“Whoa, ahhh! Isn't this a bit too high... uh, I mean, isn't this a bit too flashy? Slow down, slow down!”
The moment the bone dragon flapped its wings, Lu Mao felt as if his soul had been left on the ground while his body shot straight into the sky.
The wind rushed into his mouth, tearing his words into fragmented pieces.
He gripped the protrusions of the dragon's spine with both hands, lying completely flat on its back without daring to move a muscle.
“Are you afraid of heights?”
Novia sat cross-legged at the very front of the dragon's back, not even bothering to look back.
“I just have a very healthy appreciation for what happens to a piece of raw meat falling from a high altitude at high speeds!”
Lu Mao yelled with his eyes squeezed shut.
If it were a normal dragon with flesh and blood, it would have been fine. But this bone dragon beneath him had only a bare spine to sit on and a couple of ribs to desperately cling to. If his hands or feet slipped, he would literally crash... or rather, fall off the dragon.
Lumu sat slightly behind him, her comforting tone lacking even a shred of sincerity:
“It's always like this the first time. You'll get used to it. Don't you humans have some kind of levitation magic? You didn't learn it?”
Learn my foot, I don't even know how to absorb magicules...
Lu Mao grumbled inwardly, though her words did serve as a reminder.
He really should focus on learning magic next. Being a ranger was great for sniping from the shadows, but at any other time, he felt as useless as an incompetent husband.
If he could learn a few spells—even if nothing else, at least he could symbolically throw a magic blast when facing an enemy he couldn't beat.
Even if it was useless, it would still look a bit cooler than shooting arrows.
“Levitation is a Second-Circle wind magic. The barrier to entry isn't high, clack.”
Sorge's jawbone clattered. “Do you want to learn? If you do, this old man can teach you, clack.”
Lu Mao glanced at the eerie green flames dancing in Sorge's empty eye sockets:
“What school of magic do you specialize in, sir?”
“Necromancy and the undead, clack.”
“I appreciate the offer! But I think I'll find a normal mage to learn from.”
Sorge fell silent for a moment and turned to the other side.
The troll was sprawled over the dragon's spine, his face buried in his arms, letting out one suppressed groan after another.
Then, he threw up.
A few drops of vomit splashed onto the bone dragon's wing joints.
The bone dragon silently turned its head one hundred and eighty degrees, the green flames in its eye sockets flickering.
“Sorry,”
the troll rumbled in a muffled voice.
The bone dragon turned its head back and said nothing.
Sorge looked at Lu Mao again, the soulstone at the tip of his staff glowing faintly:
“Dragon sickness is not uncommon, clack. I happen to have a necromantic spell that relieves dizziness—”
“No, thank you.”
Lu Mao and the troll spoke at the same time.
...
Rhode City.
The sentry on Rhode City's north gate watchtower had just finished his seventh yawn of the day.
He wiped away the tears from his eyes, numbly scanning the eastern horizon. Suddenly, he jolted upright as if he had spotted something.
He shaded his eyes with his hand and squinted for a moment, his yawn freezing on his face.
High in the distant sky, the clouds suddenly churned violently. A white speck emerged, growing larger and larger until it formed a distinct white silhouette.
“Captain.”
“Can't you see I'm drinking tea? Don't disturb me.”
“Captain, there's something in the eastern sky flying toward us.”
Leaning against the battlement with his teacup, the guard captain blew on the hot steam and casually looked up.
With just one look, the teacup slipped from his fingers and shattered to pieces on the stone floor.
The thing was flying at an unnaturally high speed, and its silhouette was already clearly visible—
A complete dragon skeleton, with every single rib clearly defined. The membrane stretching between its wing bones shimmered with a cold, grayish-white light, and there was more than one person riding on its back.
“Ring the bell—!”
The captain's voice cracked. He slapped the back of the sentry's head. “Go ring the bell, quickly!”
The warning bell rang nine times. Before the tolling even faded, absolute chaos erupted all over the north gate.
Outside the gate, merchants who had been haggling with the guards abandoned their mule carts and squeezed into the gateway. A woman selling vegetables tripped over the threshold, spilling her entire basket of radishes across the ground.
On the watchtower, the signal flagger yanked the alarm flag so hard that the flagpole snapped right in half.
The broken half of the pole, along with the flag, tumbled off the tower and struck the head of a guard who was frantically trying to strap on his helmet.
With a sharp clang, the guard crouched down. His nearby companion, thinking the enemy had already breached the defenses, quickly drew his sword and spun around, completely bewildered as to where the threat was.
Someone on the street looked up and froze.
“What is that?”
No one answered.
Everyone dropped what they were doing and looked up at the sky.
A baking tray slipped from a bakery worker's hands, sending bread rolling all over the ground, yet no one bent down to pick them up.
A blacksmith's apprentice tugged at his master's apron. The old blacksmith glanced at the sky, set his hammer down on the anvil without a word, and quickly dragged his apprentice deeper into the workshop.
More and more people began to run.
Then, several powerful auras rose from various parts of the city almost simultaneously.
The window on the top floor of the Rhode City Adventurers' Guild's First Hall was pushed open with a bang. A sturdy figure leaped out, landing on the rooftop facing the street.
Kran closed his eyes and faced east, his hand resting on the hilt of his blade. He maintained this posture in silence for a few breaths, then released his grip and turned his head to his adjutant behind him:
“It's someone Novia brought back. Notify the other adventurers in the guild to stand down.”
Over at the City Lord's manor, a magic circle lit up in the courtyard. Two figures stepped out of the array and took their positions behind a middle-aged man.
The man leading them was the City Lord of Rhode City, Arthur Rhode, a lean man in his early forties.
Behind him stood the commander of the city guard and a court mage clad in a white robe. The guard commander hadn't even put on his helmet, and his longsword was already drawn three inches out of its scabbard, only to be pressed back down by the city lord's hand.
“If we can negotiate, don't make a move first.”
His voice was low and steady as he warned, “The size of that bone dragon is even larger than the white dragon, Novia, who was at the Adventurers' Guild yesterday.”
To the south of the city, on the bell tower of the Church of the Goddess of Life, Sena pushed open the stained-glass window.
The morning breeze rushed into the chapel, pressing her black blindfold tight against her face.
She turned her head toward the horizon. The bone dragon was approaching like a mass of cold, grayish-white flame, and the residual necromantic energy lingering between its skeletal frame made her fingertips feel slightly chilly.
But she recognized the blazing dark-gold light on the dragon's back.
“It is Lady Novia.”
She released her grip on the window frame and turned to the anxious young nuns behind her. “Go soothe the believers in the church. Everything is fine.”
The bone dragon drew closer, the vibration of the membrane between its wing bones already faintly audible.
Just as they were about to fly over the skies of Rhode City, a figure stood up from the dragon's back.
Her silver-white light armor reflected the cold light, and her long silver-gray hair streamed backward in the wind.
On the watchtower, the signal flagger, who was holding the broken flagpole in confusion, looked up and saw the figure. He grabbed the battlement and shouted at the top of his lungs, his voice cracking:
“It's Lady Novia from the Adventurers' Guild! Stand down! All clear!”
On the city wall, the captain bent down to pick up the shattered teacup piece by piece. His hands were still trembling, but he had already regained his composure:
“Look at how panicked you all got. Can't you be calm and collected like your captain?”
He straightened up, only to find the soldiers staring at him with very peculiar expressions.
The bone dragon circled once above the city and slowly descended toward the interior.
After the guards on the city wall blew three long, slow horn blasts, the crowd on the streets shifted from fleeing in panic to staring up in awe.
This was the signal that the alarm had been lifted.
Several of the fastest adventurers sheepishly poked their heads out of the alleys, brushing the dust off their clothes as they pretended they had just been watching the spectacle all along.
Lu Mao lay flat on the dragon's back, craning his neck to peek out. He saw the entire transition below from high alert to everyone staring up in awe, and silently buried his face back into his arms.
“I told you so. This is way too flashy...”
“This isn't flashy.”
Novia didn't even look back.
“This isn't?”
“The last time I flew back alone, all the alarm flags on the eastern wall were torn down. At least this time, half of the flagpole is still standing.”
“Is the dragon race's definition of 'flashy' just completely different from normal people...”
Rate on N.U.
