Under his breath, the hatchling muttered, “Something’s following me? Its mana is pretty strong as well.” While he couldn’t make out the thing’s identity at its distance, he absolutely sensed the massive hotspot of mana.

It maintained a large distance and not once did he hear a sound from it. In an attempt to test its intelligence, he stopped and looked around, slowly careening his neck around the whole way. But in his senses the large blob of mana simply ducked down and hid behind a nearby snow mound.

He couldn’t take action now, and his mind immediately went to the hunters. The number of creatures with sufficient eyesight and intelligence to hide like this was unknown, but no way could it be large on this mountain. Whether it was a human or something else, he had to lure it closer.

After looking around he weakened his gaze and walked along as usual, while still cautious of the night he did not appear as tense now. The mana behind followed along but only stuck to points where it could hide from him easily, but he still only travelled the main path along the tree root.

For a while, the figure perfectly remained outside the range of his more accurate mana sense, following at such a distance unintentionally. Obviously it feared him noticing any sounds or smells at a close enough range, not something so powerful like mana sensing.

The figure slipped up eventually though! Figuratively that is, as they approached close enough for his mana sense to instead see their body. Two frightening things immediately stood out to him, and neither of them were the cloaked woman of all people tailing him.

At her waist was an unbelievable concentration of mana, this single thing alone being several times that stored within her body. If that thing could release an attack he’d be a pile of mush at best, and as such his goal immediately moved into disabling her ability to use it.

And even then his other concern was the robes she wore. Within the entirety was a mass of mana as well, possibly just some durable clothing for wizards, but the chances of an enchantment remained. What sort of enchantment?

Well, he just had to go up and ask obviously!

Jokes aside, he worried that a glacier bolt to the chest might not kill her instantly. And as he spent several minutes trying to figure out what to do, he realised that dealing with humans was a massive pain. And that could extend to anything intelligent.

He refused to give up so easily. Given that she had yet to attack he believed that thing at her waist might only protect her in some way. In which case he would have more than enough time to lure her into a false sense of security and use Snap chill. As for how he’d manage that…

The plan was just starting. Figuring out details could come later.

By activating Snap chill he could block one of her arms for a while, a significant fact as most mage spells used their hands to support in spellcasting. It would also stop her grabbing that dangerous tool on impulse, giving him a few moments to cast another spell to harm her significantly.

Additionally, he knew that there was no Wind barrier around her at the moment. This meant even an Ice bolt would strike accurately, although the damage if it struck her robe was questionable. She could also run away from Cone of fire due to its long cast time, not to mention the cone’s size being limited.

In that case it might be best to freeze a leg so she couldn’t escape. No.

He had to prepare against that item, killing her should be an afterthought if he won the confrontation. But how to get away with casting a spell and not drawing immediate concern? He racked his head on the matter for a minute while walking back to the tunnel.

The wind would cover his voice while casting, but the effect of mana gathering around him was unmistakable. But there should be no way for her to know that she’d been discovered, that was a very clear advantage he held at the moment. With that in mind he could easily abuse the dissonance by using a Jump spell to approach her halfway through a cast.

As for what to cast, it would make sense for a dragon to move material with Telekinesis instead of digging by hand. He did it before, and if he made it look like his tunnel was there… Too bad he didn’t know any teleportation spells yet, but he already formed enough of an idea to work.

While it sounded alright in his head, another part just went on a tangent thought, repeatedly saying that no intelligent being would fall for it. That his plan was suicidal and simply couldn’t work. And even if the start worked, he was just too weak to actually damage the wizard.

“Nexus, 5 points into Magic,” he said, voice hidden by the winds. A worsening storm had been appearing the past hour now, but the woman's body stayed fixated to him regardless of the temperature or high winds. This boost to his magic was a last moment preparation to ensure every spell packed enough of a punch.

He walked near to the point of his tunnel, moving around slightly and digging into the snow like he was looking for something specific. After a few moments stopping to look around his surroundings with the utmost care, even in such darkness peeling his eyes and pretending that his sight mattered.

For all he knew, this was some abhorrent acting and she was seconds away from blowing him up into ice-cream mush. But that moment didn’t come, she simply lay against the snowy ground nearby such that he couldn’t see her directly. Even with fingers freezing, she remained still without a heavy breath.

While being a person who wanted to kill him, this woman deserved some respect for the extremes she went through.

Pretending to confirm that nothing was nearby, he closed his eyes and began speaking the words to Snap chill. With even the first few words being loud enough to carry through violent winds, she jumped up and grabbed the thing at her waist with no restraint, on a knee already pushing mana into it and pointing to his head.

There was no hesitation, and he reacted only a split second slower, stopping the spell to use two Jump seals and ascend rapidly.

She didn’t even register the dragon suddenly rising several metres up into the air as mana hit the object in her hand, what appeared to be a simple metal coin. Without even activating spell rings, a crescent of light flew to the point he stood as fast as a Stun spell. The crescent cut through snow for so long that he lost track of it eventually.

But he barely had time to focus on that, having restarted the spell, and as the 8th word of Snap chill arrived and he began releasing mana at a stable rate. All the while speaking the final words as usual. With sufficient practice, it wasn’t too hard to continue casting while falling or rising, just a bit disorienting as his movement changed.

Before landing he completed the final word and aimed for the woman’s extended arm, not caring if he struck her hand or just some general part. Anything to immobilise the thing was enough.

As a wizard with years of experience she’d fought in far more battles than a hatchling, and composed herself while following the now flying dragon, pointing her arm to its arching body and running more mana through while preparing to block its projectile.

But its spell suddenly finished and nothing came…

Her arm suddenly wettened, when did water splash onto her? She quickly tried to dry it off with her cloak, the freezing temperature would riddle her with deep frostbite soon enough, but it was too late. As a thick layer of ice coated it, her arm dropped to her side as the freezing chill quickly penetrated her skin, leaving her wincing.

“You little shit! Just drop dead!” Her screams mixed with the numbing pain shooting through her mind, but with every ounce of willpower still grabbed the coin with her working arm and already began pushing mana into it.

Her dark, golden eyes quickly found the dragon on the floor once more and she pointed without hesitation. Its spell ended before her mana reached it.

A shard of ice appeared; a spell she recognised with ease. The Ice bolt flew towards her but so had the mana reached her coin, she smiled as the stupid dragon chose to attack her arm once more. There was no need to evade as she chose to accept the damage to kill this beast.

At the final moment, just before her mana entered the thing, he activated the Jump seals on his side. Like being kicked by a grown adult, he flew to the side and rolled several times, the movement unexpected compared to flying up once more. Having learnt her lesson she expected it to jump away once more, who could ever anticipate such an action instead?

She didn’t have time to readjust her rising arm as the burst of light travelled far into the snow before finally dissipating. Her face turned ugly, how did this fight go so badly? She should’ve just attacked the thing the moment she saw it!

The Ice bolt sliced through her cloak with ease and jammed itself into her upper arm, instantly slicing through skin, fat, and muscle before stopping dead at her bone. She gasped at the newfound source of pain, so breathless she couldn’t even whimper.

Only a few thoughts remained.

Escape. Revenge. And that Dragon heart!

She clenched her teeth and stood up, almost dropping her coin in the process but gripping it with what little strength remained. Her arm and body shook with each moment, but before the dragon had a chance to cast anything else she ran.

Back to the cave. Back to the group. Back to Bachlar, the one with the forces to hunt a hatchling.

Unfortunately for him, the thickening snow made it impossible to even see her vague direction after a short distance, and then his senses cut out soon after. He felt a bit of regret that she escaped with that powerful item, but he had to quickly hide.

This place was no longer safe.

Actually casting Telekinesis this time round, he moved to the spot of his actual tunnel and rushed inside. Snow piled up at the entrance and the upcoming storm would hide all signs of digging soon enough.

Going all the way to his abode, he began thinking at length at what went wrong. He disabled one arm, and injured another, yet she still just fought to kill him. Was she a trained warrior to be capable of withstanding pain to such a degree?

Humans were a lot more frightening than the books suggested. Although he knew instantly that she was quite special for having such an item, if a Lesser wizard presented that much willpower who knew what trained warriors could power through instead. He had to crush them with force!

Pain was simply not enough to beat down humans with, and he needed a better immobilisation spell. Mental shock was an interesting spell, or Super stun… But first he wanted to finish learning Wind blade storm. Just that alone could have left both her arms ridden in cuts and unable to even hold that annoying tool.

* * *

Up above he only heard silence, and by moving slightly above he heard voices filled with concern and some very recognisable words. ‘Dragon’ and ‘hunt’ proved to be the most common by far, and one of the voices belonged to that woman who said something during their fight.

He dared not get too close though, and simply shrunk back to his little room to cook some meat. With the last of the Cantou’s meat now being cooked for his voracious appetite, he had to stop after a while as something above drew his attention.

A long river of mana passed through the edge of his mana sense. Speaking to himself, he mumbled, “What is that?” The strange sight was enough to make him stop and stare for a few seconds. And immediately after doing so, he quickly scarfed down the uncooked meat in front of him and dashed for the exit.

Furthermore, things in the cave above were even worse, most of the group tended to a horribly injured Augusticus when they noticed the looming threat upon them.