Chp.24: The return of an old enemy

Carrion had always been a pragmatic man. He could be impulsive sometimes, but he never went to face an opponent without first thinking carefully about the pros and cons. Since the beginning of the war between humans and beastmen, his every move had been the result of reasoning and calculations, and in fact everything had gone well until that cursed dragon had not decided to act against him. Carrion knew that was the big factor that led to his defeat, maybe even the only factor: Haku had outsmarted him. Carrion had made mistakes, too, of course: he himself wasn't arrogant enough to call himself blameless. But still, if Haku hadn't entered the game, or even just been a little less intelligent, the victory would have indisputably gone to Carrion.

When he had managed to emerge from the pile of stones under which Haku had buried him, Carrion had his goal clearly in mind: to kill that dragon. Not for revenge, of course: Carrion didn't care much about being defeated in battle. Getting angry at the enemy general because he had been better than him would have been no different than a child getting angry because his opponent was better at playing ball and therefore beat him. While Carrion was furious over the deaths of his trusted men, he was not moved by feelings of vengeance towards Haku. No, the reason why he wanted, indeed, had to eliminate it, was to keep the Jurao Kingdom safe: now that dragon was young, and already so he had been able to defeat an army and a legendary level; but once he had grown up, he could have razed the whole nation to the ground without any effort. No, he could have done much more: if Haku had combined the immense power of dragons with his intelligence, the whole world could have been in grave danger.

Carrion couldn't allow that. Leave such a dragon free to grow into a walking natural disaster would be an unforgivable sin. He had to stop it at any cost. Haku had to be killed.

However, Carrion wasn't going to be impulsive and reckless this time around. Haku had already proved to be very dangerous and Carrion remembered his threat; even though it could very well have been a bluff, the man felt that it was not at all, and that this dragon really had the means necessary to defeat him if he went looking for him. Carrion knew that he would not have had a second chance: if Haku had managed to beat him a second time, this time there would have been no agreement with the human king that could have saved him; the dragon would kill him. If Carrion was to stand any chance, he had to tread carefully.

First he had to recover his power. During the battle Haku had made him lose almost all of his divine power; Carrion was slowly recovering it, but it would take weeks for it to return to full strength. The wisest choice would have been to remain hidden in the Arapaina Gorge and wait patiently, then set off in pursuit once his power was restored; however, doing so would give Haku too much of an advantage and risk losing track of him. Therefore, he had come to a compromise: every day he flew a small section of the road, so as to decrease the distance, and then continued on foot, at a speed similar to that of the beastmen army. This cost him a little godpower each day, but it was a small enough price for him to still continue to recover his strength, albeit more slowly. He didn't fear encountering danger along the way: even without his divine power he was still a level adamantium soldier, and could therefore handle any type of threat. Of course, it would have been easier if he still had his wyvern with him, but unfortunately Haku had killed it and taken it away. However, come to think of it, even if he had had it he wouldn't have used it: a wyvern would have been too visible from a distance. In fact, the other important factor he had to take into account was the powerful sensory capabilities of dragons, much superior to those of any other creature; therefore, every day as he flew he also used some of his divine power to increase his vision and check how far he was from the beastmen army. Finally, after he had come within five kilometers of it, he had come to a complete stop and never dared go near it again. Carrion was carrying numerous magical items that could help him conceal his presence, as well as his own divine power, as well as the rune he had engraved on his heart… but if he got within five kilometers, he was a hundred percent certain percent that Haku would be aware of his presence. In that case that would have been the end of him: if he wanted to stand a chance, he had to first get the most important thing in any war, battle or even duel, namely information about his opponent.

If he was to defeat Haku, he had to be able to predict his every move. So he had watched the beastmen army for days using his divine power to maximize his vision, thus increasing his recover times even more. However, he hadn't been able to see Haku anywhere for a long time. He had almost begun to think that the dragon had abandoned his allies, or that the contract between them had been fulfilled and that he had already received the payment he wanted, or that in any case he had gone in a different direction for some reason... but just when he was about to throw in the towel, Haku was back. And to Carrion's dismay, he wasn't alone. Fifteen other dragons were with him. And after a few days, yet another dragon had arrived aboard a great fleet of ships. And given the way they carried themselves and the fact that they were all clearly the same age, it was obvious that they must all be brothers and sisters.

Carrion had been shocked by that discovery. The presence of so many dragons together violated every known law of nature, and was clearly synonymous with catastrophe: if all those dragons grew and continued to act together... then the world would face an almost unprecedented peril, and only the gods could have saved mortals from complete annihilation. And obviously, the cause of that absurdity, of that anomaly, of that unheard-of alteration of the laws of the world, was none other than Haku. Carrion had understood this very well from the way the other dragons behaved towards him: it was clear that if he wasn't the leader, at least he was the one who made the most decisions and who had everyone's trust. It was therefore logical to think that he was the one who kept all those dragons together for some sinister purpose. It seemed absurd to Carrion that the beastmen had not only agreed to partner with one dragon, but wouldn't immediately eliminate those seventeen dragons before it was too late. Another demonstration of how the beastmen were a deviant and underdeveloped race.

Carrion had realized that his position at the moment was very precarious. Not only was his foe a dragon that had already proven itself capable of defeating him, but there were seventeen others with him, not to mention that he also had an army of thousands of beastmen at his service. But he was completely alone. He had considered going back and asking for help from the king and other legendary levels; surely they would not have stood idly by if they had known of the existence of seventeen dragons cooperating. However, he soon realized he couldn't do it, for two reasons. The first was that in that case he would have had to leave for days, and when he would have returned with reinforcements Haku would have already left for the desert and then it would have been impossible to trace him. The second was that almost certainly no one would have believed him: the king now knew that Carrion had orchestrated a plot behind his back, so he had no reason to trust him, and after all who would have thought that the story of seventeen dragons working together was it true? Only a madman would believe it. No, Carrion was alone. Alone against an entire army.

So he stayed there and continued to follow Haku across the desert. Luckily for him it hadn't been difficult to keep up: he had imitated the methods of the beastmen to defend themselves from the sun, and also his snakeman blood, as much as he hated it, came to his aid as it provided a certain resistance to heat. As he went on he continued to recover his divine power and to observe the situation from a distance. And slowly, a plan had begun to make its way into his mind.

His main objective was Haku: if he died, even if the other dragons remained alive, without a figure to follow, they would quickly separate following the emergence of internal conflicts, and Carrion could easily kill them one by one . As a result, Haku had to be the first to die; then it would be his siblings and then all the beastmen. To succeed, however, he had to isolate him first. Haku had told him that he possessed the means to be able to kill Carrion, but clearly such means could not be part of his body since he was still immature: they had to be weapons, runes, magic or other things. Therefore, if Carrion had attacked him before Haku could react and use the defense he had prepared, he would have killed him without problems. But if Haku had been in someone's company, then Carrion might have been able to kill him, but then the other dragons would have had time to take up arms and would have killed him in turn. Despite martyrdom didn't frighten Carrion, he couldn't die before at least all seventeen dragons were dead. Therefore, if he was to have a chance of success, he had to isolate Haku and strike him while he was alone. This was clearly very difficult, as Haku never strayed from the marching caravan of beastmen.

Also there was another big problem: even if he somehow managed to lure Haku elsewhere, how was he going to hit him in time? If he tried to get closer than three miles away, the dragon would immediately notice his presence, and then prepare himself. Even at his top speed, Carrion had no chance of going five kilometers in less than a second. So, how to solve this problem that seemed unsolvable? He didn't know how to do it, so he prayed every night to the goddess Heloisa to show him the way forward.

And the goddess had answered; not quite in the way Carrion had intended, but he had. He had sent the beasts of the desert to face the beastmen, and Carrion, observing the various encounters, had understood that the dragons could not notice the creatures under the sand in the same way they noticed all those above. They could still sense them, but it was very difficult for them. Had he hidden beneath the sand, Carrion might have gotten very close without the dragons sniffing or hearing or seeing him. The perfect ambush, basically. And furthermore, those clashes had made Carrion understand how to isolate Haku: the best way to attract a dragon was to use food. And what better food than a giant worm? Carrion was sure that Haku would come if he saw another of those animals; he'd fought one before, and would almost certainly face another. Using this worm as bait, Carrion could create a trap.

First he had to get the aforementioned bait. As soon as the beastmen were gone he reopened the hole that led to the underground caverns and quickly explored them. The goddess Heloisa had helped him again by making him find another giant worm early, which had split the rock to come there to feed after just two minutes that Carrion had entered. He had captured him and then led him close to the beastmen caravan. For a few days he had simply made it appear in the sand from time to time so that Haku could see it. He was sure the dragon wouldn't resist the chance to hunt again. He didn't fear that many of his siblings would follow him: they were all apparently busy with other matters. And indeed in the end Haku had gone hunting accompanied by only two other dragons and some beastmen, who had also split up along the way.

By then Carrion had set his trap. He had dug a hidden hole and used the giant worm as bait. Then, as soon as Haku arrived and positioned himself in the right place, he collapsed the supports and then the thin layer that covered the hole collapsed, trapping Haku inside. Taking advantage of his confusion Carrion had therefore hurled a spear with all his might to strike him. If he had managed to hit his head, he would have killed him instantly.

Unfortunately, however, Haku had revealed that he possessed even more extraordinary reflexes than Carrion believed: he had managed to dodge the blow, even if he had been injured, gaining a few seconds of time, and that was enough for him to understand what was happening and how to act. And now, Carrion was faced with something much more dangerous, which was currently emerging from the pit.