A Dragon's Roar

The following morning the Redmont manor was in an uproar. Every servant was rushing around, making sure not to get in anyone's way. They wouldn't dare to after a servant earlier had made the mistake of believing if he relayed the information of Aris missing to Lord Redmont then he would have favor on him. The unfortunate servant wound up on the receiving end of Redmont's Great Mage tier Fire Blast, holding nothing back. The servant was instantly incinerated.

In the Skystorm kingdom magic had a few different tiers. Beginner mages would be at the Apprentice stage, followed by Novice, Great, High, Arch, and Supreme. There were rumors of stages further than that but no one in recorded history had been able to achieve such a feat.

Standing in the doorway to the room Aris had been locked into just the night before Redmont had flames emitting from his eyes. He turned his rage to Roland, the air rippling around him from the heat.

"Roland… Where is he?" As Redmont asked his question his eyes squinted, forcing the flames out tighter and making him look like a demon.

Unfazed by the appearance of Redmont before him, Roland stood straight and answered calmly. "It appears he went into the glowing forest sir. He managed to get out of the window."

Walking over he took a long look at the window before looking out of it.

Redmont tapped his finger against the windowsill, staring out towards the forest. A vein was visibly pulsing on his forehead. "You're telling me… A kid with no mana.. No knowledge of this world.. Managed to break a mana barrier, fall 15 feet WITHOUT being noticed by my guards… And then managed to get over a 15 foot wall?"

"We're still figuring it out sir, but we believe he had some sort of mana awakening and learned how to make a mana barrier of his own," Roland said slowly, gauging the reaction of his Lord.

Redmont sighed before answering, the flames in his eyes finally dissipating with a faint smoke. "Well, if he truly is a member of an ancient noble family then it's to be expected. Find him. Bring him back here, I don't care what you have to do. He can't make it very far in those woods with all the magical beasts."

Roland quickly saluted before gathering the rest of his squad and heading into the woods. After walking for 30 minutes they quickly found the body of the Flaming Sapphire Wolf.

'If this was done by the kid then…' Roland didn't dare finish the thought, thinking it impossible for someone who had never wielded magic before. They continued searching through the forest for the next two weeks, finding nothing as Aris was long gone by then.

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Aris continued walking through the kingdom for over a week, constantly checking his location on the map. He'd journeyed through the glowing forest for 3 days before coming out to some plains, filled with wildflowers that changed to a myriad of colors. For the next two days he walked through the flowers. a few packs of the magical beasts he'd managed to kill earlier had appeared along the way that Aris decided would be better to steer clear of for now. He had a feeling he wouldn't get as lucky against the packs as he would against a single one.

After he came across another glowing forest Aris had had enough. "I'VE BEEN TRAVELING FOR A WEEK WHY AM I NOT EVEN CLOSE TO HALFWAY TO THE NEAREST TOWN?!!?"

In his mind he could feel the amulet laughing, amused with the tantrum that had unfolded. Aris focused on searching through his ring, looking to see if there was anything that would speed up his travel. He eyed over all the gear inside curiously, paying closer attention to the two pairs of boots.

'Hey amulet, are you able to tell me anything about those boots?' Aris was scratching his head looking at them trying to see if the physical appearance could give any clue but came up with nothing. To Aris they just looked like normal boots, but if they were in the storage ring then he was guessing they were anything but normal.

Almost like an inspect skill the amulet quizzically peered at the boots Aris had been looking at. 'Hmmm, the iron boots are enchanted for defense... Those leather ones are unique though. It appears they have a lightfoot enchant...'

'Meaning?'

The amulet hesitated before answering. 'Well, they make your steps soundless as well as letting you move about quicker. They're frequented by assassins.'

Curious more than anything else took the boots out of the storage and before throwing them on decided to look at some of the spare clothes stored in the ring as well.

Worried about drawing more unwanted attention he hastily threw on the spare set. 'My clothes don't really fit that of what others are wearing...'

On 3 shelves in the ring were stored different shirts and pants. Aris chose to go with a black jacket with dark blue leather pads on the shoulders along with a pair of loose fitting black leather pants as well. He chose to keep on his gray t-shirt underneath as it wasn't visible anyway and was rather comfortable. The last thing he threw one was the leather boots.

As soon as he put them on he tried stomping around. To his surprise it truly didn't make a sound. He tried stepping in fallen leaves, on trunks of trees, anything in the surrounding area but nothing made a sound.

A smile flitted across Aris' face as he finished his tests. 'Well that's rather convenient.'

He decided to try testing out the speed of the boots next.

At first he didn't notice a difference. His speed felt like it was the same sluggish speed he'd been traveling at for over a week.

Aris groaned inwardly. 'This is pointless if I can't move faster. Sure the silent movement is nice but I'm not too worried about that for now.'

But while Aris was ready to give up the amulet quickly gave a suggestion. 'Try pouring a bit of your mana into the boots. Some enchants work passively, for example the silence aspect. But the lightfoot enchant is actually two separate enchantments combined to form a more common one.'

After hearing this Aris decided to give it a chance, focusing his mana, feeling it move through his body before directing it towards the boots.

He tried running again, using his previous tests as a benchmark he suddenly felt like he was flying. The boots when supplied with mana would allow him to run as fast as a Flaming Sapphire Wolf.

A bright smile appeared on the face of Aris. 'Finally, now I can make it to the next town in no time.'

Aris ran for the next three hours, not feeling any exhaustion as long as he kept a small supply of mana flowing into the boots.

As he came up to a curve in the road he heard some screams. He quickly stopped and slipped from tree to tree, heading in the direction of the screams.

As he came up to a clearing in the forest there were three burning carriages with a thundercloud symbol painted on the side. In the middle of the carriages was a short chubby man along with two young women, one of around 22 and the other roughly the same age as Aris. The screams however weren't coming from the women, who looked more annoyed than anything. No, the screams were coming from the man in the middle.

By one of the carriages was a group of three men with shortswords on their hips. Wearing leather vests, their arms unprotected, the scars on their arms from years of fights were visible.

Suddenly one of them drew their sword and started walking towards the group in the center. As he raised his sword Aris poured mana into his boots and charged forward, slipping behind the bandits without being seen or heard thanks to his boots.

With the sword swinging down Aris quickly cast his mana barrier, the sword bouncing off of it, the hilt bashing into the bandit's forehead and causing the big man to bleed.

A rage had filled Aris as he was watching the situation before him. A burning feeling was emanating from his throat.

The amulet was worried, quickly piping up in Aris' mind. 'Aris what's going on, talk to me.'

'My throat, it feels like it's on fire.'

Off in his own little area the amulet began thinking to himself, away from Aris' thoughts. 'There's no way… It can't be that ability… Only the original Dragonlord had that ability…'

'Aris, focus on that feeling, control it. Feel that burning and let it out.'

Hearing the amulet's words Aris couldn't take it anymore. His eyes were still on the bandit he had blocked and the carriage behind them that the other two were sitting behind.

As the burning reached another level Aris let out what can only be described as a monstrous roar. The air around him began to vibrate, the ground beneath his feet ripping apart. The bandits had no idea what was going on, afraid of what monster could make a sound such as that.

As Aris roared a pair of flaming dragons erupted from his mouth, slamming into the bandit in the center and sending him hurtling through the air, crashing into the cart hard enough to tip it over, crushing the other two bandits underneath.

The group in the center sat there, not daring to move. Looking at the carriage now tipped over, the man who only moments before had been about to kill them was now lying unmoving on top of the carriage, blood seeping from his mouth.

Their attention was finally drawn over to where the twin dragons had come from, there they saw a boy, only 14 years old, bent over and breathing heavily.

"Water.." Aris croaked, his throat still burning from what had just happened.

Immediately as he said that the short chubby man in the center produced a canteen of water from a dimensional storage ring of his own, hurriedly rushing over to hand it to Aris.

"Here you go, please, drink." The man basically forced the water into Aris' hands.

Aris without question took the stopper out of the canteen and drank every last drop of the water.

Grateful for the water and not wanting to stand around in more awkward silence Aris extended his hand and introduced himself to the man. "Thank you. My name's Aris."

The man shook Aris' hand enthusiastically while introducing himself. "My name's Count Robin. These are my daughters, Mae and Jordan."

Aris gave a head nod to both of them, noting that both were quite beautiful despite being covered in ash and their hair being a mess.

Meanwhile off in his own private thoughts the amulet was beside himself. 'Not possible, that ability hasn't been around in millenia. How can the ability of the original Dragonlord possibly now be possessed by this young man? How can he use the Roar of the Twin Dragons…'

Looking over at the bandits it came to Aris' attention that none of them were moving still. He hadn't just seriously injured them, the three big men were actually dead.

Walking over Aris was filled with emotions, but not one of those emotions was regret. He quickly searched over the body's, asking the amulet to see if they possessed anything useful. As it turns out one of the three had a magic sword, enchanted with a fire enchant causing the blade to ignite when a proper amount of mana was transferred in.

Aris quickly added this into his dimensional storage without much thought and returned over to the family.

"Young Aris, if it wouldn't be too much trouble would you wait here with us? Another few carriages should've been deployed shortly after mine left and will arrive here soon. I'd be more than happy to offer you a ride to Grand Rose City. It's only a few days' ride from here."

Aris quickly took out his map and looked to see where Grand Rose City was compared to the City of Storms. In fact it would bring him within just a week's travel to it.

With this information in mind Aris smiled brilliantly and gave a small bow. "I'd be delighted to accompany you."

After agreeing Aris made some small talk with the family while lost in his own thoughts. 'Soon I'll be in the City of Storms. Soon I'll know what it is you wanted me to do here old man.'