To Kraghammer we are bound!

Soaring over the ocean majestically upon the massive back of Milim we sat comfortably. We had stood for a while but had found that sitting was much more romantic when it came to the ocean spraying up to us in the wake of Milim's path. We were close enough to the water to look down and see schools of fish dancing in rainbow hues. Shuna was giddily inspecting the ocean, hoping to see interesting creatures. I pointed some out to her every now and then, both of us enjoying our moment together.

Which lasted until Milim slowed down, her direction changing more towards the left as the distant sight of shoreline met our gazes. She was erring on the side of caution with our movements as a dragon was usually a very dangerous sign to a city or country. My lovely little dragon wife knew that from Tensura, naturally, and had taken steps to ensure that no alarm was had... Most likely because she wanted some alone time with me without anyone else messing it up; besides Shuna who she accepted as a sister now.

During this manoeuvring me and Shuna both received a large spray of water. However, whilst we were trying to clean ourselves of the water we finally got to see a unique creature. It was as if a horse had the back-half of its body as a fish. Or was it an eel? Either way the creature splashed out of the water half a kilometre away, it's two front hooves clawing at the air as if for stability whilst its jaw clenched downwards on a succulent looking salmon that could not escape in time. Green seaweed hair wafted behind the movements of this creature as beady black eyes distantly regarded us. Then, as quickly as it came, it disappeared.

"Silvi! Did you see that...!?"

"Yes love, I believe they are called Kelpies."

"Why is it half horse half fish?"

"Most likely due to experiments, or it is just a naturally occurring creature..."

Shuna continued for a minute or two, discussing each different part of the mythological creature before Milim reared upwards. Her feet pulled upwards as her wings beat powerfully. Wind pressure barraged the entire beach that we were entering on to the point of haziness. Then, my wife slowed the beating of her wings until they were no longer moving, dropping from the sky onto the beach with her legs extended. Suddenly her form shrunk as me and Shuna dropped for several dozen feet before we landed. Sand crunched below our feet, compacting it to the point where water was stooping up to the top of our leather boots.

"HAHAHA...! That was awesome! Honey, did you enjoy it?" Milim was immediately energetic as she sprinted at me and barely stopped before piling into us both. Her hands were bouncing up and down in front of her, clenched, looking at me in exhilaration. 

Smiling I responded. "Yes love it was beautiful. You are always very stunning." She leapt into my arms as Shuna chuckled softly to herself, understanding the hidden meaning in my use of the word, 'stunning'. 

On this said beach I held Milim in my arms whilst walking, we needed to reach a road of some sort. As fun as it would be to glamp I didn't wish for our first 'date' together as a family to be out in the middle of nowhere with mosquitos around. 'Listen audience, I know I am demon lord and Milim is a true dragon and shit, but mosquitos aren't intimidated by any of that BS!' Breaking from my daydream where I imagined I had an audience following me around I lead us up the side of the cliff using magic to shape a single section into stairs.

Thousands of stairs later we reached the top of the cliff. We were in the midst of an alpine forest. Pine, Spruce and Elm trees made up the majority of the forest as a roaring river wound its way out from the natural coverage of the landscape, off of the cliff and down into the ocean below. In the distance was an enormous mountain range that were capped in snow and varying forms of sparse foliage. Amidst all of that natural chaos my sight allowed me to pick up on a tiny refraction of light from a distant torch. The distance was hard to judge but it would seem to be 100 Kilometres away at the very least, a feat of my newly acquired eyes for sure.

"Let's go Silvi, we have to get to town before night..."

"Yep, yep, just choosing a direction... We'll go this way, I saw a torch about a hundred kilometres away."

Milim and Shuna glanced at each other before turning back to me, their confusion evident.

"You can see that far???"

"Honey is amazing, of course she can! Let's go!" 

Milim soon ignored her confusion, deciding to believe in my decision. Shuna however was less untrusting but more so stupefied at my ability to see that far, through solid matter. Smacking her on the ass snapped her out of it though and we all started to run through the forest. Jumping from tree to tree was simple for everyone present but entirely trivial to me as my super speed was literally slowing down my perception of time for only a moment or two. The extent was so potent that my wives were holding me down and I had to slow for them constantly. I was fine with it though as I got to be the scout and search the entire forest whilst they traversed just a few parts of it.

There wasn't a lot within the forest but a few old cabins that had more foliage inside than man-made things. The little that could be found was all ancient or trodden and thus of little use. Nature was beautiful though, I had pet several deer and stags, even a wolf that couldn't even perceive that I was there at that current point in time. To be honest, whilst this world was more complex in magic, physics were the same as Earth and thus I was still abusively powerful for a mortal.

Stepping back to where I was a few seconds before I went exploring I slowed down and met continued to run at Milim's pace, Shuna now keeping up with us. We didn't speak whilst sprinting as it could easily cause us to bite our tongues and such, but we communicated via playful acrobatics... Swinging from branches and launching ourselves to another one... Jump from stump to stump as the foxes and other creatures skittered away. It was surely a fortunate thing that we all had shape-shifting clothes. 

"Silvi! I'll race you...!" Shuna took a small gap when she stopped to jump, to shout out her challenge. 

'Oh? Confident are we?'

...

Half an hour later I was sitting on a carved path in the mountains that I had seen the torch light. 'Hmmm, natural berries really are much better than those that are farmed...' Red liquid dripped down from my mouth as I ate wild berries.

Belatedly the huffing sound of Shuna and the laughter of Milim collapsed into the mountain pathway as I licked my fingers of all of the berry juices. They gradually entered onto the path and stopped in front of me, who was seated on top of a wooden fence.

"Haaah... Haaah... How...? Are you? So...? Fast...??!?!?" Shuna leaned heavily onto the fence post as she stared exhaustedly at me.

"It is a part of my soul. I have an aspect of Hermes, the god of speed, roads, passage, trickery and psychopomp. You are actually very talented to reach this place in half an hour with your level of power..." I ate another berry, Milim snatching one and bobbing her head side to side as she did so.

"When did you get here!?..." 

"Hmmm, a minute after you asked for the race."

If a face could become like a tomato, her's was becoming it, she was apoplectic with frustration. To be honest, she shouldn't have challenged me... A lesson was learned today for sure, I just didn't know if it would be on my side or her's.

"Honey is the best! Even had food waiting for us! Shuna, you should eat some." My lovely little dragon handed over several berries I had gathered whilst I was bored, all of them spilling into the open hands of my cute and fluffy wife.

"My feet hurt and I am tired..." She complained a smidge before eating the berries, her face being stained in the red liquid that squirted out from the tiny morsels. To be honest she was way too cute and adorable not to tease, her losing face was especially attractive to me since she did a little pout and everything; but as a wife we would have to slow down into a more comfortable form of travel.

As she ate I summoned the Range Rover and started it, making sure the engine was fine, the axels and wheels were aligned and ultimately that there was enough petroleum for the tank. Once I finished they were too and we finally set off once again. This time our traversal was more calm and direct as signs of civilisation started to litter the sides of the road. Albeit, these signs were wayward pieces of carved wood and destroyed segments of wagons... But that was fine, it told me were close to some form of society.

My wives didn't care either as Shuna was tickling Milim in the back seat as the other woman had teased her over her failure in the race. Paying attention more to the road however I soon saw several flying harpies harassing a trading caravan, Dwarven guards in armour hacking at them only to fail. Dead dwarven guards all had crossbows beside their corpses with the remainder trying to get to the ranged weapons. Inspecting the harpies, they were naked half woman half bird creatures with raking claws on the ends of their bird-like feet but wonderful racks.

I increased our speed as my wives continued their play fight in the back, Milim now succeeding in tickling Shuna. Bumps slightly delayed their fight at some periods but they ignored anything else, the competitiveness between them smouldering like the fires of a volcano. 

One harpy on the very edge of this attack heard the car approaching, swooping down from the sky at a rapid pace. This type of enemy was easy for me though and I simply projected my Demon Lord Haki outwards, paralysing it permanently as I fried every synaptic pattern that lead to the movement of its wings. Lazily dipping from the sky like an overambitious fish that had tried to escape the ocean the body of the harpy slumped onto the road. Then, as if it were a mere road bump, the car drove over it, killing it instantly. The soul sucked into my shadow space as my own dragon, Ancalagon started to murmur in hunger.

'Hey buddy, wanna eat some harpies?'

A rumble in my mind told me all the answer I needed to know, shadow leaking from my hands also giving it away a touch. Ignoring this phenomenon for now I drove right into the middle of this foray, slamming down the breaks to drift the car as I rapidly stuck the car into parking gear and lifted the handbrake. Right after finishing all of that I opened the door in mid drift, time slowing down for me. Stepping on the under part of the car that was currently exposed I stepped down onto the stone path, blood gathering at the bottoms of my boots as I surveyed everything. 

The trade caravan was filled with civilians, traders, children, women... The guards themselves had very little in the way of protection other than crossbows for this situation and even then the hafts of the arrows were utterly makeshift. It seemed that these people were in dire straits.

"I guess it is time for me to make an impression and get some guides?" Shadow leaked out from me at this slowed time rate. Ancalagon could feel the prey and he didn't care for any delays. 

Within milliseconds for the Dwarves my dragon had been summoned and had eaten every creature here. All of the thirty harpies that had harassed the caravan being munched on by darkness and shadow alike. Gold piled within my storage space with hundreds of other smaller trinkets and objects of worth. Scrolls of magical origin and even some small bucklers and swords that were enchanted. For a quick slaughter, this was quite rewarding. 'Starting to understand why Chinese Cultivation characters just slaughter entire families... They got a lot of goodies!'

Shadow was whisked away as Ancalagon returned to slumber. The deaths of the harpies now were all expressed in blood splatters that graced the stones below the feet of every man and women here. 

"Nice to see you all... Could you help me get to Kraghammer?"

...

(The Dwarves Perspective)

Unther was an experienced caravan guard who had lived his life the rough way. From bar fights to the varying frontier conflicts with Drow in the depths of Kraghammer, he had seen everything.

This day was different though. The harpies, an enemy that were easy enough to deal with were harrying them. Not too unusual, simply expensive on lives lost. However, since this cargo was important, that was a negligible price for the Dwarven Kingdom to pay. 

First the new guards armed with crossbows were targeted, easily taken down by some simple tactics from the harpies... An issue with the skill of the men no doubt... Then came the melee conflict with flying enemies, a rather embarrassing form of fighting that consisted of waving your hammer or sword around like a numbskull.

Having been given only a week to train these men for this mission, he was proud that they at least knew how to swing their damnable weapons. This was all within expectation though.

No... What really set this day apart from the rest was the instant blackness that submerged his vision for less than a second and that departed in even quicker fashion. It was as if the void of the demons had become reality in the material plane for but a moment.

In the flash after the darkness though, an all consuming darkness as it were, stood a woman of impeccable beauty. Beyond anything Unther had ever seen in his life. By all the gods of Exandria and the dolls in the capital of the Dwarven Kingdom, none would surpass this singular being.

A goddess after his own heart... And she spoke... After apparently killing all of the harpies, he noted; dazedly examining the pools of blood around her.

"Nice to see you all... Could you help me get to Kraghammer?"

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