Chapter 334: 1.2
I'd just have to get really angry before the fight. I'd done that before. The queen spider had almost killed my bonded so it shouldn't be too much of a problem to rile myself up. I felt the gazes of multiple people on me as I sat in the corner. I'd dug my talons in deep this time.
Gouging out a large chunk of pavement in the agitation just thinking about that damn spider brought me. I stood up slowly with a slight stretch. Same way a cat might when they were pretending not to care. I strode out of the warehouse casually. Extending my wing as an invitation for Ethan.
They were still confirming their parts of the plan among each other, and I'd been doing a lot of work as translator lately so I knew more of the plan then I cared to. I'd had to run through it multiple times in the last few days as I helped the lizardmen, and the guild leader plan out their offensive. It was a good thing that the lead lizardman was trying to learn how to speak the human language. He hadn't learned enough to do much talking, but his understanding had gone up by leaps, and bounds. He was starting to grasp what certain phrases meant, and he'd taken to repeating some of the things the guild leader said.
He was trying hard to learn the human language, and he was doing a good job of it. I would have let Aurora translate, but I didn't like the sound of this priestess character. The lizardman insisted more then once that I should go meet her. That she really wanted to meet me. Ethan took my offered wing.
I lifted him up onto my back easily. It was my turn to go relieve some tension, and Ethan seemed more tense then usual as well. He knew what the two of us planned to do while we were out. The bag on his hip just confirmed that Ethan was ready, and willing to advance his bond. The others wouldn't know until we got back.
I was a bit worried about what would happen to Ethan when we did this since it wasn't like the other advancements. This one required blood, and beast cores. He would have to drink the blood after it was energized by the cores. This worried me. Ethan paid more attention to the bond then the others so he'd been the first one to notice this worry.
My wings twitched as I walked through the gates with Ethan resting easy in the saddle. No one suspected a thing. None of them knew we were going to be doing something potentially dangerous. More dangerous for Ethan than me, but Ethan insisted. He didn't have magic, and his ability didn't give him an edge over the others like it used to.
My tail was still, and didn't flick like it usually did when I was nervous. A strange confidence filled me. The part of me that was worried about this was buried under the feeling that Ethan could handle this. My confidence in his strength was bolstered for some reason. Some sort of instinct.
We slaughtered every spider within my line of sight until we got far enough away from the wall that even I couldn't see it. I slapped my tail on the ground. Hard enough to cut a line in the soil nearly a foot deep. Ethan brought out a metal coffee cup to hold the blood as I arranged the cores around a small pool of water I'd created. Placing the cup in the middle where it could float on the water.
Freezing it in place at the center with my ice ability before cutting my finger, and allowing my blood to fill the cup about half full. It took less then a minute for me to carve the runic circle into the soil around the water, and placing the cores at the points of what looked like two overlapping stars. Using ice to connect all the lines so that they made it all the way to the center. A drop of my blood on each of the cores, and the process began. The over lapping stars acted as guides.
Drawing the power of the cores to the blood in the center. I understood the need for water as the blood began to boil threateningly. Bubbling so high that it threatened to pour out the top of the cup. I forced myself to remain deathly still, and calm as the spell worked its magic. Ethan looked more nervous now.
No. Not nervous. He was excited. He wanted his bond to advance so badly that not being able to advance had become a source of stress for him. Now that advancement was right in front of him he wanted to snatch it up, and get it over with.
The boiling slowly settled as the ten cores turned to dust, and all that was left behind was a blue liquid. Filling the cup about three quarters of the way. The remains of the circle had left thick burn marks on the ground. I picked up the cup gingerly. Stopping Ethan from taking it while it cooled.
The description that popped up when I used my appraisal skill on it told me the liquid wouldn't go bad for another four hours so I could hold Ethan off for a little while as it slowly cooled. Unless it got dumped it would be fine for a while longer. Supposedly it would have a rejuvenating effect on Ethan, and he would transcend human limits. Being refined, and strengthened by the blood of a dragon. My blood being the most effective since he was one of my bonded.
The process would be painful though. That was the part that worried me. Ethan's excitement tempered my worry to a dull thought at the back of my mind. I wouldn't ignore it though. I refused to completely ignore the worry of what would happen to him when I finally allowed him to drink it.
"Are you ever going to hand that over?" Ethan frowned.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone