CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Dragon Family. First Contact

"We're finally back!" Roari cried uproariously when they reached the city gates. They had arrived at the capital of the White Kingdom, Baracus!

The White City itself was for all intents and purposes, very white. With buildings that towered multiple stories high, and all the walls covered in whitewash, it was more akin to a massive fortress than a city. As the home of both the kingdom's royalty and the headquarters of the White Temple Knight Order, it was of a significant value to anyone wishing to become a Paladin.

Dawn's eyes glimmered as she drank in the sights of the city. She hadn't returned to this place since she was but a beginner, and she welcomed the blast of warm air that was filled with familiarity. Due to being 'wanted', Dawn couldn't join the Storm Siblings the first time they had come to White City, but now her eyes shined as she finally stepped foot into civilization after a little more than a week.

Of course, having learned her lesson from the purge, she made sure to keep a low profile, lest another ambush would occur when they left the city.

…

Her efforts lasted an entire five minutes once they've actually entered the city.

"Hey look! That chick is over level fifty!" A gentleman of questionable odor exclaimed to his friend, not even bothering to hide his voice. In his hands was the battered adventurer's journal, and he seemed to be checking the flavor text of anyone passing by.

From his tone, he did not appear hostile but considering this game was meant for adults, his demeanor felt out of place.

"Pardon?" Dawn's lip curled as cold glint flashed in her eyes. The two nooblets trembled beneath her frigid glare while her two companions backed her up by brandishing their weapons menacingly. In a city, it was still possible to murder other players, but the infamy gain was magnified by one thousand times. As for the nonplayer characters, if an innocent one was so much as struck even once, relations with the city would plummet to the bottom, and all the denizens living within would quickly become enemies.

Of course, that was the farthest thing from their minds as one of them stammered. "N-Nothing Ma'am. We were just people watching is all. You're doing a good job." Both of them gave an awkward thumbs up before skedaddling away.

"That's...a new interaction" Dawn watched as they disappeared behind an alleyway, amused. "I wonder what was the good job they were talking about."

"Dawn, you don't watch Mindy Mails?" Pale said. "The hero purge has ended in this region. Some guy called Legacy has pushed for a peaceful conclusion and are providing mentorship and free gear to noobs. They probably thought you were one of them."

"Oh...How high minded of them." Inwardly, Dawn was pleased that the efforts of her uncle were starting to bear fruit, but she kept her face as passive as possible.

"Mindy Mails?"

Dawn had never held an extreme interest in streams. It wasn't unusual that she hadn't heard of her live channel. Not to mention, it was doubtful that the information provided would be in any way relevant to her, as she had already outleveled most of the content that the beginners were currently going through.

Pale who had been preoccupied with window shopping chimed in. "Yes, we watched her show when we went to eat an hour ago. Her current base of operations is in this very city."

His voice was calm and rational, and strangely soothing to Dawn's ears, but after remembering all the times he picked on her, she felt her ears burn hot in irritation.

For some reason, she didn't mind Roari's incessant teasing, but when it came to Pale, she had to expand her repertoire of snappy comebacks in order to deal with him. As for her last attempts to deal with the sibling's hazing, she had tried extreme passive aggression in addition to violence but quickly chose to drop it after realizing that it made her seem petty.

Instead, her eyes widened into an angry glare as Pale's eyes met hers.

Confused as to what he had done wrong, Pale tried to ignore the uncomfortable sensation in his gut and turned away. He coughed and tried to refocus the topic.

"Speaking of which, apparently there's a beginner's tournament happening right now in the Baracus coliseum. Although it is surely too late to enter, it would be interesting to scope out what the current best looks like right?"

Seeing Pale dissemble away, Dawn could only sigh as she thought it over. She remembered the Coliseum. It was similar to the crumbling Roman version in real life, only magnified ten times. An architectural impossibility that made one wonder how the people seated at the back could possibly see what was going on in the arena.

"Let's see if there are any decent seats left," Dawn said gruffly.

'Soon' She thought. She would do something which would make Pale speechless.

With Dawn leading the way, the group decided to go on a quick detour, weaving through alleys and overpasses, before finding a massive alabaster amphitheater. Standing before it was a twenty meter tall stone carving of an armored knight. Its polished arms raised in salute as the wide-eyed travelers passed by it.

What they were surprised to find however were numerous people already leaving, many of them exiting in clumps. The tournament appeared to have already ended without them thus they couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed as they continued within.

They exited onto the wide open stands of the Coliseum, feeling the wind threatening to blow them over. Their suspicions were correct, yet there still appeared to be a group of people fighting it out in the center, in addition to many more who were just standing on the sidelines, watching.

The clash of swords rang through the air as Pale and co. descended down the steps, starting a conversation with a lightly armored archer who was observing the proceedings in a lax manner.

"The tournament is over." The archer confirmed. "The winner is taking challenges from those who want to fight him...Not like its much of a contest though. No one has so much as lasted more than a minute against him so far."

He gestured towards a black-haired swordsman garbed in a light black trenchcoat. He stood on top of a pile of corpses domineeringly, while his eyes glinted with a cold, haughty light.

"Oh, is he a ranker?" Pale frowned. There didn't appear to be a healer or support character assisting him. After the last person fell, the swordsman didn't even rest before taking on the next challenger, swiftly overwhelming him with a flurry of sword strokes. If he was one of the few who were given early access then the entire tournament would've been horribly unfair, but the archer shook his head.

"No, He is just really good. But he swept through the tournament so fast that it made the entire affair rather boring. It also didn't help that the announcer, Mindy Mails was pretty much glorifying every little action he made either."

"Wait...his name wouldn’t be..." Pale instantly recalled the earliest episode where they could all tell that the broadcaster had a thing for that unpleasant bastard.

"Yep. His name is Supreme Dragon."

"Wut?"

"Supreme Dragon… Spicy Dragon. Sounds close enough to me." Roari's eyes twinkled. She popped the knuckles in both of her fists, clearly eager to test the fruits of her labor.

"I wouldn't do it." The archer waved her off. "Supreme Dragon wants a minimum bet of one silver ducat before he'll fight anyone. He's racked a fair bit of coin so far, and he's barely even been hit."

"Seems overhyped." Roari sniffed, before descending down onto the arena.

Every major coliseum in the Elseworlds was blessed by the God of Battle, Battali, making them a strict no-fatality zone. Apart from a few exceptions, even if one were to die, they would be able to respawn at full health straight away.

In addition to that, there was a massive scale hovering off on one side, a totem of the god of contracts, Tam. With it in the area, all bets would be binding, thus ensuring that the rewards would be paid out in full.

Although it had barely been 30 seconds since the fight started, the most recent opponent had finally collapsed before the swordsman. He raised his sword into the air with an aura of haughtiness and bellowed. "Is there nobody else?!"

His gaze flickered over all of the other fighters who’s pride had been rattled at his brazen display. Immediately, a new challenger leapt up to the plate, with many up queueing up behind him. Even after continuous beatings, there were plenty of people who wanted to challenge the so called best.

With his dominance uncontested, Supreme Dragon reveled in his prowess. He knew he was the best, but he had still expected some semblance of a challenge. He clasped his hands behind his back and released a long exaggerated sigh. It was far too lonely to be on the top.

It took some time, but each challenger that stood before him inevitably fell. Each warrior, each magician, worthless in the face of his overwhelming might. It was to the degree that he was getting bored. He was just about to call the whole contest off and wrap up when he felt the metal pinch of a single coin flicking off his skull.

Immediately, he flew into a rage.

"Who did that?!!" He shouted, furious. It figures that rather than fight him face to face, these peons would rather vent their anger through childish displays such as that.

His expression flickered. And a beautifully armored little girl pushed the other contenders to the side to stare at him from the bottom of the podium. She had waited patiently and was equally if not more arrogant than himself. She lifted her chin up in greeting, which almost provoked him into cussing her out angrily.

"A woman?" He said, astonished. "Well, I don't discriminate against gender, but forgive me if I don't hold any expectations from you."

His haughty tone caused Pale and Dawn to bristle in annoyance, but it seemed the rest of the crowd was long used to it. Roari's face was cold, but she refrained from giving him any sort of reaction.

"..."

"...?" This sort of restraint was surprising, to say the least for Dawn and Pale, but to anyone else watching, she was truly the picture of an ice queen.

"No answer? Fine, then I shall introduce myself first. I am Supreme Dragon, but you may call me ...--"

He didn’t even have time to finish his introduction when a spiked ball shot towards him, flying ever so slightly over his head. His eyes widened in surprise as he looked at the perpetrator. Behind her thin facade of coldness, a rampaging beast was stirring, and it didn’t seem interested in talk.

Supreme Dragon's face turned ugly, but he unsheathed his meter long force blade all the same. It vibrated was almost unnoticeable as it cut a smooth arc through the air.

"So be it. Another corpse for the pile then."

The duel request was issued and soon accepted by the guardian of the arena, thus both parties would not suffer any penalties regardless of victory.

The moment such a notification was confirmed, Roari immediately dashed forward, showing an unprecedented speed that she had never been able to fully employ in their previous battles. Her hands curled up as she charged like a mad bull, claws clearly aiming at his throat.

Supreme Dragon chuckled. Charging a silver per fight was truly one of his better ideas.

“Crush...?”

Roari found herself grabbing the air, as Supreme Dragon drifted to the side almost aimlessly. His followup strike, flashed like a viper, causing Roari to stumble over her feet in an attempt to merely avoid it. The stinging feel of cold metal glided over her shoulder, sending blood spraying as she crashed inelegantly to the ground.

Oddly enough, Supreme Dragon did not follow up with the attack but merely stood there, gloating. "Hmmph. Nothing but an amateur, no...a frog in a well, who has no idea of the vastness of the heavens."

He swiped his blade through the air, casually cleaning the blood off the metal.

Roari groaned, pulling herself up. Although she desperately wanted to rebuke him, she became suddenly aware of Dawn and Pale watching in silence. Regardless of what happened, she had to hit him at least once, lest she be teased incessantly for it. Just thinking of having to go through the same Torment as Dawn lit the fire of refusal in her heart.

With heavy steps, she walked towards the smiling Supreme Dragon, unwilling to show any weakness.

"I see our last encounter has taught you nothing. Very well, let me give you another lesson!" Supreme Dragon laughed, not taking the fight seriously at all. He raised his sword and then quickly brought it down in an overhead chop.

The move was exceedingly simple, leaving Roari angered as she ducked to the side. She would make him pay for underestimating her. Her fist glowed red as she prepared an uppercut towards his smug jawline.

Pain descended, but not upon Supreme Dragon. Roari's eyes widened. She had barely time to react to the chained rising diagonal slash from the force blade, before she was blasted to the side, the flames in her hands withering away to nothing. Despite her efforts, she hadn't even made him move a single step that time.

Her vision blurred as the figure before her suddenly disappeared.

'What?' Shocked, she looked around for him wildly, and then groaned as pain exploded into her side, sending her rolling across the arena. Stars covered her vision while she curled up into a fetal position, but soon she felt cold as the sun's rays were being blocked.

Barely cracking open an eyelid, she turned to see Supreme Dragon standing over her, with a stiff upper lip and his blade held in a reversed grip.

"Pathetic," He spat, feeling a sadistic pleasure as he watched the light die in Roari's eyes.

The point of his weapon instantly slammed down onto the hollow of her throat, dealing critical damage. She tried to struggle, but found herself pinned, helpless as her life's blood (hp) flowed out from the gaping wound.

The archer who was currently in Pale's entourage shook his head sadly. "See? She never stood a chance."

Pale paled upon seeing his baby sister abused in such a way. His mouth filled with the taste of iron as he crushed his molars down upon his tongue, livid. His nails dug deep into the meat of his palm, his arms trembling, all the while watching as the rasping breaths of his sister slowly turned into gurgles...before she ceased to move entirely.

The hole in Roari's throat quickly patched itself up once the match had concluded. Supreme Dragon didn't even bother looking at her gasping for breath as he turned away, soaking in the looks of jealousy and admiration from the crowd. He spread his arms wide as if a proud orator on prom night.

"Any others? If not then--"

His words were cut short as he felt another piece of metal bounce off his back. The sound of it tinging off the floor was met by silence, as he felt his shoulders tensing in annoyance.

“What do you want?” He turned around to find the same girl standing upright with her fists raised. There was a single change in her expression though. Instead of cold indifference, a savage grin appeared on her face as she gurgled.

"Do I look dead to you?"

Supreme Dragon sighed, clearly not amused. He drew his blade once more, his health still untouched while Roari was being reinvigorated by the holy spells of the spectators surrounding the ring. Soon, she was back to being battle-ready as the duel request was issued once more. "Well, the silver will at least be of some use."

Screaming, Roari charged with her arms ablaze, this time going all out.

When Supreme Dragon saw such a flashy display, he merely snorted and waited until the last moment to dodge.

After sidestepping casually, he buried the hilt of his saber into her side, flaring purple energy as the resulting pulse knocked her back.

“Force Strike.”

Roari found herself being sent flying, landing roughly as she slid off the arena. Immediately two silver coins appeared before Supreme Dragon's hands as Roari had lost the battle yet again, this time with a ring out.

"Now...--"

This time, Supreme Dragon didn't even have a chance to say two words when the next challenge came. While bristling in anger, he looked towards the cocky girl who clearly didn't wish to stay down.

"Again!" Roari roared, charging back onto the stage.

...

Dawn stared in horror as Roari threw down silver after silver. Although it wasn't much in the grand scheme of things, the value of the coins was quickly piling up. As the de facto treasurer, it felt as though a hole was being burned in her very own wallet, as Roari proceeded with fight after fight.

Pale who understood the situation clasped a hand over Dawn's shoulder, sympathetic. There was nothing they could do when Roari was stirred up into a frenzy.

“You know. I heard that after the last dungeon, Roari wants to buy a pet.”

“Like hell!”

Pale only smiled.

As for Roari, she was nearly salivating as she dissected Supreme Dragon's every move. In the last fight, she had barely managed to nick him as well, thus motivating her even more. Since death had no penalty, she could give it her all when fighting, taking risks that would be deemed idiotic in any other situation, but her eyes were only focused on one goal.

To beat that smug bastard face in.

The watching players whooped at her enthusiasm, clearly getting more and more invested as Roari slowly lengthened her survival time with each battle.

She grunted as she was sliced to pieces for the ninth time, but due to the arena's feedback, her messed up body reverted to normal in but a breaths time. She glared at Supreme Dragon, who looked down at her, appearing as a mighty mountain which she must conquer.

But unlike a seasoned mountain climber, she was a severely out of shape basement dweller, and this mountain had the nickname of Death Peak.

The crisp autumn air swept through her dry throat, long exhausted from the continuous battles, but her fighting spirit remained strong.

She would not lose. She could not lose. So long as she could take him down, she would run away, forever remaining the reigning champion. She will win... if only to prove to the spectators that she could. Her eyes flickered to the stands where Dawn and Pale should be and stopped.

Her eyes bulged as she saw that they weren't there anymore, leaving only empty spaces behind. She was left feeling exceedingly awkward, and while she wanted to go look for them, she couldn't back out of the fight. Not now.

Gritting her teeth, she turned back to Supreme Dragon who was casually tossing her silver coins around with one hand. His posture relaxed as if he had barely exerted any effort compared to her. She could feel the veins bulging in her temple, and she raised her worn out fists once more...

'Just where the hell did they go?'