Draconic King of Shadows-Chapter 60: The First Mission

Kenzo finally left the room after Damion swore. Damion didn’t see this as something which bound him, though it wasn’t like he was going to ever leave Matilda. He might not have said it, but he had strong feelings for her too.

He originally planned to use her as a tool to protect himself when he realised how she felt for him, but he scratched that idea after coming to the realization that the feeling was mutual.

Kenzo left after dropping a warning, telling Damion not to try anything with his sister. Damion waved him off nonchalantly, but he inwardly acknowledged his words.

Damion and Matilda then spent hours talking. Throughout the afternoon they were together, warming up towards each other and getting to know more about themselves.

They even delved deeper into the workings of their Abilities, and with the upgrade of Stat Sync and Ability Share, Damion found it easier to control Matilda’s Poison Ability, and all his stats increased by one.

Matilda still couldn’t believe they had such a deep connection, to the point where they shared even their physical strengths.

She explained that sometimes she would suddenly feel a spike in her strength, and Damion immediately understood it was him gaining more stat points after defeating an opponent or completing a quest.

Their talk lasted longer than expected, and it spilled into the evening.

Slowly, the sky turned dark, and Matilda inevitably left for her room.

Damion laid on his bed, a hand raised up as he traced symbols in the air. He got carried away by thoughts of Matilda, and a smile crept up his face.

He was love-struck.

Without warning, the loud gong of a bell snapped him out of his reverie, and he hurriedly looked through his window to find where the sound originated from.

He found the silhouette of Captain Shodan in the central area of their residential area, and he couldn’t help but look surprised. The buildings were arranged in a circle, with a small belfry at its center.

Captain Shodan had gotten to the center and rang the bell without him being noticed, and remembering the loud noises he made when he walked made one think how he had done it.

Captain Shodan rang the bell again, and Damion deduced it was Shodan’s method of calling them together.

He didn’t linger any longer and went outside.

The rest were smart enough to come to the same conclusion, and soon, they were all standing before the armored man.

He scanned them for a brief moment, his glowing eyes like two orbs of lights in the dark.

"Slow," he began, deciding to use a confusing word to start. "You all came out too slowly... What if it was an emergency?"

"It clearly wasn’t," Kaiden’s voice came in from the side.

Captain Shodan sent him an annoyed gaze, but it was met with an unbothered yawn from the lightning user.

A deep chuckle escaped Captain Shodan’s lips, and the glow in his eyes flashed red for a split second before he turned around, walking away.

"It wasn’t an emergency, but it would be very soon," Shodan said. "Your first mission is for each of you to bring back the horn of a Steel-Plated Grey Rhino before dawn."

Shodan took one more step forward, and disappeared, turning into a blur that faded instantly.

Lyra gasped. "He’s fast," she commented.

Matilda and Lyra approached Damion at the same time, and Kenzo followed, standing close to the trio.

Lyra and Matilda didn’t stare at each other like before, but seemed to be chill with themselves now. They shared a knowing look, before the four of them began to walk towards the exit.

"Heading towards your death?" Emily’s voice echoed in the compound, pulling the attention of everyone towards them. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

They ignored her and kept walking, but Emily didn’t seem to calm down. She wanted a fight.

A wall of earth suddenly rose up in front of the quad, and they stopped.

A vein popped up on Kenzo’s head, and Damion was no different. They wanted nothing more than to pound her face in with their fists, but they didn’t, or rather, they couldn’t. She wasn’t their match, yet.

Like programmed machines, they walked around the earth wall, their faces still twisted in annoyance.

Emily’s eyes gleamed with excitement, but she let them be, choosing not to provoke them any further for some reason.

The group exited the circle of buildings, and they crossed a short distance to get to the gigantic metal wall looming over them.

They weren’t told where to find the Steel-Plated Grey Rhino, so they headed towards the jungle, the place which they believed it to be.

The open space in the wall proved them right, and they walked out, each preparing in their own way for combat.

Damion pulled his Magitech Ball out of his storage, and it broke down and reformed on his torso. His O-Katana appeared in his hand, and he brandished it, testing its strength.

Lyra did the same, activating her own Exoskeleton Armor. Kenzo and Matilda watched this with intrigue, and when they were done, they crafted a plan and moved.

The quad choose a random direction, sharpening their senses as they plunged into the forest.

The distant sounds of beasts’ cries alerted them of lurking dangers, and they slowed their momentum, taking slow and calculated steps.

Matilda transformed her arms, turning them into black scaled limbs with dim glowing green lights between each scale.

Her eyes dilated into slits as they glowed slightly, and the intensity of her aura bloomed.

Dragon’s Authority reacted in kind towards her aura, and her Drake’s Poison Aura seemed to merge with Dragon’s Authority, intertwining and becoming stronger in places where they overlapped.

Damion felt his senses spread to hers, and he could subtly sense what she sensed and vice versa.

The change had come as a surprise to him, but he kept his calm and focused on the task ahead.

Kenzo didn’t activate his Stigmas yet, due to the bright light they caused when activated, stealth was what they needed at that moment. They were in a foreign environment, so they needed to be as careful as possible.

The jungle was thick and overflowing with plant life. There was no direct path to follow, therefore they had no other choice but to make one, which somewhat slowed them down further.

Twigs broke underneath their feets and leaves rustled. The moon slowly rose to the sky and hung there. Time passed quickly as they moved, and their movements slowed to a crawl.

"This is exhausting," Lyra complained, but her words were met with a hush from the rest.

She groaned in frustration and continued on silently.

Five minutes later, the cry of a beast reverberated close by, and they came to a stop.

Damion and Matilda glanced at each other, and they moved forward in unison. They quietly pushed apart the greenery in their ways, their steps silent.

Suddenly a bright green light appeared behind a bush before Damion, and he cursed out.

Shadow Walk was activated in the next moment, and he reappeared close to Matilda.

’The beast can sense us,’ he said and activated Shadow Walk again.

Matilda let out a growl of her own and charged ahead, tearing down everything blocking her way with her claws.

As she closed in on the beast’s location, a green beam of energy tore its way towards her through the bushes, and she matched it with a green beam of hers.

The two energies collided, one having an earthly feel to it and the other carrying potent poison.

Her beam practically devoured the tiny energy attack of the other, and Matilda lunged through the hole created by the attacks and landed with a thud on the other side.

Her gaze landed in the mole sitting on the ground, and she didn’t hesitate to charge it, her claws raised, ready to rip a life.

The mole suddenly glowed with a green energy and dived at the ground, going through it like it was water.

Matilda’s claws missed it by a few inches, but as soon as it went into the ground, she stuffed her hand into the ground and grabbed the moles tail.

"Where do you think you’re going!" She questioned as she pulled hard, yanking the mole out of the ground forcefully.

She raised the mole by the tail to eye level, and with one claw swipe, it was sliced into five.

"Urghh... Isn’t that disgusting?" Lyra voiced out, snapping Matilda out of her wild state. She dropped the mole to the ground, swinging her arm to flick the blood on her claws away.

"Get used to it," Matilda responded.

Damion reappeared from a shadow, and Kenzo joined them a moment later.

"Clear," Kenzo said.

"Same here," Damion added.

They had planned beforehand how they were going to deal with any dangers. Two would scout the surrounding area while two others fought, to warn them of approaching danger if they attracted unwanted attention. They would then switch roles after each fight.

Matilda retrieved the core of the Mole and handed it over to Damion. He kept it in his storage, and they were about to leave when suddenly, two holes appeared in the ground, and two moles stuck their heads out of it.

"They kinda look cute," Lyra commented.

However, the holes increased to five, then ten, fifty, before becoming uncountable. And with each hole that popped up, a mole came with it.

"Or maybe not," Lyra said again.