This chapter has been proof-read by: AnthonyL

Busy week, sorry for the wait.

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The young dragon I was currently doing a stand off with had just talked. Big boy? Wait... “No way! It's you?!” The beast seemed conflicted as to how to react but I was caught up in the same situation. Judging by its size and actions, there was no doubt in my mind that this fellow here was the dragon I had used to glide out of the king dragon's cave back then.

Why was he here? How had he found me? As far as I know, dragons don't have an exceptional sense of smell or hearing, but their vision was no doubt superior to anything living around. Knowing this, there was no way he could have found me since I had stayed indoors most of the time.

The way he was circling around the hospital seemed to indicate that he knew I was in there somewhere. Then a thought popped into my head. What if dragons could sense the red mist emitted by living organisms? They could also potentially be able to differentiate between individuals. Just like we humans could distinguish somebody's voice between thousands of others.

I myself, could notice some vague differences between creatures of different species when using the sensing ability. If dragons had developed this sense to a much higher level, then it would explain the situation I am currently in. Yesterday, I had spent the entire day expelling an insane amount of red mist from my experimentation with the dragon dust.

With the amount of red mist I had leaked yesterday, it could explain how this dragon had noticed my presence here. The dragon was slowly getting closer but wasn't acting aggressively, so I remained calm and tried not to provoke a fight. The beast nudged me with his nose in a playful manner but I had no idea what he wanted from me.

Don't tell me I had imprinted him as well? This was highly possible since I was possibly the first thing he had seen beside his meals. I had a vague memory of calling him big boy back then while trying to calm him down. My words were also probably the first words he had heard in his life, so him considering me as his parent wasn't that far fetched.

I said 'him', but as far as I knew, this dragon could have been a female as well. If this dragon considered me as his parent, it could become problematic. What if he decided to stay around and follow me every-time I go out? It was highly possible that it would attack the others if I wasn't with them since it had eaten humans before.

I knew since I had seen human skulls in his hole back in the cave. This dragon was not one I could safely keep around like Rambo, so what was I supposed to do about it. Seeing the big dragon acting so gently to me, I dropped my gun and began to pat his head. “Sigh* What am I going to do with you... What do you want? Sorry but I can't take care of you. You need to go now, shoo shoo!” I then tried to shoo him away by waving my arms around but the creature seemed more confused than anything.

I scratched my head in annoyance as I was very confused by the situation and didn't know what to do. “Biiiigg Boooyyy.. RRRRRrrrrrrrrr” Hearing him talk in such a deep voice was giving me shivers but it also gave me an idea. I took my cellphone out and started the sound recorder app. “Give me one of those loud roars you did earlier. ROARRRRrrrr!”

Hearing me roar, the dragon took a step back in surprise but soon followed with exactly what I was hoping for. “ROAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrr!” Finally having the recording of a perfect dragon roar, I pressed stop and patted 'Big Boy' for his good work. “Goooood boy! Father's proud of you.” If he saw me as his parent, might as well take responsibility for it.

I was still confused as to what to do with him but soon after, the big dragon took care of my dilemma by taking-off and leaving as fast as he had appeared. Seemed like the creature had just come to say his thanks, or simply for a brief visit. Looked like I needed to be more careful before leaking red mist out in the future.

I had just faced a dragon, yet I was calm. I was surprised at myself for not making a big deal out of what had just happened. Was the red mist changing me? Or was it this world itself? Fact was, I could barely remember the person I used to be back on earth. With Big Boy no longer visible in the sky, I placed my 338 over my shoulder and calmly walked back to the hospital.

“Are you fucking insane????” Screamed Camille as soon as I entered. “What were you thinking by just running out there and confronting a goddamned dragon??!” She then added while fighting back her tears. Seemed like she had gotten scared and worried about me. “Sorry for worrying you, but it wasn't much really... This dragon and I are acquaintances.”

“What do you mean acquaintance?” Asked Robert who had followed Camille. “Remember when I told you that I had used a dragon to glide out of the king dragon's cave? Well that was him... or her...” I nonchalantly answered. “You mean it followed you here??? Won't that become a problem to us?” Quickly asked Robert.

“Fawwwtarrr!” Screamed my little baby boy while bunny hopping toward me followed closely by Emanuela. “Could you please avoid doing stuff that dangerous in the future please?” Said the pretty Spanish girl. “You might not believe me but I had the situation under control. But like Robert suggested, we now have a problem... If this dragon thinks I'm his parent as well, he might be sticking around. I don't know how he would react if he met you guys alone without me around.”

They were obviously terrorized by these words but I had already thought of a way to protect them. “I'll have Alice make another necklace out of the other dragon eye I have. When you're going out for patrol or something, always make sure to have someone in the group wearing it. The one who wears the necklace will have to act as a barrier between the dragon and the others. Keeping in mind how Marc ran away when Manu was in danger a while back, I don't think we should select him as a potential wearer.”

The 3 of them nodded in agreement before going back to what they were doing before. I took Rambo in my arms and went back to my room to get the other eye and brought it to Alice for her to make a simple necklace out of it. I asked her not to make it out of gold this time thought.

“Ha! By the way, do you have some gold rings? I need around 15 gold rings please, I also need a fake one small enough to fit Annie's fingers. It need to be something that look like gold but isn't.” I then asked before leaving. “What do you want to do with so many goddamned rings?” Rudely asked the fat Alice with her usual angered attitude.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“I learned that gold could prevent us from being poisoned by the air outside.” I answered while trying to keep as much of the details to myself. “Really?? Gahahagaha Now that's a good news. Why the fake ring thought?” She then curiously asked.

“That's a secret, and I'm counting on you to keep it that way. If you're asked about it, just say that it is real gold.” I then said while giving her a wink. Alice frowned even more than usual but eventually gave in. “Errmmm... Okay, but only because it's you...” Alice then opened one of her jewellery boxes, pulled out a few rings and placed them inside a bag before handing them to me.

“There's your rings. And for the fake crap. Ermm...”  Alice who was currently in a wheelchair due to her foot incident, then began to roll around the room looking for something. Eventually, she pulled a small ring out of a pile of rubbish lying on her desk and threw it at me. “This shit is made out of fake gold it looks a lot like gold but is in fact totally worthless.” She added with a look of disgust on her face.

This lady was really hard to read and would never speak of her previous life. All I knew about her was her profession and that she had a very bad temper. After leaving her room, I went and called everybody for an improvised meeting at the main room. There, I explained to everybody that wearing as much gold as possible would protect them against red mist poisoning.

Then, I placed the gold rings I had obtained from Alice on the table and had each of them pick one. Among the rings, only one was small enough to fit Annie's fingers, so she naturally ended up with the one made out of fake gold. Seeing that I was giving gold to everyone but Annie, Alice kept staring at me with suspicious eyes but a simple smile from me seemed to dispel her worries.

All that mattered to me, was to make sure Marc wore as many rings as possible. It would protect him against red mist poisoning as well as keeping him weak against it. As for Annie, since she could see the red mist like me, she definitely had a lot of potential, so I decided to take her as my disciple.

After the meeting, I took her aside and had a short conversation with her. “Hey Annie, remember that technique I tried to teach you before?” She kept silently staring at me with apparent curiosity in her eyes. Since she could see the red mist like me, I began to leak some red mist out of my body to show her an example.

Instead of leaking out a powerful torrent like I usually do, I went easy and leaked only the small amount I used to be able to leak in the beginning. As I did so, a small amount of red mist began to gently perspire from the pores of my skin like fog over a lake in summer. “See? Just like this. If you manage to do this, I'll give you a reward.”

As soon as I spoke about a reward, the young girl's eyes began to glow with sudden motivation and expectation. Truth be told, I had no real surprise to give her and had said that just to get her motivated, but it now seemed like I needed to think of a gift. Problem was, I had no idea what to give her.  

Putting that aside for now, the rest of the group and I began to prepare the king dragon trap. We installed 'lil boy' 800 metres away from the hospital in a an empty plot of land assuring us a good view of it from the hospital roof, and installed old man Léopaul's taser carpet around it.

It was like a net made out of copper wires that covered a wide area around the giant bomb. Then we installed a barrel of sulphuric acid, a barrel of liquid chlorine and a few tanks containing toxic gasses concocted by Camille. This trap was the culmination of everything our combined modern brains could think of.

It ended up being not only powerful, but also very vicious in its design. Once everything was installed, we began to place barrels of metallic bits and pieces found in a nearby garage around it, that would play the role of shrapnel. We only needed to install what would be used to lure the king dragon in, but decided to wait for tomorrow since the sun was already setting on the horizon.

That night, I went to sleep completely empty of energy but felt excited by the idea of finally getting back at the beast that had dared capture me before. Rambo was snuggling and rubbing against me in a display of affection that was unusual. Today had been such a busy day that I had ended up asking Annie to babysit him for the day, but he obviously didn't like to be separated from me.

“Did you miss me a lot?” I asked him. He looked at me unsure about the question, but finally answered. “Fawwtar! Wambo luvv.” Well, the structure of this sentence was all wrong but it was still easy to understand. Touched by my baby's words, I gave him a long hug and fell asleep with him in my arms.

I woke up the next morning, had breakfast with Rambo and joined the others for the final preparations. The plan was to use powerful horn speakers and broadcast Big Boy's roar in a loop with the hope of attracting the king dragon's attention. I also wanted to use poisoned dragon meat as bait, but ended up scratching that idea out of fear of accidentally poisoning Big Boy or another dragon happening to pass by.

“So, where do we start today?” Asked Robert as we prepared to go out. “Léopaul prepared a bunch of batteries and loaded them in a trailer. So while I go to the sports arena with Rambo to scavenge some horn speakers, you will help the old man to haul and connect everything electricity related. We need to be ready for action before lunch time, alright?” I answered as if I was their leader, to which they all nodded with a surprisingly submissive attitude.

I didn't know since when, or how it had happened, but I was apparently their leader now for some reason. “Robert, today you will be the one to wear the 2nd dragon necklace. I'm counting on you to protect the others if Big Boy comes to visit you. We haven't seen him since yesterday but we can't be too careful.”

Robert seemed nervous at the idea of facing a dragon but he was the only one I could trust with the others' protection. Alice was going to spend the day inside with Annie as usual but surprisingly, today Marc had decided to help us which was a good thing. I needed to prevent him from isolating himself too much from the group.

I was expecting him to react violently to the fact that I was giving them orders as if I was their leader, but it seemed that everything would be alright as long as I avoided to directly order him around. We exited the hospital and each went to do our assigned tasks. Rambo and I went east, toward the arena which was only 500 metres away, while the others went to get the trailer loaded with fully charged batteries.