She dodged and flew away, escaping Arad’s stomp at the last possible mont. She had never felt pain or fear before; everything was numb, but for so reason, Arad’s attacks looked scary now.
Arad had even hit her before, and she felt nothing and had to act her way through to look normal. But now, for so strange reason, she can’t allow him to get close.
Calorin’s tarrasque blood scread at her that Arad was a danger, or at least a possible danger. A tarrasque is immune to death and cannot die, but there is one way for them to perish. To get eaten by another tarrasque.
It didn’t help that she could sll another tarrasque on Arad, aning that he could’ve already killed another tarrasque. What Calorin slled was Nina’s scent, and that terrified her tarrasque blood.
Even though she felt terrified, Calorin couldn’t be happier. She finally found sothing, soone worth her ti. Once more, her draconic blood clashed with her tarrasque blood. One screaming to run away and survive, the other screaming at her to fight and win a mate.
Arad could sense the conflict through Calorin’s moves, and he wasn’t that willing to push her too much. From what Arad knew, it was a really bad idea to stress the tarrasque’s blood over its limit. He could clearly rember Shi’s bloody form.
Shi’s bloody form was the exact opposite of Calorin’s. Her body could barely endure the stress of the tarrasque blood; it was in a constant state of repair and breaking down, causing her to live in perpetual agony.
Arad grabbed Calorin by the face, and she started throwing punches and kicks at him. Unlike before, her attacks weren’t even scratching his scales, even though the shockwaves they released rendered the mountains nearby into sand.
Arad wasn’t limiting himself as before; he wasn’t in the fortress and didn’t need to endure the brunt of every attack. "Relax, it’ll end soon. You’ll feel better... I hope."
Arad reached down and bit her neck, his body turned into a wave of blood, seeping into her body. She staggered back, barely able to stand. Her veins bulged and moved like worms; sothing was alive inside her body, moving, seeking, and thriving.
The tarrasque’s blood shards weren’t the sa; each one of them held a copy of a part of the original’s power. The true tarrasque felt no hunger, but sought to consu everything; it felt no fear, pain, or pleasure; it didn’t need any of those emotions.
Arad knew what Nina’s blood felt like, what Shi’s blood felt like, and now, he saw Calorin’s blood, knowing what she had and lacked. None of them was a perfect copy of the Tarrasque, but each ca close to the real thing in their special way.
Arad used Shi’s agonizing blood to bring back so feeling into Calorin’s blood. It wasn’t as complicated as it seed. He was a Pricolici and quite skilled at controlling blood.
All that Arad needed to do was guide Shi’s blood into Calorin’s veins and make sure they didn’t start a war. Shi’s blood followed his commands willingly, but Calorin’s blood resisted with violence.
Before Arad could do anything, he had to convince Calorin’s blood that he wasn’t a threat, that he was there to help, that Shi’s blood was sothing to learn from, not destroy.
After a long struggle that lasted several minutes, Arad’s Pricolici blood and Shi’s blood finally managed to chain Calorin’s blood. It didn’t take long after that for the bloods to mix and beco one.
Calorin’s blood learned from Shi’s blood and regained the sense of pain and agony, and Shi’s blood could now ignore those feelings.
Arad was already good at dealing with and enduring pain, but now, he could ignore it as he wished. Calorin has regained her feelings and can control them better, and once again feels alive.
When Calorin opened her eyes, she was lying on the ground, drowning in a pool of her own sweat and tears, crying for all of the pain and sadness she had long since forgotten.
Arad was sitting there by her side, waiting for her to regain her composure.
She cried for the awful wounds she sustained in the past, just rembering that one dragon biting her guts out made her scream.
She cried for the loss of her parents, which she had never done before.
She lanted the lost youth she wasted living in seclusion. She was now a great wyrm, childless, and all alone, with only a few centuries left in her life.
She cried for the gold she once lost, she cried for that one cat she had, she sobbed for that one poor ship she failed to save three centuries ago.
It took her three hours of screaming and crying, and yet, she still felt like there were too many things that she could never get back.
Through all of that, Arad was sitting right beside her, waiting.
Once she finally stopped crying, Arad lifted and helped her stand. She didn’t understand what he did, but she could feel pain once more.
Arad extended his hand and washed her with his void; his eyes seed distant, but they soon regained their life. "How do you feel?"
It took her a while to understand his question and reply, but she could only say one word. "Awful."
"That’s a good thing." Arad was at least happy she could feel such a thing, before she couldn’t even do that.
"To get your mind out of it, you can go and have a drink, spend so ti with people, and put a bit of happiness in your life." He waved his hand and opened a portal to his stomach, "Let’s go. I’ve got soone who can be your friend." He then scratched his chin, "Or, more like an employer?"
As the two went through his stomach, they appeared back in Alina, but not in the castle.
They appeared in the middle of what looked like an old tavern with a massive hall, a destroyed ceiling fixed with makeshift wooden beams, and countless grunty and dirty-looking people standing all around.
Arad looked around. The adventurers’ guild in Alina had never changed. And there, sitting behind her desk, staring back at him with a faint smile, was Nina.
"You’re scaring them." She pointed at the terrified adventurers who never expected Arad to show up, appear out of nowhere like a ghost. But what terrified them most was Calorin.
Unlike Arad, she couldn’t suppress her draconic presence, and everyone here felt that she was a great wyrm. Countless B and lower rank adventurers shat or pissed themselves, many cried and ran away, and those who fell unconscious were too nurous to count.
"Ah, they’ll get used to it. What’s an adventurer if they don’t risk their lives once or twice, right?" Arad looked at the A-rankers who were pale and hiding in the back. It took them a while to reply, but they nodded in agreent and then started drinking again.
"I don’t care. Don’t bring a great wyrm to the middle of a human city like that; many could die from fear alone." She sighed, "Besides, what brought the Great Emperor here of all places?"
"Asking ? What’s a Queen doing behind a guild’s desk?" He looked at the two quest contracts resting in front of her, ready to be processed.
"Believe , you don’t want anywhere near anything serious. Better leave that work to more capable people like Aella or Isdis." She stamped the two quest contracts and pushed them aside for now.
"Fair enough. I brought her to you." He pushed Calorin forward, "I bet you can feel it as well. Take care of her."
Nina stared at Calorin for a while, then blinked. "First, let’s get that draconic aura under control."
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