Chapter 637: The New Face of the Dragon Clan
Five years slipped past in a flash.
Exactly as Kazuya had predicted, after returning to the volcano, brother-kun found himself entirely unable to return home frequently. Whether he could secure a brief window to visit wasn't a choice he could independently make; it was subject entirely to his dragon dad's absolute authority.
Kazuya had historically considered himself remarkably rigorous and demanding when it came to cultivating brother-kun, but compared to his dragon dad's training regime, he realized he had been entirely too indulgent.
In their father's eyes, only when brother-kun demonstrated a massive, definitive leap in raw strength would he be granted the leisure to return to the grassland to rest for a day or two.
Consequently, brother-kun could at most manage to visit once every two or three months, spending a fleeting day or two before being ruthlessly swept back to the vents by his dragon dad.
Although brother-kun frequently voiced a mountain of complaints regarding the brutal logistics at the volcano whenever they reunited, Kazuya discerned that brother-kun's life wasn't nearly as miserable as he claimed; his elevations in martial strength were flawlessly tangible.
Thus, his heart settled completely, allowing him to focus his undivided attention on masterminding the long-term expansion of the Dragon Clan.
Over these past five years, across the Dragon Clan's historical seven great tribes, their total population had only multiplied by slightly less than a hundred.
This slow demographic growth wasn't born of resource depletion or internal civil friction; rather, it was underpinned by two distinct variables.
For one, across these five years, the Dragon Clan had aggressively launched a succession of campaigns to chart and conquer new borders, and a few of their mature fighters had unfortunately succumbed to casualties during these fierce clashes.
Secondly, the overall reproductive drive of the collective had undergone a massive decline; outside of the Altaria flock, everyone's enthusiasm for siring a new generation was practically sitting at absolute zero.
Speaking of charting and conquering borders, it was imperative to outline the current territorial limits of the Dragon Clan and introduce their newly integrated tribes.
Across these five years, Kazuya had continuously led the Dragon Clan vanguard to launch aggressive, sweeping expeditions. Their primary target of conquest was the southern grassland sector.
Outside of Arcanine, Feraligatr, and the local resident Florges line - who had all proactively chosen to merge their domains into the alliance without a single spark of friction - there was virtually not a single native clan across the entire southern grassland that hadn't engaged in a full-scale clash against the Dragon Clan vanguard.
In fact, the Dragon Clan frequently operated along three or even five separate frontlines simultaneously, yet they consistently maintained an absolute, crushing momentum. They flawlessly commanded that level of raw operational superiority.
The most grueling, bloody segments of the campaign were undoubtedly the direct confrontations waged against over a dozen Elite Four-level Alpha leaders. Within those specific airfields of combat, the Dragon Clan had sustained a few casualties.
But when the dust finally settled, their forces had cleanly and successfully secured total jurisdiction over the southern grassland.
To this milestone, the Dragon Clan had officially unified the entire grassland, establishing themselves as the undisputed, absolute sovereigns of the continent.
However, Kazuya didn't personally secure the Overlord label on his status panel.
This was because he had explicitly ordered the Dragon Clan to proclaim to the wider world that Florges was the supreme leader of their collective. Consequently, the vast majority of the unaligned wild Pokemon across the continent mistakenly looked upon Florges as the newly minted sovereign of the grassland.
Yet, deep within Florges' own heart, Kazuya remained the singular, true leader. Therefore, she similarly failed to trigger the Overlord modification on her panel, and her physical dimensions remained entirely unaltered.
In Kazuya's estimation, this outcome was a flawless win-win scenario.
Kazuya didn't look upon a gargantuan physical build as an inherent blessing. While expanding one's physical proportions allowed the biological engine to saturate itself with a denser volume of natural energy - boosting one's combat viability by perhaps ten to twenty percent - the catch was that Kazuya wasn't desperately pressed for that sliver of martial output right now.
Securing an Overlord physique at this stage carried structural disadvantages that vastly outweighed the benefits.
Particularly when it came to his daily existence. He harbored zero desire to see his frame shiver up to match his dragon dad's titanic proportions, or potentially dwarf him entirely.
Standing at a height of fifty or sixty meters plus, how unimaginably bothersome and grueling would daily navigation become? His current fifteen-meter framework was already more than enough of a logistical chore.
Moving on to the demographic tapestry of the Dragon Clan: With the entire grassland consolidated, the diversity of species anchoring the Dragon Clan had naturally achieved a magnificent elevation.
Compared to five years prior, the collective had integrated four brand-new tribes - three native to the grassland, and one originating from the swamp: Haxorus, Ampharos, Dragalge, and Scrafty.
The Dragalge line originated from the deep swamp. It looked as though over the past five years, their vanguard had slipped through a specific aquatic channel connecting the ocean directly to the mire, holed up within the swamp parameters, and never departed.
They were an exceptionally small, intensely low-profile lineage that was accidentally tracked and discovered by the Goodra line, who gracefully extended an invitation to merge into the collective. Following their integration, they functioned largely as a quiet, background demographic.
Kazuya held zero strenuous expectations regarding these Poison Dragons, merely charging them with assisting the Goodra line to maintain a flawless watch over the swamp choke point.
The Haxorus line was a textbook, high-powered draconian lineage native to the grassland, leaving very little need for elaboration.
They had historically operated as an established clan within the southern sector; their demographic scale was modest, currently hovering at around forty members. However, their Alpha patriarch commanded a remarkably formidable level baseline, sitting firmly around Lv. 65.
The core anomalies most deserving of meticulous analysis were, naturally, the remaining Ampharos and Scrafty lines. These two specific clans... were remarkably peculiar integrations.
Let's dissect the Ampharos line first. Despite bearing the word dragon within its localized nomenclature (Electric Dragon), the species fundamentally didn't possess even a single shred of draconian biology. Their baseline attributes were entirely devoid of the Dragon type, and their Egg Group affiliation held zero connection to the Dragon classification either. Consequently, when Kazuya first laid eyes on their flock, he had sunk into a heavy, prolonged hesitation.
However, observing that the wider members of the Dragon Clan naturally looked upon them as kin, and factoring in the structural reality that a Mega-evolved Ampharos officially secures the Dragon attribute, Kazuya simply smoothed away his reluctance and welcomed this pack of endearing, sheep-like dragons into the family.
The demographic scale of the Ampharos line could only be described as miniature. When they were initially tracked, their entire flock consisted of merely a dozen or so members, with only two fully evolved Ampharos among them. Even now, after five years of protection, their population barely cleared forty.
This was primarily because their baseline combat parameters weren't formidable, and being strict herbivores, their individual competitive drive across this brutal grassland was remarkably weak. Had it not been for the Dragon Clan's timely intervention, coupled with the fact that their Electric-type techniques were visually intimidating enough to deter basic predators, this lineage would have likely faced total biological extinction within a matter of years.
As for the Scrafty line, the integration of this specific clan was a complete, beautiful anomaly. They hadn't been tracked or subjugated by the Dragon Clan's forces; rather, their vanguard had proactively marched right up to their doorstep on their own volition.
Not long after the Dragon Clan officially launched their campaign to conquer the southern grassland, the Alpha Scrafty led his entire clan to march straight into their central camp to pay formal homage, bluntly articulating to Kazuya that he desired to pledge his lineage to follow his vanguard.
At that exact second, Kazuya's instinctive response was an immediate, smooth rejection. His logic was remarkably simple: What kind of dragon are you supposed to be? Ampharos, at the very least, bore the name of a dragon, possessed a physical silhouette that faintly mirrored a draconian posture, and secured the actual Dragon type upon a Mega Evolution. What single shard of draconian blueprint did a Scrafty hold?
Yet, the reality that unfolded next completely floored him. The Alpha Scrafty had successfully courted a female Haxorus from the neighboring ranks, and had already managed to secure a viable clutch of eggs with her.
At that precise second, Kazuya felt the structural wrinkles across his brain's cerebral cortex get completely smoothed out by sheer shock. It turned out that a species like Scrafty... actually belonged to the Dragon Egg Group.
The timeline of his past lives was entirely too immense, causing Kazuya to completely forget the mechanical parameters governing Scrafty's biological Egg Group allocations. His memory had exclusively preserved their primary, visually compliant Field designation. He truly hadn't anticipated that they concurrently anchored a permanent slot within the Dragon classification.
With this structural piece of knowledge verified, the lingering bias within his heart dissolved completely. He extended a warm welcome to the Scrafty line, integrating them into the broader structure of the Dragon Clan.
To this day, the Dragon Clan officially anchored a magnificent network of eleven great tribes, with their total population clearing five hundred!
Analyzing a numerical value like five hundred in isolation might make it seem remarkably ordinary, but sifting that data through the living reality of the Pokemon world, a unified collective commanding five hundred high-powered fighters was more than qualified to comfortably challenge any lineage across the globe for the title of the undisputed largest clan on the planet.
Across the terrestrial domain, it was mathematically impossible for any separate wild clan to outpace their numbers. The ocean depths might hold a few greater demographic concentrations, but even if those existed, they would be limited exclusively to species like Magikarp, whose raw reproductive velocity was staggeringly high.
As for whether housing over five hundred colossal dragons within a singular habitat would leave their home feeling suffocatingly crowded - the reality was completely negative. Because they simply didn't live huddled together in a single clearing.
The current territorial jurisdiction commanded by the Dragon Clan completely blanketed the vast expanse of the grassland, the entire stretch of the swamp, and two distinct mountain peaks nestled deep within the Rocky Mountain range.
It was imperative to note their acquisition of that second peak within the rocky mountains. It had been systematically wrested back from the clutches of the Magnezone clan - the exact group of mechanical hoverers who, five or six years prior, had aggressively launched the ambush that nearly wiped out the Altaria flock.
Two years back, Kazuya personally masterminded a retaliatory campaign, guiding the fully rejuvenated and expanded Altaria flock to launch a devastating counter-offensive back into the peaks. They successfully liquidated a massive chunk of the Magnezone clan, cleanly reclaiming that ancestral mountain summit and such a massive territory.
Commanding a sovereign territory of this magnitude, if their martial forces were mathematically forced to launch daily patrol sweeps originating exclusively from the core grassland heartland, the sheer exhaustion born from journeying back and forth across those massive distances would have ridden a dragon straight into biological collapse midway through the path.
Furthermore, if eleven distinct, high-powered tribes were permanently forced to live huddled within a singular perimeter day in and day out, how many petty domestic frictions and logistical nightmares would manifest across a single day?
Enforcing a healthy degree of separation was the path that yielded the finest cost-performance ratio for everyone. Consequently, the contemporary Dragon Clan operated along a decentralized living model. The distinct tribes remained stationed at their designated territorial outposts, only mobilizing to converge at the grassland heartland once or twice a week to formally report their parameters.
The Aerodactyl and Altaria lines were permanently garrisoned across the twin mountain peaks of the Rocky Mountain range. The peak anchored by the Altaria flock sat in close geographic proximity to the Aerodactyls' ancestral territory, allowing both vanguards to seamlessly extend rapid mutual reinforcements during daily operations.
This was particularly true when factoring in the current level parameters commanded by the Mega Aerodactyl patriarch. Saturated under Kazuya's deliberate, rigorous sparring sessions across these years, his baseline had ploughed ahead to Lv. 76. This magnitude of individual power left him as an undisputed T1 titan across the entire outer perimeter of the Rocky Mountains.
Coupled with the fact that the Altaria matriarch had officially breached the Elite Four threshold herself, as long as those cataclysmic Champion-level Overlords ruling the deep interior didn't randomly migrate outward, the Aerodactyl and Altaria vanguards stood virtually zero mathematical probability of encountering an adversary they couldn't conquer.
The Goodra and Dragalge lines were permanently stationed deep within the swamp, drawing their necessary survival resources straight from that humid mire. Fortunately, the geographic area of the swamp was modest, and it lacked any hyper-aggressive native powerhouses, leaving the average level of the local wildlife sitting at a remarkably low baseline. For the combined forces of the Goodra and Dragalge lines, maintaining absolute, flawless jurisdiction over that choke point was an exceptionally easy task.
Coupled with the fact that their northwestern flank was backed by the dual flying vanguards, their southern border rested against the Dragon Clan's primary headquarters, and the Ice-type Pokemon of the northeastern snowfields were biologically incapable of launching a southern migration, the swamp could practically be described as the most structurally secure sector under the Dragon Clan's banner.
Yet while that calculation held true on paper, in living reality, the absolute safest coordinates across the entire continent lay, naturally, immediately flanking Kazuya's personal silhouette. Regardless of which specific outposts the adult dragons were deployed to garrison, every single tribe strictly insisted on depositing their young hatchlings and children directly by Kazuya's side to be raised. This behavioral pattern alone was more than enough to perfectly validate the reality.
Eleven distinct tribes. Just like that, four were completely deployed to hold the external borders. The remaining seven tribes combined anchored a population of over three hundred dragons. Strip away the juvenile adolescents and infant hatchlings, and the active adult demographic sat at less than three hundred. Factoring in that this force was charged with holding and sweeping the entire boundless expanse of the grassland, how could it possibly feel crowded? In truth, their available martial numbers were desperately stretched thin.
Kazuya found himself transformed into the classic, nagging patriarch who constantly pressured his children to hurry up, get married, and bring forth a new generation of babies. Yet every single time the feeding hours arrived and he voiced these logistical concerns, the assembled dragons would instantly begin playing dumb to evade the topic. This group would focus intently on munching on a patch of topsoil, while that detachment would throw back their heads to hum an operatic melody, leaving Kazuya thoroughly, beautifully exasperated.
Faced with this stubborn behavioral pattern, he ultimately chose to embrace a relaxed, hands-off approach.
Ah, whatever. If the internal reproductive velocity of the Dragon Clan members wasn't enough to blanket-secure the territory, they still anchored a magnificent network of external assets, didn't they? Their grassland allies - Arcanine, Feraligatr, and the local resident Florges line - currently mobilized their own forces on a completely spontaneous basis to actively preserve the peace, meaning the burden of enforcing structural stability wasn't being borne exclusively by the Dragon Clan.
The implementation of Grassland Order was another monumental milestone that demanded a thorough analysis. The so-called Grassland Order, expressed with absolute, structural precision, was the refined evolution of his historical Safe Zone architecture - the definitive laws governing the territory under the Dragon Clan's jurisdiction.
The historical blueprint that mandated an absolute, sweeping ban on all combat - a rigid rule that had threatened to completely paralyze the natural ecological balance - had been systematically dismantled and dissolved. Placed in its stead was a sleek, dynamic framework purpose-built to maintain a flawless equilibrium among the diverse native lineages of the grassland:
The Sovereign Laws of the Grassland:
Within the designated Safe Zone limits, competitive friction and hunting operations waged between resident clans are classified as natural ecology; the Dragon Clan will strictly refrain from launching arbitrary interventions.
Only when an unaligned, foreign invading tribe crosses the border to aggressively exploit or slaughter the resident Pokemon sheltered within the Safe Zone will the Dragon Clan mobilize its martial vanguard to launch a ruthless expulsion campaign.
The Dragon Clan binds its forces under an absolute oath to never proactively launch unprovoked offensives against any resident clan housed within the Safe Zone parameters.
In living essence, this overhaul merely allowed the wider natural ecosystem to cleanly recover its original parameters. Compared to an environment of absolute, unaligned lawlessness, the structural difference was minor - it was merely that a magnificent, protective shadow of the Dragon Clan was cleanly draped over the canvas.
Kazuya firmly believed the Dragon Clan had already executed their duties to absolute perfection.
One only needed to glance over at the volcanic mountains or the rocky peaks. The Charizard clan and the Tyrantrum clan not only completely refused to mobilize their strength to shield weaker resident lineages from external predation, but they themselves would actively snap their jaws to devour the Pokemon nesting immediately flanking their perimeters.
The Dragon Clan, by contrast... at the very least, any native lineage living within the territorial limits of their empire could permanently discard the agonizing dread of being bullied or slaughtered by their sovereign Overlords.
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