Chapter 17 - Unwanted Advances (2)

That was an interesting encounter, I thought, not even the slightest worried about her threat. Now, there was just one problem left.

It was those three men, supposedly slavers, who had given me black smiles when they had seen me naked in the center of the town. Two of them looked to be around their mid twenties while the last one looked like a young man just turned eighteen or so. That young man was the only handsome one out of that group as the other two older men had crisscrossed scars all over their already ugly faces. One of the older men had a head that was entirely shaved while the other had shaggy, unkempt hair that had the quality of grease.

I suppose, to them, I looked like a good catch with my long-white hair and my unnaturally green eyes. It was either that or the fact that the young man just did not condone me, the obvious hatred burning in his glare, not even slightly hidden. Why he hated me, I did not know nor cared enough to venture a guess.

The three of them walked up to me, all of them glowering at me. The bystanders had the sense to quickly avoid this and pretty soon, only the four of us were left at the safety grounds, as the assigned town guards had left to clean up the aftermath of the raid and to patrol for any looting of some of the destroyed buildings in town.

It was quite easy to carry out the destruction of a town, because many buildings were made out of timber, which would burn quite easily with a strong enough fire. Only a few buildings were made of quarried stone as this process was time-consuming and expensive, so only some of the most important buildings, such as a garrison, would be built with such a method.

That is why the bigger, richer towns, and the cities, most of which had protected stone walls, were safer. A bigger congregation of humans in one location usually meant more safety as raiders, either humans or monsters, would not have the liver to attack such fortified places.

The three slavers were now just before me and I could only sighed inwardly. Did troubles follow me everywhere, even in my second life? It seemed as if I was loved by a god or goddess of mischief, not that I did anything to warrant such extreme, dedicated love.

“Before you say anything, why don't we move to that forest up ahead. I like the scenery there and it is better suited for talking.”

Without even waiting to hear their replies, I strode toward the forest, a small distance away from the safety grounds. They obviously made light of me as they followed with barely a doubt on their faces, probably laughing at their good fortunes that their target was so stupid, thinking that unarmed and naked, he could take on three grown men.

By the time we were all alone at the forest, hidden away from any witnesses, the three men had pulled out their crude, iron daggers hidden near their waists. They pointed their weapons threateningly at me, but two of them were holding it with bad form. With such incompetence displayed before me, I could have easily disarmed them with just a quick, sudden hit to their wrists or even their arms. The only one that looked competent was the bald man, the largest and the most scarred of the group.

“I think I will break in the fresh meat a little,” the bald-headed man said, his square face and nose a mass of scars. The nose also looked like it had been broken and healed numerous times, so misshapen it was. His tiny, beady eyes looked excited as he licked his crude dagger with a long, pointed tongue. A snake would have felt jealous with the finesse he displayed with his tongue. And I suppose some women might like such a thing, although I had a distinct feeling this man did not like women. Not at all.

Before the bald-headed man had a chance to retract his tongue back inside his mouth, I had moved toward him, my movements just a blur to their untrained, human eyes. Then my hand shot forth toward his tongue and in mid-movement, I transformed my index finger into a foot long, black, dragon talon. This talon then proceeded to cleanly slice off the man's tongue.

An inhumane scream burst out from the very depths of the bald man's throat as he dropped his dagger onto the soft, earthen forest floor at the same time his sliced-off tongue hit the ground. Blood spewed forth from wound, but none of it hit me as I was already moving.

Not even giving the two other men time to react, I transformed my whole right arm into my real, dragon forelimb and slammed it, all five talons first, into the youngest man. The force of my dragon forelimb was so strong that it pierced through the young man's whole upper body, went through him, and then through the man next to him. Both of them died instantly with a huge gaping hole that almost covered the entirety of their torsos and part of their heads.

Now, only one of the slaver was left. It was the bald-headed man, the ugliest of them all, who was now pissing himself in fear at seeing what I had done. In just mere seconds, he had been reduced into a blathering, wet-from-his-own-piss, mute.

Incoherent words blubbered out from his mouth, but without his tongue, it was a futile attempt at asking for his life as I did not understood anything he said. I only ventured a guess as to what he was saying because any such creature that valued his own life, faced with such overwhelming power, would do so.

I gave him a quick death, as I sliced his throat with a talon finger and warm, human blood splashed onto the forest floor, dying some of the strewn green leaves and the brown twigs, red. I had made a bloody mess, and the splatters of blood had even sprayed onto nearby trees. I suppose the trees would find some nourishment from the water in the blood, so it was not too wasteful.

My whole body was also a mess of blood, especially my right arm, which was soaked to the brim, like a new born babe who had been delivered from a messy, hard birth. My curiosity had gotten the better of me once more, causing another problem. I should have just killed those three men quickly, efficiently, and cleanly, but I had been curious to test out the extent of my transformation magic. After all, I have not had a chance to do so since I had only learned it the day I got my second tribulation, coming into my dragon-hood at two years and a half old.

I almost regretted rejecting the offer of a bath with that woman adventurer named Elisa Ballard.

Still, I suppose I got a chance to try out this magic and felt a little pleased when I was not fatigued from the use. The eldest said that everyone had an inborn and immutable magic capacity, which was decided from birth. And transformation magic for dragons was especially consuming, so much that the less magically gifted Astlan dragons should not even attempt it. Perhaps this was the reason why I had not seen dragons in human forms except for the eldest.

There was still another curious question I needed to find the answer to and the answer laid in the blood soaked all around on my arm, which was just a human one now. My suspicions and hypothesis were correct as I swallowed the blood and felt no arousal or even strength from ingesting the red liquid.

Yes, it seemed like I could only cannibalize the blood of my own race, which was a confounding ability, leading to even more questions. I had no doubts about this conclusion as I had ingested the blood of orcs, goblins, and other creatures when I had been allowed to eat with the eldest's express permission.

Still, my bloodied body posed a problem for me and I would usually not care for such a small annoyance, if I had no pressing need to go back into town to meet the adventurers. My whole appearance practically screamed murders, foul deeds, and killings. I knew I would be arrested instantly by the town guards if I went like this.

The clothing of the men were also no longer salvageable as they were either bloodied, torn into two, or had large holes in it. It would also have been a futile attempt If I tried to pass off the bloodied tunic and pants of the young slaver as a “red tunic,” or “red pants.” It would have undoubtedly worked on the blind, but not the ones that could see.

After a moment of pondering my problems, I finally came to a decision.

Very well then, I thought to myself. I will just stay and practice my magic here for a while and then go to the lake. And by the time I am done with my experimenting, those adventurers should be done. However, I will have to settle for going naked into town as I had no coins with me, seeing that I was a dragon and had not expected to be in human settlements.

And then it hit me that there was a lake nearby town where I could wash the blood stains off the clothing. How this simple fact did not come up before was quite stupid of me, but now that it did, I had a method to solve my problem.

Thus, I set off to strip the most salvageable articles of clothing from the slavers. The most salvageable ones came from the bald-headed man whom I had killed in the cleanest method, a slice to the throat. I took off his over-tunic and then set to strip off his white undershirt. Then I took off his black trousers, leaving the bald-man half-naked with only his thin, black undergarment. I would go as far as to take the pants, but underwear, I would definitely not. And I had no pressing need to see his genital.

My lack of money problem was also solved very easily as I felt bulges under their tunics. Digging into those secret pockets, I found three coin purses, one from each man. They were mostly silvers and coppers, but a few gold coins were mixed in there too.

“Your meager life-savings shall not be wasted, my dead friends. They will be put to good use for my second tribulation,” I said to the three corpses, almost feeling affection for them for helping me out at my time of need. “I shall not forget our bonds...that fast.”

Now I just needed to waste some time by experimenting with my magic before leaving for the lake. Thus, I stood there at the edge of the forest practicing my transformations, the blood slowly drying on me. There was also a pile of neatly folded black trousers on top of a neatly folded thin, white undershirt beside me.

Time quickly passed by like this.

But strange enough, I did not feel any fatigue, mental or physical, even after consecutive transformations. I even learned some new things with my experimenting.

In summary, it seemed like I could transform any part of my body into that of a dragon's part. Furthermore, I could even change the size of the talons and other dragon bodily transformations, but I could not make it larger than my original dragon body. A logical limitation, I suppose, though the eldest of our clan seemed to defy this rule.

I had also burned all evidence of everything that had taken place into ashes. This was done quite easily by sustaining fire magic over the corpses of those three men. It took a while, but I got that job done quite easily.

The reason why such fire magic came naturally to me, even in my human form, as I had found out during experimentation, was that a dragon's natural aptitude with fire made them experts with fire magic. Even as a wyrm, I could breathe out fire easily, and as I grew older after the Blood Baptism, my fire-breathing ability became even stronger.

The eldest had also explained to me that a wyrm's magic capacity stayed latent until he or she reached dragon-hood, fully coming into their magical power if they were born with the capacity. However, fire magic could be used even as a wyrm due to our natural kinship with fire. This was probably why Scarlet, my dead brother wyrm, had made such powerful fireballs.

And even if a dragon was not born with any magical capacity, the dragon could still breathe fire generated from within themselves. It would just be far weaker than a magically strengthened fire breath.

My ability with fire magic was also so strong that the eldest gave a little, mocking praise to it. Though said mockingly, it was the only praise I received in the two and about half years I had been training under him.

But even in regard to the strength of my fire magic, which was the strongest of all my gifts, the eldest could overwhelm me easily.

For example, in one of the rare mock-duels I had against him, I breathed out a fireball so intense and so condensed, that I was certain it would have at least injured him in his little-girl form, so sure was I of its power. To my small dismay, however, the eldest just hovered in the air, blocking the fireball with a hand and even had the audacity to fake a suppressed yawn.

This display of power from him had actually made me feel like a mere wyrm, even with my blunted, emotional capacity. Still, I was more powerful than other wyrms my age; the eldest had reassured me of that fact.

I looked around at the burnt ground and the small piles of ashes and nodded to myself, a little satisfied. The blood-stains on the trees, however, would be impossible to get rid of unless I burnt down this small forest entirely to its roots. Still, the red marks on the tree would not be noticed much even if someone were to see it as that someone would not be able to make any connections to the event that had transpired. I would make sure the ashes were scattered so thoroughly that any evidence that the three slavers had lived, would be obliterated.

Following the advice the eldest gave to me as a wyrm that I should play around with my magic to discover the aptitudes I had with the types of magic, I found that I could use only fire, earth, and transformation types, with earth being my weakest. I was curious as to why I could only use these three as the eldest seemed to be able to use a variety of types such as ice and wind. Still, I suppose I should not be so greedy, because most dragons would be lucky to even be born with a magic capacity.

With this new revelation about magic, I fixed the ground to a degree with my earth magic, so that a cursory glance from a passerby would not reveal anything.

Finished with my experimentation and hiding the evidence of my deeds, I gathered my black-colored magic, which could only be seen by those born with the rare gift of magic, toward my shoulders. It took less than a second for the black-colored magic to change into transformation magic. As soon as this occurred, jet-black, leathery wings that spanned more than eleven feet sprouted from my shoulders instantly. At the joints of my black wings were cruel, sharp black bones jutting out. And the edges of my thin, yet extremely durable wing membranes ended in random, zigzag patterns that made them look tattered.

I felt a slightly uncomfortable feeling near my shoulders as I was not used to having wings as a human, but I was certain that this would pass. It was just like riding a horse for the first time and getting used to using muscles you have never used. A better thing to say, I suppose, would be that I had grown two extra limbs.

I gathered the folded clothes into my hands and with a starting jump from both my legs, I shot up into the air, much faster than a hunting bird swooping down on its prey. High above the air where I would just be a speck to anyone looking up, I searched for the nearby lake and found it with my far-seeing spell, which worked by sending magic to my eyes and giving them a dragon's eyesight. It was a simple trick that I had been trying to do before the woman adventurer had interrupted me.

Remembering the direction Milli had slunk off to after threatening me, I traced it and quite easily found the small lake located to the east of the town. It was situated in the middle of the forest and had a shape that looked like a fat crescent whose bottom tip slowly became an oval. A weird shape for a lake, I suppose.

With a speed that would have easily made a normal human faint, I arrived at the lake and quietly landed on the top of a tree, whose branches looked steady enough to hold my weight. Now, I just needed to get into a comfortable, sitting position on top of the wide branch where my folded clothes would act as a cushion between my ass and the branch. It was only logical. After all, even with my durable human skin, I would not dare sit naked on such a rough branch. The green canopy of the tree also allowed a cool shade below, not that the warm weather bothered me any.

With indifferent eyes, I stared at the three women adventurers. Two of them, Elisa and Ryia, were having a swimming race back and forth across the clear, blue lake, entirely naked. Milli, the dagger girl, just sat silently at the edge of the lake, both of her feet inside the shallower part of the lake.

A lot of time had passed in between killing the three slavers and experimenting with my abilities, yet these three adventurers were still here at the lake. I could tell by the strewn undershirts, undergarments, and stainless black leather armors on top of the huge, flat rock nearby that they had spent some time washing out the blood.

It was a possible reason why they were taking so long at the lake, but I doubted that, seeing the energetic race still going in between the two naked women.

No matter, I thought, I was a patient dragon and the sight was not half-bad as I could observe everything quite clearly even from far away by relying on my dragon eyes. After a long while of observing and waiting patiently, I was finally rewarded with the sight of those two finishing their “baths.”

Both of them got out from the lake naked and laughing and headed over to their respective piles of clothing. Not one of them seemed embarrassed of their nudity around each other. Elisa was lightly panting from the exertion of the swimming race, her sweetly curved mounds, which ended in pink tips, going along with the motions. The light, fine brown hair on her bottom mound was glistening with wetness from the swim. Then she arched her back lithely like a cat, her flat, lightly toned stomach showing.

Just a few feet beside her, Ryia, was also panting lightly from the race, stretched herself, her heavy, twin breasts bouncing from just that small motion. The fat, brown nipples of those twin mountains stood with excitement from the efforts exerted from swimming. She was undoubtedly the tallest and the most muscular out of the three women. But it was not the flagrant kind of muscles, instead, it was the wiry kind. She also had a faint outline of muscles along her stomach.

I could also see on Ryia's back, many faint scars which seemed to be made from the sharp edges of various weapons, and perhaps even some made from whips. It caused a little tug at my curiosity, but I left this alone for now.

And although these sights were interesting to me, I was more curious about the conversation the two were holding while Milli just sat nearby, silent and withdrawn in her own little world, only coming out when her two friends spoke to her.

Judging from the looks the two naked women gave to each others' breasts, I ventured a guess that their conversation was something along the lines of that topic, most likely about sizes. I could have cared less about that.

I did not even bothered to eavesdrop into their conversation by transforming my ears for sharper hearing, since I felt that the topic of the labyrinth would not be brought up. I suppose I would just have to wait for nightfall after being tested with the spar against Ryia.

I would not have to wait long as it was already far past mid-day and as soon as night fell, the two moons would be seen atop the sky, their moonlight bathing the town.

Another long while passed before they got dressed and their weapons all cleaned of blood. I felt a slight discomfort at the dried blood coating my whole body, but luckily for me, blood had not gotten onto the more private parts.

The three adventurers soon left and their shrinking backs disappeared as they got out of the forest. Seeing this, I stood up and jumped down, falling thirty feet to the ground, before landing softly on my bare feet.

The ground near the lake felt wet and soft against my bare feet. Still, it would not have made a difference to me even if the ground were filled with spikes, as I would not feel anything since it would be tough to pierce my skin, even if it was human skin.

The skin of my human form felt soft and was sensitive to touch just like a normal human's, but that was where the similarities ended. I felt that even if a sword was swung with full might at me, it would not cut my skin. I do not know the reason, but it was about half as formidable as my black, dragon scales, which was saying a lot.

It did not take very long until I had washed myself free of all the blood and my appearance no longer screamed of bloody murder. My next step afterward was to wash the clothing, which I did so quickly and efficiently. Then I left them to dry upon the flat rocks, on which the sun's rays were still shining upon.