Master Of None

Laurence sprinted off and was back in the blink of an eye. His arms hugging a massive pile of straw. The pile dropped in front of Walker before he ran off again. Walker’s mana was low but seeing Ribbolt give him a slight glare he decided feeling more tired wasn’t a problem,using his flame doll skill another fire harpy took form. Walker stood back as Elise brought out Stella to meet her soaring partner. 

With a red flash Stella appeared in front of the group. Her eyes landed on the fiery mirror image of herself, her confusion tangible. ”Stella, Walker made us a fire doll that should copy your techniques, we can train against it in the air!” Just hearing that she could fight in the air for a change was enough to make Stella jump in to flight, Elise wanted to join her but after seeing the look on Ribbolt’s face said if she even dared she would be cleaning the pens for the next year. 

Having made the fire doll Walker felt the low mana getting to him. Everyone else noticed this but knew he would recover over time so didn’t stress too much. 

” So little lizard, you want to meet my dragon? He’s got a bit of a temper but as long as you don’t pick a fight you will be fine.” Ribbolt spoke as if he completely expected a fight and was just saying it for politeness. 

Midnight naturally crouched while arching her back, she was totally going to start a fight. Seeing this Walker wanted to be ready to jump in but his low mana may limit him. After a long sigh he pushed his worry to the side, this was one reason they had come all the way here, ”Alright let’s go meet another dragon.” Su seemed to be the most surprised that he decided to do so so soon but did not argue knowing Walker would have considered the situation. 

”Just to take a wild guess here but we’re going to that smoking building over there right?” Seeing Ribbolt nod, ”oh joy hot and Smokey and a possibly giant dragon.” Gil was a bit excited to see such a monster but also was fairly unsettled, dragons often were known as being incredibly dangerous. They were some of the few species that could become ancient, seemingly undying. 

Midnight having heard this stood as tall as possible trying to put off an imposing aura. Onyx left her back to return to Walker’s shoulders, seemingly in response to her wishes. She flapped her wings a few times shaking herself out, Walker could already see her trying to fight a dragon easily double her size and began mentally preparing himself. The building they the party was following Ribbolt to seemed much smaller than the main building, however there were piles of dirt being hauled outside and transported away, Some tamers even carried large piles of ashes out. They weren’t sure the general cause of all of this and at first assumed the dragon caused all the smoke. Large doors made up the entire front of the building made of a strong iron. The size was most certainly for the dragon to more easily get in and out, the closer they managed to get the more activity they found. 

Entering the inside they saw nothing, not a dragon, not many people, not even the cause of the smoke. Instead they found pipes leading in to the ground and a heavily strengthened elevator on large chains. This was constantly in motion and every time it came up there was either a large amount of dirt and rock or ash. The elevator could easily fit the party including Ribbolt ten times over. ”Hope you kids aren’t afraid of the underground. I always find it funny when someone goes under for the first time, I forget I was born under the rocks.” Ribbolt hinted at his heritage a bit knowing that the party had definitely noticed his shorter height and realized he had some dwarven blood. 

The elevator made almost deafening clicking noises as it descended fairly quickly, the stone walls sped by in a blur until the speed sharply decreased, this caused everyone but Ribbolt to stagger to his own amusement. Once they had all gotten their bearings they had realized the elevator stopped showing them a massive cavern. Beneath the Tamers guild main building was the true headquarters, The massive cave system partially natural and partially excavated. ”It may be a bit late but welcome to our headquarters.” Ribbolt saw the looks of awe on their faces and knew they were enjoying the sights. Massive stalactites came from the ceiling, many echoes of pickaxes swinging could be heard. Various ores were being filtered and organized some even being forged in the wide open space, the pipes leading up in to the ceiling heading outside. 

”TORO! GET YOUR SCALY HIDE DOWN HERE!” Ribbolt screamed at the top of his lungs causing echoes to reverberate all around them. The tamers guild members were all used to this and continued unfazed, Seeing a movement at the top of the cavern, a stalactite or what they thought was a stalactite moved. The massive winged shape fell towards the ground coming in to better light. This thing was the size of a house! The second light hit its body reflections danced around them. Shimmering bronze scales dazzled their eyes, the dragon’s wings were equally shimmering coming to sharp hooks that could easily cling to the cave walls. Its snout was more shovel shaped and lacked the vicious sharp teeth Midnight’s species had. The claws on its legs were less pointed and similar to its snout, more rounded and shovel like. This massive bronze dragon stood tall barely showing a glance to the people behind Ribbolt. However for a split second its eyes rested on Midnight. 

Besides the fact that the entire party was stunned, they were also realizing just how small they were in the wide world of adventuring. They had struggled against larger opponents and even nearly died but seeing the dragon before them they knew they couldn’t even scratch on it. ”You better not have been eating all the ore again, you know the forges rely on us.” The bronze dragon; Toro, snorted a small stream of smoke from it’s snout as it heard this. Walker couldn’t help but compare it to Midnight, she consumed darkness crystals and bones gaining nutrients to grow stronger scales. This dragon in front of them had perfect bronze scales and hearing what Ribbolt said it obviously consumed a huge amount of ores to gain this effect. 

Midnight was also more stunned than she expected but refused to drop her head. Standing tall was an instinct dragons had to challenge another but due to the difference in strength between the two Toro didn’t even feel the need to return the challenge. Feeling insulted, Midnight clawed the ground wanting a response, all she managed to do was get a second glance from Toro. At least they weren’t fighting was all Walker could think. ”Ahh I at least expected you to greet another dragon or our guests but instead you’re as arrogant as always, don’t make me bring you above ground again I know you had the sun on your scales.” The threat seemed to do the trick and Toro started to shift uncomfortably. Lowing itself a bit the dragon gave a fair look at all of them, feeling a chance Midnight moved closer issuing her own snort at the bronze dragon in front of her. 

The two seemed to make similar sounds at each other for a few minutes before Midnight became much more agitated. From what everyone saw Toro was making fun of Midnight as he used his snout to point towards her wings and scales. After more sounds from Toro, Midnight used her skeletal armor skill making herself much more intimidating. The stomped her front claws to the ground letting out her mightiest roar which was in comparison to what the bronze dragon could do fairly small. In response Toro wanted to show this little pest where her place was, stood taller, his chest expanding with air. Knowing what was about to Happen Ribbolt and Walker both stepped farther, they could both sense the heat in the air increasing meaning instead of a roar fire was about to bellow through the cave. 

Walker was going to use all but one of his remaining mana on the dragon’s intimidation skill, it was the only one he could think would distract the massive dragon. Not realizing Ribbolt was also preparing something Walker didn’t hesitate, releasing a massive roar louder than any he had previously he was joined by Ribbolt who was also releasing a roar that dwarfed Walkers. The echoes of these two roars caused the cave itself to shudder ever so slightly and some dust to rain over them. The entire cave became silent and Toro stopped in his tracks. His head shifting back and forth between the two in front of him, his chest deflating in confusion.