“Andriel is a peaceful city, one that promotes cooperation, compassion, and tranquility. Of course, not all of its inhabitants are peaceful, as Templars proved time and time again. The Bastion is a threat to all undead residing on this continent, regardless of where they may hide.

Such a shame that their rulers take tranquility too much at heart.”

-Grand Paladin Arkhom, on the policies of the nation of Varastill.

??? pov

The giant boar slammed into the little dragon. Its tusks weren’t sharp enough to penetrate her scales, but sparks flew in abundance.

The small dragon let the momentum of her opponent wane, then latched on its exposed throat with her sharp jaws. The animal let out a choked squeal, shaking its whole body to get rid of her.

She let go, welcoming her opponent’s carelessness to slither under its belly. She raked and bit to her heart’s content, ignoring the waterfall of blood drenching her.

The beast roared both in pain and anger, stomping madly at the dragon. She widened her eyes, darting left and right to avoid the angry hooves, but one found its way on her snout.

The hit made her space out for a second. Blinking rapidly to get rid of the tears, she shook her head and snarled. Rolling on her folded wings, she jumped on her foe’s back. The dragon aimed at the giant boar’s neck, unleashing her elementless breath.

The beast let out a pained squeal. Unfortunately for it, this attack ignored part of its thick hide, striking directly at its dwindling life force. He soon crashed on one side, unmoving.

“Victory, at last!” The small dragoness shouted, improvising a brief celebratory dance. She scratched her throbbing face, before grinning. “You’re going to taste extra-delicious.” She murmured, getting ready to drag the corpse back to her house.

“There you are, little rascal!” Exclaimed a tall, tanned human, glaring at her.

Crap. The dragon pretended to not see or hear him, still dragging her deceased opponent behind her.

Moments later, a strong pair of large hands lifted her to his chin. “Uh... hello, dad. How... how are you doing?" She asked as if nothing strange had happened. She had to drop her prize to talk properly, unfortunately.

He rolled his eyes. "Don’t try to wiggle your way out of this, Nashariel! Your mother was worried!” Dad gently shook her a few times.

Thalom Holyshield was an imposing, young-looking, chestnut-haired man. His eyes were a tad lighter, currently frowning at her.

She shifted to her dragokin form, to pout properly. “And I was bored!”

“I know, little one, but that’s no excuse for sneaking out. C’mon, let’s return home.” He let Nashariel go, then loaded her prey onto his shoulder, giving the girl his opposite hand. “If anything, you got us dinner.” The man chuckled.

Damn right I did! She took the offered hand, hiding a satisfied smile. “Did you watch it? How did it go?” She skipped from one foot to another, full of anticipation.

“Pretty good, I’d say. You have learned to not stop a charge with your face, which is significant progress. I can’t say the same for the hooves, though.”

“Oh, c’mon, it happened only once!” She groaned. Nashariel could feel the spot where the beast hit her heating up.

Her father simply chuckled.

She and her parents lived on a small hill that had a view of the lower side of the port, letting them enjoy the sight of the ocean kissing the city. Even this far, they could hear the birds’ tranquil callings, some belonging to small ones, others to pacific monsters, fishing a bit further from the sailing boats and ships, out even when the sky had turned orange.

Nashariel had shifted again into her true form, perching herself on her father’s shoulders. Clothes had the irritating tendency to not survive the shift.

The guards at the entrance spared her only a glance. It took a few years, but, at this point, they were used to seeing the small, gray dragon going in and out of the city.

Lianna was in front of the door, arms crossed, tapping her fingers while glaring at the small dragon.

The human woman was a little shorter than her husband. The human had blonde hair, emerald-eyed eyes, and slightly azure-tinged skin tone. Lianna Holyshield usually offered a warm smile and a caring expression. Currently, they were both absent.

Nashariel tried to hide her face behind the Templar.

“Nashariel Holyshield!” Thundered the woman. “What were you thinking!?”

Yep, I’m dead.

Duck.

A long, long scolding after, Nashariel was sighing in her room. She considered herself lucky to not have been banned from dinner. More precisely, the one she hunted. With another sigh, she opened her System.

* Name: Nashariel Holyshield.

Race: ??? dragon (wyrmling)

Current humanoid form: Human dragokin

Age: 12

Level: -

Available points: -

Current attunement: -

Strength: 9

Power: 8

Resilience: 11

Vitality: 10

Dexterity: 6

Awareness: 6

Essence: 5

Endurance: 7

Hp: 100

Mana: 50

Stamina: 70

Skills: Locked.

Awakening: Six days and 5 hours. *

She grinned. After the battle, her strength and resilience gained a point each.

No awakening, yet. Nashariel noted with disappointment. The dragon checked the timer every single day, but it had never skipped a second.

When Nashariel was born, she had some draconic features, such as the scales on her face. Her parents attributed them to a distant relative, since neither of her parents were Astillians by birth. On her fifth birthday, her body proved otherwise.

One morning, Nashariel found herself facing her stunned parents. That night, after her birthday party, she had been enveloped in a monster’s shell, and her race changed to the current one, instead of the usual ‘dragokin’.

Uncle Nicholas, one of her parents’ closest friends and a scholar, had examined Nashariel head to toe. He couldn’t find anything wrong with her. Simply, she was now a dragon.

Last but not least, her human body had also undergone some changes. Her scales had expanded, and now her extremities were fully clawed. Not to talk about her ability to shapeshift into an actual dragon.

After all these years, the girl had embraced these changes out of necessity, if nothing else.

Nashariel looked forward to her Awakening, at thirteen years old, where all human-kins were granted access to the System. Although, some part of her feared that her humanoid side could vanish altogether.

“Nashariel, dinner’s ready!” Her mother shouted.

“Did you have a good hunt?” Questioned the priestess, after a while.

“Yes! My stats went up a bit too!” Nashariel cheered, stuffing her mouth full.

“Why did you not ask one of us to accompany you, Nashariel?” Lianna was glaring at her.

The young girl almost choked on her stake. “W-well, you always say no, and dad was busy. And I hunted close to home, so there was only this one...”

Her behavior had changed too, since her transformation. Nashariel had always been a lively girl, but the dragon’s blood had increasingly pushed her towards a constant hunger to hunt.

Lianna pinched her nose. “Little light, you are still locked from the system. You will awaken in less than a week, can’t you be a bit more patient?”

“I was bored out of my mind," Nashariel grumbled, chewing harder than necessary. "The rest of my classmates have already awakened, so classes ended. They are getting into the cool stuff, and I’m stuck here, looking at… grass!"

Her parents glanced at each other, locked in a silent conversation, then they nodded.

“So, if you had something else to do, would you give up on sneaking out?”

The girl’s ears perked up. Her family was never happy to hear her asking to kill monsters as a pastime, but they never forbid it. Yet. “Like what? I won’t trade hunting for doing laundry.” She narrowed her eyes.

Thalom snorted. "By Astill's wings, I won't ask you to fold another sheet until you learn to blunt your claws! No, I thought about something along the line of proper system training. We had planned to do it after your awakening, but-"

“Yes!” She interrupted him, faster than sound.

Lianna rolled her eyes, the Templar laughed.

After dinner, Nashariel was in her bed, with mom caressing her hair. “Sorry for sneaking out...”

“What matters is that you are safe and sound, little light. But, please, do try to contain yourself, okay?”

“Fine. ’Night, mom.”

“Have a good night, sweetheart.”

The last of her changes? The dreams.

Nashariel didn’t remember her first years, obviously, but, since her transformation, she often dreamed strange dreams. They were as vivid as her waking life, and, as opposed to the ordinary ones, she didn't forget them as easily.

Sometimes, they were the innocent kind. Flying above a forest, diving below the sea, or a party in a tavern. Taste of bad alcohol aside, harmless.

Then, there were the bad ones.

Endless battles, horrendous monsters, and mountains of corpses. She once saw herself holding the burnt corpse of a foxkin woman, screaming until her throat bled. That night, Nashariel woke up the same way, scaring herself and her parents to death. She had feared falling asleep for days.

This night was one of the bad ones. One that showed the dragon her own death.

In this scene, Nashariel’s body was enormous, larger than she could comprehend. She was facing something even bigger. He, something in her mind told her so, was laughing at her, and she was replying with burning hatred, spitting her words out. The dreaming girl didn’t comprehend the language, but understood the tone.

The living inferno was shining brighter than the sun, setting the lava itself on fire and burning the surrounding air to plasma, while Nashariel was clad in a storm… no, it was her skin, scales and bones. A downpour fell down from where she stood, thunder and lightning rumbled within her, striking the red rocks around her, outright vaporizing them.

The living thunderstorm threw herself at the infernal dragon.

They battled for days.

Her lightning attacks were useless against pure flame, while his claws left deep scars in the clouds, ozone leaking out from them. Noting this, Nashariel of the dream became winter incarnate, then pure miasma, and so many more elements got unleashed onto the world. Their battle shattered a nearby volcano-chain like nothing.

In the last moments, as she was about to finally prevail on her foe, another being joined the battlefield. This one (she?) was more powerful than her sibling (or mate?), unleashing explosions worthy of being called world-enders upon her body. Then another dragon came, clad in solid lava, then another, and another…

Nashariel of the dream endured what she could, but her [Mastery of fire] sat at a pathetic level, and couldn’t shield her. The young girl saw her dreaming body getting reduced to ashes, those too vaporized moments later.

Nashariel woke up with a muffled scream.

She frantically checked her body, searching for any sign of burns. Finding none, she dropped on her bed, drenched with sweat. These dreams… why? Do other dragons have them too? Sighing, she got up. Like many other nights before, the girl couldn’t fall asleep again. She asked herself these questions many times before, and an answer had still to present itself to her.

Nashariel jumped from her open window, directly into her family's garden. It wasn't the biggest, but they had a pond with a small training area. The dragon marched there, taking a wooden weapon to pummel an enchanted dummy. She varied her tools, ending with her natural weapons and her dragon form. Nashariel kept going until her limbs became as heavy as lead, then fell into an exhausted sleep.

The morning after, she woke up thanks to the sun in her eyes. Growling in protest, the girl switched to her humanoid form, stretching her screaming muscles. She checked her status, noting with disappointment that no stats had gone up.

During breakfast, her parents pretended that there was nothing strange about their daughter sleeping outside. They shot her a few worried glances when they thought she wasn’t looking. Nashariel mentally thanked them for not bringing it up.

An hour later, Thalom was about to leave. He told Nashariel that he needed to notify his and mom’s absence from the Bastion and the Clinic.

“Have a good day, Thalom.” The priestess kissed her husband.

“Have fun with Nash, Lianna.” He smiled at both of them, then went about his business.

“Now,” Lianna started while looking at her daughter. “Let’s start from the basics, shall we? Tell me about the statistics.”

She stood a bit straighter. "Strength measures how physically powerful you are, Power does the same for skills and spells.

Resilience represents your toughness, Vitality how much you can take before going down.

Dexterity tells us how agile or fast we are, Awareness manages reflexes and perception.

Essence is how much mana you can hold within your body to unleash Skills and spells, Endurance manages our stamina and resistance to fatigue."

Lianna softly clapped her hands. “Good memory! Now, how does someone grow?”

“Experience, which gives you levels. They reward you with stat and skill points. You improve yourself with stats, and skills are used to… well, buy and improve skills, as long as you satisfy their prerequisites. Skills cap out at level twenty, at which point they can evolve, increasing their tier.”

The woman smiled, patting Nashariel’s head. "You studied hard, didn't you?"

"Obviously! I can't wait to finally unlock! I want to know everything!"

“Everyone does,” she chuckled, “but let’s take it easy for now. What are the most mandatory Skills?”

“I... have no idea. My breath weapon? Claws? Fighting styles?” Nashariel started fidgeting.

“Growth Skills! I’m surprised that your teachers didn’t talk to you kids about them,” she said, tapping her chin a few times. “Anyway, this set of Skills is something that makes you earn more points for the corresponding stat, like [Improved power] does for power or [Improved dexterity] for dexterity, and so on.”

After Nashariel listened intently for some time at many suggested skills, Lianna stretched her legs. “Time to get a bit of practice in!”

The duo went into the training area. Then the woman summoned six magical circles. “What can you tell me about the six basic elements?”

Nashariel rolled her shoulders, positioning herself to better tank the beams shooting from each of the circles. "Air is the element of the playful. It's the fastest among the elements, but it doesn't hit too hard." This fact didn't mean that the solid wind beam didn't hurt, but it easily pushed Nashariel back.

“Then there’s fire, the wrathful element. It has the greatest power, but it lacks control and consumes a lot of resources.” The fiery spell harmlessly dispersed on the dragon’s scales. Thankfully, this nightmare hadn’t been so bad as… others. Nashariel couldn’t bring herself to associate her mother’s beams to those dragons’. A quick check to the horizon confirmed that yes, the mountain was still there.

“Water thirsts for knowledge. It’s the opposed of fire, endless resources and tricks, held back by a lack of bite.” The gush of water briefly made the girl lose her footing.

"Earth is wise and slow. It's nigh indestructible, and binds its enemies." In one of her nightmares, one of such spells had pierced her from one side to another. A village-sized spear, to be precise.

Lianna stopped mid-casting. “Little light, are you well? You’re pale.”

Dang it. “Just a bad dream. I’m fine!”

The cleric eyed her with worry, but she didn’t pry further. “Next?”

Thanks, mom. "The ever-hungry darkness. Its great durability is dependent on others' life force to survive." The dark mist stole her essence, passing it to her mother.

“Lastly, we have light, the giver. Its specialty is supporting others, but it pays in self-capabilities.” The light ray heated the dragon’s skin, but it was the weakest one, by far.

Nashariel’s family was used to her changes, by now. Following the monsters’ rules, she would’ve had a few choices to select her element/s. They didn’t need to tell her to not choose a dark-based combination.

As much as the elements weren’t inherently evil or good, monsters tended to fall under their influence, especially the mindless ones. In some of her dreams, fire dragons’ favorite pastime was to set villages and cities on fire, and dark dragons' to torment the unfortunate beings that fell into their clutches. Nashariel had dreamed about them. In some of those dreams, she fought them. In others…

Nicholas was perplexed at Nashariel’s absolute lack of affinity. He claimed that such a thing should’ve been impossible in a dragon, and yet…

As both the scholar’s and Nashariel’s curiosity grew, the young man had perused a bunch of the church’s tomes, without getting an answer. They had resigned to wait out her awakening, hoping that the name of her sub-species could enlighten them.

On the other hand, during this research, Nashariel found out about legendary beings such as Ragnar, the explorer of the Depths.

He was an old Ocean-dragon who roamed from place to place, in search of knowledge and forgotten treasures. He also liked freeing the local populace from local troubles, like pirates or dangers from the depths. He once killed a Kraken all by himself!

As soon as Nashariel finished reading the first volume, she asked for more. The girl greedily devoured each tome regarding ancient or current heroes, humanoid or monster alike. Her small library was easily the most prized of her belongings.

Back to reality, Lianna nodded in approval. “Nick would be proud of you! Now we will do some exercises to aim for a stat increase. Ready?”

She trained Nashariel until dusk, save for a brief lunch break. The young girl dropped on the grass, taking ample breaths, then opened her status.

She gained a point in each stat, save for two in endurance, and none in essence. Probably because she couldn’t use mana yet.

Nashariel glared at the remaining time.

Around midnight, Nashariel’s father led her into the forest. The moon was high in the sky, only obscured by solitary clouds, its unblinking gaze shining upon the world. They always warned her that these hours belonged to the predators, were the ones she was barely able to hunt became easy prey.

The forest was silent. No birds chirping, no animals in the distance, only the occasional sharp cries of the hunters and the hunted.

Nashariel shivered, staying as close as possible to her father. His steps were calm and regular.

She had been told that every point earned now would be available when she would’ve awakened. Higher-level beings rewarded lots of them.

At some point, he motioned her to stay still. He pointed at the clearing ahead.

Nashariel saw a giant cat-like figure feasting on a giant boar twice the usual size. The feline’s mane was pure black, save for the reddened mouth. Just looking at it made her tremble.

"Nash, if you want to travel the world, these are the kind of creatures that wait for you." The Templar said, uncaring to whisper. The head of the monster snapped towards them, growling loudly.

Thalom stepped towards it, spear in his hand. “As soon as I block it, I want you to hurt it. Only with your breath, nothing more. Clear?” He ordered.

Nashariel nodded, even if the gulp in her throat was suffocating.

The beast pounced lightning-fast on the Templar. For a moment, the dragon thought that he had underestimated their foe, but the spear seemed to magically appear in the monster’s chest.

Taking her father’s grunt as a clue, Nashariel Breathed on the beast. The smell of singed fur rose around them, before Thalom ended the struggling monster, with a decisive twist of his weapon.

“This was a level sixty Shadow-jaguar, and also the reason for why we forbid you to go out at night. I hope you understand now.”

By Astill... “Y-yeah, I do. Can… can we keep going?”

He raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure? Don't over push yourself, it's fine to take it slow.”

She shook her head. “I want to be stronger. I prefer being protected while doing so.”

“Wise girl!”

Nashariel looked at the corpse. As strong as I need to not end like that. The dragon clenched her fist, all the dreams of her deaths flashing in her mind.

Two days before unlocking, Nashariel received a visit.

“C’mon, how long before you awaken?” Whined Cody. He was slightly shorter than the girl, but he had the dark-blue scales of a leviathan, thanks to his ancestor. The noble boy was one of the last kids to awaken, thus having finished the base school. He was now being taught privately by his family, a common practice among wealthy people.

“I wish it was sooner...” The rules encouraged to not let awakened kids play with those who weren't. It made sense, but forced isolation was grating the dragokin all the same. Since her transformation, many kids had been wary of Nashariel. No one openly despised her, but she had needed a long time to stop being stared at. Cody was one of the few who hadn't, probably because the leviakin was even more monstrous than she was, thanks to his long deep-blue tail.

He smirked. “Are you sure, you training maniac?"

He knows me sooooooo well. Nashariel threw him a pillow, hiding a grin. “I plan to fish something bigger than a few overgrown tunas, unlike someone.”

“Oh my, is this a formal challenge, miss Holyshield?”

“You can bet on it, mister Seaweaver!”

Cody’s smirk widened. Waving his long tail, a gush of water appeared mid-air, drenching Nashariel from head to toe. Cold!

He prepared another wave, but, thanks to the girl’s “training” she put her arms together in front of it, sending him back his own water.

Nashariel then tackled him to the ground, but his strength was higher than hers. He easily reversed their positions, pressing his weight on the dragon.

“Do you surrender?” He asked smugly.

She chuckled. “Never!” Another wave drenched the girl, but the water helped her scales to slip free.

The duo kept going like this for a while, playing a new game called "drenched pillow fight" until a knock on the door made them stop. "So, are you two having fun?” Questioned Lianna. She had... a certain aura around her.

The kids looked at the waterlogged room, then at the squelching mattress under them.

Duck. “Run!” Nashariel shouted, bravely jumping out of the window. A firm grip stopped her tactical repositioning. She timidly peeked at her mother, hanging upside-down. “Yes?”

"Young lady, you will help me dry all of this."

“Yes...”

I need more dexterity.

Cody and his maid lent a hand too. He got scolded for using his powers on a locked person. The priestess wasn't too happy about it either but didn't add anything.

After they departed, Nashariel’s parents asked how much time she had left until her awakening. "Almost twenty-three hours."

“Dear, did you wish to awaken somewhere specific?”

That’s an odd question. “...no, why?”

“Did you decide on a particular element, yet?”

“Not really.” She liked Ragnar’s adventures the most, but he was one among many.

They nodded. “Would you mind a trip to the Bastion? It might give you a push towards a light alignment.”

Nashariel thought about it for a few moments. Maybe I will get a water/light hybrid? “Sure, I don’t mind.”