«Today you'll do some sparring!» (Old dragon)

Zey and the dragon girl had just woken up but the old dragon was merciless in their training.

They took a deep breath. There was nothing they could do. They had already known that from the very start. They both positioned themselves with a mere 20 meters between each other and readied their weapons. The dragon girl had gauntlets with spikes while Zey was using a staff he had received for training purposes. The staffs have the power to amplify magic but this training staff barely did anything. It was more of a blunt weapon in case of need.

The old dragon knew very well how the battle would go. After all, they are polar opposites in battle. As long as Zey keeps his distance, he wins. If the enemy gets too close, he's done for. Zey is proficient with all the basic elements and somewhat so with the secondary elements by mixing the basic ones but is as fragile as a piece of glass. The dragon girl on the other hand barely uses magic but all her physical power is outstanding. Truly polar opposites. Like this, the old dragon planned on evaluating their strategy, instead of only evaluating their power.

He was giving his all so that their fate could be fulfilled. They had too much of an important fate. They were fated to save the world together as something more than just allies... It was hard to just hand over his granddaughter but he won't go against her fate.

That would be even crueler. Even though they keep screaming at each other and throwing insults all the time, those feelings have already started to sprout, waiting for the right time to bloom. They had such an important fate but in there, there were two individuals that had no fate at all.

In the group of 13 they would form, two had no fate. The reason is still unknown but the gods might have something to do with it. The old dragon had already seen everyone fated to the group, all of them couples apart from the lone assassin.

There is a driad that's too kind for her own good and a lion Beast-men that became obsessed with his lover's protection.

A human swords-woman of noble blood and a shielded ogre that is a silent slave.

A werewolf that is obsessed with having a rival stronger than him and a sweet, young human girl priest that will always go against her god even though her faith is unwavering.

An orc swordsman whose gluttony and lust surpassing everything one could think of and a gorgeously cute elf archer with very weird sexual fetishes. The old dragon almost puked once he noticed that the cute elf was actually a boy. No matter where you go, homosexuality is seen very poorly and in some countries, is actually punishable.

The old dragon grinned at the next ones. A high-imp with absurd magic power but a fragile body and some ego problems and a half-dragon girl with barely any magic but outstanding physical power and also with ego problems. Those two were, without a doubt, the ones in front of him.

Next was the weirdest one. An assassin that is always alone and isn't actually in the group officially, he/she who has no gender had followed them from basically half their adventure and only actually joins in the end...

But after that were the most intriguing for the old dragon. Because even with an almost maxed appraisal and maxed "Fate view", he couldn't see anything on their fate and could barely see any of their statuses. He only knew that one of them was an absolute monster with enough power to destroy the gods and the other actually had the power of the gods. The only thing he could see about their future was that the monster had the title of demon king. It was still sealed but it was already there. Even without fate, he is sure to become the demon king. All this made the old dragon ponder. It was too weird. Who were they?

In the end, he could only believe that the world was lucky those two were together and were going to save the world somehow. Otherwise, the world would end right there. The only thing the old dragon could do now was grooming these two and make sure all the other's fates are fulfilled. Humans were planning an all-out war so that's probably their last stage. They have quite a few years until then but it's still very little time.

The old dragon came back from his thoughts and looked at the two in front of him.

«What are you two waiting for?! GO!» (Old dragon)

The moment those words echoed on their ears they both started moving. The dragon girl immediately dashed forward... or that was what she intended to do but she slipped on the mud that Zey had created under her feet and fell on her knees. She immediately got up and started moving in a zig-zag pattern. Zey changed his approach and blew her away with a lot of wind. He then created another zone of muddy ground,

making her slip and fall when she landed.

«Are you making fun of me?!» (Dragon girl)

Zey tried to hid de fact that he was giggling and enjoying the mud-covered girl but the dragon girl understood it immediately.

«God damn you!» (Dragon girl)

The dragon girl launches a fireball and dashes forward. Zey creates a water wall that swallows the fireball and once he notices the dragon girl getting closer, he quickly freezes the water wall into icy spikes as big as an arm and throws them at her. She dodges a few and parries another few but two still hit her right shoulder and leg but she still charges forward. Zey quickly jumps backward and creates an earth wall in between them and starts preparing a larger magic. An explosion. It was one of his latest "creations". He was sure he would have time. The dragon girl would either go around the wall or try to break through so he would have enough time to prepare his magic.

Little did he know that she would actually jump over it. That thought had slipped his mind because, rationally speaking, being airborne would leave you open to an attack but, for a dragon, being airborne was not disadvantageous at all. He tried to quicken it but in the last moment he gave up on the explosion and pushed her away with more wind.

Unfortunately, he still couldn't cast many spells at the same time so he couldn't use another spell while preparing another. Otherwise, this would be his win. The dragon girl landed on the muddy ground and fell with her face on the mud. Some tears could be shamefully be seen on her face.

«Why?!» (Dragon girl)

Zey was unable to even smile this time. It was an accident. Not only that, it was a close call. If he had pushed her back a moment later,

she would have won.

Zey was stunned and the girl had lost her will to fight out of shame.

«Stop it right there. That's enough.» (Old dragon)

He was proud of them. They had fought well while using their new power and utilizing their natural strength. Even though the dragon girl gave up, for the first time, she had stolen Zey's proud smile.