"It's scary to think about the sacrifices they make to achieve that."
"Well, not really, they just REALLY love to chat about everything: the world, nature, the lovely tea they grow in their gardens. They can talk about the latter for hours!!!"
"Is it really that bad?"
"How can I put it... If we, the red dragons, prefer actions over words, they prefer complete inaction. You know why we call them blue dragons, even though Sephris was a blue dragon?"
"Mm, aren't they the same thing?"
"Not quite. They were blue only at the beginning of their history, and the longer they lived in this world, the lighter their scales became. So, truly blue dragons remained only the ancient dragons and their offspring. Now, in Athlos, their city at the bottom of the sea, there are about a thousand dragons, and out of them, at most two dozen can be considered true blue dragons. They are the clan with the fewest ancient dragons left."
"Do they have such a short lifespan?"
"No, they were all killed. Only three ancient blue dragons out of ten are left."
"But they are healers; how could so many of them die in the war?"
"They were not killed in the war, but rather by their kindness and peacefulness. During the Great War, only one ancient blue dragon died. When Nihelim died, the dragon army fell apart; they didn't know what to do next and whom to command. That's when my mother suggested making peace, hoping to put an end to the bloodshed."
"And that's when the agreement between humans and dragons ended the war?"
"No, the agreement you're thinking of was signed much later. My mother made peace with the first summoner, but it didn't work out. The people who had lived in slavery under the dragons for so long thirsted only for revenge, and the summoner distanced himself from all matters and didn't enforce the agreement. That's when the people started hunting dragons. We were divided and disorganized; in the span of two hundred years, twice as many dragons died as during all the years of the war. And the blue dragons suffered the most. They were too passive. They could easily change their appearance and hide among humans, but they couldn't pass by the sick without helping them. As a result, they were often discovered and captured. And they didn't even try to resist; if they couldn't escape, they surrendered to the mercy of the invaders. And the invaders showed them no mercy."
"That's horrible."
"Yes, exactly why my mother asked the Emperor to intervene and protect the dragons. That's how the second dragon war began. The Emperor killed the first summoner and his loyal generals, and only that managed to pacify the people's anger. Feeling that they no longer had the strength to confront all the dragons, they signed the treaty you now consider the outcome of the first war, which states that dragons cannot attack humans and humans cannot attack dragons."
"Heh, it seems someone has thoroughly researched our history."
"Of course, your historians couldn't admit that even after the peace treaty, humans continued to exterminate dragons. This led to many dragons hiding from the world. The golden ones disappeared somewhere, so much so that no one knows where they are to this day, and the few remaining ones keep their secret hidden. And the blue dragons, after there were only a couple of dozen left, decided to escape to a place where no human could reach. Before, this island was three times bigger, and it housed the magnificent palace of Sephris, so he came here in the final moments of his life."
"And these ruins on the edge of the island are what's left of the palace?"
"No, of course not. They are just the remains of the southern wall of the palace. The blue dragons took the palace with them and moved it to the bottom of the ocean, right next to this place. That's how they founded their city, using complex water magic, they created a bubble over the city so that other dragons could visit them, and they started rebuilding their new city. Around the ancient castle, they built Athlos, the underwater city of the blue dragons. As you can see, instead of fighting, they preferred to escape."
"They must have had their reasons."
"Yes, but that's exactly why we'll never find common ground with them. We prefer to fight, and they prefer to run away. While we take action, they discuss everything. Maybe it's because of this nature that they love to chat so much... with a peaceful, benevolent smile that's incredibly annoying! No, they are not evil, but they can be so tedious. In their city, they like to gather in interest groups and philosophize about all sorts of nonsense for a long time. They sometimes conduct quite useful research, but most of the time, they study utter nonsense."
"Well, well, I understand now how you don't particularly like them."
"Well, it's not that I don't like them. By the way, they bake pretty decent cookies, but I just can't stand a long conversation with them. Call me closer to dinner."
"Moreover, you say you don't find common ground with them, but you just need to know what bribes you."
"Oh, come on, that's not the point. They are a bit too gullible. Anyway, enough about them. Let's get to work."
Finally, we started working. The tavern owner was initially against it, but once he found out what we needed the "relic" for, he agreed to give us the harpoon. It was indeed of medium-quality adamantite, but still sufficient for our purposes. The long tip would be enough for both the arrowhead and the feathers.
"Take this," I cut off one of the harpoon's teeth and handed it to Aileen.
"Do you suggest we test it?"
"Yes, take Katrina and check how much charge it can hold. I don't have the necessary tools at hand, but I'll try to enchant the arrow slightly, so it won't disintegrate in flight. Katrina, together with Liri, help Aileen. You need to learn how to distribute your magic correctly; it may not be that easy."
"Understood, but don't you need any help?"
"Some assistance from Seleria and Ragni wouldn't hurt, with their flames, I can process this material faster."
"Alright then, I'll call them."
"And, Aileen, there's something else we need to talk about tonight."
In a couple of days, I made an arrow that could pierce the monster's armor. The girls assessed their strengths; Katrina had to deal with distributing energy between the bow and the feathers, which required more control. Miriam had to try out the ballista's control seat again. Aileen had to work hard to reinforce the structure and try to maintain as much maneuverability during targeting as possible. The day of sacrifice was approaching.
The townsfolk slowly gathered by the waterfront, awaiting their fate, but the heroes were in no hurry to appear. Panic was already starting to spread among the crowd when the preacher stepped out onto the shore and began to pray.
The water bubbled, and a dim glow began to illuminate the shore.
"And where are these impudent ones?" A heavy, rumbling whisper spread through the vicinity.
People looked around in search of the heroes, but they were nowhere to be seen.
"They must be hiding from the lord," the preacher smirked sarcastically, "well, that's at least wiser than claiming they can fight him. Now you see who you were going to entrust yourselves to?!"
"They are there!" A young girl ran down the slope, pointing into the distance, "their ship is sailing north!"
"Cowards, it seems I overestimated them," the glow disappeared, and a wave rose, carrying the monster out of the bay.
The people rushed to the northern slope, where in the distance an iron ship was steaming at full power, trying to escape from the pursuer.
Only two people were left behind, including the girl who had revealed the heroes' escape.
"Uh... Chris, did Krito abandon us?" Katrina clung to the railing with difficulty as I steered the ship in the right direction. Now, this almost crawling heavy barge was sailing several times faster than any sailboat.
"Don't worry, we're just changing the venue," I took the pipe leading to the engine room, "Seleria, step on it, that creature is catching up with us."
"I'm doing my best!" At this time, the fire sorceress played an important role as fuel for the ship's engine. On ordinary firewood, it couldn't reach the required speed, so I asked the sorceress to speed up the process a bit.
The wheels on the sides of the ship spun furiously, gaining momentum, and the ship vibrated from the movement, but it was still far from being destroyed.
"And where are we sailing to?! You said we can't handle it in the sea?!" Katrina exclaimed.
"True, we can't handle it in the sea, but we can hardly drag it out onto the land either. So, I decided to make a few adjustments to the local terrain."
"WRETCHED VERMIN!!! Did you really think you could hide from me?!" The wave finally caught up with us, and the furious deity was following right behind the ship.
"Perfect, just in time. Ragni, launch!"
"Only hope it doesn't explode, only hope it doesn't explode," the dragoness carefully lifted one of the black barrels standing on the deck and threw it far from the ship, "looks like it's okay."
The barrel splashed into the water a hundred meters to the right of the ship's side and quickly sank to the bottom.
"Keep throwing where we agreed!"
"Yes, yes," the girl threw ten more barrels each time in a new spot, and when the last barrel sank, the monster finally caught up with us.
"Brake!" Everyone grabbed the railings, and I abruptly stopped the wheels.
From the impact, their axles creaked and even bent a little.
"My little ship," Aileen murmured in horror.
"You thought you could escape me on the sea?! You are even stupider than I thought," Dagon rose from the water. An enormous humanoid body in a moonlit shell shimmered in the light.
"Well, we didn't really run anywhere, thanks for behaving so predictably," I smirked, "Lady Alira, you may begin, Ragni, you know what to do."
"Okay," Ragni sighed and began her transformation. Her black wings spread in the night sky, and her sharp claws dug into the ship's hull. "I've got him."
Ragni hovered over the deck and held the ship at sea level. At that moment, explosions were heard underwater. Eleven bombs shook the seabed, and flames began to rise from the depths of the sea.
"Grain, I'm counting on you."
"Easy for you to say," the mage focused on the raging energy rising from the depths of the earth.
First, gas bubbles reached the surface, and the sea boiled. The ship began to slowly sink underwater.
"What's happening?" Dagon tried to sail away, but in the bubbling water, he had nothing to hold onto, and the fire was getting closer and closer to the water's surface.
The black dragon pulled us up with all its might, keeping us on the surface, while the molten magma was already just ten meters away from the ship's hull.
"Seleria, Alira, your turn!"
Water sparkled with blue wings, and the sea swirled in a vortex around us, surrounding the stream of lava. The red princess rushed out of the hold and, panting heavily, looked at us.
"Aaaaah!" Katrina couldn't hold back a scream.
"What?" Seleria frowned suspiciously, not realizing that she had turned blacker than our dragoness from the ashes.
"No, it's nothing. You can start," I said.
"Hmm," the girl stood at the bow of the ship and began to gather the heat surrounding us. Gradually, the lava calmed down, rising to the surface.
"What have you done?!" the monster roared in anger, but there was nothing it could do; a stone plate pressed it from below, pushing its grotesque crab-like body to the surface.
"Yes, just adjusting the situation to our desired conditions," I grinned, and at that moment, the stone plate reached the bottom of our ship and stopped, simultaneously pushing Dagon's massive body out.