Chapter 63: Fear Wounds What Strength Cannot
Silas blinked. Only then did he realise he had overlooked that detail entirely, thanks to the dragon. The distress signal had been the reason they came here in the first place.
He swept his gaze across the battlefield, searching for academy uniforms among the defenders or for any surviving students nearby.
"Perhaps they’re dead," he said quietly.
"Or perhaps they’re inside the shield."
Cher gestured toward the hundreds of Enhancers defending the outpost.
"There," all of a sudden, she pointed towards a spot inside the shield, close to the Rune Heart, "a few academy uniforms are there."
They were far enough not to see the faces clearly, but Silas finally spotted the familiar Frontier uniforms amidst the chaos inside. There were at least four of them, and he couldn’t tell if the rest were dead, had run away, or were mixed in the lots of people in there.
"We can forget about gaining more merit points now."
To gain extra merit points by helping other teams, the team leader needed to shake hands with one of the surviving team members after rescuing them. The handshake would trigger something in their wristwatches, which would register the merit points and deliver them to the academy.
"Do you know who those people are? They definitely don’t belong to our academy."
Silas coughed. At that point, he knew remaining silent was far wiser than attempting another lie.
"How about we retreat and discuss that later?"
Silas narrowed his eyes as he studied the dragon. The terrifying creature did not seem interested in destroying the outpost or slaughtering the humans hiding behind its defences. Instead, it looked as though it was simply toying with them.
Just as he said his words, the dragon suddenly descended, transformed into humanoid form, before unleashing a similar attack like the one it used and crushed the rocky wall over its head. Yet this time, it controlled its strength and only unleashed enough to crack the shield and not totally smash it.
Yet it didn’t stay longer in that form, as it felt like, without scales, the torrent of abilities coming from inside the shield posed a threat to it. So it turned to its massive draconic form again, took flight and repeated the play.
"This level of battle is way above our pay grade."
His quiet remark was difficult to argue with.
Cher knew how terrifying a dragon was. More importantly, she knew how impossible it was to survive an encounter with one. Yet Silas had somehow done exactly that.
For a brief moment, temptation stirred within her. If someone her age could face such a creature and live, perhaps she could do the same. Before she could dwell on the thought any longer, however, something totally unexpected happened.
As Silas continued watching the dragon prepare another attack, a familiar voice echoed inside his mind, totally shaking him from deep within.
[Collect a dragon blood droplet!]
[Trust your companions!]
Silas froze.
It was Gaia’s voice. It was a Gaia Calling. After many weeks of not hearing the voice he heard when he became an Enhancer, Gaia picked this moment to show up and talk to him.
His gaze lingered on the distant dragon as shock spread across his face, causing him to miss the identical reaction appearing on Cher’s.
She had received a Calling as well.
[Collect a dragon blood droplet!]
[Fear wounds what strength cannot!]
Cher stared blankly ahead.
The first instruction was reckless, but understandable. A single drop of dragon blood possessed immeasurable value to any Enhancer. She perfectly knew that.
Yet, the second was far more puzzling.
Throughout history, countless records had documented methods of wounding or killing dragons, especially among the surviving accounts from the fall of the Ashbornes. Yet she had never encountered anything suggesting that fear itself could harm a dragon.
More importantly, she had no idea how she was supposed to use fear as a weapon. Still lost in thought, she finally noticed Silas. The expression on his face was familiar. It was the look of a man confronted with a deadly puzzle he was determined to solve.
"Did you receive a Gaia Calling too?"
The question left her mouth the moment the suspicion formed. Silas, instantly, looked at her in surprise, confirming her guess immediately.
But Cher hesitated.
For a Lisan Al-Gaia, sharing a Gaia Calling with another person bordered on sacrilege. Many considered such messages sacred gifts from Gaia herself.
Yet the odds of both of them receiving Callings at the same moment, centred around the same dragon, were too small to ignore.
Taking a deep breath, she said:
"My Calling told me to collect a blood droplet from that dragon."
Silas blinked.
"That’s exactly what I received."
The realisation struck him immediately. Until now, he had focused entirely on the first part of his Calling and almost ignored the second.
’Trust your companions.’
’More specifically, it tells me to trust Cher.’
Under normal circumstances, that instruction would have made little sense. They had fought together long enough to trust one another already. Unless Gaia was referring to something more specific.
’Don’t tell me she wants us to work together on this... As if this wasn’t something basic to do.’
The thought only deepened his confusion.
"My Calling had another part," he said. "It told me to trust you."
"Me?!"
The disbelief in her voice was impossible to miss, making Silas roll his eyes.
"It’s not like I don’t trust you already."
Cher immediately looked away. For some reason, hearing those words made her heart palpitate. Trying to hide her embarrassment, she cleared her throat.
"I also received a second instruction."
She still refused to meet his eyes.
"It said that fear wounds what strength cannot. Honestly, it doesn’t make any sense. Not like yours, at least."
Silas did not answer. And silence stretched long enough for the situation to become awkward. Eventually, Cher glanced at him and found him deep in thought. She, wrongly, assumed he was still trying to figure out how they were supposed to obtain a drop of dragon blood.
’Will I have to tell him my biggest secret?’
Her gaze lingered on him. For a fleeting moment, she found herself considering doing it.
’He doesn’t seem that bad... Perhaps I should let him...’
Before the thought could develop further, Silas suddenly raised his head. There was determination in his eyes. He had finally figured something out and looked adamant about doing it.
The revelation, however, had nothing to do with collecting dragon blood. Instead, it concerned the second part of Cher’s Calling. The moment he heard her words, something had clicked in his mind.
’Fear wounds what strength cannot... How come I never thought about that before?!’
For reasons he could fully understand, the message felt less connected to Cher than it did to him.
"I know this is going to sound crazy," he said slowly.
"But I need to find a bathtub. Urgently."
Cher stared at him. Then she stared a little longer. The look on her face was identical to someone discovering that her companion had suddenly lost his mind.
"If you’re worried about dying with a dirty body, don’t bother."
She paused.
"You smell fine."
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