Dragon's Awakening: The Duke's Son Is Changing The Plot

The whistle's pressure rolled through the cavern like a blade of pure command.

Graye jerked upright in a mid-beast interview. "Ohhh, that's the 'we've-gotta-run' whistle."

Jessy, crouched beneath another monster's posterior, muttered, "Finally. I was starting to run out of butt jokes."

Rufus flailed for balance, whispering, "Left foot—no, other left—don't explode, don't explode—"

Selena merely turned on her heel, her black coat fluttering as if the chaos beneath her wasn't worth the calories.

Jake, however, dove into the shadowy ground like a departing ghost, unlike others, who ran.

Alex, on the other hand, smacked Nibbles's furry backside. "Retreat, commander! Tactical snack withdrawal!"

The squirrel answered with a furious squeak and a tiny salute before leaping to the next stalagmite.

With that, everyone rushed back, and despite moving fast, their stealth rules remained. After all, they were still between the beasts.

Their retreat, however, was as ridiculous as their sneaking around.

Jessy zipped between legs and tails like a professional contortionist, while Graye rolled under a spined brute, armor gleaming faintly as she whispered, "Sorry, champ, love the scales!"

Rufus tiptoed across a line of twitching tails, face locked in an exaggerated don't-sneeze grimace, and Siris vaulted silently from beast to beast, daggers singing against her palms as she bit her lip to suppress the urge to stab.

Clara's sound magic tightened around them like a silver net, swallowing every breath and scrape.

Raven stayed at the rear, crimson eyes tracking them all, voice soft but iron-edged.

"Keep moving. Left ridge. No sudden stabs."

Omni purred from his wrist, "Boss, this is the most gangster conga line of cowards I've ever seen."

"Shut up and conga faster," Raven murmured.

Within a few seconds, they were all out of the horde, as they jumped onto the jagged high ground, gray mist curling at their boots like reluctant smoke.

But before they could celebrate or ask what was going on, the air froze.

One by one, all twelve level-ten beasts turned their draconic eyes upward, their eyes glowing red, gold, and void-black.

However, that was not all; soon, every corrupted creature in the field followed suit, their collective stare tightening the world to a single, airless point.

There were no growls or rustling of wings—only the weight of annihilation, pressing like a mountain on their ribs.

Graye tilted her head, whistling lightly. "Sooo… they see us."

Jessy bobbed her head. "Guess stealth mode's officially canceled."

Omni whispered like a funeral bell. "Showtime, boss."

As if Omni's words were the signal to start, the silence was shattered with a cataclysmic roar.

It was the wolf-dragon, and it reared back as it roared, its antlers glowing with violet fire.

The other titans answered, their voices a hurricane of stone and thunder.

Corrupted beasts surged as one, the very ground trembling beneath their charge.

On the cliff, Raven stood unflinching even though more than a thousand beasts were heading toward them with obvious intentions, his cloak snapping in the rising wind.

Selena's black eyes slid to him, calm and lethal. "Orders?"

Clara's fingers hovered over her strings of sound. "Raven?"

Siris, on the other hand, was already twirling a dagger with a hungry grin. "Finally."

She knew that it was time for her to start stabbing, and she already had her sight set on some especially stabby beasts.

Graye bounced on her toes, armor catching the gloom like a dare. "Please say 'fight.' Please say 'fight.'"

Jake's shadow coiled tighter, silent as ever.

Rufus muttered, "I vote for not dying."

Alex raised a hand. "I second that, but like, loudly."

Nibbles squeaked an urgent agreement.

Raven's crimson gaze, however, swept the horizon, as their main objective was far from complete.

"We still haven't found the—" He muttered, only to be cut off by a roar that was louder than the others, yet a sound they were all familiar with.

From the chaotic tide burst a sleek black panther, eyes blazing violet.

It bounded up the cliff face like gravity was optional and launched itself straight at Graye.

"GRAYE—!" Clara tried to warn, but the panther bowled Graye over with a happy whump, biting and licking her face in manic affection.

Graye laughed breathlessly beneath the claws. "Panther cuddles! Worth the concussion!"

It seemed that the panther saw them because of the commotion and rushed toward them.

"...Hah." Raven sighed as he wondered why he had to go through with all that sneaking into the horde if the panther could find them with a little commotion.

But, well, one couldn't blame him because he wasn't aware of the panther's condition.

After all, the only reason the panther could find them was because it wasn't bound or caged.

As for the question of why the panther was left alone, it was a story for another time.

For now, as the corrupt beasts had paused, as if letting them enjoy the reunion.

Then, just when everyone thought that the battle would continue, another shape leapt up on the high ground.

A second panther—smaller, leaner, its fur streaked with silver age. It moved with regal precision, eyes carrying the same violet flame.

The first panther instantly sprang off Graye and pressed its head against the newcomer's chest, rumbling like a giant kitten.

Jessy blinked. "Wait. Parent? Did we crash a family reunion?"

Omni snorted. "Whole army wants our heads, and we're watching a Disney moment. Classic."

The tender scene, however, lasted only a heartbeat as the other corrupt beasts decided that it was time to move again.

The roars sounded again as the level-ten titans behind lowered their heads. Energy gathered in their throats—violet fire, black lightning, molten bile.

The horde, on the other hand, surged forward, the earth shattering under a thousand pounding limbs.

Selena's voice was ice. "They're charging."

Siris's daggers flared in answer. "Finally!"

Graye wiped panther slobber from her cheek, grinning wide. "Round two, baby!"

Raven exhaled once, slow and cold, crimson eyes burning like the void.

"Stay close," he said.

The cavern ceiling trembled as he lifted his hand.

Black-red scales crawled across his skin, the voidfire in his palm swelling like a captured star.

The next second, the size of the fireball decreased, but the pressure grew as Raven compressed the power of the whole fire into a single point.

Then, with a single wordless pulse of will, he launched it upward.

The fire bullet streaked through the gloom, leaving a spiral of violet-edged flame in its wake.

It struck the ceiling with a detonating roar, a bloom of black light that split rock like paper.

Stone shrieked, and the world came down.

Shards the size of carriages tore free, crashing into the tide of corrupted beasts.

The closest monsters couldn't even scream as they were erased, crushed beneath tons of falling stone.

Dust exploded outward in a choking storm, masking everything in a gray-violet haze.

"Go!" Raven barked, already moving.

He leapt for the nearest jagged wall, claws of void-fire igniting along his fingers.

His body blurred upward, seizing one shattered ledge after another, and the others didn't wait for orders, following close behind him.

Selena's coat snapped like a black flag as she shot after him on a column of necrotic wind.

Clara used a burst of sound to catapult herself upward, the vibration a muted boom inside her own silence barrier.

Siris vaulted dagger to dagger, each blade freezing into the rock to give her another launch point.

Jake melted into shadow, reappearing higher with every flicker.

Graye bounded in Raven's wake, armor sparking against stone, laughter cutting through the dust.

Jessy ricocheted like a manic pinball, flipping from spur to spur with an acrobat's grace.

Rufus clung to a glowing light-thread he spun from his own palms, cursing softly but climbing fast.

Alex wrapped an arm around Nibbles, lava-symbiote flaring as he launched the pair upward in molten bursts.

Even the panther and its silver-streaked parent carved their own path, claws ripping into stone as if it were soft clay.

Below, the twelve level-ten titans threw back their heads and roared as one.

Their gathered breath—violet fire, black lightning, molten bile—dissipated into frustrated thunder.

Their prey was escaping.

Worse, some of the lesser beasts had been lost to the falling debris when they would've been much more useful alive.

After all, those beasts were nutritious for their lord, who had yet to awaken.

The titans' fury became a single, bone-rattling bellow.

The horde echoed them, a thousand throats vibrating the cavern until stalactites rained like spears.

But then, they saw movements.

From the center of the crater, where the smallest beasts had been thrown as sacrifice, something stirred.

Astral tentacles, translucent and shimmering with a sickly cosmos-light, uncoiled from the pit.

They slithered across the broken floor with hungry precision, curling around the crushed corpses.

One by one, the dead were dragged into the churning dark, vanishing with wet, echoing snaps.

The twelve titans fell silent.

Their eyes—bleeding red, sun-gold, void-black—brightened with savage relief.

Their roars returned, no longer angry but exultant, a chorus of triumph that shook the cavern to its foundation.

Their lord's revival had quickened.

Far above, Raven and his companions broke through the last fissure into the cold surface air, none of them aware of the awakening below.

The wind outside tasted sharp and thin, a cruel contrast to the heat of the voidfire still smoldering on Raven's claws.

Graye hauled herself onto the ledge beside him, but her eyes were filled with eagerness as she spoke.

"Please tell me that we aren't going to retreat without a fight."

Raven didn't answer.

He stared back into the darkness, where distant roars rolled like the heartbeat of something vast—and very much alive.