Obnoxious Uncles

After they walk for about half an hour, they exit the back end of the palace and come across a huge canyon with giant craters everywhere.

The 4 horned dragon escorting Haalfrin puts his hands on a pillar, and it shines brightly. As the pillar shines brighter and brighter, a thick energy barrier materializes around the doorway they just came from – effectively locking the back door.

At the same time, an energy dome glowing bright with red mana bursts from the ground and encases the entire canyon.

Once they're trapped inside, the green-striped dragon says in Draconic, "Dad said that the security enchantments are strong enough to stop his own father, and they're so complicated that they would take years to crack through." The dragon smirks. "You shouldn't bet on your ability to flee, human."

Haalfrin rolls his eyes and mocks, "Oh, this is hardly necessary, but whatever."

After smugly looking at Haalfrin, the 4 horned dragon then transforms before his very eyes, and he becomes a dragon several times longer than Dakka himself, though still significantly smaller than Hraldin was.

Haalfrin looks around at the canyon walls and barely notices that they are lined with dragons - hundreds, if not thousands of them.

As for why he didn't see them immediately is because the canyon walls are coated with Fheldin's shed dragon scales (to prevent his children from completely destroying his back yard.) All the dragons – with their scaley bodies) blend into the walls for the most part.

"Well," Haalfrin remarks light-heartedly, "if the dragons ever decided to take the Threshold, they wouldn't stand a chance, that's for sure. No wonder Commander Fisco made it such a priority to keep good relations with you guys."

The green-striped dragon's face finally softens towards the human, and he says in a low voice, "Yesss, father ssssaid that it'ssss not chivalroussss to make war with beingssss weaker than ussss… unlesssssss we're provoked firssst, you see."

The dragon digs his claws into the ground and growls, "You ready to dieeee?"

Haalfrin shakes his head, "Didn't Fheldin say I am to fight his father? Aren't you just his uncle?"

The uncle, as well as most of the other dragons here, glance at each other and look down in shame.

One of the humanoid dragons sitting a ways off shouts, "Just fight one of us instead! Forget about that slug!"

Even Dakka pitches in, 'Yeah, Haalfrin! It would be embarrassing for you to meet my dad. He's the shame of our family.'

Haalfrin thinks about it, then he asks the dragons in front of him, "Is Dakka's dad really weak or something? Are you worried I'll just win without much effort?"

The green-striped dragon narrows his eyes and lowers his head to Haalfrin's level, "Even a fat and lazy dragon like that is too much for a human to defeat! No, he's just the shame of our family. He doesn't even like fighting. What honor is there in defeating a person who isn't even a warrior?"

"Hmm…," Haalfrin mutters, "You have a point. Shall I just fight you instead?"

The dragon slaps his tail on the ground in appreciation, "Oh! You're not as annoying as I thought!"

Haalfrin extends his hand for a handshake. "Since we're dueling, it's only polite to exchange names. I'm Haalfrin. And you?"

The dragon extends one claw forward, and Haalfrin grabs the tip of one of his fingernails, and he shakes it up and down. "I'm Huroka…," the striped dragon rumbles.

Once they step away from each other, Haalfrin stretches his limbs and asks casually, "So, are we dueling to the death? I'm ok with that. Let's just do this!"

He then hoists Dakka's ax up with one hand and hurls it away into the distance. The bone ax flies through the air and slams into the ground with a loud thud.

(A/N: I'm tired of making the hissing sound effects when dragons in their dragon forms talk, so I'm not doing it anymore.)

"…What was that for?" Huroka asks. "You're going to need that weapon."

Haalfrin shrugs, "The point of this duel is to prove that I beat Dakka fair and square. I can't do that if I'm wielding the power that I got from slaying him."

"Hmph!" Huroka huffs, "As if a measly 2-horned dragon could make a difference in our fight!"

Oh... none of the dragons here actually know how powerful Dakka had become before he died.

Hearing this insult, Dakka screams through their telepathic link, 'Oi! Haalfrin! You can't let them insult me like that! Pick me up and let me beat them senseless!'

Meanwhile, Huroka looks at the dragonbone ax with a complicated expression, then at Haalfrin. "Human, it's best if you pick that ax up. Father told me to go easy on you, so you'll need all the help you can get if you don't want me to squish you in an instant."

Seeing that Haalfrin is refusing to budge on this, Huroka finally relents, "Fine! Since I have to obey father, then I'll keep the challenge simple."

Huroka holds up two claws. "If you can damage my scales in any way and withstand 1 attack from me, then you'll have proven you're stronger than Dakka. After all, that child has never been able to do any of those two things."

"…Sure!" Haalfrin consents. "Let's get this over with."

---------------------

Knowing that Huroka isn't going to attack, Haalfrin paces around and thinks about what he's going to do.

The first thing he does is test the waters a little bit by infusing his Death Aura into his body (via his Dra Name). He then walks up to Huroka and held onto one of his scales in order to anchor himself against being knocked back by his own punch. Then, he curls his fists and punches at one of his scales as hard as he can.

*Surprise surprise* The only damage that comes is to Haalfrin's own fist. Haalfrin barely beat Dakka as it is last time, and Huroka is much larger and stronger than he.

After thinking a bit more, Haalfrin pulls out all of his storage bags hanging around his waist.

(The space bags the Threshold can provide are of much higher quality than what Haalfrin can make for himself. That, coupled with Commander Fisco being familiar with Haalfrin's fighting style, has supplied Haalfrin with space bags so absurdly large that he can fit enough weapons to house all of his Wills.)

Haalfrin then proceeds to dump all the contents onto the ground, forming mountains and mountains of weapons – tens of thousands of weapons - ignoring everyone's confusion.

In reality, Haalfrin could have brought out hundreds of thousands more weapons instead, but he simply doesn't think it's necessary to completely reveal his hand here.

Haalfrin then releases most of his strongest Wills, and everyone watches as every single weapon there rises up as if they have lives of their own.

A few of the dragons seem intrigued with the technique, but none of them are scared. Being pricked by a steel needle is nothing serious, after all.

Huroka watches this attack unfold with growing disinterest, and he starts daydreaming as hundreds of little needles bounce off his scaley skin.

Some of the Wills pound on his scales with such great force that the dragon sometimes lets out soft moans. "Ah. It's like a message." His head droops down, and he feels himself falling asleep.

Suddenly... the calming experience comes to an abrupt and painful end as Huroka jolts back up with a high-pitched scream that shakes the earth. "AAAAH!"

He looks behind him and sees a giant spear lodged up his anus.

"YOOOUUUUU!" the green-striped dragon bellows out in hatred. Out of reflexive anger, Huroka slams his head on the ground, right where Haalfrin is standing.

Given the nature of the test, Haalfrin just stands there; he wants to see if he will be popped like a cherry as soon as the Drakin's strike lands.

However, Huroka wasn't thinking straight, and he didn't aim properly. His head slams into the ground just a little off target.

Sure, the force of Huroka's strike sends a shockwave, but anything less than a direct hit won't do anything more than knock him back and make his head ring for a bit.

Hence, the force of Huroka's shockwave blasts Haalfrin away, and he slams against the canyon wall. The human wipes the blood from his mouth, and he stands up – otherwise unharmed.

Huroka yanks out the spear in his butt with tender care, then he looks over at Haalfrin. The fact that his brothers and nephews are all jeering from the sidelines and making fun of the blood coming out his butt, Huroka gets even more livid.

"Now puny human! You'll have to take an attack from me at full force!"

"Yeah!" Haalfrin smiles, "Come at me, you slug!"

Instead of charging, Huroka crouches a little and waddles painfully toward Haalfrin. "I'll… I'll get my revenge!"

… Are those tears coming down Huroka's face? Haalfrin watches – completely baffled as the tough-looking dragon is barely holding back a fit of bawling.

Suddenly, Huroka can't hold back the tears any more. Long lines of fat tears trickle down his face and make a small pond beneath his head.

Unable to bear the humiliation, the dragon waddles away while softly whimpering.

Haalfrin's enthusiastic smile slowly fades, and he lowers his battle stance. It's already clear that the fight is over.

This human warrior's experience with dragons has given him the expectation that they're all tough and fearless warriors. He never would've expected… this…

Haalfrin looks down in disappointment, and he says aloud, "You know, Huroka… Dakka sustained injuries far worse than yours, yet he only fought harder the more hurt he got."

One of the other dragons flies up to Haalfrin and stands beside him. The beast transforms into his humanoid form, and he pats Haalfrin on the head.

"Yes, little human," the dragon says with a smile, "Dakka was probably the most popular child here. Why do you think we're all up in arms about his defeat?"

"…Favorite child?" Haalfrin raises his eyebrows.

"Oh yes," the brown-spotted dragon nods his head, "Dakka's temperament has always been the closest to father's."

"Temperament?" Haalfrin scoffs. "Your father seems very calm and cultured. Dakka is a little fireball in the shape of a person."

This makes the spotted dragon laugh, "Haha! Maybe temperament is the wrong word. Hmm… It's more accurate to say that Dakka's naked ambition and stupid bravery is as great as Father's."

Indeed, dragons escape from Fheldin's palace all the time… but Dakka was, by far, the youngest to do so; he was only a measly 1 horned dragon at the time!

Another dragon interjects fondly, "Yeah, little Dakka would always challenge father every day to a fight. He'd lose so often, and we thought he'd give up, as we all did. Finally, when he ran away from home, he left a note for father, saying he'd never come back until he's strong enough to beat him."

This last action from Dakka is what cemented his place in the fondest sections of these dragons' hearts. That's a dose of courage any dragon should respect, after all.

Even Haalfrin knows that "respect" is translated to "love" in a Drakin's mind.

Finally, it makes sense to Haalfrin why all these doting uncles love Dakka so much; it's because they admire him.

Many of the dragons come down near Haalfrin, and they pull Haalfrin in one direction. "Hey, friend! Let's share some interesting stories over a drink or five!"

...

While Haalfrin goes off in the distance to hang out with the host of dragons, Huroka is laying his face flat on the ground with his hind legs stretched out – propping his butt high in the air.

One of his brothers is behind him delicately pulling the spear out of the poor lad's butt hole, while the man himself is howling in grief for his desecrated anus.

What Haalfrin doesn't know is that this very spear would be donated to Lord Fheldin's treasury. The dragon lord's sons would introduce the spear as a legendary artifact that defeated a dragon. They'd even say that it's a weapon called in legends, "the Hemorrhaging Spear."

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By the time the meeting with the clans is over, we see Myra, Resburn, Jay, and Faylin all rushing down the hall with a Fox girl servant leading the way.

"Do you think he's still alive?" Myra asks doubtfully.

"What are you talking about?" Faylin exclaims as if that were a stupid question. "It's a freaking 4 horned dragon! Let's just show up, apologize for our rude behavior, and see if we can collect his body at least."

However, after entering the canyon that is Fheldin's backyard, they all hear a chorus of loud roaring, and they feel the earth rumbling.

"Oh no! They're angry!" Resburn yells as he rushes ahead of the others even faster.

"Maybe they're dancing on his corpse or something?" Faylin snickers.

When they round the corner (as the canyon curves), they see a rather… unexpected sight.

Haalfrin is sitting high up on a pillar, and below him is a giant lake... full of alcohol. Haalfrin himself is holding the tip of a giant bowl that's so large that it's wider than he is long. With his dragon-like strength, this isn't an issue for him, though.

As the dragon slayer is guzzling down the fine drink, he's trying to contain his erroneous laughter through drunken hiccups.

One of the dragons slaps a tail on the ground at a punchline Myra missed, and it shakes the pillar Haalfrin is on. Haalfrin manages to stay on the pillar after bracing himself, but he spilling several gallons of wine all over his body.

Haalfrin is far too drunk to care though, so he just steadies himself and laughs even harder at his accident.

There are a dozen dragons all rolling around incoherently and spewing out drunk-people nonsense. A few of the humanoid dragons are brawling in a corner, and a few more are piled in another corner, giggling like little children after telling a fart joke.

Jay chuckles softly, then pulls everyone away. "He looks like he's fine. Let's just get out of here and make some distance. Drunk dragons are more dangerous than sober dragons."