A figure in a black hood and a figure in a donkey suit were arguing.
“You said that Agnis must be involved with those [Meteors]! Why aren’t we going over to help him?!”
“Yes, but look! You are a dragon so you will be fine! I’m a human. If he felt the need to cast not 1 but 11 [Meteors], then there is nothing we can do to help. Also, I just said it’s highly likely that he is involved. It’s safe to say that anything that can be seen across countries is something he might be involved with. Who knows maybe he is staying out of trouble…”
“You don’t believe that! We can take revenge later! Maybe he needs us!”
“Nothing has happened since those [Meteors] dropped yesterday. Whatever he was fighting is probably already dead…”
At that moment the distant sky lit up. Everyone in Ainahs, the new capital city of Igrini kingdom, climbed on the roof or got a good spot to observe how 17 [Meteors] fell out of the sky in the distance. It took a while but slight shockwaves could be felt minutes later.
Io pointed. “How is his enemy not dead?! It might still be alive! Let’s go!”
The guy in the donkey suit stopped Io as she was trying to run off. “I know how you feel, I would like to help if I could but it will take at least a day to get there if you fly. Let’s focus on our objective first. What would happen if Arby learns that Agnis might be weakened and tired from that battle?”
Io seemed to realize what Kyle was trying to get at.
“Ok, I’m sorry… I just don’t want to lose more people from the Silent Night, only Sylvana and Agnis are left…”
“Don’t worry. Let’s kill this asshole and we can help Agnis after that.”
Io nodded.
Kyle and Io had been tracking down Arby since their draw in Tyung. Io had gotten severely wounded which made Kyle decide to retreat. They had inflicted great damage though. Io was tracking Arby by scent. They had acquired some scraps of his clothing to which Io could follow the smell of like a hound.
Io wasn’t tracking the actual smell of Arby, which any decent Silent Night would hide. She was tracking the smell of his mana. Dragons are responsible for eating excess mana that falls within their affinity. They locate areas where mana is overabundant with their noses. They’re not only limited to magic of their own affinity. This ability is exclusive to dragons and races closely related to dragons.
“How close is he?”
Io sniffed. “There is a meat place over there! Let’s go eat there before we barge into the AA!”
Kyle put on the hood of his donkey suit. “You and your meat, but we need you to be at full strength. Let’s go.”
They walked over to the restaurant diagonally across the AA. It seemed that the restaurant had recently moved here.
“Wait! I recognize this place! It’s the same restaurant chain I visited in Saluk with Agnis! So that Walleed guy has expanded to places that don’t have sand!”
They walked into the restaurant and got stopped by a waiter. “Do you have any reservations?”
“I don’t need reservations! I’m a dragon!”
Kyle stopped Io, who tried to walk in. “I apologize, I forgot about this, let’s go to another place,”
“But Kyle! The meat here smells so gooood! How about we take one bite before we leave!”
“No Io, I will buy you an extra portion, let’s go somewhere else.”
The waiter looked at the duo and looked at a card on his counter. “Excuse me are you Toxic Donkey?”
Kyle frowned at the waiter.
“Hahahaha is this guy blind? Doesn’t he see that you’re wearing a donkey suit? I will never understand humans hahahaha!”
“I guess, you are… The owner of this chain has a VIP list you see.” The waiter showed portraits of the Silver Torrent, Toxic Donkey, Eternal Desertflower, a badly drawn drawing of a red dragon and 2 more portraits Kyle didn’t recognize.
“Apologies for my incompetence. I will lead you towards our VIP section.
Io pulled on Kyle's sleeve and pointed at the portrait. “Oh, Kyle you’re famous!”
“Not sure I like the reason why I’m famous…”
Kyle removed his donkey hood and followed the waiter. The smell of different types of meat and spices tickled their noses and amplified their appetite. The restaurant was dimly lit and created a cozy atmosphere. The restaurant was busy. Many people from different walks of life were enjoying meat-based dishes.
“I smell something strange!”
“Io, calm down, this section is high class. This place should also have various types of baths. You might be smelling the scented ones. Now what do you want?”
“Everything!”
“And my wallet cries yet again…”
A mountain of food arrived and the two were eating to their hearts content. Kyle had to explain that the ‘Dragon Steak’ wasn’t made out of dragon meat but that it was big enough to even satiate a dragon. Io wholeheartedly disagreed.
----------------------------------------
Io and Kyle walked into the AA after having a complete meal. They had also taken the time to relax and digest in the bath.
They found Arby bragging about his accomplishments to 3 young Silent Nights. He instantly looked up after the two battle-ready adventurers walked into the AA.
“Impossible! I was sure to shake you off.” Arby looked extremely pissed off. His pride was hurt and the scar over his right eye started to hurt.
“Hah! Why don’t you wear an eyepatch! I’m sure you wouldn’t have missed the opportunity to become even edgier than you already are!”
Arby tried to resist the cheap provocation of Toxic Donkey but since his last battle against these 2, being called ‘Edgy’ got added to the many things that would piss him off. He took out a vial with a dark green liquid and took a shot as if it was an alcoholic beverage.
“You can’t run edgeboy! This is payback for having me to sit still for almost half a year!”
“Ha! To think you survived that poison, dragons surely are durable. I should have known better but don’t worry, I have concocted one that makes all your pain and worries disappear. You can rest easy and eternally!” Arby threw 3 daggers covered in a blue liquid at Io.
Toxic Donkey caught these with his donkey hooves. “Damn, can you tone down those edgy comments?”
“Right, this donkey and his overpowered suit and annoyingly high poison resistance. I should be the only one!” Arby used [Dark Nova] and all the adventurers inside the AA ran away.
A large imposing black silhouette appeared behind Arby.
“Io, be careful this time!”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Io nodded. “I won’t get caught by surprise this time!”
Io started to glow red and she started to slowly get covered in scales. She dashed at Arby who jumped behind an empty counter and threw poisonous daggers at her which got deflected off her dragon scales.
“Ha! You forgot that I’m a dragon!”
“It’s hard to forget you’re a dragon if you keep reminding me every time I attack! Wait? Where is that donkey?” Arby had put too much focus on Io and had lost Toxic Donkey.
To his chagrin, Toxic donkey was superior in using stealth and poison. All Arby had as a superior was experience. Arby decided to use [Dark Pulse]. Nothing got knocked out of stealth. This normally works against stealth users but his 2 latest adversaries seemed to have no issues with this.
Both the Silver Torrent and Toxic Donkey were those he had failed to assassinate and both have humiliated him. He had to divide his attention between finding the Toxic Donkey and fending off Io. This annoyed him.
“Enough! Have a taste of [Soul Drain]!”
A shadow spread across the floor and started to damage everyone, including the adventurers who were taking cover and watching the battle. Another pulse of his earlier activated [Dark Pulse] went out but it didn’t hit anything. Did this guy flee and leave his woman behind?
Arby used [Shadow Cloak] to minimize the damage of these fire [Dragon breaths] that Io kept using. Arby realized too late that these [Dragon breaths] had some sort of pattern.
“Shit, another of those tricks!”
A magic circle charged with a lot of fire mana, lit up under his feet. The circle was too big to dodge and Arby got hit by the brunt of a drawn magic circle cast [Fire Nova].
“Heh, this should have made most of your poisons useless.” Io said as a fire plume shot out of her nostrils.
Arby inspected all the poisons he had on him but the high temperature had either completely destroyed most of his poison or had made them ineffective.
Arby threw away anything that he didn’t need. He had always done this. Objects, humans and skills it doesn’t matter, once they had lost their usefulness, he would cast them away. That [Fire Nova] had hurt Arby but his [Shadow Cloak] had prevented substantial damage.
A flash appeared. It was at Arby's blind spot on his right side. Toxic Donkey had somehow avoided the [Dark Pulses] that had been going out every 2 seconds and sneaked up on him. He blocked it by gripping the blade of the dagger.
Blood dripped from his hand. The blood turned black.
Arby pulled his hand back and looked at it.
“Hehe, how do you like this dagger that can hold and instantly apply 3 types of poison. Your best friend Silver Torrent had made it for me!”
“Heh stupid Donkey! I’m immune to poisons! Just like you!”
“Are you sure about that? I had created this poison on the basis of a sample of your blood that I had collected in my last battle, I was so kind to create 3 variations to make sure one of them would affect you.”
“So what? You can concoct poisons. I will gain immunity to these. I will just kill you and avoid getting poisoned even more. This changes nothing! I can still kill you! Hahahaha!” Arby took a dramatic pose and laughed in an exaggerated manner.
“Cool, we will see whether my poison works or not.” Toxic Donkey slowly circled around Arby.
Arby sent a [Shadow Grasp] at him. Toxic Donkey took something out of his pouch and threw it at the [Shadow Grasp].
“What? A fish?! Are you mocking me! How much did that asshole tell you about me?!”
Toxic Donkey smiled. “You might start feeling cold any moment now.”
Arby looked at his hand, it was turning blue and his hand was shivering.
“You!” Arby decided to ignore his role as Silent Night and decided to kill the dragon and the Toxic Donkey as swiftly as possible.
He was about to use another [Dark Nova] when the air blurred and he took a punch to the face out of nowhere.
“That is for stabbing me back at the Silent Night!” Io said as she appeared from thin air.
“Ugh, Io, can you move around more quietly? It’s hard to make you undetectable and invisible with wind magic…”
“I can’t! I’m a dragon!”
“One of the few times that excuse makes sense…” Toxic Donkey sighed.
Arby had made sure that he took no damage from flying into a counter but the punch to his face hurt his body and his pride, possibly even his ego. He didn’t take his eye off his opponents. How did this dragon sneak up on him?
He used [Dark Nova] and the shadowy silhouette behind him grew an arm with a scythe. His [Silent Reaper] swung his scythe and kept the dragon woman and the Toxic Donkey busy while he got up. He used 3 shadow clones and sent them out.
Io instantly torched 1 while Toxic Donkey went into stealth and swiftly killed off the other 2.
“Ugh! Useless!” He took a shot of a deep green poison vial.
Claws grew out of his fingers which were seeped in a liquid matching the color of the poison he had just downed. He rushed at Io and went for an [Arsenic Claw]. Io blocked it and her dragon scales sizzled after the attack got blocked.
“Evade those Io! Do you want to be immobilized for another 6 months?!”
“Eww, is it that same poison?! How about this then!” Io blew fire at her sizzling scales evaporating the poison.
She went for a punch which Arby was about to block with his claws when she feinted, made her dragon tail appear and slammed it into Arby’s side sending him flying het again.
A sizzling sound was heard and Io blew fire at the poison that had ended up on her tail.
“What is going on here! No fighting in the…”
Toxic Donkey tripped the newcomer to ensure that the 3 daggers flying around didn’t hit him. “Take your fight outside!”
“How about you die for interrupting my fight!” Arby was about to swipe at the newcomer when Toxic Donkey blocked the claws with 2 of his daggers crossed. He was slowly getting pushed back. Despite Arby’s hand bleeding, he was still exerting a lot of force.
“You can’t win this! I am the Silent Night! Nobody can compare to me! I have held this role even while imprisoned! That must say something! You are just pretending to be a Silent Night, but I’m THE Silent Night!”
Toxic Donkey got pushed back and sent flying into a wall. His body got hit by 6 poisoned daggers but his donkey suit was created in Jarn. Quality is the one thing that gets taken seriously there.
None of these daggers had penetrated the donkey suit.
Kyle originally disliked the donkey suit but it didn’t take long for him to realize how versatile and useful this donkey onesie was. It has amazing durability, it had countless pockets, granted resistance to heat and cold, is waterproof, is easy to move in and even slightly boosts endurance. It was truly a marvel under the onesies. It even grew with him so that he never had to be afraid to replace it. The only blemish on his donkey suit was it’s left ear that had corroded away from a poison Arby had used against him.
Arby knew this. After discovering that the donkey suit had blocked everything, he took a bright yellow vial and took a shot. The green claws retracted and yellow green blades grew out of his forearms. He also used another [Dark Nova] and the second arm of his [Silent Reaper] appeared. The scythe of this [Silent Reaper] had also turned yellow-green.
“Io! We’re going outside!”
Io nodded and they ran outside.
“Yes! Run! Soon you will fall to my blade!
Arby stepped outside and saw the 2 running. He was about to chase when he felt a sharp pain in his side.
Whatever hit him didn’t drop out of stealth. Arby knew exactly who it was. Only Toxic Donkey had such impeccable stealth. Arby realized what this meant. He made his [Silent Reaper] cover him with its hand which blocked a fire [Dragon Rush].
“Petty tricks won’t work!”
“But it did work!” Io pointed at Arby’s side. It was bleeding and the blood turned black.
A smile appeared from under the donkey onesie. “Hey Arby, do you know what the words ‘Phase 2’ means?”
Toxic Donkey’s shadows split into 5 and separated from his body. Arby recognized this as a skill his pupil Esher was proficient in. This was the only skill that Arby was unable to use.
“You have my attention. You certainly know how to piss someone off.” Arby growled.
“That’s fine. Enjoy breathing while you still can. Io, go evacuate the citizens nearby. I’m going to use my ultimate skill [Toxic Donkey].“
Io nodded and ran off.