The Prince of Demons

Lux

Our trek towards Elijiah continued, as Ikol and I were at long last leaving the forest that touched Hoggdin's mountain range. <Cartographic Projection> and <Waypoint Compass> gave little sense of how much distance we had to cover which was unfortunate. Times like these I miss that <Magic> nerd because his sense of distance and time were impeccable. My attempts to fuse the two <Spells> had been unsuccessful so far; I had hoped I could combine them to be able to judge how far we covered. We maintained a steady pace across the land, not wanting to move near our top speeds. Speaking of moving fast, I mulled over Miril's hint on how to move at light speed. I don't get how to move through my <Mana>. I had no idea how her hint was meant to be any help in solving the mystery of moving fast enough to start making the color dilute from the world around us. Would it have killed her to give a more helpful hint? It might have; there was a chance once Miril was nice the shock of it would kill her. Ikol was sticking close to my side, trotting along next to me happily humming a little travel tune.

We just needed a nice spot to sleep each night, preferably covered, with a sturdy object for Ikol to lean against. It was one of the few things I took care of as I could move much faster than him when it came time to look for shelter at night; Lords forbid we slept out in the open. I imagined in Ikol's mind that the open sky somehow posed a threat. I want to ask what, but then I might be stuck listening to it for hours. Ikol also couldn't sleep unless at least our tails were touching because he would be too scared to fall asleep. Also, we had to be careful if it was thundering because what if it began storming and we got wet? You know, for someone from Phestia, he's oddly sheltered. Miril clearly shielded him at least a bit; Ikol was useful for getting food though. It saves me the effort of having to catch it for myself. I was enjoying being able to tell him what to do without one of the adults lecturing me on how I shouldn't boss Ikol around. The muscle head does have his uses, and he listens to orders well. That was the part of the <Journey> I was enjoying the most, being in charge while not having to worry about one of the adults giving me grief for making a few requests of Ikol.

"Chef! Look! Plains!" Ikol chimed excitedly as we got even closer to the edge. He still couldn't remember to call me Lux half the time though. We'll work on it, slowly.

"Yes Ikol, we are finally getting out of the forest." I agreed as Ikol did happy little hops around me.

"Do you think we can start running faster?" Ikol inquired. I mean, our pace had been steady, not fast.

"We are making sure we have time to hunt and find shelter each day. We can't tire ourselves moving at our full speed." I informed him yet again. We only did our full speed between lunch and dinner so far.

"But it's so flat. And open." Ikol observed as he kind of shot his head forward and back to emphasize the flat part.

"What if we can't find a meal? We are not in a hurry." I retorted. Ikol mulled it over.

"Rumma rumma would be bad." Ikol agreed after a solid ten seconds of thinking. I fought the urge to sigh as I knew what he meant.

"Also, when we do run we'll be able to cover more distance as we're not moving around the forest floor." I pointed out which made Ikol do another happy hop.

"Chef is so smart!" Ikol cheered. Hmmmm. I'll take the blind worship; I can overlook the use of Chef.

We kept moving forward, having finally reached the plains. I wonder how far Elijiah's territory is from here. Given we were barely out of the forest I imagined we had a lot of distance to cover; it was noticeably getting warmer than where we started now. Unlike by the mountains where the fields were a gold color, the grass was a bright azure color here. The scent was a tad sweeter as a rolling breeze swept across the plains, making the grass move in a way that resembled waves. The two of us continued our trek, walking into the plains where the rolling fields were up to my shoulders. Luckily, the sky was nice and clear, making a bright sunny day to walk through the plains. Were these the Synbca Plains? Did we somehow miss that incredibly hard to pronounce mountain? I checked the <Cartographic Projection>, seeing we were in some gray zone between the King territories that Miril marked. I guess a neutral zone, or at least the territory of not a King? What was the proper term for a place like this? Ikol might know, though I had my doubts on if he would remember what it was. I wondered what we could encounter in this gray area between King territories; the territories held by a King utterly dwarfed the gray zones which was not surprising. I mean who would want to compete with one of the Kings for territory? I imagined there might be a few beings willing to fight one as they barely weren't Kings.

As the two of us were traveling into the plains, there was a roar from some kind of dragon that clearly was nowhere near the size of Hoggdin in the vicinity. I wonder what that's about. It sounded close to us, but probably was not meant for us by how far off it sounded. Ikol and I paid it no mind as we continued to trek across the plains and admiring the new terrain we were walking through. Now that I'm thinking about it, what are we going to do for food on the plains? I was not that familiar with plains, was Ikol? Hopefully he was familiar with what we needed to hunt here to actually eat. Miril showed him, right? I did a bit of a scan around as we walked, just seeing what was here. There were very few trees, let alone something to not be sleeping in the open. Ikol is not going to be a fan of that, but it should be fine, right? There were numerous little things that might make Ikol a headache to deal with when it came time to sleep. Maybe I was worrying over nothing; maybe these were concerns that were valid.

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I looked around the plains while we continued forward, trying to gauge what was around us for shelter or food. What was there to eat out here? I didn't see any wildlife or birds at the moment. We are likely going to be eating things like voles. As for shelter, the sparse trees were looking like our only options outside of making a burrow of some sort. I was not sleeping in dirt, so under the tree or sky was going to win out. Hopefully the weather remained nice and clear until we were out of the plains. Maybe Ikol had a point about hurrying through them. Which was worse, going hungry for a day or so or dealing with Ikol sleeping in the relative open? It seemed ill advised to start running without knowing our food situation first though. We needed a plan before we enjoyed the ability to sprint virtually unimpeded. Please not be a long stretch through these plains. My hopes were being kept tempered until I had better information to go off of.

From my scanning around I saw a crimson-colored dragon flying towards Ikol and me. Was this thing picking a fight with us? The dragon that was nowhere near the size of Hoggdin barreled towards us, being maybe a quarter of Hoggdin's more casual length and possessed nowhere near the muscle Hoggdin possessed. The horns on this dragon were far less imposing than the ones that Hoggdin possessed as well. I am not entirely sure how fair it is to compare a dragon to Hoggdin as he is the current Sovereign.
It landed in front of us, looking annoyed that we were walking in the plains. This dragon is undeniably looking for a fight; I recognize that expression anywhere. For now, avoiding fighting was likely the smarter move as it may have had friends nearby nor did Ikol and I have a food plan. I also just didn't want to waste the time as the dragon seemed fairly weak. I might be too used to Miril or Hoggdin who just radiate might. What was the rule again? Beings that had been on their <Journey> were not allowed to interfere with us? Miril basically confirmed a King would come execute anyone who broke that rule, or at least would come and thrash them within an inch of their lives.

"We are passing through on our <Journey>." I informed the dragon politely.

"So am I." the dragon replied with a toothy smile. Well. That made this technically fair, I guess.

"Noted." I replied as I went to keep walking with Ikol.

"I never said you could go by, fox." the dragon snapped at us. Fox? It really wanted to fight to call me that.

Ikol, alla alla. I told him mentally. He sat down and just looked at the dragon.

"Are you laying down?!" the dragon snarled, as he interpreted the action as insultingly as I had hoped.

"I dislike being challenged by weaklings, so I told my friend here to wait a minute for me." I taunted the dragon. I'm confident I can take you after the lessons I've endured from that bezka Miril.

"Weakling?! I am n-" the dragon began to roar as I struck.

I immediately coated my claws with <Light Magic> before the dragon began prattling on, carving massive chunks out of the dragon's chest. It leapt back in shock while its wounds already began healing. That's a potent ability to heal. I dashed after the dragon, engaging the thorn halo as I instantly closed the gap on him. No room to breathe. The dragon attempted to take flight, but I used <Light Blade> to stab the dragon so I had a point to keep a grip by as it left the ground. I pivoted my body while augmenting my tails, spearing the dragon in several places as I sank my teeth into his shoulder. He howled in pain, attempting to recover his balance while attacking me. I augmented my body as I rotated to slam him into the ground to prevent him from flying away. Back to the ground you go, you winged lizard. Several things crunched from the impact while the ground shook. The dragon clearly realized the mistake of challenging us by this point as I kicked off the air to dive bomb him even harder into the ground. Before he recovered, I used my paws to grip a <Light Blade> more akin to a rod and just beat his skull back and forth a few times. Thwack! Thwack! This is kind of fun. I kept swinging a few more times to make sure the dragon was as damaged as possible.

"I surrender!" the dragon cried out as I was pummeling him.

"Why should I spare you? You chose this fight, and ooku ooku." I asked as I temporarily stopped attacking. Ikol shot up, hopped over, and kept his eyes on the dragon.

"I made a mistake!" the dragon groveled, clearly in quite a bit of pain. I guess Miril's lessons paid off.

"I tried being peaceful, but you insisted for a fight. You even called me a fox; I'm not sure you have sufficiently learned your lesson." I taunted the dragon, slowly leaning my <Light Blade> under his chin.

"What do you want?!" the dragon inquired as he realized he was not in a good negotiating position.

"My friend and I are going to Elijiah first. You flying us there would save us a lot of effort." I answered with a smile. Dragon carriage service.

"Fine. How long?" the dragon conceded in a bitter tone.

"I think you should be talking to me in a nicer tone as I didn't just barely win. I think until I feel the insult has been sufficiently repaid you're going to transport us." I answered the dragon. He nearly protested, but I pressed the <Light Blade> a bit more.

"Yes ma'am." He sighed. The dragon looks so infuriated at the moment. I am starting to see why Miril enjoys being such a bezka.

"And if you think of trying something like fleeing or sneak attacking either of us, I will take permanent action, so it doesn't happen twice." I threatened him with my best smile.

"Yes boss." The dragon replied, looking irritated. I'm starting to really like Phestia.

"That is yes Chef!" Ikol corrected him. I swat Ikol before that stuck. Idiot.