Chapter 16: The Lovely Frontier Town and a Intriguing Succubus

As I got closer to the town's wooden walls, I could tell that my earlier estimations were off by a little. Instead of around five feet and a half tall, the wooden walls were closer to six feet. There were also spiked spears protruding outward from the holes interspersed each foot on the wall. It was most likely done so to prevent any bright ideas of scaling the walls.

The entrance, which could fit about four humans at the same time, was made of heavy, dark brown wood that looked as if it had been reinforced multiple times.The scars made from the edges of weapons and a few scorch marks spoke volumes of the battles that entrance door had been through. It cemented the idea that this town was not a very particularly safe town to have a nice rest at.

Still, the idea of a dangerous and independent frontier town excited me a little. There must be many curious things inside.

“Halt, stranger! One more step and I will shoot you!” the man atop the ramparts of the walls called down in a tired voice. His eyes, however, were alert for any signs of danger, scanning the surroundings back and forth, and his short bow was aimed at my chest, an arrow already nocked.

Hearing that, I stopped to give a small, cursory look toward the man; we were both sizing each other up, him probably thinking I was a dangerous factor due to my strange appearance, whereas I was thinking that the entrance guard was effeminate.

There were multiple reasons for that. The guard's voice was of a tender tone, granted a little tired and sombre, and he was slim, almost to the point of being ladylike. I almost felt a little apologetic toward his appearance, as most people would have most likely mistaken him for a woman. His long, black hair also did not help.

“Identify yourself, stranger? And if I find you suspicious, I will kill you on the spot.”

I had not been expecting such security from a small town, but I was not surprised by the fact. It made sense to be wary of everything and everyone when it looked as if the town had been battered by frequent attacks from monsters, or perhaps even other humans.

“I have traveled from afar and I wish to stay at this town for a mere two days and then I will leave. I will even pay some gold for the brief stay,” I answered back, hoping that my appearance would not deter him from an optimistic answer and that the attraction of money would soften him.

“We have no wants of your gold. Leave before I kill you,” the guard said, unbridled hostility mixed with suspicion in his tender, yet hard voice.

“Now, now, Haikai, why don't you let that poor man in. Why, just look at his clothing. They look absolutely wearied from traveling. And I don't think we will be in danger from an unarmed man, granted, with a strange appearance,” another man said in a loud and naturally conversational voice, which could be heard even from down below where I was standing. He had appeared on the other rampart connected to the wall at the right side of the entrance, most likely seeing what was happening behind the town walls.

The man that had just shown up was not dressed like a fighting man. Instead, the man with the glint in his pale, blue eyes looked to be in his late twenties and had a short stubble growing on his chin. He wasn't what one would call handsome, but was at least not unkind to the eyes. “We could also use his gold, so I say we milk the poor bastard out for all he is worth. The safety he would get inside town would be well worth the gold.”

Greed, I could work with, I thought, looking at the newcomer on the ramparts. After all, I had more than enough to spare out of the gold coins I had looted from the many corpses.

“You do not tell me how to do my job, Dan Gojer! And get off that rampart, bastard!”

“What are you going to do about it? Shoot me? I sincerely do not think that will happen as I have doubts regarding whether you have the balls to do so.” There was a small grin on his face as if this was a point he had used multiple times to insult Haikai. He calmly fixed the tall, black hat he wore on his scruffy head of deep, black hair and waited for a reply.

I look upon with little mirth at the two men with their strange names arguing above the ramparts. In their heated argument, they had forgotten about me. I waited patiently for their argument to be done, but even after a long while of waiting, there was not even a sign of the argument even faltering.

The two men were like two friends or lovers who had not seen each other in a long while, though their conversation was not the least bit friendly. And by the time they were done insulting every imaginable body parts of each other, the bulky wooden entrance door was opened with just enough of a gap to let someone pass through. That is, if that someone was not heavily obese and was the size of two grown men; I had met some nobles whose body size had intrigued me a little. They almost seemed to defy their weights, lumbering around like trees that had grown legs.

I took the opened door as my cue that someone inside had granted me permission to enter the town. Thus, ignoring the two men still arguing, I walked toward the entrance and once I was inside the town, I found myself facing five heavily armed men led by a woman in a plain, bright blue, long linen dress that covered her entirely, leaving not even an inch of skin exposed. Her eyes were of a sharp blue, so brightly azure that it felt piercing and uncomfortable, not that I cared for such a feeling.

“My apologies for the unsightly show on the ramparts,” the woman said in a crisp, sharp, businesslike tone. “The two men above are the the idiots of the town when they are together, but alone they are some of the best men to serve the town.”

She was not exactly trying to justify the actions of the two men, but rather trying to make me feel safe, seeing that I was a traveler visiting their town.

I decided to make an attempt at humor to show that I did not feel slighted. “Thank you for coming along just at the right moment, my lady. I had not wanted a lesson on the anatomy of a human that would have lasted way until night when the morning has just barely begun.”

I had jokingly said it in my indifferent voice and waited for their reactions.

Suffice to say, the woman and the five men did not look amused at my attempt at a joke. I noted their reactions and decided that I did not have much capacity for humor. I should have known this, since I had made multiple attempts at humor when I was still human, all of which said attempts had failed miserably.

It was a curious fault of mine and I attributed it to my limited capacity for emotions. I would have to note in my mind that I should undertake no more pretense of humor, until I could perfect doing it.

It was either that or the town was just not in the mood for jokes, seeing that the town was under frequent attacks.

“You will have to undergo a search if you want to stay in this town, stranger, and we shall do it regardless of your permission, but the process would be much smoother if you are willing.” The woman motioned two of her men forward with a wave.

One of them came walking toward me with a resigned look on his scarred face as if the task of searching a man was one of the worst things that could happen; it seemed as if he would find the prospect of a battle much more comfortable than a search. The other man, however, had a cheerful look on his face as if he enjoyed doing such a task, possibly enjoying embarrassing people or perhaps something more.

Those were just my cursory observations as the two men came forward, intent on thoroughly searching me for weapons and other dangerous things. When the two men had thoroughly searched me all over, they had only found the three coin purses I had.

And once the two men opened them, their eyes widened in surprise at how much gold were found in there. Suspicions, however, quickly formed as they wondered to themselves what in the world was I doing in such a dangerous place with an amount of money that could have lasted for years of comfortable living.

The woman leader narrowed her pale, blue eyes, which made me think that perhaps she had linked my money to the annual battle I had just been in. The thought of that, however, was unlikely since it had taken all day to have come here even by flying at a fast speed. Most likely, she was just thinking that I was a thief who had been extremely lucky. After all, I was wearing shabby and dirtied clothing that would not have looked out of place on a down-on-luck peasant.

She motioned her two guards to hand the coin purses back to me, seeing that only coins were in there. “Very well, enjoy your brief stay at this town and pray that you won't die from an unlucky attack. You will be staying only briefly, correct?” She raised an eyebrow at the last part.

The woman had an incredulous personality; how very fast she had changed her mind into making me feel safe and into making me feel that I was in danger and would only be temporarily tolerated.

I only nodded in response and answered with two days. The woman thought upon it for awhile and finally gave me her express nod, before turning around with her back facing toward me. She had finished settling the matter with me and had deemed that I was most likely harmless.

“Oh yes, remember that the ground is always free,” the woman said, adding a few last words. Swiftly, the group of men left the entrance area with the woman setting a brisk pace a few steps ahead.

Interesting, I thought. It was rare to see a town where a woman was in charge. Perhaps only skills and efficiency mattered, especially when a town was at the dangerous edges of the kingdom. Also, what had she meant by “the ground is always free?”

I reflected upon this as I walked around town trying to find an inn to stay at. It was only a matter of time before I had finished inspecting the whole town, and realized what the woman had meant by her final words: there were no inns in this town.

I saw many small dwellings large enough to fit good-sized families, a few larger buildings for businesses, and a few bars, but there were no inns. I suppose I should have realized this fact, since this was a frontier town where the location was hard to reach. The danger factor also made this place highly inhospitable to visiting merchants or travelers so that was also another reason for there being no inns. Yes, this place was most likely only good for people who wanted to forget their pasts or people who wanted something dangerous and exciting in their stale lives.

Very well, I thought, it was nigh time I got in touch with the ground anyway and bond with nature. Strictly speaking though, that would be my last resort. I still had a few ideas I could try out.

1) With my not inconsiderable amount of gold coins, I could probably pay my way into sleeping at a stranger's home. There were benefits and negatives to that; one benefit being I could observe the reactions I would elicit from that and another being that I could see the inner dwellings of a frontier family. Two negatives, however, could be unforeseen hostility and suspicions being raised.

2) I could outright buy a house from someone or a family and then stay there for two days. I was sure that a hundred gold coins would be well worth their house and their lives here. Still, I did not wanted to go around asking to buy a house. It would only increase suspicions and the family would likely be aversive toward moving as the roads at the edges of the kingdoms are most likely fraught with danger.

3) There was a shady looking brothel I had seen at a corner of the town and I was quite sure my gold would be welcomed there. I had only seen a few people there so I could probably easily reserve a room for two nights. It would also provide a good cover for me and lessen the suspicions toward me.

After thinking for a few more moments, I decided to go with option three. Turning around to head toward the brothel, I found myself face to face with the man who had shown up on the rampart to argue with the effeminate guard.

“Hello there, good sir. My name is Dan Gojer,” the tall man said in a deep, baritone voice with a little tip of his hat and a hint of a strange accent. He had an appearance I had never seen before and his height was perhaps an inch or so taller than me, about five feet seven. His peculiar attire consisted of a strange, loose fitting vest that showed off his chest and arms and tight black pants which cut off abruptly nearing his knees and then continued on toward his booted feet.

“I can tell, my good stranger, that you are looking for a place to spend a night or two.” He gave me a small smile with a glint in his eyes. “If I am correct in presuming that, I have just the place for you.”

The man named Dan Gojer now held a little of my curiosity. “Lead on,” I said indifferently, not letting any curiosity inflect my tone. It would do the man no good to learn of my curiosity as it would most likely be costly to my wealth, as ill-begotten as it was.

After following the fast pace the strange man had set, I arrived at a house, which seemed to be doubled the size of the other dwellings nearby. The house was certainly set apart as the walls seemed to be furnished with bright random colors, some of which consisted of red, green, and pink.

Seeing this, I felt myself even more intrigued and wondered who would live in such a strange place.

“We have arrived, good sir,” the strange man said, the glint of greed in his pale, blue eyes now unmistakable. “That will be fifty gold coins, my good stranger.”

Propelled by my curiosity, I tossed him a hefty coin purse from the inside of my green tunic and then took out twenty more gold coins from a second to give to the man. I knew that I was being too generous in giving what he wanted, but I did not particularly care much for money.

The man who called himself Dan probably also knew that and he had most likely been watching the guards who had searched me inside town.

“Thank you, my good sir. The house is now yours for however long you wish to stay until you leave. There is also a guest already staying there, so do try to be accommodating.” With another small smile, he left the area, but not before handing me a small key from the inside of his hat.

I held the silver tinted key in the palm of my right hand and proceeded to unlock the door. Inside, I saw that the living room was barely furnished with a huge table in the middle and a couple of chairs. There was also a small carpeted rug where the table sat on.

The guest Dan had mentioned was not in the living room, so I went up the stairs, which were in good conditions. Inside the hallway, there were about four doors leading most likely to bedrooms.

I chose the closest door to me and once inside, I found myself looking at a woman who was entirely naked, and sleeping on a feathered bed. She had porcelain white-skin and an hourglass figure that would have made her the envy of most women. Long, black hair that appeared to shine with the light coming from the candle cascaded down in curls which covered her breasts, which were two large hills that ended in faint tips. Her face consisted of high cheek bones, full lips, and delicate eyelashes which covered her closed eyes.

But what was the most interesting feature to me was the long, slightly thick, red tail that ended in a sharp arrowhead tip. The tail laid wrapped around her stomach, making me consider that it was quite a flexible appendage. It also looked dangerous and I could sense that the tip of the tail was probably as sharp as a sword's edge. Interestingly enough, the creature was also hairless everywhere else on her body.

My observations of the sleeping creature was suddenly interrupted by a loud sound which seemed to have come from a horn. I experienced a little annoyance at this disturbance to my curiosity as I had never before seen a humanoid with such a tail. Still, it would be wise to figure out the cause for what was most likely a warning sound.

No matter, I thought, I would certainly have more time to figure out what sort of creature “the guest” was. And if it was a threat, I would kill it.

As I headed out of the bedroom, I did not give even a backward glance since I could tell that the creature was still deep in sleep even with the loud warning sounds from the horn reverberating everywhere.

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Outside of the house with the tiny silver key tucked safely inside one of the pockets of my leather pants, I went to the source of the noise. The source of the noise came from the center of town where a man dressed in hide armor was blowing furiously into the horn, panting to take a breath after expending each long effort.

On the many earthen paths in the town, I could see many hastily and ill-armed men and women of fighting age heading toward all four sides of the town. It seemed like the invalid, the children, and some mothers stayed inside the dwellings of the town while the rest went to fight.

Looking around, I decided to go to the side of town where most of the throngs of armed people were going toward. A short moment later, I arrived at the entrance of the town from which I had come in from.

Up on the ramparts of the wooden walls that surrounded the perimeter of the town, I could see many women and men holding bows that were aimed at whoever or whatever was outside of the town walls. Most of the men and women were dressed in bad-quality leather armors, while a few were dressed in plain clothing, and the rare people were dressed in steel.

Intrigued by what laid beyond the walls of the town, I climbed up onto a ramp leading to a rampart situated above the entrance door and pushed away a woman to obtain some space. It was only when the woman had turned to look at me did I found out that she was the woman who had led the five men and the woman who had let me inside town.

A distinct glare was formed on her face and her words almost came out in growls. “You! What are you doing here?”

“Observing,” I replied back calmly.

Before the woman leader could even retort back, I pointed toward one of the goblins down below, silencing her.

“Give us half of your women and all your valuables and we will let most of you live!” The tall warrior goblin with yellow fangs jutting out from his wide mouth, said this in a rough, guttural voice, which was certainly not used to speaking a foreign human language.

Naturally, had the goblin leader demanded these tributes in his own language, I would have perfectly understood it due to my gift with languages as a dragon. It was a very useful ability, which would come into play in the future many times, but at this moment of time, it had not been very useful as I had not met many different creatures of various races yet.

I glanced at the woman beside me and could see the suppressed anger just waiting to be unleashed inside her. “These fucking goblins have been plaguing our town for a few weeks now and many stragglers and some unfortunate ones have already lost their lives,” the woman shouted to the men and women on the ramparts. “Will we just lay down and give these shit stains what they want? No, I think not!”

Most of the men and women cheered at that, while some looked forlorn and resigned. Had I been one of the miserable humans, I would have certainly joined them in their misery because the hordes of goblins down below far outnumbered the defending humans. There were probably more than five hundred here alone on this side, and that was not counting the other sides of the town where I had seen a few defenders going toward.

Were I not interested in this town, I would have just let the goblins destroy it and stood from a far distance to observe. It was unlucky for the goblins, but my curiosity was tugging at me to find out what the female creature with the tail was. In addition, I also wanted my break to go smoothly.

Without asking for the permission of the woman beside me, I pulled out the sword sheathed behind her back and jumped from the ramparts to land outside of the town's entrance door.

I had done this in such a quick fashion that the woman barely had time to let out a protest before I landed on both feet outside of the town. I could feel the eyes of the men and women on the ramparts trained upon me, wondering at the physical ability I had shown. Even without glancing back at the people, I could sense their surprise.

I would not use magic, however, as the ability to use magic was even more rare than a human born with unnatural physical ability; the female adventurers were good attestations to that fact.

Not even wasting a moment longer, I dashed forward in a mad sprint toward the goblin leader, covering the distance which an arrow from a short bow would have been hard pressed to cover as quickly as I could. A few of the goblins had enough sense to regain their bearings once I had already crossed more than half the distance and came forward to meet me with their iron-tipped spears.

The goblins formed a curved line to protect their leader and cautiously held their spears at me, the ends pointed in defensive postures. I took no notice of them and barreled through two of the goblins to break through the line of defense, dodging the thrust of their spears by a high jump. With two quick slashes in midair that flowed smoothly from one to another, I took off the heads of two goblins and they both went rolling, hitting the ground at almost the same time.

Very little blood was sprayed into the air due to the quick, clean cuts I had made, even though the short sword I had borrowed was not of decent quality. I made another short jump upon landing and shot forth toward the goblin leader on a huge, black wolf, leading an attack with a downward swing of my weapon.

The black wolf lunged his head toward me, the sharp fangs on his wide-opened mouth aiming to take a bite at my feet. At the same time, the goblin leader blocked my weapon with a rounded, steel shield that sported many nicks from weapons. At this close range, the goblin had no freedom to swing his axe and instead chose to headbutt my face with his broad, green forehead.

Perceiving the incoming headbutt, I met his green forehead with my own and a loud smack resounded. The result was satisfying, to say the least; I had not even flinched from the collision and was not even the slightest bit hurt whereas the goblin was howling in pain and looked to be in a daze. Surprise was also registered on his face when he realized that my forehead was multiple times harder than his forehead.

The goblin momentarily distracted, I looked a little bit down and could see the fangs of the black wolf trying to penetrate through the skin of my feet after already going through my boots, but the teeth were hard-pressed trying to find purchase.

Using the mouth of the wolf as stable ground, I used my free left hand, first transforming it almost instantly into dragon talons with magic, and pierced the eye of the wolf, digging deeply into his skull.

I felt the wolf's mouth instantly go limp a second later and his body go down in a heap along with the goblin who was riding the wolf. Not wanting to get tangled with the two bodies, I swiftly freed my left hand and kicked away from the wolf, landing at the ground a few feet away.

Dashing forward again and ignoring the goblins on the side trying to get at me, I got close enough to the goblin leader who was trying to untangle himself from the corpse of his wolf. And before the goblin could recover, I delivered a killing blow. A quick, sharp thrust from underneath the chin of the goblin and into his face.

I left the buried short sword inside the goblin's face, and grabbed the large axe he held in his hand. It seemed to be of much better quality and I would need it to battle the other goblins. Not wanting to waste the other free weapon, I grabbed the shield and quickly put it on my left hand.

Then I leapt into a group of spear-wielding goblins numbering dozens heading toward me. I paid no heed to their guttural shouts of anger at seeing the sudden death of their leader. If they wanted someone to blame, they should only blame their incompetence.

By the time I had killed two dozen or so goblins with quick, strong bashes from the shield, which caved in their skulls, varied with sharp, killing chops from the axe, I was besieged on all sides by another group of goblins. This time, the group was a mix of various ugly green brutes that were taller than the average goblins, and were almost my height, but with more weight and muscles on them. They wielded various weapons ranging from spears to swords to axes to daggers.

Once more, I dived into the midst of battle killing every creature within range of me. At some point of time, the axe became dulled and the hilt even broke off, which led to me stealing a few more weapons from the goblins. The shield I had worn on my left hand was also dented beyond recognition, the roundness of it becoming a misshapen triangle. Not even wield-able anymore, I threw the triangular shield at the face of a goblin and the force of the collision bent his neck at an awkward angle.

Looking at the tens of corpses, I found many weapons I could use. I gave the spear no thoughts, as that weapon was not suitable for mass killings. Instead, I grabbed the two axes from the fallen goblins and swung them around wildly like a madman. Every hit found purchase on the skin or amor of a goblin, wounding them heavily or even outright killing the goblins.

I felt no sorrow at taking the lives of these creatures, especially since a creature of this race had killed me off in my human life. Though quite frankly, I had also felt no sorrow at killing fellow humans, just a small bit of regret at the waste of lives.

Some more time had passed and the state of my mind had became cold and efficient, all of my senses only focused on the battle. It was a state of repetitions: slash, hack, cut, and kill.

I noticed that the two axes I had picked up were slicked with the red blood of goblins and major parts of the weapons had already broken off, making them unusable. The closest weapons to me were three spears and I quickly picked them up without even kneeling down.

By then, more goblins were quickly closing in, trying to drown me with their numbers. I halted a few goblins of their advancements on me by throwing all three spears, one by one in a smooth motion. Two of the spears pierced through the head of one goblin and then out again to penetrate through the head of the goblin behind. The last spear only pierced through the chest of one goblin, who instantly bowled over onto the ground, crying out in pain.

More time passed and I now held a sword in my right hand and an axe in my left hand. I had become a cold, whirlwind of steel and any goblin who dared come close to me died in a bare second.

When the advancements of the goblins finally slowed down to a trickle, I could see that there were only about a hundred of the goblins left, most of them the weaker and less brave. There were looks of fear etched onto their faces and they looked at me like I was a monster out of their deepest nightmares.

Looking at my surroundings some more, I could see there were small hills made of the many corpses of goblins and around me was a sea of dead goblins.

When one of the scared goblins finally had the sense to run away as fast as his short legs could take him, the rest followed along, some of them leaving trails of piss behind on the blood-red, earthen ground.

The stench of blood, piss, shit and fear was strong in the air, but to me, only the delicious stench of blood was prevalent. I was, after all, covered from head to toe with goblin blood. It was as if I had bathed in the blood of goblins, so covered in blood was I.

My light green tunic had turned unrecognizable, becoming just mere blood soaked rags, which left a majority of my body exposed. I had also lost my two coin purses, but I did not mind it much as I had no need for it anymore. My pants, however, were still relatively fine and I could still feel the tiny, silver key inside the pocket; I had paid close attention into not dropping it during the battle.

Ignoring the goblins running away in fear, I walked back toward the entrance door of the town in an indifferent and calm manner, as if I had just taken a short wash in a river. The looks of extreme horror and revulsion on the faces of the people atop the ramparts, however, was evident.

I frowned a little at the small annoyance my long, white hair which almost reached to my waist would be. It would take a long while to remove the red from my blood-dyed hair.

When I got closer to the closed entrance door, I jumped upward with some strength, going high up into air more than six feet and landed back down inside the town ramparts, forcing people to quickly run away from me with fear, disgust, and a little hidden awe.

I paid them no heed and calmly and indifferently walked down the ramp and into town, heading toward the house where I was going to stay for two days. None of the humans on the ramparts dared to even speak to me, nor did they try to prevent me from leaving.

When I reached the house, the sun was already past its high time.

Opening the door with the small, silver key, which was undamaged even after the wear and tear it had went through—I could not help but be impressed with the durability—I went inside the house to find myself face to face with the female creature I had seen lying on the bed.

She was sitting in one of the chairs situated around the table in the middle of the living room and there was a small fire burning brightly in the fireplace. Hearing the noise I had made when opening the door, the woman had turned around to see the source of the noise.

Then all of a sudden, the tail I had seen on her before appeared from behind her still naked figure.

There was a small amount of surprise written onto her face, but it seemed like she was not surprised to find a human inside the house. Instead, she seemed surprised due to the fact that I was covered entirely with blood.

I felt intrigued about her red, pointed tail which had appeared out of thin air. It had most likely appeared because she had been surprised in seeing a bloodied “human.” I highly suspected that some natural gift or magical ability was in play.

“I can tell we are just going to get along quite fine, strange human.” She licked her full lips as if she was anticipating something from me, her red tail swishing back and forth in excitement, before finally settling on fully wrapping the back of the chair almost twice around. “You may call me Lizil.”

Her face went through some hesitancy before it finally settled on a decision, her pink tinted eyes twinkling with amusement. “And if you are curious about my tail, it is because I am a succubus.”

Chapter 17: Time Spent With a Succubus and Goblin Problems

Discourse #7

Goblins, my guest, are banes to the world. They are plagues littered throughout the whole Valian continent, and only areas with high military control allows freedom from this green race.

This race of green creatures, who bleed the same red blood as humans and dragons, are beings known only for their pillaging, raping, and raiding. Granted, the creatures are shrewd and their intelligence varies from being brutally dumber than rocks to being smarter than the average humans.

Their best known characteristics, however, would be their desire for battles, which is only outmatched by their lust. Trust me when I say that they breed faster than rabbits that have been knocked up with aphrodisiacs. This virility, combined with their females' short gestation periods, are what makes them a truly fearsome race.

Believe me on this point; I have observed these creatures quite meticulously here and there whenever I met them and had even went to their breeding grounds, or homes, if you prefer a softer term. That visit, my guest, involved a fearsome display of sex and lust from the goblins.

The succubus I had met, however, puts even the most vigorous of goblins to shame.

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Lizil's long, red tail was wrapped around my waist almost once over, its pointed end facing away so as to not harm me. Her tail felt supple and lean on my goblin-bloodied waist and though extensive, her restraint of my body left no more than a two feet distance between us.

Naturally, even if the succubus had tried to pierce through my skin with her pointed tail, she would have been hard-pressed to do so. I also gave no resistance to her restraining me and pulling me in closer with her tail.

Her pink-tinted eyes were now smoldering, laced with the fire of anticipation and desire, as her tail tugged at me closer and closer to her. Moved inches by inches closer to her, I could now feel her two heavy, soft mounds, their faint tips pressed against my lightly-muscled chest.

Ignoring the two soft and heavy sensations on my chest, I could tell that the succubus was about an inch or two shorter. A better look at her face confirmed my initial observations of her beauty; no scars, blemishes, or mars—perfect in her own way.

Lizil draped a sleek thigh over one of my legs, pressing me closer to her sensuous body. Her right thigh still locking my left leg, she moved her face closer to mine, until we were almost sharing the same breathing space.

She didn't turn her face upward for a kiss, however, but instead chose to dart forth a small tongue, tracing long paths and small circles on my neck.

When she look up to find my face still a mask of indifference, there was a puzzled look on her face. Her lips, crimsoned by the goblin blood she had licked, was curled in disappointment. That look of puzzlement spoke volumes of how oddly I was reacting to her advances.

“Strange,” the succubus said, her voice a soft muttering to herself. “You should already be aroused, if not by my body, then by my smell.”

Ah, I thought. So that was where the faintly sweet, and musky aroma was coming from.

Disappointment, however, would be her only outcome.

The faint aroma Lizil was emitting only made me ever the more curious about her. “Tell me,” I said, staring apathetically into her round, softly glowing, twin pink orbs, “are there more like you. And may I know your history.”

There was a look of sexual frustration on Lizil's face, and she tried to give me a small pout, with her eyes begging pitiably. She saw that I was unmoved and could not help but sigh a little. “Very well, but fuck me first. The sight of you covered in blood makes me want to eat you.”

My curiosity, mixed with a little arousal, burned inside me, demanding satisfaction. I should have felt disappointed at feeling more inquisitive than I was aroused, but it was just my nature. I had been born an emotionally dampened creature and even now, after reincarnating into a dragon, not much had changed.

The only lover I could have was my inquisitive nature; it was my strongest emotion. Indeed, the only thing that had truly changed mentally when I had become a dragon was perhaps a little affection for battles and an even more indifference toward lives.

I gave her words no confirmation as a simple touch of my hand on her thigh draped over my left leg was all she needed. Putting both my hands over her slim, but firm waist, I lifted her effortlessly, one thigh still draped over my leg.

She let out a small giggle as she perceived what I was hinting at. With her other free leg, Lizil straddled me around my waist and her tail loosened its tight grip on my waist and instead snaked toward my right thigh, and wrapped it around twice over, with little length left over.

She moved closer and closer toward me, until all I could see in my view ahead was her twin peaks.

“You do know,” I said with a hint of mirth in my voice, “that I need to see where I am going.”

Lizil's only response was a small laugh as my breath tickled her sensitive twin hills.

Suffice to say, walking toward one of the bedrooms upstairs in this spacey house was an arduous task, especially with a lusty succubus straddling you, taking every opportunity to shove her breasts at your face.

Even with my considerable physical prowess, it was a hard chore when we got to the stairs.

<><><><><>

I will not go into all the details of what occurred on that night, my guest, but needless to say, it was a very long night.

And at some point during her fifth orgasm after careful ministrations to her breasts and sex with my hands, she had admitted quite shyly that she had a fetish for blood, and would often end up killing her victims during intercourse.

The methods her “victims” would die are usually from an overexcited stab with her tail toward the heart or through the guts. Strange, I know. Don't ask me the reason why.

Mind you, I did not feel much toward her confession of killing people. In fact, I did not even minded when she had tried to kill me multiple times with an improper stab of her tail.

She had been surprised when she found out that her tail could not pierce my skin, and had become even more aroused by that fact. Encouraged by my tough skin, she had used her tail to wrap many parts of my body and had even used it to stabilize herself in strange positions.

I wasn't the slightest bit bothered by this, though. I had seen much stranger things when I had been human. I was, I suppose, more than decent in pleasuring the fairer sex, especially since I had devoted parts of four years of my life out of curiosity, until I died at the age of twenty as a human.

At some point during our time together, Lizil had suddenly grown two small horns on the sides of her head, the length jutting outward just enough for hands to hold on. With the addition of the two appendages added to her, she had grown imperious, and directed how our intimacy would go.

Some of her commands consisted of strange directions, such as “Stroke my tail, Verath!” and even “Grip my horns tightly.” When I had obeyed her in the latter part of her command, it had elicited more moans from her and had made her go soft in her knees as if the horns were a conquest for the domination of her body.

Our intimacy, more from her side than from mine, continued on for quite a while. And only after the ninth time did the succubus tire herself out. Then she went to sleep with a satisfied look on her face, her tail softly resting on her flat stomach.

I stood there on the wooden floor of the bedroom, watching her naked chest heave back and forth heavily because of the nightly exertions. She was tired and naked with a little bit of goblin blood on her body, but she was satisfied.

Contrary to her, I was not even the slightest bit out of breath and had only climaxed twice out of the nine times I laid with her. The feelings I had felt during those two times were not ecstatic and over-joyous; I only felt a little excited. It was the best my limited emotional capacity would allow; my nature restricted and dampened almost everything, both positive and negative.

Looking at her tired form, sweaty, slick, and a little bloodied from the exertions, I decided not to wake her up to question her more. She would be more alert to answer my questions fully well-rested, anyways.

<><><><><><>

Outside in the dark night at the ungodly hours with only the two moons for company, I was entirely naked, except for my leather brown pants with the silver key tucked carefully inside a pocket. My upper attire had been destroyed entirely when the succubus had torn the remaining rags off with a desperate need.

Dried, goblin blood was caked on my body, causing a slight discomfort. I paid this no heed, because I would need to get out of this town to clean myself in the nearby river I had passed by while flying. The body of water was quite close to this frontier town so a logical assumption was made; it was most likely the supplier for the town's water needs, other than the rain.

I also held no worries that I would dirty the river water if I bathe in it, because simple water filtration techniques were available throughout most human populations and one could always use long-lasting magic items, though the latter was quite expensive and rarely used by the poorer populated dwellings.

I headed towards the entrance gate from which I went through originally and up atop the ramparts, I saw a slim guard holding a torchlight. Even without being able to see clearly in the night with these human eyes, I could feel the shiftiness and the tension of the guard, who kept a constant watch, glancing at a different area outside of town each cautious look.

I could not help but think to myself that this town was quite vigilant. It kept even a night watch.

“You! What are you doing here,” the guard hissed, waving the torch to get a better look at me after finally noticing my climb up the ramparts. The guard was feminine looking and there was only one person I had met today who had this appearance. It was Haikai.

I was in a light mood, anticipating for what the morning would bring. I would get to learn all about the succubus and her kind if there were more where she came from. It was an enlightening prospect I would greatly enjoy.

“I am enjoying the night air, Haikai.”

The guard had the grace to blush a little at my knowing his name. He himself had realized his argument with Dan Gojer this morning was an unprofessional thing.

“But if you really must know, I am planning to go streak around naked in a river,” I said, attempting to take another stab at humor after I had failed so miserably this morning.

Haikai had the grace to blush even more, making him look even more effeminate on top of his short stature. “Bastard dog, you are not going to go anywhere by yourself. I shall come along with you to keep an eye on you. Just wait right here while I run for a change of guard!” he said with a voice that would brook no objections.

I stared toward the guard's slim back as he ran down the ramps, thinking that his was a strange logic. I was sure that word of my battles with the goblins had already spread and yet, the guard known as Haikai was still brave enough to follow me on his own. Even when I could have killed him in less than a blink of an eye.

A brave, puzzling little human he was.

Instead of just leaving, I decided to wait for the guard, only this time, I hoped that he would not make me wait too long.

<><><><><>

I stood inside the middle of the river, which was probably just around six feet wide. The steadily flowing water split around me as I washed away the blood from my body and hair. This river was located not quite far inside the nearby forests and spanned no more than four hundred feet or so, was my guess. It was easy to estimate its length because the forests, though large, were not dense. The tall trees were spread out in comfortable distances from each other.

Many minutes had passed and Haikai still had not shown up after disappearing somewhere to take a piss. I had a small suspicion that he had gotten lost in this total darkness which was only lighted by the soft moonlight, which reflected on the river.

I chose to wait for the guard a while longer and when he still did not show up by then, I was already clean and feeling a tiny trickle of impatience. Getting out of the river, I sighed a little and put on my washed pants, the tiny, silver key still resting inside a pocket.

Veering around to the last direction I had seen the guard going toward to take care of his business, I started walking with a steady pace. My emerald eyes were transformed into dragon eyes and the night was now barely a hindrance to my vision, easily letting me track the path of footsteps and broken twigs Haikai had left on the forest floor.

My tracking skills were not very great as I had not spent much time with the occasional hunters I met as a human, but neither was Haikai at covering his trail, so in no time at all, I found the place where his footsteps had abruptly stopped. His trail had ended at the base of an enormous tree, which was by far taller than the other trees in its immediate vicinity.

It was quite illogical of him to do his business at such a noticeable tree, but perhaps it was just a preference for large things. He had probably felt more comfortable underneath the overhanging branches, which drooped down in a creeping fashion and gave considerable cover for whatever he was doing.

Where his footsteps had ended, there were sets of footprints from four to five distinctive creatures continuing the trail. They were most likely made from goblins and the heavier indent two sets of footprints had made on the forest floor told me much. The goblins were most likely carrying something—or someone—of not inconsiderable weight.

How amusing, I thought to myself. Perhaps the goblins had thought Haikai was a tomboyish, human female and had likely kidnapped him in the hopes of saving a rape later. It was sort of akin to drying meat for a later use; something of that sort.

I was in a small dilemma: should I save this effeminate guard from the goblins or whatever creatures had kidnapped him, or should I leave him to his fate and just utter a small prayer for his well-being, especially regarding his lower body.

They were both troublesome and unfavorable alternatives, but I decided to choose the former. I still had a day left before I would have to call upon the eldest, and there was no need to bring myself under even more suspicions from the town. I was probably already under fearful vigilance from the humans and was most likely at the foremost of their minds.

Resolved, I followed the trail of Haikai's kidnappers who had left an obvious path; the heavy indents in the soil, the slight shift of the grasses, and a few broken twigs. Passing tree after tree with my slow, but steady pace, I reached the end of the trail and stood before an enormous clearing in the forests. The stumps of the surrounding trees had been cut hastily by rough tools and only short, jagged stumps of the trees remained.

Up ahead in the clearing were dozens and dozens of fires of various sizes; large bonfires, small sized fires for individuals, and medium sized fires for families, all of which combined to form a small sun, lighting up a good sized area of the forests.

Crude wooden houses of various shapes and sizes laid meshed together in random distances from each other. Near the larger bonfires, I could make out numerous goblins, numbering almost in the hundreds, perhaps in the low five hundred or so; I could not exactly tell. The goblins were furiously rutting with each other, guttural moans of pleasures coming from them.

I could see from the contours of their green bodies that there were more females than males, perhaps a ratio of four to one for each male there was. This led me to think that this place was most likely the home of the four hundred or so goblins I had killed in the early afternoon.

I had, quite inadvertently, caused this massive goblin orgy from dwindling a large number of most of their strongest male goblins. I felt the need to almost chuckle to myself at this unexpected scene. In the middle of the clearing where the largest bonfire was located at, I could make out Haikai tied to a raised wooden pole, his upper body bereft of all clothing except for a strap of some material, which was tightly bound around his chest, flattening his breasts. He was unconscious and his head was dropping downward in this state.

A little jolt of surprise hit me as I finally realized what the two small protrusions that jutted outward a little from the breast binding were. Haikai, the effeminate guard with the long, black hair, was indeed a female. I felt a little disappointed that I could not tell that the guard was a female, her outward appearance and voice gave only the slightest bare hints toward this revelation with my initial observations. Perhaps it was just the distance between us, or perhaps my sense for the other sex was just dull.

Having realized that Haikai was a female, did I feel more pressed to save the guard? The answer to that would be a disappointment, because quite frankly, I did not feel much inclination at all, regardless of the guard's gender.

Still, it did not matter. I would have saved the guard regardless of gender, for obvious and selfish reasons.

Leisurely walking toward a pair of goblins deep in the middle of their rutting, which involved play-wrestling on the ground and tongues darting back and forth each other. I had gotten quite close to the pair, but they had not noticed me yet, so deep were they in their playing around.

I glanced back at Haikai and could see that she was still unconscious. Tied to the pole, she would not be going anywhere, so for the moment I felt no pressing need to immediately rescue her. Instead, I had a small task involving goblin problems to complete; it would only take a short while to eradicate these unprepared, green creatures and I did not wanted to leave it to chance, for they might attack the town again out of revenge. This scenario had an almost impossible chance to come true, since the goblins had seen my ability, but leaving it to chance was a bad idea.

I transformed my right arm into a dragon forelimb of suitable size and with the sharp talons on the digits, I pierced into the two goblins rutting on the ground, punching large holes into their chests. They died instantly, becoming two mere corpses hugging each other, a look of pleasure frozen onto their faces forever, until they became food for the beasts of the forest.

Back into the shape of my normal human arm, half of the limb was now a bloodstain. I almost cursed to myself at my thoughtlessness. I did not wanted to get more blood onto myself, especially since I had just cleaned myself in the river.

I suppose I could restrict myself into only using fire magic and earth magic. More practice with the latter would certainly benefit me with no negatives.

By the time I had buried a dozen goblins to their deaths along with a few more pairs of goblins whom I had impaled with long, sharp spikes of earth, the rest of the goblins finally noticed. Looks of fears were etched on most of the male goblins' faces as they realized who they were dealing with.

In their eyes, I was most likely seen as an overpowering, half-naked, white-haired monster, whose sole joy laid in the killing of goblins. And under the firelight, I suppose I did look a bit strange and ferocious, my goblin-blood covered right arm glinting, and shadows from objects and fires dancing on top of my white hair.

One of the male goblins stepped out of his daze and came forward from the crowd, a look of hesitant fear on his face. The goblin looked unbearably old, a fragile air seemingly surrounding him. Other than his old, wrinkled body, another obvious sign of his age was that the goblin was entirely bald and small, white tufts of beard was seen on his chin.

“Please, human. Spare us and we will never trouble you again,” the old goblin croaked, his voice frail and guttural sounding as he tried to speak in the human language. His black eyes were specked with some whiteness from old age, and I could sense wisdom in those pair of eyes.

When he saw that I was unmoved, he went down on his frail knees, trying to grip his cane for support. “Please,” he begged. “Do this one favor for us and my tribe and I will be forever in your debts. You may even pick out a few goblin females if they suit your taste.” The old goblin had said the last part cautiously, as if testing out the waters for signs of dangerous creatures lurking in the depths.

I suppose it did not matter one way or the other so long as the goblins did not attack the town while I was staying there and so long as the guard was saved. Either way, taking lives unnecessarily was such a wasteful action. I was also sure that these goblins would not attack the human frontier town ever again after having been taught such a hard lesson.

I nodded at the old goblin, possibly a chieftain or perhaps a leader. I had no clue how the hierarchy of goblins worked, so I left my thoughts at that. Perhaps when I had more time and more curiosity to spare, I would look into that. But not just yet. “Very well,” I said. “You shall also free that human tied to the pole there and I shall leave.”

The old goblin's eyes immediately turned thankful and commanding as he gestured to one of the goblins to release Haikai. “Thank you....human. I, Bif, shall forever be in your depth and in my death throes, hopefully under a soft, young and virile female, I will think of you.” There was now a hint of humor in the goblin's eyes seeing that his tribe had avoided a close shave with a dangerous foe; his tone and voice had suggested that we were now fast friends.

I could only attribute the old goblin with one word—intriguing; he was wise beyond his goblin years, however long these green-skinned creatures lived up to.

Two goblins came running forward, carrying Haikai with both hands, a pair on her legs, and another pair on her shoulders. They quickly and carefully dropped her in a melodramatic way, as if they held a precious and fragile treasure in their hands.

With my unbloodied left arm, I carried Haikai and tucked her onto my left shoulders like a heavy sack and quickly flew off from the clearing, leaving the grounded goblins in surprise, of which a few scrambled away, thinking I was about to go back and rain terror on them from the sky. I only gave a small chuckle of amusement at the goblins.

<><><><><>

High above in the air with the twin moons, Seli and Vali, I was flying at a steady pace with Haikai trussed like a sack on a left shoulder. I felt her two small mounds pressed against me, confirming that she was indeed a female, though an unconscious one.

All in all, it had been an interesting night and I felt a little growing spark of curiosity about the lusty race known as goblins. Little did I know back then that I would grow a little fond of some of these green-skinned creatures. Perhaps too fond.

Chapter 18: Astlan Dragons and the Eldest

I landed in an area to the immediate vicinity of town with Haikai still trussed over my shoulders like a piece of dead weight, not that there was anything dead about her. The place that I had landed was just far enough from town so that the unsuspecting eyes of the night watch would not find me.

Very little effort was expended as I trudged toward town. I jumped over the wall and then left the unconscious Haikai on the ramparts, propping her back against the wall, leaving her to the surprised young man—the current night watch.

Without looking back even once, I walked toward the house where the succubus was still most likely sleeping at. Somehow, I had a distinct feeling that come morning, there would be trouble from the female guard I had abandoned on the ramparts.

<><><><><>

By the time the sun had passed its high point, I had learned all that I could from Lizil. Her history lesson had went not quite as efficient as I would have liked with a few short and long intermittent in between. These breaks had involved a few more hours of intimacy, six times to be precise, cleaning ourselves at the town's public bath, not yet crowded due to the early nature of the day, and some interesting displays of her body. There was also a need to relieve ourselves, but I won't get into that.

In summary, I had garnered a lot of information about the succubus and her race. This information, mind you, was given quite freely from her without any coercion from me—there were just some insertions.

1) It seems like Lizil has been living on this continent for years now and she is most likely the only succubus on this whole continent, as the other members of her race who had come to this place had died during the ocean voyage. This piece of information brought up many implications and made me even more curious; why had these succubi came on such a dangerous voyage to this continent, so dangerous that only one had survived? I had asked her about this point, but Lizil had only remained silent with a forlorn look on her face, so I decided to be tactful and ask other questions.

2) When I asked about her bodily transformations, she replied that all members of her race could do this. This led me to think that it was not magic and confirmed the fact that I had not seen any strands of magic from her when she had grown two horns. Still, I was a little suspicious. The succubus could have just been proficient in hiding her magic or the gift for doing that came naturally. The implication that all members of her race could do magic though left little to be desired.

3) Then I bluntly asked her if she would get pregnant from our time. The only responses I received from her, however, were just a sideways shake of her head, a withdrawn silence, and a little bit of shyness. I left this point alone after that, no longer being interested.

4) Lizil told me a few more stories about herself and a few quirks of her race, which I noted, storing it away in my mind. One interesting quirk was that the best way for a succubus to replenish herself was through intercourse with a suitable male (regardless of race); they could live on normal food, but as time passes, it grows harder for the adults succubi, eventually succumbing to weakness.

By the time our conversation was finished with her doing the majority of it, there was only one more thing I was curious about—her relationship with Dan Gojer. She answered honestly, without hesitation, that Dan had been her accomplice for several years, helping her out when she had first arrived at this continent.

I could observe some tension in her as she answered, but I ignored it, not caring much for her relationship with Dan now that I found it to be unimportant; Dan could have been the succubus' main lover and accomplice in killing for all I cared.

Our exchange of information had been unequal; I told her nothing of myself whereas she had told me a few integral stories about her. Fair or unfair, we were done.

I left the house, bidding her a goodbye as a courtesy and left without waiting for her reply.

Outside of the house, I could have chosen to fly off into the air with all the people still milling around doing whatever they were suppose to do. But I chose not to, as there would have been no benefits in doing that other than for wild rumors to spread about me. I could sense their nervousness around me, like that of a prey which just had a premonition of danger from a beastly predator.

The people of the town gave me a wide berth as I approached the opened heavy, wooden entrance gate; the reason why the entrance was opened was due to members of the town obtaining some necessities from the wilds. It was also most likely opened since there would be no more forseeable dangers from invaders and raiders.

During the morning, I had also learned that a few townspeople had died in the defense of their town against the goblins on the other sides of the town, while I had been battling with the main army. This information had been supplied by the few people who had braced themselves with new-found courage to converse with me. Most of them were thankful, young women of marrying age while a few others were fighting men.

Nearing the entrance, I saw three guards taking up their posts. Among the three, one of them was Haikai who had an angry look on her tomboyish face. She saw me and her face turned into a sort of sullen anger.

“You again,” Haikai said, resignation in her voice. “Are you leaving town now?”

“Yes, it has been a pleasure meeting with you, and rescuing you from goblins.” My tone was as blank as usual and had no hints of mockery in it.

Still, a look of suspicious anger crossed Haikai's face and she narrowed her eyes, not sure whether or not she should be offended. “Thank you, stranger,” she started and paused a little before continuing, “for saving me and this town...”

I merely nodded at her acquiescence—it must have taken all of her willpower to have admitted that, seeing that she was stubbornness personified.

Just like that, without any troubles or hindrances, I walked out of town wearing my new clothes that the succubus had given me for free, a silver key missing from my body, left purposely behind.

It was time to call upon the eldest.

<><><><><>

In the depths of a random area of a forest which I had given a cursory glance as a precaution, I stripped off the upper half of my attire, leaving the clothing bundled on the forest floor. I drew upon my magic with a raised hand, summoning the familiar black strands of magic and formed them into fire magic, aiming it at my stomach where the hidden blood mark was branded on by the eldest.

My stomach greedily sucked up the fire magic for some time, before finally releasing a soft, red glow. There had been no pain involved in the process as the faint red glow eventually turned into a distinctive blood mark; a small, red outline of a coiled dragon about to release its fury.

I waited patiently for something to happen such as the eldest teleporting to my location. Nothing happened for several minutes, which soon turned into more than an hour. Still, I persevered, patiently standing there.

Finally, the telltale signs of the dense, red strands of magic appeared in front of me, before finally winking out after the eldest instantly took its place, replacing the outline with a real body. The process had barely lasted a second, making it seem as if the eldest had shown up out of thin air.

In the form of a tall, heavily muscular male, the eldest greeted me. “Ah, my dear Verath. I had been wondering when you would call upon me.” He was entirely nude and bloodied.

I nodded at his greeting, before pointing out the bloodied appearance of the eldest. He only gave me a small shrug, not even the slightest bit uncomfortable of his strange appearance. “I was playing a game of cat and mouse with a few hundred orcs,” the eldest spoke, his voice tinged with amusement. “It is always fun to see the creatures' reactions when a little girl of their own race starts to randomly kill them off. Of course, the same goes for other races.” The eldest chuckled at that. “It is why I was so late in coming here.”

I only nodded at his small revelation of murdering other creatures for fun—the lives of others really did not mattered much to me. The most they would get was a bit of hard-won sympathy.

Nothing further was said between the two of us and the familiar transition of the teleportation magic left me a little disoriented after.

I gave my surroundings a brief glance, revealing that I was now back in the eldest's cave inside the mountain. This dark, hollowed out room was lit by the interspersing rocks which gave out a dim glow from the walls of the room. The sight of the black throne at the far end of the room was also a familiar sight.

The eldest sat down on the throne and looked toward me, his eyes still glowing a smoldering red hue from the magic he had just used.

“Come tomorrow, Verath, we shall meet the members of our Arkanan clan and your fellow dragons who have finished their own second tribulations; there are also many other dignitaries from other clans, but they are really not of import to you. Unfortunately though, you won't be meeting all the dragons of your own generation, since quite a few have been rendered dead from their trials.”

I felt a little stirred from the prospect of meeting other dragons my own age. It would be an enlightening meeting, and I would be able to observe much more of this clan. But most importantly, I still had not met any other dragons from the other Astlan clans.

I gave the eldest no affirmation toward his statement. He had no need for a response from me, because it had been an express command that would brook no objections. The eldest gave a slight nod of his head. Then he gave me a small smile that was full of anticipation, which suggested hidden troubles up ahead.

I did not bother to decipher his hidden smile. It would have just been a futile try.

“This will be quite fun.”

<><><><><>

“Tell me, Kiara. What exactly is the purpose of this meeting?” I asked the small, budding girl beside me, whose short frame was inversely proportional to her large breasts. Like me, she was a dragon my own age and had enough magic capacity to undergo human transformation.

“That is strange. Did the eldest not tell you?” Kiara said, giving me a look of surprise which widened her large, liquid eyes of the purest gold, tinted with hints of white and red. “I would have thought you would know the purpose considering that the eldest is your brood-keeper, after all.”

I shook my head sideways as an answer.

There was an excited look on her face as she deigned to enlighten me on the subject with her pleasant and soft voice. “The Astlan throne,” she started, posing in a dramatic, cutesy fashion before continuing, “has been empty for long generations now and the adults of the various clans have finally decided to put the eldest of our clan on the throne.”

The revelation hit me like a maddened ox charging at one's manhood, making me almost falter for a moment as I followed the crowd of various dragons and the few humans, who were dragons with enough magic capacity to undergo transformation.

“You have to be kidding me,” Eden said from my left side, the disdain evident in her voice. Like Kiara, this dragon of my generation had been born with enough magic capacity to transform into a human.

It had been more than two years ago, but the two girls beside me were the two female wyrms I had met in the chamber of the eldest after the first tribulation. Their human forms, however, betrayed their young ages. Both of them had more curves than “human girls” their age would have, with enough leftover to spare.

An inch or two taller than me with long, slim legs that almost seemed to continue on forever, two fairly sized breasts, and a sharp, yet delicately tanned face, Eden would have been considered beautiful by almost all men with exceptions toward gender-confused men. She would have been beautiful were it not for her haughty attitude and her short temper which seemed to explode almost every minute since I had met her.

Kiara, on the other hand, was the exact opposite of Eden. She had an elegant face with an aura of tender kindness emitting from her short stature. One would almost think her motherly. I was suspicious of her personality though, considering the bloody tribulations we had went through as wyrms. It was just not a very conceivable idea that she had budded a kind personality from going through such hardships.

Those were among some of the interesting observations I had made, but the most interesting one was that the human forms of female dragons with enough magic capacity grew much faster than normal. An intriguing observation, but a useless one.

The crowd of dragons and the few humans came to a stop at an enormous clearing. We must have numbered in the hundreds at the very least, but this clearing had more than enough space leftover to spare.

At the far end of the clearing were seven of the largest dragons I had ever seen, almost doubled the size of even my mother dragon. Those were the initial estimates I had made with my dragon eyes, but I was sure that those seven dragons were most likely more than twice the size of my mother. It was a little hard to judge from such a long distance.

The most intimidating dragon out of the seven, however, was the blood-red dragon which sported four horns and had jagged spikes sprouting from every crevice of his thick, scaly red body. The scales were so thick that it seemed as if the dragon's body had been reinforced by layers of scales multiple times. His wings were ridged with thick bones and spanned such a great length that it would not have surprised me the slightest bit if he could kill someone just from the wind pressure generated from them alone.

How did I know that this dragon was a male, even though he had no telltale signs regarding his horns? The answer was quite simple. This red dragon was the eldest—I could have recognized his ancient and unique eyes from anywhere.

So this was what the eldest had been doing after he had left me to these two wyrms, I thought. I was not amused by the fact that he had left out such important details when he had informed me of this meeting.

Many of the dragons and the dragon-humans were muttering to themselves, having never seen the seven eldests of the Astlan clans gathered together. They were an imposing bunch, older and larger than imagination.

Six of the eldest dragons, excluding our clan's eldest, turned to look at the assembled audience before them. Then they spoke in one magically enhanced, disconcerting and eerie voice, as if they had planned this out together. The voice reached all the way across the large clearing spanning leagues and reached across even more distance.

“Innumerable generations and years have passed since the first Astlan dragon-king has died, but now we shall have a second king!” the concerted voice thundered in an eerie crescendo, as if the sound was coming from beside me. “Behold the second king of the Astlan Dragons. This shall mark a new period in Astlan history, the reign of the eldest of clan Arkanan, Navra Bloodseeker!”

There were looks of awe on the faces of every dragon and dragon-human. Nothing could have prepared us for the powerful, compulsive effect the voice of the six eldest had on all the dragons, including me. I was more than a little surprised. It was akin to that of when I had realized I had been born as a wyrm.

I gazed in stupefaction at the the eldest of clan Arkanan, my brood-keeper, and the second Astlan dragon-king. There was a look of amusement and boredom in his ancient eyes.

And quite imperceptibly, as if noticing my curious gaze at him, the eldest turned to look at me, picking me out from the crowd of dragons and humans alike. How he did that, I have not one clue; it should have been almost impossible to do so in such a crowd.

Then he gave me a small smile with jagged, sharp rows of fangs on display. It would also have been a small smile too, that is if the eldest was not a dragon of enormous size with fangs bigger than my human size.

Interesting, I thought with just a little tension and nervousness. So my brood-keeper had now become the second Astlan dragon-king. What would happen to me now?

Volume 2 (Chapter 1-3)