“An elf?” Hank frowned and strode over, a barrage of questions spilling from his mouth. “How did she fall from above? Was she fighting someone? Down here beneath Elfin?”
The girl who had fallen from the sky was so beautiful she seemed unreal, her long silver hair scattered around her. Her eyes were closed, but her chest rose and fell faintly, proof that she was still alive. She wore a strange off-shoulder gown. Nolan felt something warm and sticky on the palm of the hand supporting her shoulder. He looked down.
In his palm was a glaring patch of gold—pure, like molten metal.
Nolan’s pupils contracted violently. Golden blood? That could mean only one thing.
He swallowed, his throat dry, then looked up at Hank, who had already come close. “Hank, calm down and listen to me. She’s… not an elf at all.”
“What, then? A very tall dwarf?” Hank shot back with a hint of sarcasm.
Ignoring him, Nolan spoke each word with deliberate clarity, delivering a conclusion that overturned all common sense. “She’s a dragon.”
“What did you say?!” Hank’s voice shot up, nearly cracking. “A dragon? You’ve got to be kidding! Creatures from those old legends haven’t appeared on the continent for hundreds of years!”
Even with some warning beforehand, the battle-hardened veteran was still completely shaken by the word.
Nolan spread his palm, smeared with golden blood, and held it out in front of him. “There’s no mistake. No matter what she looks like now, in this world there is only one kind of creature with golden blood. The dragons—the most beloved children of the Mother Goddess Sethis.”
Hank stared fixedly at the golden liquid on Nolan’s hand. That color was indeed unlike anything any known race possessed.
A dragon unseen for centuries had appeared beneath the Elfin Kingdom, gravely wounded and fallen from the sky. The implications sent a cold sweat down Hank’s back.
Before Nolan could dig through his memories and search the original storyline for some long-forgotten tale about dragons, another disturbance from a different direction cut off his thoughts.
Clatter. From the massive hole blasted open above them, fragments of rock kept falling from the edges. Then came the sound of something rapidly sliding along the rock wall.
Hank reacted almost instantly, turning to shield Nolan and the unconscious girl behind him. “Kid, something’s coming!”
No sooner had he spoken than two shadows leapt down one after the other from the magma-dripping opening.
Thud! Thud! With two heavy impacts, they landed firmly on the ground, kicking up rings of dust.
They quickly swept their gazes across the surroundings. When they saw the enormous corpse of the earth drake and Nolan and Hank standing with swords drawn, a flicker of surprise crossed their faces.
In this godforsaken place, who knew how deep underground, there were actually people?
Hank wasted no words and immediately assumed the standard combat stance of Elfin military swordsmanship. Asking who the other party was was something only rookies would do. To a warrior, enemies do not announce themselves, and those without hostile intent would naturally identify themselves first. Pre-battle pleasantries were a redundant ritual reserved for pampered nobles.
Nolan carefully set the unconscious “girl” against the wall, then rose to his feet and drew the blade he had just obtained, Mountain’s Resonance. The heavy sword weighed in his hand, and the solid heft gave Nolan, whose body felt faint from blood loss, a small measure of reassurance.
As expected, the other side showed no intention of introducing themselves.
At the front stood a middle-aged man of average build, dressed in refined noble attire, his long hair falling over his shoulders. Behind him followed a bald, bare-chested brute with knotted muscles, a full head taller than the man, like a walking mass of flesh.
The middle-aged man first glanced at the half-charred corpse of the earth drake, then let his gaze fall upon Nolan and Hank. A standard, polite noble’s smile curled at the corner of his lips. “Oh? Adventurers? Or mercenaries? To be able to slay an earth drake, your strength is quite commendable. However…”
As he spoke, he slowly raised his right hand and extended it forward. On his middle finger sat a dull, unremarkable black ring.
In the next instant, the ring burst forth with a strange green light.
Not good. Alarm bells rang wildly in Nolan’s mind. He recognized this!
“Move! Get away from there!” he shouted, but it was already too late.
Six brilliant green pillars of light erupted without warning from beneath Nolan and Hank’s feet. They shot upward, converging above their heads and forming an airtight cage of magical energy.
Hank roared, the muscles in his legs bulging as he tried to resist the bizarre pulling force with brute strength, but his body still began to twist uncontrollably.
Spatial magic. This was beyond anything physical strength could counter. Before they could react further, the green light flared violently once more. Nolan and Hank, along with the glowing cage, vanished from where they stood.
The middle-aged man lowered his hand, a relaxed smile of complete control on his face. Tilting his head slightly, he spoke to the bald brute behind him as if musing to himself, “What a day of surprises. First, we discovered an underage dragon. I thought it would be an easy capture, yet she managed to escape. Chasing her here, we run into two rustic mercenaries capable of slaying an earth drake. That young man even seemed to recognize ‘Dimensional Banishment.’ Quite impressive for someone so young.”
He shook his head, a trace of amusement in his tone.
When the brute gave no response, he rolled his eyes in boredom and took out four black rings from his pocket. “Forget it. You wouldn’t understand anyway. Take that dragon with you. Use the sealing rings to bind her limbs. This is a top priority. If her kind discovers we were behind this, none of us will escape the consequences. We can’t afford to linger and invite unnecessary trouble.”
The bald brute stepped forward in silence, striding straight toward the silver-haired girl slumped in the corner.
Just as the middle-aged man believed everything was settled and turned to leave, the empty ground before him suddenly distorted. The six-pillar cage of light that had just disappeared reappeared, flickering into existence within a swirl of warped green radiance.
The man turned back in astonishment.
What was going on?
Dimensional Banishment was spatial magic. Once successful, the target would be exiled into the chaotic interdimensional void for a time. There was no way they could return on their own so quickly. Unless…
An absurd thought flashed through his mind.
Boom!
As if to confirm it, the reformed green cage split apart from within under his disbelieving gaze. Countless cracks spread across its surface before it exploded, shattering into a spray of green light.
At the center of those fading motes, Nolan’s figure reappeared. He held the ancient, heavy black greatsword in one hand, its tip angled toward the ground, while his other hand wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. His face was pale, yet his green eyes, reflecting the firelight, were exceptionally sharp.
The smile on the middle-aged man’s face stiffened.
Just who exactly was this guy?
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