Chapter 1344: No Fish, Just a Dragon

Above the sea, the scars of the battle had finally calmed.

The group sat on the thick ice sheet... fishing.

They’d cut a few holes in the ice and dropped their lines into the water. At first, everyone actually watched their bobbers like they meant it. But as the minutes dragged by, the surface stayed dead still.

Not a single bite.

Hell, even the bait wasn’t getting touched.

Ethan stared at his unmoving line until he finally lost patience.

"Namyanna. Go down and check. See if there are any live fish nearby."

Namyanna gripped her trident and sank the tip into the patch of sea beside them that hadn’t frozen over. Ripples spread, and she dropped straight down after it.

She was back in front of Ethan in less than a second.

"No."

Two short syllables. The whole group blinked.

They looked at the holes by their feet... then out at the endless ocean.

A sea this big, and not a single fish?

Yeah. Right.

Ethan still wasn’t convinced. He lifted a hand and pointed toward deeper water farther out.

"Not even over there?"

Namyanna followed his finger with her eyes, then nodded. She casually tossed her trident forward, like she was about to probe a wider area.

The weapon skimmed just above the ice.

And at that exact moment, a small dragon burst up from the sea, clearly about to make a dramatic entrance.

Vaelor didn’t even get one word out.

The incoming trident nailed him square in the head.

Thunk!

The little dragon cartwheeled and splashed back into the water. The trident arced neatly and flew right back into Namyanna’s hand like it had never left.

Under the surface, Vaelor hovered, clutching his reddening forehead, eyes blazing with indignation.

Off to a great start.

He’d planned to warn these people first—tell them to leave. And when they refused, he’d "peacefully" suppress them with force.

Who could’ve guessed he’d get clocked the instant he poked his head up?

On the ice, Ethan watched Namyanna catch her weapon, then raised his hand and formed an energy sphere.

He tossed it into the sea like he was skipping a stone.

The energy ball didn’t fall straight down. It traced an arc through the air, cleared the edge of the ice sheet, and dropped into the water at an angle—

landing perfectly on the Vaelor hiding just beneath the surface.

Boom!

Energy detonated underwater.

Vaelor still had one claw pressed to his head when the shockwave slammed him dead-on. The little dragon was driven straight down, hit the seafloor, bounced once, then crashed into broken coral and jagged reef stone.

Up on the ice, everyone perked up.

If Namyanna and Ethan could score a hit with a casual throw, then obviously they could too.

For a few chaotic seconds, energy blasts and random objects rained into the sea. But aside from Namyanna and Ethan, every other attack missed. Some dropped into a distant trench. Some slammed into reefs. Some exploded early in the water.

Not a single one hit Vaelor.

Vaelor took the opportunity to scramble into a nearby cave, staring up at the ice with real fear creeping into his eyes. Outside, different colored flashes kept lighting the water. The tremors from the explosions shook loose stones from the cave ceiling, pebbles raining down in a steady clatter.

Then a ball of flame appeared beside him.

It didn’t go out.

It burned quietly in the water, painting the cave wall red.

Vaelor’s eyes went wide. He plastered himself to the opposite side of the cave.

Fire... underwater?

His body went stiff for a heartbeat. But his father’s task still wasn’t done. Vaelor clenched his jaw, forced himself out of the cave, and swam carefully toward the floating ice above.

On the surface, the group waited a while. No second target appeared.

They stared down at the sea, disappointed.

Then a soft scraping sound came from behind them.

"You people just throw things around like that," a voice said, sharp with accusation. "Aren’t you afraid you’ll hurt our citizens?"

Everyone turned at once.

A small dragonman stood behind them with his chin lifted in arrogant defiance. Vaelor had his arms crossed over his chest, posture proud—

except his feet clearly had not agreed to the concept of "ice."

His left foot had barely steadied when his right slid out. He jerked to correct, and the moment the right stopped, the left skated the other way.

The arrogance... took some damage.

Ethan watched, intrigued, and walked over at an unhurried pace. An energy sphere formed in his palm, then he pressed it right up beside Vaelor’s neck.

"Our citizens?" Ethan echoed. "Then why’ve we been fishing forever and not caught a single fish?"

The sphere edged closer.

Its flowing light kissed the scales on Vaelor’s throat, and the temperature around it shifted. If Vaelor tried to bullshit him, that sphere was going to replace his head.

Vaelor heard the question, and his admiration for his father only deepened.

So these people hadn’t even seen through Father’s arrangement.

"Because my father used his own power to protect them!" Vaelor blurted, eyes bright with certainty. "He hid them away to keep them safe!"

Ethan looked at him for a beat.

Whatever sliver of hesitation he had left... disappeared.

He pushed his palm forward. The energy sphere detonated sideways.

Blinding light expanded along Vaelor’s neck. The shock kicked up ice shards, and thick smoke rolled across the ice, swallowing everyone’s view.

But Vaelor’s head wasn’t gone.

A small dragon burst out of the smoke and shot into the air. Vaelor looked down at the white bead in his claw—the life-saving treasure Thalvyr had given him before he left.

The bead had shattered.

"You’ll pay for what you’ve done!" Vaelor roared down at them, spreading his body in midair. "Vaelor will make your blood spill on the spot!"

From the broken bead, a thread of deep red seeped out.

That red wisp wrapped around Vaelor’s claw and slid into the gaps between his scales, sinking into his body. His normal-colored scales began to redden from the edges, the blood hue spreading fast until it coated him completely.

From the back, Elowen watched the entire change without missing a detail.

White bead breaks.

Deep red breath appears.

Then it goes into Vaelor’s body.

Another soul orb.

"That’s a kid who’s been spoiled rotten," Elowen said, eyes on Vaelor. "And another dragon using soul-burning to buy strength. As for his father..." Her gaze cooled. "Mysterious."

The others followed her line of sight and understood immediately.

The Vaelor who’d looked perfectly normal a moment ago now carried the same presence as Voruun had.

A red version.

Namyanna moved first.

Moisture in the air was yanked together into dense droplets. More seawater surged up from the edge of the ice, merging with those droplets and forming a towering column that stabbed straight into the sky.

The water column closed from below, wrapping Vaelor completely.

With her other hand, Namyanna released frost energy. Ice-blue light climbed the current inside the column. The whole thing began freezing from the bottom up—heavy ice forming in tightening rings until it became a massive frozen pillar standing on the sea.

Vaelor was sealed inside its core.

Namyanna tightened her grip on the trident, locked onto the shape trapped in the pillar, and hurled the weapon.

The tip stabbed into the frozen pillar and drove forward, racing toward Vaelor’s position.

At her feet, a stream of water rose.

It climbed from the ice and stretched upward, forming a path that led straight toward Vaelor. Namyanna swept her free hand over it. Cold brushed the surface, and the entire waterway froze from near to far.

She stepped onto the ice path and sprinted into the air.

Andona and Seraphina launched at the same time, splitting left and right. Both gathered energy and aimed their attacks at Vaelor trapped in the pillar.

Multiple forces closed in from different angles, shoving the air aside as they came. Cracks spread across the surface of the frozen pillar, spiderwebbing wider with every heartbeat as the strikes bore down.