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Leo

Conveniently, Leo had almost nothing to fear from the dragons, apart from them turning the entire world against him, but he did have some conflicted feelings toward his new acquaintance, Fel.

Fel may have summoned him to this literal magical world, but he was pretty sure she went behind the other dragon's backs, which likely means a whole mess of politics.

He hated politics.

There might also be some major friction in how to go about taking control of Selaria, because something told him that her way might end up being less than moral. And even though she asked him to join, his gut feeling told him that doing his own thing won't be an option with her.

‘And to be frank, even though I love how blunt she is, it irks me that she acts so stub...born... Oh… Well don't I feel like the pot right now…’

The dragoness crossed her arms and wore a critical expression. “Leo, don't you want to help change this broken kingdom? Because I'm here to do just that, and our plans are to change the rest of the world for the better.” She questioned pointedly.

The human frowned while crossing his own arms, and tilted his head up as he eyed her critically. “See, that's the problem right there, your plans. I have my own plans to do both those things, and probably way faster and more efficient than yours. I have very little faith that you or your plan is all that competent, considering I single handedly sent you into a time crunch.” He admitted harshly and noticed the dragon's tail stiffen at the insult.

‘That last part was probably a bit much, maybe I'm still not over the whole being left in the woods thing as I thought...’

“She's-we've been planning and preparing for years, you've only been here for nearly two weeks. So in terms of competence whatever you have planned might as well be winging it.” Fel snarled, but it only looked half hearted.

‘Not entirely inaccurate…’ He mentally winced, wishing that the meat of his knowledge about this world didn't boil down to some vague general history and propaganda pieces.

Even still, he resolved his features and kept up his confidence. “I have most of my people's entire history to draw from, with hundreds if not thousands of successful revolts, coups, and revolutions, all of which have been failing on this world. Also if we're criticizing my time spent here, then let me remind you that just over a week ago I was slowly dying alone in a forest, a full world away from home, and since then I've learned magic, become an arch mage, and acquired enough land and wealth to be considered a lord. If you're not as dense as I assume you are, then imagine what I could do in a month from now, much less a year.” He explained with a little condescension.

The silver haired woman sneered, her tail whipping in visible irritation. “Okay then oh wise one, how the fuck do you think of dealing with the dragon council, because they support the academies! You don't have the power to even take me on, how do you think you'd do against over two hundred of the most powerful mortals on the planet?! Because if you don't want to hit a roadblock and die early, then you need to have entire kingdoms as well as a sizable number of dragons backing you.”

He held back a grimace at that little important tidbit of information, pretty much the perfect example of how uninformed he truly was. ‘There's a cabal of dragons who have their fingers in all the academies? Fuck me, I need to do some lore diving… Wait a minute…’

“Did you not spy on me yesterday?” He asked curiously, believing that she was taking him way too lightly if she had been spying on him all this time.

Fel rolled her eyes. “No, I was preparing for the takeover of Telnar, which was smooth and bloodless, considering it was supposed to take a year, no thanks to you. And you've still not given me an answer.” She prodded impatiently.

‘She took control of Telnar? I hope Glia's safe, but that's… Bad… That means the academy is going to come knocking. Damn it, I think she just fucked me! The last thing I need is a death squad of mages combing through town. Ah, and the fact that a new lord just happened to pop up on the border right before the town was taken by rebels just screams involved… Fuck! Now I'll need to do my own damage control, but I'd rather not work with… Wait.’ His thoughts trailed off as a cunning little idea started to form.

The conniving human smirked as he regarded the very ignorant dragoness. “How about I show you, while resolving our little dispute at the same time. I assume you're the leader of your little uprising, correct?”

The silver haired woman raised an eyebrow while eyeing him suspiciously. “Myself and a few others, but I am completely in charge of taking Selaria.” She responded cautiously.

His face lit up with joy. “Let's make a little wager, and If you win I'll join you no questions asked, I'll even follow all your orders like a good little summon. But if I win, you and your entire operation here will follow my plans for turning Selaria, and you will follow what I say to the letter.”

The totally speechless expression she had was priceless, appearing visibly taken aback while giving him an incredulous look. “You must be out of your mind. I have way more to lose, so why would I agree to that?” She questioned critically.

He grinned, and knew that a dragon's pride would see it as the other way around. “Because we're going to have a duel, and first to submit to the other wins.”

She stared blankly at him, before breaking into a shit eating grin. “Well, I could use the workout, so let's go to that field you like so much. I'd like to get this over with as soon as possible.” The prideful woman remarked confidently.

Leo sighed, wanting something a little more binding than just her word. “Hold on a moment, I'll have Allis draw up a contract.”

She scoffed while putting back on her cloak. “No need, a dragon can bind a deal themselves, and our oaths are a hell of a lot stronger. We were the ones who taught the other races how to make contracts after all.”

‘Note to self, make her spill everything she knows about her race… Once I win.’

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Allis & Elaria

The two selarins both could not describe the mixture of emotions felt upon seeing an actual dragon reveal themselves, but fear was definitely top among them.

Allis was terrified of being caught in a crossfire if the two fought, but she knew if Leo landed the first blow then he'd come out on top.

Elaria was torn between her mind telling her to run out of self preservation, while her heart kept her in the room, because she was unable to leave Leo alone with her.

As they both passively watched them argue, their fear subsided into confusion and then utter disbelief.

Allis was speechless, because Leo issued a duel to a dragon, only second in power to a minor god. She only hoped that they both didn't go all out, because she wanted to watch and not die from a stray spell.

Elaria was less shocked by the duel, and more baffled by how similar the two seemed to act. Neither backing down, both determined to see their way through an argument, their confidence and bluntness showing clearly in how they spoke, and how completely sure of themselves they seemed to be. But as similar as their personalities were, they seemed to give off an open dislike for each other.

Even though Allis and Elaria had very different takes on the situation, the both of them had the same thought as they followed the two most dangerous people they've ever met.

‘The hell have I gotten myself into…’

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Fel

As they all walked across town to the field, Fel couldn't help but wear a smug expression. She was going to enjoy venting some of the stress and irritation that he caused her.

From getting a constant earful from Yez for making an utter mess of the schedule, to his infuriating stubbornness, she couldn't wait to finally put the cocky bastard in his place.

‘I have to be careful so that I don't accidentally kill him though, he's not a dragon after all.’

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Leo

Leo couldn't help but notice the number of armed selarins patrolling the streets, which more or less confirmed what Fel said about taking the town.

As he turned to his summoner, he furrowed his brow because he was suddenly concerned about Glia. “Hey, Fel, was it? You said that your takeover was bloodless, so what did you do with the guard?”

“At the moment? We are trying to recruit as many of them as possible, and any who don't join will just be dispersed into the town, but we are going to hold on to the leader. It will prevent any unwanted reorganization of the guard, not that they would try since they believe that the academy is going to wipe us out anyway.” She casually explained as if it was a non issue, causing him to deadpan a little at the lack of specifics on that topic.

“And I'm guessing that you won't tell me how you plan to overcome that obstacle without getting directly involved? At least not until I win.” He finished with an assured tone.

Fel rolled her eyes with a mocking smirk. “Yes, of course I'll reveal all of our plans once you’ve joined us, paper dragon.”

‘Ouch at the double meaning there, though both are factually incorrect. Maybe I should take my time with this, so I could get a general idea of the limits of an actual dragon… And totally not to wipe that smug smile off her face…’

When they reached the gate, Leo was surprised to find Glia at her post, and he arched his brow at her presence. “Glia, you joined the rebels?”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

The obsidian scaled woman cocked her head and exuded a fair amount of confusion at the question. “The what?”

“Didn't you go to the gathering outside the base?” Fel asked from behind, sounding equally confused.

Glia barked a laugh. “And spend hours either listening to a lecture or doing practice drills? Yeah, no. I'm content to watch the grass.” She responded while giving a nod to the open field.

He let out a deep sigh and turned to Allis and Elaria, giving the former his useless staff. “Can you two fill her in while we both go fight each other for the future of the kingdom?”

“Future of the kingdom? What ar-” Glia’s words caught at the sight of Fel de-cloaking, the amused woman letting out a chuckle while the human shook his head in exasperation.

As they both set out across the field, Leo made sure that they walked farther along the tree line, to be far from his recent use of acceleration magic. ‘Best to keep her prideful, should make this fight much easier at the start.’

When they finally reached a seemingly safe distance, Fel stopped to form the oath for the deal. He was skeptical at how simple it was, since all they had to do was shake on it while visualizing the intent for both of their sides of the deal.

Fel held out her hand. “So are you sure you want to do this? last chance to back out.” She offered, and sounded a little worried for his safety.

Leo cracked a grin while meeting her grip. “Funny, I was about to offer the same.” He remarked while giving her a firm handshake.

A massive amount of mana pulled between them both, and Fel's eyes grew wide as a bright light appeared around their hands for a few moments before dissipating. When it was finished, Leo looked back up to Fel, and saw that she wore a hard expression.

Her piercing gaze made him a bit concerned. “Did it mess up?”

“No.” She answered harshly and turned around to put some space between them for the duel, but he couldn't help but feel the sudden and illogically heavy thuds from her stride.

The doubtful man was still not convinced. “Then what's wro-”

“Let's just get this over with. Come at me when you're ready to begin.” She cut him off, seeming very determined as she readied into a firm fighting stance.

The wary human didn't like the sudden shift in personality, as it meant she was taking him seriously now. ‘So much for starting off easy…’

Ultimately he figured that this was for the best, because he wanted to know what dragons were fully capable of. Thus he also decided to hold off on using gravity magic on her, opting to test a lot of the combat spells he cooked up out of boredom.

He summoned a fireball knowing full well that she was probably immune, but he still wanted to verify all that he could. As soon as he let the ball loose at her, she bolted right into it toward him at an insane speed.

He barely had time to react, as she went from sixty feet away from him, to just a few wide steps in seconds. He flung himself backwards into the air to put some distance between them, and not a moment too soon as she nearly grabbed him by the collar.

‘Fuck me! I've never felt like I've wanted to shit myself before, but that was def-’ The thought cut short when he saw wings phase onto her back, and she immediately took to the air toward him.

‘Oh what is that horse shit!?’

He sped away while flinging foot-long ice shards at her, hoping to slow her gaining speed. It was working, until it wasn't. Initially she dodged them for the first few seconds, gliding through the air like a fish in water, but that stopped when she phased in scales to protect her arms and long sharp claws to slice through his ice.

The persistent woman nearly caught up with him, so he kicked up his foot more for showmanship than anything else, summoning a torrential gust of wind that sent her hundreds of feet away. It was obvious for multiple reasons that she would be experienced in aerial combat, since it took only moments for her to tuck in her wings and drop out of the sudden gale before resuming her chase.

Fortunately he had already used that time to swing back to the ground and push mana down into it for his next spell. It was a strange sensation, as he felt the earth all around him, like it was a part of his body in a way. Almost like how he used his gravity magic, only more pronounced.

That little musing was very brief due to Fel torpedoing at him from the sky, but he kept calm and timed the distance between them. When she was close enough for the spell he let loose with a massive two story earthen arm, the magical construct erupting from the ground to backhand her across the field.

There was an audible thud when she impacted well over a hundred feet away, dirt and debris kicking up as if a small meteorite landed. For a moment Leo had hoped that he didn't actually hurt her, but that was a very short lived sentiment when she bulleted out of the mist of dirt that shrouded the sizable crater.

The fact that she shook off such a heavy attack made him wince a bit. ‘Okay, pulling out some of my more advanced tricks…’

He transferred the thermal energy from the surrounding environment into the ground between him and his relentless pursuer, much of it directed and focused from the twin suns. A twenty foot wide, but shallow, pool of molten slag was created in almost a flash. The constantly front footed woman skidded to a stop just at the edge of the pool, surprise written clear across her face.

The breath he let out was one he didn't realize he had been holding. ‘Oh thank god I found the bar to impress her.’ His optimistic thought died at the sight of her manic smile.

A massive amount of mana was suddenly used up, then the pool bubbled and grew as large lava tendrils started to emerge from it. ‘Oh, of course dragons can use lava magic, because why not?!’

In the briefest of moments he had spotted a familiarly annoying metal pipe, and came up with the most lovely idea. But that distracting thought was interrupted by a glob of lava being flung at him from one of the tendrils.

Flinching back from the slow moving warning shot, he looked between it and the pool a little wide-eyed. “No no no no no, none of that now.” He remarked sternly.

Leo pulled all the thermal energy out of the lava, and used it to help fuel a constant stream of fire directed at Fel, but she seemed more annoyed than hurt by it. She appeared visibly confused when the lava quickly dried up, but resumed her chase once more, practically flinging herself at him.

He floated himself an inch off the ground, immediately made the surrounding area frictionless, watched with satisfaction as Fel comically slipped onto her stomach, and casually floated out of her path as she slid right past him. She yelled out in frustration, because not only was she unable to stand back up, but her body couldn't even attempt to lift itself up from the ground.

‘Okay brain, think of a few more ideas while you still have time.’

Fel started to flap her wings to get off the frictionless ground, and once she was up she glared at him with a very pissed off expression.

He dispelled the frictionless surface out of a bit of guilt and figured that he should stop trying to run, so he cast an ultra thin, form fitting, colorless magic barrier while imagining its structure to be that of carbon nanotubes.

Seconds later he was barreled into by a borderline irate dragoness, knocking him on his back as she straddled his stomach.

“Yield!” She growled.

He made a show of considering her demand while locking the motion of the barrier in place. “Mmm Nah.” He said with a bit of sass.

Fel balled her fist and punched him in the face, but his head didn't even budge.

“You know, if you wanted to ride me all you had to do was ask.” He taunted with a blustering confidence.

The silver haired woman turned a shade of red, scowled, then delivered another punch, and this time he felt a small amount of pressure against his skin.

‘That's a little worrying…’ His smile faltered.

She pulled back her arm for another punch, and he could feel her push a massive amount of mana into it, causing his eyes to widen with fear.

‘And that, is fucking terrifying!’

Leo used gravity to yank himself out from under her right before she landed the insanely powerful blow, which shattered the ground, creating massive twenty foot cracks from the point of impact.

He furrowed his brow as he floated a bit off the ground, looking at the end of the crack leading from him to the impact crater. ‘I think I should end this, soon…’

There was a visible conflict on the woman's face, a number of emotions passing over it for a few seconds before she stood up and relaxed. She then started to take in a long and slow breath that seemed to stretch on forever, and it looked like streams of fire were rushing into her mouth as she continued to inhale.

Being the online media junky he was, it wasn't hard to realize what she was doing, especially when he noticed that his position made it so that she wasn't in line of sight of the town.

“A charge attack? Really?” The mocking comment lost a bit of edge when the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end, a genuine feeling of fear washing over him.

“Nope.”

The bar on using high level gravity magic was dropped, and he created an ultra dense bubble that he hoped to god would curve what was about to hit him. He didn't even think twice about blocking it, because if he dodged it might track him like an Omega Beam for all he knew.

“Yeah… Nothing a few hundred G's can't solve…” He tried to reassure himself.

Fel stopped her inhaling, and a massively bright glow emitted from her chest. He opted to add a couple hundred more G's as well as creating a few layers of subzero air on the inside wall of the bubble, just in case.

Leo smiled. ‘Now I feel safe.’ He thought more comfortably.

Fel let loose a massive beam of plasma that shot out from a small ball that was held just at the entrance of her mouth. The beam came out from the ball and stretched out to a diameter of fifteen feet, vaporizing everything in its path and scorching anything twenty feet on either side of it.

As the beam hit the gravity bubble, it enveloped the bubble completely and curved perfectly to its surface. He could feel the heat start to seep in, so he just refreshed the sub zero wall, and shielded his eyes from the surrounding bright light.

‘Less safe, but still safe…’

The attack eventually subsided, leaving him to survey the damage. A ten foot wide and five foot deep impression of molten earth led from Fel all the way to him, grass and other foliage simply gone a dozen feet wider than that. His jaw dropped at the line of destruction behind him, the molten impression continuing well beyond his sightline.

The excessive use of power only meant one thing, causing his expression to fall. ‘Wait, did she intend to kill me there…’ He thought while he turned back to Fel, seeing her visibly exhausted with an utter look of disbelief.

Pursing his lips, he decided that he'd seen enough. “Yup, I'm done with this.” He remarked emotionlessly.

He dropped the protective barriers, gripped Fel with his gravity magic, and sighed with a shake of the head at her instant look of panic. It might have drawn a chuckle from him if he had done this at the start, but being on the opposite end of a hyper beam was a serious matter.

The clear winner watched on, blank faced as she struggled to break free, all while he carefully restricted her movements the entire way she floated over to him. Their contrasting expressions between them probably said something about how they were both interpreting their situation, him with his arms crossed and an annoyed expression, her with a look of sheer terror.

“So… You tried to kill me… Anything you have to say for yourself?” He asked as if he was talking to a child.

Fel shrunk in at the question. “Sorry?” She answered sheepishly.

Leo smiled wide and placed his hands on his hips. “Alright, I'll accept your apology… After you yield.”

“I…yield.”

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