It took about an hour to get everyone inside and situated. There wasn't much food in the place. Some stale donuts, a vending machine. Everyone sort of dropping wherever it was convenient. There were some couches in the offices we pulled out for the kids to sleep on. After that, I got my Tylenol and cleaned up a bit with some bottled water and alcohol from the first aid kit. Turns out getting blasted through a 8-foot tall oak panel fence tends to leave splinters. I pulled one out of my bicep as long as my finger. I hadn't even noticed it when it happened and afterward, it was just sorta part of the general pain.

I talked to the cops for a half-hour after that, making sure they would see these people safe, turns out none of them wanted to go hang out with a Frost Drake so I ended up going. I cleaned and reloaded my rifle with more tungsten rounds. I gave a few boxes of those to the marine who was now a rookie. He was sniper qualified and they had a nice 30.06 with a 24x scope. Then I grabbed my ruck, some sour cream, and onion chips and headed out.

One of my favorite Maddison quotes is "be polite, be respectful, but have a plan to kill everybody." In the Raiders we lived by that motto. So it's no surprise I was planning my ass off as I made my way the few blocks to the nest.

As I got closer I began to feel like I was being watched. There was an oppressive feeling to the air, like a weight pushing down on my shoulders. There were four demolished houses that had been shoved into a hole in the center of an intersection. Lying atop this nest of crushed wood, drywall, particleboard, and shingles was the drake. I could see her watching me as I approached so I tried to keep to cover, but honestly, there wasn't much of that. A couple of cars here and there. I was about a hundred yard from the neat when she spoke.

"Good. You have kept your word." She said in that gravelly voice.

"Yes, ma'am. Marines are good at that. We honor our oaths and keep to our duties. That said we need to figure this thing out. There isn't much time until the system arrives." I said.

"Less than you know. Soon challengers will arrive to try to claim territories here and steal the power of those who have already come. Since you have kept your word I will offer you a trade. Help me defeat the challenger and I will grant you a boon." She said.

I considered that. A boon sounded interesting. If I could work it right I might even be able to get her to not eat humans and defend the city from major attacks. So I set down to haggling. We went back and forth for about an hour. By the end of it, I agreed to help her defend her territory as well as speak to the local government (whoever that happened to be at the end of this) and get them to provide food. In return, she would refrain from eating any humans who didn't attack or invade her territory (it was apparently 400 Square yards) and help defend the city five times per solar cycle (year). We also discussed the giant pillar which she called a dungeon. She said it would have meat from harvested creatures inside as well as free-roaming monsters outside the city. That's what she would get as food, meaning we wouldn't have to dig into whatever the city had for supplies for the people here. Sure I didn't really have any pull with the city, but who's gonna argue with a frost drake that will eat you if you go back on your word? I was already planning to check out the dungeon when it opened so it wasn't any skin off my back to bring food for the big girl. To be honest, I was really really hoping she would be agreeable to a partnership with me, I was already imagining a platform saddle like the ones from that Dino Island game mounted on her back fitted with Vulcans on each corner.

After that, we just sorta sat there keeping each other company. The oppressive weight got worse and worse. Finally, she said. "It's here."

Raising her head to the sky she began to croon. I tried to stand and couldn't. I fell over as new screens appeared in my vision.

_______________________________________

System Scan Completed.

Universe 62634 has been fully integrated with the Guardian system. Planetary, Solarsystem, Galaxy, and Universal A.I. online for local control.

_______________________________________

System Message:

Class Systems coming online. Species Marker created.

Installing Species Markers…..

Completed.

Skill System Online.

Link Index Online.

_______________________________________

Terra-

Hello, humanity! I am so excited to be your planetary incarnation. I will do my very best to see the transition from no system to an AWESOME System is smooth. The seven Continental Dungeons will be opening within twelve hours. Please prepare accordingly. Shortly you beings who purchased your own territories will face your Challengers, Good Luck and Have Fuuunnn!

_______________________________________

The oppressive weight I'd been feeling vanished. I started to read some of the messages but I got interrupted by a blinding blue light beam coming from the sky. I had to turn my head away. When I looked back up I almost shit myself. Sure is had the drake here all along so if sort of gotten used to the whole "giant scary monster" thing. And sure we'd fought a bit. But this thing in front of us made my blood cold and my balls shriveled.

It looked like a wyvern, but it was almost as big as the Drake, (I realized suddenly I still didn't know her name). It looked like it was in motion just standing there. It's scales we're blueish towards the middle shading outward to grey and edged in bright gold color. I glanced at the drake from the corner of my eye and decided to get the fuck out of the way as the prudent course of action. I'd been resting at the south side of the nest. So I began moving east at a diagonal to see if I could flank this thing.

"YOU!" Boomed the drake

"Well well if it isn't Aethundra the Flood Bringer. I'd been wondering where you ran off too, you didn't even let me see the eggs that resulted from our last encounter!" It said in a weird hissing voice. It sounded like every snake from every movie ever. All at the same time. It was creepy as fuck.

"You will die here Solegg the Eater. You made a mistake coming so far from your power." She said with a grinding hiss. Then she charged him.

What happened next was just a blur to me. By now it was pretty clear she had been holding back when we fought. I think she had been looking for an ally for this from the start. Yay me. I'd been in plenty of combat over the years from kicking Taliban ass to spanking Somali pie rats. None of it had shaken me like this. It was like watching Godzilla and Gigan go head to head thirty feet from me. I'd given my word to help her but I had no idea where to even start. If I went in there I was toast.

So I circled the area. They absolutely demolished it. The drake who I now knew was Aethundra tried to use her weight and hold Solegg down so she could bite his face off. But when she charged he ducked her and sped past her so fast it was hardly more than a blur to me. Then I noticed a gash on Aethundras left side about a foot long. It looked like he has hit her with his wing claw on the pass. It was pouring out blood.

Then something unexpected happened. A massive bubble of water appeared above her head and rocketed at Solegg hitting him in the chest, he dodged most of it but it still caught his wing knocking him backwards to the ground. As she charged him again he flapped his wings and two blades of air spun out and slammed into Aethundra on both sides. While he was doing that I saw an opportunity and took my shot, I put a round right through his left eye. Then I kept unloading on his face. I dropped thirty rounds then he covered up with his wings. His screeches of pain from the eye were irritating and deafening.

Aethundra had more gashes down her sides. Her scales were smashed and she was favoring her right rear leg but she lumbered into a run and slammed into him knocking him ass over tea kettle. He flew four whole blocks.

Right into the police station.

Being a flier I wouldn't have thought he was that heavy, but he crushed that building like it was a beer can. I didn't even have time to yell out a warning. And I don't think it would have mattered.

When Solegg got back up he looked pissed. Then he spoke in that nasty voice.

"You have gotten stronger Aethundra. But I have reached my second Affinity. You can not stand against me! I will kill you and TAKE what is mine, as well as your territory. Now DIE!" He said.

Then he opened his jaws and electricity started to spark from his huge sharp teeth forming a ball of energy at the opening of his muzzle. He seemed to exhale gently and then a truly massive bolt of lightning blasted in a continuous stream towards Aethundra. She managed to get some kind of water wall up then it was blasted apart. Steam and fog blew everywhere. I couldn't see anything anymore.

I hid. This shit was way out of my league. I'd take Solegg's other eye if I could but aside from that, I couldn't think of a single thing I could do to help. Then Aethundra spoke from inside the fog.

"Your biggest weakness has ALWAYS been your arrogance Solegg. It's how I beat you before. It's how I stole your legacy away. It's how I'll beat you NOW! My name if Frost Bringer!" She said. Then the fog began to clear and as it did it began to form massive floating shards of ice. Once I could see her I gaped like a recruit seeing his first Bradley up close. she was covered in a thick sheet of ice segmented to look like she was wearing some form of scale mail. If scale mail could be a foot thick.

I noticed Solegg begin to look uncertain for the first time. Then he screeched and began to try to lift off. That was all Aethundra had been waiting for. Those countless shards of ice flew at him like a frozen shotgun from hell. Several impacted his wing bones snapping them while the rest embedded in his chest and neck creating massive gashes. His wings became useless with the many holes. He flopped back to the ground again, right on top of the station, again.

I'd been standing at the side of a house two blocks away this whole time waiting for a shot. I saw one and took it, again lighting up his face. I missed the eye but this time he saw me and where the shot had come from. He zeroed in on me like a laser.

"Insect. You die now!" He said.

Then his eye began to glow with yellow light. I hadn't noticed before but the sky above was overcast now. Great arcs of lightning began flashing overhead and I knew I was fucked. So I did what any good marine would. I charged that fucker with everything I had in my six foot six frame pulling my Hellstorm Frag as I did. I was about thirty feet away when it began to rain lightning. So I threw it as hard as I could and dropped on the ground covering my head.

Boom!

The grenade went off. My aim had been good. It had landed near his jaw and blown it clean off his face. He'd lost the other eye too. That's when I noticed the shadow over me. Aethundra had covered me with her body. She was standing over me taking the hits. I could see large chunks of ice raining down. Her left rear leg buckled. After a few minutes, it was over.

"Finish him, please." She said.

I couldn't see him moving. So I crawled up the rubble, reloaded, and put my rifle barrel in his eye socket and unloaded all hundred rounds. I heard a weird ding and then a screen popped up.

System Message:

Elite Creature [Solegg the Eater] has been killed. XP deferred till a class is chosen. Since this kill was made without a class your class choices will be upgraded two tiers to rare with a 50% chance of an Elite 25% chance of Unique and 10% chance of Legendary.

Would you like to loot this corpse? Y/N.

Of course, I chose yes. A small wooden chest appeared. It was about the size of a footlocker from basic. It was two feet long about one and a half feet wide and two feet deep. It had bronze banding and steel hinges as well as a place for a lock. No lock though. It was finally starting to sink in. My life had become a goddamn video game. That was both awesome and scary as shit.

"Bring that and follow me," Aethundra said from behind me. She sounded weird. Like she was having trouble breathing. I grabbed the chest and lifted it. It wasn't too heavy, so I turned and followed her. She was dragging her left rear leg and her right rear leg wasn't working right. We went the four blocks to her nest. It had been outside the lightning storm and was virtually untouched. As we got there she pulled her bulk half in and began to claw something out of the rubble.

When she came back out I actually gasped. It was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. Clearly, it was an egg. But it was like no egg ever seen before. It was a deep metallic cobalt blue. It was slightly scaly and the edges of the scales were a deep charcoal grey with the same edge of gold Solegg's scales had possessed. That's when I began to understand.

"You owe me. If I had not saved you we would both be dead. I need you to swear to me you will become my child's guardian." She said.

"Uhhhh." I said.

I'm rarely at a loss for words. But raising a baby drake? I didn't even own a dog. What the hell was I gonna even feed it? Well, I guess I could feed it from the dungeon. I was lost in thought when Aethundra began hacking horribly splattering bloody phlegm all over the place. When she calmed down I asked.

"Why can't you raise it?"

"You know why." She said.

And I did. If she hadn't covered me with her body we'd both be dead or dying. I did owe her. I hadn't known her for very long. And I was pretty sure she'd eaten the two missing cops. But she'd done alright by me and honored our deal.

"Alright, I'll protect your child till it can protect itself. I have no idea how to do that though. Will it be as intelligent as you?" I asked.

"Not at first. It will be small and weak, it will grow quickly, however. Not more than a month and it will begin to speak to you. When the egg hatches you must feed it immediately. This will form a bond. This will help you greatly in raising it." She said.

That seemed to stress her out. She began hacking again and seemed to grow weaker. I took the egg. It was about a foot and a half tall. I set my ruck down and began pulling out my clothing and accessories removing anything that I didn't think I'd need to make room for the trip home. Then I slid the egg inside and packed clothing around it to cushion it.

Aethundra had been watching me do all this. When it was done she said.

"Inside the chest, you will find a Territory Claim Token. Mine will be rare, I have no idea what his was but knowing him it will be larger. It will also contain other items. Don't open it till you're in a safe place. It can't be claimed for three days and no one else can open it who isn't in your party." She said.

Then she said it. The words I knew had to becoming.

"Now I need you to kill me. Then you can claim my territory token and give my child a place to grow in safety." She said.

So I did.

I won't go into the details. Suffice it to say the lightning bolt to her chest did much more damage than I'd assumed and leave it at that. Once it was done I got another message about killing an Elite without a class increasing my chances of an Elite, Unique or Legendary class. And a new chest. So I packed up my ruck strapped it on and began to drag the chests towards home with tears on my cheeks.