"Nexus, get out of there! I think this thing wants you dead!" Quinn's voice echoed across the field, trembling as he leapt out of the tree. Air started to spiral around his legs before bursting in a shockwave that launched him toward Nexus.
"You think so?" Nexus replied sarcastically as he reached his hand into the air, catching Quinn mid-flight and throwing him onto his shoulder.
The drake roared, then began stomping vigorously, sending more shockwaves into the earth, making the quake more violent with each stomp.
Nexus struggled to keep his footing, but luckily, his years of training and balance kept him from falling flat on his behind.
"Sir, my friend would like to apologize for his actions," Quinn replied, almost jokingly but still a bit worried.
The drake's eyes narrowed; smoke puffed through its nostrils as it released a final roar that shook the earth so much that it demolished the ground around them, creating a giant chasm that kept them from running away.
"Well, that made it worse. It almost felt like he could understand us ," Quinn replied as he laughed nervously, trying to keep calm.
"That's because I can ," a voice came from the drake, harsh and grizzled.
Nexus and Quinn stepped back in surprise, looking the drake up and down. As they looked at each other in perfect sync, they uttered, "Did that thing just talk?"
"You insult me by calling me 'thing.' How dare you? I am the great Onyx, the next elder dragon of earth." His voice boomed with pride as he lifted his head into the air like a noble who didn't dare look at peasants.
Who knew Ruby shared brain cells with a drake, the duo thought in unison as their eyes went blank and their lips flattened.
"And for interrupting my meal before my ascension, your punishment shall be death."
The drake lifted his left front leg, ready to destroy their half of the platform.
"Wait. Before we continue this fight, I've gotta ask—what makes you think you can evolve into an elder dragon? Only true dragons can become elder dragons." Quinn's head tilted to the left, putting both his hands behind him as a blue light began radiating from his palm, emanating from a blue circle with a snowflake in the middle.
"That information is none of your business!" the drake stomped, breaking off their half of the platform.
But before the ground could even begin to fall, ice burst from Quinn's palm, freezing half of the open field and creating a solid surface over the chasm. "Uh… and here I thought I'd get him to talk a bit before using this."
The ability wasn't complete. It was supposed to freeze the drake as well, but it only froze his legs, keeping him in place.
Nexus dashed toward the drake, seizing this opportunity to attack the beast. Dark red flames enveloped his hand, forming into dragon claws that dug deep into the drake's neck.
Onyx cried out in pain before swatting him away with his tail, sending him flying.
Quinn clapped, summoning a giant ice wall behind them as Nexus rolled midair, landing on the wall feet-first before leaping toward Onyx once again.
Onyx's eyes sharpened as he got ready to slap Nexus away again, but when he was in range, Quinn used his wind abilities to launch them further up into the air.
Dodging the drake's tail by an inch, Quinn clapped, freezing it in place.
A mix of lightning and flames spun around into a giant orb emanating from Nexus's hands, holding it over his head.
The Drake looked up at Nexus barreling down with an orb the size of a building, unable to attack.
So he decided to defend. He slammed his head into the ground, causing it to cave in and break the ice, opening up the chasm below him.
He fell in, grabbing onto the side of the chasm walls with his claws, slowing his descent before burrowing into it.
"Dang it." Nexus reabsorbed the energy from the fireball as Quinn used his wind to propel them over the chasm to the mainland.
"You think he ran away?" Nexus asked as he landed.
"No, I can hear him tunneling toward us—run!" Quinn shouted.
Nexus took off at top speed before Quinn even finished speaking.
The earth behind them burst as Onyx leapt in and out of the ground like a dolphin dashing through the sea.
Nexus could hear the crushing of rocks getting closer with every second. Quinn turned to look, only to see the giant drake soaring overhead, staring at them and ready to consume them.
Oh, we're so cooked, he thought.
Nexus snapped his fingers, the same blue flower from the impulse scroll began glowing right beneath Onyx.
"Checkmate, Drake!" Nexus shouted turning his head to the side, staring Onyx in the eyes while the flower glyph exploded in a burst of pure kinetic energy, leaving his internal organs in shambles while blowing both Quinn and Nexus away.
Onyx's lifeless body lay on the frozen ground, his scales, claws, and teeth luckily undamaged and ready to be harvested.
Nexus sat up, holding his head and waiting for the ringing in his ears to stop. He saw Quinn lying beside him, not moving.
"Hey, you good over there?" Nexus asked. He picked him up by the waist, then began shaking him vigorously.
Quinn's eyes shot open, his cheeks swollen. Nexus didn't waste any time and quickly spun him around to face the opposite direction as Quinn began to puke like a man who overdrank.
"Okay, we're never doing that again. From now on, dragons are off our list of targets," Quinn uttered as he hung like a baby in Nexus's arms, breathing heavily.
Nexus nodded, agreeing with Quinn. "Yeah, I think we should let Rosefield know drakes are also off the table from now on."
The duo took a minute to catch their breath before going over to Onyx's corpse.
"So, did you bring a storage artifact, or are we gonna have to carry these by hand?" Quinn asked as he looked at the colossal drake corpse before them.
Nexus rummaged through his supplies, only for his eyes to go dull. "So, good news, I did bring one."
Quinn looked toward Nexus, thinking to himself, Did he just use the phrase good news? "And what's the bad news?"
"Ruby swapped the rift cube for a temporary storage ring, soooo…" Nexus's words hung in the air for a second until Quinn finished his sentence.
"The weight is only gonna go down 50%," Quinn uttered, gritting his teeth, knowing that he was going to have to help carry that thing partway.
Nexus and Quinn looked each other in the eyes before screaming, "I'm going to hang that little twit!"
Back at Lunaria, Ruby let out a sneeze. "Oh, someone must be talking about me. I wonder who it is. Probably some poor fool that wishes he could be with me."
Ruby held her head high as it looked as though she was shining with pride.
"Get back to the lesson. I'm not paying you to show off that cheap blouse and tacky hairstyle," Artemis shouted while looking through her notes on Tal-Kan speech.
"Oh, right, sorry, madam," Ruby replied, not wanting to anger the red lioness any further.
But still, out of pride, she whispered the phrase, "tal-tal-jon,"
which was a curse word used to insult someone's bloodline, meaning family of mangy mutts.
Artemis dashed toward Ruby, planting her foot on the wall barely inches away from her face. "I heard that. Now what does that mean, you insufferable twit?"
Artemis's sharp eyes sent a chill down Ruby's spine. "Oh, it means sorry, that's all."
"I thought jin-yu meant sorry," Artemis pressed down her heel, cracking the wall.
"Yes, but this is a more formal way to say sorry, like apologizing to a noble or respected family," Ruby replied while shaking, thinking to herself, This crazy she-devil is gonna kill me.
"Okay, I'll accept that answer. Now get back to the lesson before I lower your pay." Artemis removed her heel from the wall before walking back to the desk she was sitting on earlier.
Oh, I'm alive. I can't believe that she-devil fell for that, she thought as she laughed like a madwoman in her head.
But really quick, it's the narrator—you know, the guy who always left his opinion on Ruby in chapter one. If you want to know why I haven't been talking, it's because I'm only needed when Ruby's here. Needless to say, I'll also be here when this comes back to bite her. Okay, now carry on with the story.
Back in the Draconian Forest, Nexus pulled out the storage ring, pressing the gem atop its silver band against the dragon as a giant flat black hand burst forth, dragging the corpse in.
The ring's weight increased drastically, falling out of Nexus's hand and leaving a crater the size of a bowl where it fell.
Quinn looked into Nexus's eyes, dead from disbelief. "You think we can carry it?"
Nexus sighed. "Yeah… yeah, we can carry it, but it's gonna suck."
Quinn walked away, moving deeper into the forest with the same blank expression.
"Where are you going?" Nexus shouted.
"To get the egg so we can get out of this place," Quinn replied, tired of all that had happened.