Chapter 86: Sovereign, O Sovereign
The air felt still, and the area overall was quieter. My silent gaze, my narrowed expression of my eyes fell upon all four of them. And for once, Cloudjumper’s smirk fell. Koga’s pragmatic expression faltered unto something quite unreadable...and Sultan?
His own broke easily under whatever mock composure he wanted to hide it in.
Instantly, all four of them jumped back. Koga doing so and instantly getting on his knees. Puking and vomiting. Sultan held his mouth, his eyes widened. Cloudjumper, however, was the one who surprisingly looked like she had it all together.
Although, when she raised her arm, and her gauntlet hand, she noticed it. Not just shaking, but trembling. A cold bead of sweat ran down her cheek. She exhaled as if it was the first time she had done so in minutes.
"Wh-what...what was that...?!" Her legs became weak, almost wanted to fold on herself, but I would assume that her dragonkin pride wouldn’t allow that to happen, not to kneel before the superior power that is.
I turned back, it must’ve affected Vaniti too, because she’s not in a great position either. She fell onto her knees panting, breathing shallow. I didn’t mean to, but it’s not like I had a choice either. I don’t get to pick and choose who gets affected or not.
I could’ve possibly told her to move out of the way before I had done so, but there wasn’t any discreet way to do it. To be vocal in front of them, they would’ve steered clear of me as well. I turn back, not moving, my eyes still narrowed as ever.
Cloudjumper can’t even get herself to look at me before feeling some type of fear, some type of nerve within her body telling her to move.
That’s...the thing. When the superior dragon is crowned the "Natural Predator", every single brain cell and nerve within your body will respond with "I’m Prey" instead. And that’s exactly what happened.
That’s why everyone jumped back when they did.
Their fight-or-flight senses kicked in.
And they all chose flight.
"It felt...it felt so close. It felt like I was close to..." Koga spoke, wiping his mouth. His own hands trembling, not even allowing him to balance himself.
I complete his sentence instead, "...death?"
All of them looked at me, and from behind me, I could hear it. A faintest whisper.
"Ryuuzen...?"
It came from Vaniti, but I did not turn. Not while I’m still focused on those three.
"What you all experienced was nothing short of the presence of a Dark Dragonoid," I begin.
"At the remarkable Alpha stage, we can exclude our presence, our direct essence outwards. Making all those who are weaker than us, submit."
I point my finger at all three of them, "And in this case. As a Dark Dragonoid, you came close to my direct essence in it’s most physical state."
Koga lashed outwards, "But...it-it can’t be! It felt like I was going to die! As if I was knocking right on death’s door!"
Sultan shook his head slowly, "I...I haven’t felt this feeling since that night." He spoke lowly, muttering. Remembering the same feeling again.
Cloudjumper looked right at me, but even she fell onto a single knee. Her gauntlet hand and arm hugging her chest. She breathed slowly, before looking back up at me.
"H-how...this...this can’t be possible."
"But it can," I rebut.
"You never knew such power of this level existed, didn’t you? The difference between an Alpha and a Pre-Alpha Dragon is staggering, Cloudjumper."
Then, I look down at her.
"Don’t think for once you were ever close to my level."
The words land like a sudden weight. Her cocky demeanor, or what was left of it anyway left. The sudden realization hit her in the sense that our two powers were never as close as she made it out to be.
And from there, our eyes didn’t meet again at all.
"You would be a fool to think you equal to the power of a Sovereign at your current strength, it’s laughable, honestly." I add-on, one more statement for good measure. With that, I turn my back and look towards Vaniti.
She’s not handling it any better. If anything, just as bad as Cloudjumper is. It’s a core mechanic within the game. That supposedly, an "Alpha" Dragon is better than it’s prerequisites, and so therefore, would treat itself as if it was...a king of the jungle.
Because of this, your essence through your race and direct breed becomes far known. It’s not a highly good move. Everyone’s [Alpha Essence] varies. My effect is that it only makes those weaker than me feel even more weaker, and also feel as if they had came close to the spirit of death itself.
At that moment, they probably felt the Grim Reaper fondling their hearts. The instant fear and scare your body has when it’s near death cannot be replicated, and so when you are put in a near-death experience, your body will be frightened and overreactive to absurd levels.
That’s what my [Alpha Essenece] had just reenacted through just a simulation. Made them come close to death itself, because, well. Dark Dragons are just evil and scary like that, I suppose.
I made my way over to Vaniti, sending out my tail as she gripped on it. "Breath, just breathe. It’ll go away soon, I promise." I reassure her, and she nods, doing so.
Her legs feel weak, and she’s just as shaky as everyone else. She leans on my shoulder for more support, and because my tail is very long, it wraps around her waist stabilize instead. Shit, maybe it wasn’t a good idea to get Vaniti in the crossfire.
Not to mention she may still be feeling the side effects of King Skeleton the Dungeon boss. Didn’t even get to factor that in before I proc’d [Alpha Essence]. Had I known, or fully realized it, I wouldn’t have done it.
Great thinking, moron.
And now that I think about it, that’s most likely why she didn’t cast any [Spirit Magic] to block against Cloudjumper’s sudden fire explosion, she most likely couldn’t.
She holds her head, a hand going to her temple. Vaniti is known to be durable, dare I say highly more durable than Crimson Dragonkin over there, but something is off about this. Her face slightly contorts as she does.
Would [Soulwarming] help? I don’t even think twice about it, next thing I know, I had my hand placed right atop of her hand. A faint, silver outline coating around my hand as her expression slowly came undone. When she realized, she looked right at me.
"Ryuuzen..." Her words trailing off, most likely not knowing what to say.
"Relax, that should be enough to ease the pain," I say, and she nods...but as I suspected, that...that was something else.
[Soulwarming] allows me to heal to some degree. It’s not the quote unquote "best", but it works when it needs to work. Not only that, but unlike the game, whenever I do use [Soulwarming] I’m able to determine the source of the pain as well with high accuracy.
She wasn’t holding her head because of my [Alpha Essence] she was holding her head of a headache, a potential migraine at that.
It sounds...odd...but if I remember correctly in the lore of Spirit Elves, this could only mean one thing and one thing only.
That Vaniti herself, is about to undergo a severe power transformation some time soon.