Somewhere in a mountain, in a hidden cave, a young man is hiding inside the cave and shivering in fear.

The cause of this was very obvious. Something or someone must have caused fear in the young man to react this way.

The young man tightened his grip as he hugged his knees even further to himself tightly, not daring to make a sound.

Up above the sky, something colossus was hovering above the mountain, towering over the sky itself, replacing the clouds in its grandeur.

Upon closer inspection, it was a mighty dragon with dark-brown scales, golden-red eyes, and massive wings.

It was looking down on the mountain below it, searching for something or someone.

And then finally, as though finally deciding what it would do, it opened its mouth and decided to destroy it wantonly.

Sparks of light gathered between its mouth, as energy began to form between it, forming a sphere of energy that was becoming bigger and bigger till the point it satisfied the dragon.

The sphere of energy was now eight times the size of the dragon!

After that, the dragon launched it toward the mountain below.

The young man was, of course, oblivious to this.

The energy sphere touched the mountain and started disintegrating it, bit by bit, and it accelerated with every move.

The mountain wasn’t really that big, it was of moderate size, slightly bigger than the average mountain.

But even then, it wasn’t able to stop the energy blast as it continued its expansion.

Eventually, the energy blast consumed the mountain, leaving none of it out, and then it exploded.

The hidden cave the young man was in, was not spared as well.

The young man cried out loud in shock as he looked at the destruction and the blinding lights of the energy sphere.

The hidden cave was collapsing… no, in fact, the whole mountain was being destroyed, leaving the young man no choice but to retreat deep into the cave, which was not a very deep cave, to begin with, as he searched for something to cover him from the rubbles of the coming aftermath of the destruction. That is if he survives.

The energy sphere spared nothing to its expanse.

After a while, the mountain was completely destroyed, leaving it bare in the surroundings like it was not there in the first place. If it wasn’t for the charred ground and the aftermath of it, proving its existence.

Surprisingly, the young man survived.

He thought, ‘How did I survive that… Do I have plot armor perhaps…? If so, I’m doomed, ‘cuz if I have it, I know this won’t easily end soon alright…’

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

He was hiding in the rubble, side lying and biting his lips with his knees tucked under his arms, as he stared at the air blankly. He was truly a cockroach in a sense.

The dragon in the sky felt satisfied at what it did, but in a second, it frowned slightly—or so it looked like when its temples suddenly moved to form something like a frown.

It looked at the ground below once again and used its senses to scan the surrounding area. It’s unknown what methods the dragon used to scan the surroundings but finally, it caught sight of the young man hiding in the rubbles.

The young man faintly sensed that he was caught, but was still unsure if he was really caught, in the end, he decided to stay put, leaving it all to luck.

The dragon, seeing the young man not moving, checked once again to see if he was still alive, and sure enough, he was. And so the dragon raised its right claws and made a swinging motion toward the rubbles where the young man was hiding.

Just as the dragon was about to hit the rubble where the young man was with decisive force, a shout could be heard from afar, taunting the dragon.

From afar, a silhouette of a young lady and an injured middle-aged-looking guy could be seen.

It was Winter Snow and FeelingAwesome123.

***

The young man hiding in the rubble was Lyn.

‘Oh my god, that was a close one!’ Lyn felt his heart about to burst when the dragon’s claw almost crashed into his hiding spot. Even though he didn’t directly see the dragon swinging its claw in his direction, he could somewhat feel it. His intuition was somewhat high ever since he was born, so when the dragon used its senses to scan the surroundings, he already felt that his hiding spot was somehow discovered.

So Lyn was really relieved that someone taunted the dragon in his place.

‘Though, the voice kinda sounded familiar… Where did I hear it before?’ Lyn wondered.

While Lyn was wondering about it, Winter Snow and FeelingAwesome123 faced the dragon.

“Hey, what are you doing!?” FeelingAwesome123 asked Winter Snow in outrage.

Winter Snow rolled her eyes at him and said, “Isn't it obvious? I’m taunting him.”

“That’s why I asked you!!” FeelingAwesome123 felt incredulous.

Right now, the dragon was looking in their direction, currently annoyed by now.

If it could speak, it would probably be saying right now, “Why were you taunting me? I was about to finish something once and for all! Don’t disturb me!!”

But since it couldn’t, it could only glare at them.

Turning its attention back again, the dragon glanced at a certain rubble where Lyn was and used its senses to scan the area.

To its surprise though, Lyn was gone.

Shocked, it hurriedly looked around, but only to be disappointed that Lyn was nowhere to be found anymore.

Since it couldn’t find Lyn anymore, the dragon was enraged. ‘It’s all the fault of these guys!’ that’s what it’s probably… no, it’s really what it’s thinking right now.

Turning around, the dragon glared at the two of them with such hateful intensity.

“Uhh, is it just me or is the dragon angry?” Winter Snow said.

“Of course, it would be! You taunted it!!” Feeling Awesome123 angrily said.

Hearing them talk further infuriated the dragon, so it launched an energy blast at them.

“Watch out!” Winter Snow shouted as she quickly dashed sideways and rolled with her shoulder.

FeelingAwesome123 on the other hand, was unlucky, he reacted to it but was much slower than Winter Snow, so he ended up being on the receiving end of it, though not fully. He flew up and crashed to the ground.

“Urgh,” FeelingAwesome123 groaned.

Winter Snow looked at him, “You alright?”

He replied, “What do you think?!”

“Seems like you are then. Well, that’s good, cuz we might need to face that dragon.” Winter Snow said as she looked at the dragon.

The dragon, in turn, also looked at her.