Icarus scrambled back in a panic, mana poured out of his palm and formed a ball, he ignited it and aimed it at the black scales dragon in front of him.
He had done this instinctually, however he realized his mistake at that very moment.
A green dragon had easily overpowered him, the weakest of all dragons, yet he dared to form an attack against an entire room? Yet the sight of the dragons as soon as he woke up had instantly triggered his fight or flight response, and from years of assassin work, his only response was to fight.
The fireball was in the process of flying toward the dragon, behind him a woman with silver scales mouthed a word that Icarus could not quite make out.
The fireball was instantly neutralized, the magic used to create it was instantly deconstructed right before his eyes.
Icarus sat there in amazement, a red dragon with spiked hair and a large red greatsword walked up to him and raised his sword.
"Dumb bastard."
He prepared to swing and Icarus shrank back, however the black scaled dragon held a hand up and said something to the man in a strange, profound language.
He then turned to Icarus and cleared his throat "i'm sorry to have alarmed you, may I ask who you are."
Icarus shuddered and found it hard to speak
The man frowned "ah, I see, perhaps you need some time, I will get you some food, please sit down."
Five minutes later Icarus had relaxed, he sat across from the Black scaled man, the other dragons stared at him with curios, annoyed and other expressions.
He had been given some bread and a herbal tea that had relaxed him greatly, he had been informed that it had medicinal magic imbued in it.
"Apologies for earlier, I've been told it's proper for me to tell my name first, I am not brushed up on human culture you see."
He cleared his throat "it may be hard for you to understand my name it is æßçùlœ you can can just call me Abe, it is what I went by the last time I was in the human world."
Icarus shook his head he had many thoughts but just decided to ask one or two questions at a time.
"I am Icarus, sorry for earlier, I was very shaken up."
Abe nodded "it is understandable, most humans will never see a dragon in their lifetime, we have certain abilities that will be very alarming to humans as well, but on that note, it seems you also have such ability."
He looked at his like this was some sort of question, but Icarus had no idea so he just shook his head again.
"I don't know, the last thing I remember, a green dragon attacked me and my companions, I could not defeat it and assumed death was close at hand, and then suddenly I was just... Here."
Abe frowned "you say a green dragon? They usually flee here at a very young age, and they should not possess the power or want to send anyone back."
Icarus nodded "he was very clear of his intentions to kill me, I doubt he would send me here, and may I ask, where exactly is, Here?"
Abe laughed, "come outside, I would rather show you."
Icarus drank the last of the herbal tea he had received and followed the man outside.
His eyes widened, the tavern was on the height of a large hill, providing an amaIng view, all around were building made of stone, ancient sigils carved into the rock emanating heat, there were floating stone murals, the entire town was surrounded by mountains, which served as walls, four waterfalls streamed down from the mountains in all four directions, when it hit the bottom, the water floated back up, defying Gravity as it climbed through the air in giant blue bubbles.
Abe smiled and gestured "as you can see, this place is far removed from where you came from, in fact this place is almost a seperate world. The human world is far, Far below any dragon can make the flight down, however only strong red dragons and above can come back."
Icarus turned in shocked amazement "you mean... We're in the sky?"
Abs nodded "yes, the air is breathable due to the barrier surrounding this place, now I suppose I should ask you your plans."
Icarus thought for a moment "well, if possible I wanted to learn magic, if I can do that here that would be amazing, but if not I would like to go down to the human world."
Abe seemed surprised "magic huh? We can probably teach you some, but most of us have limited knowledge of human magics these days, I haven't been down to the human world in 200 years, dragons also have the highest aptitude for magic, so we learn magics that humans find difficult to learn sometimes."
He thought for a moment "on top of that, it might not even be better then whatever magic humans have made! We dragons tend to focus more on swords then magic, we could definitely teach you about that."
Icarus was getting more and more downcast as he continued, he had been good at assasination due to his illusion magic, however he had abysmal talent with the sword, not even able to figure out a basic move of it yet.
"I see, I'm afraid I'm useless when it comes to swordplay, so I guess I'll learn some magic and make it back to the human world if possible."
Abe sighed "that is unfortunate, swordplay is something everyone should learn, nevertheless if you want to return to the human world we will have to get you a lot stronger, as you are now it is not likely you will survive the descent."
Icarus shook "and... Just how long will I have to train?"
Abe closed his eyes and thought for a moment before opening them "probably... About 2-5 years."
Icarus nearly fell to the ground, his legs were weak and his vision swam. '2 years minimum?!'
Abe put a hand on his shoulder "I'm sorry... But it is not all bad news, we dragons have an special talent for crafting weapons, please allow us to craft you a staff."
Icarus eyes widened, a staff could be used as a gate, solving his visualization issue.
"Truly? Isn't it very difficult to make staffs?"
Abe shook his head, "not anymore, humans 200 years ago found it very difficult, we have refined that method and now can make any weapon we want, within reason of course."
Icarus bowed "in that case, thank you very much, I will be indebted to the dragon clan for this."
Abe laughed and waved for him to follow.
The two descended the hill and made their way to the largest stone building, there were several dragon folk watching on as the pair entered, Icarus was confused what they were doing there but Abe quickly rushed him through the door.
There was a table set up, there were several different materials set up on the table, Abe turned and gestured.
"Chose carefully, whatever is attuned to your mana will be what makes the best weapon for you."
Icarus walked up to the table, it was strange that there was no one else here, and this table was set up, almost like it was... Prepared, just for him.
He shook this feeling out and closed his eyes.
He has attained a strong level of mana sensing over the past few years, he could strengthen it by closing his eyes as well.
He reached his mana over the table, it washed over almost every item, and tried to make with them.
He felt some of the items reject him, he immediately retracted his mana from these items and continued, slowly, other items also partially or full rejected him, he retracted his mana from these as well.
Finally, the last item rejected him, he was left with three items that did not reject him.
He opened his eyes and gathered them.
A large chunk of old wood, a dark blue sapphire the size is his hand, and a smoldering ember the core of a fire elemental.
He turned and saw that Abe was wearing an astonished expression on his face.
"Could it truly be..."
Icarus tilted his head in confusion
Abe quickly regained composure and took the items from him, he walked over to a sigil on the ground.
It had several dozen markings and was circular, three circles marked the outside.
He placed each item in the small circles and clasped his hands together.
The circle lit up, a myriad of colours flashing and the sigil lifted up of the ground, turning into a three dimensional construct.
The items hovered in the air, lifted by the construct.
Abe's eyes opened and they glowed a magnificent crimson.
"Xyrax, Dragon God! Hear this humble disciple! Please grant your power to create this great weapon for the one who will save our kind!"
Icarus' eyes widened 'save their kind? What is he talking about? Me?'
The sigil expanded and grew brighter, Abe's eyes flared with fire and his scales grew along with his talons from his hand.
"Achemiestlyas, Rosiliyas, hasmodeus-"
Icarus grew even more astonished 'hes using incantation pathway now?'
Abe finished his incantation and the items began glowing with blinding white light and converging into the center of the construct.
There was clearly some resistance from the items, Abe growled and fire flew from his mouth into the construct, the fire formed another ring around the construct, forcing it to close on on the items.
He growled angrily, his appearance now seeming more dragon them humanoid his hands glowed with fire and shone white hot.
The fire ring began to crack, it could no longer close the construct any further and it would break.
"Stubborn Bastard!"
Abe slammed his hands on the construct, his scales radiating power, shockwaves emanated from the construct as it pushed against being compressed.
Abe roared and Icarus had to shield himself with a bubble of water to avoid being burnt up by the fire.
The construct was barely bigger then the ball of light that was the combing items.
Abe let out one final shout and it slammed together.
Suddenly all the noise in the room disappeared, the white ball that had also fused with the construct fell down to the floor.
Icarus stared on, he was impressed beyond words, Abe had used faith based magic, incantation, alchemy and even pure martial arts.
He had said it was easy but he looked exhausted, and such a feat would be impossible to Anyone Icarus knew.
'is this the level one can obtain over 300 years?'
The ball of light expanded into a staff, the old wood, merged with the sapphire, inside of the sapphire the flame elementals core, it fell into Icarus' hand and instantly felt like an extension of his body.
As he touches it the three dimensional sigil appeared outward, from it, he could visualize countless spells he might cast.
He looked to Abe with Gratitude, "thank you."
Abe stood up and cracked his neck.
"I suppose I have some explaining to do."
Abe looked him in his eyes with fierce determination.
"You, who will free the dragons."