Threat Level "Dragon" (1/2)

Dakka is busy cleaning up the aftermath of his latest massacre - er - BATTLE with the locals. They were tired of him pillaging the land and gorging himself on all the livestock, after all. What? Dragons who just wake up have huge appetites, since they primarily replenish their magic by eating!

While he's eating all the corpses and collecting anything valuable looking, a small crow descends from the sky and fearlessly lands on his nose.

Just when Dakka is about to snort through his nose and scare the bird away, he feels something powerful gather in the bird, and a woman's voice speaks into his mind.

"Dakka… my most faithful servant…," Freyya calls out.

Dakka's tail involuntarily wags for a moment upon hearing her give him such a lofty title.

Anyway, Dakka was so surprised when the goddess speaks to him through the death aura. As far as he knows, only the chosen in their cult can hear the crow goddess' voice. Even more, "the chosen" usually hear her oracle not in person, but more indirectly. The goddess's spirit descends upon a common crow, and she speaks through it.

…Technically, the Crow goddess has an affinity for all scavenger animals, but for obvious reasons, she's biased towards crows.

Anyway, having the most beautiful goddess (in Dakka's opinion) appear before him in person makes the dragon's heart bleed with joy. His heart swells with pride at being the most special of her servants!

Freyya then puts her hands behind her back and says, "I've discovered the location of my sacrifice, Haalfrin. He's…"

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Before Dakka leaves, he spends a little bit of time adjusting his things and making sure they're all kept safe. For things like his gold, he's content to leave it dumped unceremoniously in a hole. He makes sure to leave the diamonds and jewels at the top, since they're prettier.

He then looks down and growls at a pair of frightened mages he keeps locked up in his lair. "I want my painting collection well preserved when I come back. No watermarks, dirt, nothing! If you mess this up, I'll eat you!"

The man and woman bow frantically, "Your will be done, Master Dakka!"

These mages were former court wizards from one of the smaller countries Dakka paid a "friendly visit" to. He decided to kidnap them when he woke up one day and realized his precious "Seasong Bird" painting had a water stain on it.

What? He needed servants to help keep his stuff clean.

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A few hours later, the Brancotte Empire sees a great shadow cross their skies, where Dakka flies high above… but the shadow of the dragon doesn't stop in the empire. Instead, it flies further and further east – far beyond the reaches of the empire and its subordinate kingdoms – even far beyond the coastline marking the edge of the continent.

Dakka is well rested now, and he's just exited hibernation. He's finally been able to fully grow his 4th horn! With his newfound power and favorable circumstances, it'll be easy for him to cross an ocean without resting!

Indeed. Shortly after he finished growing his 3rd horn, he quickly began to grow his 4th as well. This is unprecedented growth for a dragon, but seeing as how he's the Crow goddess's most powerful agent in this world, she's been dumping time and resources into him to make sure he's as fit as possible to kill Haalfrin. The stronger Haalfrin gets, the more resources the goddess gives Dakka.

Either way, he's grown significantly in size and power. He's also well fed now. The 'him' now could squash that petty archmage and his tower like a bug, along with his former 2 horned self.

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After the Warden suddenly fled the Pit, the place was only briefly left without a leader before her second in command took charge. The man hasn't been here long enough to truly remember the horrors this "demon of the pit" can wreck. Not knowing enough to be afraid, he even thinks this is a precious opportunity to claim the Pit for himself!

After all, this man is only a distant relative of the Vanteri Family, and he'd never dream of taking power in any other circumstance.

So, as soon as he moves his things into the Warden's office, he spends the next few days rearranging the management in the Pit and consolidating his power, rather than prepare for an imminent attack…

… an attack by a 4 horned dragon, no less.

So, when a giant dragon shows up and roars out its defiance, the people start freaking out, and the Pit Warden has no idea what to do. What's a dragon doing all the way out here!?

If he had been familiar with the files on Haalfrin, he'd have known that this dragon is Dakka, and that it came here to fight Haalfrin. If he had known that, he'd have released Haalfrin from his spatial barrier on Floor B33, then let the dragon and demon fight to the death OUTSIDE the pit, preferably.

Instead, the new Warden freaks out and orders, "D-dragon! Aim all the mana cannons at the beast! Kill it now!"

The Warden had served in the Threshold before, so he has plenty of good reason to be afraid of dragons. Even still… in all his years of service, he's never encountered a 4 horned dragon before. "SH#T!"

The defenses at the prison shower a rain of terror on Dakka. Rather than being injured or slowed down, Dakka is mildly irritated instead, since these defenses remind him of the great fortress between his world and this one.

That fortress was enough to heavily injure him, and it left him with some bad memories.

This prison here called the Pit… it may be inferior to the Threshold, but it's not completely weak enough to ignore. Even if the defenses here can't kill Dakka, he wants to be in his best fighting form when he faces off against the monster called Haalfrin his goddess brags about all the time.

Dakka roars out in rage to hype himself up, then he charges at the front gate on foot. The walls are hundreds of feet high, and they're armed to the teeth with mana cannons… which are all pointed at him.

Still, those cannons are hardly doing any damage at all. A 2-horned dragon would be dead by now, a 3-horned one would have some broken scales… but the 4-horned Dakka only feels an uncomfortable itch and tickling sensation, like when a fly lands on your arm and walks across your skin, disturbing your arm hairs and giving you an uncontrollable itch.

Just when Dakka is about to be disappointed at the defenses here, he stops his thought. "It's not because they're weak," he smugly thinks while he looks up at his rack of 4 horns. "It's because I'm so awesome now. Eh heh. I can probably beat dad when I'm like this now, though grandpa's still too much for me."

When Dakka is about to slam into the front gate, his interest is piqued when he sees a pair of colossal golems at either side of the gate come to life. He thought they were decorative statues, but apparently not!

Even more exciting is that the dozens of golems lining the walls also start waking up and running towards the dragon with thundering footsteps.

These golems are unlike the ones that pushed back Kaalhyme's assault several hundred years ago; those ones were miniature – small enough to fit in the hallways. The ones outside are about half as tall as the walls themselves! They're even taller than Dakka, though since Dakka is a lot longer than them, he's still much larger.

Dakka lets the first golem's fist hit his back out of curiosity, and he feels a patch of his scales shatter painfully. "Oof. I felt that!" Dakka roars in the Brancotte tongue. "I approve!"

The great dragon then grapples that golem with his claws and directly crushes the things legs like one would crush an orange in their fist. At the same time, the dragon opens his mouth wide and bites the golem in half around the waist – crushing the mana stone powering the construct with one blow.

In that one exchange, the colossal golem over a hundred feet high falls to the ground – causing a mini earthquake as its pieces beat against the earth like a drum.

Dakka then turns to the other golems, and he weaves his body through them, expertly using all of his limbs to crush each one in passing. The first he bites with his mouth, while a few others he knocks over and shatters with his tail.

From the terrified guard's perspective atop the walls, they all thought the dragon would be slow and lumbering, much like their golems. Nothing that large can move fast, right?

Instead, they see the green scales blur, and they hear deafening booms as the beast's strikes break the sound barrier by several times.

By the time the dragon had reached past the golems to the front gate, only a few seconds had passed, and the shockwave from the dragon's movements explode out like a continuous bomb.

The guards on the front gate immediately faint as their eardrums are shattered from the loud noises, and they fall to the ground with bleeding skulls. The rest immediately trying fleeing in terror.

Just when the army of giant golems reach the dragon from the other end of the fortress, Dakka roars out, "I'm tired of you all!" He opens his mouth and breathes out a plume of fire so hot that the golems all melt into a pile of magma. Even the guards atop the walls are burnt to ash, even though the dragon's breath wasn't even pointed in their direction.

One of the golems on the periphery of the blast tries crawling back to its feet. "Hmph. Missed one." A large scaly foot stomps on the ground, crushing the thing to dust.

With the golems out of the way and the mana cannons irrelevant, Dakka stands there for a moment, sizing up the fortress.

The few guards (all mages) remaining just see the dragon standing there with steam coming off his scales and the ground around his feet melted. Moving that fast and breaking the sound barrier generates a lot of heat, and the surface of Dakka's scales are searing hot.