“I think you guys should start working separately.”

While that statement was abrupt, it was not quite surprising. Richard had seen it coming. Alexandria had already suggested once or twice to allow Panda and Krackle to explore on their own when he wasn’t hunting and just listening to her teach, so this was seemingly another step in that direction.

That didn’t mean he wasn’t curious about why she wanted him to work alone.

“May I ask why, sister Alexa?” He hadn’t quite called her mother, which Alexandria had started pushing for, but Richard did start calling her sister. He wasn’t quite ready to call her mother yet.

“You are simply too reliant on them for most of your combat. Tell me Richard; how many fights have you fought on your own since you started this life? And how many of them have been after you gained these familiars?”

“None really.” Richard had to admit.

“And that’s a problem. I’m assuming you remained a dragon instead of becoming something like a wyrm or a draken because of flight. I assume you didn’t choose to stay a dragon out of pure dragon pride.”

There was a bitterness to that last statement that Richard chose not to pursue. Reverse scales aren’t meant to be touched after all.

“Can all dragons choose their next evolution?” Richard was under an implication from the system and his time as a human that monsters can’t really choose their next evolution.

Sister Alexandria Snorted. “Most monsters can’t really choose and evolve into something unconsciously according to their life up to the point. Only dragons can consciously affect their own evolutions through thought.” “Of course, there is the flaw that we can’t control the whole evolution, and environment can still affect our evolution.” Admitted sister Alexandria.

‘Fascinating’ Thought Richard. IS that what makes dragons unique? Could they consciously evolve from being a dragon to a wyrm? Richard looks at sister Alexandria. ‘Did she used to be a dragon?’

Sister Alexandria moved on from the topic hurriedly, clearly more focused on the flying topic.

“If you don’t practice flying at all then you’ve wasted the main feature of a dragon, save its higher intelligence. Without flight, are nothing more than a hindrance. If you don’t use them, you may as well not even have been a dragon.”

That was… extremely good logic and Richard couldn’t deny that. He liked flying but didn’t use it often. Perhaps it was because he was overly cautious, which had been reasonable up to this point, but now that he had a guardian keeping an eye out for him, he had no reason not to practice his wings.

He may not always have the opportunity to practice freely should Alexandria no longer protect him, and Richard would no longer have the leisure to practice freely, and he may as well take a land-based form from here on out.

And thus, a day later, Richards took to the sky again.

He found himself quite choppy at first, because he hadn’t flown in a while, so obviously he wasn’t smoothly flying immediately, though thankfully it wasn’t nearly as bad as it once was. In a day Richard was back to reasonable flying speeds.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

At first, he tried divebombing on a common horned rabbit, but soon found that it was absolutely impossible to do. He wasn’t able to land the hit, and ended up crashing into the floor when he tried divebombing. Richard still hit the rabbit of course, it’s just that he crashed into them instead of skillfully killing them. The first time a screeching laugh alerted Richards to Pandemonium laughing his ass off on the nearby tree. Despite seemingly hunting on its own, the little squirrel had found its way to him, and had found something worth seeing.

Richard flicked the tree with his tail, causing the laughing squirrel to lose its balance and fall to the ground. Good.

After the first three divebomb fails, Richard instead focused on aerial bombardment from the sky, launching lightning spears from the sky.

And that was satisfactory, with Richard being greeted with fried rabbit each time. Satisfaction.

…

It was the 10th day of hunting in the air, and Richards was slowly getting used to aerial combat. He was also finally able to divebomb without fumbling and crashing soon after.

The day was good, with a dead rabbit in his mouth as Richard headed back,

And Richard felt what happened next before he reacted to it.

One second Richards was flying in the air, and the next he was falling, and Richards subconsciously began flapping his wings in an attempt to reorient himself, with Richard’s mind catching up a second later, his head still spinning a little.

Richards began searching around, attempting to discern what had attacked him. He was sure he had been attacked.

Another blow came, but this time he was ready, and Richard managed to maneuver to the side fast enough, and while his flying wasn’t pretty, it was enough to dodge.

This second blow allowed Richard to lock onto the attacker in question, as he locked eyes with a large hawk, about half his size, with beautiful white and green plumage, in stark contrast to the look in its eyes.

Richard wasn’t sure how smart, or how sapient it was, but what he did know was that the beast was looking down on him.

Looking down on him!?

Richard wasn’t sure what it was, his pride as a human, or perhaps a seemingly dormant pride as a dragon, but whatever the case was, he felt he was being looked down on, and that infuriated him.

…

“Ouch!” Exclaims Panda as he sits with Alexandria, as they observe Richards from a distance. “That had to hurt.”

“Probably more annoying than painful. I must admit though, that raptor has some gall to attack a dragon first, especially on my territory.”

The squirrel shrugs, indifferent to the notion. “Some monsters are more ignorant to bloodlines than others. It’s also possible that dragon superiority isn’t as effective on monsters unrelated to dragons all together. It could also just be stupid.”

“Who cares?”

Alexandria nods, in obvious agreement to the screecher squirrels statement. “Indeed, it hardly matters the reason, it’ll serve as good practice for a newborn dragon. Though,” She adds thoughtfully, “You seem to be well versed in bloodlines to an extent. Is it perhaps part of your…”

“… bloodline inheritance, yes yes.” Answers the squirrel dismissively with a flip of his busy tail. Alexandria finds it more amusing than anything.

Panda continues. “My father, Ratatoskr may not be the strongest progenitor or god around, but he’s one of the most cunning and manipulative, and well-informed. He left plenty of knowledge for me to use, as well as leaving some gaps to make sure I find some on my own time.”

“Is that so? You know, you’re a little, different, from how you are around Richards right now.” The wyrm noted, finding it amusing how much more crass the squirrel was around his own master than a stranger, though now a friend.

Panda scratches his ear, almost seemingly a bit embarrassed. “Well,” he starts, “just between me and you, screecher squirrels are more polite to people they have no interest in talking to. We may use our coarse language to annoy our foes, but we also use it with people who we find good friends.” He paused for a minute, before hurriedly asking. “Don’t tell Richards I said that of course, this is just between me and you.”

“Very well. But,” she says as she covers her face with her tail, seemingly offended. “does that mean you don’t see me as a friend?”

Panda rolled his eyes at the fake indignation. “Whatever, we have a fight to supervise.”

“Indeed. How long do you think he’ll last?”

“As his good friend, I have a great deal of faith in him. 30 minutes.”

“Truly a good friend, I thought he’d last ten minutes.”

Perhaps if Krackle knew what Panda was up to, they’d give him a swift slap in their master’s place. Sadly, Krackle had been left out of the gathering.