Count Nevlar was quite anxious recently. His life had been quite the rollercoaster of emotions, whatever the old saying actually referred to.
First a very important official of his turned out to be corrupt and left with a great amount of the assets of the area he governed, then his firstborn miraculously tracks the man down and solves all the problems his absence causes before rebounding the crisis, only to fall to a terrible poison of unknown origins and wail for three days and nights over the release of death, having been restrained and gagged so he'd not do the deed himself, all healers saying they had no idea what to do when suddenly a new B rank adventurer studded confidently forward, knocked his son out and literally just ripped off all poison present through his pores before preparing a concoction he'd quickly administrated after explain it was actually just a nutrient extract so he could regenerate on his own better, spending barely fifteen minutes in capturing dark flakes and black blood that fell out of his patient, administrating yet another of the same concoction and indicating that his son did light exercising when he woke up, before explaining he ment adjusting back to his squeletal integrity and muscle density since everything will tire him out.
Look and behold, Adrian literally broke the bed post besides him the moment he woke up after smelling some salts.
He'd cried there and then, not able to stop later as the pain of breaking several ribs affected his paper pushing constitution, though they were quickly healed for 'free' and he had to insist on paying for it together with his son's treatment, reducing his position over the negotiations even further.
Luckily the conniving fox just wanted a Knight job, which linked them together and benefited both parties considering all the legase involved. He'd been looking for an adventurer team to add to his retinue of contacts, the one before finishing their contract over the leader and healer both retiring, and this one seemed great, even having recruited the rogue that previously worked with him. He was pretty sure the party in question had been looking for a chance to contact him, but this happening had been such an impressive coincidence that he'd even investigated if they'd have any relation to the poisoning. They somehow didn't according to the men in his dungeon.
For now, all that he could do was send his stubborn child with them to help with the dragon extermination. Some lesser noble might only see the profits, not minding anything else, but not him. No, he'd convinced the guild to send the only A rank adventurer with the expedition thanks to the proximity of the threat, but turns out Aki actually had a good relationship with the guild master too.
He had no option but to go thanks to the buffs he could give the troops, but seeing the strange man riding the white horse with droopy bunny ears didn't exactly bring him much confidence about his security.
"Aki, I see you didn't bring Mari with you, is she going ahead to scout or has something happened to her?" He asked, seeing the supposedly temporary addition to the Alastor party but not the cat-kin he knew.
"Count." He nodded before getting off his mount. "She is fine, just tired from the trip and indisposed to hunting dragons, so she stayed to deal with some paper monsters instead." He said with a small smile.
"I see. Say, what do you think are your team's chances of taking down a rank 8 dragon?" He said, not actually expecting such an answer but not letting it show. He knew for a fact that the cat girl was a worry wrath even if she didn't let it show most of the time. So...
"100% chance. Sera should be able to distract one for a while even without my support, Xera can fight two or three at the same time and slowly kill them off while I know siege magic, so in case there's something too bad I'll just use a couple of prepared ritual components and drop a meteor over their nest so we can escape while it tries to protect their eggs." He straight out said, shrugging off his worries.
If it is like that, then maybe he really shouldn't worry, but it was still kind of hard to believe.
"He is being serious Count Nevlar. He's a ridiculous mage and very much like our human ancestrals, always fighting more and more powerful enemies. I really don't doubt his lovers would be spared from his personality either." Grumbled the big baldie on the table, surprising the other two adventurers with his high assessment of the newcomer.
"This orc lover is? Guild master, did you drink too much last night?" Pointed out one of the team leaders. Nevlar knew what he was talking about, but he really didn't want to deal with the situation if it didn't call for his intervention.
"Really, that's the best you could think off to insult me? Where I'm from your parents would beat your ass for being so bad at it." He scoffed. "Were there any sightings of anything above rank 9? An exact or approximated number for the rage?" And then imediatly turned to ask the guild master with complete seriousness and professionalism.
"Two rank nines are expected. The rage has twenty something adults and an estimated eight or twelve younglings plus some eggs." Mark imediatly answered, ignoring the seething man besides him. Aki clearly had a high level taunt skill. Or the other man had a serious grudge against orcs, but it could very well be a combination of both.
"I will prepare to support you in the worst case scenario then, my buffing should pump you up enough to fight both dragons at the same time." He imediatly nodded and assured them even though he clearly understood the code if his slight frown was any indication.
Mentally sighing, Nevlar couldn't help but trust the man a bit more, though he was quite conscious part of the effect may be coming from a magical or system based effect, there really wasn't much he could do about it.
*****
The march to the dragon's lair really wasn't that interesting, though Aki was singing most of the time, boosting the whole fifty combatants around with speed and endurance, which actually reduced the travel time by at least a third thanks to his various bonuses. They still took a whole day to get close to the 'small mountain' where the dragons had nested, so the attack would be a bit after the adult dragons went to hunt at dawn, but with everyone keeping to themselves, there wasn't anything happening.
"So you just want to have the meat and blood?" Asked Mark while swinging his travel reserve up to take another mouthfull of alcohol.
"Yeah, i can't really use the bones myself for now and scales are a bit..." He shrugged, the taller man understanding what he ment perfectly.
"Why not scales?" Asked a confused Sera while looking up from her hot soup. Everyone in the party had a basic pantry on their storages, so they had warm food even if there was no fire.
"They will break." Both men said at the same time, Aki summoning bottle of wine and taking in a mouthfull while the guild master chuckled and did the same. "In a fight with powerhouses with two digit threat levels, there's no way to preserve much materials unless you can completly overpower your oponent." Her husband explained, already storing the drink again.
"Two..." She coughed in surprise, Xera patting her back as the less experienced fighter swallowed the wrong way. After some coffing, she looked around her, getting only sober nods. "Well fuck me." The she-orc cursed, her crescent moon earrings shaking with her head as she groaned. "No way my new armor is surviving that."
"That's why you're helping Xera take down a rank nine if possible. Maybe you will shoot straight to rank seven." Aki pointed out with a chuckle. His eyes traced the tatoos on her right side, the various black crecents cascating in each other beautifully showcasing her shamrock/emerald skin. "Who knows, now that you're officialy my wife you could get a noble title on your race!" He grinned. It was common knowledge he'd obtained the knight job through a deal with the count, so no one would raise eyebrowns at the statement.
"Great, now i'll get to evolve all the way to orc queen just because you said so." The high-orc rolled her eyes. She'd already gained access to the job system thanks to the medlesome husband, basically halving the stats she'd get from the sudden evolution and throwing her into even stricter training now that she could keep leveling up.
Knowing she was an abnormality and seeing all those job unlocks was only so good, but she could both feel and see the results of the new bonuses to learning from the several classes she got, though Aki had prohibited her from just straight up taking the direct line of defensive warrior and had her acumulate more than ten jobs already. The attribute and skill progression seeing jumps and spikes was quite nice though, since she'd been stuck at peek C-rank for plenty of time now.
"And i will kiss your royal ass just the same way as i do nowadays." He smiled, Mark taking great joy from the couple's interaction. And from the beef cuts Aki kept tossing on his plate, but that was another story.
Really, it was impressive how all of them smiled with so much mirth just to have trained resting bitch faces hours later as the weaker adventurers ussed the chance to murder the shit out of the young dragons still on the nest and it's guardians, the cute Sera caving in the skulls of several even as she tanked even more breath attacks and saved many people from death and injury while doning a galant silver armor, giant tower shield and heavy war hammer with the same collor scheme. While they seemed simple, the equipment came with her monster evolution, meaning it was a part of her, meaning it gained tons of stat boosts from Aki besides the fact it originally had great resilience.
"Okay, that was quick, so we have plenty of time to wait and prepare. I'll be taking some blood we spiled to make various inscriptions over the cavern, so make sure not to mess with those while we wait, someone will end up dead if you do. Remenber that when the fight starts, the giant pillar of light is me, that's familiar spirit descent, so don't you fucking dare shoot my ass just because some guy or girl got jealous over it, you hear?" Aki proclaimed, both instiling the command and lightening the mood of the wait they'd have to pass through. Seeing that some people even chuckled, he nodded and starting drawing overly complex simbols on the walls to better channel his spells.
Luckily there was no one stupid enough around to try and meedle with him just because they didn't like him or his wives, no, they'd be thinking of doing that after they went back home or maybe on the way back.
It took hours for the dragons to come back, nevermind that Aki finished his long winded trap a lot earlier than that. Unfortunetly, the black and yellow lizard that entered the cave first was clearly rank 10 or above. It's aura didn't really leave much to the imagination there, so it imediatly saw the illusion and compulsion. On the bright side of things, the traps also exploded when something broke out of them, so it wasn't unscketched, even leaving it open to the tall baldy punching it's face with all his strenght and at least half of Aki's buffs, sending it flying back to the entrance and bowling several other dragons on the way of the much bigger thing.
After recomposing itself, there were only eight people standing in front of it and it's children. They all smelled of blood. Blood of his clutch. The enraged beast sucked in a breath, giving it's greatest roar yet. A thing filled with rage, grief and a promise of vengeance. Aki roared back, his own wrath and annoyance countering any magical effect the big lizard shouted their way.