บท 40: Setback
Whilst the Fifth and Fourth ministers had been busy preparing and invading the great city, another of the ministers had been supposed to act as a distraction.
The condemned, the Sixth Minister of the Obsidian Queen's court had had a slight problem, which had eventually devolved into the unfortunate encounters with the two silver knights.
Indeed, the wingless dragon had begun his assignment just as planned, finding no difficulties at all, unlike the Wretch Lord, even if ten of those silver knights attacked him all at once, he would be able to take a nap and simply crush them after they exhausted themselves trying to hurt him.
His scales weren't easily pierced, few materials had the ability to put a dent into them and still, it would require great force to actually be able to do so.
Making one wonder what sort of terrific creature had been able to rip both of his wings off and leave the majestic dragon to walk the earth like this.
He had done his best to not decimate all of the hunters after him in one go, following the orders of his queen and letting those fools believe that he was a monster they could eventually wear out and conquer.
Something especially simple to do with his harrowing injuries, dragons came in many forms, any one with more than surface level knowledge would know that not all of the draconic species were equal.
A wyvern had little to do with dragons, no matter how many times people called those two the same name.
Not to mentions the confusing naming conventions, were drakes some sort of lean and smaller wyvern or flightless draconic monsters? The answer was both, because species that fit both of those description were called drakes.
As such, when somewhat knowledgeable heard that a 'dragon' was to be found in the south and that it didn't have wings, they wholly underestimated what they were trying to bite into.
Most of the deaths weren't planned by The Condemned, his frame was just so huge that simply turning around could murderize scores of people, he was insanely huge after all and his tail had thus unknowingly converted many people to pure liquid.
As such, noticing that the sort of people that were out to get him were awfully weaker than him, he decided to retreat further into the wilderness, hiding in the only place that could actually provide cover for the gigantic dragon.
And yet, thankfully the queen had been thoughtful and the south had especially large and wide mountains, the typical kind would be lacking.
The Sixth Minister had never learned to shapeshift, seeing the members of his kind assume the form of the critters below had always repulsed him, seeing them wanting to converse and be on an equal ground with people was nonsensical.
Now... He still thought the same, they could all go die before he would even speak a word to them but in retrospect, he probably should have bothered to learn how to reduce his size, crushing living, breathing beings was no problem but destroying the scenery was another matter.
He settled in between two mountains, waiting for the pursuers to catch up so that they wouldn't give up, he waited for a while for them to go up the immensely obvious trail he had left behind.
But in the end, it wasn't them that found him first.
His tentacle-like beard flowed with the wind, his four eyes looked around with curiosity, the tingle of his beard was unmistakable, something was going to happen.
He stood up to his hind legs, overlooking the area, the light of the now retreating sun seemingly absorbed in his dark red scales.
The Condemned would have squinted if it was physically possible for him to do as he spotted a humanoid figure, it smelled of a human as well but not entirely, there was something else, something that felt draconic but still foreign to the wingless.
An incredibly lean figure, seemingly experiencing intense starvation, which was only exacerbated by their height, they would easily tower over most other humans, although from the point of view of the dragon, it made very little difference.
It was a man, most likely, with long, unkempt dark hair, he had clearly been out in the wilds for a long period of time but lack any facial hair.
The man had a crazed expression as he gazed at the huge dragon, having seen his fair share of dragon worshippers, the minister knew that this wasn't one of them, his madness was due to something else.
"Mighty dragon! Thou art a true delicacy, he says!" the man was actually very far away from the dragon, kilometers upon kilometers but he didn't have to strain his ear at all to distinctively understand the words being spoken.
With this, it was clear that this guy was out of his mind, not because he equated The Condemned to food, he was very big lump of meat after all, but because the dragon could clearly see past the words and see right through this madman.
He wasn't declaring something to him despite looking straight toward him, it seemed more like he was repeating aloud something that he had heard.
But now, who was viewing him as food? Curious, the dragon decided that he should actually converse with a person, after all, if this guy truly knew of something that could hunt a dragon, it would make for a great addition to the queen's army, even a new minister perhaps.
The dragon took a few steps, which were surprisingly light and got right in front of the crazy man, his snout centimeters away from him, the slightest of exhales coming from his nose pushing the man back as if struggling against a tornado.
"Who is he?" he went straight to the point with little elaboration but he and the crazy man were on the same page it seemed.
"The one that feeds on its kind! The one that is at the root of insanity!" he was very elated about speaking about this guy but only spew vague nonsense.
"Name? Species?" the dragon raised one of its front legs, threatening to crush the man flat.
"Name? Must not be said! Not able to! A dragon! The Cannibal Dragon!" after those few words, the man was overtaken by a sudden laughing fit, to the point that he started suffocation and convulsing right there and then.
Without mercy, the minister poked the tiny creature with a single claws, leaving nothing but a hole with a red sludge at the bottom.
This was then that The Condemned had been forced to stop doing his duty, resulting in a certain group to give up and two of the silver knights to decide to visit some relative in Rova as they would travel close to the city.
Looking at the substance rising from the flattened remains, only two words came to mind, ironic words coming from a direct subordinate of the Obsidian Queen.
'A monster!'
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