Chapter 31

I awoke the next morning feeling, more than anything, refreshed. Indeed, I felt so sprightly that I was practically skipping as I left the little cottage Merry and I lived in. Some of my students, including Balor, were already out of bed and performing their morning exercises so I decided to join them.

“Good morning, Master” They said, stopping for a moment to bow. Balor in particular was quick to offer his greeting.

“A fine morning it is.” I replied casually. I would have to gather a meeting today to announce the promotions. I grinned, imagining the raucous joy of my student as they cheered for their new leaders.

Soon the air was full of the smell of cooking meat, telling me Merry had woken up and the others were soon to follow. The scent drew everyone out of their dorms, where I proceeded to give them a hard time for not waking up early enough to exercise and they blearily apologized, promising to join us tomorrow, even though they had no intention of doing so.

I rather enjoyed the routine.

We wrapped up our exercise and sat down to a delicious looking breakfast of sausage, eggs and bread smeared with soft cheese. I smiled at Merry, thanking her for her hard work, and took a moment of silence before tucking in. Today was a beautiful day. The morning air was crisp and cool, yet one could feel a lingering warmth that was a telltale sign of spring’s fast approach. I had an exciting announcement to make, I had a delicious breakfast to eat and I had the warmth of my family all around me.

I knew this wouldn’t last forever, so I had to savor this happy atmosphere while it lasted. I didn’t think this often, but I had a feeling that today was going to be a good day.

CRASH

A massive crunching noise sounded from outside of our camp, like a tree being knocked over and immediately everyone became alert. My students quickly reached for their weapons that were right beside them, or sprinted off to their dorms to retrieve the ones they had left behind. Lyca appeared next to me, daggers ready and already using a skill to strengthen her body.

CRASH

The noise was getting closer, but we couldn’t see what was causing it behind the tree line.

Not far behind Lyca were Eri and Balor, the latter of whom immediately began issuing commands. There was confusion for a moment, as the children weren’t sure if they should obey his commands or wait for me.

But then I shouted “What are you waiting for! Do as your Lieutenant commands!”

I had wanted to save that for later, but I sensed this presence was far more powerful than what my students were accustomed to fighting and establishing a chain of command right now was crucial. Like Balor, the five Captains immediately took on their roles, delegating orders from Balor and mustering their respective units.

CRASH

Whatever was making that noise was just beyond the tree line now. The next time it took a step we would know what this creature was.

It took a few moments, but my students had finally scrambled themselves into a respectable formation. The spearmen were in the front, with pikes right behind them, followed by swords, bows and at the very back were our magic users who were already casting an array of physical augmentation magic on the pikes and spears. I stood at the back with Merry. The two of us would step in if it looked like somebody might die, but our usual policy was to see if the children were capable of fending for themselves first.

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I had little doubt they could succeed against this foe. It was strong, but it was facing an army- my army. We were ready.

CRASH!

Out of the trees stomped three giant, hulking figures. Two of them looked wildly out of place in the forest, as the great long fins on their backs and their web toes suggested that they belonged in a place with lots of water. The third was a great fat beast with a peculiar horn on the tip of it’s snout. Although the three of them were intimidating, the students looked at them fearlessly, weapons raised and awaiting the order to attack.

“Shall I give the order, Master?” Balor asked, turning his head to me “M-Master?” he said, now noticing my expression.

Although these creatures looked nothing like Merry and I, there was no doubt that these beasts were dragons. And what was worse was, they were dragons I knew personally. My happy expression from earlier was gone, replaced by something in between incredulousness and sheer annoyance.

“Master, is everything alright?” Lyca said, noticing my distress.

What were the odds that these three in particular would show up here? Not very likely, which meant they were looking for someone. And that someone was, probably…

“It’s…!” Merry almost shouted their names out, but stopped herself.

“Oy, you lot” the fat dragon said, speaking with telepathy to the ranks of warriors pointing their weapons at him “Mind not being so hostile? We’re not ‘er for a fight, we’re looking for our mate wot we sensed was ‘round here.”

Many of my students were surprised to hear a dragon speak to them, but they didn’t lower their guard. The seven that I took with me last night, on the other hand, immediately figured out who the dragon was looking for, and were silently asking me what we should do.

One of the girls at the front, a particularly fearless spearman, shouted “And who would that be? I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there are only humans here!”

“Aw, yeah, sorry ‘bout that. ‘Fing is, I definitely sensed his presence ‘round here. An-”

“Why are you apologizing to a huuuman?“ one of the two water dragons said obnoxiously

“Yeah, who cares what they think? Hey, you stupid apes! If you don’t lower your weapons we’re going to-”

“Shut it you twits! These ain’t normal humans and I don’t feel like wastin’ my morning fighting to the death!”

I was panicking now. I had to get these three away from my students before one of them said something stupid, but I couldn’t think of a way how.

“Listen you three, this place is-” I started,

But one of the water dragons cut me off “Quiet human! Listen up, we’re in charge of this place now! All of you will hunt for us or else we’ll eat-”

“Damn it all! Look, I’m sorry about these two idiots. We’re only ‘ere ‘cuz we’re looking for our mate! He’s a white dragon named Illumen!”

…

……

………

“God damn it.” I whispered, my voice now very flat. All of my students had turned to stare at me, many of them with mouths agape. Lyca was in full on body guard mode, as if she expected the students to attack me. Balor, Eri and Sylvia looked like they were about to kill the three dragons. Conversely, Star looked like she was trying really hard not to laugh and Scratch was holding his head in his hands.

As for me, I had already started walking towards the idiot trio who were still fighting amongst themselves. With every step I took more and more of my bloodlust leaked out. My students parted before me, making a path. As expected, most of my students' reactions were somewhere disbelief and acceptance. They had already figured that there was something abnormal about me, they just hadn’t expected it to be that.

But I had wanted to go at my own pace, revealing the truth to a few students at a time, and yet these three…

“Akawa. Laek. Piers.” I said each of their names in turn. Though I spoke at a normal volume, there was a level of murderous intent in my words that one would have to be an idiot not to hear. My students had all taken several steps away from me, as they were all smart enough to realize what my tone meant. Unfortunately, there were two idiots right in front of me.

“Huh, how does a human know our names?” Akawa said.

“Wahaha! Obviously he has heard of us! We are the great water dragons, Akawa and Laek! What is it human, have you come to swear your allegiance to us as your undying masters?” Laek said

“Oh yeah, that makes sense! Ok, human! Serve us well and we might even reward you with power and riches!”

“Flames of Wrath.” I said, engulfing the two morons in black flames. Like the first day we met, I burned them black until the air smelled of fried fish.

“Come to think of it, I got to finish my breakfast.” I thought, anger increasing.

“H-How did you-” Piers said, before finally realizing what was going on. He had started sweating, and there was palpable fear in his voice as he said “G-Guv, s’that you?”

“Flames of Wrath.” i said again, burning him as well. I left them all within an inch of death before turning back to my students.

They were all stunned. They knew I was strong, but they had not expected to ever see me take down three huge dragons in only a few seconds.

I heaved a deep sigh, tried my best to smile, and said “No training today. Instead, why don’t we all sit down for a nice long talk over breakfast?”