The dragon knights moved through the forest with ease, their footsteps finding paths between trees and undergrowth that suggested they'd walked this route many tis before. Noah followed at a distance, his enhanced perception letting him track their movent through sound and occasional glimpses of armor catching moonlight.
'What am I even doing?' Noah thought, ducking behind a thick oak as one of the knights paused to adjust his pack. 'Following them to... what? Watch them kill a dragon? Learn sothing about this world that'll help complete a quest I don't understand?'
The group kept moving, their voices carrying in the quiet night. They were telling stories, sharing jokes, the easy camaraderie of n who'd fought together and trusted each other with their lives.
Noah's mind drifted while he followed, questions multiplying faster than he could process them.
'Burt's mother,' he thought, rembering the way she'd looked at him during dinner. 'The way she smiled when I defended their father. She genuinely cares about her son. About , as far as she knows. And Gertrude, asking if I still wanted to be a knight like father. They're real people with real lives and real emotions.'
The thought made his chest tight.
'If I complete this quest, whatever it is, do I just leave? Does Burt's body drop dead when I return to my reality? Do they wake up tomorrow to find their son and brother dead for no reason they can understand? How do I justify that? How do I live with being responsible for destroying a family that's already been destroyed by their community?'
But the alternative was worse.
'If I don't complete the quest, I'm stuck here. Forever. Which ans Sophie, Lila, Seraleth, Kelvin, Diana, Lucas, everyone I know thinks I'm dead or lost. Eclipse falls apart without leadership...No, they'd carry on the mission. Still, my team grieves for . And I live out Burt's life in a dieval kingdom that's apparently dood to die according to Ego's words.'
Neither option was acceptable. Both options ant soone suffered.
'The system did this,' Noah thought, anger building beneath his confusion. 'The penalty for failing to beat Ego. It sent here, to this place, this ti, without explanation or context. Just a quest that says "Extinguish the Flas" and expects to figure out what that ans.'
Another thought occurred to him, this one making him pause mid-step behind a tree.
'Ego was level 100. I was level 61 when I entered that castle. The system had been locking my progression, holding back all those level-ups I earned fighting through the stages. Was that intentional? Did the system set up to lose? Did it want to fail so I'd end up here?'
The possibility was disturbing.
'If the system wanted here specifically, then there's a reason. Sothing I'm supposed to do, sothing I'm supposed to change or prevent or cause. But what? And why lock my interface? Why take away my ability to see my stats, check my health, access my void abilities?'
He pulled up his quest notification ntally, read the words again for maybe the hundredth ti.
[EXTINGUISH THE FLAS]
'Flas. Dragons breathe fire. The dragon knights are hunting a red dragon. Red ans fire-type, presumably. Is that the fla? Am I supposed to kill the dragon before it does sothing? Save it from being killed? What?'
The dragon knights ahead had stopped walking. Noah froze behind his tree, watching as they gathered in a small clearing.
"We'll rest here for a few minutes," Egor said, his voice carrying authority despite not being raised. "Check your equipnt, drink so water. We've got another hour of climbing before we reach the ridge."
The group settled, so sitting on fallen logs, others leaning against trees. One man pulled out a waterskin and passed it around.
Noah shifted his position slightly, trying to get a better view without exposing himself.
'Seven of them,' he thought, counting. 'But in the castle, I fought through dozens of knights before reaching Ego. Hundreds, actually. Were they all dragon knights? Were these seven n the beginning of sothing larger? Or am I misunderstanding the tiline completely?'
He thought about the quest structure. Stage one had been defeating the castle boss—Ego himself. But the original quest when he'd entered the dinsion had been called "Origin Point." Find the source, understand the truth.
'So this is the origin,' Noah realized. 'The beginning of whatever turned Ego into the Last Dragon Knight. The beginning of whatever killed his kingdom and left only an empty castle. I'm here to witness it, or change it, or... sothing.'
But knowing that didn't help him understand what he was supposed to do.
Movent in the clearing caught his attention. One of the knights had stood up, was walking toward the edge of the group, his hand going to his sword.
"You hear that?" the knight said quietly.
The others went still, hands moving to weapons.
"Hear what?" soone asked.
"Sothing moving. In the—"
A Serpent struck before he could finish.
It ca from the undergrowth on the opposite side of the clearing, massive and fast. Twenty feet of scaled muscle, thick as a man's torso, with a head the size of a barrel and fangs that glead in the moonlight.
The knight it targeted barely got his sword up before the serpent's body coiled around him, lifting him off his feet.
"SERPENT!" soone shouted, and the clearing exploded into action.
The dragon knights moved with trained precision. Two of them flanked left, swords drawn. Two went right. One stayed back, his hands beginning to glow with soft blue light.
'A healer,' Noah realized, watching from his hidden position. 'They've got dedicated roles. Offense, defense, support.'
The serpent's tail ca around in a sweeping arc, trying to catch multiple targets. The knights dove, rolled, ca up already attacking. Swords bit into scales, drawing dark blood, but the wounds were shallow. The serpent's hide was thick, reinforced, difficult to penetrate with normal blades.
One knight stepped forward, and Noah saw his entire body shimr with golden energy. The serpent's fangs ca down toward another knight, and the golden knight threw himself between them.
The fangs hit his shoulder, and instead of penetrating, they skidded off like hitting stone. The golden knight grunted from impact but stayed on his feet, his body having absorbed damage that would have killed soone else.
'Tank,' Noah thought. 'Damage absorption ability. He's drawing aggro, keeping it focused on him instead of the others.'
The serpent released the first knight it had grabbed, apparently realizing he was dead or unconscious. Its head swiveled, tracking the golden knight, recognizing him as the biggest threat.
Then Egor moved.
He'd been hanging back, watching, assessing. Now he walked forward calmly, and energy began forming in his right hand.
Noah felt his breath catch.
The energy was golden-white, condensing, taking shape. A hamr materialized in Egor's grip, maybe four feet long, the head massive and covered in patterns that looked almost like scales.
'That's the weapon,' Noah thought, staring. 'That's Render. Or the origin of it. The sa hamr Ego used to beat to ten HP in the castle. He has it here, now, in this tiline.'
The serpent lunged at Egor, its jaws opening wide enough to swallow a man whole.
Egor's hamr ca around in a horizontal swing.
BOOM!
The impact created a shockwave that Noah felt from fifty feet away. The serpent's head snapped sideways, its jaw visibly dislocating, and its body went rigid.
Egor followed up imdiately. He jumped, bringing the hamr down overhead in a strike aid at the serpent's skull.
CRACK!
The sound was like breaking stone. The serpent's skull caved in, brain matter spraying, and its massive body collapsed, twitching.
Silence fell over the clearing.
The dragon knights stood there, breathing hard, checking each other for injuries. The golden knight's shimr faded, revealing bruising but no serious wounds. The healer moved to the knight the serpent had grabbed first, his hands glowing brighter as he assessed damage.
"He's alive," the healer said after a mont. "Broken ribs, punctured lung, but I can fix it."
Blue light enveloped the injured knight, and Noah watched as visible wounds began closing, as color returned to the man's face.
'Magic,' Noah thought. 'Real magic. Not chi, not void energy, but actual healing magic. This world has systems I don't understand.'
Egor's hamr dissolved, the energy dispersing like smoke. He stood over the serpent's corpse, not even breathing hard, like killing a twenty-foot monster was just routine exercise.
"That was close," one of the knights said, wiping blood from his sword. "Thing must have been stalking us. Didn't see it at all until it attacked."
"Yeah," another agreed. "Good thing we—"
"The serpent wasn't the only thing stalking us," Egor interrupted, his voice calm.
Everyone went still.
Egor turned, his eyes going directly to the tree Noah was hiding behind.
"Co out," Egor called. "I know you're there."
Noah felt ice settle in his chest.
'He knew,' Noah realized, his mind racing. 'This entire ti, he knew I was following. Let follow. Why?'
The other knights were looking around, confused, hands going back to their weapons.
"Captain?" one of them said. "What are you—"
"Soone's been following us since we left town," Egor said, still looking directly at Noah's position. "Staying back far enough to avoid detection. But not far enough."
'His senses,' Noah thought, rembering how Ego in the castle had moved with such precision, such awareness. 'He could track my movents despite being almost invisible. Could sense attacks before they developed. His perception is beyond anything I've encountered except maybe Kruel.'
There was no point hiding now.
Noah stood, stepped out from behind the tree, his hands raised to show he wasn't ard.
The dragon knights' reactions were imdiate. Swords ca up, defensive stances forming, the healer stepping behind the tank.
Then recognition dawned on several faces.
"That's—that's the coward's son," one of them said, surprise evident. "The tavern boy?"
"What the hell is he doing here?" another demanded.
Noah walked forward slowly, keeping his hands visible, trying to look as non-threatening as possible.
"I'm sorry," he said, his voice carrying just the right amount of nervousness. "I didn't an to intrude. I just... I heard you talking about dragons at the tavern. About hunting them. And I've always wanted to—I wanted to see what it was like. What you do. How you—"
"You followed us?" the younger knight interrupted, anger clear in his voice. "Followed dragon knights on a hunt without permission? Are you insane?"
"I just wanted to learn," Noah said, letting his voice crack slightly. "I want to be like you. Like father should have been. I know I'm scum, I know I'm a coward's son, but I thought if I could just see—"
"Absolutely not," the older knight said, his beard gray like Master Grayson's. "We're not running a training program for tavern boys. Especially not ones with your bloodline."
Several of the others voiced agreent, their contempt was clear.
But Egor was watching Noah with an expression that gave nothing away. Just studying him, assessing, like he was trying to solve a puzzle.
"Please," Noah said, directing his words at Egor rather than the others. "I'll stay out of the way. I won't interfere. I just want to see. Just want to understand what it ans to be a dragon knight."
"Kid's delusional," one of them muttered. "Thinks he can beco a knight when his father couldn't even hold a sword."
"We should send him back," another said. "Before he gets hurt."
"Send him back alone?" the healer countered. "Through these woods? At night? With beasts like that serpent prowling? He'd be dead within an hour."
"So?" the younger knight said. "Not our problem if—"
"It is our problem," Egor interrupted, his voice cutting through the argunt. "We're dragon knights. We protect the kingdom and its people. Even the ones who disgrace themselves by following us without permission."
He walked toward Noah, stopping maybe five feet away.
"You want to see what we do?" Egor asked, his tone neutral. "Fine. You'll co with us. Stay at the back, stay quiet, don't interfere. If you die, it's your own fault. Understood?"
Noah nodded quickly. "Yes. Thank you. I won't—"
"Don't thank ," Egor said. "I'm not doing this as a favor. I'm doing it because leaving you here alone would an your death, and I don't want innocent blood on my hands. Even if that blood cos from scum."
The words stung, but Noah kept his expression grateful, submissive.
"We're wasting ti," Egor said, turning back to his knights. "Gareth, how's Davos?"
The healer—Gareth, apparently—nodded. "He'll live. Needs rest, but he can walk."
"Good. We keep moving. Ridge is still an hour away, and I want to be in position before the red one makes its nightly hunt."
The group began gathering their equipnt, checking weapons, preparing to move.
Noah stayed at the edge, watching, and caught fragnts of muttered conversations.
"...can't believe we're babysitting..."
"...coward's son of all people..."
"...probably piss himself the mont he sees a dragon..."
But they accepted his presence, however reluctantly, and when they started walking, Noah followed at the back of the group.
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