Zeke's excitement felt as lightning as he grew closer the the lair of the great dragon, it became a physical preasure as he grew closer. It felt like his blood was longing for its soulgem calling for it. Zeke began to pick up his pace, slowly at first so that his comrades could keep up but the closer he got the faster he went eventually leaping hundred of yards at a time. The twins went as fast as their flame bodies would allow them but their fitness was not even close to that of Zeke's and he soon left them behind by a mile or more.
Zeke crept to the entrance of the cave and used his scent sight to see if he was walking into a trap. The area was full of motion causing a bit of chaos in Zekes mind, "focus Zeke, focus." He whispered to himself as he crept to the opening of the cave. He strained his mind to find the grand dragons scent but after a half an hour or so of sorting through all the others he found it. The sweet aroma had been buried through what seemed like and endless swarm of other dragons of all the lesser varieties coming and leaving the cave. It was his dragon city, where his army stayed and he lay upon what ever treasure he has protected inside. This dragon had just won a battle for territory and resources, this dragon had just acquired the remainder of his rivals dragon army and looked to be the most powerful dragon for a thousand miles. This dragon also suffered some wounds during the battle with the other dragon and now would need rest on mounds of gold and treasures to heal itself. Dragons coveted gold over all else for a dragon could be on the brink of death, as long as it lay on top if a pile of gold it can escape death and heal itself. It may take a century of sleep but dragons have an unusually long life especially if they're a higher class of dragon. Also why foxxen with higher soul gem counts tend to live longer lives as well, surpassing a hundred years easily.
Zeke watched the dragon limp into his cave and descend into the darkness below. The smell of sulfur blocked him from seeing any further.
"Theres at least a thousand lesser dragons in that cave, possibly a few great classes, but the sheer numbers alone make this tricky. The grand dragon is very weak so he himself is not the threat. " Zeke spoke out loud but to no one. The twins stayed further back in some bushes off to the side to watch for strays so Zeke didn't get caught off guard.
"I know i can kill alot of dragons with my current evolution but im not sure exactly what my current rank is. I dont have and crowd control style abilities i can deal large amounts of damage to small areas. Maybe im going about this all wrong." Zeke pondered a solution to the problem. He fell back to the brush with his cousins to work out a plan.
"You two can control the fire element with your current evolutions. They will have the advantage because of sheer numbers and i do not have any abilities to control large crowds. You two do." He began to layout his plan but was interrupted by Damon, " cousin we can't breathe fire, so far we can only manipulate fire that is already burning."
Zeke got stern for a moment an unusual behavior for him, in the past Zeke was always the weakest and dismissed during planning because of how much he lacked in skill during a hunt. He was only a decent archer, and his close range fighting skills had been beyond poor. Everything changed after his evolution, he became the most powerful being in the area up to this point, and even now he's pretty sure he could kill the grand dragon below.
"If you will let me finish cousin i will tell you about how your abilities can help us in our current predicament." There Zeke laid out a plan, they would light large torches made of twigs and brush in both sides of the entrance. Zeke would run down cause a little chaos and have them chase him out. Then the twin would manipulate the fire to surround and kill every dragon they could while Zeke took out the fire elemental dragons since they were fire proof.
It was a sound plan, one that Zeke was very proud of. They scurried off to the woods around the entrance and began to fashion large torches bound with straps of leather cut from their clothes. They looked like small trees when Zeke drove them into the ground outside the cave.
Jeffery lit the torches and stood behind them, Damon followed suit on the other side.
With a deep breath Zeke shot down the dark entrance like a cannon ball being let loose by a cannon. After a few minutes the cave erupted into booms of roars, then the sound of stampeded dragons barreling down the caves paths.
Within a few more seconds Zeke shot like lightning out the entrance and the twins lit the torches. As the dragons began to pour out of the entrance they had to so almost single file, Damon and Jeffrey began to twist the fire and send the flames like blowtorches into the fray. Many dragons burned to ashes leaving behind their soul gems while the dragons of the fire typing were immune and lived through the flames easily Zeke would clean up by picking them off one by one. They continued with this strategy until the last dragon had been killed. Zeke didn't believe that was all of the low tier dragons left in the cave, he assumed there would be a few which he could handle easily on his own.
"You guys grab all the soul gems and wait for me here. If i'm not back by the midnight take the loot and head back home. Use it to strengthen all the hunters in our house. " Zeke grabbed on of the torches(which was burning much smaller now) and this time started back into the cave.
He had to find the correct path to the lord pf the dragons nest, there were many tunnels throughout this cave and Zeke was sure he'd have to look down everyone of them for the slumbering master of this nest. Or would he? Zeke after a few moments came to pass with four tunnels, he hadn't noticed there were in fact four tunnels the first time because he had just ran in a straight line making as much noise as possible so direction wasn't important.
There he stood looking down four large openings to four large tunnels, Zeke decided to use his scent mind to see where his prey had slunk off to, to rest.
He lifted his nose into the air and began to take deep breathes, he allowed all the smells time to separate in his mind before his nose grabbed the right scent. He opened his eyes and started down the path furthest to the left, and shortly after he entered the path the torch light sparkled off a large smear of blood that had been left. He checked the ground to find small pools of blood making a trail further into the depths of the tunnel.
After traveling for about an hour down the tunnel he came to the end of the tunnel( which let out to a large chamber). Zeke just stared in awe at the mountain of treasure before him. A pile of jewels and gold piled almost to the ceiling and started a few feet after you entered. Zeke looked around the pile and could not find the dragon, as he circled found the blood trail amongst the treasure and saw where it disappeared into the pile itself. The dragon had covered itself in the gold and went to sleep to heal from its wounds. Zeke fell back from the treasure and tried to formulate a plan, a dragon would viciously guard its treasure no matter and Zeke had planned to make the dragon defend it.
He casually walked over to the pile and peered into its vast wealth as if he was trying to find the nicest thing on the pile. Then he saw it, a silver pommel thats shine stood out amongst everything else. It had a giant mammoth tusk ivory handle and the hilt was obviously silver as well. It was a few meters up on the pile which wasn't really that big of a problem for Zeke. He stretched a bit then took a leap into the air and snagged the handle of the sword and removed it. Gold and jewels cascaded down the pile as Zeke landed on the other side where the pile ended.
The movement below the pile was subtle and slight at first, but shortly after the pile began to shifts and start falling like waves towards the walls of the cave. A black head popped from the pile, followed by another then another. It was the three headed black dragon from the clearing a few days earlier and it was massive now that zeke was standing face to face with it. It was a grand dragon and a very powerful one. Zeke wasn't afraid because of the beasts injuries and his own strength and speed put him at an advantage, but then something strange happened. The sword that he had grabbed to awaken the dragon had begun to glow, the sword had a long shining blade made of a metal Zeke wasn't familiar with. The blue light emanated from the sword and made Zeke feel as though his power had been doubled and he could fight full force for without ever tiring.
" who has decided to plunder my treasures! What thief dare wander into Moguu'l king of the western mountains and plains beyond!"
A second surprise, to the Foxxens knowledge dragons to not speak the common tongue, at least no dragon ever recorded has spoken before. Of course very few had ever been this close to a grand dragon before. All of the heads found the golden foxxen holding the glowing blue sword.
" A foxxen? A foxxen dare come out of the ground to my home and pilfer my treasures? You useless little dog! Thieving foxxen! Ill flay your flesh and roast your bones!." It yelled ots anger spewing like toxic sludge around the room.
Zeke coughed as something thick and fowl entered the air, it made it hard for Zeke to breath. What kind of dragon was this monster. As it spoke each head would take a turn spouting out threaths and taunting him. " Do you feel that burning in your chest? How the air makes you feel weak? Thats my power, im a grand dragon from the poison species of dragons, i'v killed many powerful dragons without ever havinn to bloody my claws." His three heads laughed as Zeke began to stagger. " I'm Zeke the first gold Foxxen! Your fowl stench wont even weaken me to your level of strength!" Zeke jumped in the air and swung his newly acquired sword lobbing off two of its heads. Black blood oozed from the stumps as they rolled across the floor. A look of both anger and panic cane across its last face as he watched his other two heads close their eyes and roll their tongues out of gaping maws.
"You will pay for that Foxxen!" As he shrieked he let loose a green plume of smoke that bellowed like a factories chimney quickly filling up the room. He dragon leaped quite quickly even though it now had lost two heads and had been injured from a prior fight. He placed his body between Zeke and the door and continued to fill the room with a thick fog of poison gas.