Reckless Dakka (1/3)

-30 years later-

"Be quick!" one of the Arkin says urgently to the men behind him. "Hide the ax. The Queen's noticed we've dropped by.

"Just give it to me," Faylin says as she reaches for the dragonbone ax. "I'm better at stealth magic anyway."

Currently, Faylin and her squad have finally managed to reach the heart of the Threshold. This time, they were lucky enough to catch the Queen napping. They didn't manage to slit their enemy's throat this time, but they DID manage to find Dakka's body and run away with it.

You could say that this trip hasn't been entirely useless.

Faylin and her soldiers look behind and feel the ground rumbling. The Queen has certainly woken up and found that the dragon spirit is gone, and she must be furious!

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

After the long and arduous chase, most of Faylin's crew are eaten by the Ants, but Faylin herself manages to make it out of the tunnels and go back up to their castle.

Once Dakka is in Haalfrin's hand once again, the Commander holds it up and looks at it sadly. "Are you dead?"

"N…No…," comes Dakka's faint voice. "She…kept eating… my mana… whenever… I'd regenerate. Can you… let me… sleep now?"

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

-500 years later- (all these years spent in back-and-forth battle)

Dakka is asleep for so long that Haalfrin nearly forgets about his friend. However, when the dragon DOES wake up… he does so in a manner that nobody expected.

One day, Haalfrin and the entire castle are woken up when they feel the air pulsing with power. Thinking they're being invaded, Haalfrin runs towards the source of the horrifying Aura.

Following his senses, Haalfrin enters the dungeon where he's hidden Dakka away. There, he sees the ax glowing so hot with energy that Haalfrin feels the backs of his eyes being seared – even in that brief instant, he looked before turning his eyes away.

Haalfrin hears some of his soldiers try entering the dungeon, but Haalfrin holds up his hand and shouts at them, "STAY BACK!"

They all bow their heads and back away.

After a few minutes, the glowing fades, and everything goes dark again. Cautiously, Haalfrin turns back and sees…

"YOU'RE ALIVE, DAKKA?" Haalfrin shouts as he rushes into the dungeon cell. "HOW?!"

There, on the floor, lies a familiar face - Dakka's face in his humanoid form. Other than his skin glowing red with heat, the man is completely naked except for a few patches of armor-like scales, as well as a full rack of long horns atop his head.

Without waiting for an answer from his friend, Haalfrin bends down and drapes his cloak over the naked dragon.

Instead of answering immediately, Dakka looks down at his fleshy hands, then feels his face slowly. "I… I didn't know this was possible… I mean, I heard rumors…"

"Heard rumors of what?" Haalfrin says with a demanding tone. "Stop beating around the bush."

So, Dakka explains, "Remember 5 horned dragons can revive lesser dragons?

"Yeah… What does that have to do with…?" Haalfrin starts to ask, but his voice trails off… "DAKKA! When did you get 5 horns!?"

Dakka looks around and shifts uncomfortably. "Must we really pester me at a time like this? I want to stretch. I want to eat. I want to sleep. Don't you know how jealous I was whenever I saw you enjoying yourself with such normal things?"

Haalfrin rolls his eyes. "Fine." He reaches into his space bag and pulls out some leftover meat from his last meal with Freyya. "Can you tell me while you eat?"

The dragon snatches up the food and starts snarfing it down. After the entire chicken leg is gone, he doesn't even clean his hands. Instead, he sits upright, crosses his legs, and starts talking.

"My father was a 4 horned dragon, and my mother was a Rehkin. Since my draconic blood is less pure, I was destined to only be a 3 horned dragon. However, when Freyya sent me to kill you back in your old world, she persistently injected me with Death Aura and helped purify my blood."

"Oh…," Haalfrin nods. "Since you've been with me this whole time, and since I've been giving you Death Aura, you've evolved a 5th Horn."

"Yeah, about that," Dakka scratches his head, "I was trying to awaken my 5th horn for about 400 years by now, but the Ant Queen had been constantly sucking my mana dry and beating me up. It was really hard. Thanks for having your people rescue me."

Instead of answering, Haalfrin just pauses for a moment before swinging the dungeon door open. "I'll have someone prepare a room for you. Pick any you'd like."

"Hmph!" Dakka stands up abruptly. "No need. I'll be right back."

Sensing something wrong, Haalfrin runs up to Dakka and puts his hand on his shoulder. "Hey! What's going on? Where are you going?"

"Don't worry, Haalfrin," Dakka pats Haalfrin on the top of the head. "Now that I'm a 5 horned dragon, like grandpa, you can all sit back comfortably. I'll go take care of the Queen really quick."

"Wait Dakka, NO!" Before Haalfrin can stop him, Dakka has already disappeared down the hall and flown out the window.

Haalfrin catches up to the window just in time to look outside and see a massive dragon emerge from nothingness and fly towards the Threshold's mountain.

"Hmm…," Haalfrin thinks as he looks at Dakka, "since Dakka is still a very young dragon, he's still smaller than Kalkor was, despite having another horn. Evidently, being a 5 horned dragon can't quite compare to being ancient.

Haalfrin is about to conclude that Dakka is still weaker than Kalkor, when suddenly, he feels the air tremor, and he sees the Threshold's mountain start to groan and quake.

There, above the mountain, Dakka is standing in the air in his humanoid form. While raising a single hand, the entire mountain is ripped out by the roots and lifted into the air. Then, with a simple squeeze, the entire mountain is crushed in his palm.

"SH##!!!"

Haalfrin and the Arkin all stare in awe as billions of tons of rock are dropped out of the sky and pummel the earth. Then, it appears as if the entire landscape is sinking as thousands of the Ants' tunnels cave in.

Thick plumes of Death Aura rise from the earth, signifying that millions of Ants had been instantly crushed to death when Dakka dropped a mountain on top of their tunnels.

The dust doesn't even settle before Dakka turns back into his dragon form and descends upon the Threshold, which is obviously still there, due to being Time Locked.

Dakka flies down and lands on top of the fortress. When his wings are outstretched, he's half as wide as the city.

When the dust finally clears, Dakka is standing there astride the walls – perfectly still, silent, and watching – watching for any Ants brave enough to move.

Dakka COULD go search for the Queen in the fortress proper, but he's learned from his experience fighting in the maze that it doesn't matter how powerful he is if he can't find his enemy. The Queen could literally just copy Haalfrin's prior tactic and hide in the maze.

Being unable to think of a solution, Dakka lifts his head up and roars, "COME FIGHT ME, BUG!! YOU'LL PAY FOR TORMENTING ME FOR SO LONG!!"

…However, since Dakka's voice is so deep and powerful, his words don't come out in any intelligible form. Instead, the air around him bursts into fire after being compressed so tightly from his voice's pressure.

Still, the Queen understands well enough that this dragon is ANGRY.

Losing patience, Dakka lowers his head and starts spewing fire all over the fortress, burning countless Ants who had hidden away in the houses.

He then presses his snout against several of the maze entrances and starts breathing fire inside.

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

"NO!" the Queen cries in fear as she scrambles out of the maze. She still has trauma from nearly dying last time a dragon had blown fire in an enclosed space. She has to get out!

And so, she fumbles out and sees Dakka in his full glory. "Holy-… He's big!"

She really has nothing else to say about that. Still, she's surprised at Dakka's size now, since none of her Ants were alive long enough to see Dakka with their own eyes.

The Queen then looks downward, then towards Dakka. "Should I… fight him? Or… Should I run away?" The dragon is far too irritated to pay attention properly right now; he's just mindlessly stomping on the fortress and spewing fire everywhere.

Quickly, the Queen pulls out her pendent. When she sees that her own numbers are nearly twice as high as the dragons, she finally relaxes. "All right. Let's kill the dragon and eat him."