Chapter 91 - Days Before the War (2)

“I am extremely bored, clown,” Eden said in a lazy, but arrogant tone. “Entertain me.”

Beside Eden, Kiara was simply resting against the back of a chair with her eyes closed, her long black hair, as usual, always in neat form.

“With what?” I asked, trying to humor the troublesome green dragon.

“Strip for me, and dance like a clown,” Eden bluntly said.

“I fear I shall have to pass on that. I do have a reputation to hold among these humans,” I replied indifferently.

We were inside my tent, and there were no soldiers outside in a close vicinity, so I could easily refer to the soldiers as humans.

Eden let out a long sigh. “How can you even survive like this, eating these disgusting human food. I have to also wear this restricting dress and control my battle tendencies. Furthermore, to speak this distasteful human language leaves a feeling of bitterness on my tongue.”

“I wish these human enemies of yours would arrive already. That way, I can have some fun,” Eden said, showing off her sharp fangs. There was a glint of battlelust in her dark green eyes. “Some of the human mages here seem formidable.”

“And though that king of ours sent us here to check up on you, he is still busy to call us back. I have to waste away my time here with you for a month more in these human lands.”

“What magic affinities do you specialize in, anyway, Eden?” I asked, trying to change the subject. It was becoming uncomfortably close to the topic I did not wish to talk about—my reason for being in these human lands.

Eden let out a small laugh. “Even if I tell you, you shall not gain one ounce of advantage over me.” Then she declared in a haughty voice, “I specialize in fire magic, lightning magic, and some air magic. Plus my innate ability Draconic Shielding as a green dragon.”

Air magic and lightning magic. I had not expected Eden to have been born with that. I had only figured her to be able to use fire magic, since I had mostly been seeing her throw flames around.

Eden being a green dragon, she could use her natural innate ability that was known as Draconic Shielding. There were, of course, other abilities a dragon would come into as they grew older, but Draconic Shielding was the earliest one.

Navra Bloodseeker, the eldest of my clan and my brood-keeper, had given me a basic run-down of the abilities of each colored dragon. He had also given me a basic rundown of the hierarchy of dragon clans.

That said, Draconic Shielding was an ability a green dragon could utilize to harden the scales, increase physical defense, and increase magic resistance. The only small side-effect of that ability, however, was that you lost some speed.

“That definitely suits your personality,” I commented with an amused smile.

“Hah. Are you trying to pick a fight with me right now?” Eden said, excitement clearly seen on her face. “I will forgive you for now since our Dragon's Duel of Dominance needs to be overseen by an elder or the eldest of our clan. It would be futile to duel with you now, even though it should be quite fun.”

There was a sharpness in Eden's eyes. “What are your abilities, oh great and mighty black dragon?”

“Earth, fire, and blood magic,” I quickly said.

“Hmm...that last one seems interesting. What does it do?”

I showed off my own sharp fangs to Eden. “It means I am a predator of dragons.”

At those words, Kiara, who had most likely been listening from the sideline, opened her eyes. She looked at me, as if measuring the veracity of my words.

“That just means I need to be a predator of the predator of dragons,” Eden boldly said.

Being the mature and patient dragon that I was, I didn't take Eden's bait. It would be tedious of me to get into an argument with her. She was most likely waiting for me to reply with the words, “Then I will be a predator of the predator of the predator of dragons.”

Rinse and repeat, I would say.

“How about you, Kiara?” I asked with unfeigned interest.

“What about me?” Kiara said questioningly as if she didn't know what I was referring to. She let out a shy smile. “Intimacy should be reserved for when we are married, dear Verath.”

“Your abilities,” I said, not caught off-guard by her.

“Oh. How disappointing. And here I thought you were going to ask about my body.” Kiara showed a disappointed expression, that somewhat gave off the feeling of a rabbit cowering in a corner, if such an image was even possible. “My abilities are fire and water, though I specialize more in ice rather than water. It just comes easier to me.”

Kiara had left out her innate dragon ability as a rare white dragon, but I didn't bother to ask even though I was intrigued. In the end, I would eventually find out anyway. It wasn't as if Kiara was going to die, was she?

“Since you are so bored, Eden. Would you care for a drink with me?”

“You are quite funny, fool. Why should I ingest more of these human food?”

“Then as a incentive, how about we have a contest?” I said, showing a competitive smile. I knew that it was just the thing that would make Eden interested. I didn't exactly knew where her competitiveness with me stems from, but a likely reason was that I was the first black dragon. Or perhaps she was just acting out of pride, or perhaps even jealousy.

Oh well, it wasn't as if I wanted to spend that much time analyzing her mental state. Time would tell.

“Want to come along also, Kiara?” I asked in the hopes that she would come along so that Eden could be better controlled.

“I shall have to pass on that, Verath.” Kiara smiled coyly. A smile that suggested that she knew it was going to be a troublesome thing.

She is a sneaky dragon, I could only think to myself.

“So be it.”

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At the closest campsite in the central camp, Eden and I were sitting together near a bonfire. Night was beginning to rear its dark head, which made the light from the warm flames lit up her blonde hair into an array of various colors. Her lightly tanned skin also seemed darker beside the fire.

Around us were various soldiers and knights, though most of them stayed a comfortable distance away from the both of us. They could sense the trouble Eden would cause like bloodhounds. All of them had seen her throw sudden fireballs out of nowhere. A few soldiers had even been caught in the crossfire, which warranted a visit to a mage healer.

Nothing too serious happened, so all of the incidents could be easily swept under the proverbial rug, so to speak.

“I must admit, this human made liquid actually tastes good. It feels to when I am breathing fire,” Eden said in a somewhat relaxed voice.

At that, some fierce whispering broke out among the nearer soldiers, who were mostly males that had been somewhat sneaking glances at Eden. I only heard those whispers because I had somewhat enhanced my hearing. It was quite amusing to see the reactions of the soldiers.

“Breathe fire!”

“Horse shit. I can actually imagine her doing that.”

“Imagine her fiery passion in the night,” a soldier with a sparse beard commented.

“Man. You are crazy to go near a crazy bitch like her. I make it a personal rule to never touch crazies.”

Had I not been sure Eden was fully in her human form, there would have been bloodshed there. Still, even if she had heard the humans whispering about her, she would have most likely done nothing. Most likely—I wasn't too sure. She, and most other dragons, could be somewhat unpredictable.

To Eden, humans were beneath her. They were not even worthy of her contempt, though she liked to often show her contempt. Their words meant nothing to her. The only thing she truly reveled in was a good battle. Or at least that was how Eden seemed to me. That was my insight upon her personality.

Eden was truly a dragon up and beyond.

Perhaps she would have respected some of the more formidable human mages in the camp, but I wasn't too sure of that. Dragons were too powerful for just one human mage to take on. It would have been like bringing a wooden branch into a fight with steel.

Some time passed and beside Eden, there were now ten empty bottles of cheap watered down wine.

The whispering of the soldiers became even more contested.

“Where is she putting all of that away?”

“I think she is feeding liquor to her flames...” a soldier shivered noticeably. I somewhat recognized that soldier. He was a soldier who had been involved in an incident with Eden some time ago and was sent to a mage healer. I noticed the soldier unconsciously touching his right arm—that body part had been the victim of Eden's flames.

“Women should not be sloppy like that.”

“Hmm...I think a messy and violent woman like her is beautiful.”

Hearing that, all of the male soldiers in that group turned to the brown-haired soldier who had made that comment.

“You are one crazy bastard, you know.”

“Let me introduce you to my mother,” a young soldier said, patting the shoulders of that brown-haired soldier.

“Are you kidding me? Let me introduce you to my sister. You can have her. I will even pay you a dowry out of my own pockets,” he said, shivering.

I looked toward Eden. As expected, she had forgotten about the contest I was supposedly having with her. She was too caught up in her drinking.

I wasn't surprised of her tolerance either. A dragon's countenance was unmatched compared to humans. Perhaps poison could work on dragons, but I doubted it. It would most likely only have a weaker effect or no effect at all.

“Now, clown. Go and get me one more bottle of this vile human liquid you call alcohol,” Eden ordered.

None of the soldiers were surprised at her using the word human. They only attributed her way of speaking to her eccentricity. And they did not try to bring the matter up either, knowing that Eden was somehow related to me.

“You should just leave her be. I wouldn't go near her even if you give me a pole that was a thousand feet long. See how she orders the general like a dog?”

Hearing those words, I was somewhat amused as I brought Eden another bottle of wine.

“This will be your last bottle, Eden,” I said. “You should not deprive these soldiers and knights of their stocks.”

“Foolish humans. They should be thankful that I am helping them finish this disgusting liquor.”

I had been somewhat serious in saying that Eden should not drink anymore. It was beginning to become suspicious. But I knew just the words that could change her mind once more. I would play to her belligerent nature.

“Shall we trade fire magic after this bottle then? I believe I can beat you easily.”

“You wish to challenge me?” Eden said, a distinct, competitive edge in her voice. “Then you shall get your challenge. Do not regret it.”

Conversation broke out among the soldiers. Some of them even stood up to inform the further groups, who were out of hearing distance.

“You guys have to come see this. General Verath just asked for a contest of fire magic with that fire woman!”

“I definitely have to see this now!”

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As Eden and I moved toward an open field, there was a trail of soldiers following like excited, yet docile lambs to the slaughter. Among these soldiers, there were even some knights, knight captains, and even a few closer Knight Commanders. I could even spot Gold Knight Commander Lana who had an expression that was saying, “This should be fun.”

In hindsight, I should have known this small fire magic contest between Eden and I would have become a large spectacle. But then again, I was somewhat curious to see how my fire magic would do against hers.

I knew that my magic had grown stronger over the past few months, especially after my other self had come out. But there hadn't exactly been a scale to test my magic against. Eden, however, would serve as a suitable scale.

It took a few more minutes of walking—there were many camps we had to pass—before we arrived onto an open field where there would be no casualties. I even saw a few interested fire mages come along to watch the contest between Eden and I. They were most likely trying to verify the rumors of me being a mage that could use fire with their own eyes.

Seeing was believing, so they say.

“Try to control your physical prowess so that these humans will not expect anything out of the ordinary,” I whispered toward Eden.

“You need not tell me that,” Eden replied with an excited light in her eyes and a grin on her face.

We separated then, each of us only stopping until we formed a fifteen feet distance between us.

Surrounding the two of us were a few hundred people in a circle, all of them keeping a very far distance. They were cautious, not wanting to be caught up between mages trading blows of fire magic.

“Do we have any water mages here?” I asked, loud enough to reach the crowd of spectators.

“No need to worry, General Verath!” a male shouted back. “There are enough water mages here to control any wild fire!”

I recognized the male's face, though I did not know his name. He was a water mage belonging to the battalion under Mage Captain Feline, a female water mage.

“So, shall we begin,” I said toward Eden, who had an excited look on her face. She had been ceaselessly looking for opportunities to battle with me.

“Of course, clown.”

I smiled. It was an arrogant smile designed to anger Eden. It would give her just enough motivation to attack first.

“Ladies first.”