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Fel

Fel was currently in the process of reviewing the newest thing added to her long list of regrets, as she yielded to Leo and felt the magic of her oath wash over her.

When an oath is made, the mana between both parties is used to bind it, and each person can essentially feel the size of the other's mana pool. So when she felt his mana, she was completely shocked, since it was as big as a dragons. The largest amount of mana she felt from another race was like comparing a stream to a river, and that was with an arch mage. The size of Leo's was actually a little bigger than hers at her peak, which made her decide to not fuck around with the duel, since he actually had a chance of winning.

Unlike a contract which could be broken, an oath was something that couldn't be backed out of, because it compulses the person to pay the terms of the arrangement. As soon as she realized that her summon might have the power to back up his confidence, she resolved to end the fight as quickly as possible.

The silver haired woman was unfortunately running at a little above half mana. So already handicapped, she chose to not get into a battle of mana endurance, and relied on her physical power as a dragon. But she wasn't going to fully transform like some prideful idiot, that would have only made her a bigger target.

She had thought it would be enough to just catch him to make him submit, but managing that in of itself was an infuriating task. He could fly nearly as fast and as well as a dragon, which made little sense since flight magic was supposed to be clunky compared to actual flight.

The man could also use an absurd variety of magic, some of which she had never heard of before much less seen. Being able to create lava, un-create lava, make the floor insanely slick, and have a thin mana shield that could shrug off a dragon's strength.

It was when he taunted her that she lost it for the first time during the fight, and she became even more infuriated when he slipped out from underneath her.

It was a conflicting decision, but losing control of everything wasn't worth trying to keep him alive, and seeing that the town wasn't in line of sight, she decided to kill him with a dragon's most powerful ability. She pitifully thought that it would at least be a quick death as she let loose the massively overpowered beam of destruction, but when she finished he was just…floating there.

That attack took a lot out of her, yet he wasn't even singed. ‘Just what the hell did you bring onto this world?’ Her mentor's voice rattled around in her head, utterly shocked at what she was seeing.

Then she felt something grip firmly around her entire body, as if the air itself decided to give her a hug, and was then pulled toward the unsmiling man. The movement felt strange, unnatural, as she felt like she was falling toward him and not the ground.

The dragoness tried everything to break free from the strange magic, from flailing around with mana filled limbs to trying to fly out of it with her wings, but she didn't even feel like she could move out of it. The unseen grip around her tightened to the point that she was unable to move as she reached him, and for the first time in her life she felt the fear of death come from someone other than a dragon.

What's more was that he was still treating the duel like a joke, which made realization crash into her as the oath finished.

‘Asking how the magic on the last summon worked, flinging fire at me at the very start, using a variety of spells, the increasing difficulty of the fight, and not using whatever this magic is at the beginning of the duel to end it…’

Dumbstruck and a little amazed, she stared at him in disbelief. “You were testing me…” She said as he let go of the spell holding her.

“I would make a ha ow to trayn yur dr ag-ons joke, but it would probably be in poor taste. That, and you wouldn't get it. But yeah, I needed to see how strong you guys actually were, and I gotta say, fucking impressed.” He responded with a grin.

Seeing as how she was the one who lost, the prideful woman couldn't help but frown at the remark. “You could have killed me from the start, how did I Impress you?” She asked incredulously.

He glanced at the scorched earth behind him, then back to her. “You're serious?” He said while pointing a thumb over his shoulder.

She narrowed her eyes, not at all satisfied by his response. “You shrugged it off like it was nothing! You might as well be a minor god.” She remarked irritably.

A shit eating grin crossed his face. “Nah, even I felt a little toasty in my safety bubble.”

‘What the fuck did I summon…?’

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Leo

Any normal person would have been angry at the outright attempted murder, but if anything, Leo was still more pissed about being watched over in the forest while slowly dying of thirst. He also understood why she tried to, since everything was on the line for her, and he probably would have made the same choice if he was in her shoes.

‘Years of planning and effort, stolen… Maybe I should hold back on the insults. I only did this to stop them from totally fucking with my plans, and I guess I've also gained access to a possible continent wide rebel network. So that's a bonus?’

Fel nervously started rubbing the side of her arm. “So, what now?” She asked as some of her more dragon-like additions started to vanish.

He considered the question for a moment before answering. “Well, you debrief me on everything. I want to know what I'm working with, and what outside support you have.”

She tensed as she looked away from him with a frown. “As you wish…master…” She finished softly.

It took a moment more than it should have for him to process those words. “Excuse me?” He asked while being very taken aback.

The previously argumentative woman grimaced and shrunk in on herself. “I'm sorry, would you prefer lord or arch mage?”

“Jesus Christ… I'd prefer that you not act like a servant, you are not my slave.” He pinched the bridge of his nose, believing that there might have been a misinterpretation of the stakes, or the oath was just that powerful.

The defeated woman furrowed her brow, and eyed him with a little disbelief. “But I am oath-bound to follow your orders...and…” She trailed off while muttering something inaudible to him.

“What was that?” He questioned with a raised eyebrow.

Fidgety, she went on to answer a bit sheepishly. “Well… Socially among the dragons, it is a not uncommon practice for the opposite sex winning in a formal duel to take the loser as a mate…”

The earth born man shut his eyes for a moment. ‘What is my life right now…?’ He thought before concern crossed his expression. “Wait, so what would have happened if I lost?”

“In the eyes of our society… Well…” She trailed off uncomfortably.

He blinked in confusion, then incredulously asked. “You fucking serious?!”

Somewhat tepidly she gave him a defiant look and questioned defensively. “That part is more cultural than binding! And do you think any other race is crazy enough to challenge a dragon to a duel, much less win it?”

He opened his mouth to argue, but realized that she was right. ‘That one's on me for doing more development than research and not looking into the dragons…’

“Okay, first off, you are not owned by me, and the oath only extends to the rebellion as far as I'm concerned. Second, I'm not going to force any kind of relationship, no matter what your society dictates.”

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She visibly relaxed and let out an awkward chuckle. “That's a bit of a relief, though I'm not against sleeping with you, even though you are a bit of an asshole. I'm curious about how well you hold up your title.”

The sigh that escaped him was unavoidable, because he was still not used to how open this world was about sex. “Of course you are…” He briefly mused if he should put a bonk enchantment on his staff, but deep down he'd be lying if he said that he didn't like the attention.

“How long can your males go for anyway?” He asked curiously, wanting to break the ice a little more while they started back toward the gate, but his interest was genuinely piqued when she started to break out into laughter. “I assume that they aren't nearly as enduring as people made them out to be?”

It took a bit for her to calm herself down enough to respond. “Gods I wish! They have a four day cooldown period.”

He had originally expected it to be a few minutes, maybe a few hours given that the other races need about a day, but not half a week! “Then how did the rumor even start?”

“That's a two part answer. The first part is obvious, compensating.” Fel paused to let out an amused snort. “The second is that they can't…meet our needs. So the women tend to get really pent up, and since none of the other races can even come close to us, we usually go through quite a few until we're satisfied.” She explained tiredly.

“That's just depressing…” There was a certain indescribable feeling of shock and pity that he had while trying to wrap his mind around it.

She shook her head as if trying to physically shake off the disappointment. “Tell me about it… So would you be willing, or are you just a paper dragon?” She jabbed.

‘Even though she did try to kill me, she had her reasons. It would also be fun to see if I can wipe another smug smile off her face. I still want to ask Ela-’

The thought was cut short by a crying green scaled blur tackling him to the ground.

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Glia

Glia woke up today expecting more or less the same usual boring day. Go to her post, watch the grass for nine hours, then patrol the town for a bit. It was a boring yet peaceful existence. Now though?

Her world was pretty much fucked.

Rebels had taken the town without her even knowing, ‘top notch guard by the way’, and she was about to watch a summon fight a dragon because they had some kind of verbal pissing contest on world domination. She thought that her day couldn't get more insane, that is until the fight actually started.

Glia was a simple woman, with a straightforward method of dealing with combat. Stab it until it stopped moving, and if it didn't, stab it some more. So seeing the insanely destructive fight before her kept her jaw dropped the entire time, unable to look away for even a second, witnessing acts of magic and power that she couldn't even comprehend.

When she was told that they were going to fight, she said a silent prayer for Leo, because who in their right mind would challenge a dragon? That sentiment held true for most of the fight, as he was constantly on the defensive. She thought that it was over when Fel finally pinned him down, but she could swear from Fel's body language that Leo taunted her, which made the selarin actually question his sanity.

Whatever jab he made was returned, more physically, causing the obsidian scaled woman's breath to catch at the power she felt from the dragoness striking the ground. Glia thought that the summon's near scales-length escape would have been the end of it, because no one would continue in the face of that.

But no, something even more unbelievable happened.

Glia had heard stories that a dragon's breath could level towns in an instant, but those stories could never compare to what she witnessed. The beam's destruction was instant, but her attention was pulled away from it when she heard a stomach curdling scream to her left. It was Elaria, dropped to her knees with her eyes tearing up in horror.

A wave of sadness washed over Glia, as she knew that Elaria was probably hurting more than any physical abuse she'd ever experienced. To lose a first love is a deep and painful experience, it's something that even Glia still hasn't gotten over, and for Elaria to have fallen so hard for Leo, it might just break her again.

Glia continued to watch Elaria, but noticed that a relieved smile crossed her friend's face. She turned back to the field and saw that he was simply floating in the path where the beam was, without a single scratch on him. She shared her friend's relief, but otherwise couldn't form any kind of coherent thought as the summon pulled his summoner to him with his magic.

The desperation coming from the dragoness trying to break free made her eyes widen even further in awe. ‘A dragon is struggling to get away from him?!’ She quickly came to the conclusion that the stories about summons were drastically underselling them too.

After Leo let Fel down, the two talked for a bit before walking back over to where the selarin trio were watching. Elaria couldn't seem to wait as she sprinted toward Leo, tackling him onto his back while sobbing heavily into his chest.

Glia turned to Allis while Leo was comforting Elaria. “Um, I'm not dreaming right? Because the man just won a fight against a dragon, and that's just a new level of insane…”

Allis barely tilted her head to regard Glia, still visibly in the process of coming to terms with what happened as well. “I think, I mean I knew he could kill her if he used a certain spell, but he didn't use it at all… I think… I think he was testing her…”

Glia's mind blanked at the thought of anyone testing a dragon.

“Oh, okay… Still not sure if this is a dream…”

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Allis

The fight was something to behold, and Allis got only a glimpse of what Leo was truly capable of. She had seen mage duels at the academy before, and even though this fight had a power scale that made those look like slap fights, she noticed that they were both being very direct and obvious with their intentions.

The amazing part was that Leo, for the most part, was in complete control.

To someone who didn't know how mages fought, it might look like Leo was running away the entire time, but to any mage with half a brain watching would notice that he wasn't seriously attacking her. He was just constantly prodding her with different spells.

Although creative, there wasn't any real strategy from either side that would be expected in a mage duel.

If Fel noticed this sooner she might have used her breath a lot earlier, not that it would have made a difference.

Allis guessed that whatever Leo used to fly, move objects, and defend against a dragon's breath, works entirely on a different fundamental principle that is completely beyond her.

She recalled what Leo told her about his first experiment, that he gained control over a fundamental building block of reality, and if he wasn't over exaggerating, then he might as well be a god. And that was only one thing that he knew how to wield, how many other concepts did he know that could allow him to bend existence to his will?

When they finally made it to the gate, the somewhat vindictive woman noticed something off about their behavior. They didn't seem like two people who just fought a life or death battle, nor did they look like they shared any resentment toward each other. So she decided to comment on it first, since it's what worried her the most.

“Leo, Fel? Aren't you two angry about what just happened?”

They both cocked their heads at the question, and let out a simultaneous. “Not really.” Which prompted both of them to look at each other in surprise.

“But I tried to kill you?” Fel remarked with a fair amount of confusion.

Leo shrugged. “Eh, I'm alive, and I understand your reasons. You had everything to lose, plus I was asking for it with how I treated the fight. But aren't you upset about losing control of, well, everything?” He asked curiously.

Fel shook her head in exasperation. “Nope, after everything you put me through I'm kinda relieved that it's finally resolved, and you have more or less the same desire to change the kingdom. Even though I tried to kill you, sorry for that by the way, the fight was all about how it was going to be done, not if or should. So as long as it gets done I couldn't care less.” She explained tiredly.

Allis looked between the two of them and realized for the first time that they acted nearly identical in personality and thought process. She was about to remark on it but then Elaria cut in.

“You two are surprisingly similar.” Commented the green scaled woman.

The dragoness scoffed before jabbing a thumb in his direction. “Yeah, no. This ass is pretty high on himself.”

The human frowned as he turned to her. “Oh I'm the prideful ass? What happened to join us, or was losing another part of your amazing plan?” He asked critically.

She placed a hand on her hip while rolling her eyes at him. “Of course there are going to be a few bumps when I'm starting to follow your wise example of winging it, but it can't be that hard for a dragon if a paper one can manage it.” She mocked.

He scoffed as he crossed his arms. “You'd probably let the opportunities pass you by, exactly like how you slid right past me in our duel.” He remarked disdainfully.

She crossed her own arms with narrowed eyes. “I'm surprised that you'd talk about opportunities with how you're unable to go five sentences without nearly outing yourself in a conversation.”

He barked a laugh. “Hey I was doing just fine before yo-”

The argument was interrupted by Glia irritably shouting.

“Just fuck already!”

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