“Defend our god!” Akando shouted. Around him, thousands of natives were shouting the same exact thing. They wielded axes and spears made of sticks and stones, all of them pointed at the red dragon standing on top of their sleeping god. In the back, more and more natives were swarming, bringing bows made of wood and animal sinew.

Prika hunkered down, her belly pressing against Vur’s back. She opened her mouth and roared. The air rippled and crashed against the natives, blowing them backwards by a few meters, knocking them into the companions behind themselves. They stopped shouting, and Prika snorted, narrowing her eyes, glaring at the crowd of humans surrounding her. There was a moment of silence; however, it was broken by a twanging sound.

“Protect the god!” a native in the back shouted, holding an empty bow. The arrow he had fired pierced the air and struck Prika’s nose. It bounced off of her scales, but her eyes widened from a stinging pain. The lone arrow was only the start. Hundreds of arrows flew at Prika from all directions, and the natives in the front of the crowd regained their balance.

“Attack! The sleeping god is relying on us!” The natives raised their spears and axes, swarming forward, uncaring about their lives. Smoke rose out of their bodies, leaking from their pores. Their muscles rippled and bulged, and they let out animalistic shouts, the combined sound even louder than Prika’s roar.

“What the heck is this!?” Prika shouted. Her body was curled up with her paws covering her head. Arrows bounced off of her like rain. None of them could pierce her scales, but they still hurt! “Vur!” Prika shouted and thumped her tail against Vur’s body. Being in direct contact with him, she could sense mana flowing out of his body and into the natives, passively increasing their strength. “Wake up, dummy! They’re sucking your strength out!”

In response, Vur let out a prolonged snore.

“Prika, don’t you dare hurt them!” Stella shouted, her head poking out of Vur’s snout. “They’re helping Vur get stronger!”

“Eh?” Prika raised an eyebrow and glanced at Stella. “Isn’t it the other way around? Mana’s flowing out of Vur and into them; besides, I know better than to trust a fairy!”

“You dumb oaf!” Stella said and shook her fist at Prika. “I’m going to curse you if you don’t listen to me!”

“Hah.” Prika snorted and roared again, knocking the natives away once more. Even the arrows flying through the air were blasted away. “As if I’d be afraid of a fairy’s curse. I knew you didn’t have any good thoughts when you parasitized Vur. Tell me, what are your actual plans?”

Stella narrowed her eyes. “I’m helping Vur get stronger. Helping him is helping me.” The fairy queen puffed her chest out and crossed her arms as she rose out of Vur’s body and stomped up his head towards Prika. Stella’s eyes shown with a rainbow light, and she placed her hands on her hips. Then, she sneezed, and tiny droplets of spittle flew onto Prika’s face.

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Prika reared her head back and swiped at her snout with her claws. She blinked three times and furrowed her brow. “What did you just do to me?”

Stella tilted her head up and snorted. “I cursed you. Why? Feeling nervous? A little fairy’s curse shouldn’t threaten a dragon like you, right? Hmph.”

“You!” Prika smashed her paw down to squish Stella, but the fairy queen burst into motes of purple light that sank into Vur’s head. “Get back here! Ow!” Another arrow struck her snout. She glared at the natives. “And all of you! Stop that!” Her chest puffed up, and flames shot out of her mouth, bathing the charging natives in extreme temperatures. They let out screams, and Prika stopped breathing fire upon hearing them. That wasn’t supposed to happen. They were supposed to be incinerated instantly. How were they able to scream?

“The sleeping god is watching over us!” Akando shouted. He was completely naked; his clothes and body hair were burnt to ashes. His skin was bright red like a lobster, and even his weapon was a lump of crumbling charcoal that broke a little more with each one of his movements. But other than that, he was perfectly fine. “With his blessing, we can defeat the evil god. This is what he prepared us for. Charge!”

Prika’s eyes widened at the natives. Normally, a roar was enough to incapacitate a human. However, two roars and one flame breath couldn’t even stop these people. Since that was the case, Prika stood up and whirled around, swinging her tail towards the charging natives. They screamed again as they were launched through the air. The landed on the natives behind them and immediately got back onto their feet. They spat out some blood, but in the next moment, they were roaring and charging again. “What the heck did you do to these people, Vur!? Ouch! Is this human biting me!?”

From behind, one of the natives had climbed up Vur’s tail and leapt onto Prika’s foot. He was biting, kicking, and swinging his axe down all at the same time, flailing his limbs like a madman. Prika raised her foot and shook it, flinging the man far, far away into the crowd. However, at that point, dozens of natives had already climbed on top of Vur about to reach Prika at any moment. “Gah!” Prika shouted and jumped, flapping her wings hard, soaring into the sky. “Vur! Wake up!” Her eyes glowed with a red light, and a massive, red magic circle appeared in the air above her, evaporating the clouds. It rotated and blurred, the center of the circle turning bright orange. The head of a meteor emerged; the rest of it soon followed. With a rumbling sound, it shot out of the circle and towards Vur, stunning the natives on the ground. They stopped what they were doing, their weapons dropping from their hands as the burning meteor blotted out the sky.

“Great God, wake up! Save us!”

Without opening his eyes, Vur rolled onto his side. He extended one claw, and the meteor hit his paw. There was a banging sound, and the natives fell to the ground from the shockwave that came with the collision. That was the full extent of the injuries they suffered. Vur tossed the meteor off to the side and rolled back onto his belly. Then, he wiggled his body, getting comfortable, and resumed snoring. From start to finish, the snot bubble growing from his nostril remained completely intact.