“You aren’t going to make this easy on me, are you?” Darin asked. Below him, the Guardian Buck snorted and stomped. “Didn’t think so.” He complained. As the buck walked up and started examining his tree, Darin was busy studying the forest around them. He still hadn’t seen any type of wood, other than these smelly pines. He’d have flown much faster, if not for all those broken branches jutting out from the trees. An idea began to form, as the branch below him shook. A glance down showed him that his prey, was now up on it’s hind legs, stomping against the tree. There wasn’t much noise, but the branch he was on began to shake with each impact. Darin hadn’t lost any HP yet, but the tree was starting to show damage. Annoying little-. Crack! The branch beneath him swung downward, causing Darin to take flight in alarm. The falling wood hit the buck, but it didn’t seem to care.

“You wont catch me that easily, hat stand.” Darin taunted. He doubted the words made much difference, but he wasn’t beyond trying. For the first time since the battle began, Darin wanted to be followed. If it’s crazy, but it works, it’s not crazy…right? “Too ashamed to go back a failure? Too bad, you’ll never catch me.” He taunted, then then took off at high speed. His foe let out a bestial cry and gave chase.

Somewhere between madness and bravery, Darin let himself drop to a high that the buck could reach him. But as he made his way across the forest, he wove from tree to tree, choosing the ones with the thickest branches at ground level. He was rewarded with loud snapping sounds and cries of pain. But the hoof beats continued to hammer the ground, not that far behind him. Darin heard his heart, pounding in his ears, as the wind rushed past. He was flying as fast as he could manage, avoiding branches by only a narrow margin. Over time the pounding of hoofs grew nearer and nearer, but he’d been writing that off as fear. When he felt something hard touch his tail, he realized the chase was almost over. Faster damn it! Just a bit faster. He was almost back to where the other dragons waited. His lungs ached and his wings felt like they were on fire. He might have appreciated the realism, had it come at a better time. As he crossed a clearing, his eyes flicked down to the damage logs. A long string of low damage hits had battered his foe. It’s not enough! Where? I need to find- There! Veering off with a sharp twist, he felt the antlers strike his leg, but without a solid impact they failed to pierce his scales. He only gained a sliver of time, as beast soon corrected it’s course.

“Too close!” He screamed, as he aimed just right of a thick tree. His wings were about to give out, and he could hear the breath of the buck behind him. Oh shit! At the very last moment, he yanked his wings and swung hard to the left. He’d tried to duck under the branch, but instead had clipped it and tumbled through the air. A horrible cry filled the air as the buck turned to follow. Unable to change course as quickly, it slammed sideways into the tree. A thick pine branch, now coated red, stuck out from the neck of the deer. Darin started to laugh as he picked himself up, only to gasp in pain. The buck jerked its head, letting out a cry of pain, but was unable to free itself. Darin looked to his combat log as he limped to flank his prey.

Attack, Critical Hit: You deal 40 damage, status inflicted Bleeding, status inflicted Immobilized.

Guardian Buck has dealt you 8 damage, status inflicted Broken Wing, status inflicted Broken Leg.

Bleeding: You deal 20 damage.

Bleeding: You deal 18 damage.

Bleeding: You deal 16 damage.

“Damn it.” Darin grumbled, as he shuffled around the back of the tree. The bleeding damage continued to eat away at the beast, but it showed no signs of dying. The crazy beast even tried to kick him, but it couldn’t get a good angle around the tree. Darin charred it’s hind legs from the side, unwilling to trust bleeding to finish the job.

Attack: You deal 14 damage.

Bleeding: You deal 4 damage.

Attack: You deal 14 damage, status inflicted Burning.

Burning: You deal 7 damage.

Bleeding: You deal 2 damage, Bleeding has worn off.

Attack: You deal 14 damage, status inflicted Mobility Decrease.

Burning: You deal 7 damage.

Immobilization has worn off.

Darin moved back in fear, as the Buck wrenched itself off the tree. A moment later, it had turned around to face him. In his current state, he could neither run nor fly. From a half dozen feet away, the beast glared at him with bloodshot eyes and lowered its antlers. “After all that, I still lose.” He said with a sigh. The buck dashed at him, but after three steps it stumbled and fell on it’s side. The crippled hind legs, had been unable to keep up with the attack. No sooner than it had fallen, the buck begun trying to right itself. As slow as he was, Darin moved in snapped his beak shut on it spine. A loud crack echoed through the now quiet forest. It jerked once, let out a weak cry and fell over dead.

A familiar golden light surrounded Darin. Rings of vibrant color cascaded down around him. He felt a sudden warmth, followed by a bit of pain, as his bones moved back into place. A system message appeared, and he was more than happy to see it.

Congratulations, you have reached Level 3. You have been awarded 2 stat points and 0 evolution points. You have not changed in size.

“Woohoo!” He cried out. He was eager to spend his stats then and there, until he realized how unwise that would be. First things first, he reminded himself. Darin leaned over to the fallen buck and stuck his beak to the neck wound, trying to drink. Instead of hot chocolate, he was awarded with the taste of hot spiced cider. The game’s way of telling him, this was a good source of food. As he started to drink, when a notification distracted him.

Keen Tongue: Guardian Blood.

A base evolutionary material for the {Blood Dragon} path.

Fill evolution stomach? YES / NO

“Gross. No.” He stated and declined it. He had looked up what it offered, but didn’t think it would suit him well. After seeing the Blood Vultures earlier, he didn’t want to become anything like them. However, that didn’t stop him from drinking his fill. Hypocrite, he poked fun at himself. “So if blood is one option…” He pondered aloud. After a bit of trial and error, he discovered two interesting things. The first was that he didn’t have to eat something, only touch it with his tongue, to identify it. The second was that the antlers were also a valid material.

Keen Tongue: Majestic Antlers.

A base evolutionary material for the {Bone Dragon} path.

Darin pondered it for a moment, but Bone Dragons were heavy melee fighters. Given how terrible his physical stats were, it seemed like a dead-end evolution. He considered seeing if any other parts of the buck would qualify. But he decided against it, there were a lot of parts that he’d rather not try and taste. With his future starting to open up, he decided to grab a bit of loot. It took him a minute, but he was able to separate the antlers from the skull with minimal damage. Much to his joy, they still somehow fit in his tiny backpack. He knew there was no way he could drag the creature back, not in the time that remained. Projecting his voice as best he could, he called in the direction of the others. “Blue Shark. I’ve taken down large prey.” He heard a faint response in the distance, then looked down at his meal. Something felt off to him. It was quiet, and he’d made his first kill. Oh what the hell, I’ll celebrate, he decided. Tipping his head back, he found that the words came with ease.

“Join us now, a feast has come.

Waste not food, the deed is done.

We share our prize, we share our strength.

So hunger will not claim our kin.

As our Mother teaches, I too shall abide.

So join me at the feast here, and share food by my side.”

Darin had gone through three iterations, before he noticed Blue Shark. She stood in silence, watching with a dazed look upon her face. He stopped, once the fourth was completed. She blinked at him, her mouth hanging open, as she looked for words she couldn’t find. The snapping of branches brought them back to the present. A moment later Greenie, Scorch, and Firebrand emerged from the woods. Each of them wore a strange expression. The five dragons looked at one another in the awkward silence that followed.

“What was with that weird song? Wait, you killed that?” Scorch asked, looking down at the dead buck. He was the first to break the silence.

“It was a song my parents would sing. And it wasn’t an easy hunt. It nearly killed me instead.” Darin admitted.

“By rights it should have. It had you by 10 levels.” Firebrand stated, looking between Darin and the corpse. After a few seconds she laughed and shook her head. “So I suppose it’s only fair that you took the horns as a trophy, or ate them.”

“Horns?” Greenie asked. She glanced down at the blood spots on the head, then back to Darin. “Is that how you got the blood on your face?” With a sigh Darin reached back to his pack, and pulled free the pair of antlers. Each one was larger than him, once removed from the pack. “Pretty.” She muttered, that was his warning sign, so he put them away.

“I find the antlers interesting, and I think Greed might be able to trade them to passing merchants.” Darin explained, choosing to not respond to the question about the blood. For all I know, that’s another social taboo. The elders nodded in agreement, confirming his suspicions. “I assume we eat it, once we are done here. But shall we take this back so that I can pass the trial?”

“You already have.” Blue Shark informed him, scooping up the corpse and swinging it over her shoulder. “Normally, I would refrain from judgment aloud. But given this feat, I’ll beat Dark Flame into submission if he disagrees.”

“Seconded.” Firebrand stated, giving Darin a wink. Somewhere along the line, he must have made a good impression. Her harsh disposition had softened since the trial of flames. A few minutes later, they’d rejoined the other’s by the cave. And by then, Darin realized just how hungry he was. Blood Claw was kind enough to rip a rear haunch off for him, before the others tore into the rest. It was already half-cooked from the fight and it took him very little time to get it right. Why it tasted like smoked sausages, Darin wondered if he’d ever figure out.

While the other whelps went hunting, conversation was light at best. Darin spent most of the time studying his character sheet. Well that and cursing under his breath. His size, still crippled most of his physical stats. And his inner gamer, was agonizing over how to spend the points.

CHARACTER SHEETNAME:Whelp*RACE:DragonGENDER:MaleSUB SPECIES:PrimalLEVEL:3PROGRESS:55.00%FREE POINTS:2 Stat, 0 EvolutionHEALTH:20 / 20REGEN:HP +0.07, MP +0.45MAGIC:77 / 77STRENGTH:2~FORTITUDE:3~AGILITY:60DEFENSE:11KARMA:4RENOWN:51LOAD:10.0 / 19.05 Stones.SIZE FACTOR:0.25

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Authors notes: I told the parts I had to, and I moved it ahead. I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. Thank you for reading my story thus far, and for the positive feedback many of you have given. Let me know if I slipped up somewhere, I’ll try and fix it. Thanks and good night. Advertisement Previous

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