Chapter 877: This wasn’t the plan
Borg couldn’t wrap his head around it. Robert’s parents had both been killed by dragons. He should have been the last person to betray them.
It was for that very reason that Borg had trusted his intelligence in the first place. Of course, he’d sent his own scouts to verify the report before the mission, but by then, the fire dragon had already reached the Legendary level. It had hidden its true power, and the scouts were completely deceived by the illusion.
"Why?"
"If you had just handed over Yala and sold the Dragonslayer’s Lance rcenary Corps’ hidden assets to us, you wouldn’t be in this ss today," Robert sneered.
As he spoke, his body began to transform. His skin wrinkled and hardened as patches of dragon scale pushed through from underneath. His hands contorted, sharpening into draconic claws.
"You bastard," Borg choked out. "You’ve undergone draconic transformation. A traitor. A traitor through and through."
With his dying breath, Borg wasn’t just saying Robert had betrayed him; he had betrayed his entire race.
"Commander!"
"Commander!"
The voices of Neil, Yala, and Alilien, the three remaining Alpha-level pillars of the corps, cried out. They finally reacted, rushing toward their fallen leader.
But just as they moved, another figure stepped into their path. It was Aiden, his lance held defensively, blocking them.
"Aiden!"
"Aiden, what are you..."
"Not you too... Why?"
If Robert’s betrayal was a shock, seeing Aiden stand against them was sothing Borg, Neil, Yala, and Alilien found impossible to accept.
"Alilien, you know how I feel about you. I really, really like you," Aiden said, his eyes filled with a deep sadness as he stared at her.
Every night on this campaign, every ti he saw her slip into Leonidas’s tent, it felt like a knife twisting in his gut. The woman he loved most had chosen soone else.
Aiden’s voice grew louder, cracking with rage and grief. "Why did you choose so random, washed-up dude? Was he strong? You loved him so much, didn’t you? Well, now he’s just a red sar on the ground!"
He was screaming now. "After losing you, I felt like I had no soul, no hope. And if I have no hope, then I’ll just destroy all of you and be reborn! I WILL BE REBORN!"
As Aiden roared, dragon scale began to erupt across his skin. He too was transforming, though the process wasn’t as advanced as Robert’s.
"What I can’t have, I will destroy!" he shrieked, raising his lance and pointing it directly at Alilien, his eyes burning with murderous intent.
In Aiden’s twisted mind, the Alilien who had chosen Leonidas was no longer the perfect girl he’d idolized. She was corrupt, a stain on his mory that had to be erased.
"You two are basically howreckers," Alexander’s voice noted dryly in their minds. Yala and Alilien choosing Orion and Leonidas had clearly been the catalyst for Aiden’s betrayal. If he hadn’t turned, the outco for the Dragonslayer’s Lance rcenary Corps might have been different, or at least less brutal.
"Howreckers? Are you kidding ?" Leonidas shot back. "The feeling was mutual. This kid is just salty he got rejected and decided to burn the world down. The dude has zero class. Totally pathetic."
Leonidas would never admit to stealing soone’s love. He’d only ever admit to being irresistibly charming.
"Shaless," Alexander retorted. "If you two hadn’t shown up, Yala and Alilien likely would have ended up with Neil and Aiden."
"Alright, bros, keep watching," Orion interjected. "That overgrown lizard is coming back."
In the sky, the fire dragon, Sorth, was filled with glee. Over three hundred humans, including several Alpha-level fighters, were more than enough to keep him fed for a long ti. Human flesh was so much more succulent, more flavorful than that of other beasts.
Sorth’s mountainous body descended, his red scales glinting coldly in the sun. Greed and savagery swam nakedly in his enormous eyes. He spread his wings, casting a shadow that blotted out the sky.
The rcenaries below froze, too terrified to even think of running.
The dragon picked his targets. His massive form dove in a blur of motion.
A mont later, he was ascending again.
When Sorth ca to a halt, hovering in the air, the survivors saw he had Commander Borg’s lifeless body dangling from his jaws. And clutched in his left and right foreclaws were the two traitors, Robert and Aiden.
The sight left Neil, Yala, and Alilien completely stunned.
"Heh. In a dragon’s eyes, even dragonkin are just a tasty al," Leonidas’s voice echoed in Orion’s mind. "Especially the newly turned ones. They’ve got this little evolution component in them dragons go crazy for. You really think a dragon cares about its ’kin’? They’re just cattle. Food they raise themselves."
Leonidas seed completely unfazed by the scene. In fact, it felt familiar; his own dragon avatar had done similar things in the past.
High in the air, gripped in Sorth’s claws, Robert and Aiden finally realized the truth as they stared into the dragon’s malevolent eyes.
"Respected master! I am your servant, a dragonkin, one of your own!" Robert pleaded, his voice trembling with absolute terror. "The food you want is down there! The rcenaries, those Alpha-level humans!"
"Don’t worry, they’re not going anywhere," the dragon’s voice bood in their minds. "But you two are more of a hassle."
Sorth’s maw, lined with rows of razor-sharp teeth, snapped open and shot forward, swallowing Robert whole.
The crunching and grinding of human bone reached Aiden’s ears, each crack sounding like a death knell.
"No... no... this isn’t how it was supposed to go!" Aiden shrieked in denial. "This wasn’t the plan!"
CRUNCH.
Aiden was gone, eaten alive without even a chance to struggle.
Having finished his appetizers, the fire dragon Sorth lowered his head, gazing down at the remnants of the rcenary Corps. His eyes settled on Neil, Yala, and Alilien. For a newly promoted lord like him, three Alpha-level humans were a major power-up waiting to be consud.
"Bro, it’s your turn to step up," Orion projected from his crater where he was playing dead. He figured it was ti for Leonidas’s heroic return.
"Chill," Leonidas sent back. "There are too many people still watching. If I pop up now, I’ll blow my cover."
Orion went silent.
It was only then that he truly rembered who Leonidas was. He wasn’t just a powerful fighter; he was an arch lordpeak, an old monster who had seen ages pass. Why would he feel an ounce of pity for a few rcenaries?
When it ca to the mission, nothing else mattered. Not even his beloved Alilien.
Reviews
All reviews (0)