"Did you miss us little lizard?" One of them said with a sickening grin.
Lisa began to tremble violently and she had already begun to back away from the approaching visitors."Please, I-I don't have anything left to give a-andyou said last time would be the end!"
"Yea well, when the snow scale clan wants something they get it."
"And since you can't meet the payment, we get to torch your little store." One said mockingly. "Unless of course you'd be willing to accept young master Jeddah's offer?"
"Or…" the leader, an ogre named Borkus stared at Lisa's impressive bust with burning lust in his eyes.
"My wife's been nagging the hell out of me lately, so if you do me a favor and strip right here, I can relieve a little stress and we can all leave quiet and satisfied."
The men beside him looked at him with visible concern.
If word got out that he was touching a woman that Jeddah SnowScale had his eyes on, not only Borkus but his whole family would die within a single afternoon.
However, neither of them were going to say anything and hope that they might be able to get a piece of the action as well.
Lisa's eyes widened in horror as her nightmare continued to get worse and worse by the second.
Truth be told, Lisa could kill all three of these men rather easily.
Even if one was supposedly lesser, a dragon was still a dragon.
She could give these men one lackluster punch and their heads would explode into bloody chunks.
But then what?
Lisa had no power to fight one of the most powerful dragon clans to ever exist.
If she killed these men here, she would have to spend the rest of her life running and looking over her shoulder, and even then she was not guaranteed to live that long.
And what about Mira?
Her daughter was the one piece of joy she still had in this life and she couldn't bear to have her experience a life on the run.
No child deserves to live like that, least of all one as pure and innocent as hers.
Leaving Lisa with only one real option.
She shakily raised her hands to her blouse and reached for the first button.
Sensing compliance, the three men smiled lecherously and began to approach her without hiding their intentions.
'Why is this happening to me again...?'
Borkus was the first to approach Lisa, and he appeared to be unsatisfied with the speed at which she was getting undressed, so he tore off the rest of her shirt and shoved her to the ground.
'I'm such a coward...'
Seeing him grin as he began to unbuckle his pants, the damn holding back Lisa's emotions suddenly broke and she let her tears fall silently.
'I want to die...'
Ring!
The door to the shop rang once again just as Borkus was about to lay his thick leathery hands on the crying woman.
All of the men present turned around to find a young couple staring at this scene with shocked expressions.
"Lisa!"
Lailah immediately called out to her crying friend, and the knowledge that someone else was witnessing this scene filled Lisa with shame as well as relief.
"Get the hell out of here and mind your own fucking business!" Borkus roared.
Lailah ignored him, as she never took her eyes off Lisa who was crying on the floor.
Exedra naturally froze up as well, he was no stranger to abuse but this was something that was utterly sickening to see.
At some point, Borkus had noticed that the young man in the door was a dragon, and a noble one at that.
"We are conducting official business on behalf of the SnowScale clan! If you don't want to face the wrath of a dragon lord then I would advise you to forget what you've seen here!"
The dragon lords were the four most powerful dragons on this continent that acted as direct subordinates to the king.
Their clans were very influential, and it was their job to handle any and all internal matters that occurred on this gigantic continent.
Even other noble dragons cannot interfere with them, as their position makes them the second most powerful body in Antares, falling behind only the royal family.
Borkus was sure that once Exedra heard the name of his clan, he would back away and leave the shop without a second thought.
However, he was incredibly surprised when Exedra began to shake and released an unholy black pressure that could be felt along the entire street.
The three men who were about to assault Lisa buckled under his aura and had great difficulty holding on to their consciousness.
"What the hell?!"
"Are you insane?!"
"Do you understand the consequences this will bring you?!"
The dragon brought a hand to his head as he felt a massive headache incoming, and he was reminded of memories that even the original Exedra kept buried.
Everyone within the shop shuddered when Exedra finally spoke, his voice was deep and demonic but the strangest thing was that it sounded like his voice was overlapped with another.
"Of course you work for that bastard... It seems like even when he's been punished, he'll always revert to those same filthy fucking habits."
Exedra was shaking with an unfathomable rage.
The turmoil brewing inside of him was as turbulent and endless as fate itself.
All of that anger had to be released.
Exedra opened his mouth wide and revealed rows of sharp white teeth like that of a shark.
The back of his throat began to glow a bright purple, and all of the goons recognized exactly what was about to happen.
"W-we're sorry!"
"Please let us go!"
"M-Mercy!"
One by one, they all began to beg, yet it changed nothing in the end.
A spiral of purple and black flames shot out of his mouth and set the world in front of them ablaze.
"N-Nooo!"
"Aghhh!"
"It's hot, it's hot!"
Lailah immediately became alarmed, and she immediately put her hand on her husband's chest to stop him when she noticed something miraculous.
Even though the entire bookstore was engulfed in these infernal flames, the only things suffering any real damage were the three men who were going to assault Lisa.
The books, the floors, and even Lisa herself were all completely fine.
Dragons have a natural symbiotic relationship with their flames, so when they are used they can actually control what they do and don't want to burn.
The only problem with this is it's not as easy as it sounds and requires a great deal of practice.
'I didn't know that his level of control was this high...' Lailah stared at her husband in amazement, wondering just how much one person could surprise her.
The screaming of the men eventually came to a swift end when Exedra increased the heat of his flames, incinerating the three men into individual piles of ash.
Only then did the flames disappear, and his extremely oppressive aura faded.
When it was over, the dragon clutched his head once again as he felt like a small child was running around in his brain, knocking shit over and being obnoxious.
However, Lailah's soft and warm hand on his cheek made all of his pain disappeared as if it were never there as she looked at him with eyes filled with love.
It was as if the previous scene hadn't intimidated her in the slightest, and she was even more in love with him than she was before!
"Are you alright, husband?"
Not wanting to worry her, Exedra gave a small nod along with a helpless smile. "I am, I hope I didn't scare you. "
"You could never." She replied as she hugged him tightly.
The two separated and moved towards Lisa who was still sitting on the ground in awe while covering her chest.
Exedra saw that her shirt was a few feet away, ripped to shreds and unwearable.
He immediately took off his own robe and wrapped it around her exposed body.
"Are you alright?" Lailah asked, her voice filled with concern.
Lisa opened her mouth to lie like she normally did whenever someone asked her that question.
However, this time she simply didn't have the strength.
Of course she wasn't alright.
Who would be after experiencing every woman's worst nightmare?
Instead of answering,Lisa finally broke down and began to wail furiously on the floor of her shop.
Lailah immediately hugged her and whispered comforting words into her ear, although she wasn't sure if Lisa could hear her.
The three of them stayed in that space for quite a while, unmoving.
For the first time in a long time Lisa got to fall apart and have good people put her back together again.
And she needed something like that more than she'd realized.