This was going to go poorly and he knew it, but there was little he could do. He had to follow the instructions and survive until the adults got there. What sort of magic could he use right now with his core? The dragon was right, it was leaking. At his peak, it was a transcendent silver core, rivaled only by black cores and the fabled void cores. He was in the realm of gods - though… he supposed not as much in that realm as he would have liked to think.

Alister sighed. Now, his core was dodgy, leaking, and had lost so much of the pressure it once had. He had his mana pool, at least. How much could he really expect to get? He was an average white core, but the mana core lesson would have to wait for later, the dragon was getting impatient. He huffed a heated breath in Alister’s direction, wordlessly nudging him to hurry it up.

He glared again at the flighted lizard and gave another sigh before he reached down and placed his palm on the stone. It reacted to his mana pool, and his face dropped. Hah. Ohhhh this was gonna be bad. He took a dozen steps back as the stone glowed with overwhelmingly bright and blinding light. It flashed like a mana bang, but he didn’t even allow his eyes to fully clear before he was scrambling and running in the opposite direction.

It summoned BASED ON HIS MANA POOL! Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!

There was a crackling boom that filled the air with the smell of ozone and the shrieking of electricity. Alister tripped and stumbled over stone after stone, not stopping as he heard the roaring of the dragon behind him and the sounds of battle. He was lucky that the beast he summoned deemed the dragon a more pressing target.

The rocks cut into his palms and knees as he skidded, knocking rubble below him into the forest. It was getting steeper, heading south. To the east, he could see hints of the town, a clearing in the trees. It was too far for him to consider reaching it, but the closer he got, the more likely he was to receive help.

Alister was quickly running out of space before he’d be falling instead of sprinting. Taking note of where the town was in relation to the cliff, he committed to the jump. Feather Fall! He grimaced and hopped down into the forest, loose rocks tumbling after him. He spun in the air as he fell, tumbling down until he landed against the underbrush. Ow… damn it. It didn’t hurt that badly to fall, but his hands and legs were already cut up, so getting more slammed into his wounds sucked. He couldn’t stop. Scrambling to his feet again, he ran farther from the beast in the direction of the town. Getting lost would be deadly. He just needed to stay in a straight line.

In the canopy of the forest, Alister finally allowed himself a glance back at the creature and the dragon.

Barely able to fit on the stone plateau, a black snake hundreds of meters in length had in its maw the limp throat of the dragon. Blood was squeezed out of its wounds as the snake whipped the body of the dragon against the rocks. At the same time, a second head of the snake rose above the first as it was swallowing the dragon whole. The second head tilted to the side and bored into Alister with its silvery eye, the spark of wild intelligence burning behind its eyes.

“A… Double-headed Basilisk King… great,” he whispered to himself with tired incredulity as the snake began to move once again. Alister took that as a sign to keep sprinting home. There was no way he would be able to get all the way back before it caught up. He was the one that summoned it with his mana. It would seek him out as though given a hunters’ mark.

Ode was screaming as soon as she got within sight of the town wall, “Call the Duke and Duchess! Lord Alister has been kidnapped by the dragon!” This didn't get the response she hoped for. Everyone froze, staring. Processing what she was saying. Did she just say the young lord was kidnapped?

This got a furious exclamation of "Fuckers!" before she pointed at the fittest-looking person nearby, "You! Go tell the Duke and his men what I've said! They're a young Metallic Indigo Dragon! Tell them to meet Ode at the stables!" The person seemed startled, but nodded, racing off.

Ode continued to hurry with panting breaths to the royal stables, grimly determined but also excited. The stables of Duke Blas Severin were legendary, but this presented a chance to watch the most legendary creature in his menagerie.

A wyvern. Not a dragon, they lacked the characteristic intelligence and elemental breath, but were otherwise similar in raw physical force. It made them key in dragon hunting. They were also fiercely venomous, with their poison highly acidic and capable of softening dragon scale to the point of being pierced with mere steel. They were easy to tell apart from dragons for the educated; one had four legs and wings, wyvern had two legs and wing arms.

Once she arrived, Ode selected a coeurl for herself; she'd need it, despite how volatile they could be to a non-bonded rider. It was one of the fastest creatures in the stables, was nearly as tall as she was, and the six-legged spotted cat could keep up with the wyvern and pegasus that the Duke's elite knights mastered and bonded with. She didn't want to risk an aerial view confusing her navigation. The four-foot-long, thick whiskers made for effective reigns that made the normally aggressive creature docile.

This was what the Duke was truly known for. Even with his extended “vacation” to this backwaters town after the war, his name as a beastmaster was known far and wide. The magical creatures he tamed were indispensable to the Mare Kingdom’s militaristic force. He still tamed and trained a few select beasts even here, and though they were not obvious to those who were not looking for it, the Duke’s personal knights were very much around the small town. For the most part, they blended into the populace. They were significantly more… well… they looked like their muscles wanted to rip out of their shirts if they so much as flexed. Other than how chiseled they were, though, it was nigh impossible to pick them out of the crowd. It made them entertainingly popular with the ladies as well as some men, despite little to no interest on their parts.

The coeurl was such a beautiful creature. It was a muddled white with blue spots across its fur. In its natural habitat, this would be used to blend in with the dense fog of the area. The blue spots, which have a natural bioluminescent glow, looked similar to a flower that glows in the area. That, combined with the long whiskers, would be used to draw in all manner of prey, from the herbivores that love the flowers, the curious that want what seems to be a snake or a worm, and those that would hunt either of them.

This coeurl, as beautiful as Ode felt it was, was not so keen on someone it didn’t know trying to mount it.

The stablehand fretted over Ode as she approached, but no words would stop her from what was essentially a dream animal to ride. Plus, this was important! Alister was in trouble!! Surely the cat could sense that and would- SLAP

The cat did not know or care for her problems, and whipped Ode away with one of its giant whiskers, hitting her right across the cheek before it gave her a fearsome hiss for good measure and crouched on its haunches.

“OW!” she snapped, holding her cheek as a thin line of blood like a papercut oozed out, “You little… fucking… Ow! Ugh. Here kitty kitty. It’s okay. Just… let me… Come here and let me ride you!!” Ode, ever determined despite how out of breath she was, continued to try - and fail - to get onto the coeurl’s back. Most attempts ended with her on her back in the straw. One ended with the cat sitting on her legs so she couldn’t move like a misbehaving kitten. Ode was not winning this war of wills.

It took a few more minutes before Duke Blas Severin arrived with his knights and Sir Jacob in tow. The man, a tall, lithe figure with his long black hair drawn up behind him, had on his usual attire, save for a cloak that now adorned his shoulders. It resembled blueish plate armor, but flowed like fabric. He gave Ode a disappointed glare with his deep black eyes and whistled sharply. The coeurl stood at attention at the sound, as did all of the other creatures in the stables. His voice was deep and serious, “Odelline, guide us on Marble. We will talk about how this was allowed to happen later.”

Ode shivered and nodded, so that was the coeurl’s name... Her hand found the side of the cat as she stood up again. She didn’t feel like she had really met the war hero Duke Severin until this moment, and his presence was intimidating despite the lack of weapons.

“Knights! Mount up! We leave at once! The dragon has been allowed to encroach on our land for too long! Now, the beast thinks I will allow it to toy with my son?! We will serve roast of its flesh tonight!” Duke Severin’s voice boomed with authority as he inspired his men, and Ode, climbing onto the feline, felt ever smaller in its presence.