"Fire Blade!" Razor swung his shortsword at Eon, who shot his Grappling Hook to a nearby tree and retracted it to launch himself, creating a space between the two.

"Stop running away and face me directly!" Razor yelled.

"Vampette magic: Smokescreen!" Eon shot a magical orb at the ground, which exploded into a large cloud of smoke, shielding him from Razor's sight.

"Shining Blade!" Eon spotted the shining aura around the sword which Razor held high, trying to brighten up the area and locate Eon.

The art of Spellblade was pretty interesting. The magic uses the blade of any sharp weapon as its focus point, and envelops the said blade in a magical aura, visually increasing the weapon's size. So Razor's shortsword looked like an actual sword when using magic, except instead of metal the blade was made out of magical light. The blade essentially did not cut its target unless the target was sliced with the actual metal blade of the shortsword, but instead was hit by the magical force, more dense than the same spell casted by a rod or something. So as long as the caster knew what he was doing, the spell was completely safe for friendly duels and wouldn't cause a bloodbath.

"Starwolf magic: Claws of Fury!" Eon striked with his hand but got deflected by Razor's Shining Blade.

"You put up a worthy fight." Eon grinned at Razor.

"You're not too shabby yourself." Razor returned a smug smile.

"But," Eon backed off, his eyes still locked to Razor's. "You made a mistake when you looked at my eyes."

Razor didn't move. He couldn't move, to be precise. Eon's Glare petrified him.

"It was still fun though." Eon lazily approached Razor to dispel him.

Razor smiled. Before Eon realized, dozens of shortswords made out of magical light rained upon him, sharp enough to dig into the ground as they landed. Caught off guard, Eon lost his balance and fell down trying to dodge the blades.

Razor shrugged off the petrification "I cut myself with a Dispel Blade prior to the battle for situations like this." He approached Eon. "The spell is running through my blood and will be effective for a while."

Razor's shortsword was pointed towards a grounded Eon, gesturing the latter to surrender. "Alright, you win." Eon sighed. "What do you want?"

"I want to be a part of this investigation."

Eon blinked. "Uh..that was unexpected. Why such a sudden interest?"

"If you don't remember correctly, the dragon was targeting me all that time. And I can't just brush the fact away." Razor said in a worried tone. "I have a feeling that the dragon came for me, and others were just caught in the crossfire. To make up for that, I at least need to help you in this, in some form."

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Eon considered his words for a few moments. "I'd do the same if I was in your place.. can't be helped I guess." He gave a pat to Razor's shoulder. "But I don't even know how far this investigation would go. Like if we fail to get any leads, the investigation would fall flat from the start."

"We wouldn't know until we tried."

***

Aeria was a town way close to nature than most other towns. One would not realize it until they've stepped out of Aeria and went to any of the bigger cities. It's almost like Aeria was a child of Southern forests, constantly being nurtured by the lush forest mother.

"Ah so your father is the famous spellblade, Renzero Shiftblade." Eon's father said in a slightly amazed tone. "That puts me at ease. My son has a tendency to get into all sorts of trouble. So please take care of him."

Eon had to think of all sorts of forgeries and lies to explain why he would be going away just after coming home from such a destructive attack. But having Razor here and just pretending to be his assistant in the dragon attack investigation made everything way easier.

"Would you two be alright? I can't help but to feel a little worried." Eon's mother asked. "Maybe you should take an elder's help while in this."

"Don't worry at all, Mrs. Bells! I'll keep Eon safe from all harms." Razor replied with a huge grin on his face.

"This isn't even funny." Eon muttered under his breath, letting out a long sigh.

"Oh! I got something for you." Eon reached his bag and took out a rather big pouch. He handed it to his mother. "I think it may interest you."

"Quetzalcoatl feathers!?" His mother gasped. "I mean.. it does make sense. You were attacked by one.."

"They were lying on the ground and it felt like a waste to let them go." Eon explained.

"He clearly got this trait from you." Eon's father laughed loudly.

"Oh come on now, honey." His mom looked away, embarrassed.

"Well there are multiple reasons I brought them here with me. Mom, can you make an analysis on the feathers and tell me about the dragon?" Eon asked.

"It will probably take a day at least.. but leave it to me!" Eon felt his mother's eyes suddenly lit up.

"Flame of motivation huh."

As the two left the house after resting up a bit, a familiar face blocked the road.

"I'm coming with you two." Evelyn announced.

"I refuse." Eon replied. "You haven't said a word the whole time we were in the train to Aeria and left without even saying goodbye. You can't just barge in now."

"I was... thinking about stuff." She replied.

Before Eon could say anything Razor gave him a poke with his elbow. "Cut her some slack. She probably had her reasons. Right?" He looked at Eve, who looked away, embarrassed.

***

"Wouldn't it be easier if we took the underground tunnel system near the river?" Evelyn asked. They were now venturing through the deeper parts of the forest to discover Leonhart's jungle hideout.

"Oh you didn't hear? The Salamander that was inhabiting it ended up collapsing the entire tunnel. It would take a while to fix that." Eon replied, holding a Chuteplant in his hand, examining it thoroughly.

"A salamander collapsed an entire tunnel?" Razor couldn't help but ask.

"Not any salamander, the Salamander. It was like urban folklore for a long time but was discovered in recent years. Hunters were looking for it as well. That's how the tunnel collapsed too I guess. A clash between hunters and the Salamander."

"That makes more sense."

"What's the weird looking plant you're holding?" Eve asked.

"Oh this?" Eon held the bulbous 'head' of the plant a little higher. "It's Cadere mystica. Or Chuteplant, as people call it. They have this unique power to shoot projectiles made out of energy."

"and what's so unique about that?"

"The energy balls can be fused with any elemental magic and you can get an aero ball, or a fireball or even a ball of thorns and spikes."

"That's actually pretty handy to get a flexible spell in your stock, you can modify it as the situation wants you to." Razor commented.

"Chute magic: Blast Sphere!" Eon summoned a colorless ball between his palms and guided the spell to target another Chuteplant which was attempting to ambush them by shooting energy cannon through its bulbous head, ripping it off the ground. "Also the corpse of these plants secrete a type of very slippery oil that's a valuable lubricant in many mechagical factories."

Soon they reached the location Leonhart's Cabin was rumored to be at. "The density of trees is quite thinned out around these parts." Razor looked around him.

"That should mean we are on the right track." Eon replied. Soon he noticed a giant hole in the ground. "That's not really a hole a driller mole would make. It's a little too big."

"Is that bad?" Eve asked.

"I don't know, which is worse." Eon replied.

Before Eon could go ahead and examine, a powerful presence tingled their mana senses.

They looked behind, only to find a giant salamander glaring at them with its crystal like reptilian eyes.