Adventures of the last Wild Dragon-Chapter 175: Elders

As the group walked through the gates they were greeted by a large open space. A wide gravel path led towards a central building, at least 4 stories tall and made of the same black stone as the outer walls. Surrounding this building were several smaller buildings, separated by small pathways that wound around them all.

Outside of the buildings open space dominated, a few figures could be seen fighting each other or just walking around in small groups. The fighting caught Violet’s attention quite quickly. "Umm should we not help the one fighting? Are you under attack?"

She felt slightly awkward asking the question, as Bazen did not seem even slightly concerned with the multiple fights currently going on around the compound.

Hearing that he chuckled lightly before replying. "Do not worry little one, they are merely sparing." Seeing Violet’s confused head tilt at that word he went on to further explain. "They are practicing how to fight, learning how to best use their skills in a controlled manner so when they eventually go out into the Wilds they will be better prepared."

"Ohh, that... kind of makes sense." But she didn’t sound all too convinced. "Why not just fight beasts or monsters to learn how to use your skills? Thats always worked for me."

He laughed at that. "I’m sure that worked for you, it mostly worked for me as well to be honest. Yet these people grew up in safety, they don’t know the true struggle of the Endless Forest. They don’t know how to fight for every advantage, how to survive overwhelming odds. So we need to teach it to them, else they have a high chance of dying on their first time leaving the safety of the city."

Violet considered his words, taking a full 5 seconds to try to understand the logic behind it. Eventually she slowly nodded, seeing the reason behind the practice, even if she personally thought it would be better to just go fight something for real.

"Now come, follow me. I will introduce you to some of the elders, they have been wanting to meet you ever since Ivy informed us of your existence."

"How did Ivy contact you? I thought she was heading further west after we separated?" Luna asked their bovine guide.

"That she did, but you underestimate how fast a powerful sovereign like her can travel. She arrived back in the city yesterday evening, she would have come to meet you herself but was held up with... meetings and paperwork." He shuddered slightly at the last words, causing Violet and Luna to frown in confusion.

They thought about asking what was so bad about meeting people, or what paperwork was, but collectively decided to just move on seeing as even Bazen seemed slightly afraid of it. "Paperwork must be some terrifying monster for even a sovereign to be affraid of it." Violet silently communicated to Luna, receiving a nod in agreement.

Soon they arrived in front of the central building. Bazen stopping in front of it as he turned around to face them, a serious expression on his face. "Before you go in to meet the elders I want to warn you. They are a group of crotchety old bastards. They might be rude, might ask questions you don’t want to answer, might insinuate things that you don’t like."

All the girls frowned at that, clearly not liking the idea of talking to people that may insult them. "Then why should we bother speaking with them?" Asked Luna.

"Because the Wild Order needs you, we need the dragons, those old bags of bones are just to set in their ways and fail to understand this fact."

"So? Why should we care? We don’t need the order, we are only here because we may Ivy and liked her." Violet rebutted.

That seemed to stump Bazen, he opened his mouth to reply but paused before closing it. A frown marring his forehead. "Hu, but don’t you want to join the order? To help us destroy any corruption?"

"Not really, I don’t see a need to join anything when it’s something that I would already do. I already attack corruption wherever I see it, I don’t need to be told to do so. Besides we already have a goal we need to do, that’s why we are traveling east in the first place." Violet explained.

Rhyana spoke up then. "We don’t need to or want to be taking orders from people we don’t know or like."

This seemed to stump the Minotaur, leaving him confused as to how to proceed. "Meh we can meet with these elders, but I’ll just eat them if they annoy me. Or leave if they are stronger." Violet said in a content tone.

Then without further ado she strolled forward, pushing open the doors to the central building, Luna, Rhyana and Susan following in right behind her. Susan did give a slightly apologetic smile towards Bazen before rushing in after her friends.

Bazen soon gathered himself before he rushed in after them, not saying anything else as he guided them towards a set of double doors.

Quickly glancing at her companion and friends Violet smiled wide before she walked forward and threw open the doors. A boom resounded out as they smashed into the walls from the forceful opening, Bazen wincing slightly at the sound.

Violet strolled forward entering into a large circular room, a short wooden wall circled the central area she now stood in. Rows of seating lined the room, several figures rested in seating on the raised platforms looking down on Violet and her group.

Violet quickly took in her surroundings, carefully observing all who resided within the room. A small smile curled her lips as she noted that only 2 sovereigns were present, one of them being Ivy with the other being a elderly beastkin, some kind of lizard based on the scales.

As for the rest, they were all Lords or lower, two of the Lords were in the middle stages with 3 being in the early stage like Violet. The rest were not even worth making note of for Violet, their strength entirely lacking.

This all happened in the couple of seconds it took Violet to walk into the middle of the room. She gave a small nod towards Ivy, sending a quick telepathic message to her to see if she would mind what she may do. To her delight Ivy seemed to fully support her idea. So she let her smile widen.

When she entered the middle of the room she they tilted her head as she looked up at the surrounding people. One of whom decided that now would be a good time to speak up. "How uncouth, have you no manners."

Violet blinked at the man in genuine confusion, before choosing to completely ignore that man, he was one of the weakest people present after all. This however, seemed to enrage the silly man as he proceeded to stand up and shout down at Violet. "How dare a lowly beast ignore me!"

Violet, Luna, Rhyana and Susan instantly locked back on to the man. The room which was already quiet install grew silent. A low growl emerged from the three beasts present.

Then a purple light began to glow around Violet, it quickly grew in intensity before blinking out after a few short seconds.

When the assembled people could look once more their eyes widened as they beheld what stood towering over them.

Clad in violet scales, with only claws digging into the stone floor. She stood nearly 10 meters long from tail to tip, her head towering over and looking down upon all the people present.

She was joined a moment later when both Luna and Rhyana also transformed into their own beast form. Rhyana nearly matching Violet in size, her body just slightly stockier, with her muscles more pronounced as electricity danced along her blue scales. Luna stood right besides Violet. Her Snow White fur littered with ever shifting blue spots.

The silence in the room was deafening as the 3 beasts towered over all present, only Ivy seemed unconcerned, yet even she had a gleam in her eyes as she beheld their true forms.

After a prolonged moment of silence Violet snapped together a series of mind bridges, connecting all present to allow them to hear her voice. "Do you want to say that again puny man?" Her voice dripped with venom, the threat made abundantly clear by the reverberating growl that slightly shook the entire room.

Yet somehow the man was either incapable of understanding that threat or was just too stupid as he actually replied. He voice faltering slightly yet he still pushed on. "Y-you can’t intimidated us! Such crude methods won’t work here beast! We ha..." his words were cut off as a spear of void pierced through his head faster than any could blink. His limp body stuck to the wall behind him. Violet ensuring that her spear stayed corporal and did not simply erase everything around it.

"Does anyone else want to insult me to my face?" Violet asked as she slowly gazed at the now shivering elders around the room. The older sovereign did not react, a slight frown on his face as he simply observed the others reactions.

Silence once more overtook the room, only interrupted by the steady sound of blood dripping to the floor, a small puddle of gore forming underneath the dead man’s body.