Dragon Gods Reign

[Dragon peaks]

Walking through the scorching heat that currently enveloped the entire area around the dragon peaks, a group of seven made their way through one of the canyon paths. In addition to the expected six, Darganth's group also included Sarkia.

They made their way through this thin forest whose occasional trees barely qualified it as such. Instead it was closer to a lush grassland with a constant light tree cover. This allowed both tree-dwelling as well as ground-dwelling animals and beasts to thrive there, creating a uniquely competitive environment.

This constant competition between these two as well as the bird-type beasts was largely held on the suffering of the normal animals. Fights among beasts here were rare, with all of them knowing that this densely packed environment meant that even a small mistake could lead to their death.

Thus any beast, no matter their rank or species, preyed upon the nonetheless rather large population of animals. Thanks to the mana flowing in their bodies they needed far less sustenance, allowing this situation to exist.

And no matter how much any of them would want to change it, they all would quickly meet their end in the attempt. Each hunting trip carried the risk of coming into conflict with another beast, a conflict that can escalate until they reach their full sizes, at least if one party was desperate enough.

While this offered a great advantage, increasing the mass behind strikes and increasing the amount of flesh that needs to be penetrated to deal lethal damage, here its large size more than offset these factors.

For one, it carried the risk of becoming large enough to reach into the flow of the mana currents in the air. These strong rivers of mana were the reason why flying beasts didn't dare to go higher than the cliff's edges or stray too far from them, with them destroying nearly everything outside of the canyons and even sometimes partially flowing into them.

For the beasts, they were a permanent natural phenomenon comparable to the mana streams at the edges of the planet's atmosphere. Unbeknownst to them, these two were far more comparable than they expected, the currents around the dragon peaks simply being the overflowing mana of thousands of dragons living in one area.

On the mountains themselves their effects would be harmless, the mana in the area simply becoming denser. But when combined with its effect of parting the currents of mana that circled the planet this would change for the surroundings.

Akin to a hurricane of mana, the edges of this mass of mana were drawn in a downward spiral together with the atmospheric mana that had been slowed by it. There their combined force would scrape across the ground, presenting a danger for nearly all living beings.

At the same time, the canyons presented their own dangers in addition to other beasts, namely flooding. The stonewalls between the different canyons all were filled with smaller and larger holes that sometimes even connected multiple ravines. But in addition to those harmless ones, there were also a handful that led to the lakes atop of the smaller mountains around those housing the dragon caves.

Normally these would only produce small streams in the canyons, with some smaller ones even having a constant flow of water across their entire ground. The rest of the water would slowly fill up in these large lakes, creating a habitat for aquatic beasts and animals.

But when there is one thing that is certain for this area then it's that nothing there remains normal for long.

Just like how the weather would regularly swing to extremes and how the environment and landscape of entire parts of this maze could change within days, these small rivers also held a hidden danger.

Whenever a lake would start reaching its limit, the stone walls holding its content back from flooding entire sections of the canyons would break. In an instant these would become flooded, its inhabitants having to hope to reach a high enough cave in its walls to prevent them from either drowning or getting ripped apart by the countless aquatic beasts swimming in this tide.

And while the flow of water itself would quickly stop as the stronger beasts in the lake or a dragon that enjoys its scenery filling the holes, sooner or later the water would find a new way. And in the meantime, the beasts in the canyons that were affected would have to hope that the water would go away quickly.

All of this was without even considering the greatest danger in the area, dragons. Making oneself a target for the beasts was already bad enough but doing so for dragons was infinitely worse.

The combination of these factors shaped the culture of the local beasts, making it vastly different from that of those living on the rest of the continent. Thus when their group passed through one of the valleys they drew quite a lot of attention.

Initially, it also remained at just that, with no beast daring to go near a group that seemingly didn't care that they were in such a dangerous place. But slowly the average rank of the beasts rose and with it did the aggressiveness displayed towards them.

With time it became increasingly clear that soon one of the beasts would lose its patience. And just as Darganth and Yldra were thinking about unleashing their presence as dragons, one of the mythical rank beasts walked forward.

Watching with critical eyes as a roughly eight-meter-long snake slithered towards them, they didn't yet attack it. Instead, they allowed the beast to come to within ten meters of them where it lifted its head to tower above their group.

Already seeing the twitching of Neandra's eyes at the audacity to act like this before her, Dargath stepped forward with calm steps.

“Thisss is not your placcce to be, outsidersss.” The snake hissed.

As if to confirm its words, a few dozen other beasts ranging from the fourth rank to mythical rank ones started surrounding them. But upon closer inspection it became clear that all eight were in their encirclement, the snake having made itself just as much of a target as they had done.

“How would you know whether that is the case?” Darganth asked back, completely ignoring these beasts.

“You are carelesss, here that isss inviting death.” The beast said threateningly, rearing up further.

This caused the spiked spines that formed a mane-like mass just behind its head to start fanning out, creating an imposing sight intended to intimidate its opponents. But instead of receiving the expected reaction from Darganth, the snake found itself in Neandra's claws.

Having had enough of it acting without respect for any of them, she had returned to her base form before turning the tables on the beast.

Grabbing right below its head and simply crushing its spikes with her claw, she slammed it to the ground before driving her tail into the ground next to its head. Slowly moving her head closer to its in a manner that threatened to bite its head off, she bit down next to it with deliberate suddenness.

Getting back up and towering above the quivering beast she looked down with a sneering grin.

“Learn to choose your word carefully.” She growled as she bore her claws into the snake's side.

Waiting for it to nod weakly, she let go of the beast and returned to her human form. Turning around and sending a challenging look at the circle of beasts, she smiled in satisfaction as they all backed away a few steps.

Waiting for her to finish, Darganth turned his attention back to the snake before him. Looking down to meet its gaze, he spoke with a calm tone that struck fear into its heart.

“Let's make this easier for both of us and just follow answer me, alright?” He asked.

Interpreting its silence as it agreeing, he continued, “First, how many beasts layer further down this path?”

“A few hundred.” The beast replied shakily.

“So a strong one, huh?

Answering his words just with a weak nod, the snake was visibly averse to the topic. The few beasts that were still the closest to them had a similar reaction, some even shivering upon hearing his words.

This didn't escape his attention but only served to increase his interest in the matter.

“Tell me about it.” He demanded from the beast before him.

At his words, the snake's body shook visibly. Looking to the sides as if searching for an escape route, the beast was stopped by Neandra's presence before it could even attempt to flee from them. Thinking quickly and changing its approach, it turned to Darganth with its head shaking in refusal.

“You can forfeit your lives but don't draw me into it.”

“Oh, really?” Darganth asked, getting down to eye height with the beast.

“Tell me, who do you fear more? Me or whichever beast lives there?”

Asking this question with a threatening smile, Darganth stopped reigning in his draconic mana. Together with his eyes turning to their true appearance and his neck and arms getting covered in his scales, the illusionary form of his true body appeared behind him.

Before the beasts even fully recoiled from the shock that this gave them, Yldra did the same. Compared to his true body's image that still fit into the canyon, hers warped the space around it to fully display her size even in the barely a hundred meters between the two stone walls.

“d-d-dragon!” The snake stuttered with a fearful tone.

Turning tail and attempting to get away from Darganth and Yldra, the beast found its body held in place by the surrounding space that constricted around it.

Looking down at the beast thrashing in panic as it was held in place by her magic, Yldra ignored the other beasts. For them too this had been the final straw but contrary to the snake-type one before them, they could still escape.

“I will ask one. last. time.” Darganth said with deliberate slowness.

This time the snake didn't even think about not answering his question but just as the beast opened its mouth a loud bird shriek echoed throughout the ravine. Instantly the beast's head snapped to the source only to find a dark blue bird landing right before its head.

With two pairs of wings, of which the top one was a bit smaller, and feathers that rhythmically flowed around on its skin, it quickly identified the beast as the source of its previous apprehension.

“I- I didn-” The snake started but was cut off when one of the bird's wings moved.

Swinging its wing like a sword towards the snake's neck, the beast's feathers that moved around wildly as if they were floating on water instantly hardened together. Forming a stable edge, their color momentarily changed to a bluish-white as the wing easily seared through the snake's body before quickly returning to its previous state and color.

Momentarily shaking its wing to get rid of the blood, the bird completely ignored the dead beast before it and looked toward Neandra. Transforming into a human form a moment later, his form shifted to that of a blonde, well-trained man with only the four wings on his back indicating his true nature.

“The beast empress, what an honor.” He said with a scornful tone.

“A weakling that thinks he is better than the rest of his kind.” Neandra replied in kind.

Clicking his tongue in annoyance at her reply, the man nonetheless didn't answer back. Instead, he turned to Darganth as if she wasn't there.

“You two and the draconian can continue, the rest will have to stay here or return.” He said to him and Yldra.

Hearing the absolute assurance with which he spoke, both Darganth's, as well as Yldra's expressions, became one of anger. But despite noticing that he stepped on the pride of two dragons, the man didn't back down.

“I agree with Neandra, seems like you've forgotten your place.”

Along with those words, Yldra used her mana to tear holes into the fabric of space right where he stood. But instead of being swallowed by it, the beast just unleashed its own mana which caused the tear to mend in a fraction of a second.

Without waiting even a moment he dashed towards Yldra, his arms becoming a bird claws and his four wings piercing towards her from different angles. All the while he grinned condescending, interpreting her lack of reaction as inability.

But just as his attacks were about to reach Yldra's skin, her form became slightly transparent as she shifted herself into a different but adjacent layer of space. Watching with a grin of her own as his expression fell, Yldra simply let him phase through her.

As soon as he fully passed by her she returned to real space with an invisible sword in hand. This weapon made from small parts of the space around her was barely visible, only its outlines showing to the naked eye.

Swinging this sword towards his back without hesitation, she easily tore off one of his wings and left a gaping wound across his back.

Crying out in pain from this strike, he barely caught himself from stumbling to the ground. And as soon as he did so he turned around with a hateful glare towards Yldra.

“You will regret this.” He threatened.

Seeing her disregarding his words with an amused chuckle, he looked towards the sky and let loose his bird cry once more. Barely a second later a roar came echoing back, closely followed by a massive mana presence that quickly drew closer.