Lucian was the only Dragon Tamer they knew of. Consequently, they were determined to succeed; they had to make Lucian a servant of House Aurelius. If the carrot didn't work, they were more than happy to use the stick.
Seeing the Level 30 Knight preparing to make a move, Kara grew frantic. she rushed forward, desperate to intervene.
"Wait! Please, don't be angry. Lucian was just being blunt. Can’t we discuss this reasonably?" she pleaded, her voice trembling. "He really doesn't want to accept, so perhaps we should just leave it at—"
Thorne scoffed as Kara stepped into his path. With a dismissive wave, he shoved her aside. "Her Highness has given her orders. Get out of the way!"
As a Knight, Thorne’s Strength was far superior to Kara’s. It looked like a casual shove, but if it connected, her fragile frame wouldn't hold up. Thorne did it intentionally; he wanted to teach Lucian a lesson. He wanted him to know the price of speaking to Aurelia with such insolence.
If you won't learn, we’ll start with your family.
However, Thorne and Aurelia had no idea they had just crossed Lucian’s ultimate line.
When they demanded he leave the Dragon Federation, join the Taegeuk Kingdom, and become a dog for House Aurelius, Lucian merely thought they were delusional narcissists. In his eyes, they were little more than idiots. A few sharp insults would have been enough to send them packing.
But the moment Thorne moved against Kara, he touched Lucian’s reverse scale.
In this world, Kara was his only family. Whoever dared y a hand on her was choosing death.
Just as Thorne’s hand was about to strike Kara, Lucian blurred into a fsh of movement. He appeared instantly in front of her, his hand cmping down on Thorne’s wrist like a vice.
"You dare touch Kara? I’ll kill you," Lucian growled. His eyes were cold, filled with a murderous intent so thick it made Thorne flinch. For a split second, the Knight felt like he was staring down a high-level apex predator.
Thorne quickly shook off the feeling. What am I afraid of? He’s just a brat who recently awakened a trash css.
Thorne was a Level 30 Knight on his second css advancement. Below Level 30, unless faced with a direct css counter, he was practically invincible.
"You dare fight back?" Thorne tilted his head back, a sneer forming. "Attacking a citizen of the Taegeuk Kingdom is a death sentence... wait, what?!"
Thorne’s voice cracked.
He had intended to use his superior Strength to rip his arm free and crush the boy. Instead, he found Lucian’s hand was immovable. It felt like his wrist was caught in a mountain of solid iron.
How is this possible? My Strength is nearly a hundred points—an unreachable number for a fresh Awakened. How is his Strength higher than mine? Much higher?!
Before Thorne could process the shock, Lucian’s other hand swung in a wide arc. Crack!
The sp echoed through the street. Thorne, caught completely off guard, was sent spiraling through the air. He crashed through the shop’s doorway and hit the pavement outside with a heavy thud, tumbling in the dirt.
Lucian wiped his hand and spat, "Noble? You’ve forgotten your own ancestors, yet you dare speak of nobility?"
Aurelia stood frozen, her eyes wide with disbelief. She never imagined her strongest attendant would be spped into the street like a common fly. Her shock quickly turned into explosive rage.
"You dared hit my man?! You low-life—"
"Oh, right. You're still talking." Lucian’s patience had evaporated. He blurred again, appearing directly in front of Aurelia.
Aurelia’s Endurance and Agility were negligible. Against Lucian’s speed, she had no defense. His palm connected squarely with her face, sending her flying after Thorne.
Thorne, being a high-Endurance Knight, had managed to scramble up, his face sporting a massive, red swelling. He rushed to catch Aurelia before she hit the ground.
"Your Highness! Are you alright?" he asked urgently.
Aurelia shoved him away, screaming. She delivered two stinging sps to Thorne’s face, her voice reaching a shrill, hysterical pitch. "You useless waste! Look at my face! Does it look like I'm alright?!"
Her once-pretty face was now puffed up and bruised, giving her a grotesque, comical appearance. The stinging pain only fueled her madness. She pointed a trembling finger at the shop.
"Go! Kill that brat! I don't care about finding a Dragon Tamer anymore—I want him dead!"
"It was my failure. I will end him now!" Thorne’s humiliation transformed into a murderous rage directed solely at Lucian.
Lucian showed no fear as he stepped out of the shop. He didn't want the fight to happen inside; the bun shop had been his home with Kara for years. If it were destroyed, she would be heartbroken.
Aurelia drew her staff. It was a sinister thing—carved from pitch-bck ebony and topped with a human hand bone that pulsed with dark, swirling mist. Unlike Chloe’s Holy Light, this radiated pure malice. It was at least a Silver Tier weapon.
Equipping the staff boosted Aurelia’s stats significantly. Her robes billowed in a phantom wind, and the dark aura around her made her distorted, angry face look like something out of a nightmare. She began chanting, and the bck mist let out a piercing shriek before diving into Thorne’s body.
Thorne didn't resist. As the buffs stacked, his body began to swell and mutate.
Lucian narrowed his eyes, gauging the transformation. A Hidden Css, no doubt. Likely a Mage or Cleric variant.
Her specialty was buffing allies, though the "blessings" were hideous. Within seconds, Thorne had transformed into a half-man, half-beast monstrosity. He took on a Centaurian Form, his skin ced with throbbing purple veins. His eyes turned a milky white, and jagged fangs protruded from his mouth, dripping with thick saliva. He looked like a humanoid camity.
His attributes had clearly skyrocketed. With Aurelia’s buffs, he likely possessed unpredictable attack patterns.
Chloe came running down from the second floor after finishing her call, only to stop dead at the sight of the monster.
"What is happening?!" she cried, reaching for her weapon.
Lucian waved her back. "Stay there. Take care of Kara. Don't let her get hurt."
"But Lucian—" Chloe hurried to Kara’s side, her voice frantic. "How did it escate to this so fast?"
Lucian chuckled. "They brought the fight to my front door. Did you expect me to keep taking it?" He gnced at the invaders. "This is the Dragon Federation. Since when do Taegeuk rats get to run wild here?"
Thorne didn't wait for more talk. He summoned a Bronze Tier Dragonflight Spear, his voice now a raspy, ethereal hiss.
"House Aurelius offered you a future, and you threw it away. Now, you pay!"
"That Land-Wyrm is wasted on you!"
Thorne’s four powerful legs kicked off the ground, unching him into the air. He lunged, his spear whistling toward Lucian’s thigh.
The increase in power was immense. As a Level 30 second-advancement Knight with these dark buffs, Lucian would normally have to use his Dragonflight Cws and a Dragonflight's Encouragement buff just to match him.
But Lucian wasn't in the mood for a fair fight. These Taegeuk rats were so proud; he wanted to crush that pride in an instant.
"A Land-Wyrm? You think I’d settle for garbage like that?" Lucian smiled, walking forward as if the charging monster didn't exist.
Suddenly, a streak of bck lightning shot from Lucian’s clothes, intercepting Thorne. It was Nyx.
She was still in her Petite Form, but as she flew, a sphere of white-hot fire erupted around her. The fireball expanded instantly, growing to ten meters in diameter.
ROAR—!
A dragon’s cry shattered the air, making the buildings groan and the ground tremble.
Before Thorne could even understand what he was seeing, a massive, obsidian cw tore out of the fmes and snatched him out of the air.
The fire dissipated, revealing Nyx in her Combat Form.
Her pitch-bck scales shimmered with a violent beauty, her muscur frame exuding raw power. The draconic features—things spoken of only in ancient legends—caused Aurelia to freeze, her eyes wide with terror.
She had never seen a real dragon, but the moment she looked at Nyx, only one word filled her mind.
"Dragon!"