Tales of The Mighty Dragonair

"I'm fine," he simply replied, feeling more energy entering his exhausted body, knowing it wouldn't be long before he would regain his vitality again. "These flying monsters are important to us, and many of them are three and four horned monsters. Make sure you don't kill them all," he said, as these monsters would make perfect candidates for pets.

"I will relay the orders now," Amelia said, as she went down to the ground, to relay his orders. Just before she jumped, she gave Noura a long glance, knowing this chick was here to check on Arthur, despite not admitting so herself.

Amelia knew Noura from the days when she was using the guild at Noura's black raven clan. Noura was someone so arrogant and self proud that she wouldn't be interested in any mage, no matter what.

However, Amelia knew they were speaking of Arthur here, someone who broke the logic and concept of normal mages. She just looked to her, silently without saying a word, before descending down to the battleground, ordering others not to kill all these monsters, leaving some alive for later use.

"So, you took my advice and used your strongest strength," Noura then spoke of, mentioning her chat with him from before.

"Yes, I have to use my strength to the fullest, and face any threats afterwards," he replied with a tired tone, while eating more meat.

"But these side effects are weird," she remarked, "I have never seen such a weakening state before, are you sure you are transforming using the right procedure? The way you might use seemed a bit rude," she added, stressing on a point he already was aware of.

But her words made him realize his transformation was already flawed! If others could transform and return to their human form normally, then he should be the same, right?

His mind started to contemplate on how he was using his dragonair strength. Logically thinking, her point was the supposed fate he should have, not this weakening state.

'That��s strange, was I using the energy wrong then?' he muttered to himself while he admitted his lack of knowledge. The only way to learn more about this power right now was through that book, the cursed soul book that he threw inside his ring and decided not to use it again.

'No, temporary weakness is much better than risking losing my soul against that sinister master,' he thought while making a decision regarding this matter. He would never stop thinking about better ways to stimulate his energy, but he wouldn't get in touch with that cursed book, not soon at least.

"I see you are already aware of this, tell me, from where did your power come from? Is it from that relic that the bronzed giant was looking for?"

Noura seemed of the keen type, those who paid attention to the minor details, and so she managed to connect the missing dots together, and started seeing the whole picture.

Arthur, on another hand, didn't reply to her, just looked silently at her. His response confirmed her guess, which made her chuckle more as she added:

"I promise I won't tell anyone about your little secret, as long as you keep tight about our relationship in the academy. I don't want to make trouble for myself, not for a loser like you at least."

She said these words and turned to leave. Her attitude was arrogant, irritating Arthur, but he said nothing back.

'The more you try to keep me away from you, the more I want to make you mine,' he thought to himself, knowing that she wasn't trying to push him away for another mage, she was pushing him away out of fear.

'What are you hiding in the academy, miss mysterious Noura?' he muttered, as he was sure behind her was a secret, a big secret, and she didn't want anyone to know it.

He just watched her walk away, before returning to glance over his mages. They were doing great against those ground monsters, and the battle was getting smoother the more they adapted to the rhythm of it.

In one hour, he regained all his strength back. He just checked on himself, before returning to observe the battle, waiting for a moment where he would be needed to interfere.

But this moment never came! After a few hours, more reinforcements came here and joined the fight, making the mages fight on shifts. 'If not for those nasty flying monsters, I would have left them here, and went to the other mountain to check it,' he thought to himself, shaking his head in regret.

He liked this mountain, it was huge, with a snake about to ascend to become a dragon, and many ores he was in desperate need of. As for the other two mountains, he didn't like the earth type ores, and the ice ores weren't of much use to him.

He might use them to make his potions, but that would mean using a small amount of the ores, not like the fire ores, which he kept depending on nearly everything!

As the battle progressed smoothly, there was no need for all the leaders to work at the same time. as Amelia was about to get her deserved rest, Arthur waved to her to come to him.

"Is there anything you want from me?" she asked, while her tiring face was glancing at the distant Noura, wondering what the two spoke of from before.

"I want to make you have a flying monster as a pet," he said, while adding, "Noura knew the place of another mountain, just go there and do a reckon, grab some of the ores from there, and bring these to me," he explained his intention of calling her, before finally adding, "that's after you gain more rest."

"Do you want to reckon the earth natured ores or the icy natured ores? I know the places of these two mountains," she said, as she glanced with an uneasy look towards Noura. She didn't like Noura, from before, not much, and now she didn't like her even more, for no obvious reason, for her, for now.

Arthur smiled in content, as he said:

"Good, then it's better not to let miss Noura skip my eyes, for now."

Amelia's eyes shone for a moment, as she understood his meaning. He wasn't trusting her, and that made something inside her to be quite satisfied.

"Good, I can have the pet for now, and rest while on this journey," she added, before she pointed to the biggest on the captured ones, the one with four horns on its head, a glistering feathers like they were on fire, and a very strange tall tail that seemed to be made of crystals, not feathers. "I want that one," she declared, as she liked this monster the moment her eyes fell on it.

"Then it's yours," Arthur smiled, before jumping down the ground, with Amelia following him. The process of making a pet was done smoothly, while he noticed the observing eyes of Noura, especially when he took out the runes.

'Interested in my runes? huh?' he smirked inside, while knowing Noura was acting tough from the outside, showing her disinterest towards his secrets, despite her great desire to know them.

Something was standing between the two of them, Arthur could feel it clearly, but he didn't know what it was. All he knew was that this thing was dangerous, far more dangerous than he was imagining, or Noura was just overestimating its danger, which was something unlikely to happen.

'Let's wait until I reach the academy, everything will be revealed to me there,' he smiled, as he was confident that thing, no matter who or what it was, would pump into his way in the academy.

"Oh, are we doing pets now?" Gregory suddenly popped up, while his disclamation attracted everyone's attention around them, "I want, I want one of these as well," he added, while others looked towards Arthur, with anticipation.

"Fine," he, helplessly, shook his head while pointing to a side, "those in rest can come here to gain flying pets, first come first serve, and the priority will be to those who will come with me to the academy, no offense."

He set the rules, as the number of these monsters were already few, numbering only around a hundred or two. He then started to get busy making pet contracts with the mages, while Noura watched all the process from far, not moving her eyes away even for a moment.

Amelia moved to the distance amidst all this, while laughing inwardly on Arthur. Who told him to do this process in public? In front of hungry mages like these? She just glanced back at him, before she sighed, as she knew she was always next to him, but in fact she was this distance away from his mind and heart.

"Sigh, how can I tell you about my deep secret and not lose you?" she helplessly and painfully muttered, as a distant memory floated by her mind, making her mood turn to worse.