Alexia
“Why?” I ask with a frown.
Vargas plays the first card of the game as Ethan answers, “We want to fight a new and powerful opponent.”
My frown grows ever so slightly deeper.
“And that’s all?” I can’t help but ask. Because knowing Ethan, there’s more to it.
Knowing dragons in general, actually. Not just Ethan.
Ethan purses his lips and plays his turn, laying a card down on top of Vargas’s. Then Vargas apparently decides to answer for him, stating, “Because people are calling it a dragon.”
I raise an eyebrow at Vargas and then turn to Ethan, making him reach around to scratch the back of his head.
Yeah, thought so.
Dragons have their pride after all, and everyone going around calling a non-sapient draconic creature a dragon without anyone surviving identifying it is not exactly something I can see most dragons tolerating. So it makes sense they’d go try to kill the thing. Or at least identify it.
And considering how we’re all Tier 3 and Class S species, it should be safe for us to try our hand against the Cataclysm Class dragon.
Plus, if we aren’t strong enough, I can always just teleport away. Escaping a tricky situation like that shouldn’t be an issue for me. Especially considering how far my Quantum Displacement can teleport me now that I should have the soul to teleport a lot closer to the end of my current maximum distance.
“Alright,” I finally answer the two with a nod of my head. “I’ll work with you two to take it down.” Then I play my turn and ask, “When do you plan on going there to take it on?”
Vargas answers the very moment he plays his next card, “After this game.”
I blink, more than a little surprised by the sudden rush.
But at the same time, I was planning on heading back to Dimensional Block #108 after this anyways. So there’s no reason not to do it now.
“That works for me,” I tell the two of them with a shrug as Ethan plays his next card. “I’ll be stopping at the base I live nearby first before we go after the monster though.”
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Both dragons give me short agreements as I play my next card.
And the game continues.
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It doesn’t take us all that long to reach the Dimensional Wall between Dimensional Block #108 and #109, and the moment we arrive we find ourselves face to face with a rather large group of blighted ones. Each of whom are staring at me with conflicted looks on their faces.
Some are upset, others happy, and others frightful. But after only a few seconds, they all shift their gazes towards Vargas instead.
“Champion, I beseech you-” the blighted one at the front and center of the group raises his voice, only for Vargas to completely ignore him as the three of us walk past the group of undead. And I can’t help but feel more than a little amused at how easily the man ignores them.
Kind of like how Ethan simply ignored pretty much anyone we passed by on the way to Dimensional Block #109 in the first place.
Typical dragon behavior.
The blighted ones tense up more and more the further away we get from them until one of them shouts and rushes at us, seemingly losing their temper. Then they are completely incinerated by a casual wave of Vargas’s hand, sending flames to engulf him. All without Vargas even turning to look at him or stopping in the process.
I decide to ignore it and continue walking as well, leaving the other blighted ones to quickly retreat far away from us.
It’s a little sad, to be honest.
The undead lost their leader, and the Dimensional Block lost their Dimensional Leader. Even if the guy was using them all and turning every one of them into undead while basically pseudo enslaving them. They still lost the second largest source of protection for their Dimensional Block.
And their Champion is ignoring them without a single care in the world about the denizens of the Dimensional Block.
We continue walking past them until we cross the Dimensional Wall into Dimensional Block #108, where we then find a couple dozen soldiers likely belonging to Varsac. But we just ignore them as well and begin going up into the air, with the two dragons flying and me teleporting.
Which doesn’t seem to please the soldiers very much, but they’re only Tier 2, and Class A and B species. So there’s not much they can do. And I don’t want to be bothered by them right now.
I just want to go check on Astrid, since even if I know she’s okay through Luna, I can’t help but worry without actually seeing her.
We fly for a while in the direction of the Retreat before Vargas eventually mutters, “Interesting Block ya got here…”
I glance at him, finding him to be looking down at one of the islands we’re passing over. So I look down at it as well to find an island full of two opposing forces, each fighting with each other.
Some sort of war?
“Well, the Dimensional Leader and the others all decided to make territory determined by whoever holds the peak of the island,” I tell him with a shrug as I continue teleporting through the air. “And military takeovers are perfectly allowed.”
Vargas continues staring for several seconds as we pass by before we continue moving on through the Dimensional Block.
Eventually we finally get within eyeshot of the Retreat, albeit not without stopping at least once along the way for directions in which the dragons scared the people rather badly. Or at least I’m going to say it was just the dragons. I’m sure it had nothing to do with me.
Yeah. Nothing to do with me at all.
Absolutely.
Anyways, I find a certain bat flying our way before we even reach the island.
“Luna!” I shout with a wide smile on my face.
And the bat immediately finds her spot on my shoulder to then rub her head against my neck as I pet her.
“I missed you,” I tell her, making her squeak in pleasure.
It’s nice to be back.