Chapter 20: Wartorn Skies

It had been a day or so since they defeated the Emerald Tyrant, and they were coming up on the Capitol once again. The beautiful city of gold and ivory, and they were returning to it once again. They nodded at the guards at the gate, as they typically did before entering the city without being stopped. A voice rang out, a loud yell from the other side of the main road.

"WAIT, VALKYR. COME ON. I DIDN'T MEAN IT LIKE THAT!"

"Is that?.."

Amani asked, ears twitching, before Iskatl tilted his head. He ran over to where the voice came from at his maximum speed.

"Kouga?!"

"Huh? Iskatl?!"

"KOUGA!"

Kouga was dressed from head to toe in thick metal armor, so none of his features were shown, but his voice was unmistakable. The armor also had various wolf motifs along the chestplate and on the pauldrons with a wolf-shaped helmet, so that was also a dead giveaway.

The two quite literally ran at each other and tackled one another at the same time, headbutting each other. The thick helmet slammed into Iskatl's head and caused him to fall flat on his back.

"Come on! Get up!"

Kouga easily helped Iskatl to his feet and laughed loudly before the woman he was shouting to from the other side of town approached slowly; it was that girl from before whom they had encountered in the adventurer's guild. Before, her presence was unsettling, but now it seems normal—well, as normal as it could get. She giggled as she looked at the two boys before she spoke. It felt as if she were looking directly through them and not at them.

"Kouga, dear? Is this a friend of yours?"

Kouga's tail wagged as he stood to the side and presented Iskatl, like a servant announcing their lord. He had a wide grin on his face below his helmet, which was evident based on his tone alone.

"This is Iskatl! My best friend from the tribe! He's why I'm here, the guy I told you about! Come on, Valkyr, come on, come on! We should form a party together!"

Valkyr folded her arms and raised an eyebrow as she looked Iskatl up and down before her eyes shone; she was using extrasensation on him. Amani came over after and smiled.

"Kouga! And... you."

Iskatl patted Amani on the head before looking back to Valkyr and blinking twice.

"Very well, then. We'll take a dragon-slaying quest, and you two will prove yourselves. If you impress me, we will form a permanent party. For now, we'll form a temporary one with a name of my choosing."

Iskatl turned to Kouga, looked at him, and then Kouga nodded eagerly before Iskatl sighed.

"Alright then, Lady Valkyr. I'll play your game. What would you have the name be?"

"Wartorn Skies. It's the name of a book from my childhood, about a band of pirates who fought with dragons. I thought it fitting, since we all hunt dragons and the like."

Amani nodded before offering a hand to Valkyr, which she looked at before walking away toward the Guildhall. Blinking twice, Amani looked to Iskatl before he shrugged his shoulders.

He then offered his own hand to Amani before she smiled and took it, interlocking fingers with his, and they'd look to—Kouga's gone. So fast. He probably followed Valkyr immediately. Going to the Guildhall, they saw the pair at the counter, a quest poster already being handed to the attendant, as well as another paper labeled "Party Formation."

"Hurry up, I haven't got all day. You lot travel slow, don't you?"

Iskatl said nothing and just looked to Amani, letting go of her hand before sighing.

"Can you not be so rude?"

"Tch. Quiet. Come here."

She left the Guildhall and expected them to follow suit. They did, and she waved her cloak, and before they knew it, they were on a plateau a ways away from the city, exactly where the quest was. Iskatl looked around, almost in shock. Such high-level magic with the wave of her hand?

There it was, a black dragon. It wasn't very old; Iskatl was able to tell that by now.

"Hey, boy. Call out to me; Incinerate Shamash! This one is significantly more sustainable than before."

"Mana drain estimation: 0.0000001% per second. The Blade speaks true. Grace awakening grants one a significant mana increase, and the Arcane Seal definitely helped that."

Sighing, Iskatl shook his head before holding the blade in front of him.

"Incinerate Shamash!"

As he said this, his blade blazed alight and grew slightly larger than before. He looked to Amani, who nodded, the black dragon flying high in the sky before she shot a powerful moonbeam at it to hit it out of the sky. Her projectile rang true, and the dragon fell from the sky viciously. Iskatl then dashed forward and bisected it completely... He was quite surprised, looking at the dragon and blinking twice. After the Emerald Tyrant, this truly was easy.

Valkyr clapped her hands as she approached before waving her cloak once again, and they were back outside the Guildhall. This made traveling so convenient and quick; Iskatl enjoyed it, and he knew Kouga definitely did as well.

Amani and Valkyr both went to the counter and turned in the quests. Amani told the attendant that the dragon they took out was the Emerald Tyrant, and suddenly all eyes were on her and Valkyr. She blinked twice before gesturing to Iskatl.

"He did most of the work, and dealt the finishing blow though!"

All eyes on Iskatl, who would facepalm before sighing softly. The attendant blinked twice before walking over and holding a book out to Iskatl. Within it were quests to take out Dragon Priests.

"Pick one of your choice, please."

"What?"

"Pick."

He looked through and picked the quest for number five, Myez the Obscure.

"Right. She's somewhere in Thulvane. You'll be going there right away, with your party."

"Why?"

"I said so, hun."