"Where did they go?" Malina’s father growled, and her mother gasped, "ARIAN!"
Malina looked around and sighed, "Calm down."
She pointed at a tiny black dot that floated above the couch, "Look."
Her father rushed in and glared at the black dot, "What’s this?"
"Arad’s beacon." Malina pushed the couch away so they could get into the small dot.
"It is like a magical gate that leads straight into his stomach. Arian should be there now." Malina explained, and her mother glared at the dot with a terrified face. "He ate my little Arian?"
Malina froze, then turned around, "Technically, yes. Actually, no. Arad went there with Arian so they won’t destroy the living room."
She reached forward and looked at the dot, "Walk right into it. Like this." She took a few steps forward. The mont she touched the dot, she disappeared as well.
Her parents quickly followed after her.
****
Inside Arad’s stomach, Arian had just noticed the lack of light around him, that he was standing alone with Arad in a desolate gray wasteland. His attack had landed on Arad’s face, though, which made his fist hurt.
"Calm down! Why did you attack ?" Arad asked with an amused smile, but Arian didn’t seem to be willing to reply.
Arian jumped back, landed on his feet with a growl. Sparks of magic ran down from his head to his arms, and he clenched two fists. Almost imdiately, two blades erged from his forearms.
"Those look sharp, careful with them." Arad noticed that it was taking Arian a long ti to get ready for his next attack, as expected from a dragon his age. All of his moves were telegraphed or slowed down due to the ti his magic takes to manifest.
That was the reason that the younger the dragon, the more they lean toward using physical attacks and long-lasting spells. In Arian’s case, instead of flinging steel knives or harpoons at Arad from a safe distance, he decided to use two blades because it was more sustainable.
Arian squatted down, his knees bent, and Arad could hear the kid’s muscles scream and cry. They sounded like steel getting bent to the point it was about to snap, and he was right.
Arian was a steel dragon, just like his mother and sister. By tensing his muscles, they beco just like steel, and he was using them and his bones as springs.
When Arian released the pressure on his legs, he burst forward at blinding speed. Back in the living room, he just jumped using his toes. So he didn’t get much speed, but now, he was using his whole lower half.
Even Arad was surprised by how fast Arian could move, even though Arian couldn’t change his direction after jumping.
Arad only needed to take one step to the side and dodge the kid’s attack.
Arian flew past Arad like a bullet, missed his attack, and hit a massive boulder. "Your aim is all ssed up." Arad looked back with a smile, only to see Arian flying back at him. He didn’t hit the boulder; he bounced off it.
Arian’s legs were now like powerful springs that never lose energy, because all he had to do was tense his muscles to recover any tension lost from moving or friction. He would keep bouncing around until his muscles tear apart.
Seeing that Arian was working hard to get a single hit in, Arad decided to keep playing with him. Now, instead of dodging Arian’s slashes, Arad started deflecting him away with his arms, chipping away at the sharp blades.
Arian was aware that his swords won’t last, even after just a few hits at Arad’s bare arms; he was already needing to repair and resharpen them. If this kept going on, he would be the one to fall before Arad got a single scratch on him.
At that ti, the parents showed up with Malina a few ters away from the fight.
"Arian! STOP THIS RIGHT NOW!" His father shouted.
"You can’t do anything to him! Calm down!" The mother cried, getting ready to jump and catch Arian. To her luck, her husband was already moving.
Malina didn’t even move, because she knew that Arad was far more terrifying than her parents could even imagine.
As the father flew at blinding speed, trying to grab Arian, Arad appeared behind. In the next second, he found himself right behind his wife, several ters back away from the fight.
Arad had deflected Arian away, grabbed the father, flew with him all the way back, then returned to where he was standing to keep playing with the kid.
The father had seen all of that, but he couldn’t move an inch, because he had just realized the horror of where they were, and who Arad was. This was Arad’s stomach; if he wanted, he could start digesting anyone and anything he wanted. The mont they walked inside, it was already ga over; He ate them alive.
The second reason was that, for so reason, Arad’s gravity magic was so stupidly powerful that the father couldn’t resist it for the short ti Arad needed to carry him away.
"Don’t worry, Arad won’t harm Arian." Malina walked in front of her parents so they wouldn’t jump into the fight. "You might’ve realized it, but Arad can kill you if he wants. Just a few days ago, he beat over a thousand drakainas, a hundred of which were great wyrms."
She sighed, "Also, isn’t Arian strong for his age?"
"Of course! He is trying to kill him." Her father stood and stared at the fight, forcing himself to calm down for a second. Malina was right; if Arad wanted Arian hurt, he would have smacked him away long ago.
"What is he doing?"
Malina shrugged, "What else do you think? Playing with him. Arian isn’t a threat to Arad, so he would just let him fight until he gets tired."
At that mont, Arad grabbed Arian by the leg and swung him around. "You’re Malina’s little brother, right? Show what you are made from!" He then threw him away with enough force that Arian could barely stabilize himself.
Arian was forced to shift into his draconic form to spread his wings and try to avoid a fatal crash with the ground, only for him to see Arad right after him.
Arad’s fist ca crashing down, and Arian lifted his claws up, forming a massive shield of steel. Arad’s attack was powerful enough to dent the shield and smack Arian to the ground, forcing him to run away for a few seconds.
Most tallic dragons never grow in the wild; like humans, they are born and grow here, in the ho of their family. They are taught from a young age, sent to school, and trained in the countless fighting arenas around the entire fortress. Only when they beco young adults are they allowed to leave the fortress to seek a cut of the world for themselves.
When the dragons grow outside for a while and beco adults, so decide to return ho to join the army of the tallic Dragons, so remain to teach and train the next generations, and so never return and spend the rest of their days outside.
Malina was one of those who never returned ho; her father returned and joined the army, while her mother was a healer.
In all of his life, Arian wanted to beco like his veteran father and join the tallic Army, but he had to grow up and get stronger first, which is why he attended endless training classes and spent both his blood and sweat to beco a better fighter.
Now he was asking the question. Why is nothing working against this dragon? What is Arad made of? The blades of a steel dragon are sharp and deadly; even the blades of soone as young as him could cut and wound a mature adult dragon, just like how a knife is still a sharp knife even in a kid’s hands.
Arian was always told to never point his blades at soone unless he was willing to wound them, unless it was serious, because his blades are a deadly weapon.
Why aren’t they deadly now? Why are the weapons he was so proud of so useless now?
"Hey! Kid!" Arad grabbed Arian by the shoulder and stopped him from flying too far away.
"Your swords are sharp, but aren’t hardened enough. If they are made from your steel scales, then make sure to keep a steady flow of magic going to the edge. Or at least be sure that the flow is there when you’re attacking or blocking. You can also try to make the blade vibrate like a saw, but I don’t know if you can do that."
Arian stared at him with a confused face, "What are you talking about?"
"Trying to teach you a lesson." At that mont, Arad slapped Arian in the butt so hard that he sent him flying away with a scream. "And, if you can’t endure at least this much pain, you’ll fall unconscious on the first stab."
****
"Isn’t he a bit rough with him?" Malina’s mother asked with a worried face.
"If this were any other dragon, Arian would’ve had his wrist bitten off. Arad is just giving him a watered-down taste of a fight outside this fortress." Malina tried to calm her mother a bit, and her father sighed.
"Forget getting his wrist bitten off. Your husband here swallowed him whole." He sighed, "Just, don’t beat him too much, he is a bit sensitive. That is probably why he attacked you."
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