Chapter CLXI - Dragon Raid (part 1)

"Dragons!! Dragons are sighted near a village!!!!"

The commoner man shouted before he fell to the floor from exhaustion. 

Hearing the sudden shouting, all the adventurers present in the Office quickly began rushing to his aid. The adventurers around him tried to lift him up, while Fran quickly moved in to meet this village man.

"You said dragons?? Where?"

Fran asked the middle aged village man, and he quickly answered.

"S-South east! My village!"

"N-Near a village!?"

Fran quickly turned to panic, and so did everybody else. Everyone from our table stood up hearing that, and Fran turned to us with a horrified expression. 

There is no choice but to move quickly.

"Okay, okay. Calm down, everyone. We have the White ranked adventurers here."

Emlar said to everyone, and they all just noticed that Fran isn't the only White ranked adventurer in the room. Cane is also standing next to our table, waiting for Fran.

Fran turned to the man for more information.

"Did you come from the village?"

"Yes… I took a carriage here quickly."

"I see. Where is the carriage now?"

"O-Outside… Please! Save my village!"

Fran turned to us, and everyone nodded. They began to rush, leaving me on the table as I prepared up.

I let out a sigh and placed the scythe into my space ring. I stood up and spoke loudly.

"Relax fellas, we will handle this."

I said while having a slight arrogance in my tone. I walked with my chin up, showing everyone just how cocky I am.

"The White ranked squad will go and handle this. All of you can rest easy knowing we are here!"

Hearing that from me made everyone pissed and uneasy, but I do have ulterior motives.

Fran noticed and chuckled before following me outside. Cane and the others are already outside, awaiting me and Fran.

Arriving on the road, there was a single carriage that looked really plain. But I didn't enter the carriage right away. 

Instead, I pulled Rath backwards by his collar.

"Hey, Rize-"

"Rath. Do you have a fear of heights?"

Hearing that question coming so suddenly especially from me, anyone would freak out.

"N-Not exactly, but I don't wish to have one."

"I see. That's great."

I turned to Fran and Cane, who were about to board the carriage.

"The two of us will go ahead. This is an emergency after all."

"What? How will you go faster?"

After Fran asked that, I grinned.

VWOOM!!!

I opened the shadow wings on my back, and the wings flapped really hard. The wind around us became uncontrolled, proving exactly how powerful those wings are.

They are made out of Knight tier shadow magic. That pure strength can kill ten grown men with a single flap.

"Y-You're flying ahead?!"

Fran asked a little frightenedly, so I explained what I have in mind.

"We will go there first. This is an emergency. We can't have the dragons touching the village before our main forces arrive."

I turned to Rath, who can tell where this plan is going.

"Oh no! Hell no!! I'm not flyi-"

His whole body immediately got grabbed by my giant shadow talon on my right hand.

"Relax, will you? I won't fly that high."

"Rize, if you--"

"Hmm? You want to threaten me?"

I released enough pressure to startle him. Suddenly, height doesn't sound too bad for Rath. 

Once I'm done convincing the hunter, I turned to the others.

"I'll see you guys there."

FWOOOSSSHHHH!!!!!!!

I turned to the others at the carriage with a grin and leaped up really high. The wings quickly flapped and we flew at high speed towards the south-west village, where the attack supposedly is happening.

That day, the people at the main road who saw what happened, fully believed that they have black angel capable of flying. 

I flew towards the village merely tens of meters above the ground. The reason why I didn't go above the clouds is because Rath will definitely freaked out if I somehow let him go and fall down. At least a fall from this height won't kill him, even though it will surely be painful. But it won't be as painful as dying after falling from hundreds of meters in the air.

As we are flying, Rath is really high on his temper.

"Watch out for the tall trees! 

Bird, Rize. Bird!

Can you go slightly slower!? We are in a hurry, but this is--"

He can't stop his mouth from spouting nonsense….

We flew for about fifteen minutes until we finally arrived on a village of the south-west. Surprisingly, it's not that far from the capital. 

There doesn't seem to be dragons around here at all…

While being in the air, I began scouting the area.

"Rath, can you look around to see if there are any dragons nearby?"

I asked him while still maintaining the flight. Meanwhile, Rath took out a pair of binoculars from his space ring and used it to see. He enchanted his eyes and used the binoculars to search for the dragons, but he couldn't find anything.

We decided to land in the village to question some people instead. And looks like it won't be that hard to find the villagers.

The villagers are already moving and preparing for what seemed to be a war. They set up large ranged weapons on the ground and on top of the buildings, while the females and children already set out to evacuate the village.

We approached a man who seemed to be carrying a bunch of rocks as projectiles. As we landed right next to him, he got slightly startled.

"Excuse me, sir. May I ask what is going on?"

The guy turned to me. His expression is both worried and fearsome.

"The village is being attacked by a dragon! Where were you during the alarm!?"

He must have thought we were from the village, considering how quick we were to get here.

"We were not here when the alarm went off. Where is the dragon?"

He pointed to the south, where everyone is heading right now. What's in the south? The forest?

"Okay. Thanks. You can calm down now. We got this."

I moved and leaped from building to building, while Rath nodded to the guy before running on the ground to follow me.

I landed a few meters just outside the village and saw what was in front of me. 

How… Did I not see this before?

There is a gigantic footprint on the ground just outside the village. This is a dragon's footprint, anyone can tell easily.

Rath arrived a while later and studied the footprint.

"This is… a dragon's footprint… so close to the village."

Rath said with a surprised tone after he studied the footprint, and I nodded grimly.

"Yeah. The dragon was this close to destroying the village. And yet, it didn't."

"For once, the dragon did a good thing. I can't help but wonder why… Let me search around."

Rath sat down on the ground and quickly focused his senses. Technically I can do that too, but I can't handle the loud noises.

The villagers behind us looked at us in confusion as to what we were doing in the middle of this wide field, but they didn't dare to interrupt.

After a while, Rath stood up, and his face tells me that he found something.

"What is it?"

"They are coming... Two of them."

Rath pointed forward, and I can feel the two heavy pressures in the distance. One of them is a White ranked disaster, the regular dragon.

… Interesting.