Adventures of the last Wild Dragon

Chapter 314: Back in the Forest

With the conclusion of the battle for Fort Dolton successfully won by the dragons it was time to prepare to enter back into the Endless Forest.

It had been some time since both Violet and Luna were forcibly teleported into the human flatlands, it had been an interesting adventure. Full of both high points and some low points.

Yet finally the two companions were reentering the true wilds one again. This time however, they were not alone.

At their backs came 16 dragons, 1 Lord and 15 tier 3’s, alongside them 30 former slaves, beastkin all were with them. It was a large party and they would be traversing dangerous territory, yet it was also the fastest way for them to reach Syan whilst avoiding the bulk of the human army that was venturing into the Endless Forest.

That fact was a concern for the companions, they had naturally heard all about that expedition. Or as it was called in the kingdom a expedition to bring civilisation back to the wilds. Violet shook her head at the arrogance of that statement, still she couldn’t help worry about exactly how far the human army had advanced.

They had heard rumors that the army had already located and battled against a city. Their was no word on what that city was or how the battle had turned out.

Yet Violet was not optimistic on that city’s chance of survival. Not when they were the first of the Forest cities to have been attacked.

Still that was something that Violet would undoubtedly learn about all too soon.

For now though their group would camp out on the edge of the forest. No need to venture into the true wilds during the night time when the most dangerous of beasts would be prowling for prey.

So the dragons soon left the ruins of the fort behind and quickly flew some distance away to where they had left the former slaves.

Some of them had wanted to join the dragons in the assult, but Violet had refused their aid as she wanted to test the dragons. The now refugees would have ample opportunity to test themselves in the coming days.

Soon enough the flight of dragons came upon a lone wooden hut with a few beastkin sitting around outside of it in an impromptu camp.

Violet and Luna had, with some reluctance, had allowed the more elderly and infirm former slaves to commandeer the use of the hut during their travels when they stopped for the night.

Meanwhile the dragons and the stronger beastkin had camped outside and held a perimeter check.

This night would be no different.

When the arrived they received cheers from those few beastkin outside, the enlightened and beasts reunited and began discussing the battle that had occoured.

As a note, after reaching tier 3 all of the dragons had gained the Telepathy skill. As such they had begun to talk back to the beastkin that had looked after them since birth.

Whilst no companion bonds had been formed just yet, both Violet and Luna were quite sure that at least a couple would begin to form in the coming days.

One of the ones that was sure to form was between the strongest of the beastkin, a young man named Javik. He was a wolfkin with midnight black fur and a lean fighters build.

He had formed a fast friendship with one of the more reserved dragons of the flight. One of the youngest and technically weakest dragons that had only just reached tier 3 before the battle at the fort. This dragon was a female with bright golden scales, she was called Dawn, quite a fitting name for her brilliant colouratio, she also held a natural affinity to fire as opposed to Javiks quite rare affinity to Mist.

It was quite the interesting speciality, it enabled him to summon and manipulate mist, he even believe that at higher levels she would be able to turn entirely into mist. Whilst not great for offensive attacks, it was great for both stealth and utility.

Javik had been the one to look after Dawn since her hatching, they had learnt to rely on one another and Javik had even saved the young golds life during the eventful battle at the Sonantis dragon farm.

So whilst they had not yet formed a true bond, our companions believed that it was only a matter of time before they did so.

The evening swiftly turned into true night. A large camp fire burnt with large skewers of meat sizzling away above it. The atmosphere was subdued yet excited.

Excited to finally be leaving behind the borders of the kingdom that had wronged them so much, yet subdued due to the danger that awaited them inside of the forest.

For whilst they did have three powerful Lords to protect them, inside the forest an untold number of lords were ready and waiting to slaughter any that dared trespass into their territory.

Plus Violet and Luna held no intention of hiding their presence as they traversed through the forest. Fully intending t challenge any and every beast that they came across. And whilst the refugees didn’t know this fact, they did understand that their would be a lot of battles in the coming days.

The reason for our companions choice in not hiding their presence was quite simple. They wanted, no needed to be more powerful.

They knew that if they ever wanted to become a true threat against the kingdom they would need the power of being sovereigns. Likely they would need to be a step above that as Supreme’s or tier 6.

Yet tier 6 was simply too far away for them to even begin to understand how powerful an individual was at that level. As the tiers increased the difference between tiers only grew.

A tier 1 could quite easily kill a tier 2 that wasn’t taking a battle seriously. However, a tier 4 like Violet or Luna, even when at the peak of the tier, they would need to fight with everything on the line to be able to defeat any tier 5.

Whilst they had technically already killed two tier 5’s, that was not through only their own might. Both times they had only joined in right at the end, after a friendly tier 5 had already dealt significant damage to the opponent and was able to counter and surprise the opponents domain to a certain extent.

As they stood right now, either of the girls were confident in their ability to defeat a tier 5, even when fighting it together. They were sure in their ability to survive such an encounter and even to be able to flee, yet they held no delusion that they would be able to defeat one unless things went extremely well for them, or they just hard countered the opponents abilities.

Still that was purely theoretical, and hopefully they would not need to test that particular theory any time soon. For now they had good to eat and sleep to be had before they ventured into the wilds in the morning.

The night swiftly passed. Both Violet and Luna opting to spend some time actually sleeping so that they were in fighting shape come morning.

With that said the morning did soon arrive, a hearty breakfast was had and the hut was soon safely stored away in Violet’s storage ring. Then the group advanced into the forest.

They opted to walk in, knowing that flying through or above the forest was a recipe for disaster. Whilst Violet and Andrea could fly over the trees with no issue, the young dragons would be at serious risk to any flying beasts. Obviously the older dragons would try to help but if a full swarm of tier 4’s attacked them it could be disastrous.

At least on the ground it would be slightly easier to control the battleground and direction that any beasts may come from.

With that in mind Luna also transformed into her beast form, choosing the larger size to better be able to battle against the Lord level beasts that tended to be on the larger size when compared to lower tier beasts.

As they first walked into the Endless Forest the entire atmosphere changed.

The first thing that our companions noticed was the step up in ambient mana levels. It was reminiscent of the deeper portions of the ocean that they had visited, where tier 4 beasts could thrive.

In fact it actually felt quite delightful to the present Lords, they felt like they could finally take a deep breath after being staved of oxygen for so long.

They only then truly understood why stronger beasts refused to live in area of lower mana density, doing so, whilst not impossible was just fundamentally uncomfortable. Whereas in areas of dense mana that better suited them, was like coming home, it was relaxing and reassuring, comforting on a fundamental level.

But that was only the first of the things that they noticed. The second was that they instantly felt the presences of no less than 6 Beast Lords instantly lock onto their own fully exposed presences.

The two companions shared a wry smile as they quickly moved in front of the group and signaled for the rest to stay some distance back. Andrea would be in charge of looking after the main group whilst Violet and Luna dealt with any truly powerful foes.

And within mere moments of reentering the Endless Forest it seemed like they would not have to wait long before they had their first few fights.