Reckless Dakka (3/3)

"Haalfrin, I think I-" Dakka is about to say, but he's interrupted when an explosion goes off in his mouth. Blood gushes out from between his clenched teeth, and his eyes roll to the back of his head.

With a loud thud, Dakka's body goes limp, and his head smacks painfully into one of the Threshold walls.

Many thousands of Ants scuttle out of the Time Locked houses, and they converge on the dragon's limp body – no doubt wanting to eat the creature in one last bout of revenge for their "fallen" queen.

However, their mandibles aren't strong enough to even tear flesh off of the explosed parts of Dakka's skin. Being a 5 horned dragon, his body is so tough that the Ants will never be able to eat him properly.

…And that's the thing; he's not dead yet. Haalfrin notices that the dragon is still breathing, despite taking a mana blast to the top of the skull, just below his brain.

Haalfrin expects the Queen to make another attack on the barely conscious Dakka, but instead, he sees a lone figure desperately crawl out of the dragon's mouth…

…And the Queen really isn't looking good right now. Her entire body is covered in hideous burns, and parts of her flesh have been melted down to the bone. "Aaah. Aaah…" the Queen groans in such complete agony that even Haalfrin momentarily feels bad for her.

Still… this is the best chance to finish her off.

Feeling the Queen is going to try something unless he makes a move quick, Haalfrin draws his sword and flies at the Queen at supersonic speeds.

However, being as far away as he is, the Queen has a second to react… which she manages to do.

Haalfrin crashes into the Queen just in time for her to erect a mana barrier between them. He bounces off the barrier and flings mana bolts constantly at her, while she occasionally makes more Ant explosions through her barrier at him.

Normally, the Queen would have the absolute advantage here, since she has much more mana to burn than Haalfrin. However, she's been severely injured now, and Haalfrin is sure that if he keeps her awake long enough that she'll drop dead from her injuries.

The Queen realizes this too, so she's starting to panic. Why can't this human just commit to a single attack instead of harassing her from a distance?

At this rate, she KNOWS she's going to lose, so she has to do something different really fast!

Even after several minutes of futilely trying to hit him, the Queen finally loses her patience, and she ducks behind a building. With that single second of cover, the Queen releases another 10th of her mana, except this time, she's not directing the attack in a single direction. Instead, she's letting the burning aura emanate into the air around her.

Haalfrin, needless to say, can't defend against this. If he had been any closer to the Queen in that moment, he'd have been burnt to ashes. However, he barely manages to survive – being several thousand feet away.

Despite getting to keep his life, Haalfrin is knocked out of the sky, and he smacks into the ground and bounces painfully a few times. He struggles to get up, but he too suffers burn wounds, though his are more serious than the Queen's.

As Haalfrin is struggling to get up, one of the Arkin flies from the sky and lands next to him. "Commander! Come on! We can't win this fight! Retreat with us now!"

"No!" Haalfrin grunts through his teeth, "She's injured! We can do this!"

"Sir! Master Dakka is dying! We have to get him out of here! You're the only one strong enough to carry him!"

"…Fine…," Haalfrin grunts as he points to the Queen. Then, he continues the rest of the conversation telepathically, as it hurts too much to speak. "I'll carry Dakka away. You cooperate with the generals to harass the Queen and not give her an opportunity to heal."

Reluctantly, Haalfrin uses his powerful magic and his enhanced body to levitate Dakka's large form, and he lifts himself up into the sky with him – all while ignoring the Queen, who is looking up at his retreating form with hatred in her eyes.

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Once Haalfrin gets back to the imperial palace, he drapes Dakka on top of it; the dragon is so huge that when his wings hang down, he covers most of the castle in a leathery canopy. His tail drooping down hangs over a thousand feet off the edge.

After Dakka is safely kept here, Haalfrin is about to turn around and go fight with his Arkin soldiers, but he suddenly feels several Wills blink into existence inside his soul. This always happens whenever an Arkin's body is eaten, and his spirit is sent back to the Death Realm.

"Darn…," Haalfrin sighs, "the Queen already beat them all."

"Still," Haalfrin mutters aloud as he puts his hands in his pockets, "Even though today could've been better, things still went pretty well. We made the Queen waste a ton of mana, and we destroyed her fortifications… other than the Threshold, of course."

He then looks up at Dakka. "That one… When would he be able to fight again?" You'd think that Dakka could just go challenge the Queen when he wakes up, but Dakka had wasted a lot of mana too… and mana doesn't passively regenerate on its own.

Rather, your soul accrues mana when you absorb excess foreign energy into your soul. Calories in the food you eat… The heat from the sun… These things have energy in them, and your body uses these things to regenerate your mana. (That's why Haalfrin's Fel Name is truly ridiculous.)

Powerful dragons like Fheldin and Dakka have mana pools so massive that it takes them a VERY long time to fully regenerate their mana pools. This is why the most powerful dragons don't fight themselves very often, and when they do fight, they usually sleep it off or go on a hungering frenzy.

Dakka… He has such a huge mana pool that the entire Brancotte empire would have a hard time feeding him. Plus, absorbing excess heat would take Dakka several thousand years to regenerate his mana. However, if Haalfrin were to use his Fel Name on the dragon…

"No…," Haalfrin thinks, "the last time I used Death Aura on Dakka, he went into a deep sleep and woke up as a 5 Horned Dragon… Actually, that's not a bad idea. Dakka as a 6 Horned dragon would be… Yes, it would work."

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Several hours pass and everything is quiet on the battlefield. The Queen is holed up in the Threshold – the one place where she's safe from another dragon attack, while the Arkin are gathered in the palace as they discuss their next move.

After the war council is done, Haalfrin leaves to go check on Dakka. The dragon's injuries had long been treated, yet he's still not waking up.

"Oi!" Haalfrin yells as he smacks Dakka's snout, "WAKE UP, you IDIOT!"

"W-what?" Dakka blurbs out, right before his body twitches and his eyes shoot open. "Don't be mad at me, bro! I really did my best!"

Haalfrin just clicks his tongue at this. "You've been asleep for so long, and you thought the Queen hadn't grown any stronger?"

Dakka realizes this fact, and he looks down despondently. After thinking it over, he lifts his head up and howls into the sky, "How come that bug keeps getting so absurdly strong every time I wake up!? It's… stupid!"

"Turn into your humanoid form, Dakka," Haalfrin beckons to him and says, "Let's talk down here."

Once Dakka is small again, Haalfrin sits him down and starts explaining how the war had gone over the past few centuries.

Dakka knows very well from his time battling in the basement maze that both Haalfrin and the Queen were steadily growing stronger. With the Queen hardly expending mana, but constantly devouring the Ants, her growth has no limits. With the Arkin regenerating at no expense in the Death Realm, and with the Ants constantly dying and giving more Death Aura, Haalfrin's growth knows no limits either.

What surprised Dakka, however, is the fact that more than 500 years had passed since he had slipped into a coma. With 500 years to get stronger, it's no wonder the Queen was able to stand toe to toe with him, even after becoming the youngest 5-horned dragon in history.

(Well, he's the youngest 5 horned dragon that Dakka knows of. Drakavar, when she was growing up, became a 5-horned dragon far earlier in her life compared to Dakka – less than 100 years old, to be precise.)

"Listen to me, Dakka," Haalfrin pats the dragon on the shoulder. "You'd take too long to regenerate your mana on your own, so I'm going to use my Fel Name on you. You should probably enter hibernation again so that you don't use any energy. I want you to become a 6 horned dragon as soon as possible."

"C-can I really be an Elder Dragon?" Dakka asks excitedly.

Haalfrin rolls his eyes. "Yes! ...Well, PROBABLY. I wasn't purposefully making you absorb Death Aura before, so your hibernation to become a 5 horned dragon took longer than it should've. If we make some sacrifices, then… Well… Let's just hope you don't take too long on your nap."

"Oh," Haalfrin adds, "and DON'T go rushing off again to fight the Queen once you wake up. You won't know how powerful she is by then."

"An Elder dragon…" Dakka giddily chuckles under his breath as he goes off to find a place to sleep.

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Once Dakka finds an unoccupied bed, he lays down and tries to drift off to sleep… but his mind is far too active, and he ends up laying on his back and staring at the ceiling.

For some reason, this young dragon can't stop thinking about the Ant Queen. Sure, she's their enemy… but seeing her stubbornly cling to life and wiggle out of impossible odds over and over again… He can't help but respect her as an opponent.

"No…," Dakka thinks. After a few moments, he restlessly turns over on his bed.

In his mind are swirling memories of himself swallowing the Ant Queen – memories of her desperately clinging to his teeth. Most importantly, Dakka remembers the Queen letting herself be burned and disfigured in order to get the chance to take him out.

By far, the Queen is the most tenacious and strong woman Dakka has ever met. Is this why he can't stop thinking about her?

Suddenly, a thought comes to him – an absurd thought, to be sure, but a thought that seems oddly fitting.

"The Queen… she's an ugly bug, and she's disfigured now. No sane person would be attracted to her. However, her spirit is beautiful, strong, and ruthless!"

Dakka rolls over again, as if he's guilty for even thinking this. "Yeah… I'm not like stupid Fhulk, who only lusts after beauty! It's just… In an age without female dragons, I've never found a woman I could contend with as an equal."

Realizing he'll never have another chance like this, Dakka makes up his mind. "When I wake up as a 6 Horned Elder Dragon… I'll defeat her and take her for myself! She MUST be mine!"

Only when Dakka makes this plan is his mind at peace. He falls asleep seconds later.