Trick 171: Dragon Saliva?!

The next few days Ace studied the Mythological Creatures around Ta Lo, the Magic in Ta Lo, and their Forging Methods. He was everywhere at once, doing everything and collecting information.

He traded with the Creatures, helping them out for their products like shed horns, scales, skin, fur, feathers, ashes, dust, etc.

Ace even found Golden Crows a bit farther away from the Village!

He even managed to acquire some special wood from Phoenix and Golden Crow trees! The Creatures were extremely intelligent and Ace just traded with them, it wasn't difficult at all.

He made a few trees grow bigger and grander, traded a few pieces of precious metals, wrote down a bit of magic and before he knew it, he had so many materials from all the creatures, he was loaded!

The only thing he didn't have was, funnily enough, the Dragon Scales…

When Ace returned to the Village, he saw cars rolling in.

A bunch of people from the Ten Rings got out of the cars and lined up as the asian man walked out.

Ace sat on top of one of the buildings, reading his notes, not really bothered by the Ten Rings at this moment. He was more concerned with what he had written down. He muttered "There should be more context here…" as he floated off to the library, passing the old lady on the ground and looking at the books.

He started reading them as the people outside started fighting.

Ace started paying attention to the fight as well as taking down notes, tapping on the air as people who should've died were saved on both sides.

The fight was basically a training exercise when Ace was there. Obviously he wasn't going to let anyone die in front of him. He was a bit uncomfortable that Karli died right in front of his eyes, not that uncomfortable mind you, but uncomfortable nonetheless.

So Ace was determined to not let anyone die in front of him, of course if he missed them then he really couldn't do anything about it. They will pass to the Realm of the Dead, there was not really anything he could do.

Death would drag him down and beat him up if he started bringing people back to life…

A little bit later, he noticed everyone stopped. He paused his reading and walked outside, looking at everyone.

They were all standing a ways away, at the edge of the water, looking at the gate in the distance as creatures flew over to them.

Ace floated over and hovered in the sky as Xialing looked up, shouting "Help!" Ace waved and said "Sure." everyone looked up as Ace tilted his head at the demon squid bird things.

He raised his hand and tapped on the air with his fingers lightly. Little purple discs appearing where he tapped, he pressed on the discs and turned his hand as the world started shaking.

The space around the squid demons cracked open and formed a serrated mouth of sorts before chomping down on all the demon squids, making them disappear as the space reverted to normal.

Xialing was frozen stiff, unable to understand what she even just saw.

Ace blinked and looked at the water to see a massive dragon shoot out with Shang-Chi hitching a ride on her head.

The Dragon looked around in confusion before roaring and bringing Shang-Chi to the gate.

It flew back and roared in confusion again, not understanding where the squid things went.

Ace tilted his head and spoke in Draconian, "Hello?" the Dragon turned to him and roared softly "Human? You understand?" Ace was stunned and replied "Hey! I do. Wow. I didn't know Draconian was universal Dragon language." The Dragon curled around him, replying in a feminine voice, "It's not, I speak this dialect as well."

Ace closed his eyes and nodded, "Ohhh. I see." She asked "Did you take care of the Soul Eaters?" Ace nodded and said "Yeah… They're pretty weak." as more of them burst from the gate of scales in the distance.

Ace tapped on the air and black orbs appeared in the distance, amidst the groups of Soul Eaters. The Orbs disappeared, everything in the space they were in, disappeared.

A Soul Eater was missing half its body and fell into the lake, dead.

Ace tilted his head and said "This is all…?" The Dragon fell silent before remarking "Perhaps I shall no longer need to protect Ta Lo…"

Ace tapped the air and slid his finger across, replying "Probably not, this is not an issue…" the Soul Eaters froze and shattered like glass, disappearing into dust.

The people on the ground fell silent and a guy from the Ten Rings with a machete for an arm, asked "Why are we here?" Xialing rolled her eyes, replying "I didn't know we would have a wizard, did you?" He fell silent and she snorted with her arms crossed.

Ace hummed to himself, sitting in the air as he formed a cube in his hands.

He looked at the Soul Eaters and smiled to himself as the cube turned into a Rubik's Cube. Ace started playing with it as the space with all the Soul Eaters warped and distorted, moving around with Ace's movements, crushing them to dust under the weight of moving space and reality.

The Dragon hovered next to him, tilting her head, sighing to herself. Who knew humans were so powerful?

As waves after waves of Soul Eaters were turned to ashes, suddenly there was a thumping.

Ace looked over as a giant black dragon squid demon thing burst from the scale wall! Ace groaned "The scales! Aw man, what a waste…" The dragon next to him, looking at him with a funny expression.

The Squid Dragon thing did something at the wall and then flew over to the village.

Ace didn't know what it was doing, he didn't even know there was anybody over there… I thought Shang-Chi left already, he was too busy taking care of the Soul Eaters.

He flew to the Dragon thing and tilted his head, saying "Oh! This one is stronger…" before turning to the Dragon, asking "Can I have it?" The Dragon was confused, asking "What?"

Ace turned back and the Dragon thing lunged at him, he held his hand out and the Dragon thing stopped instantly.

Ace said "Shhh… Bad Soul Eating Demon Monster…" before clenching his fist.

Space ripped apart and purple chains flew out, wrapping the Dragon thing up as a lightning bolt fell from the sky, lighting it up as it screeched in pain.

Ace frowned and wiped his ear, saying "Noisy." as a thunder clapped, a massive hand of lightning shooting down and grabbing the Dragon thing like it was a toy, slamming it into the mountain and water before tossing it to the ground carelessly.

Ace floated over and hummed to himself, clapping his hands together, turning them and pulling apart as spinning magic circles appeared. He sent them out and they covered the Dragon thing on the ground, it started roaring in pain as it shrunk down to the size of a regular big dog.

Ace lifted it up and rubbed its throat smiling "Cute!" before freezing it in a purple crystal, putting it away.

He turned around to see everyone looking at him. He frowned and asked "What?" Ying Nan swallowed, "You… You saved everyone!" Ace blinked and nodded, replying strangely "Of course, I'm a hero. That's what Heroes do!"

He scratched his head and smiled "Now you don't have to guard the gate anymore." before realizing something and flying towards the gate, saying "Damn!"

He came to the gate and moved the rubble away, vaporizing the Soul Eaters as he looked inside, sighing "All the Dragon Scales… gone!" before walking out, making the mountain normal, without a gate.

He turned to see Shang-Chi holding his father with the rings on the ground, ownerless.

Ace raised his brows and curled his finger, the Ten Rings flying to him and disappearing as he looked around, clearing his throat.

Shang-Chi sighed, "Thanks for saving everyone…" Ace patted his shoulder and looked at the man, saying "Sorry for your loss… I didn't even know you were here otherwise-" he stopped and sighed, promising to stop playing around.

Ace lifted Shang-Chi and his father, bringing them to the village before Ace went to study again, only to be stopped by the dragon, who said "Come with me." Ace followed the Dragon and she brought him to a secluded area before shaking her body vigorously, dropping scales, hairs, pieces of horn, etc.

Ace looked at everything and asked "For me?!" The Dragon nudged him and smiled "Thank you for relieving me of my duties." Ace stroked her head, smiling gently "No problem. It wasn't difficult…"

The Dragon chuckled and licked him before diving back into the water and disappearing.

Ace touched himself and sighed "Dragon Saliva… Very precious!" as he collected the saliva as well as the materials, putting them in his personal space before blinking back into the library, hearing that they were doing a celebration dinner.

Ace didn't really do celebration dinners so…

He stayed in the library and workshop, shuttling from place to place and absorbing all of Ta Lo's knowledge, surprisingly it wasn't a lot. He only stopped time for a few hours and got everything.

A few days later