"So Vira, tell me about your grand adventures with Slace so far!" Bjornulf asked, excited and curious to know all while drinking alcohol.
The three were in the back of a carriage heading towards the Elemental Dragon, the camels walking through the hot sand.
Vira nodded and answered almost robotically as always. "We met an ancient dragon and then came here."
Vira was broad with the scope of answers, but she didn't feel the need to explain absolutely everything.
Bjornulf's eye lit up a bit, a normal reaction to an ancient dragon, but then he suddenly laughed, seeming more impressed with Slace and Vira.
"Maybe I should've gone with you two after all; meeting an ancient dragon would've been grand."
Vira didn't respond in any way. Bjornulf stopped laughing, shifting his attention to the carriage rider. "How long until we get there?"
"20 more minutes. , you know how it is."
Bjornulf took another sip of the alcohol, scooping spoons in a barrel as he thanked the rider with gratitude.
"Thanks for the ride anyways, and the alcohol, of course; it tastes great."
"Glad you enjoy the drink. I wish I could take a shortcut for you fellows, but that'd be too dangerous."
Bjornulf nodded in agreement. It must be pretty dangerous if Bjornulf is even agreeing.
Bjornulf reassured the carriage rider, "The battle would be great, but even a guide can get lost in these deserts if they take the wrong turn. You mustn't have any need to worry; we can wait."
Vira nodded, and Kisei, who had been oddly quiet today, did nothing.
Bjornulf grabbed the barrel of alcohol, putting it in the middle of the back of the carriage, with 2 unused spoons still in it as the alcohol swayed back and forth with the sudden movement.
Bjornulf then lifted up his spoon with a big smile as some alcohol dripped out.
"To me it is a trait of the warrior to love alcohol, so let's all drink; it'd be a shame for all this to go to waste."
"I'd rather not," Vira said, declining the offer; she really didn't like alcohol.
On the other hand, Kisei did join in, taking a spoon and drinking under their cloak. Both Kisei and Bjornulf seemed to have quite the tolerance for alcohol.
Bjornulf wasn't too upset by Vira's response as he kept drinking.
"Just know you're missing out then!"
——————-
"Focus on your magic entirely; think of it as a calm flame, not a raging one."
Slace had his eyes closed, breathing slowly with his arms and hands out as he visualized his flame while listening to Ignis.
The flames then came out, still black in colour; they were still Endland's flames.
Ignis sighed; she wished it would be that easy, but it never is.
"Tell me, Slace, are you willing to risk your life for your magic? Because that's what you'll have to do."
Slace nodded; he was willing to do anything to get his flames under control. Without them, his chances of revenge would be significantly lower.
Ignis looked into Slace's eyes; she could tell he was serious, and that alone made her willing to go forward with this lesson.
"This shall take 2 days… continuously use those flames for two days… it'd take longer for most, but you're talented because of your lineage, so be grateful."
Slace nodded; he didn't need to hear that. After all, he was always grateful to his clan. I mean, why was he even getting revenge then if he wasn't? He sighed, trying to ignore it.
Slace did it again, visualizing his flames as Endland's flames came out, but this time he held it as Ignis requested.
Slace wasn't scared most of the time, but he was intimidated; even now as he coughed blood, sweaty, his body straining, and his vision blurry, he was intimidated, intimidated by his own magic.
Would he really have to hold this for two days? He didn't let that stop him as he kept going; he stayed calm, reverting back to his old mindset—anything to get revenge.
Ignis watched on; this would take a long time, so for now the best thing to do was wait.
Both she and Iml then noticed Slace's eyes flickering, his pupils changing to a dark, vibrant blood red as blood slowly poured out from his eyes.
"Red eyes… you're definitely part of the Kurai." Iml said, noting Slace's red eyes with intrigue.
"Whenever a Kurai uses Endland's magic for an extended period, their pupils turn red." Ignis said, Obviously, being ancient dragons, they knew much about the Kurai.
Slace couldn't hear them; he was too focused on trying to not try to fall unconscious. It had only been 5 minutes, and he was already this out of it; he really was inexperienced for a Kurai.
Still, despite his injuries getting worse, his breathing was still steady; he really wasn't afraid to risk his life. If it meant killing the kings, he'd do anything.
———————
The fire king was walking towards the kitchen to make tea for Slace and himself; he had always preferred to do it instead of making the butlers or maids do the work.
On the way there everyone greeted Pyrrhus with respect; some of the knights came over and bowed before talking to him casually as if it was normal.
"Are you planning to make tea again, Majesty?"
Pyrrhus nodded gleefully; it was quite the habit for Pyrrhus to make tea, so much so everyone in the castle knew when he was going to do it.
"Of course I plan to; would you like any?"
The knights shook their heads and waved their hands dismissively, politely declining the offer.
"We could never ask for such generosity from our king; don't feel the need to work for us."
Pyrrhus looked at them, asking again; he was kind of pushy when it came to being nice.
"Are you sure? I'd be glad to brew my knights some tea."
The knights averted their eyes; they didn't want to say no to the king, especially since his tea was always so good, but they didn't want to put more of a burden on the king.
"We insist that you don't; we must patrol anyway. With the number of knights in the war zone, we have to make sure the kingdom stays safe."
Pyrrhus nodded, letting them off to their own duties and walking off.
"Well, if any of you want tea later, feel free to ask."
The knights nodded with fake smiles on their faces, because when they walked away, showing their backs to the king, they had looks of distress.
"Why did we have to decline his tea?! Why!"
—————
The carriage finally arrived at the destination; Bjornulf and the rest got off except for the carriage rider, who stayed, intending to take them back once they finished.
"Thank you for the ride." Bjornulf said he was genuinely appreciative of the man.
The carriage rider simply nodded, acknowledging the kind gesture.
Bjornulf then turned to glance at Vira and Kisei, who hadn't even said thanks.
He noticed the two looking at the town, desolate, devoid of noise, with rubble and weeds rolling through the sand.
There were people there, but they were just too afraid to go outside; it worried Bjornulf.
Heeding the call or not of the people of the village, he took a stride forward.
"Let's save this village from that dragon, friends! It's a warrior's duty."
That was mostly like just an excuse to fight the dragon even more.
Either way, the two followed after Bjornulf, walking around; blinds were closing, and people were scared, it seemed. It gave the group a bad feeling.
Bjornulf got his axes ready as if to signal for everyone to get ready, which led to Vira unsheathing her sword and Kisei not really doing anything to get ready.
That's when a huge gust of wind came back and a huge sound rang out; it was a landing. Bjornulf spoke.
"It's here…"
It was the elemental dragon, its rough scales gleaming all sorts of different colours, a clear sign of its elemental attributes; it looked at the warriors.
Bjornulf was intimidated but not scared; he was shaking… shaking because of excitement at the prospect of fighting such an enemy.
Vira was emotionless as ever, yet she was slightly intimidated, which was surprising.
Before Bjornulf or Vira could even fall behind, Kisei rushed forward towards the dragon recklessly, the hood of his cloak falling down and revealing their face.
Kisei brought his arm outwards; it began to stretch like how it did against Slace, and then Kisei wrapped their stretched-out arm around the dragon's big rigid leg, planning to launch themselves towards it.
The dragon reacted as it lifted and stomped its foot, causing vibrations through the whole ground as earth came up in the form of spikes, cutting off Kisei's arm.
The spikes weren't done, yet as they came from the ground towards Kisei who was planning to get hit.
Suddenly a sound rang out, a figure appearing in front of Kisei and attacking the ground, stopping the spikes and making even louder vibrations, making the ground crack around the whole village.
"Quite eager, aren't you, friend?" Bjornulf said, lifting his axe from the ground
"I hope you're not trying to steal all the fun."
Kisei's arm regenerated, not even processing that Bjornulf technically saw their face.
Bjornulf picked up Kisei, laughing loudly as Vira spoke, thinking of a plan.
"You focus on dealing with its top half, Kisei; we'll deal with its lower half."
Vira headed towards the dragon as Bjornulf threw Kisei in the air, launching them towards the dragon's head and then following Vira into battle.
The dragon let fire roar, breathing fire at Bjornulf and Vira.
Vira slid under the fire radius as Bjornulf went to the side; the dragon focused its attention on Bjornulf, the fire following him as he ran.
As that was happening, the dragon dragged its claws against the ground, swiping it towards Vira, and earth chunks attacked her while she slid, the knockback sending it to Bjornulf.
Bjornulf caught Vira by her clothing, throwing her towards the dragon's leg while running. She slashed the dragon's leg, not even making a mark as she landed, her feet dragging in the sand, as she bled from the earlier attack.
"(It's resilient; no wonder this is an S-ranked mission; it's for the best of warriors.)" Bjornulf thought, smiling maniacally as the dragon finally exhausted its fire breath.
Bjornulf was now heading straight for the dragon; if there was one person who could do great damage to this dragon, it was him.
——————————-
Kisei latched onto the dragon's neck by stretching and wrapping their arms around it, using the momentum to launch themselves towards the dragon's head.
The dragon flew up in the air before Bjornulf could get a solid hit; the dragon was trying to shake off Kisei, occasionally swooping down to attack Vira and Bjornulf with its claws.
Kisei got flung around as the dragon flew erratically. Kisei used their other arm and stretched it, launching it into the dragon's mouth; of course, the dragon bit down.
Kisei's arm got pierced and pinned against the dragon's teeth as they used that chance, pulling themselves towards the dragon's face.
The dragon opened its mouth to bite down again, and that's when Kisei used that singular moment to land inside its mouth.
—————————
The dragon swooped down and attacked Vira and Bjornulf with its claws.
Bjornulf lifted his axes, blocking the incoming attack and using all his strength to halt the dragon in its tracks while he got pushed back by its immense force.
Vira dodged the incoming attack, and when Bjornulf halted the dragon, she stabbed her sword between its scales into its skin. Dragon scales were heat resistant, but behind that? Not so much.
Vira used fire magic to heat her sword up, cranking the heat to the max, burning herself. The sword blazed burning the dragon, melting its skin rapidly; the scales were even getting burnt.
Vira's face was stone cold despite the pain of being burnt; well, the dragon roared in pain.
Bjornulf stopped blocking and stepped back, the dragon hesitating because of the pain.
Bjornulf took that chance, using his axe and slashing at the dragon's foot, breaking past the scales and slicing off its foot.
Vira took out her sword almost immediately, going into a blocking position, putting her blade in front while she placed arm behind as the dragon hit her with its claws, knocking her back quite a bit.
The dragon flew back up, Bjornulf getting close to Vira, staying together.
"Where did that friend of yours go?" Bjornulf asked, referring to Kisei, expecting him to be on top of the dragon.
"In the dragon's mouth." Vira responded ever so nonchalantly.
Bjornulf stayed quiet for an awkward second before laughing out loud; he couldn't believe it.
"In all my time I've never seen a person try that before.
He stopped laughing. "It's simply incredible."
———————————————
Speaking of Kisei, there they were in the dragon's mouth, their arms reattached and regenerated as they planted their hand on the top part of its throat.
A sort of dark, distorted, fractured magic started emitting from Kisei's hand as it latched onto the dragon and made its flesh rot into a mouldy black.
The dragon reacted by breathing fire, burning Kisei alive while the dragon's skin continued to rot and corrupt; the magic wasn't foreign to the dragon, but it was painful.
The dragon's neck burst and exploded from the rot, spewing out blood and black liquid, Kisei falling out covered in blood; they were completely burnt but slowly regenerating.
"(The regeneration might have a limit, then,)" Vira thought, just analyzing but thinking nothing of it as she saw Kisei get up.
The dragon fell to the ground, making a loud sound, now a corpse.
Bjornulf walked up to the now burnt Kisei and patted them on the shoulder; he seemed proud of Kisei.
"I don't know what you did, but good work, friend! You truly are a warrior."
The compliment surprised Kisei, but also something else did too; Bjornulf wasn't terrified of their appearance?
Kisei said nothing, just sheepishly blushing and averting their gaze as they put the hood of their cloak back on, concealing their face.
The people in the village walked out cheering Bjornulf, Vira, and Kisei, the regular "Oh, you saved our village" type stuff.
Bjornulf was a warrior who sought glory, but he was also humble, so he didn't ask anything of the people. Vira and Kisei also didn't, but they never would.
Bjornulf wrapped his arms around Vira and Kisei walking back to the carriage as he laughed full-heartedly. "Let's have a feast! It'll be on me."
Vira and Kisei didn't reply back, but Kisei seemed happier now, maybe because another person wasn't scared of them.
————————————-
Back at the fire kingdom castle, the fire king, Pyrrhus, had finished brewing tea, so he was now walking towards the room Slace was in.
He was humming while he walked there, but then suddenly the tea glass fell, and his humming stopped; he sensed Endland's flames, a look of worry spreading over his face.
Pyrrhus barged into the room, seeing the situation: the ancient dragons watching Slace hold his Endland's flames. Slace was in horrible condition, kneeling, vision blurry, blood dripping from his mouth.
The ancient dragons directed their attention towards Pyrrhus, and Pyrrhus looked up at them before looking at Slace, who stopped using his Endland's flames, not because of the pain but because the Fire king was here.
Slace slowly started to get up, Pyrrhus rushing to his side, attempting to help Slace up; it confused Slace before he whacked Pyrrhus's hand away. The air was tense but still foreign.
"Don't bother; you know who I am. How come you don't act?" Slace broke the silence with his question, turning the tension of the room to hostility, his rage no longer chained.
Pyrrhus stepped back. The ancient dragons said nothing; they stayed quiet even if there was much to say.
Pyrrhus then looked away with regret and guilt. He then looked Slace straight in the eyes with conviction; he was willing to accept any punishment for his actions against Slace and the Kurai.
"I'm sorry for the acts I've committed; there's no excuse for what I've done. So punish me as you see fit, but I would like you to come see something with me first if you're willing."
Slace couldn't believe it; it must be some type of trick. No, he knew that wasn't the case; with Pyrrhus's personality, it was very unlikely.
Slace stayed quiet for a moment, letting his rage calm down as he took deep breaths.
"Fine… show me, but it won't change my mind."