After flying over the forest for three days without resting and passing through the ambush of hundreds of monsters, Lia and Selain finally reached a giant cave entrance hidden behind a small hill.
Both of them looked visibly tired at the moment, as they hadn't rested for a single second in the past three days.
If they had just been flying, then they wouldn't have been as tired, as both of them are A- rankers.
But they had to fight hordes of monsters and defeat nearly a dozen peak-grade-A monsters before finally making it to this cave.
"This is the first time since I first started learning my sword art that I have become so tired..." Lia nodded her head at Selain's words, and the two of them landed on the ground and entered the cave.
Lia found a big stone and sat down before saying,
"Let's rest here for now; it's getting dark anyway. I will keep watch for half of the night; you can sleep or meditate during that time. Later, you will take the duty to watch after mid- night..."
Selain also nodded her head.
She pushed a giant boulder with one hand and placed it near the wall of the cave, then sat on the boulder and leaned her back against the cave's wall before finally relaxing her guard.
Lia walked out of the cave, waved her sword, and sliced a few branches from the trees outside. Seeing that Lia was trying to make a bonfire, Selain said,
"Oh, I know a trick to light it up easily; gimme a stick, and I shall do it..."
Lia gave one of the sticks to Selain with a curious look on her face.
Selain, on the other hand, held the stick tightly, and golden sparks appeared on her hand. Those sparks suddenly started to heat up the stick, and it immediately started burning.
"A Golden Thunder? That's quite interesting..."
Lia used that burning stick to light up the bonfire. She was quite impressed to see that golden thunder and Selain's amazing control over it.
"Yeah, it's an inherent ability of us golden dragons; we have affinity for this golden thunder; we can just use mana to directly create thunder; there's no need to use any 'chants' like mages..."
"People claim that our golden thunder is the most powerful thunder in the world, with the exception of the thunder that occurs during 'Heavenly Punishment'".
While sitting near the bonfire, Lia suddenly had a thought in her mind, prompting her to say,
"Well... If you want to keep that thunder to yourself, then don't show it to Rio... He will be able to learn it if he sees it..."
Lia remembered that Rio learned how to use 'Miasma' and 'Time' elementals with the help of 'Sword Intent' from Alverto after witnessing it only once.
If he saw Selain using that golden thunder, he could likely steal that technique from her.
Rio may not be good at other things, but when it comes to 'sword aptitude', no one is better than him in the whole world.
He can adapt others techniques and turn them into his sword skill.
And with the help of 'Sword Intent' and 'Elemental Sword Art', he can use any and every element that exists in this world.
"Er... is that even possible? This thing is inherent to only the Golden Dragons... I have never heard about anyone else using 'Golden Thunder'..."
Selain didn't believe Lia's words at all; she thought Lia was just joking, and she refused to believe that Rio could copy them.
"Well, that matter aside... The main effect of my golden thunder is that it is very good at purifying miasma and corruption; it's like a direct counter to any and every miasmic ailment..."
"You need to have insanely high thunder affinity to be able to use this type of thunder. I doubt anyone in the world has such high thunder affinity other than the Golden Dragons..."
Lia just shrugged her shoulders and said,
"Do you think a human like Rio has an affinity for 'Miasma'? Yet he still uses it... Do you still think he can't use things that he has no affinity for?"
Usually only mages have affinities for certain elements, due to which it's difficult for warriors and other awakeners to use elemental attacks.
But there are certain techniques in this world that can be used to manually turn mana into certain elementals and directly bypass the step where you need to have elemental affinity. Rio himself doesn't have any elemental affinities; the reason he can wield so many elements is because of the Elemental Sword Art and his insane control over 'Sword Intent'.
And now that Rio has the 'Imperfect Sword Heart', it would be even easier for him to use any and every element that he wants.
"Er... I guess it's worth trying then... It would be so interesting to see if a human can use this golden thunder; even my father would be so impressed, I think..."
Selain suddenly smirked a bit and said,
"Wait, if Rio really did learn it, doesn't that mean that he's as worthy as a golden dragon? Which means Father will approve it if I decide to marry him one day!!"
Thinking about this, Selain was even more excited to show her Golden Thunder ability to Rio and make him learn it.
Lia, on the other hand, couldn't help but feel awkward; she was the one who started this topic and indirectly ended up helping her love rival.
'Ugh... why did I say that!? I shouldn't be helping my enemy!!'
Lia isn't as ruthless and emotionless as Rio; if Rio had a love rival, the other party would be dead by now, and his corpse would have been rotting in the sewers somewhere.
Although she wants to make Selain stop, she doesn't have the same ruthless attitude that Rio has, and somehow she's actually indirectly helping Selain without even wanting to.
This situation is quite distressing for her.
'Ugh... I need mine alone!!... er... that sounds so embarrassing to say out loud...'
get things straight! I need to tell her to stay away from Rio!
ne, and
While Lia was still making her mind, Selain fell asleep from exhaustion and drifted off to the dreamland, where she dreamt of marrying a certain black-haired, emotionless guy.
Lia sighed after seeing that sleeping face and said,
"Ugh... She fell asleep already..."
At that moment, Lia just wanted to wake her up, give her two slaps on the face, and shout,
'Stop Pursuing Rio!'.
But rationality stopped her from doing so; both of them are exhausted, and Selain also helped in the previous fights, so it would be rude to wake her up now and disturb her rest.
As night fell, things went silent, and only the crackling noise of the wood burning in the bonfire kept ringing in Lia's ears.
At that moment, a thought came to her mind:
'I wonder why we ended up in this place... It's already been three days now; the dragons should have noticed that their princess has gone missing, and the Dragon King would have personally tried to find us...'
'If the Dragon King was looking for us, he could have already found us by now, but there's still no sight of him until now... which is very odd...'
'Unless all that's happening here is occurring with his permission... But why would the dragon king put his own daughter in danger? That's still a mystery...'
Up until now, Lia and Selain had been very busy fighting and flying, so they didn't have much time to think about other things.
Only now that things have calmed down has Lia started to think about it all. 'Something doesn't add up... There's definitely something going on behind the scenes here that we don't know... Even Selain herself is oblivious about it all, even though she's a dragon
herself...'
Thinking hard and planning isn't Lia's way of doing things; usually Liam is the one who makes plans for their team and does all the thinking and strategizing work.
'I guess I will have to wait and see what happens next... I just hope that things remain under control... I don't want to face a situation similar to Oaklum again...'
The accident that happened in Oaklum has left a deep scar in the minds of the whole team Astra. None of them wants to witness the same thing ever again.
'I wonder what Riko Senpai is doing these days... I haven't heard from her since that day she
left abruptly...'
While thinking about random things, Lia passed time until Selain woke up and took the duty
to keep watch.
Lia also fell asleep at that moment and started dreaming about a certain thieving cat trying to steal a certain black-haired, emotionless guy from her.
It was quite a serious nightmare.
The cave, Deepest area.
"These two are failures too... Sigh, it's been so long since I last saw a real success..."
A woman wearing dark green clothes sighed as she sipped the golden sap filling her glass.
At that moment, she suddenly sensed something and glanced in a certain direction. 'Hmm, two new subjects have appeared, hoh... They seem better than the previous ones... I hope these ones won't disappoint me; it's been so long since I saw some really good subjects...'
...
...
Author's Notes.
Yo! It's your beloved author here!
It seems Lia and Selain will remain rivals for a long time from now on.
Question of the day:
Have you ever had an interesting dream like Lia and Selain?
(Tell me about it in comments!!)
By the way, don't forget to use those power stones and also leave a review if you like the story.
Comment your opinion about the chapter. Your support is my motivation.