Dragon Gods Reign

[Dragon peaks]

Following Neandra through the doorway, Darganth saw what Yldra, Jennia, and Allaire had been up to while he had waited for Neandra.

The first thing he saw was a small, round projectile fly past before him. Held together and guided by Yldra's telekinetic hold over the red liquid that formed it, the projectile headed for Jennia.

A few meters before it reached her, Yldra stopped her spell, leaving it to continue with the momentum it had. As it did, it slowly dispersed as nothing held it together anymore.

Though before it could spread by any meaningful amount, Jennia started influencing it with a spell of her own. Grabbing it in a telekinetic grasp just as Yldra had done mere moments before, she took care to affect every last drop as she brought the projectile to an abrupt stop.

Without a pause in between a second projectile, whose only difference was the green color of the liquid it consisted of, followed after the initial one. And it wasn't the only one, with easily a dozen more of such projectiles being flung by Yldra in rapid succession and with varying speeds.

These too were launched targeted at Jennia, who would then do her best to stop them before returning them to Yldra by dropping them into a portal that hovered next to her.

And though Jennia managed to catch all of these, occasionally the purpose of this exercise was revealed when she didn't manage to catch the entire projectile. Whenever this happened, a part of the projectile would carry on as the water's momentum was far larger than the minuscule force with which the surface tension held it together.

Most of the time this still only resulted in small splashes of colored water hitting Jennia, though considering the multiple large stains of differently colored splashes on her clothes, Darganth assumed that she had previously made larger mistakes.

Watching them intrigued for a few seconds, Darganth walked further into the room before momentarily shifting his focus in search of Allaire and Serania. Finding the former sitting cross-legged on a cushion and watching Yldra and Jennia with a smirk and the latter lying on a second one next to her with her eyes closed, he started to make his way around the latter two and toward her.

Though after only a couple steps he was close enough for Jennia to notice him despite being distracted, distracting her for just a moment.

Immediately multiple splashes of water hit her as three projectiles slipped past her focus in rapid succession. The first she at least still managed to stop in part, but the additional distraction led to the next to slipping past her focus entirely and landing on her head and chest.

Ducking before the fourth one could also land on her, Jennia already mobilized her mana to create a shield before her when all projectiles stopped simultaneously. A moment later they all accelerated into the opposite direction just as abruptly.

Flying back to Yldra, they vanished into thin air as she used the spell with which she created them in reverse.

"Urghh, why did I accept to be the target." Jennia groaned as she wiped the water out of her face as well as she could.

"Because it's no fun without stakes." Yldra chuckled.

"I don't feel amused right now, just wet." Jennia grumbled.

"I find that it was the perfect sight to arrive to." Neandra interjected as she fully stepped into the room.

Beaming with joy as she finally noticed her arrival, Yldra opened her arms as she turned toward her and welcomed her with a hug.

"Glad you could finally make it." Yldra said and gave Neandra a quick peck on the lips.

"I also would have loved to escape my obligations a couple of days ago." Neandra said.

Seeing through her roundabout formulation, Yldra shook her head with a sigh.

"I missed you too." She answered and gave Neandra a tight squeeze before letting her out of her embrace.

As she stepped back, Yldra heard Jennia's voice behind her, prompting her to turn around.

"That's for distracting me." Jennia said in amusement as she hugged Darganth tightly.

Sighing at his own thoughtlessness after having stepped into her arms, Darganth just shrugged a moment later and wrapped his arms around her.

"I walked into that. Literally." Darganth remarked with a chuckle as he felt his shirt getting wet.

Humming in acknowledgment, Jennia didn't take the initiative to end their mutual embrace. Instead of waiting as Yldra and Neandra walked over to Allaire, she only let go after Darganth did.

Making their way to Allaire and Serania together, they approached the comfy area where she was still sitting and from which she had watched the entire previous exchange.

As they came closer, Darganth also saw the waves of energy he had previously only been able to sense, with waves of external aura pulsing around her body. With each peak in intensity, the speed at which its energy flowed across her skin also rose for a moment.

In between these pulses, her aura was barely visible, with it being completely invisible where there were fewer muscles or muscles that weren't enhanced as strong as others. On the flip side, the aura flowing down her upper arm and enhancing her biceps and triceps was still clearly visible, as was the energy flowing around her shoulders, back, as well as a myriad of other places.

But as the aura around her arms was barely obscured by her clothes, it was there that the changes it underwent after every few dozen or so pulses were the most noticeable. As its intensity neared the lowest point in the cycle, the tiny, barely visible strands that made up a large part of an aura's energy flow shifted ever so slightly.

Focusing closely on these changes and their impact on her aura's effect, Allaire kept adjusting it even as the other four walked up to her.

This was because she had already invested enough time in this attempt to prepare her aura flow in anticipation for her advancement to the mythic rank that she didn't want to lose the progress. And as making sure that she had every detail of this aura path in her mind and could use it on reflex would take her some time anyway, she was going to first perfect it.

This meant that though she could follow and partake in a conversation with the others, she couldn't make any large movements or experience any other disturbance that could influence her mana or aura flow without the risk of it messing up her adjustments.

Thus, she had to wait until Neandra came close to her to greet her.

"Nice to see that you're doing well." Neandra said as a greeting once she was nearby.

Nodding in response, Allaire could only smile somewhat helplessly as she greeted her back.

"I'm happy you managed to make it. I would also offer you a hug as a greeting but as you can see, it's a bit inopportune right now."

"Of course."

As the two spoke, Darganth moved past Neandra and toward Serania. Sitting down carefully next to her, he waited as she slowly opened her eyes.

"Tired?" He asked as she rose from her lying position.

"Yes. Sadly reinvigoration spells have their limits and last night already stretched them." Serania said.

"Did I overdo it?" Darganth immediately asked concerned.

"No, I just didn't catch enough sleep." Serania reassured him.

Slowly shaking off her drowsiness, Serania noticed Neandra a moment later. Initially raising an eyebrow in confusion, she soon seemed to recognize her.

"Neandra I assume." She asked, prompting Neandra to nod.

"Serania." She introduced herself, "Stories about you are quite widespread on the beast continents so I've been looking forward to meeting you."

"Oh, what kind of stories?" Neandra asked interested.

"All manner really, but the most common are those about the times one of your battles turned some area to rubble."

Mildly disappointed, Neandra somewhat lost interest in the tales about herself that were common on the beast continents as it seemed like they were the same as on the central continent.

"I had expected a bit more novelty to be honest, something a bit more along the lines of legends about how I'm responsible for every beast that attacks a tribe or something." She said.

"You want them to vilify you?" Serania asked confused.

"Not vilify, these exaggerations don't need to be negative. I just find it amusing to watch people accuse me of such over the top and often impossible things because it means that they think that I'm capable of them." Neandra said with a chuckle.

Understanding her reasoning even though she couldn't relate to it, Serania simply nodded in response. Along with it, she sat back down onto the soft cushion on the knee-high seat behind her, cuddling herself against Darganth as Neandra sat down on the opposite side of the half circle in which the seats were arranged.

"So, what do you want to do with the rest of the day?" Darganth asked into the silence a few seconds later.

"You've mentioned your sister earlier, I'd love to make her acquaintance." Nenadra said.

"I think she would see it the same, she already got acquainted with quite a few Locis and made friends with some. But I can't tell you when she'll be here as she's still in her room, so you'll have to wait a bit."

"That's fine, there's still some catching up we can do in the meantime." Neandra said as she leaned back in her seat.