Sothing erged from within. Signalling its arrival with a large gust of wind that blew sand in all directions.
Ezra clapped, generating a gust of wind that clashed against the approaching dust, blowing it apart.
The erged persona is revealed.
Glistening brown armour strung upon his chest, thighs and wrists was the first thing Ezra made out.
Followed by a battleaxe resting on its shoulder.
The creature stood at Ezra’s height with two hind legs entrenched in the ground showcasing sharp white claws.
Whilst its head was shaped similar to a crocodile’s, almost like distant cousins, showing off two curved black horns on its head.
Ezra instantly knew what it was, for he had seen it once before during his ti as Kevin.
’A dragon’
The scale of destruction just one of these beings could bring was mind blowing.
Ezra took a deep breath, as fear slowly stepped into his heart.
[Snap out of it] Zydrax cautioned him. [Things are different now. You’re different]
Like a rock falling into a puddle, the words rippled through his mind.
’Right, I’m different now’
Steadying his gait, he cald down and his heartbeat returned to normal.
[Besides, he’s not even fully fledged]
’There’s no reason for to be afraid’
With his confidence restored, Ezra approached the dragon.
Disappearing from.his position to stop ten feet from the dragon, Ezra feasted his eyes on the creature before him.
Though, for so reason, at close range the dragon didn’t look as frightening nor as dignified as he rembered.
Just then, the dragon’s axe glows and he attacks without warning, reaching Ezra and slashing downwards.
On instinct, Ezra responded.
At roughly the sa pace, he has no ti to summon Skyfall and instead punches the axe away with a left hook, thwarting its angle.
Having successfully thwarted the attack, he struck out with an attack of his own.
Moving his right hand to place an upper cut, the dragon guards his face with both arms...only to discover it was a feint.
Ezra placed his left fist right on the centre of the dragon’s chest, denting its armour.
His fist art training ca in handy.
*Bam*
My man slid back ten steps.
Dropping his arms slowly, Ezra caught a glimpse of shock on the dragon’s face before it morphed back into its neutral expression.
Then...*Crack*
The axe head cracked all over, a second attack would unilaterally have it shattered.
Raising it to his face, the dragon glanced at the cracked axe and threw it aside.
Cracking its hand, the dragon stayed its hand, watching Ezra without moving.
Ezra on his own was feeling his fists, reliving the past few monts.
’Huh’ he was astonished. ’He’s weaker than I expected’
The dude was about the sa level as Alvarach.
Ezra had long surpassed that.
Confronted with such a reality, he couldn’t help but wonder.
’Was this what I was afraid of?’
It seed so absurd now.
’Zydrax, are you sure I shouldn’t just kill him’
[Don’t, if we can preserve relations, that would be best]
Speaking from experience, Zydrax was sure that behind this Mythic rank dragons a slew of Transcendents would be sent down without hesitation once he killed the dragon.
Ezra sighed. He’d like to kill the dragon imdiately, but Zydrax’s opinions weren’t to be taken lightly.
The dragon moved its hands about conjuring a magic circle of bright yellow, stretching from his palm.
Then, he sent it towards Ezra.
About to evade, Zydrax’s voice resounded.
[Don’t dodge it. It’s not an attack]
Adhering, the magic circle hit him straight in the face and burst into yellow speckles.
Ezra blinked in confusion.
Nothing happened.
Then he heard a voice.
A light but partially hoarse one.
"Can you understand ?"
He could make out what the dragon was saying.
’Woah’
"Can you understand now?" It asked again.
Ezra snapped out of his stupor.
"I can"
"Good" the dragon nodded.
"I apologize for suddenly attacking you" It said. "Only, I had to make sure you were worthy enough to speak with "
[He’s lying. That attack was made to kill]
’I know that much’
Ezra’s annoyance gauge went up a notch. There was sothing irkso about the weaker side acting with hubris.
Ezra found it disgusting, and his eyes weren’t hiding it.
"So?" Ezra replied, keeping his expression neutral.
"You are worthy" the dragon nodded, keeping his cool.
Inwardly, he was panicking.
’Khasavar, you b@stard!’
Before departing, they’d been briefed on their arrival location and assault plan.
This place was supposed to be empty, making it an optimal location for them to group up before attacking.
But what was this?!
Stretching his eyes a bit, he could see an army of almost ten thousand at a distance.
Not only that, during the briefing, they were told the planet’s top combatants were Rank 5 Incipients.
Yet upon arrival, he finds a rank six incipient awaiting him!
’Is that b@stard trying to kill ?’
He had envisioned the entire mission to go clean and smooth, but the situation had gotten out of hand right from the start.
He wouldn’t have been called for such a mission if such inconveniences were enough to force him to cave in.
In that short ti, he sought an advantage and attacked Ezra, who he thought to be leader.
By taking the initiative, he would control the pace of things.
Unfortunately, another absurdity manifested when he was beaten back and his armour was dented like any random tal.
In that short exchange, he felt his life at risk, so now he had to really thread carefully, because there was now a very real threat to his life.
Even though his tone still had hubris, he unconsciously straightened his gait.
"I go by the na Gaza. What is your na?"
"Ezra"
"Ezra. You seem to have been waiting for my arrival"
"We’re waiting for whatever it is that cos out of that thing" Ezra points to the dungeon.
"I see" he says.
"So, what do you want here?"
"We co in peace"
Ezra had to forcefully shut his eyes cause he couldn’t resist rolling them.
’Of all things’ Ezra sighed. ’How ridiculous’
"We’ve co to invite you to the outer world" Gaza continues. "It is a place beyond your imagination, teeming with anything you can think of and more"
Ezra had heard all this from Zydrax, who gave a far better description, not this cringy introduction.
To be fair, it was Gaza’s first try too.
"We?"
"Yes, two more of my comrades are on there way here right this mont"
’Two more Mythic ranks’
That wasn’t good news.
Gaza said that to subtly apply pressure on Ezra to steer his mind away from attacking.
"Oh, so there most be a lot of powerful people over there, yes?"
Gaza eyes lit up with a glint, having found sothing that interested Ezra.
"Of course, we have thousands of people more powerful than you"
’He bit the bait’ thought Ezra.
Zydrax had instructed him on to guide the conversation to get them to a take a particular course of action.
This way, the planet would be taken over without problems and Ezra wouldn’t have worry about the planet being destroyed.
Gaza stared.
Whether or not he’d completely recovered from the side effects of gateway travel, the man in front of him wasn’t soone he could beat...alone.
’I have to stall long enough for the others to arrive’
He dared not apply pressure directly, because he couldn’t gauge how Ezra would react.
He could fly off the handle and kill him before the rest arrived.
Sure, if he died, a team would be dispatched to the planet to deal with Ezra, but why would he want to die?
Not to ntion, Khasavar was the one that commissioned him, and he had no doubts that Khasavar would cover up his death until he attained the planet.
Also, the main point of his coming here was to have them surrender with at little damage as possible.
"So, how are you going to take to the outer world?" Ezra inquired.
Gaza points the dungeon. "The route I took to arrive here goes only one way, so I can’t use it to go back to where I ca from"
[That’s true] Zydrax confird.
"I’ll have to wait for my comrade to arrive, he’s the only the one who’s going have them dispatch a team to pick us up"
"...."
"Apologies. You might not understand, but you will have a better answer once my comrade arrives"
Without asking, Gaza turned around and sat down just in front of the dungeon.
Ezra stared at his back the whole ti, before withdrawing towards the army.
Reaching them, he gathers the Grandmasters and informs them of the situation, bringing them to understanding.
Not to be forgotten also, the siblings had risen to beco Peak Grandmasters just two weeks ago.
The Grandmasters gave their opinions.
So followed Ezra’s way of thinking, others were staunch on taking the initiative and making the first strike.
On that end, Ezra didn’t feel comfortable leaving Gaza alone, but still forced himself to be patient.
He didn’t have to wait long.
Four hours later, the dungeons brightened once more and another figure erged.
If exchanging words inevitably failed, it wasn’t to late to take out their swords.
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