Chapter 624: Speed Blitzed.

“Family or not, you are fledglings. I’ve already told this to Hestia, but we don’t need you to be anywhere close to the fighting. Hestia has the benefits of being a spellcaster and a user of [Synergist’s Oath], so she can use [Room] and stream to transmit her spell songs. Do that. [Battle Frenzy (Major)] or not, leave the war to the adults.”

A part of me agreed with Nong, but another part was telling me that he was phrasing it like an asshat. I understood why he would say this, and in a normal world, I would definitely praise him for that ‘cause I was essentially a child soldier in the eyes of the dragons.

I couldn’t fault him for that. He was being a responsible adult by telling me to sit this out, and he was right that I didn’t need to be included on the front lines to be useful. Furthermore, Quasdrakeen’s two objectives were to kill Mom and me, though I was more of a side objective, frankly. Avoiding her would help my family stay calm, and I was sure his current reaction was due to our disastrous encounter with that rank S ancient leviathan.

I almost died. That was an undeniable fact.

“It doesn’t matter who you are in a war like this, and with how small you are, you can be lost in the chaos. Two or three elemental disasters, or even a Territory Dispute, and people might even be able to find you. Do you want to wander around with guards all the time? You have no place in these battles. Neither you nor Fargryneill. At least Ryranakus is colossal, but his attitude towards war is almost as terrible as yours, Scamp. Stay out of this.”

Again, another good argument. Nong wasn’t wrong in his reasoning, and Taim even agreed when we last talked about this. Despite everything that I’ve done, I was, in this case, completely outclassed in the power scale. I was too small, I was still a rank B, and, most importantly in his eyes, I was his youngest sister, and I was “just born.” It hasn’t even been a year since we first met.

Would you send your toddler sibling into a war, even if that toddler could summon magical meteors, a giant light sword, and vaporizing lightning strikes? If this were Earth, a lot of people would sue you after they put you in prison for endangering a child. A kid being a doomsday machine wouldn’t change that fact.

“Power is a necessity. That’s obvious, but you’re not just fighting with your enemy here, but also against your own mind. Your sanity. If you enter a battlefield, you have to accept that you could die. Empress-Mother Melloxtressa survived a large-scale war and also smaller territorial and clan disputes, so she must understand. Do you? Have you prepared yourself for the possibility that you might lose me? Fargryneill? Your mother? Maybe even all of us if it all goes awry? Losing soldiers or citizens you don’t know isn’t as painful as losing somebody close to you.”

“I want you to do the same if something were to—” Mom said before I interrupted her the day before I departed for the dungeon. I knew she had already made up her mind and accepted the possibility of her dying, not against Quasdrakeen, but during the war. If she got outnumbered or dragged into the abyssal layer, it could spell her doom. Taim already warned me that dragons couldn’t survive down there, even with high stats and mana. Physics was in play.

Naturally, I understood this. I didn’t want to accept it, though, but telling me that I could accept these realities made me livid. I already lost plenty of people through my conflict with Bole’Taria. I’ve lost friends. I couldn’t downplay Eshe’s or Akast’s deaths.

The same could happen here, but that was why I needed to be there with them. Beyond just buffing them with my songs and spells, I had to heal them. Sure, we had Sacred Nest, but I probably would lose my mind if I couldn’t see to my loved one’s survival.

That was it. I was being selfish, and this was enough for Neill and me to agree to beat up Nong’s feathery butt.

“Good. Get your retainers ready. Fights are not fair if I fight you three alone, so bring everybody with you. Five rank As, for a rank A is the minimum, but you’ll need far more if you want to take me down,” Nong said before Father adjourned today’s meeting to allow for the fight to happen.

Honestly, what happened when Taim talked with him? What the hell? I thought, but Neill told me to forget about it since we needed a strategy to handle Nong, since this wasn’t part of the plan Taim told her and Ryra.

“Uuurgh, Father’s horns…” Ryra cursed under his breath as Neill dragged him, involuntarily, outside of my subspace, followed by the rest of my family as they wanted to watch the fight.

“Might do you well to review what we talked about, and maybe also what he had done in the past,” Kahalameet advised, while Phso told me to watch out for Nong’s speed, and Wendriosa reminded me of his explosive feathers and that he had access to [Battle Frenzy (Critical)], just like Neill.

Neill and I didn’t have any information on Nong’s Profile, and Ryra, while he had seen it in the past, didn’t know his current one. He couldn’t remember his past one either, so he couldn’t send the Profile to us telepathically. However, he did inform me of our fourth brother’s three unique skills.

Three very simple unique skills. As I found out during the glacier expedition, Nong and I were the only members of the family who used toxins. While I could poison and envenomate people, Nong was only poisonous, making tasting his blood or flesh a hazard, meaning biting him or getting his blood or this scale fluid on you could cripple you, since [Emerald Aromatics] could pierce through [Abnormal Status Nullification], which was somewhat similar to my [Corrosive Fire].

“Arviosian dragons secrete a liquid through their scales that coats their body and feathers, with them hardening into a gel-like consistency under strong wind. That gel gives their body a resistance to drag, which allows them to fly so fast. It’s his inheritance from his mother, similar to your scale-dust from your mother, Fargryneill’s dragon paths, and my golden sand creation,” Ryra explained. “As Arviosa was a cockatrice mutated into a true dragonkin, blood-related effects are part of Nongramos’s arsenal, and that shows through his ability to create pleasant aromas that obfuscate his toxins. Narcotic and paralyzing effects are normal, and this will create openings where his explosive feathers can finish you off. If he can’t take you out with his supersonic attacks, he’ll finish you off in close combat.”

That fluid, which members of the Arviosa clan called “feather gel,” allowed them to change the colors of their feathers and also gave them the streamlined body needed to maneuver like a jet plane. So, we had a poisonous, fume-using speedster who could just disembowel you with supersonic beak thrusts and claw swipes… also, he could use his wings and feathers like blades. Great.

As such, the strategy was, strangely, pretty simple, if we used our time against the Water and Wind Elemental Emperor as a reference.

His poisonous gas was useless against non-breathing opponents, as it wasn’t corrosive like mine, so we had to use spell golems to pin him down on the ground. Ryra and I could do it as well, since Ryra had such a massive frame that he could endure it long enough for me to cure him, and I was just a healing machine. Everybody else, though, had to be wary; they could be paralyzed, and with how fast-paced Nong liked his fights, I wouldn’t have the time to go on the offensive if I had to heal people every other time.

Though at the same time, Tasianna and the wyverns would become our most important members here. True ice was what the WWEE used to cripple Nong before striking him from the sky with an elemental tempest. Those three would be the linchpin of our strategy to allow Ryra to trap Nong in his golden sand. Grimnir and I would be disrupters during this process, with the former able to fizzle the mana connection between Nong and his feathers and scales.

That left Vifi and Neill as our main attackers. Neill’s dragon paths ignored defenses and could deal internal damage if she landed a proper punch, while Vifi was the only one who could even keep up with Nong when it came to speed. Even then, he had her beat in raw agility. She also couldn’t use her dueling stance for this, having to rely on her voltaic abilities to deal damage.

To be honest, fighting Nong was pretty restrictive, and we didn’t know his entire Profile. Well, just gotta do it, right? He was here to teach Ryra, Neill, and me a lesson with his provocation, and I didn’t believe he would back down if we tried to talk it out. Just like last time, he had all intentions of leaving us out of the frontline fight.

“Okay, Nongramos doesn’t seem to want to stand around,” Neill said as we left the cave with somewhat of a plan. We stared into the distance, unable to locate Nong anywhere in the sky or in the elemental areas below. “Let’s not mess around for too long, but Hestia, you probably have to stand back and stick with your dragonewt form if you don’t have to engage him. We’ll need your music, and thankfully, even with Nong distorting the wind around him to block sounds, you can still apply your buffs to all of us.”

“I have to remain a dragonewt, though. I need my unique job for that,” I replied, concerned about how [Musical Crescendo] worked. “So we’ll do it similar to when we fought Vifi in Elyonda. I’ll switch around my position and role, and leave the fight—”

“Urrrrrg!”

A gust of wind smashed against the back of my head, pushing me slightly forward as I tried to finish my sentence. As I stumbled forward, looking to the side to see what caused that whistling gale, I saw Nong diving at us like a missile, dropkicking Vifi just as she raised her arm to protect herself from getting her chest caved in.

With a suppressed groan, our fastest attacker was instantly kicked away from us. Nong sent Vifi flying into the forest below us.

Damn!

As he slapped his tail and wings onto the ground to kill his momentum, he glared at us as I felt his aura activate.

“Think your plans will always work?” With a powerful wing slap, a strong tempest blew away our entire team, while I was sent crashing against the wall right next to the cave. Nong then charged at me, grabbing me by my throat as he pushed me off the ground. “With those nuisances gone, let’s have a talk, Scamp.”

‘Got our scales up in time!’ Hikari shouted as I successfully managed to protect my neck from getting crushed this time. My scales managed to act as shock absorbers. ‘Spells are coming up soon. Just get that guy off us!’

Able to breathe and think, unlike when Quasdrakeen did this to me, I activated [Dreaflame Aura] to burn and poison Nong, but the guy slapped me right in the face. His feathers exploded on impact, overloading my nose with a miasma of different aromas that made me feel like I was trapped inside a perfumery that had spilled every single bottle.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to NovelPhoenix for the genuine story.

I winced as a sharp pain shot to my head, only for it to suddenly numb up. A fog started to cloud my mind, making me feel drowsy. Almost like having your brain die on you after a long afternoon of homework.

Narcotics! That 50% abnormal status ignore is so annoying, but—Kriffiek kllk gaaung!

[Emerald Aromatics] might mostly ignore [Abnormal Status Nullification], but it was still only 50% effective. I woke myself up by entering [Battle Frenzy], causing my hair and scales to light up neon white as I switched control with Hikari. Fire didn’t work on Nong, but ice would! The extra damage from his fire attacks would hurt as an ice dragon, but I could just heal it up!

Nong’s scales shot up to form a checkerboard barrier around him as [Dreadflare Aura] released a blast of freezing ice on him. His face tensed up, showing it was working, but he immediately started dragging me along the rocky ground of the mountain, using his speed to hammer me around as if I were a shovel digging up dirt. All while his feathers kept exploding and burning, killing off the scales I had sent out to protect me.

[True Draconic Aura] was having trouble protecting me as his flames pierced through them due to my new fire weakness. Any spells I shot at Nong to get him to release his grip were blocked by his own spell, and I couldn’t even use any large-scale spells like [Symphonie des Feuergottes] or even [Heaven’s Sword], as Nong would just fly away from the spell circles before they activated.

He was creating a massive distance between me and my allies, having flown us into the wind-elementally razed area inside the dungeon. He slammed me once more, before staring down at me with those cold, bird-of-prey irises.

Yet, that small moment was enough for me to activate [Humanize] to transform back into a dragon… though it seemed he was waiting for that very moment as he did the same. Before I could escape or use a [Space-Time Spell], Nong grabbed me with his talons and slammed me onto the ground again.

I tried to use [True Draconic Roar] and even play my songs, but the wind around me distorted, breaking everything apart and fizzling anything related to [Aerokinesis].

[“Your Profile relies so much on supportive spells and skills that you forgot that you have one weakness most synergists wouldn’t have. You cannot send your buffs to others, as you lost [Synergist’s Oath] upon gaining [Idol],”] he lectured me as he slammed me onto the ground again, digging me deeper into the ground before unleashing an explosion of feathers.

‘Arrrghh! Fuck!’ Hikari yelped in pain as she forcibly gave me back control over our body. ‘Dammit! Sorry! Time it better next time, so we can deliver a damn ice sword into his leg. I can’t keep up with the fucking damage!’

[“You need to rely on [Aerokinesis] or your musical instruments! Or your voice. All can be stopped by somebody more skilled at manipulating the wind element!”] Nong shouted before taking flight, blasting off into the sky like a jet plane.

I heard a sonic boom crushing my body before I could cast [Air Shield] to protect myself.

[“You’re fast, relatively, but you’re still weak to becoming prey to somebody far faster than you! You don’t have the defensive abilities to protect yourself, and if you can’t get things up in time, you can’t protect yourself! Your [True Draconic Barrier] can’t defend you against water or ice, and when Hikari is up, you are weak to flames! I meant it when you are out of your depth at this point, Scamp!”] Nong roared before diving bombing, smashing me along the ground as I could feel my bones cracking and my blood vessels rupturing.

My body stiffened up, involuntarily, as Nong stopped his attacks. As my flames slowly healed my battered body, he pulled me up with his front leg, letting our eyes finally meet after he first held me up by my throat.

“Please,” Nong said, instead of using [Telepathy]. “Just listen to me. Please. Don’t join in the fight, Hestia. Stay out of it. Stay away. Stay back and… it’s your home, I know. I know you want to defend it. I know you have to defend your family and friends, but… I’m here. Here to help you. Here to protect you. Please.”

Nong? I let out a small groan as I saw his eyes… glistening. That hostile glare he gave me before that sent a shiver down my spine softened, wavering as he kept talking.

“It doesn’t matter how strong you are. One mista—No, you don’t even have to make a mistake! One unfortunate coincidence, and it can be all over. Your armor will break, your spells will shatter, and that stubborn skull of yours can rupture before you can even drink a potion… It’s not fair. That’s how a fight can be.”

“N-Nong…”

“You could have done so much up until now, and I would still stop you. You face one enemy beyond your abilities too early into a fight, and you can die without being able to even cry out for help. I could be there for you, but I could arrive late. It just takes one moment. One moment to lose somebody you love and cherish… somebody you swore to protect for all their remaining time with you.”

“N-Nong, stop patronizing me with your damn sob st—Grrak!” I yelped as he slammed me onto the ground.

[“I’m treating you exactly how I should as your older brother. Once Empress-Mother Forminaxtrass has her chance again, you’ll know how it feels when you watch your younger sibling let out their first cry as they break through their egg. Do you want to see them go into a war? No, of-fucking-course not!”] Nong snapped. [“I’ve gone easy on you. I’ve shown you enough how a single fast attacker can take you out without you even being able to react. Quasdrakeen and I could have killed you if we weren’t playing around. Accept it. This is not your battlefield, not your responsibility, and it isn’t yours to shoulder! Just because you are moving with the flow of the world and are around for important events doesn’t mean you need to be there! You still have time to grow stronger. You have your place later. Against those demonkin!”]

Just as he finished his sentence, I activated the spells Hikari had prepared, but, once again, before even [Hydra] could activate, Nong flew away like a rocket. He avoided every spell I cast and broke my mana connection with my spell golems. I couldn’t even poison him since he was using [Aerokinesis] to filter it away, while my claws and tail couldn’t pierce his skin because I didn’t have my buffs, and he was an older rank A!

I couldn’t get [Prayer], [Symphonie des Feuergottes], or even my bloody spell songs up! So much of my combat power relied on my spell songs. That was how I bridged the strength difference in ranks, levels, and age. The only buffs I had were my basic System spells. Even [Gloria Ascendance] was practically unusable here, since Nong didn’t need to damage me, only separate me from any magic circles I materialized.

Where are the others? I asked in a panic as my eyes darted around whenever we were in the air. I couldn’t even see where the mountain I’ve been training with Father was, and the local seemed stranger and more alien than usual. Where the hell were we? Why was there a giant ocean so close by, when I’ve never seen it once yet?

All this healing was starting to feel like torture. How much time had passed since we passed, and how… no, even Hikari wouldn’t be able to tell. [Battle Frenzy] was still active, but instead of feeling a desire to beat up Nong, I felt sleepier than ever. I’ve been inhaling this sweet, rosy aroma for who-knew-how-long, and that might have affected my head ages ago. Or maybe that initial explosive slap gave me too much of a concussion.

[“Losing your grip already?”] Nong asked as he slammed me onto the ground, holding me down instead of taking me up, again. [“You fight until your health drops to zero, not when you’re tired. I heard from Empress-Mother Melloxtressa, Tasianna, and Vifi how you fought without stopping when war came for Elyonda. That, Hestia, is the type of battle you can participate in, because there are plenty of enemies you can kill. The one rank SS could be dealt with by your mother, but not this time. There will be so many rank S around that it could drown out the sky. You wouldn’t see the ocean at all, as it would be replaced by only a sea of blood, scales, and dead dragonkin flesh. You cannot even fight back against me. Why does somebody weak like you even want to join this war?”]

I grit my teeth, drawing out whatever energy I still had in my head to raise my head. My solar core was still fully powered—unused, as the health, mana, and stamina loss was negligible compared to my usual fights—and Nong was having that same face as before. That pleading look.

Yet, just before I could draw on the solar energy in my chest, Nong’s claws touched my core.

[“Pierce this right and it won’t hurt. You need that core to fully utilize your solar energy; otherwise, anything you can shoot out would be an unfocused mess. Stop. It’s over,”] Nong ordered as his aura faded. [“If I were around your level, we probably would have had a good spar. I wouldn’t be able to take over your [Aerokinesis], and you could have used your songs to keep up with me. Maybe not in speed, but at least you might have had the chance to damage me. Hikari could have had a chance to fight back. You rely so much on your allies, which, honestly, isn’t wrong. That’s how you survive a battle. But it doesn’t cut it out any longer. ‘Kriffiek kllk gaaung?’ ‘I will protect my relationships?’ Understandable. You are lucky to be born as a dragon. The strength needed for it is achievable. But not right now.”]

“S-shut up…”

[“Meanwhile, Fargryneill and Ryranakus may fight. They’re both rank As, and with [Battle Frenzy (Major)], they can defeat any other rank A in single combat. I believe so, but war is no single combat affair. It is chaos. Father can make the final choice on their matters, but I will not change my stance with you, Hestia. I won’t,”] Nong asserted once again. [“Fortunately, as I said, you can simply stand behind us. Sing for us. Heal us. Meanwhile, Tasianna can finally bring her newfound divine blessing to the test, and who knows? Maybe she will be lucky enough to land the final hit on a rank S and suddenly shoot up in levels? That will make it easier for your future battles. This is a great opportunity for your retainers. Not for you, as you cannot obtain any levels even if you’d kill Quasdrakeen. You have your unique Job, but it is still a waste.”]

“I’m not letting—”

“Why does your opinion matter here? It doesn’t, Scamp. Facts are facts, and the winds will continue moving,” he said straight to my face, causing me to grind my teeth, causing sparks to appear from my mouth. “Your friend, Tasianna, is currently more valuable in combat than you are. Another perfected true ice user. I saw it with my own eyes. Quasdrakeen feared her more than she did Fargryneill, Wendriosa, and me all together.”

“She’s my party member!” I shouted, pushing myself up, only for Nong to push me back onto the ground. “Fuck you! She’s a member of Aurora! One of my best friends! If she’s fighting, then I will—”

“She will protect you; that’s what she will do. So do her a favor and just stand back and—”

‘I don’t want to be alone. I don’t want to leave either of you two. I want to master [Battle Frenzy] to make it my own so that I would never hurt anybody I love. I’m terrified of hurting either of you, but I don’t want to become a burden—’ Those words suddenly echoed inside my head, cutting the last sentence off before I could hear it. I knew those words. I’ve said them, but I couldn’t remember the rest. Something was blocking that memory, but that last word dug deep into my heart.

Ruthal mirsk gafuug’tal!

‘Ruthal mirsk gafuug’tal!’ Hikari screamed just as I did.

Hikari’s voice spiked like a malfunctioning stereo as she released a banshee-like scream, letting that shrill cacophony of pain push out that fog in my mind. The drowsiness of being drugged and being tossed around like a kid’s play doll vanished as I felt rage replace it.

I stomped my four feet onto the ground, pushing Nong’s leg off of me as I landed. Solar energy surged inside my throat as I looked up, seeing Nong take flight… as green flames started flaring up around his body.

[“You know, I didn’t go easy on you once because I wanted to show you the difference in our strength. Do you know why the wrath step is needed to come before pride? Anger can lead to passion, and passion is what drives you forward and gives you focus when you need it most. Pride, after all, will make you fall if you can’t see where you are flying in your blind rage,”] Nong said as he spread his wings. [“I had [Battle Frenzy (Major)] active this entire time, and you didn’t even notice it. How could you overwhelm me in strength when you’re missing out on 35% additional stats and the 20% I would get for my strength and intelligence from one of my unique skills? Now, let me show you the 100% from [Battle Frenzy (Critical)].”]

And like a flashbang, my vision was stolen by a blinding light. The energy I had gathered up quickly died down as I felt my head pressed against the ground. My brain rattled as the pressure was ceaseless, to the point that I felt something wet stream out of my ears, nose, and eyes until I couldn’t feel anything after a while.

Hikari’s voice went silent, and the dazzling white covering my eyes started to change back into a bleak darkness. The pressure ravaging my body kept going and going, leaving me befuddled and disoriented when it finally ended. How long did all of that last? I couldn’t tell, but I could guess when I finally opened my eyes again.

Nong was long gone, while Father was looking down at me. I looked up and down, noticing I was pressed into the earth, creating a dragon-shaped hole above. I couldn’t move. My muscles didn’t want to listen, nor did I have the strength to move at this point. I felt like a fossil locked into stone, forever imprisoned in this calcified state.

“I’ve sent everybody back to the cave, telling them I would take care of you. You’ve been unconscious for a while, Hestia, so I can imagine what you are feeling right now. Shall we have some dinner? We can reheat it.”

[“Father?”] I spoke through [Telepathy], unable to even move my jaw. [“I think… I know what being really angry feels like, again. And right now, I am so pissed, I want to charge at Nong and break his skull!”]

The corners of Father’s mouth went up slightly. “Then let us find the end of that enlightenment before returning home.”

[“Gladly.”]