17 Do you even lift?

Alex's plan for his horns and spines was actually very simple but could also be considered as having a deeper meaning as well. alex was going to have two rows of spines on either side of his backbone that overlapped in the gaps of the other that were for specific elements. right now he had the thunder spines on the same side as the water spines to show a lack of clashing between them while on the other side he would do the same with fire and ice. in the center he would have his backbones spines be dragon element as the equalizer.

For his horns he was planning on doing the same except slightly curving around his red scale birthmark like a crown since as an all element dragon he would be at the top of the world. it did cause a bit of a stir when he showed up with his new set of oval horns and spines but the people of astera shrugged it off as and alex thing. it was funny how desensitized to something on alex changing the people of astera were becoming. when zorah magdaros was approaching form fifty miles away alex jolted awake as he FELT it's presence.

To a monster like alex the stupid huge amount of energy that zorah had stored was like someone shining a laser into your eyes. he couldn't ignore it if he wanted to since it messed up his senses and gave him a terrible sense of vertigo. he now knew why it was that zorah's crossing stirred up the locals so badly in the game if they also felt like this. the few people awake at this time in astera saw alex leave his nest with every scale on his body vibrating like a rattlesnake warning.

They saw him staring out at sea and quickly figured out what was happening and started to ring the alarm bells waking up the town. the commander was trying to figure out what was going on but when he saw alex he figured it out almost instantly. "EVERYONE UP AND AT EM! ZORAH MAGDAROS IS DRAWING NEAR! PREPARE FOR LANDFALL!" he yelled out at the town taking command of the situation. the town burst into activity with everyone preparing their assigned area while the commander just looked at alex thoughtfully. "just what sort of being will you become? i can't wait to find out." he said with a small smile.

Zorah apparently had a flare for the dramatic as it burst out of the sea ten minutes before dawn and alex knew that was his que and he leapt high into the air to fly towards the mountainous monster. the reason for this was to salvage the ships before they sank to the sea below with all those important documents and materials. alex's black scales blended into the night sky making him hard to make out as he sped towards the hulking volcano dragon.

His improved muscles showed their worth as he went faster than ever before and the air split off of him in an almost scream like whistle. twenty miles was crossed in no time at all and alex could see zorah beginning to surface. the mountain on the dragons back rose higher and higher as the coast sloped upwards and zorah walked up it. alex didn't move to rescue any of those bailing out of the ships since he knew they would arrive in astera either way. most of the ships were almost completely undisturbed by zorah's landfall but two of them were right on it's back.

Most of the people on these ships were bailing but he could see a few who were braving the trip on the elders back. alex even saw the handler from the game on zorah's back but he needed to grab the ships so he missed the games protagonist. the crews screamed when they saw alex grabbing the thick mast of the ships and to their utter amazement LIFTED both of the ships off of zorah's back before dropping them into the sea below while panting. alex had the strength in his muscles to pull this off but only just barely.

After making sure the ships weren't going to sink alex flew high up in the sky to make sure no one was left behind just in case. it helped that the sun was coming up letting him see the waters surface much clearer as he did in fact rescue a small handful of people. once he couldn't find anymore alex flew back towards the new world to make an introduction to an important new member of astera.

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