Chelsea flew them back down.
The moment her feet touched the ground, she turned to Adriane. “Adriane.” Her voice had become suspiciously sweet.
Adriane immediately narrowed her eyes. “No.”
“Oh come on you don't even know what I was going to ask.” Chelsea whined
“I know exactly what you were going to ask.”
Chelsea pointed dramatically. “Would it be too much to ask if we captured her?”
“Yes it would be too much..”
“She could live in the field behind the manor.”
“No.”
“I could get a collar made for her! With pretty jewels.”
“Chelsea, no.” Adriane repeated with a sigh.
Chelsea pouted. “But she's so pretty Adriane.” she drawled like a child.
Adriane laughed. “That is a greater dragon.”
Chelsea nodded. “Exactly!” Chelsea animatedly threw her arms out toward it. “Imagine it! The most powerful family and their pet greater dragon! C’mon.”
“Even for you, that's a little much.”
Beside them, Ivy was visibly trembling.
Chelsea finally noticed. “Ivy? Are you okay?”
The elf never took her eyes off the sleeping monster.
“Greater...” she whispered. Her voice barely worked. “Greater dragon.”
For the first time since entering the cavern, Chelsea realized Ivy wasn't looking at something beautiful. She was looking at something that existed in horror stories told to children. Something that entire kingdoms feared.
And somehow that realization only made Chelsea want the dragon more.
“Well, can we do this without hurting her head or scales?”
Ivy looked at her as if she'd completely lost her mind.
She slowly turned toward Adriane. “Adriane. I get that you're the Silver Sword.” She pointed at the sleeping dragon. “This is too much.”
“She may be mean now,” Chelsea called out, pressing both arms and her entire body against the dragon's metallic colored lower jaw, “but I can change her!”
The dragon snored. The resulting vibration nearly shook Chelsea off its chin.
Adriane burst out laughing. “Come on Chels.”
“No, seriously. Look at her. She just needs somebody to believe in her.”
“Chelsea, for the last time, no.” Adriane said, slowly sobering up.
Chelsea sighed dramatically and stepped away from the dragon. Adriane led them around the creature's enormous head, Adriane glanced over.
“You know what?” Adriane said, with a surprisingly playful smirk.
“What?”
“I bet you can't wake her up.”
Chelsea stopped. “Excuse me? I am the Valkyr of Havoc.”
“I've seen greater dragons sleep through avalanches. They only wake when some instinct makes them believe someone is trying to steal their horde or someone with the power to do so, is giving off killing intent. Or something. Dragons are weird.”
Chelsea narrowed her eyes.
“You think we can't wake her up?”
“I know you can't. Well… without trying to steal its gold.” She added.
“Oh, it's on!”
Ivy groaned. “Are you two really about to make a bet? Here?”
Chelsea folded her arms. “What's the wager?”
A wicked smile appeared on Adriane's face.
“If you lose, you're my flying mount for the next three S-rank missions.”
Chelsea gasped. “That sounds exhausting.”
Chelsea squinted at Adriane . “You planned this, didn’t you? I just fell into a trap.”
“Maybe.” She smirked.
“Fine.” Chelsea threw her hands up in defeat.
“You already have a counteroffer?”
“Oh, absolutely.” She smiled evilly.
Chelsea pointed toward her.
“If we wake her up, you have to attend one of Maggie's tea socials.”
Adriane immediately relaxed. “That doesn't sound so ba…”
“Wearing the dress.”
Adriane froze, eyes wide.
The smile vanished. “Chelsea.”
“The dress.” Chelsea repeated. “The one you called whorish.”
Ivy looked between them, not quite following.
Adriane sighed. “Fine. We have a deal.” A weird confidence washed over Adriane as she remembered what the task was. She held out a hand.
Chelsea shook it immediately.
Several minutes later, they reached the exposed underside of the dragon.
Adriane pointed toward a section of pale scales along the creature's belly.
“Ivy, we’re going to put everything we have into attacking this area. Do you understand?”
Chelsea nodded at Ivy’s confirmation, then held up a finger. “One second.” She quickly assigned the titles she wanted.
Power surged through her body as the Valkyr title activated. Her muscles felt lighter. She felt stronger and much faster.
Beside her, Ivy looked significantly less excited about what they were about to do.
Chelsea grinned. “We go on three.”
Ivy began muttering spell names under his breath.
“One.”
Some sort of fireball looking spell formed in front of Ivy.
“Two.”
The wind began to bend toward the ball of fire..
“Three.”
The cavern exploded into motion. Chelsea lunged. Her spear shot forward. Havoc Spear activated. The thrust blurred creating an after image of a second spear. The skill felt good and she wished she had it during their labyrinth run.
Havoc Spear increased to lvl 2 (base).
Chelsea immediately used it again. And again. And again.
Each strike landed against scales harder than most metals.
Havoc Spear increased to lvl 3 (base).
She kept attacking. Next to her, Ivy unleashed spell after spell. The dragon continued snoring.
“Come on baby! Wake up!” Chelsea yelled.
Havoc Specialty increased to lvl 2 (base).
Interesting. She didn’t know that would level. Or was attacking a greater dragon simply worth ridiculous skill experience? Was that why Adriane had them doing this?
Havoc Spear increased to lvl 4 (base).
Spectral Javelin lvl 1 acquired.
“Ooo.”
Chelsea immediately wanted to try it.
She activated the skill and nothing happened. “What the hell?” Maybe it required an empty hand?
She stored her spear and tried again.
A long ethereal weapon appeared in her grip. The translucent blue shaft shimmered faintly. It looked exactly like the javelins she'd seen during the Olympics back on Earth.
“Yes! A ranged attack! I know how this works.” She did not, in fact, know how to throw a javelin.
Chelsea pulled back.
Her stance was probably completely wrong. Her feet felt like they were in the wrong space for maximum leverage and throwing? Her form was almost certainly wrong.
Then she hurled it as hard as she could. The spectral weapon awkwardly hit the dragon’s belly at an weird angle .
Spectral Javelin increased to lvl 2 (base).
Agony and Torment Call.
The javelin vanished.
For half a second, nothing happened.
There was a roar beyond anything Chelsea had ever heard before..
It was followed by what sounded like a thousand voices screaming the name. “Wixx!”
Chelsea looked up toward the head. It had shifted and a massive blue slitted eye was staring back at her. The massive body shifted.
Dust rained from the ceiling.
Chelsea slowly turned toward Adriane. She stared back. There was frustration and annoyance in her face.
Chelsea offered. “We can go shopping for fancy teas when we get back home.”
Adriane sighed. Then she reached into her bag. And for the first time since Chelsea had met her, the Silver Sword drew an actual sword. The sight sent ice down Chelsea's spine. The blade was enormous. Nearly three-quarters Adriane's height. Its metal gleamed crimson in the cavern light.
One edge looked normal, like how a sword should look. The other was lined with white spine-like protrusions that resembled monster teeth.
The moment the weapon cleared her bag, there was a change in the feeling of the cavern. Chelsea suddenly understood something.
Until now, she'd never seen Adriane fight.
She slowly lowered herself into a crouch.
Most of the movement came from her legs. Her sword hung loosely at her side. For a brief moment, nothing happened. Then she was gone.
The stone beneath her feet exploded outward. A small crater appeared where she'd been standing. It was an Adriane jump.
That was the only explanation her brain could come up with. “Where did she go!?” she shouted over the basic sounds of movement from the greater dragon.
Chelsea looked up frantically, looking for Adriane.
The dragon was still roaring. Dust continued raining from the ceiling as the creature shifted and writhed.
Then she spotted her. A tiny figure. Adriane was sprinting across the dragon's back.
Adriane wasn't climbing the dragon. She wasn't leaping from scale to scale either. She was simply running across its back as though the creature were a road.
“Will she be okay!?” Ivy yelled over the roar.
“I hope so!” Chelsea yelled back. “Let's get somewhere we won't be crushed!”
She grabbed Ivy's hand and immediately started running.
The dragon was fully awake now, and pissed.
The entire cavern shook with every movement and every headache inducing roar.
Its tail smashed into the stone floor, sending cracks racing through the ground. One wing unfolded partially and scraped against the ceiling.
Chelsea didn't particularly want to discover what happened if several thousand tons of dragon landed on top of her.
The two sprinted toward the nearest wall. Only once they reached relative safety did they dare look back.
The dragon was thrashing violently. Its head whipped from side to side. One massive claw tore furrows through the stone floor.
Its jaws snapped repeatedly at the tiny figure racing along its neck. The comparison suddenly clicked in Chelsea's mind.
It looked exactly like a dog trying to bite a flea. She couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity.
A insanely angry dog. And very very very big dog.
All of a sudden everything stopped. The dragon froze. Its body locked in place.
New title acquired: The Greater Dragon Slayer.
Chelsea stared at the notification.
“What!?”
A heartbeat later, the dragon's head dropped to the floor of the cave along with the neck. But not the body.
The cut was perfectly clean. The enormous neck separated where it met the shoulders. The impact sounded like a building collapsing.
The rest of the dragon swayed and teetered. Then slowly it toppled backward.
The ground shook hard enough to nearly knock Chelsea off her feet.
Chelsea looked toward where Adriane should have been.
Where'd she go?
Chelsea scanned the cavern. There was no sign of Adriane anywhere on the dragon.
She looked along its back. Nothing. Its neck, head, tail… she was nowhere.
“Where is she?” Ivy asked quietly.
“I don't know.”
The two continued staring at the corpse.
Then something dropped out of the darkness above them.
Chelsea yelped.
Ivy actually let out a small scream.
Adriane landed in a crouch directly in front of them and stood up as if she hadn't just decapitated a greater dragon.
“Chels,” she said casually. “What was that ability you used?”
Chelsea stared at her.
Then she looked past Adriane at the dragon. Then back at Adriane.
“Are we not going to take a second to acknowledge the now dead dragon behind you!?”
Ivy nodded immediately.
Adriane glanced over her shoulder. “Yeah, it's dead.” she shrugged.
Chelsea's gave a dramatic sigh.
“That thing was the size of a city block and you cut its head off!”
Chelsea looked to Ivy for support.
Ivy was staring at Adriane with honest awe.
“Thank you?” Adriane said awkwardly, not sure what Chelsea wanted her to say. Adriane continued. “Now, how did you wake it?”
Chelsea let out a slow breath.
“It was a new skill.”
“What skill?”
Chelsea replied, “Spectral Javelin.”
Ivy frowned.
“Spectral?”
“Back home, spectres were basically ghosts, I think? Like… angry spirits that want revenge or something. Or was that poltergeists?” chelsea shook her head. “Ghost shit.”
“Never heard of the skill before.” Adriane said quietly.
Then she pointed at herself. “Hit me with it.”
Chelsea was caught off guard.“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“It woke up a greater dragon.”
“Good.” Adriane slapped her thigh. Right here.
Chelsea looked at Ivy.
She raised both hands.
“Don't involve me. She's been doing things like this since before I met you.”
“Mm true.”
Adriane slapped her thigh again.
“You know, most people would be celebrating after killing that thing.”
“Throw the javelin, Chelsea.”
The demon sighed and created the ghostly weapon in her hand.
Moments like this reminded her that Adriane's sense of normal was broken.
“Okay.”
Chelsea created the strange spectral javelin again. The hazy blue weapon formed in her hand.
She took aim. Or at least she tried to.
The throw left her hand and immediately drifted further left than intended.
“Uh oh.”
Adriane moved to intercept.
Chelsea barely saw it happen.
One moment Adriane was standing there. The next she had stepped directly into the path of the attack.
The spectral javelin struck her in the thigh.
As it seemed to puncture her, it vanished.
Then Adriane hit the ground. The scream that followed echoed through the entire cavern.
Chelsea froze.
A greater dragon. The monster that could probably level a city if it got bored. Adriane had cut its head off and acted like she'd finished taking out the trash.
Now she was on the ground screaming.
“ADRIANE!” Ivy yelled.
The two sprinted toward her.
Adriane's sword slipped from her hand and crashed onto the stone floor.
She was clutching her leg. “Turn it off!” she screamed.
Chelsea skidded to a stop.“I-I don't know how!”
“What do you mean you don't know how!?”
“My first time using it was on the dragon!”
Adriane let out another scream that sent chills down Chelsea's spine. That was when the panic really set in.
Adriane never screamed. She didn't complain. She didn't even feel pain due to the Wixx training.
The woman usually shrugged off everything and kept going. Seeing her like this felt wrong.
Then, all at once, the screaming stopped. The cavern fell silent. Adriane's grip loosened and her breathing slowed.
For a few seconds she simply stared upward. Then her eyes widened.
“No,” she whispered.
Chelsea immediately crouched beside her.
“What? What's wrong?”
“You can actually hurt me.” Adriane replied.