Draconic King of Shadows-Chapter 104: A Looming Threat

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[Subordinate Quest Complete]

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[Title, Draconic King of Inferno, has been granted to Kenzo Draeke]

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Damion sighed in relief the moment he saw the message pop up on screen, but then the sickening crunch of Noriko’s body in Kenzo’s mouth made him pause and stare in shock.

He watched Noriko’s body disappear in a few bites, before Kenzo shot him a glance and reverted to his human form.

Damion had hoped that he could raise Noriko as a Shadow Puppet, making his growing army more powerful. But he wasn’t so lucky.

Besides, that was probably Kenzo’s reward, considering the changes to his body.

Damion noticed the new look to Kenzo’s body instantly, but he didn’t spare him more than a glance before he moved. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

He reached Kenzo’s side as soon as he formed the Qi blade, and he sent a telepathic message to him, giving him a robe to put on and a rough explanation of what was going on.

He would have done this earlier, but the system had said not to interfere in the fight in any way, no matter what. Now that the battle was over, they could resume their retreat. The Zombie Grunts were already gaining on them after all.

They didn’t go as fast as before so as to let Lyra keep up with them. She tried her best, moving as fast as her legs could carry her. She had used her unaccessed body potential for a short while, but that was enough to make her unable to access it again in the next weeks. If she did, she risked straining her body more than necessary and shutting down.

The Zombie Grunts weren’t naturally fast beings, having multiple useless limbs that slowed them down, which saved Damion and his team the stress of having to fight them.

They crossed the jungle quickly, killing several monsters and stray Demons as they went.

Damion’s mind was still spinning with myriad thoughts as he slowly briefed Kenzo on the situation.

Captain Shodan, or rather, the Demon, had defeated Alexia. Whether she was dead or not, it wasn’t a pleasing thought to know that someone stronger than them had been defeated, and the enemy was probably coming after them.

Using this thought as motivation, they sprinted until they came across a part of the jungle they remembered well enough to continue navigating with confidence.

They sighted a familiar cave in the distance after a while of running, and their pace quickened. They didn’t let their guard down though, keeping it up at all times in case of a sneak attack.

As they approached the cave, Damion felt several presences at the edges of Dragon’s Authority. The auras were familiar, reminding him of the students at the other bases.

Soon, they closed in on one of them, approaching with caution.

They slowed down as they reached their target, revealing their positions intentionally to avoid any misunderstandings.

But, that didn’t seem to be possible as Damion dodged an arrow the next second.

His arm moved in the same instant, catching another out of the air. Before the attackers could let loose more arrows, Damion flicked the arrow, coating it in a layer of Shadows and sending it forward with a burst of energy.

Kenzo reacted in the same manner, swiping his arm in the air.

A crescent, thin line of silver-white Qi short forward, tearing through an arrow, the foliage blocking their view, and then disappearing behind it.

Two screams resounded right after, followed by a thud and grunt.

Damion, Kenzo, Matilda and Lyra walked forward confidently, letting their aura spread out. They passed by two students lying on the ground and writhing in pain. One had an arrow embedded in his collarbone, and the other had an arm sliced off cleanly from her shoulder.

The quad didn’t mind them as they passed, only Matilda and Lyra gave the duo pitiful glances before focusing ahead.

The debuff of Dragon’s Authority took hold of most of the students in the surroundings—both the ones in plain sight and the ones hiding—and they subconsciously took fearful steps back.

Damion and Kenzo were at the front, while the two girls tagged along from the behind, their thoughts hidden behind their stoic expressions. As soon as they stepped into the clearing just before the cave, a few faces caught their attention.

They sighted Melruen sitting close to the cave. He was the closest to it, sitting on the ground and resting his back against the rock. His face was held down, his vacant eyes staring at the ground absentmindedly.

There was a gloomy and oppressive aura hanging around him like a fog, repelling everyone. He seemed to be downcast about something, traumatized even from the way he appeared.

Damion stopped himself from approaching him to ask for answers about what was going on. He wasn’t in the right state of mind to give him proper answers.

Imagining what he must have experienced to make him this way was unnerving. Regardless, they couldn’t be left in the dark. They needed information.

Damion’s eyes narrowed as his gaze rolled over all the students. Some returned his gaze with defiance, some looked away, while some were too traumatized to even bother to check who had looked their way.

This reactions only piqued Damion’s interest more. He was curious to know what had transpired before he got here—since there were no clear signs of a battle having taken place.

Some students were injured, while some were perfectly fine on the outside.

Damion’s gaze landed on a student, and he stared deeply at him; he walked towards him with measured steps, ignoring the numerous eyes following him.

The student looked up from the ground sensing Damion’s gaze, stared Damion right back in the eye... then smiled.

The smile was so bright and sudden that Damion was caught off guard, and he failed to produce any word for a second.

He regained his composure a moment later, remembering that the student was quite eccentric, and asked what was on his mind.

"What is going on? Why hasn’t anyone left yet? Why is everyone waiting here?"

The student raised a brow, then pointed a finger at Damion.

"And why should I answer any of your questions?" He asked, a smile playing on his lips as he pointed at Kenzo.

He leaned forward, his eyes narrowing slightly. "Last time I checked, that guy over there wasn’t so nice and cut off my limbs, leaving me to die in a Beast, Demon and Extraterrestrial infested jungle,"

"If anything, I shouldn’t even be listening to you right now—and that’s just me being nice enough."

Damion’s gaze lingered on the youth for a while, before he looked up away from him. He stole a glance at Kenzo, giving him a blaming look.

Kenzo merely shrugged, looking away.

’So annoying,’ Damion thought with a sigh.

He lingered on the spot for a while, before looking down, finding the finger now pointing at him.

Suddenly his hand blurred, flashing forward like a black blur and striking the finger away from his face.

Damion held back in his strength, but he seemed to have miscalculated as the finger almost snapped from the impact.

Still, that didn’t stop the cold look on Damion’s face from turning several levels colder.

"If you want to survive, and you want everyone here to survive, then it’s best if you tell me what’s going on," Damion spoke in a voice only audible to the scrawny boy before him, but the effects of Dragon’s Authority crashed down on him harder than anyone else, forcing all colors to drain from his face.