T-there is an ice shard in my hand! How the heck did it pierce my scales? I panicked as I saw a tree branch-sized icicle lodged right into my left front foot. Scales, skin, and bones were all pierced, rupturing through my [True Draconic Barrier] as if it had never existed before.
Although the status affliction [Freezing] hadn’t appeared yet, I knew from the frostbite growing and spreading on my front legs that if it wasn’t for [Ruby Star]’s [Core Regulation], I would be in a very precarious situation. After all, even with all the skills stacked in my favor, why exactly did a single icicle break through all my defenses?
Why did frostbite form on my other front leg when I accidentally touched the icicle? How did my solar core crack, reducing its effectiveness? Why were my front legs feeling so numb despite the fact my flas were already trying their best to warm and heal .
Well, the answer was pretty obvious after I thought about it a bit more.
… This is—
[“True ice!”] Shay shouted with telepathy as the blizzard was blowing so hard the wind was louder than my own thoughts. Our voices wouldn’t be able to pierce through it.
[“W-what? That’s not possible, Brother,”] Beth argued. [“We dispelled our ice armor the mont we had to help Lady Hestia. The ice should have lted, but—”]
[“It is true ice!”] Rhekk shouted. [“Normal ice from a blizzard can’t possibly do this, and look! This icicle isn’t lting when her flas are roaring! This is true ice! From the splinters of those projectiles the monkey created. Prince Nongragmos broke them and they shattered upon impact, right? True ice doesn’t lt as easily, nor is it easy to break. Look at the red ice here! That isn’t just Hestia’s blood, that’s the anti-dragon blood!”]
The storm Nong created had accidentally sucked in so of the ice, and from the look of it, not all of it actually was destroyed. One of them hit when he helped us escape from the ape problem, but that one undestroyed true ice dug right into my hand due to the anti-dragon blood, and from the look of it, it managed to cause my solar core to crack. A reduction in my core’s efficiency led to my body feeling the cold of this blizzard, raising the danger of the true ice.
Great. I listen to my big bro like a good ol’ little sister, and I get rewarded by this? Nah, ah, I’m wearing my damn armor from now on! Fuck dragon pride!
[“Argk! We can validate the truth later! Get out of this damn storm, please!”] I demanded with a shivering voice.
Dammit, need to warm up! No choice! Hikari, play [Dragon Fire], now! We’re going into overdrive mode, now!
My mana control wasn’t compromised, nor was my ability to use my solar energy. With the sun blocked by this fierce snowstorm, so strong that even the black clouds in the sky were barely visible, it was risky to expend all of it, but this was an ergency. Two more charges were available until the sun ca back.
“In my purgatory, I make the devil cry ♫
In hellfire ♫
All you hear are his screams, begging to be released ♫
It’s music ♫”
[Music Resonation (Minor)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]
Rhekk jerked back as he felt my body temperature rising out of nowhere, also noticing my core shining brighter than before. Shay and Beth told him to step back a bit, huddling together in the distance as I concentrated my solar energy in my throat. I turned onto my stomach and placed my freezing front legs before .
Releasing all this solar energy will make it impossible to summon a ruby star. But I can beco a heater for others, no problem.
My next moves were determined by that little mana lecture Mom gave about two years ago, when we were on our way to Estralia. Naturally, mana was neutral and had no bias to an elent, but over ti, through exposure to elentally-aligned mana, it could be transford into it.
Living beings or inorganic mineral formations absorb mana and mold it into an elent, releasing it into the air and soil afterward, leading to elentally-drenched areas like Frozen Nest. Speaking of Frozen Nest, the more the mana is aligned to the ice elent, the colder and more inhospitable it would beco to beings with fire-aligned mana, like .
In a way, you could say mana had a “pH scale” in a sense, in the form of a color wheel, with the opposites having detrintal effects on the other—fire and ice, or water, for example. The deeper you went towards one of the elents, the purer the mana would beco, until it reached its “peak” form. For ice, it was true ice.
Unlting, indestructible, and cold enough to freeze even fire. However, just as Kramps told , this true ice from my grandmother wasn’t like Mom’s. There were different tiers to true ice. Just like on a pH scale, a pH of one would classify sothing as extrely acidic, and while a pH of two was quite dangerous, its chemical structure was still different from the forr example.
The sa applied here, and it really helped that Grandmother’s spear had degraded over the 2500 years it had been abandoned. In other words, with the sa example, we could say Mom’s true ice had a “pH of one,” while Grandmother’s was a “pH of two,” and the twins’ and Tasianna’s true was sothing around “pH of three or four.”
The best way to counter true ice was with another form of true ice. While the twins could break the ice, I feared the mana inside this icicle might overpower and hurt them similar to how much Tasianna’s true ice troubled her. That left with a second way to counter true ice, and that was to apply a strong enough counter-elent.
Dilution. Adding a base to an acid to neutralize it, however, unlike with acids and alkalines, weak flas wouldn’t do shit to true ice. You needed mana as elentally-aligned as true ice to turn it back into “normal” ice, and this was where [Solar Beam] ca into play.
You better make it worth it to , [Ruby Star]! Prove to that [Red Star Tyrant] was the correct choice for my unique Job evolution! Solar Beam!
Activation of [Solar Beam] in conjunction with unique skill [Ruby Star]. A change in solar energy has been detected. Mutation of [Solar Core] and [Core Regulation] skill of [Young Sunfang Dragon] detected. Ability evolution comnces
Ability requirent fulfilled. [Solar Beam] evolved into Ability [Ruby Shredder]
Oi, this isn’t the ti for so random new Ability! I’m bloody freezing here, and I need so stabil—
Sadly, the energy was too much for to hold back at this point.
Instead of the usual bright white beam, the “solar beam” was now completely red, similar to the neon red my scales would exude whenever I activated [Battle Frenzy]. No, maybe it was more similar to the ruby color my miniature suns would have.
Regardless of this change, what mattered was the effect of this new Ability. Gosh, the burn. My mouth was burning! Like puking sothing spicy you had eaten about two hours ago, stinging your throat with half-digested chilies and stomach acid. It was so warm, even I felt uncomfortable at this temperature.
Though, aside from the heat, the force of the red laser beam was causing my head to wobble like crazy, shaking my brain like never before. The heat scorched not only the snow and glistening aquamarine soil, but also the sheet of frost on my leg, setting off the scale-dust inside my scales and causing them to crack from the explosion of heat. I felt my skin crying in pain as this new ability pierced through my defences.
Dammit!
Crying out as I was burning myself, as if I had [Overheated], I pulled my front legs out of the way of the laser and tried to control the beam. Opening my mouth even wider, the fla slowly dispersed and lost its focused, laser-like form, turning it into a more fire-like dragon breath, reducing the impact of the attack, slowing it down from digging into the ground.
When I finally felt my throat was emptying, I heaved out a deep sigh as I thought this was the end of it, but felt a sudden chill when I saw the ground starting to light up, similar to the dragon veins my older sister Neill would create. At the sa ti as the beam ended, the ground exploded as if sobody had placed a bomb underneath us.
[Solar Overdrive] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]
Thankfully, due to [Dragon Fire], the twins and Rhekk were unhard from the explosion, but the shockwave still blew them away like . Steam erupted around as I slid backward, jerking back a bit when I saw snow, gravel, and ice rain down with the blizzard. Wanting to get away from it, I tried to run away, but froze in place when I still felt a strong sting on my left front foot.
Looking down, the [Ruby Shredder] definitely worked, although I might have overreacted a bit when it ca to the pain. [Dragon Fire] gave all allied individuals, including , full immunity from my own fire and heat attacks. The solar energy was a different matter, and it showed with how cracked up my front legs were, but it wasn’t anything substantial enough to make a fuss about. My white flas were already at work healing . Feeling pain ant the numbness was gone, and that was preferred over losing my arms from the cold.
Speaking of which, the frost on my right arm vanished completely, while the one on my left arm was still there. The icicle hadn’t lted as well, but I felt the spread of the frostbite having slowed down, so my little theory about reducing the impact of true ice was correct. It just wasn’t enough to pry it out.
[“Lady Hestia!”]
The twins called, prompting to look up. Beth cast [Frost Shield] to protect from the storm and hail, while Shay landed right next to . He bit into one end of the icicle and anchored his limbs to the ground by freezing them.
[“This is cool enough. As the Empress taught . Please, endure this,”] he said as he cast [Hoarfrost Scales], creating that jagged ice armor around his body.
An even sharper pain coursed through my front leg as the ice armor touched , even with [Dragon Fire] reducing the effectiveness of all ice spells and abilities by 50%. Even with this new overdrive mode, Skay’s true ice was frightening. It was piercing through my defences as if I had no protective skills.
Ruby Shredder: An evolved [Solar Beam] of a being with a solar core. Channels special energized solar energy, molded with holy and fire mana and further powered up by the bloodline of Kargryxmor, throughout the user’s body by releasing one-half of the energy as an explosive laser beam, inflicting solar damage depended on [Drakonian Sunlight Edge] and [Ruby Star] effectiveness. Applies [Solar Overdrive] on the user and uses the second half of the solar energy to superheat the user’s body, enhancing all fire and holy attack with solar energy and [The Light]. Enhances Territory while [Solar Overdrive] is active, but reduces mana and stamina by 1% to maintain the effect
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Solar Overdrive: Special draconic solar energy will course through the user’s body, enhancing all fire and holy attack with [The Light] and solar energy, reducing the total amount. Disables solar energy transmutation while in effect. Allows transmutation of health, mana, or stamina into solar energy while in effect. To dispel this effect, release the remaining solar energy out of the body, with the remaining amount determining the total destructive power of the second [Ruby Shredder]
The heat from my overdrive mode was helping the cold by a lot, and with Mom’s temperature manipulation technique, I was keeping my arms from going numb. As long as I could keep it like this, there wouldn’t be any risk of necrosis.
However, as ntioned before, [Dragon Fire] didn’t prevent solar energy damage, and with this new [Solar Overdrive] version of my overdrive mode, even the heat I was exuding was filled with solar energy. Essentially, I was an artificial sun glowing neon red, releasing flas around my body like an industrial furnace. Shay’s unprotected body parts were getting scorched, and I could see he was trying to focus despite the pain.
The trick Shay was doing was to break the true ice with a stronger piece of true ice. The ice armor on his head imitated the bony plates along my jaw, gripping tightly onto the icicle. It cracked under the pressure, splintering to allow Shay an even better grab on the foreign object, allowing him to pull it out, exposing the large hole it left behind.
With a quick [Miraculous Grace] and the twins creating a do of ice around , I was able to make a quick recovery. During this ti, Rhekk returned from wherever he went, informing us we landed right next to a mountain.
[“We have to hurry, or we’ll freeze at this rate! Co on!”] he said, leading us forward while I remained in the middle, using the overdrive mode to turn myself into a heater.
With floating [Fimbulvetr Wall] from the twins, we managed to create an almost similar formation as if we had Nong or Tasianna around, but their lacking presence was felt quite a bit as the strong winds kept slowing our movents by pushing away from the mountain. The weaker [Air Shield] we could cast was useless, I didn’t want to place my violin in this situation, and due to [Solar Overdrive]’s new effect, if I created so fire wall to protect us, I would lose solar energy.
Right now, I didn’t want to lose the only reason why I wasn’t getting [Freezing]. I had to maintain my solar energy supply above 0%, and I wanted to keep this “heater” up as long as possible. I did spend quite a bit of mana during the fight with the mandril and just now to heal myself, so I had to conserve my resources since we didn’t know what would happen until we found a place of refuge.
[“Did you see Tasianna or Vifi?”] I asked Rhekk, but he shook his head. Clicking my tongue, I regretted the fact we couldn’t make a proper party since I remained a dragon throughout this day.
With a party bracelet and everybody in a party, we could just use the party mber tracking function and find the rest, but, well, there was no party bracelet made for dragons. If either Tasianna or Vifi hadn’t been blown away from us, we could have used this idea since those two had created a party for themselves.
Then again, I could rest my worries since Tasianna was with Vifi. If that demonkin girl were all alone, she probably would die without a proper way to keep herself warm, but Tasianna was there. Her being with Vifi was enough. I could trust my second best friend. Tasianna should even have her subspace runes, so we could et later.
Calming down my heart and redirecting all that emotional investnt into surviving was the ideal move. Our party needed to get out of this storm, so I could check my solar core.
‘Energy is leaking,’ Hikari inford . ‘We’re using a bit too much to my liking, lowering our percentage to 34. I’ll turn so health into solar power while deactivating [White Flas], okay? We need the stamina.’
I agreed to Hikari and allowed her to control our solar core while I worked with the Rhekk and the twins to fend off this storm and get sowhere safe. The darkness and the snow-covered our vision too much. We couldn’t see too far. At the very least, due to the blizzard, the chance of eting a monster was extrely low since it was instinctual for the fauna here to escape the blizzard.
Well, aside from territorial wyverns, annoying elentals, or those damn apes. Okay, maybe the chance wasn’t so low.
[“Any signs of Nong?”] I asked, but Rhekk shook his head again. [“Then fuck! I know he wanted to get us away from those damn things, but sending us into the middle of nowhere, while he remained behind is crazy! Dammit!”]
[“Your brother will be fine!”]
[“I know that, Rhekk! I know. Damn peacock is faster than probably Vifi, and she’s already faster than the third-best speedster I know,”] I said, thinking of Neill, missing her a bit. [“He probably fled, but, do you really think that is what he would do? I don’t know him long enough, but you must have felt it too during that fight.”]
[“… Prideful. Yeah. I know that well enough. He has an image to uphold, and the reputation of the ‘prince who wants to be like The Black Tyrant of the Skies’ is known everywhere on Miononbolax. Losing against so monkeys will definitely annoy sobody with that much pride in himself like Prince Nongramos,”] Rhekk surmised, sharing my opinion on Nong after I saw him fight with Vifi. [“Although, with that much power … Killing a rank A with that much ease, I think he certainly deserves the respect. We ought to look out for ourselves.”]
… Yeah, better forget that blender mont.
I then turned to Rhekk. [“Then what about you? You—”]
[“Stop. I don’t want to talk about it,”] he replied, stopping in his place before continuing his march. [“I-I should have known my place. I am not worthy of anything. I should realize that, instead of putting up a front.”]
Huh? Where is this coming from?
[“Shouldn’t have spoken up, shouldn’t have tried to lie to Brother, shouldn’t have acted so arrogant when I am nothing before Prince Nongramos and … everybody else in this damn party. Dammit! What am I doing here!”] Rhekk shouted, roaring in his dragon form. [“Argh! Brother knows. He will know. Why can’t I stop shaming our clan’s na. What is this—”]
[“Hey, hey, hey, calm down!”] I ran in front of Rhekk, pushing my face close to his eyes so he could see mine. [“I know the situation seems dour, but we can’t reflect on our mistakes in the middle of a snowstorm, Rhekk. Please. We can talk about this once we find a cave, all right?”]
Rhekk groaned, flinching back from the heat around .
[“Can you not burn then!”] he shouted, shaking his head as I could see so darkened scales on his face. [“Argh, we can talk all right! About how useless I am and how I need you to get straightened up. Again! Why does this happen to ? Ever since you appeared, everything and everybody around just feels worse! And I’m the one placed in the middle of all of this and—Ooof!”]
Shay suddenly punched Rhekk in the face, before body-checking him onto the ground.
[“Rhekk!”] I yelled.
[“Brother, what are you—”]
“Keep the walls up, Bethlieranha!” he shouted as loud as he could before turning to Rhekk, pinning his neck to the ground with a foot. [“You! Lord Rhekkraxus! Scion of forr Dragon Ruler of Ice, Thalaxarus, and current Dragon Ruler of Ice, Alextraxus. Younger brother of Lord Siegragxus! If you didn’t realize it just yet, your acting is nothing more than a pitiful skink! How dare you call my mistress a skink, when you are the one acting like a coward! How dare you imply sothing so far from the truth, just to hide your own insecurities and weakness!”]
Shay slamd his foot down, causing Rhekk to cough and gasp for air as his nose was subrged under the snow sheet.
[“Hear this, I am not speaking on behalf of my lady like when you cried after we found Lady Hannathala. I’ve had it with you, Lord Rhekkraxus. A disgrace of a true dragonkin; that is what you are, and you are right to call yourself just that!”] Shay snarled. [“The wyverns outside and inside Miononbolax worship all of you true dragonkin as if you were the direct scions of God Kargryxmor, but all I see is just another scale-kin who can’t think for themselves, believing everything in the world revolves around themselves! Thinking that your own thinking, actions, and beliefs are what is important here!”]
Shay … I frowned as it felt like he was talking about himself, for a mont. Well, before he started to change his mindset about dragonkin and every other race.
[“You call Lady Hestia a coward, unworthy of her role, and unreliable, as if you knew anything about her. As if you can think beyond just the norm of a ‘dragon imperial’ instead of what her actions can benefit Frozen Nest and the rest of the empire. Have you given those even a single thought, or have you kept any willingness to rethink your opinion of her after she defeated you during your first and second etings? Have you frozen your mind to everything that goes against your thinking?”]
Rhekk glared at Shay, widening his eyes before he closed them slightly. They shivered as his head relaxed in the snow, breathing in faster as if he was about to hyperventilate.
[“‘At her rcy?’ No, wrong, you weren’t at her rcy, but ours. The expedition party, as your role as guide died the mont all you could think about was to find the murderer of Lady Hannathala. Your reasoning disappeared and was reduced to anger, pity for yourself, and an obsession to prove yourself. To whom? Your brother, with how often you spoke about him? Your father? Mother? The scale-kin of Frozen Nest? Who have you tried to impress ever since you first t Lady Hestia?”] Shay moved his face closer to Rhekk. [“It’s your family, right? Have you disappointed them? Lord Rhekk—”]
“Shut up!” Rhekk pushed Shay off him, growling and roaring like a small dog barking for sobody to back away from him. It proved nothing, as such, as neither the twins nor I felt intimidated, only pity for him as Shay landed a bullseye. [“I-I … I am still useful! I know this place better than you! I’ve been here with my brother and we’ve visited the damn spire! I still have a use, un-unlike you, wyvern! I am a scion of Thalaxarus! You are nothing more than a wyvern born in so random nest in the middle of nowhere in Altrust! Y-you …”]
[“I am what? True dragonkin?”] Shay strutted forward, pushing through the blizzard still blasting snow and hail into our faces. [“Say it. I am what?”]
Rhekk took a step back.
[“Yes, I am unworthy to be Empress lloxtressa’s retainer. I am far too weak compared to your father, Lord Guyulthanos, and Lord Karydrinos. I understand well that I was taken in to protect her daughter, and that my value is only that. If I cannot protect Lady Hestia, then I am of no use to Empress lloxtressa. I am nothing without the shadow of her wings … Yet, I can see that. I say it not as sha, but as conviction. A reminder that if I wish to remain useful to Empress lloxtressa and my sister, then I must change. Close-mindedness and the inability to accept a wing, is sothing I still have to overco.”] He took another step forward. [“Yet, I am not petty enough to allow my distrust to affect my ability to do what is right.”]
Rhekk turned silent, turning his head down as if he accepted Shay’s words. Seeing how the two weren’t slinging words at each other any longer, Beth and I let out a loud sigh, while I shivered as I was freezing my tail off ‘cause of these two. Having an argunt in the middle of a—
Wait, what is that sound? I turned around as I heard a faraway rumbling, instead of the hissing blizzard. Casting [Shine] on my tail, I shone it forward like a flashlight. When I saw a shadow quickly approaching us from above, I yelped, drawing everybody’s attention.
[“Avalanche!”] I shouted. [“Move! Move with !”]
Using my rocket boosters, I charged towards the mountains and shone the [Shine] flashlight above again, this ti fully confirming that sothing actually was coming down. I still couldn’t see the avalanche with the blizzard blocking my sight, but I could feel the shaking underneath .
All that shouting and roaring from before couldn’t have been the reason, honestly, with how loud this blizzard was. It most likely was just a damn coincidence! A buildup of snow and hail on top of this mountain just sounded too plausible not to believe!
Regardless of the reason, trying to find a cave entrance was impossible at this rate. Man, if only I could use my subspace to escape this problem. Arrgh, stupid Eltharion!
Unheiliger Engel! I cast, turning it into a drill before I stood on my hind legs, turning so of my stamina and health into solar energy to increase the power of my second [Ruby Shredder].
Once my throat felt like I was overfilling it with gas, I unleashed the dragon laser on the side of the mountain, causing it to shake violently as the drill began to drill into it with the help of the laser. It wrapped around the obsidian, amplifying the perforation effect of the drill and laser beam, easily piercing a tunnel for us.
When the other others caught up to , I ordered the twins to freeze the wall and ceiling to support this artificial cave. When they agreed and started doing their job, I started walking deeper into the newly made tunnel.
I didn’t exactly know how long it took, but the rumbling eventually caught up to us. The avalanche slamd right into the entrance of the cave, pushing a thick layer of snow into the tunnel. Anticipating this, the twins cast [Fimbulvetr Wall] the mont the snow ca, blocking it from filling our refuge up.
Seeing this, I let out a deep sign as [Solar Overdrive] died down and I felt the chill finally catching up to . I took out one of my solar core catalysts and filled up my core with as much as I could, but stopped midway as Hikari reminded that my core was still cracked. Looking down, I grimaced as I saw the damage, looking down at my healed left front leg.
That damn icicle! That mandril, uuurgh!
I had to renew my core, aning, extract it and allow myself to regrow it. This certainly sounded like the correct choice since it would also allow my body to regrow a new core after Job evolution. The next solar core would, without a doubt, be even stronger than the current one due to [Ruby Star].
… Though, that would take at least a month, or so. Delaying the expedition by a month sounded awful.
Nevertheless, I didn’t absorb all the solar energy from my core. As long as it was above zero percent, I was all good.
What am I doing? Rationing sun power, now? Whatever, humanize.
[Humanize (Moderate)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]
I groaned, stretching a bit as I let out a deep sigh. Looking around the tunnel, I nodded. “It’s large enough for us to be comfortable in our dragonkin forms. Guys, let’s take a rest, okay? And, Rhekk … No, forget it. Cool your head for a bit. The subspace can act as our oxygen tank, so don’t worry about breathing too much.”
Once everybody transford into their humanoid forms, I pulled out four chairs and a table from my storage before filling it with so food for us to enjoy. Sitting down, I massaged my temples as the stress could finally wash away. Though, I kinda wanted to jump into the hot spring.
I then took out my subspace as everybody sat down to eat, intending to see if Tasianna and Vifi had made it. Leaving behind a ssage was important as well, to make sure everybody knew we were alive.
Shit, Nong doesn’t have them. Damn! We have to dig out of the cave eventually.
Letting out another deep sigh as the headache wouldn’t stop, I opened the subspace, only to see people already waiting on the other side.
“Mom? Sieg?”
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A note from AbyssRaven
Rhekk, oh, Rhekk. You can't act like that after everything.
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