Dragon God’s System

“Not good,” I muttered, stunned by what I was witnessing. Hoping to find out what their ultimate goal was, I ordered Alsvartr to find a hiding spot in front of the approaching army. It needed to be a spot that she could retreat from, but also be close enough to overhear whatever might be said. 

Soon, she found a likely spot and changed into her shadow form. She completely blended into the darkness as if she was invisible. While I wasn’t sure exactly what shadow form did, I knew it was much like invisibility, but with a touch of etherealness as well. 

Looking at the motley gear of the army, I realized it wasn’t a real army. Instead, it was more like a large group of mercenaries. More than likely, they had all been hired, although for what, I wasn’t sure. In all likelihood, it was probably either kobold extermination, slave traders, or looters.

Most of the comments the mercenaries made were about not getting paid enough to be trudging in the dark. However, one of the better dressed mercenaries mentioned being required to kill every kobold as he passed by my hiding familiar. Listening through Alsvartr’s ears, I overheard another soldier saying that there was supposed to be a lot of gold that was being stored for when the red dragon awakened.

The mercenaries had even hired a team of advanced adventurers to scout the way for the group. If any problems occurred, the adventurers would be sure to deal with them. That was why they didn’t have to worry about making noise. They were certain that the advance party of adventurers would slay everything in their way.

Hearing enough, I realized how lucky I had gotten. I not only knew why they were coming, I also learned about the previous group as well. I quickly flew to the bridge and yelled across to the young female guard that a large group of mercenaries were approaching down the tunnels. 

Hurrying back, I yelled to the guard as I flew across the chasm, “Mercenaries are coming. Mercenaries are coming to kill us!” My high-pitched squeaky voice echoed through the tunnels.

“I’m guard Geyma,” a large female kobold said, puffing up her chest in pride. Although she looked intimidating, she also seemed a little slow. Okay, maybe a lot slow. She didn’t even ask how I knew. It was as if she didn’t know what to do.

Another kobold materialized out of the darkness, almost giving me a heart attack. He gave Geyma a disgusted look. He didn’t allow Geyma to say anything more before he asked, “Where are the mercenaries?”

Wanting to make sure they believed me, I said, “I am Nóttormr. Tell Dróttinn that at least a hundred mercenaries are approaching. They are still far away, but I was able to see them through the eyes of my familiar.”

The male kobold snorted, “You can only share the sense of familiars for about a hundred feet. You must be lying or crazy. Considering your age, you must be a wyrmling who can’t handle the vísindimuna.”

“Ahh, you poor thing,” Geyma said, looking at me with sympathetic eyes. “It’s okay. We’ll get you help,” she said as she moved as if to pick me up. I was a little worried that if she tried to hug me, she might crush me. She was one of the biggest kobolds I had ever seen.

Annoyed, I telekinetically shoved her back before she could grab me, “Don’t question me. The adventurers I killed earlier must have been scouts for the mercenaries. Now go, alert everyone!”

Both of the kobolds blinked at me, but didn’t question me any longer. The male kobold, obviously a shadow rogue or something similar, immediately took out a whistle and began blowing on it loudly. Considering their abrupt change in attitude, I guessed they just then remembered that a newly hatched wyrmling had killed a party of adventurers.

Having done my duty to alert the kobold city, I decided to scout out the enemy. I started flying back across the chasm. Then I headed down the tunnels toward Alsvartr. I also sent her a mental message telling her to come back to me. Along the way, I looked for any good places to lay an ambush. 

While I was looking for a suitable spot, I also wondered why my familiar had traveled so far away from where I left her. After seeing a spot where the tunnel passed through a massive cavern on a narrow ledge, I made a mental note about its location. Last time, I had knocked the adventurers off a ledge to win the battle. If I hadn’t surprised them and used fall damage to kill them, I wouldn’t have stood a chance against even one of those adventurers. They had been at least fifth or sixth level. 

If I could do something similar, I might stand a chance at slowing down the approaching mercenaries. I needed to give my fellow kobolds time to prepare. However, I wasn’t ready to die so soon after hatching. Because of this, I had Alsvartr look for more spots while I ran back to get help. There was no way I was going to leave my fellow kobold brethren unaware of the advancing threat. 

Once I was there, I concentrated on Alsvartr again. While I hadn’t thought about it before, the connection I had to my familiar was different from the typical familiar relationship. I wondered if it had something to do with the fact that she was an actual creature instead of a summoned familiar that could die and be resummoned. Perhaps just like there were disadvantages to having a living familiar, there were also advantages.

Pausing a moment, I reconnected my sight to Alsvartr’s and observed through her eyes. Although I wasn’t sure, I somehow sensed that she had gotten much closer while I was warning the kobold city. The mercenaries were nowhere in sight, so she must have left them far behind. I almost didn’t notice that the pathway dipped down and narrowed, while at the same time was covered by a knee-high pool of water that stretched for hundreds of feet. 

“Hmm, I wonder,” I muttered, rubbing my chin. “From what I remember, ether is extremely flammable and quickly spreads across water. If I fill the tunnel with my breath, I can then ignite the breath and affect a lot of mercenaries. However, I don’t have a way to ignite the breath, much less do so safely.”

After considering my options, I decided to meditate upon a Fire Bolt cantrip. Hopefully, I could use it while saving my magic points to cast the Sleep spell if needed. With this in mind, I quickly sat down and started preparing the Shape Magic feature. 

Once that was done, I hurried to the location Alsvartr had found. Seeing her, I smiled, quite glad I had made her my familiar. She had turned out to be extremely useful. I definitely needed to think of an appropriate reward for her later.

Realizing I was getting distracted, I settled down and started breathing my ether breath into the tunnel. Since I didn’t want to risk knocking myself out, I stayed uphill. Unfortunately, my ether breath wasn’t endless. After breathing out a few times, I actually ran out of ether. 

Not willing to give up, I kept on trying. Luckily, after failing a few times, I was able to breath out more breath. Soon, I discovered that I could breathe the ether three to four times a minute. Since I had nothing to do besides breathing, I thought about this fact. 

Scientifically, breathing that much ether should be impossible. However, scientifically, dragons shouldn’t be able to fly either. Therefore, just like flying, dragon breath had to be a mixture of science and magic. For example, damaging a dragon’s wings would cause the dragon to fall out of the sky.

I was thinking about this matter so much that Alsvartr had to remind me when she noticed the mercenaries finally arriving. Looking up, I noticed their approaching torches as they started to descend into the tunnel. Hopefully, they wouldn’t recognize the smell. The ether had a sweet and mildly pungent smell. That was when I realized I had made a very serious mistake.