Victorious Return (1)

Not long after Luca's awakening, two of the three coalition leaders were having trouble laughing at the predicament of the young boy, who was still wearing Reed's shirt, while Zachariah was simply astounded, as he'd never seen the boy before, let alone expected one so small and young to be the hero of the day. Luca was blushing up a storm from being teased as Lydia helped him with taking a large amount of old bandit tent cloth and turning it into a back-string sarong [1] so that he could return Reed's shirt. After thanking the scout before he went back to his duties, the white-haired lad fidgeted, which only made him seem adorable to the collective combatants.

Commander Zachariah, having dismounted once the battle had ended, sized up the boy with the critical look of a drill sergeant, which was likely fitting for his station. "I'm not sure how I'll explain this to the City Lord... Sure, there was some expectation you could be helpful but not to the point of assassinating a Lv. 5 Warrior."

Luca had a meek grin as he shyly scratched his head, "Yeah, it was unexpected to me too. I was hoping to disable one arm at least and critically injure him at best. Still, I'm happy I was able to reduce our losses by a good deal, and if I hadn't pulled off such a lucky move, I wouldn't have been able to awaken."

Austin's mirth had subsided somewhat, so he still had a tiny smirk, "Lucky move indeed." He then stopped and became serious, "You said you awakened, and you came back to us wearing only a scout's shirt. We still haven't heard an explanation for that. What do you mean, you awakened?"

Rather than speak, Luca quickly fidgeted with his sarong to expose his tailbone a little before causing his draconic aspects to manifest again in plain view. The sudden appearance of bright, glittery scales and glassy wings immediately drew attention from everywhere around as the tiny boy revealed his answer with action. "As I said, I awakened. I am a Dragonborn."

Nearby, Luca could hear a handful of people praise the God of Light for their presence at this historic moment, and even the three leaders felt an urge to pray in gratitude. Discovering a new Dragonborn was monumental, and it never happened in a normal way either. Lydia was the first to recover rather than Austin this time, as she sighed, "I've barely known you more than a day and you never cease to amaze me. A new Dragonborn after 300-some years, yet when it comes to you it just doesn't seem out of place. When we get back to Bristol, we'll need to update your guild card again. You're not strong enough to be C-rank, but we'll move you up to D-rank and prepare you for the rank-up test."

Austin agreed with a curt nod, "The Mages Guild will need to update your card as well. Since you're a Dragonborn, you have inherent access to your ancestral knowledge. What's the highest spell you can cast now?"

The boy chuckled, "I don't base my class level on the most advanced spell I can cast. If I can't master a spell at my level, I refuse to admit that I am at that level. I know several Lv. 6 spells, such as the Fire-type [Minor Meteor] or the Earth-type [Minor Earthquake], but I can't even cast them. Of the ones I can cast, I reach Lv. 3, Lv. 4 if I push it, but that's only by being able to cast it. I have only just managed to master my Lv. 1 spells, so I'm still starting to become a Lv. 2."

Hearing that Luca was capable of casting Lv. 3/4 spells stumped the older mage, as the youngest Lv. 3 Mage in the entire province only reached that level midway through his thirties, and that was Austin himself. Still, he agreed with the boy's assessment of his abilities being reflected in his level rather than his strongest spell's level. "That makes sense to me. Only a master of spellcasting is capable of being unrivalled among those of the same level..."

The half-dragon boy shrugged as his wings folded up and his tail disappeared, "Yeah, that's my goal. I need to master at least one spell at my level before I move to the next level. Shouldn't be too much longer now that I have access to the ancestral knowledge of the dragons."

Lydia rubbed the boy's hair, making him grumble a little, "Speaking of dragons, there are no records of either you or your partner Arcturus's dragon species anywhere. I've never seen a silvery-white-with-gold dragon or a glassy, mirror-like dragon, even in books. Can you tell us about them?" She was asking purely out of curiosity, though she recognized Luca's expression as hesitant fear. "Don't worry, we won't add it to your guild cards and keep it very secret. The only thing that anyone else will know is just your status as a Dragonborn."

After a moment of contemplation, and a conversation between him, Arcturus and the System, he nodded just a tad, "Not now, though. When we're back in town I will."

The older mage sighed and looked around, "Looks like we're almost ready to get moving. Zachariah, are you ready for the mages to start the bonfire?" Burning corpses was commonplace, as the undead could appear without warning. Priests had a spell called [Funeral Dirge] that granted the dead safe passage to the afterlife and protected them from any external power that was beneath deity level, but none were available with their coalition.

The Grens Provincial Army Commander nodded as he began to mount his steed once again, "We're about to head back, so let's light the blaze. Once it goes up, don't forget to make a vacuum wall around the fire so it doesn't spread."

"You know I've got it covered." Austin raised his staff as he commanded, "Set the pyre!" A dozen or so mages cast large AoE flame spells and created a towering blaze of burning bodies, as just as many mages created a vacuum barrier around it simultaneously. Several minutes passed as the coalition watched the bodies burn, and only when the metallic objects began to melt did the commander sound for the retreat, a command that was accompanied by a victorious cheer.