Ascending through the floors the small group of four brought silence to Hortus's regular occupants, though they themselves had not witness the skirmish earlier the mere sight of two rather ominous guard leaders made them quite down

Those of a bit higher rank were even quieter than others though for they knew the escorting general probably wasn't in the best mood after being bested by the new addition to the top brass

This made the trip to the fifth floor uneventful, with not so much as a squeak from any party

Arriving at the large building where meetings were held YuJu and the rattan entered while Ellis and Anput stood outside

The second the two entered the hall where every general was seated they were quickly met with a sarcastic remark

"Greatest brawl I've seen yet, amazing how fast it came to a conclusion"

It was meant to insult the rattan but was totally ignored, something unexpected as the fellow always had a spiked temper for comments like those

"Think you can last longer kitty?"

What's more unexpected was YuJu replaying to the blood maned lion, gazing at him with a belleteling eye

"There's a meeting in attendance, save your quarrels afterwards"

Before sparks flew off Verbrand interfered shutting down any would be fights

The lion seethed but sat down, YuJu only shrugged and took a seat himself, his chair was all black, the only of its colour as every general sat on one that represented the section under them

Beside him he placed a cage he'd been carrying around ever since the fight ended, its contents obscured by a dirty cloth

"Latvia, brief him of our current discussion"

"Affirmative"

Heeding the commander's order, as sour as she was, Latvia called for one of her drones to land on the table, opening up to reveal a fuzzy globe like substance inside

The substance glowed with a few colors, mixing them together to form a cohesive image, one of barren land being raged by whipping shadows protruding out from the ground

"Currently we are building measures against this destructive being, there have been many scouts sent to discover its features and skills but all results were subpar at best with casualties rating at ninety five percent, figuring it out is of para importance as the current route leads it to Hortus"

"A rout it wouldn't have steered to if not for your constant scouting"

Before the full briefing YuJu already commented out of order

Latvia took a deep breath and tried not to let herself lash out over a small comment, questioning the man on what he knew instead

"Have you met this creature before?"

"A Land Kraken? Why would I even get close to this swimming disaster, I'd steer clear of it even if I had to change my travel rout entirely, nothing good comes from a Land Kraken's corps and its bothersome to kill it as well"

The new term caught everyone off guard, they'd naturally heard of a Kraken before but the prefix seemed out of place

"Your saying that thing is a Kraken?"

"Don't tell me you can't see the gigantic tentacles waving about?"

"How could a behemoth of the sea be walking...swimming in the soil"

To this YuJu gave a helpless shrug as if to say, beats me

The hall descended into brief silence as everyone tried to soak in the new information, not knowing what the enemy was at first gave them a huge headache but learning of its nature kicked them into worry, after all this was none other than a Kraken they were dealing with

"You said we set its route toward us?"

Instead of asking for further information Latvia returned to his first comment about how they were causing this problem to begin with

"Land Krakens are, as you described them, beings of destruction, they kill whatever stand in their path and have the habit of seeking treasures to swallow too, if they see an opportunity for wealth they chase it, if they see a threat they also chase it, after all what on earth could possibly harm one of the sea's major disasters"

This confirmed their would be course of action

"I'll lead it away in another direction with scouts then"

"Might or might not work, the thing isn't dumb, it might suspect your trying to lure it away from treasure and continue down the same route"

"Then what do you suggest"

Much to Latvia's annoyance YuJu smirked and shrugged for the third time today, clearly not intending to help her out with this one

"Why don't you lure it away then? I'm sure your threatening enough for it not to think if you as a distraction and your quite capable of running away from it"

Perhaps as a revenge for the earlier comment the lion spoke up, flashing YuJu a toothy smile

"I would but as you can see"

Raising his left hand he wiggled the bony fingers that could barely be moved, finally giving them the chance to question him about the rough shape his hands were in

"The cause?"

It was Aminta who asked what was on everyone's mind

"A....peculiar opponent I met, turning most of my spoils into dead bodies and cutting my journey short"

That answered why he returned earlier than Verbrand had told them he would, now though they wanted to know what sort of opponent it was that put him in such dire straits

"Which brings me to this small gift I've brought back"

Not wanting to reveal or lie about anything YuJu deftly avoided further interrogation and removed the cloth off the cage with his right hand, one that was still somewhat mangled but usable enough

What came into everyone's sight was a small dragon like creature, nothing about it seemed dangerous at a glance and it gave off a clumsy feeling with the little head bobbing left and right

"This thing is a Dreneonate, a dragon to be"

"So it's a dragon's offspring? Is that what you went looking for"

"Indeed, had dozens of them but as I said they were turned into bodies, sad was their fate"

Though he said that there still hung a smile on his face meaning he wasnt as grieved about it as he made believe

"When tamed these fellows are quite the force to reckon with, this one is my gift to you, a Wood Wonder Dreneonate"

Aminta merely nodded as a sign of accepting it, Latvia however couldn't help but ask how long it would take to grow into a dragon

In response YuJu looked at her in a way that questioned her intelligence

"It's already grown...."

The hall once more descended into silence, apparently becoming somewhat of a natural occurrence once this mysterious man joined them

"That's.. fully grown?"

"Yes, I wouldn't have gone out of my way to go capture some mere cubs, one only needs to tame them well and then use the right catalyst bringing forth the true form of a Dreonate, when that happens you'll have your proper sized dragon"

Now that he put it this way everyone could understand how this little guy was fully grown, though this made the earlier look he gave Latvia before explaining only a way to poke fun at her

After going back and forth about this dragon and its needs, which he didn't shed much light on, the meeting resumed its anti-Land Kraken plans during which YuJu excused himself to tend to the injuries as well as bring the golem inside

Once he left everyone turned to Gen in unison, the general's thoughtful eyes never leaving YuJu's left hand didn't escape anyone's notice

"Anything wrong my friend?"

Asked Verbrand to which Gen nodded uneasily

"That power emitting from his hand feels.... archaic, even with the knowledge I hold I could not fathom its source"

"Everything about that fellow is shrouded in mystery, I wouldn't put it past him to hold some pretty deep and scary secrets so fret not"

Latvia comforted but Gen only shook his head

"I'm not afraid of what he's hiding, I'm afraid.."

"Of who or what did that to him"

Aminta continued for him plunging everyone's mind into brooding