52

They heard a roar again. Hearing the sound, Spica began to shed tears.

“I think my mom got hurt. She’s screaming. I’ve never heard my mom make that kind of sound in my entire life.”

Id asked, trying to calm down Spica.

“Tell me the way to where your mother is. I’ll go there to help her.”

“If you go straight into the cave where we met, you’ll see a basin surrounded by mountain peaks at the end of the cave. From the cave’s exit, you can see the entrance of another large cave on the opposite cliff, which is my lair. As my mom is in her original dragon body now, she’s probably in the basin.”

Id patted Spica on her shivering shoulder several times.

“You’d better stay here. I’ll go find a way to help your mother.”

Spica said in a trembling voice.

“No, I have to go with you. My mom wouldn’t know if you are trying to help her, and she might attack you without me by your side. As far as I know, there has never been a dragon hatchling who grew to adulthood after losing its parents. What I’m trying to say is, there is no meaning in running away alone when my mom is in danger.”

************

James, the third son of Duke Cronos, watched the gold dragon descending from the sky. The dragon, which had been gliding with its wings wide open, soon disappeared beyond a ridge. James asked Henry, the Knight Commander of the Griffin Order.

“Are you sure the cave in front of us is a dragon lair? It looks like the dragon landed over the mountain……”

“The place where the gold dragon landed is a small basin surrounded by peaks. That cave is connected to the basin. Although the cave is large enough for the dragon to stay in its original body, they said it mostly lives in its lair in a polymorphic human figure.”

The Duke of Cronos had sent thirty Knights and twenty apprentices of the Griffin Order for the dragon hunt. The four advanced Knight Orders belonging to the Duke Cronos family were all similar in their battle powers, but the Griffin Order was estimated to be the strongest by a small margin. Knight Commander Henry was regarded as one of the top ten swordsmen in the Icarus Empire. The twenty apprentices also consisted of those who were supposed to be knighted soon with outstanding sword skills. James was confident that the battle power of the Griffin Order was more potent than that of the Black Bear Order dispatched by the Emperor.

James had visited William Cronos to ask for help before leaving for the dragon hunt but had been rejected by him. William Cronos was skeptical of Duke Cronos’ plan to bring up Aura Beam owners in a short period, using a Dragon Heart. The method Duke Cronos had acquired was only theoretical and had not been proven yet, so many people sympathized with William’s skepticism. However, for James Cronos, who was desperate to occupy an advantageous position in the succession race for the duke title, the success of the dragon hunt was of paramount importance.

Wizard Regulus and twenty-one mages, including Benjamin, would have to play the most crucial role of the dragon hunt. Wizard Regulus cast Manna Force Examination to locate the gold dragon’s hatchling. Even though the capacity was small, the dragon’s hatchling also had a Dragon Heart. Therefore, it would be possible to identify its location by Manna Force Examination if it was nearby. James asked Wizard Regulus.

“Did you locate the gold dragon’s hatchling?”

“I’m sure there’s no dragon’s hatchling in the lair. Do you think the dragon might hide its hatchling somewhere else?”

James replied to Wizard Regulus, shaking his head.

“I don’t think the dragon hid its hatchling out of concern of human attacks. Besides, the gold dragon can only have found out about our existence just a little while ago. Even if it had wanted to hide its hatchling, it wouldn’t have had enough time.”

Wizard Regulus said with a frown.

“If so, it means that the dragon hatchling went out of the lair on its own, which is an unlucky coincidence. Now, our plan to prevent the dragon from escaping into the sky with the hatchling as a hostage would be impossible to implement.”

James glanced at Count Henderson and replied to Wizard Regulus.

“There’s no other way, so let’s leave everything to chance and enter the dragon’s lair.”

Listening to James Cronos, Count Henderson said,

“We’ll guard the sorcerers. As you know, given the dragon’s magical powers, the sorcerers are the most important forces in our dragon hunt?”

Though James was offended reading Count Henderson’s intention not to spearhead a dangerous attack, he thought it was rather a good suggestion since he would have had to allocate some Knights from the Griffin Order to guard the sorcerers if the Black Bear Order had not taken the job. As a matter of fact, protecting sorcerers was as dangerous as attacking the dragon because the dragon’s magic attacks would obviously be focused on them.

As the Griffin Order entered the gold dragon’s lair, piles of stones began to assimilate from all over the place. They changed into stone golems and attacked the intruding Knights. Four Griffin Knights, including Knight Commander Henry, used Aura Blades to smash the stone golems, and the other Knights, who could not yet use Aura Blades, wielded battle axes to deal with the stone golems. Many stone golems were destroyed, but after a while, they recovered their original shape and once again swung their fists at the Knights. Some of the apprentices, exhausted from the giant golem’s constant resurrection and attacks, were hit by the golem’s fist and seriously injured. Seeing this, Wizard Regulus ordered the mages.

“Everybody, cast Manna Force Examination and find the golems’ cores. The stone golems will continue to revive unless their core is destroyed.”

Casting Manna Force Examination himself, Wizard Regulus shouted at Henry, the Knight Commander of the Griffon Order.

“Commander, the core of the stone golem in front of you is located on its right flank.”

As Henry swung his Aura Blade according to Regulus’ advice, the golem’s right side burst, and a green lump the size of a watermelon fell to the ground, splintering into pieces. The stone golem, of which the core was destroyed, crumbled into small stones and never moved again. The Knights of the Griffin Order moved forward, destroying stone golems one after another with the mages’ help. In the battle against the stone golems, three apprentices were killed, and two Knights and five apprentices were severely injured. Benjamin told Regulus.

“I’ll stay here with Simon to treat the wounded Knights and follow you later.”

As Wizard Regulus nodded, James pushed ahead deep into the dragon’s lair leading the Knights, leaving the wounded to Benjamin and Simon.

************

Gold dragon Vega, returning to its lair after catching two wild boars to feed her hatchling Spica, saw humans gathered in front of her lair, but she did not care much about them. There had been humans who broke into her lair every few hundreds of years, but most of them were killed by the fists of stone golems she had made as her lair’s guardians. Landing in the small basin of about eighty meters in diameter surrounded by mountain peaks, Vega polymorphed into a blonde looking to be in her thirties and entered her lair. Gold dragon Vega, who confirmed with the Manna Force Examination that Spica was not in the lair, spoke to herself.

“She went out to play during my absence again. I’m gonna have to scold her today.”

Vega, who cast another Magic Force Examination, expanding the scope of application to find Spica, frowned. The gold dragon felt that a core she had planted in a stone golem guarding her lair’s entrance on the other side was destroyed and that the manna inside it was scattered. Vega’s facial expression grew worse as she noticed the cores of the other stone golems were also destroyed one by one.

“They are pretty good. Where did these humans come from?”

Speaking to herself, Vega returned to the basin where she had landed. She thought the humans’ battle power was no longer negligible, so she moved to a place where she could easily transform into her original dragon body. Even then, Vega did not recognize the humans as a real threat. Her interest was solely in finding Spica’s whereabout.

James and Henry led the Griffin Order through the dragon’s lair at high speeds. There were no more obstacles to stop them while passing the lair. Coming out of the exit leading to the basin, they found a blonde beauty standing in the middle of the basin, looking at them expressionlessly. James shouted at her in a slightly excited voice.

“Are you the gold dragon?”

The woman was staring at them without any response, and her eyes were on Henry. He seemed to be perceived as the most threatening being by the dragon. James, angry at the thought that he was ignored, told Henry.

“Attack her.”

Nodding,, Henry ordered his men.

“The apprentices stay here to protect James, and the Knights siege the dragon.”

All one hundred and twenty Knights belonging to the four Knight Orders of the Cronos family were provided with full plate mails enchanted with Anti Magic Force. The ambitious Duke Cronos spent a great deal of money making magic armor, which no other aristocrats could ever dream of. Since it was reckless to put apprentices clad in armor without Anti Magic Force into combat against dragons, the originators of magic, Henry left twelve apprentices with James. As Henry rushed head-on toward Vega, the rest of the Knights ran to the side to encircle them.