Reincarnated as a Dragon – The path of the Dragon God

“So… what’s the meaning of this?” Yula asked with her arms crossed beneath her bountiful bosom as she glared at the cowering and trembling girl in long pants and a sleeveless leotard-like shirt. Yula’s hardened sharp gaze did not linger on the girl for long. She turned her inquisitive gaze to her lover, Henry.

“What?” Henry murmured in response.

“What do you mean ‘what’? Why did you bring this girl here?”

“Why? Because she was in trouble. Should I have just left her there to die?” Henry retorted with a question of his own.

Yula narrowed her gaze. “I never took you for a good samaritan, Henry.”

“I’m not,” Henry admitted with a smile. “I saved her because she’s… Well, she caught my fancy.”

Yula gave him a dumbfounded and exasperated look.

Sarynn, who was watching the exchange from the sidelines, giggled amusingly.

Henry was currently in his human form in order to calm the nerves of the girl he had rescued. He had saved the girl from the monsters’ assault and he had brought her back to his abode. She was frightened so badly that she had wetted herself. She flinched when Henry first offered his hand, or rather, his claws. Not wanting to wait for her fear to subside, Henry simply grabbed her with his claws and brought her back to his abode.

The girl was not able to calm down even after Henry had released from his grasp after they had reached the clearing. Henry changed into his human form in order to calm her down. His transformation did the trick but not entirely. She was still casting a fearful glance at Henry in intervals. Though he wasn’t responsible for her predicament, her mind had somehow poured all the blame on him.

The girl was none other than the archer from the human adventurer party. She was abandoned by her companions the moment they were overwhelmed by a horde of monsters. She had resigned herself to her fate but it was at that moment that Henry came to her salvation. His presence alone sent a huge portion of the monster horde running with tails tucked between their legs. The ones that remained were either too afraid to move or were arrogant enough to think they were Henry’s opponents.

Unfortunately, none of them even came close to being his opponent. They were mere weeds in Henry’s eyes. At best, they were food.

“Anyway, it’s too late to turn the other way now. I have already stuck my hand into this mess. Or rather, the mess is already poured on us the moment they somehow appear in Ulrum.”

Yula sighed and drooped her arms down by her sides. “I suppose it would be too cruel to cast her out right after you just save her from her damnation. But what are we going to do with her?”

“Hmm…” Henry hummed while hanging his head sideways in contemplation. He looked at the archer girl who was sitting on her knees. Her shoulders were quivering and so were her legs. Then, a mild stench drifted to his nose. He winced slightly in disgust. “Oh, right, she wetted herself.”

Henry had said it out loud. It was only reasonable that everyone would hear it. The archer girl’s face immediately went deep red. Yula smiled but her cheeks were cramped. Sarynn was covering her mouth, trying to stifle her laugh. As for Rayne, who was doing her chores in the background, she did not bother to hold back her laughter.

It wasn’t Henry’s intention to humiliate the girl. The words just came out of his mouth unintentionally. Still, he didn’t feel any remorse. He just shrugged. “Well, for starters, we should get her cleaned up and maybe fill her belly.”

Just then, a loud grumble came from the archer girl’s stomach, right on cue.

The deep blush on the archer girl’s cheek deepened some more. Despite being in a state of fright, she still had the capacity for shame.

Even Yula was finally unable to hold back her laughter and let out a faint giggle. Sarynn’s stifled giggles had turned into a chuckle.

To spare the poor girl from further embarrassment, Yula volunteered herself to take care of the girl, for now. Taking the girl gently by her hand, Yula led her to the pond where they drew their water from. Henry had wanted to follow but Yula stopped him with a glare.

Henry smiled and relented to Yula’s wishes. He did not push for it since it was a scummy act in the first place. Furthermore, the poor girl was already mortified. For extra caution, Sarynn accompanied the two. Sarynn was only second to Henry in terms of strength and domination in Ulrum. Her true form was not as large as a Titan but she could easily kill one.

Henry had seen Sarynn’s ability firsthand when they were saving the archer girl from the monster horde. She unleashed a breath similar to his Jetstream Breath but it was high-pressure water instead of air and it cut better and had a longer range than his Jet Stream Breath.

“You intend to interrogate her about the humans, is that why you saved her?” Rayne asked as she came up to Henry. She had finished her tasks for the day and was now taking her break. She dropped to the ground right beside Henry and began doing push-ups. Even after becoming Henry’s slave, she did not neglect her keeping her body in shape.

Henry caught a brief glint in Rayne’s gaze. “That’s part of the reason. Why? Are you interested in knowing more about humans too?”

“Of course,” Rayne answered without any hesitation. “Knowledge is knowledge. Even if it's about a civilization far removed from my home.”

“Far removed? That’s a bit of an exaggeration, isn’t it?”

“Mistress Yula is the first human that I have met in the twenty years of my life. To me, humans might as well be mere myths. I would have actually thought so if I hadn’t met Mistress Yula.”

“I see…” Henry muttered. “Keep watch, will you? Tell Yula and Sarynn that I’ll be back later.”

Rayne raised an eyebrow while doing her push-ups. “Are you going somewhere?”

Henry did not respond to Rayne’s inquiry and disappeared into the trees with haste in his steps.

****

Another internal rift had opened up, which was why Henry rushed without explaining anything to Rayne.

“Nadea, just what the hell is happening?” Henry asked while dashing in the direction where he felt the energy of the rift was coming from.

“A side effect, as I have told you.”

“You did not specify that multiple rifts would appear!”

“You’re right, I didn’t. My oversight. I didn’t think it would be this bad. Multiple rifts appearing within a short period is a sign that the fabric of reality is in a state worse than I thought.”

“So, the internal rifts wouldn’t stop appearing randomly?”

“It will stop. If it doesn’t, then this world is ruined, but I would know if that’s the case.”

“When will these internal rifts stop appearing so briskly?”

“By my estimate, an hour.”

“So, for one hour, occasionally, multiple rifts would appear randomly all over the world?”

“Yes, that’s the gist of it.”

“Isn’t that dangerous?”

“The rifts would only appear where the Murux is dense. It would never appear in the middle of a town or city, though I won’t rule out any possibilities or exceptions. If it’s any further comfort, places that are dense in Murux usually aren’t frequented by humans as those places tend to be the homes of powerful creatures.”

“Huh… it’s no comfort but it is a consolation. Still, the crux of the problem remains. Species foreign to Ulrum will invade. God damn it. I’m gonna take my time beating up the one responsible, one of these days.”

Nadea giggled. “I like your vigour, Henry. I’ll be sure to let you know the moment I find out the bastard’s identity. Anyway, I’ll leave you to your own devices. I’m sure you are already familiar with the procedure, no?”

“You don’t need to worry about me. Just… go do what you have to.”

“Do your best, Henry.” Saying that, Nadea cut the “call” with Henry.

“Bye, then,” Henry muttered belatedly. He was running through the forest in his human form as he did not want to alert Yula and Sarynn. Moreover, his speed in his human form was quite fast in itself. Though not as fast as his top speed, still faster than most creatures in Ulrum.

Before he knew it, he had arrived at his destination, which was an open field north of Ulrum, right before the mountains where the Zevas lived. He heaved a sigh of relief when he did not see the rift immediately, indicating that the rift was not large. After looking around for a few seconds, he located the rift. It was atop a shallow mound around half a kilometre in front of him.

“Whoa… what the…” It had not been long since he sensed the rift’s appearance. Therefore, not much time had passed since the rift opened up. Yet, the creatures on the other side were already pouring out in droves. “Oh, sweet mother of christ. Are those fucking goblins?”

The creatures that came out of the rift portal could be nothing else but goblins. They were humanoid, around the size of children. Their skin was pale green. Their noses and ears were long and pointed. Their teeth were crooked. They had yellowish eyes with deformed pupils. They made clickety sounds when they seemed to converse. They were small but their numbers were slowly piling up into the hundreds.

Before Henry began culling the invasive goblins, he surveyed his surroundings, making sure no other creatures had come out of the rift before he arrived. Once he had ascertained the goblins were the only ones he needed to worry about, he began the slaughter.

Henry first transformed into his humanoid dragon form before charging straight at the goblin horde. The goblins instantly noticed Henry’s fast approach. They couldn’t not notice it considering Henry’s size and also the fact that he had roared to get their attention. The goblins did not attack immediately. They were not very intelligent but they had some semblance of it. They did not know the threat Henry posed, so they were thrown into a state of confusion.

Regardless, Henry was a threat. They knew that much. As for the extent of the threat, they did not know. Still, they had to respond or else it would just be a one-sided massacre, not that it would change anything even if they responded appropriately. With a swipe of his claws, Henry took out a huge portion of them with Aura Blades.

Amidst the guts pouring out of the torn goblins, Henry saw glitters. Those sparkling bits were none other than the goblins’ Murux Heart. However, they were small. They were the size of the goblins’ thumbs and Henry barely felt any Murux coming from them.

Henry was elated and disappointed at the same time. He was elated over the fact that he didn’t need to go around the aftermath of the battlefield to collect the Murux Heart. He was disappointed that there would not be much gain in this slaughter.

Eventually, all of the goblins began fighting back with their stone weapons. They threw rocks at Henry. They threw spears. They threw their stone swords. They swarmed and battered him with their stone axes. However, it was all in vain. Their attacks were akin to light thumpings to Henry. It wouldn’t even wake him up from a deep sleep.

Henry barely put any strength into his swings but it was more than enough to send the goblins flying off their feet, not before their bones were shattered with that single backhand. Realising their already determined defeat, the goblins started retreating to the rift where they came from. But they couldn’t. As if they were bumping into a solid war, they could not enter the rift.

Alright, fun’s over.

Henry had wanted to see what the goblins could do but now he had seen the level of intelligence, he was satisfied and saw no point in dragging this slaughter out any further. He proceeded to immolate the goblins with his Fire Breath.