After a few seconds of silence, a dragon flew up out of the crowd.
(I challenge for the throne. A First Born son of a mistress has no right of ascension, no matter what our Immortal Father wanted.} The dragon insisted.
Lukas nodded. {Then, by all ans, begin. The champions will decide the outco, as per divine law.}
The dragon snorted disdainfully. The King was not allowed to fight his own fights during the challenge, a test of his judgnt, as the King was expected to be the strongest of the Shadow Dragons, and challenging him directly to a duel was unlikely to succeed.
It was intended to be a asure to keep a powerful fool off the throne, as there was a real chance that the chosen Champion could betray him if he was not a good leader.
The younger Prince activated a magical item, and his power soared, easily double what it was before, and far stronger than what Lukas could claim without outside assistance.
{Avatar, concede defeat, and there is no need for you to be injured here.} The Challenger demanded.
Karl smiled and extended one clawed finger in the man's direction.
[Nullify] shattered not only the barriers, but also the strengthening buff on the dragon. Cara laughed wildly, rolling on her back in the air and clutching her belly, which had the hatchling Princess strapped to it.
The change of angle let the little dragon get a better view of the shocked look on the man's face as Karl charged at him.
He didn't even have ti to recover from his shock before a massive clawed paw hit him on the back, tearing the muscles in the base of his wings, and sending him crashing to the ground with a fleshy crunch.
{That should settle it. Unless he's planning to get back up.} Karl announced. He was a Mythic-Ranked dragon, he would heal the physical injuries in a few minutes, if not faster. But the damage to his pride would last far longer. Being swatted out of the air with a casual claw, not even a skill, was utterly humiliating.
It wasn't sothing that should be able to happen to him, but his impact rattled mind still couldn't comprehend why his protective spells had failed.
The assembly of Nobles and Royals fell silent at the scene.
Even if they had so intention of challenging, what were they supposed to do about that World Dragon? The only one of them who might even stand a
chance was Dakkarian, and he was already flying in the back, openly supporting the King. But was a World Dragon even vulnerable to the breath attack of a Black Dragon?
The World Dragons breathed life, a hard counter to the Black Dragon's cloud of death. It could very well end the sa way as this challenge, with Karl relying on a massive physical advantage to simply knock his opponent out of the sky.
{If there are no more challengers, we will begin the celebration feast.} Lukas declared.
The dragons began to roar, their voices shaking the air.
{Long Live The King!}
In one wave, the dragons retreated to the city, leaving only Karl and the Avatars, plus Barry, still in the sky over the city.
{Well, that was fun. We should do this more often. For a second there, I could feel the Goddess' attention on us. Just long enough for you to smack that moron out of the sky. I swear that almost triggered a civil war.
But nobody was brave enough to follow his lead after he lost.
The Queen's faction is going to collapse with a whimper, I fear. Hardly worthy of the attention of the red dragon.} The war priestess complained.
{I did consider making it look like a fair fight. But that might have just caused even greater Chaos.} Karl joked.
Dakkarian laughed, a rumbling noise that sohow echoed, despite there being nothing for it to echo off.
{I would put money on the fact that it would. The black dragon also saw great potential in this situation, but his attention has faded.} The black dragon Avatar agreed.
{I'm just here for a better viewpoint.} Barry added.
Sohow, that was the most blue dragon thing that Karl had ever heard. He didn't care how it turned out, as long as he had the best view so that he didn't miss any details for the official record.
{Should we join them inside?) Karl asked.
Dakkarian shook his head. (No, let them all play at their Royal Family Politics. The new King will take care of Princess Rue for the next hour, and we will join them at dinner, along with the Nobles who are not directly part of the Royal
Family.
We could go wait inside if you like. The Nobles are sure to want to congratulate you on your victory, and perhaps suck up to you, in case you're joining the
King's faction on a longer-term basis.}
Karl nodded, and the black dragon led them all to the large balcony where Karl had landed for his first dinner here at the Palace.
The situation was similar this ti, only there were tens of thousands of awestruck commoners staring up at them from the city as they landed, and the room was even more packed than before, as everyone who could possibly get an invitation had crowded in with at least one additional guest. "Avatars, it's a pleasure to see you all gathered here today. Is there any news on the succession? Has the King perhaps let slip any details about his new advisory council?" One of the n asked the mont that Karl led the group inside in humanoid form.
Dakkarian shook his head. "The new King was only just advised that the Immortal King had advanced. There was no ti for discussions before the
coronation began."
A number of the Nobles backed away at that news. If there was no decision, then there was still a chance for them to make the best impression. The question was: who were they supposed to be impressing?
Nyx was not here, he was with the Royal Family. The King only had one Consort, who was with him, and none of the guests in this room were close enough with him that they were likely to sway his decisions.
No, there was one here who might change his mind.
The Chaos Badger was clearly holding his child, and the hatchling was happily laughing as Cara narrated whatever it was that she was doing.
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