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As I walked into the arena, I could hear the growled whispers of the crowd. Thankfully, this was not my first ti performing in front of a large live audience, but it was my first ti performing before an audience so physically powerful and intimidating that even the least of them could kill the whole of the previous large audience I perford for.
Curious to hear what they were whispering about, I used so subtle sir instinctive magic to preserve the traveling sound waves so that they would reach before they degrade due to the distance traveled.
As I listened to them, I found that even though their perspectives and focuses may be sowhat different from the so-called “mortal races” that i belong to, one thing that stays the sa is the thrill of gambling.
All around , besides small pockets of puritan hardliners, most of them were simply curious at the match-up, and so even disgusted by the perceived power disparity between a human and a full blooded red dragon, even if my opponent, Druuv, had just beco a young adult.
But even so, there were a few wyrms around who looked to be acting as bookies as they called out odds and had other wyrms flocking to them. And unlike civilized society where I ca from, wyrms do not bet in coins. They bet in ingots, which kind of made sense because the coins of different countries had different sizes and weights, but apparently, ingot sizes worldwide were standardized.
From the odds I hear the bookies calling out, the odds are in Druuv’s favor. That's when I heard a familiar voice and tilted my head to the side to take a look..
[Fifty gold ingots on the human!] I heard Professor Sageira call out to one of the bookies, and the mont the bookie acknowledged it, she was off to another bookie to make another bet on .
The mont she started making bets, there seed to be a few wyrms that recognized her and followed her bets thinking that she had so inside knowledge, which, to be honest, she did. The rest of the other wyrms, however, scoffed at what they thought was to be the obvious outco of a single human facing an adult dragon.
Wanting to get in on so of that action, I fed so mana to the scale and contacted her to make bets on my behalf. After having a ntal chat with her and telling her my current liquid assets and what I was willing to bet, she helped front the ingots for and put down for two gold ingots for each bookie.
If things go well today, I will have more capital for so projects I have ideas for in the future.
A few seconds later, a red dragon around Thryz’s size, but red in color, strutted out of his entrance with his head held high like a prized horse, and was sporting a gold chain around his neck that had a dented helt hanging from it. This must be the Druuv I have heard so much about.
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As he strutted his way to the center of the arena, he did not even deign to look at while he was t with polite cheers. Only when he stopped before did he look in my direction and give the dragon equivalent of a sneer.
[This is what I am to be fighting? And to think grandfather told to strike you down fast and with all my power. A human is not even worth a strike from my pinky claw, much less my breath or spells.] Druuv said with a loud, derisive voice while raising one of his pinky fingers.
His trash talk was t with chuckles from so of what seed like the younger audience, while I saw the larger and older wyrms slowly shake their heads.
As I eyed my opponent, I finally got a closer look at the dented helt hanging from Druuv’s gold chains… I recognize the insignia on that helt from geography and politics class.
[Nice helt, where did you get that from?] I asked while using air magic to carry my voice further without increasing my volu.
This caused the whole coliseum to fall silent. Apparently, besides the elders, hardly anyone else got the mo that I was capable of speaking Dragon Tongue.
Seeing that Druuv’s brain has just hung, I decided to restart it and loudly cleared my throat and said, [Well?]
Taking my apparent fluency in Dragon Tongue in stride to make it look like I was unfazed, he replied while puffing out his chest and thumbing his chain to show off. [This was taken from the leader of a castle I was sent to for my Broken Scale trial, of which I slew their defenders and brought their walls low! They were of no match for my power.]
I feigned ignorance as I rubbed my chin while comnting, [Huh… I thought the Broken Scale trial was supposed to pit their young against challenging opponents. If my studies are correct, that helt belongs to the Orris kingdom. They do not have any records of winning a war since their founding, and are just used as a political buffer country between their three larger neighbors. From what my teacher tells , a squad of well-trained knights can storm and take over their royal palace if it would not kick off military action with the neighboring countries.]
From what I could see from the crowd behind Druuv, most of the crowd and Druuv himself did not get what I was implying, but those who did chuckled while shaking their heads.
It did not take long for those in the know to share what they knew with those who were oblivious to the structures and politics of mortal civilisation, and soon, words like [weak prey] and [rigged/fixed Broken Scale] were being thrown around in the audience.
It did not take long for Druuv to put two and two together and snarled at with venom in his voice. [You would question the integrity of my Broken Scales trial, Vermin?!]
I exaggeratedly moved my body from side to side as if I was trying to get a better look at Druuv’s large body before shrugging. [I don’t know, I don’t see any broken scales on you.]
The mont those words left my mouth, Druuv’s eyes beca bloodshot as he roared and brought his clawed hand to strike , only for Dragon King Brakkh’zhaarn’s mana to reach out and telekinetically hold Druuv in place.
Brakkh’zhaarn chuckled as he said, [Ah, the hot blood of youth… but that is no excuse, young Druuv. The fight will not take place until I say so. This is my only warning to you.] he then used his telekinetic hold on the young dragon to put his hand down to the ground before saying, [Now, without further ado, let the fight BEGIN!]
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