“The reason you were looking for ?” Ajax asked, surprised to hear that the dragons had been looking for him.
“We dragons are solitary beings, but with an ego and pride that leaves us open to manipulation.” Khalysstra said. “The thing about that pride however is that it is a pride not in ourselves as individuals but in ourselves as dragons.”
“Most Ascended races understand that they need to stick together as one or the others will wipe them out.” Ruinflare explained. “Almost all Ascended races have a single leader, a king or queen that is the final bulwark of the race.”
“Dragons are different.” Khalysstra continued. “We don’t have a single apex predator of our species, we have multiple dragon emperors. Each is a king in its own right with a family line they protect. As individuals the dragon emperors are weaker than the other rulers, but there are seven of them.”
“So if they worked together…” Ajax trailed off.
“That would never happen.” Aurexion laughed. “The most dangerous thing to a dragon is another dragon. They want what you have, and they don’t have the emperors to fear since they simply proved they were the better dragon.”
Ajax could see it now. Dragons were small clans that warred with each other, but nobody would attack one clan because all the clans would unite to wipe out the attacker for daring to attack dragons as a whole.
“So then why were you looking for ?” Ajax asked. “How does this lead to you looking for ?”
“Because while dragons are antagonistic towards each other we still care about our families.” Khalysstra explained. “And I believe Aurexion could use your help to beco stronger.”
“He’s unstable?” Ruinflare asked, taking a closer look at Aurexion. “But how, he seems too low level for that to be an issue.”
“Aurexion’s father, my brother, was killed a few centuries ago.” Khalysstra explained. “He left his hoard for the two of us to split. It gave
the push I needed to join the ranks of the Dukes and Duchesses when I took a good part of his hoard. Aurexion however was still young when that happened, not even a century old. He took his father’s death hard.”
“I did no such thing.” Aurexion snapped.
“He’s since spent centuries just absorbing as much of his father’s legacy as he could.” Khalysstra continued, ignoring Aurexion’s interruption. “That much power without an accompanying increase in levels and developnt in Skills is starting to affect him. He needs to grow in both Skills and levels now to better balance himself out. Which is where you co in.”
“You want them to bond!” Ruinflare was so shocked he couldn’t even hide his surprise despite all of the social Skills he had.
“A bond…” Ajax was just as shocked. All this ti he had been searching for a bond only to find out that he had in fact been getting further and further away with every step from a bond that was trying to reach him.
“I said I would consider him.” Aurexion cut in again this ti actually drawing the attention of everyone besides Shifty who was still sitting on Khalysstra’s head. “And besides that Aura he’s not all that impressive. He’s not even whole.”
This text was taken from . Help the author by reading the original version there.
Ajax felt a little self-conscious as he moved his left shoulder and the stump that was left after the troll’s bite. At the sa ti he felt a little offended at the remark. So what if he wasn’t an Ascended race from the start, he had worked hard and evolved anyway. He was recognised as a genius throughout Gryndor and all humanoid lands. He was stronger than other Ascended races that were higher level than him, Veyra was in the high nineties and Ajax was sure he could beat her even with only one arm.
“He is plenty impressive.” Ruinflare backed Ajax up. “To gain a Legendary Mana Affinity Skill alone puts him that much close to gaining his first Pseudo - Mythic Skill. Especially one as versatile as Life Mana. Not to ntion being able to kill a floor boss more than twice his level.”
Aurexion however wasn’t impressed, a lot of this was because of his pride and the way his overindulgence on his racial ability affected his impatience. Another part of it however was that Aurexion was a genius in his own right. He had grown at record speeds for a dragon, in less than a century he was already level eighty before he had settled in to absorb power from his father’s hoard. While that pace might not be impressive for a humanoid, dragons leveled much slower as experience was harder for them to co by, challenges were hard to find with their increased Stats and increased affinity towards most Skills, aning it was easier for them to gain and level Skills, at least initially. This lowered the Experience gained.
“Why did you only co looking for
now?” Ajax asked, it was a question that was bothering him since the mont Khalysstra said they were looking for him.
“Because you were in a position to make a partnership.” Khalysstra said as he dropped another gauntlet on the ground in front of Ajax. “You have outgrown your old gauntlet a lot quicker than I expected you would. But because you were wearing it after you evolved as an Ascended it let
know that you had done so. So I went to get Aurexion to get the two of you to et.”
“Another gauntlet.” Ajax chuckled, it looked very different from the old one, for one thing this one was a lot more ornate and covered more than just his hand, the enchantnts were so complex they worked their way all the way up to the shoulder. “Can this one handle more power than my last one? I kinda… overloaded a few of the gemstones there.”
“No, this gauntlet isn’t here to help you with that.” Khalysstra chuckled. “It’s to help you with [Spell Direction].”
Ajax’s eyes instantly locked on the gauntlet, even taking a small step towards it. “ You know about [Spell Direction].” Khalysstra was surprised, she was sure humanoids hadn’t figured out the third path of casting. “You learned it from the sidhe.” the dragon was quick to catch on.
“Barely gained the Skill.” Ajax answered as he watched the gauntlet with interest, he was happy that it was made for his right arm since that ant he wouldn’t have to wait until he regrew his other arm to try it on. “I’m still trying to work it in with my Style.”
“That’s a mistake.” Aurexion snorted, drawing Ajax’s attention.
“What? Why?” Ajax was starting to dislike this dragon's attitude but he reminded himself that it wasn’t just the dragon’s personality that was the cause of his behaviour but also that he was unbalanced from their racial ability.
“[Spell Direction] can’t be added on as an afterthought to a fighting style.” Aurexion tilted his head, looking down at Ajax. “The more you try to get it to fit the more you’ll struggle. You instead have to create a whole new style, one that adapts your current style to the movents of [Spell Direction]. If you do it well your new style will be one rarity higher than what your current one is, though I doubt you can manage that.”
“The gauntlet’s enchantnt is ant to help make that transition smoother.” Khalysstra followed up. “I trust you found a way to work around damaging your weapons by infusing them with Mana when attacking.”
“In a way.” Ajax answered, his solution was to sidestep the problem entirely by having a weapon dedicated to each Mana type so that it would be embedded with a gem that not only made it not be damaged but even amplified his power.
“You’re sure a bond with him will help ?” Aurexion turned to ask his aunt, as prideful as he was feeling he knew just how strong his aunt was and he trusted her enough to know what was best for him, more so lately as he realized that he had spent too long drawing in power from his hoard and that it had in fact started to affect him.
“I think he will surprise you.” Khalysstra said with a smile. “Not to ntion that you’ll have the perfect place to grow considering the war that is starting in the humanoid lands. Their strongest people should be around the right level of power to push you.”
“The war’s already starting?” That was news to Ajax. He took out the item from his storage space only to find that the king hadn’t yet signaled him to return. “And how could he take part in the war anyway? I thought Ascended races couldn’t interfere in humanoid lands.”
“He would be able to.” Khalysstra said. “If he was bonded with a humanoid.”
“I trust my aunt human.” Aurexion said as he unfurlowed his wings. “But that doesn't an we can just form a bond. You and I have to prove our strength to each other. Co, show
what you can really do.”
“My na is Ajax.” Ajax said. “I’ll make sure you’ll rember that, if nothing else.”
Ajax couldn’t hold back the smile as he picked up the gauntlet. He was about to fight a dragon. It might have been a lifeti since his ti back on Earth but the gar in him couldn’t hold back the glee at finally getting to fight a dragon, even if it wasn’t a fight to the death.
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