"This fucking sucks..."
Kailen grumbled as he along with the girls slowly climbed the huge black mountain, his leg still in pain from his fight earlier. Though with the use of qi his recovery had enabled him to walk properly, he would need more time to back to normal.
"Stop moaning and hurry up, or we'll have Ali here carry you."
"NO, why do I have to carry him!"
Seeing the girls proceed with no care for his troubles was a great help in raising his mood, the large rocks fallen from the mountain meant a lot of climbing to reach the top. The rocks were sharp and rough and as he looked to the summit, a red devilish glow was present along with thick black clouds.
The entire mountain trembled every so often, sometimes hard enough to cause people to lose their balance. As the trio neared the top, an encirclement was present on one of the few paths leading to the summit, wearing heavy armor with swords at the hip.
"The Sacred Sword Sect wasn't it...?"
Kailen muttered to himself observing the men and women blocking the path forward, slowly the trio approached.
"Stop! Nobody shall pass through here unless a disciple of the Sacred Sword Sect."
A young guard spoke, he had short brown hair with a large scar down the side of his head. His gaze determined that spoke of his strong will. Kailen had a good impression, after all, he seemed to be a fellow martial nut.
"Greetings Sword Disciples, I'm Lana Ainsworth and I'm not sure if you could let us through if I show you this?"
Lana then proceeded to show the man the same black card with a flower as she did back in Cante. It was the first time Kailen heard her surname, he didn't fail to notice the change in the man's expression though.
"May I ask, what position you hold in the Oxford Family?"
The man replied with a respectful expression, Kailen had never heard of the Oxford's though they must be powerful.
"Daughter, and may we know why you are here in Cassar on this small mountain?"
His eyebrows rose in shock as he processed her information before replying calmly.
"We were ordered by a Sect Elder to accompany him here, we don't know why."
Lana obviously grew confused by the look on her face.
"Can we meet this Elder?"
Lana asked, though to Kailen it sounded slightly like an order.
"Of course, though he is out of camp for the moment so you will need to wait a while for his return."
The man spoke as he led the way into the small camp of disciples, Kailen observed maybe thirty disciples all trained in the ways of martial arts and cultivation. Some were sitting crosslegged cultivating while others were practicing their sword techniques, he liked the environment and hoped to one day join such a sect.
They entered a large tent, with full furniture including a bed, chairs, table, and wardrobe. They waited together for an hour keeping each other company before the entire mountain shook. The shock was so enormous that it overthrew the wardrobe across the room. A terrifying roar then accompanied the tremors, the sound was so loud everyone had to cover their ears in the hopes of retaining their hearing.
The roar lasted for a full minute before slowly subsiding, though the echo still rang out over the entire mountain range. Kailen was horrified, he imagined the beast that created such a sound and trembled. He slowly took a look at Lana's face but was shocked to see her faintly trembling with a look of fear present on her beautiful face.
"What the hell was that?"
Kailen asked with a trembling voice. It was the first time he saw Lana, not completely composed and in control of the situation. Lana gazed at him and replied quietly.
"A Dragon."
Ali and Kailen's face transformed into that of pure terror as they processed her words, Dragons were the strongest creatures present in the Physcal world. They reigned terror wherever they went, there were tales of humans fighting these mythical creatures throughout time but the stories were very rarely true.
In the stories, the elder dragons could take human form once old enough. Their true form, however, was a majestic beast hundreds of feet in size. They were extremely rare in this world, it was said only the experts of the higher worlds could overthrow their reign.
The trio hurried to exit the tent and what greeted them was the sword disciples running around in a panic. Kailen gazed further up the mountain where he saw a group of what looked like ten men sprinting down from the summit. They looked extremely panicked, as they waved their arms at the camp. Kailen wondered what they were trying to say as he faintly heard their voices.
"RUN YOU FUCKING IDIOTS!"
Kailen smacked himself for being a moron, as he was about to turn as inform the others a spray of lava erupted from the top covering the sky in a rain of molten rock. He faintly saw an enormous form fly through the smoke and molten rock into the sky, the ash and smoke in the sky preventing a clear look.
Though his expression turned grave as he heard the mighty roar somewhere within the clouds above, a slight movement in the clouds opened and revealed an enormous golden eye staring fiercely at the camp below. His muscles had stiffened from the faint glance, though extremely beautiful it was accompanied by unrivaled majesty and might that awed every creature below.