Chapter 20: The Hunt

Mid-Evening - Mid Spring : Home

After Mother told me she was going to take me hunting, I flew back down the mountain. She seemed to want to talk to Father about something.

As I landed and let Ilios off my back, I saw Krystallo staring at me with a face of worry.

"What's with that look?"

She was quick to respond with an anxious look. "What was that explosion… It was so big it scared dad.."

"Ahh.. sorry I happened to get a little too carried away.." I gave a slightly guilty look. -Man I really did just scare everyone in one go..-

Krystallo looked at me, confused before realizing what I meant. "What?" Her confusion slowly morphed to shock. "You.. caused that explosion?"

"All I did was use 'explosion magic' for my breath, but got a little carried away.." -Im such an idiot..-

We continued talking for a bit until she finally calmed down.

It took a bit of explaining but once Krystallo figured out what happened, she relaxed again and laid down next to me.

As she was falling back asleep, I took my time to fiddle with magic a bit.

I started by creating a small fireball by visualizing a ball of fire with condensed hydrogen as the fuel.

*pshhh*

The fire burned a hot blue and sounded like a blowtorch. It was a truly beautiful color but I was more interested in how strong it was.

To test its strength, I simply tossed the fireball towards the ground.

As it hit the ground, it scorched the grass and charred the dirt, but the instant I stopped giving it mana, it dissipated.

-So does it dissipate because of lack of fuel or because I stopped holding it together?-

To test my idea, I formed a ball of clay and dirt to act like a sponge with earth magic, and filled it with a flammable oil before using fire magic to ignite it.

*fwoosh*

A yellow and orange flame quickly engulfed the ball.

Throwing it at the ground, the, now hardened, ball shattered and spread the burning oil onto the ground surrounding it.

It was a simple experiment and a simple reaction but it answered my question. -The fire didn't go out this time.. So it really was just fuel related.-

After getting lost in thought for a moment I looked up and noticed that the oil fire had started spreading. "Whoops!" Just before I created a ball of water to dump on it, I remembered that it would just make the fire worse.

-Let's try to use wind magic to create a temporary vacuum then..- My idea was to try and use wind magic to suffocate the fire.

Entering a trance like focus, I visualized the cloud oxygen around the fire being removed.

*puff*

The fire was instantly extinguished.

-Man that's.. really convenient..- I was truly amazed but at the same time, I could already see several limits to it.

The more specific or detailed I got with a spell, the stronger I could make it, but it would also use significantly more mana. [1]

It definitely wasn't an omnipotent power, but overall I was able to do what humans (on Earth) needed machines for with ease. -Just what will I be able to do in the future if I can do all of this now?- A childish excitement welled up in me.

As I got lost in the excitement, I did a few more experiments.

"You have a true talent for magic, Vasilias.. Putting your freakish breath aside, you're able to use mana really efficiently even though it's your first time." Father looked at me with a proud smile.

I tensed up hearing his voice since I was too focused to notice Mother and Father landing behind me.

Finally calming myself down, I responded in a relaxed fashion. "Aren't all dragons proficient with mana manipulation at a young age though? I mostly just relied on my instincts." Although my use of mana was certainly out of the ordinary, my control almost entirely came from instinct.

Both Mother and Father looked at me dumbfounded before Father let out a deep sigh. "Haah.. it really is true that not all dragons are born equally.."

"What do you mean by that?" I was slightly taken aback by his statement.

"Well sure, all dragons have an instinct to manipulate mana, but they are a far cry from being able to do controlled spells like you were just fiddling with.. let alone your 'breath'.."

-Ah.. So they were watching me play around..- "Well.. let's leave that aside for now." I quickly hopped up with an excited smile. "I wanna go hunting!"

"Haha, yes, of course." She turned to Father with a warm smile. "Honey, I'm gonna take Vasilias out into the forest to hunt something, just play with Ilios while we are gone."

Father gave a confused look.

Not noticing it, Mother turned back to me with a proud smile. "Well what are you waiting for? Let's go!"

Father was quick to keep us from leaving though. "Ilios? Whos that?"

-Wait what? He hasn't seen Ilios once the whole time he's been back?-

It wasn't until I thought back on it that I realized how he had somehow avoided Ilios perfectly up until this point.

-Well I might as well introduce him..- "Ilios is my pet wolf!" Ilios, who was sitting behind me, where father couldn't see, walked around to the front of me and sat down. "Isn't he adorable?"

Father broke out into a cold sweat when Ilios sat down and glanced at him.

Slowly leaning over towards Mother, he whispered something I couldn't really hear. "Honey.. that thing isn't just a wolf.."

Mother responded under her breath as well. "I know.. but Ilios is loyal to Vasilias and is part of our family now so you need to get along with him.." Her smile was somewhat threatening.

Father looked at Ilios with a look of defeat before reluctantly sighing and giving a nervous nod.

Seeing their conversation had finished, I leaned down and told Ilios to stay here and protect Krystallo for a bit.

With a light nod, he walked over to Krystallo and sat down.

-He's really smart huh..- After seeing that he understood, I spread my wings and launched myself into the sky. -Whatever, it's time to hunt!-

Once I got up high enough I stopped to wait for Mother and took a second look around. The forest stretched to the horizon, but since I had become a dragon, my sense of scale had been thrown out of whack.

I was looking at an absolutely huge forest but it somehow felt small. As if it was something I could cross in no time at all.

Interrupting my thoughts, Mother finally flew up next to me. "Alright, I'm not going to fly slow so be sure to keep up."

Mother then dashed forward but it was nothing I couldn't handle.

I casually sped up and started flying alongside her, looking towards the ground for prey.

Even though I was flying at an altitude of around 1 kilometer, I could easily see details on the ground. -A dragon's vision really is something incredible..-

After a short moment we heard a roar off in the distance. "Rooaarrr!!"

"Tch, another wyvern.." Mother sounded incredibly annoyed before she glanced towards me like she had an idea. "Actually this could work. Larger wyverns are between A and S rank so give it a shot, that will be your prey." [2]

"So 'my prey is going to be able to fight back' is what you're saying.." -Interesting..- An excited smile crept onto my face as I flew forward.

It only took a second to find the source of the roar.

There was a large 14 meter tall wyvern fighting another 12 meter one.

Dashing towards the ground, I took my time to think of how I should start the slaughter. -I'll use physical force on the bigger one and magic on the smaller one..- I couldn't just let the chance to test my strength pass.

Putting my front legs together, I slammed into the body of the large, unsuspecting wyvern.

*CrUnCh*

A cloud of bloody mist floated up around me as the body of the wyvern exploded from the excessive pressure.

Glancing towards the smaller wyvern, I saw that it was looking at me while shivering, frozen from fear.

-Hmm, what magic should I test..- I thought for a moment before a genius idea came to mind.

I quickly used earth magic to create a rod of strengthened iron, then, using lightning magic, I decided to try and launch it like a railgun. (lightning magics magnetism*)

After making sure everything was ready, I opened my mouth and aimed at the wyvern.

*CRACK*

The dart reached the horrified wyvern instantly and, as if the wyvern wasn't even there, ripped a huge hole through it's body.

*Cr-cr-cr-cr-crackle*

*Th-th-th-th-thud*

A crackling noise from the dart slamming through everything it touched filled the air, followed by the noise of several trees falling over.

I immediately jolted back slightly seeing how shockingly effective it was. -W..whoops.. maybe I should have.. aimed it more towards the ground..-

- Bonus ~

Little did I know back then, the metal rod got deflected into the air slightly by an old tree before traveling another 6,500 km south-west before embedding itself deep into the ground in front of the capital city of the Sinder Kingdom.

The shockwave of it hitting the ground was so strong it collapsed several buildings in the city including part of the royal palace.

The citizens ended up calling it 'a Message from Heaven' and used it as an excuse to rebel against the tyrannical royal family.

After the rebellion succeeded, the metal rod became known as the 'Heavens Message' and remained as a priceless treasure of the newly appointed royal family for many years to come.

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[1] - An example of this. Lets say you want to suffocate a fire, it would take more mana and focus to specifically remove just the oxygen than it would to just remove 95% of everything that's there.

[2] - an A rank has the equivalent strength of a young adolescent dragon, and S rank is the same as a young adult stage.