章 103: Hook, Line, and Dragon

A few hours pass and Michael was now overlooking a granary that sat next to a large farm from a nearby treeline. Many people were working the fields, making it difficult for Michael to sneak around without being spotted. Fortunately, Shadow Dance made it exceptionally easy to tell whether or not he was at risk or not.

Shadow Dance was only active if he wasn't being observed, meaning it'd deactivate if anyone saw him. There were times that the ability would flicker, meaning someone was looking in his direction, making Michael far more aware of his surroundings than he'd otherwise be.

He'd already located four granaries, around the city, but he suspected there were far more than just that. These were probably the ones placed near the farms for easy storage. The larger ones would probably be nearer to the town, but it wasn't really possible for Michael to find those for obvious reasons.

Another couple of hours pass and Michael locates five more granaries on the outskirts, making it a total of eleven he'd have to deal with. He'd have to deal with any others he found tonight, for now he'd get back to the cave and tell Tiffania about what he'd found... Or at least, that was the plan.

As Michael was halfway to the cave, the flapping of wings announced the presence of dragon above him. A ripple travels through the air, and Michael feels Shadow Dance deactivate as the Dragons above him let out roars. "A detection spell!?" he mutters, wondering if such a thing was common in this world... If it was, it'd make Cloak and Dagger far less effective!

He dives to the side as a dragon smashes through the canopy above him, destroying a couple trees as it lands on the ground nearby, growling at him as its rider shouts for his comrades to follow. He'd made one big mistake, however... Charging in first, alone.

"Blink." Michael whispers as he draws his dagger, causing him to vanish into black particles before the dragon rider's eyes.

"Wha!?-HIGHK!" the man screams as Michael appears behind him and jams his dagger into the man's unprotected neck. He was wearing plate armour, but it mattered little when there was such a glaring weak point

Michael feels the dragon he was standing on rear back in a rage at feeling its partner die, throwing him off of it just as the other two dragon riders descend into the clearing, wand-swords drawn and glowing, ready to be used. They did seem shocked however to see that their captain had already been slain, one of them shouting out, "CAPTAIN! HOW DARE YOU! YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS!" he shouts, his dragon letting out a roar as well.

Michael wasn't able to pay attention to the new duo however, as he was too busy dealing with the now rampaging dragon attempting to tear him apart.

*SNAP!* *CRUNCH!*

*SNAP!*

The dragon's long neck allows it to bite down on his position with lightning-fast and accurate precision. Michael dodges to the side as its mouth clamps down onto the tree that was behind him, the beast easily biting through it and tearing out a chunk before pursuing him again.

"Shock!" he shouts, blasting a wave of orange lightning into its face as he avoids its next attack, blasting out one of its eyes and dealing incredibly heavy damage to its head. Michael's about to follow that up with a stab of his sword, but is forced to leap away as a whip of water heavily strikes his earlier position.

"STAY STILL AND YOUR DEATH WILL BE SWIFT!" the enraged dragon knight exclaims, erratically waving his wand-sword and casting many spells at Michael.

Michael avoids the water whips and traps, but sweats slightly as the nearby enraged dragon blasts a fire breath in his direction... Luckily, this was in his interest as the flames quickly evaporate the mage's water constructs, obscuring the entire area in a thick layer of steam.

Michael almost lets out a cocky laugh as he hears the dragon knight shout, "BRIMIR-FUCKING DAMN IT! YOU STUPID DRAGON!"

"Yorick! Calm down and remember our trainin-GUHK!" the other dragon knight starts, but is interrupted as Michael uses Pounce and buries his sword through the eye-slit of the guy's helmet. They probably hadn't expected him to be so fast, but with the steam concealing him his Shadow Dance was back up and active, allowing him to cut the distance between him and the knights extremely quickly.

Another rider was dead, but this left him with yet another enraged dragon... Both dragons were now randomly spewing flames in all directions, lighting a significant part of the forest on fire... Michael was actually struggling to avoid the attacks, as the steam also prevented him from seeing what was happening... His hands had gotten badly burnt at one point, but Shadow Dance healed him up fairly quickly.

Fortunately, the remaining dragon knight wasn't all that bright, making his location known with his erratic actions. "Farral?! Where are you!? Farral!?" he shouts for a moment before realising that he was the last one remaining. "YOU ELF LOVING PIECE OF FILTH! I'LL KILL YOU AND THE DEMON YOU PROTECT! I SWEAR IT ON MY LIFE AND COUNTRY! ON MY HONOUR AND FAMILY! ON MY-GHUIIK!"

"All bark and no bite." Michael whispers in the man's ear as he slits his throat, letting his dead body drop from the dragon and onto the forest floor. He doesn't immediately leap from this dragon's back however, instead driving his sword down at its neck, which has relatively thin scales compared to the rest of its body.

*Puchi!*

With some resistance, the blade pierces into the dragon's flesh, managing to nick its spinal cord and cutting off its central nervous system, causing it to flop to the ground unable to move. The dragon continues to let out pitiful roars however, drawing the attention of the other two.