The Fiery Crown Cycle: A Dragon's Rebirth

Chapter 65

Whoosh.

Blue claws touched down first. Azure lowered her body, folding her wings. She rested her head so that it was half-exposed from the lair's entrance and closed her eyes.

She's so quiet, Aiden noted, his red eyes shifting to glance at the dragon beside him. Her heavy, blue-scaled eyelids were sealed shut. Is she asleep? He watched her closely. There was no tell-tale snore. She must be delving into the Dragon's Heritage again. Such a diligent scholar.

Aiden sighed internally and turned his gaze back to the sands below. Fishing was truly a test of patience. It had been a while now, and there was still no sign of movement. He wondered about the mentality of those human fishing enthusiasts, who could sit by a river for half a day with no guarantee of a catch.

His thoughts drifted. An hour passed in the quiet stillness.

Rustle, rustle…

A patch of sand below began to sink.

Here we go.

Aiden's gaze locked onto the shifting ground. The sand rippled and churned. Come on out. There's a nice meal waiting for you.

Rustle!

A flesh-colored, conical head poked out of the sand. It swiveled this way and that, then stopped, oriented toward the base of the mountain. Food. The smell of food. The head dove back into the sand.

A grin split Aiden's maw as he watched the ripples in the sand, his “fish,” arrowing toward the mountain. The fish was about to take the bait. Like snakes, sand worms were incredibly vulnerable while eating.

The disturbed sand flowed right up to the corpse of the black sand worm and stopped. The top half of the flesh-colored worm emerged. Its conical head nudged the black carcass a few times. Confirmed. The smell of food.

The cone-shaped head instantly expanded into a circular mouth nearly as wide as its body. Yellow fangs were scattered irregularly within, and strings of transparent slime stretched between them. The great mouth clamped down on one half of the black sand worm's body. The flesh-colored torso began to undulate as it slowly swallowed its meal.

The fish was eating. Now was the perfect time to strike.

Aiden pushed himself up, his hind legs coiling before launching him from the cliff in a steep dive.

The feeding sand worm paused its undulations. The next second, it tried to retract violently into its burrow. But in its engorged, feeding state, its speed was pathetic. One might even call it slow.

Whoosh!

A powerful red claw descended, the wind whistling past it. The sharp talons plunged into the translucent head without any resistance.

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SQUIRT!

Transparent slime exploded outwards like a ruptured cyst. The foul stench washed over Aiden. What a disgusting odor. Flames swirled in his red pupils. He hated the smell, hated everything about these nauseating creatures. But he knew he had no choice. If he wanted to survive, he had to grow stronger, and do it with reckless speed. He had to hold on until that little human girl had enough mana to open a portal.

He slammed his left claw onto the creature's round head, pinning it to the ground with immense force. He twisted the right claw that was already embedded in its skull.

SQUELCH!

Another geyser of slime erupted. His right eyelid and nictitating membrane snapped shut just in time to avoid the spray. When he withdrew his claw, it was clutching a white, egg-sized, circular magic crystal.

This was a high-tier sand worm.

He grabbed the worm's body with his left claw. With a beat of his red wings, he tore free from the sand, hauling the thrashing creature upwards. The buried portion of the worm was slowly pulled from the ground, its body writhing in agony. Its magic crystal was gone, its fate sealed, but its tenacious life force allowed it a few final moments of struggle.

He had ascended nearly twenty yards before the lower half of the worm was finally free of the sand. The pulling force lessened. Aiden glanced down. The body was still twitching violently. He opened his left claw.

The writhing sand worm plummeted to the ground below. Aiden continued to climb, flying back toward the temporary lair. Now, I can wait for the next 'fish.'

CRASH!

The long, flesh-colored body slammed onto the sand. It continued to twitch, but the movements were weakening with every passing second. Soon, it would be completely dead.

Whoosh.

Aiden landed back in the lair, folded his wings, and settled down.

Sniff, sniff.

What a foul stench! The smell is so strong I can hardly concentrate.

Azure's blue-scaled eyelids and membranes peeled open. She turned her head to the right. Her gaze fell upon the same red figure, but this time… it was spattered with a transparent, whitish slime. That's where the smell is coming from.

Aiden felt a stare from his side. Azure's done with the Heritage? He paid her no mind, his attention fixed on the sands below. There was more bait now. He hoped the next fish would bite soon.

He lifted his right claw and opened it. The white magic crystal lay there, still coated in slime. He opened his maw and exhaled a targeted stream of red fire. After the flames passed, all traces of the slime were gone. He opened his mouth again, and with a flick of his claw, tossed the crystal in. It fell precisely into his gullet. He swallowed.

He stared at the ring in his left eye. The red bar moved again. Just a sliver. But it moved.

He turned his gaze back to the ground below. I hope a three-star comes along. A three-star should fill up a good portion of the bar, right?

This time, he did not have to wait long. Scarcely twenty minutes passed before a pink sand worm poked its head from the ground, this one emerging directly at the base of the mountain. Judging by its size, it was only an intermediate-tier.

Aiden instantly lost all interest in hunting it. He glanced to his right. Azure was already watching the creature.

“You go,” he said.

The blue dragon turned her head to face him. Their eyes met for a few seconds. Azure nodded.

Her powerful hind legs pushed off, and her body became a blue shadow, diving toward the feeding sand worm below.

SQUELCH!

The creature had barely started eating when a blue claw plunged into its expanded head. Pink slime gushed out.

Watching the blue figure efficiently extract the magic crystal, Aiden was faintly surprised. Azure was fast. The sand worm had been dispatched before it even knew what was happening.

She extracted the crystal, then followed the same procedure, hauling the worm into the sky until its entire body was free of the sand before letting it drop. Azure understood: for this hunt to work, the more bait, the better. The stronger the scent of death and decay, the more prey they would attract.