Draconic Awakening

The entire vicinity was cold during the night, somewhat lesser than the day. However, the absence of wind and noise all around felt more reassuring to Ragnar, who laid there on his side of the wall.

A realm dominated by ice, and the night being total darkness. Gave a strange feeling of being cursed.

The night was not what bothered Ragnar—but Hagi.

In the first few seconds of the total blackout, the darkness from the seething, enveloping phenomenon had rendered all sight useless.

Well, that only ruled over normal sight.

The young Lord had tested out his Arcana, and this allowed him sight through the darkness, becoming able to see as far as twelve feet which was more than enough to navigate the entire cave from where he stayed.

This realization made him a bit excited. Once again, his Arcana had another strength to bite down on— a small advantage in the shadows if he was ever going to travel through this abyss at night.

'This makes me almost forget how much of a dumb ability this is,' Ragnar mused, thinking of the lack of attack strength the ability was handicapped with.

But for now, that did not matter, as Ragnar had his eyes on the most captivating thing of all. The reason why he sat still awake, with a perplexed glare, for hours.

As he had predicted, the proud hunter was still awake— not having a single wink of sleep and staring intently at where he believed Ragnar to be.

The young Lord frowned, looking down towards his shadows. 'What is the probability this guy is staying awake to defend both of us from monsters?'

The prisoner seemed to almost jerk his head back with a palpable scoff.

It was as he thought. No!

This man had not accepted his offer just for a single loaf of bread— he was stupid, but not that stupid.

With the absence of light, and the man before him being a much more capable and experienced predator, he could easily murder Ragnar within mere seconds.

'I don't even know why he took the effort of waiting till night time before an attack. He could have killed me in the day if he wanted,' Ragnar thought as he grasped the hilt of his sword tightly.

However, the answer to his question came quite quickly.

The experienced hunter must have known the Ice Wendigo was no Grade One Wretchborn. So seeing it go, and Ragnar return with the claim of killing it with such minimum wounds, was surely a shock to him.

'He must be thinking my claims of just entering the Realm are a farce. That's why he's patiently waiting for me to sleep...' A smile almost brooded on Ragnar's face as he thought about this. 'Good... Just great...'

Ragnar was far more than pleased at this plan, as this was the same thing he had in mind before begging the hunter to share his shelter. Well, not exactly— he wanted to at least learn a bit more from the hunter and probably then attempt to murder him.

But these stakes were just enough for him also to act.

The mighty hunter was far more experienced, stronger, faster, and maybe had a prominent Arcana compared to the young lord. And all Ragnar had with him were wits and the ability to see through the dark.

How reassuring, however —

Those were the only weapons he needed to kill this overgrown hunter.

'Let's sell it, shall we?' Ragnar reclined his back to the wall more comfortably, and his next action seemed to alert Hagi.

A snore...

Ragnar had begun to snore as though he was asleep—Deeply asleep. His performance was effortless and perfect, as though this was a given talent.

Even Hagi was immediately fooled by his act, wasting no time to seize the opportunity before him.

He rose slowly to his feet, hunching his back, and in his hands materialized the horrid axe which was meant to carve up Ragnar.

The young Lord was patient. He waited for Hagi to be halfway through the journey and then stopped the snoring with a gradual fade.

This did not stop Hagi from continuing his gradual charge for the kill.

Perfect.

Ragnar knew the hunter was acting out on the last position and the sound he had made while snoring, so he only basically had to shift himself from the spot he was originally in to a much closer one and hope for the best.

'Hurry, hurry, Ragnar,' he urged himself as he slowly pushed himself with his hands to the side, without making any noise that would alarm the hunter. It was a very slow movement but quite necessary.

Luckily, he got well out of the way before the hunter reached the wall and then waited— with his sword held in the suffocating darkness of night, ready to attack.

The moment of anticipation didn't take any further waiting.

And the large hunter reached the for the wall, stretching out his hand first to try and grab or feel at least a piece of Ragnar's clothing or flesh.

The way he did this with one hand, and held the axe in the second ready to cut through Ragnar within seconds—this was most especially terrifying.

But to the man that was to be killed, Ragnar was disgusted by this. He wanted to drive his blade into the Hunter's body as fast as he could, but Hagi was still a bit out of reach for a fatal—no, a deadly blow.

The warm breath of the hunter, despite being a few feet from Ragnar, smelt awfully bad and senile. His breathing too seemed heavy, his yellow irises moving around the walls as he desperately searched for Ragnar.

With the closeness between the two getting increasingly uncomfortable, Ragnar noticed something odd about the hunter. His body was not hunched just because of stealth, but because it had become that way. His face seemed filled with more hair than usual, his back curved and with rough bumps clearly over them. His hands had gotten quite longer than that of a human—uneven maybe, and very muscular.

This was his Arcana. A transformation type, and a traumatizing one at that.

The man before Ragnar seemed no different from a monster. A vicious beast probably disguised as human.

'This guy gives being ugly a different definition,' he thought, tightening the grasp around the hilt of his sword as the monstrous hunter was just before his deadly range.

Ragnar took a breath in and held it. This was his chance to strike and win the battle before it started. If his strike proved right, that is.

But if it didn't, Ragnar was sure there was no way out of this situation but death.