In that instant, I was tempted to let loose my lightning storm breath. It would have shocked the two of them and, caught off guard, they would have both taken a heavy hit. But this was the problem I found myself combatting; something about the Pact with the gods and eldritch horrors had made dragons violently apathetic .

  We didn’t care about much beyond our hoard and our pride. We certainly didn’t care about one another. I didn’t expect us to act like old human women and set up a knitting circle like I’d seen in the village that now called itself the Blue Shrine, but we should be able to work together for common interests.

  With that in mind, I cast one of my new spells.

  Sphere of Controlled Speed

  The spell took control of the area where they both were, but I locked it onto the Leviathan. The beast might be physically powerful, but its magic was no match for a dragon’s, so my spell latched onto it. Now, for sixty feet in all directions from its body, a sphere existed where I could control the speed of all living things within it. As my ally, Beliciosia found herself accelerated whereas the Leviathan’s cumbersome movements slowed even more.

  They seemed to hang there for a second in the air, but when the mist faded in a stiff breeze they both fell to the sea below. The leviathan’s tail—a massive appendage lined with bony ridges—swung with force, aiming to strike Beliciosia. I propelled myself forward to stop the blow. It was relatively simple, as it moved so slowly, while the red’s movements gained speed as she sought to pull away.

  Cone of Absolute Zero

  Another of my new spells blasted out to strike the tail. The Leviathan’s flesh was flash frozen in an instant. I didn’t have to penetrate its armor, the spell’s magic enforced a zone of extreme cold, even inside the flesh of its tail. The limb became brittle and when I dove to intercept it with outstretched claws, I sheared off half of its tail. Pain radiated through my body from the contact, but the result had been worth the cost.

  Emerging from the mist, Beliciosia and I locked eyes for a brief moment. A silent understanding passed between us. We were two apex predators, fighting an ancient force of nature. This was no longer about her testing me or my proving the superiority of blues anymore.

  At least for this limited time, we were one—hunting to prove the superiority of dragonkind over all the world.

  The leviathan fell into the sea as Beliciosia pulled upwards and I flew in a quick circle, gaining some distance from the churning waters.

  “Clear the area,” I called out. “I have another spell to try.”

  Then I spread my wings and swooped down towards where the Leviathan’s frozen tail floated amidst the waves. I’d been wanting to try this spell in my dragon form.

  Malchor’s Wings of Darkness

  My spell spread out, creating a massive shadow over the surface of the water. Suddenly, spears of darkness fell and ripped up hundreds of creatures before driving into the leviathan. The damage struck home, as the shadow bypassed the thick armor of its hide, but the aging effect caused its flesh to shrivel around the wounds.

  It was not one to be killed by such an attack, but it was severely weakened.

  Beliciosia hadn’t cast nearly as many spells as I had, but she apparently had another specialized attack. I began to believe she had taken the Breath evolution, because time seemed to stand still as she hovered in the air over where the leviathan was sinking. Opening her mouth wide, she aimed for the shadow beneath the waves. A ball of light so bright that I couldn’t look at it formed and then erupted in a column of sheer destruction down onto the leviathan.

  The attack blasted a hole through the creature’s shell at the toughest spot—near its head—burrowing deep into the flesh. The light cauterized the deep wound instantly; there wasn’t even any blood.

  The creature still thrashed about, but now it was aimless. I followed up Beliciosia’s attack with my lightning breath, aiming as large a bolt as I could into the hole created by her attack.

  The Leviathan’s body spasmed, but it still wasn’t quite finished. Now, though, it was sinking into the depths. I wanted this kill; I wouldn’t let it escape me.

  I dove straight at it. As I did, I activated Belt of the Mountain, triggering both of its active effects. Stone skin hardened my scales and absorbed some of the damage from the impact. Weight of the Mountain tripled the mass of my body as I drove myself into the monster.

  Just as I was about to hit it, I doubled my speed with the Sphere of Speed Control, slamming into it with devastating force. The shock of the collision rippled through my body and, despite my precautions and protections, I lost twenty percent of my health in an instant. The effect upon the leviathan was terrible, though, and well worth the cost.

  Crushing the rest of the carapace around its head, I drove the shards through its flesh and into its brain. Its body seized one last time before notification of its death popped up.

  For killing numerous sea creatures, you have gained a total of 22 DKP. Each wave of creatures was counted as a separate encounter for the benefit of your perk.

  You have slain a leviathan. You have gained 4,812 XP and 5 DKP.

  Chapter 35 - Birds in the Belly

  Beliciosia and Turan Lev stayed with us for several more days. The red seemed to soften in her position towards me after the Leviathan hunt. Up until then, I was fairly sure she’d wanted to test my worthiness. After that, she was definitely trying to recruit us for the Clan of the Dragon. When it became clear that we wouldn’t go with them now, they decided to leave.

  “Before you go, I have something for you to examine,” I told Beliciosia. “Or rather, for your clan to examine. You told me you have talented enchanters and many mages of the lesser races.”

  Turan answered for her, “That is correct, great one.”

  “Then take this.” I held my front paw out, turned upward. Into it, I summoned the last of the pseudo-rider rings I had stored in my Soul Space.

  The human looked at it for a moment, but Beliciosia hissed, “What is that? I can sense dark magic wrapped around it.”

  “It was one of the rings these pseudo-riders used to link to their domesticated dragons through a similar collar. I told you what happened when I tried to examine one of the collars. Perhaps you’ll have luck where I didn’t.”

  I shrugged my massive shoulders, which cause my wings to shift around. I sighed—most human body language did not translate in my natural form.

  “I’ve given the other two rings I had to those I trusted—or at least needed to trust,” I continued after a brief pause to resettle my wings. “My minions are working on unraveling the enchantment on one of them. I’ve only received minimal information in an update and won’t know more until I see them again.

  “The magic seems to twist the being who wears it like a cursed item. It drains a portion of their soul or life force… although, I’m not quite sure what the difference between one’s soul and one’s life force is in reality. The magic on it is weaker than that on the dragon collars, but it is similar.”

  Beliciosia hissed and her bonded scowled.

  “When it was active,” I explained, “I was able to break through the enchantments which hid the mana from my sight to tell that the dragon’s life force was being siphoned off somewhere to the south.”

  A growl rumbled from deep in my chest. “We dragons have more foes than we know. If you want me to join the Clan of the dragon, then a good first step would be to help me free the dragons who are in bondage.”

  “You are strange, even for a blue,” Beliciosia said. “But it is clear you would be an asset to the Clan. I am sorry for what has happened to those weak runts, but we must focus on the threat to our world. The horrors are moving again, but the clan is weaker than it’s ever been. This can’t be a coincidence.”

  I just stared back at her.

  Finally, Turan took the ring and then jumped up onto Beliciosia’s back. Soon, they were nothing more than a red dot in the eastern sky.

  “Will you accept their offer in the future?” Cami asked.

  “I don’t know. What are your thoughts on the Clan?” I asked. “You spent a great deal of time with Turan Lev.”

  “He was a good sparring partner. You aren’t the only one who needs to shore up their abilities.” She shook her head. “I don’t know. It would be nice to be around others who can understand us, even if it includes a fat red, but I am not sure they walk the same path we do.”

  I grinned at Cami’s characterization of Beliciosia. She wasn’t really fat, but she was a red—and reds should be made fun of at every opportunity. I felt like a proud teacher, seeing their student perform for the first time on their own.

  “Only time will tell,” I replied. “Now, I feel like we should get moving. If I stay here too much longer, I worry that I won’t want to get going again.”

  “What about the freed dragons?” Cami asked, looking towards the cliffs on the coast where they’d made a lair.

  I snorted. “They are safe here. I can try to make one a minion, if you think that might restore their soul, but I am unable to do for them what Miseria did.” I paused, then grunted. “And even if I could, I don’t know that I would. It is hard enough being connected as I am with the wyrmlings.”

  “We can try,” Cami allowed, “but not with more than one of them. I can see that your soul hasn’t fully healed after changing Rollie and Patch so they could become minions. After I level up my Soul Forger class, I hope to be able to aid in the process.”

  “You did gain a level in it, didn’t you?”

  “Yes. Yesterday, while you were out sparring with Beliciosia, I took some time to work on my craft. Thank you for using Earthen Construction to create an area I could use for a forge. It’s rather exhilarating to work so close to a flow of lava.”

  “That’s what I thought you might think.” I gave her a frightening grin—well, it might have frightened anyone but my bonded. “At least we know that I won’t gain additional growth in my age category when you gain levels in your crafting class.”

  I looked around, then sighed. “Alright, let’s do this.”

  Cami climbed onto my back and I leaped into the air. I so enjoyed being in my true form. Humans with their two legs, tiny bodies, and soft skin were so hard to understand. I was going to miss this when I had to fit in around humans once more.

  As we flew, looking for Matilda, Cami said, “We should talk about the wyrmlings. They are gaining all the DKP that you have. Shouldn’t they have a massive amount saved up now?”

  “Yes, but they won’t be able to use any of it until they reach the Young Adult stage. We will need to educate them prior to that,” I replied.

  Of course by we, I meant Cami and my other minions. It was one thing to save some hatchlings. It was entirely something else for me to play at being their nursemaid.

  When we landed near Matilda, she immediately tensed up.

  Cami seemed bothered by this reaction, but it was only natural for a smaller predator to be nervous around one who was so much larger than her. I spoke to her for a while, doing my best to explain the idea of becoming a minion. I made sure as best I could that Matilda understood it was her choice and not something I would force upon her.

  I explained that it might be possible for her to become more like her hatchlings. That last part, I think, is what she truly understood. She consented and so I extended the offer of minionship… or rather, I tried to.

  The target of your minion contract is invalid. Dragons—even domesticated dragons—may not become the minions of other dragons. Dragons may only accept contracts from extra-planar beings.

  This was so frustrating. It made sense, though. Dragons were the apex predators of this world. Even domesticated dragons must have been considered too close to a true dragon to suffer even voluntary subordination as a minion. The real frustration, though, was that this was the only means I could think of to fix them.

  I lifted my head to the sky and let loose a massive lightning bolt to vent my anger.

  We did our best to explain to Matilda the system’s response and I tried to push it to the back of my mind. She took it much better than I did. But then again, it’s hard to miss what you’ve never had. She had been deprived of her birthright but never realized what she had lost.

  After that, I really wanted to leave the island. Cami and I went around, leaving instructions for the minions and orders for the freed dragons. Sir Michael was put in charge of the island, though I instructed him to listen to Cassandra’s counsel. She didn’t want to become my chief administrator, as that would take too much time away from her experiments.

  With everything in order, Cami and I took off and began to fly south.

  “Where are we headed?” she asked.

  “I just need to be away from here. Constantly seeing the domesticated dragons is causing me to experience strange sensations,” I grumbled in reply.

  Cami didn’t say a word, but I knew what she would have said. We’d already had this conversation—more than once. She insisted that these new emotions I was experiencing were a good thing. Half the time, I felt like they were some cursed debuff or disease I was suffering from.

  I changed the subject. “I have a lot of DKP to spend. What about you?”

  Cami said, “I already used my points to buy an ability. I would have talked to you about it, but you were busy hosting Beliciosia.”

  “Oh? What did you buy?”

  She sent me the system’s description of it as she explained, “I tried to buy Shape Change, but while I was able to get a modified version of it, the system said that Shape Change was an ability unique to blue, red, and green dragons. I took this instead.”

  Polymorph Self 3 - This innate ability will allow you to rapidly take the form of another being. At level 3, you may take the form of any animal which is smaller than you or which is up to twice your size. You do not actually become the animal but only look like it. All of your stats remain the same.

  Increasing the level of this ability will enable you to take on more varied forms and to possess additional abilities of those forms.

  I wondered why she would want to change her shape. It wasn’t like she could become a dragon… oh wait. It hit me, then. Perhaps if she leveled it up high enough, she would be able to take on the shape of a dragon!

  We would have to get her some more DKP and test that out. Of course, it wasn’t the same as my Shape Change ability. She would only have the form of a dragon without actually being a dragon. Still, if any human was worthy of that honor, it was my bonded. I briefly wondered what Cami would look like as a dragon.

  “I also spent a few points to take Quicken Spell and Empower Spell. I figure that I need to enhance my spell attacks. But I’m most excited about the last thing I did. It cost me the last of my DKP, but I was able to expand my Bloodline trait. As you know, before I learned how to make claws, but now I was able to take on another dragon trait.”

  I waited for her to continue but she didn’t, so I finally asked, “Well what trait?”

  I could feel how excited she was about this. “Better that you see it.”

  Suddenly, she leaped off my back. We were high up, so I knew I had time to catch her, but my stomach still lurched with concern. As she fell toward the sea below us, her back shimmered and then wings sprouted out from between her shoulder blades. She began to glide as she caught the wind and then, with some effort, she beat her wings to fly back up to where I hovered in the air.

  She flew around me a few times and twirled in the air. “What do you think, Nico? How do I look?”

  A part of me wanted to tell her that wings looked good on her. After all, what creature wouldn’t look better with wings? I appreciated the fact that her wings were covered with tiny blue scales along the limbs and were otherwise leathery and membranous, like mine. In fact, they might well have been miniature versions of my own wings.

  “They are quite becoming on you. They draw away from your human features and make you look more distinguished.”

  Something about that comment must have been wrong because she frowned before mumbling, “Thanks.”

  She flew up before dispelling her wings and landing on my back. “I’ll have to practice with them a great deal more. You… uh… you aren’t angry that I got wings, are you?”

  I snorted. “Why would I be angry? I told you that they are quite becoming. Isn’t that enough of a compliment?”

  “Okay, I thought you might feel like I was trying to imitate you.”

  Of course she was trying to imitate me. Who wouldn’t want to do that? But, my evolution helped me realize that was not the right thing to say. I realized that I had handled this poorly.

  “I’m sorry, Cami. I’m very proud that you have wings now. It will put me at ease, because I know that if you were ever to fall from my back, you could save yourself. I would probably still catch you, but if I wasn’t able to, now I won’t have to worry.”