𝒪𝐯𝐋xt.𝗇t
POV Vesuvius:
The dark clouds erupted everywhere, obscuring the whole sky above the town and burning wastelands.
The dragon flapped his wings, flying high above the clouds, using them as his cover while he saw through them as his own glands made them.
He flew above the town, his eyes scanning the deserted streets and houses with smoking chimneys.
He stopped at the flags, breathing in relief after recognising them as the flags of the old baron, meaning that his minion was still in power.
‘Or at least someone from her family. Which would still make it easier to get to them.’
He flapped his wings once more until he reached the castle in the centre of the town.
He immediately spotted his minion and a group of people in the courtyard. All of them were richly dressed in black with golden and silver chains hanging from their necks.
Dozens of soldiers in heavy armour, with their shiny, polished plates, stood around them. All of them were wearing blue and black colours.
His eyes glinted, his aura unconsciously expanding in greed at the sight of the treasures.
In an instant, the whole town froze, the few people on the deserted streets, guards on walls and the people in the castle courtyard turning their gaze towards the sky.
He noticed it and quickly retracted his aura, but it was already too late with his presence announced to everyone.
POV ???:
Everyone looked with amazement at the growing sphere of fire in the palm of the young woman.
Its orange light illuminated the castle courtyard, pushing the winter away under its searing heat.
It was still growing, with magic sweeping through everyone’s bodies. It was like looking at the legendary mages in their youth with their disproportional mana reserves.
Finally, one of them couldn’t hold it and burst, “She must be cheating by using some external source of mana.”
“No, I can feel it. It is her own mana. This is simply amazing.”
“This is great. Our kingdom has a chance to obtain another archmage!”
The girl was still smiling as if in a trance, her eyes only looking at her own spell.
Finally, the voices got her out of it and with a single move, she dispelled the fireball, leaving only the lingering hot air behind.
Suddenly unexplainable fear entered everyone’s hearts. Everything turned dark, with unnaturally dark clouds obscuring the whole sky. The torches on the castle walls withered away, their flames extinguished by the draft.
The guards unsheathed their swords, everyone turning their gaze towards the sky, their instinct screaming at them that something dangerous was there.
“Something moved there! I saw it!”
“Protect the judge!”
One of the battlemages in the plate-battered robes couldn’t hold it anymore, sweat pouring down his forehead as if he just came from a storm.
His staff with a blade on it glowed, and a blue flare shot up into the dark clouds, its bright blue light illuminating the whole sky.
Everyone watched as it rose up with bathed breath. Finally, the flare exploded the blinding flash of light, revealing a huge winged shape in the clouds. It was so huge that everyone felt like staring at death itself.
“It must be that wyrm from the stories that are spreading!” the royal soldiers become even more alert, their hands holding weapons and their knees trembling, creating an orchestra of clanging.
At the same time, the castle guard relaxed, lowering their weapons with visible relief.
“What are you doing? It must be that wyrm from reports. Grab your weapons!” one of the old geezers couldn’t help but bark at them, his old face pale with sheer terror.
“No! That is not necessary! It’s just the elder wyrm from nearby mountains, they always lived here, and there were no problems!”
“No, it is a monster, so don’t lower your guard.”
POV Vesuvius:
The dragon almost wanted to laugh at such pathetic mortals, but he held it back and instead started to analyse the situation, already imagining many possible scenarios.
He frowned, realising that most of them ended with a conflict.
But there was still one that worked for him, one that would not only bring no loss but would also bring him a profit.
‘I have my blood. I can likely brainwash them. They look more than important.’
It worked nicely with his current plan of slowly transforming important figures to covertly take over the whole kingdom. But it still wasn’t ideal.
‘They are all members of the royal court. It is too early to move so close to the centre of power. If they get exposed as my servants, it will send my plan toppling down like a domino. It is better to start with provincial governments with a much smaller chance of them getting exposed.’
There was also a second possible solution, ‘They will eventually leave, and an accident can happen to them. Roads are dangerous, especially in this backwards province.’ But that had its own set of problems.
‘Killing royal officials will not avoid a proper and thorough investigation.’
Finally, there was his last option of just letting it be and dealing with consequences, ‘They will likely dispatch some hunters after me or maybe organise some small army. My existence is already exposed, so this will probably change nothing.’
His golden eyes penetrated through the clouds, observing the shivering soldiers and pale officials, ‘Or maybe they will not send anyone after me. They should know my power after my past demonstrations, knowing it is not worth provoking me.’
The dragon knew it was unlikely, knowing that mortal’s arrogance was rivalling even that of dragons.
‘They were likely already preparing some response. Me scaring these officials likely only speeded it up. Yes, it is best to just deal with the force that they will dispatch than risk escalating this into a much bigger conflict prematurely.’
The dragon just glanced at the pathetically weak and shivering soldiers and nonchalantly turned back towards his tower, no longer worried.
Instead, he felt proud that his minion managed the situation by herself.
‘They are all growing, becoming more and more capable and useful. It will be better if I move my important manufacturing minions away. Anything can go wrong in conflict.’
Then he grinned, ‘Why can’t I just these pesky mortals? I can easily take a nap in my volcano and wait for the situation to calm down. To send expedition so deep into mountains would likely not be worth it.’
There was only one problem with it, ‘It will make me look like a coward, running away from a battle. I will turn into an object of ridicule. The only dragon or wyrm that had chosen to run away.’