HO! It's my once every hundred chapters diatribe, and it's chapter 300 for the fifth time!
I get three thousand and more pageviews a day, so I know I have more than 360 readers, but that's all my Ratings and Reviewers add up to.
I put a lot of time and effort into writing these stories and making sure they come out on time, and I would like to thank everyone that supports me on Patreon for this effort, even if it's only one-offs. That money is most of my monthly expenses!
If you can't support me on Patreon, that's cool, I understand, not having money is not having money, I have been in that boat and I watch my expenses carefully. BUT... the other way you can support is the story rating here on Royal Road.
We're at #63 as I write this, which is back on page 4 of the default 20 'best titles' at a time. I have a LOT less followers than many of the top novels, and for some reason never made the new novels to follow listing.
So, the best way to reward an author you like is to post a 5-star Rating and tell you friends about the story. My book Three is still in the top Ten of completed novels because people upvoted it!
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A reminder: a 5-star rating is NOT a perfect story! A 5-star rating is "This is a good story with good grammar that I like to read in its genre and I think you will enjoy it." It is NOT the second coming of Jules Verne or Isaac Asimov. IN real terms, anything less than a 5-star on this story is actually a DOWN-vote, not an Upvote!
Thanks for your time and I hope you continue to enjoy the story!
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Sea Dragons laired at the bottom of the oceans, which was basically dark and cold all damn year round. Yet for some crazy reason, they loathed the polar oceans, not liking the feel of Ice Mana or something, and so actually laired either near underwater volcanoes or in the equatorial regions, preferring to have lots of green growing things, like kelp forests or sargassos, around when they bothered to emerge and get some sunlight.
I’d been told they also hated the regular, monotonous beat of the engines on larger human ships, as the damn sound carried for miles and could wake them out of their reveries. Seaborne trade routes had to keep the lairs of the Dragons in mind as they cut across the oceans.
They were also the largest and most populous family of Dragons around, even if they were the least visible, and none of them had ever been ‘domesticated’, like dragons of the sky, flame, or rivers had been in the past. They were lords of their domains, unreachable by mere Humans, and the most noble race of the underseas.
It didn’t mean they didn’t have rivals, as the Krakenoid Tribes with their Psychic powers and the endlessly hungry and always-growing Sharkmen challenged them often, while the Whales, well, the Dragons were careful when dealing with the Whales.
But The Sea Emperor was the oldest and greatest of the Sea Dragons, the Sea Dragons were all puffed up on that fact, and they got a LOT of mileage out of it. After all, He was the only High Emperor with so many direct living descendants...
Thus it was that I came to the smallest of Hawaii’s islands; Kahoolawe, a cap of stone long worn by battering wind and waves where no Humans lived, located off the coast of Maui. The stone of the volcano-born islands broadcast a form of Fire and Earth Mana that was particularly uncomfortable to many Aquatics, giving the islands a natural defense against them. It could be overcome, and The Great Flood had really helped the natives of the seas in that regard, but by and large Hawaii had remarkably few problems from the sea.
It also had a native population of Fire Luans who lived around the volcanoes and tropical forests of the islands, and were plenty happy to firebomb uppity Aquatics into steamed flounder, too, who all the islanders revered and some outright worshipped.
This last island was mostly cold and dormant, having little of the natural defenses left, and certainly nothing that was going to stop a Sea Dragon Emperor from getting close to it. I Lightjumped down from orbit since I had never been out here, materialized above the center of the island, and soon saw the Sea Dragon sunning herself on some broken rocks.
Yeah, it was the mate of the one we’d killed. I was sort of incredulous about how she could possibly be chosen to be the ambassador, and realized it probably came down to her being the one who had talked to me the most, thus she knew me best, thus she was the most suited to talk with me again, as none of the other Sea Dragons wanted the job, either.
Thunderbird Emperor had basically gaffed them and told them to deal with us. Given that the main thing Sea Dragons did for Humans was sink our ships and command vast hordes of Aquatics to attack our shores, this was not likely to be productive, but obviously the Sea Dragon True Emperors didn’t care.
They were Dragons and Emperors; they wanted something, so they were going to get it, and our feelings on the subject just didn’t matter.
The sudden arrival of my Sage Aura out of nowhere was enough to get a response from the Sea Dragon, raising the great head of her almost-jewel-like serpentine body above the abused stones with haughty grace and impressive demeanor.
If she were an Emperor I respected, I would have carefully stayed below the height of her head. Since she wasn’t, I came in dead level, indicating that this was a meeting of equals. I could see the tension in her coils as I did so at such hubris on my part.
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If she wanted to fight, we’d fight. I’d call in some friends, and she’d die. Thunderbird and Fire and Ice Phoenix Emperors were all having a friendly chat on the High Point in the Broom Closet right now, and Flowing Silver High Emperor was chatting with Leviathan Emperor and Son Goku on the lake shore there right now, too. The old Fox and the sly Monkey King got together like old poker buddies, and the Whale was a completely different and refreshing personality to the High Emperor, with their shared Psychic abilities forging a friendly bond between them.
I hadn’t asked for help, of course, but if I’d asked I’m sure they would have said something about a filling meal of Dragon meat sounding just wonderful, and did I have anything I might treat it with for some zing?
Time to turn some screws. “My Thunderbird Emperor informed me that you wished to meet with me, Your Majesty,” I Said, Voice up and carrying and no way to be overwhelmed by her. “I am a busy person, and we are going to be breaking The Ice Emperor’s Great Flood in a couple of days, so I do not have much time for you. What do you want?”
I think her outrage caught in her scaled throat for a second as she blinked at me. “YOU... ARE GOING TO BREAK THE GREAT FLOOD?” she repeated in disbelief.
I swept out my arm.
A Valence-centered spell with five Elements to it blazed behind me in a complex Starry Heavens that no Sea Dragon could possibly emulate. It pulsed once, discharging over twenty thousand Mana of assorted Elements, and poured out and down.
Like a receding tide, the heightened water level smashing into this island seemed to almost evaporate. Hundreds of feet of her coils were suddenly on exposed rock as the shoreline and hundreds of acres of land claimed by the ocean were abandoned by it as I Countered The Great Flood in a radius of nearly fifty miles.
The abruptness and speed with which I did it shocked the Sea Dragon, as did the multi-Element use of Mana. She could only watch the sea recede behind her, but her pride wouldn’t let her retreat as she did so, despite being exposed.
“THAT DOES NOT BREAK THE GREAT FLOOD,” she managed after a moment, studying the receding seas and trying to sound smug. “IT WILL SIMPLY RETURN IN TIME.”
“Not before we break it all around the world, Your Majesty,” I answered simply, and watched her coils ripple. The Sea Dragons couldn’t muster the countering Fire and Earth Mana needed to do the job, so they could only suppress The Great Flood actively, if they had ever tried to. Naturally they had no reason to do that whatsoever, so they had never tried. As soon as they turned their attention away, it would simply rebound.
I’d just wiped away the magic of a High Emperor from the area like it was nothing. It was a new experience for her.
Still, she straightened proudly. “LITTLE HUMAN,” she began, and there were spikes of Imperial Intent rising rapidly from Noble, cutting her off as her eyes shifted.
“By the Word of Flowing Silver Nine-tailed Fox High Emperor of the Beast Realm, my Name is Healer Fae!” I informed her in no uncertain terms, and all those Tokens pulsed in acknowledgement... including a simple triple strand of braided quicksilver fur, twisted and hard to see among the drifting feathers, shell or scale fragments, and other, showier Tokens.
But her abyssal black eyes found that braid, and the gleaming turquoise and gold of her scales seemed to lose their luster.
You just don’t fight the Edicts of a High Emperor, and she could sense the power of one in that tiny little braid!
“HEALER FAE.” The nod was shallow and reluctant, but it was there, and suddenly the Tokens’ Intent was gone, and they seemed mere ornamentation again. She’d been able to ignore what they meant before, to an extent, but now she realized that Beast Emperors were paying attention to me, and, oh no, I was NOT alone...
“Yes, Your Majesty?” I responded calmly. I might not like her, but I wasn’t going to disappoint the Emperors by not being polite, even if I shafted her badly while doing so.
“THE DRAGONS OF THE SEA SEEK TO ACQUIRE MORE OF THE UNWHITE FLAME GIFTED TO SEA EMPEROR.” This command might even have come from Him, even if we were on the wrong side of the planet from His Court. “WE HAVE SEEN SUCH THINGS BURNING IN GREAT NUMBERS IN THE DISTANCE ON THE LAND. THE OBELISK DELIVERED TO SEA EMPEROR HAD THE TOUCH OF YOUR MAGIC UPON IT. YOU WILL SUPPLY THEM TO US!” she pronounced with regal authority.
“Indeed. By command of my Thunderbird Emperor, I am required to trade with you to deliver vivic flames,” I agreed coolly, and watched the glittery ripples go down her coils.
Trade.
Like the Sea Dragons were some baseborne creatures swapping favors in one another’s faces, uncaring of the prestige and bloodline of the Sea Dragons!
Steam vented uncontrollably from her nose, probably would have come out her finned ears if it could. She just glared at me, was going to say something, was silent again as she flicked her eyes at Noble and his weighty load.
My phrasing was quite explicit. Thunderbird required me to trade with her. So, if she wanted something, we had to trade.
It also meant that, quite reasonably, I didn’t want to do a damn thing for them or be here at all. I was required to be here.
But I had to trade. Like Humans did. And if the Sea Dragons didn’t want to trade, then I didn’t have to do jack squat for her.
Her scales rippled up and down as she fought down her instincts and processed something that wasn’t a direct refusal, but was still very humiliating... and it was up to the Sea Dragons to decide if they wanted to proceed.
“WHAT ARE YOU SEEKING?” the Sea Dragon slowly hissed, staring at me and daring me to gouge them.
I waved my hand, and a winding column of black magma flowed like water, rising smoothly from the former beach into a twenty-foot-high brazier crafted in the form of winding sea serpents (I didn’t even insult her by using Thunderbird motifs!), which came together into a triangular bowl atop which a Vivic Eternal Flame poofed into cool misty existence.
“This is the equivalent of the Braziers which form most of a Ring around The Ice Emperor, which, when closed, will help seal His Demesne from the vast majority of ambient Dark Mana.” She actually shifted position to study the column and its misting load more carefully. “It draws in the Dark Mana for a distance of one hundred and twenty feet around it. Please put your nose into its flames and inhale, Your Majesty,” I said with business-like calm.
A bit warily, she deigned to do so, one eye swiveling to keep me in sight as she snaked around me to accomplish it, but I just waited calmly.
Her nostrils flared once, inhaling the vapors in a long and slow breath. None came out when she exhaled, of course, but she took another breath, and another.
I watched the patterns of her scales grow less taut and relax in spite of herself. Purity of Mana is just a huge, huge thing to Imperial Beasts of all kinds, and I couldn’t imagine Dragons were any different. They were probably even more sensitive to it.
“THIS... IS ACCEPTABLE,” she agreed as she withdrew her great head carefully, trying to hide the greedy delight in her eyes. I might have just offered her the equivalent of a draconic bong or something. “HOW MANY OF THESE WILL YOU PROVIDE US?”
“That number is determined by you, and how much you are willing to trade for them,” I stated evenly, arms crossed, celeste Wings spread, Noble gleaming, uncompromising. “How many do you want, Your Majesty?”
Her eyes opened and narrowed several times in thought, thinking of how to phrase her reply while I waited patiently. “HOW MANY CAN YOU PROVIDE?” she at last inquired.
“Today, right now, ten thousand very basic Braziers.” She blinked. “When the Floodbreaker Ritual is done and the mages freed up, I can improve that to one million within another lunar cycle.”
Her great eyes blinked twice. Audibly.