I approached him at terrifying speeds, and it looked like I had no intention of slowing down to him and the heroes. Valentyn immediately jumped the gun and deployed several magical spells of several colours, gold, red, blue, green and more. He then focused them into one attack and launched it right at me. The once colourful combined attack now shined deep black, with the looming of "death" as it travelled through the sky.
I had no fear though—no attack could ever harm me, and I would prove it by tanking Valentyn's attack head-on. I gathered a small amount of air and roared quietly compared to the previous two roars. It was more of a "challenge accepted" type of roar so it didn't need to be too loud.
I materialised my magic—small bullets of pure divine energy, capable of destroying anything it came across. It isn't as strong, as the Divine Power of Erasing, my get-to ability when in a battle, or for convenience's sake, however, I wouldn't use it since the Divine Power of Erasing would be too powerful for even a dragon to wield without the onlookers being too suspicious.
A power clash ensued—my bullets of divine energy clashed against the multi-spell mess of whatever Valentyn had conjured up. Electric sparks flew off the clash, launching from the clash zone to afar. Luckily, the range of the sparks was only a few metres, so there was no need to worry about collateral damage.
I watched the ensuing beam clash, prepared to fire more bullets of divine energy if needed. However, a few seconds later, because I was so focused on the beam clash (thinking about today's daily report actually), I failed to notice a small group of heroes making their way into my blind spot (rear) and climbing onto my body via my tail.
"Haaah!" one of them cried as he attempted to pierce through my scales. Unfortunately for him, his steel sword was too weak even to scratch my scales, which I remind you—they were as hard as diamonds, and when he realised that, he decided to try magic. I had to roll my eyes at this guy's lack of intelligence. Did he not learn about the magic resistance that dragons had? Or did he not attend any education program during his time in Arula?
Iona even briefed me on it when I first arrived. Magic, like physical attacks, dragons are highly resistant to it. The reason is simple—if your scales are harder than diamonds, and physical attacks are ineffective, magic is not effective either. Of course, there are many kinds of magic, such as fire, wind, ice, or something like that, but generally, apart from using high-level magic, dragons are almost impossible to take down by normal means.
Thus, while the group of heroes were stuck on my back, figuring out how to get past my scales, I wanted to seize the situation and make it into one in my favour, but the consequences would be too great if I wanted to do so.
Orth's capital, Trinas, is between the Granza Forest to the south and the Narthe River to the north. It's an ideal place for a city—easy access to the ocean, as the Narthe River flows from the Cold Ocean and the Narthe Passage to the east to the Straight of Lelia, southwest of Trinas.
Just to the north of Orth, across the Narthe River is its rival, Kylin, and I wonder what will happen if I make my way over there instead? You guess it! A political nightmare for Orth! As much as I would've liked to cause a mess for both Kylin and Orth, that wasn't my objective. Trinas was in ruins—government buildings burnt or destroyed, its citizens evacuated, and the army—pretty much obliterated.
Generally, the capital would be a nation's largest and most prosperous city, thus, Trinas being in the state it is in now, Orth would not have the capabilities to sustain a full-blown war with its largest rival—Kylin. I doubt even they could convince their heroes to fight their wars for them, and the overwhelming military advantage Kylin has over Orth currently could lead to the destruction of Orth as a whole, shifting the delicate power balance between the six major nations.
Let me explain this a bit further.
If the power balance between the six major nations were changed by any means, it could cause major political concerns for the other major nations, especially Coade and Peralin.
The reason for the concerns is that Kylin and Orth are both situated on the continent of Narthe. Narthe is geographically situated much closer to the Gyold Islands or the Gyold Archipelago compared to the continent of Hyos or the subcontinent of Pulio, where the other four major powers and regional powers are located. If Narthe had regional powers that could even threaten the two major powers of Orth or Kylin, then the other four major powers wouldn't have to worry as much about the internal and political stability of the nations in Narthe, because if a threat exists nearby, then it would keep Orth and Kylin in check at least.
However, because the power structure of Narthe is overwhelmingly dominated by Orth and Kylin alone, no other nation could rise to the same level of influence or economic power as Orth or Kylin, meaning no regional powers able to keep them in check.
If I were to cite the thoughts of the king of Kylin, something like 'this would be a great opportunity to declare war on Orth and take down our rival nation once and for all' or something similar to that if I fight Orth's heroes within Kylinian territory. Then, if Orth falls, Kylin would be Narthe's dominant power. Its influence would be greatly magnified, and all other nations within Narthe would have to bow their heads to Kylin since Orth would be gone to prevent Kylin from doing these things.
Then, if I remember correctly, the important trade routes that flow through the Twin Bay Sea, the body of water that separates Narthe and Hyos, would be under immense threat by the influence of Kylin. The nations of the Gyold Islands such as Maron or Glieze, island nations situated in the Hyos Channel, around halfway to the Hyos mainland from the Gyold Islands supply around forty per cent of the world's supply of a vital resource used in magic, known as "Starlight Powder", which is made from crushing the main material—Starlight Ore and mixing it with Magic Essence and gold.
This Starlight Powder is so vital for the development of magic, that war would be waged if the trade routes between Maron or Glieze were threatened.
So, no, I cannot afford to do something as simple as going across the river, or the entire world of Arula plunges into world war. Although it might look entertaining, the consequences I would face would be far greater than any sort of entertainment I would gain from merely crossing the river and fighting the heroes there.
I sighed deeply. This sucks. The power balance between the six major powers is too delicate. I can do nothing but send these heroes flying to the river, and hopefully, that would create some time for me to deal with Valentyn. Suddenly, a bright light, originating from the clash of divine energy and Valentyn's magic shined so brightly that the heroes were blinded, even when they were in the shadow of my torso. The bright light was caused by the immense friction of Valentyn's magic—magical essence—almost atomic-level particles that magic is composed of, smashing into each other, nearly at the speed of light.
With the intensity of the light, I figured that this clash of magic would be my victory, and Valentyn's magic would decompose rapidly, allowing me to snatch him away.
"Ugh, what's up with this bright light?!" one of the heroes on my back shouted out while sheltering his eyes with his hand.
"A new magic spell?" a female voice cried out.
"No, you dummies! This light exists due to the immense friction of colliding Magic Essence particles from that vampire's magic clashing against the dragon's magic! Have you not learnt anything from our classes?!" a concerned masculine voice answered his allies' questions.
Not bad. He's pretty quick to catch onto things. Due to his knowledge, I should probably take care of him first.
I took advantage of the light by performing a somersault, rolling forward at high speeds, intending to throw the group of heroes off my back. However, that did not work as predicted. Even if the light blinded them, they did not lower their guard. As expected as Orth's finest soldiers.
Instead, once the group had landed, one of them secured a small hook, likely enchanted with some magic, onto my body and connected a thin and barely visible magic rope with all of the group members, making them practically "locked" in place until the wielder released their magic.
It was troublesome thinking up a way to detach the hook from the crevices of my scales, and the enchantments did not help either. However, if I can threaten their lives the group might consider a possible retreat by jumping off my back and landing on a nearby roof. As the light grew more and more intense, I conjured up a few small spheres of divine energy and surrounded the heroes in a ring made up of those spheres. Those spheres are meant to scare the heroes into deploying some kind of barrier to protect themselves, and a second after they do so, I'll channel more divine energy into those spheres and eventually, those spheres would expel condensed divine energy at speeds faster than the speed of sound.
As I did that, I also focused my attention on Valentyn. Immediately after firing his spells, he hurriedly flew away from the blast radius, ignoring the multiple other heroes he was fighting (bickering) just mere moments before,
The native lifeforms of Arula recognise dragons (large lizards) as the dominant and most powerful beings in all of Arula. No other being could come close to it, even powerful species such as vampires or magic-wielding devils, just to name a few, have a complex history with dragons, such as wars, clashes or even revenge, and their history with dragons often creates folk tales, legends, myths and heroes in their culture due to the overwhelming strength of dragons.
Thus, to Valentyn, I, who is currently a dragon is the greatest threat he could imagine, far beyond the threat level of the heroes he was fighting moments before.
"Everyone, retreat away from the dragon's path! I don't know where the dragon came from, but be on guard!" a hero once fighting Valentyn ordered to his allies. The boy who shouted the order looked no more than seventeen or eighteen years old, but his eyes were comparable to those of an experienced war general, who had seen the death of many. What kind of training did he go through to look like that?
I felt a light shudder from my spine. His gaze felt unnatural—almost like it was forced upon him, and I couldn't explain it. It just feels strangely uncomfortable for me when I look at him in the eyes.
His short and well-trimmed brown hair became a mess due to the wind, and he created some ground between him, Valentyn and myself. I was no longer approaching them as I had to deal with the group of heroes on my back, Valentyn was retreating into a better position, and the boy scanned his surroundings and started to think of a plan.