist it off, breaking its bones and ripping the flesh.

After shoving the torn finger into the mage’s mouth, she glared into their eyes, hissing out her next response.

“I already told you what I want.”

“…Wh, wh, what did…”

“How many pieces should I rip you into?”

“…One?”

A demeaning snort escaped Raizel, twisting her lips into an evil grin.

“Wrong answer.”