Too Stubborn to Die

As he walked toward the narrow path, overlooking vantage points all around it, he was a little suspicious. But what really triggered Aaron was his senses.

He had sensed the trap and ambush well before he reached it, or could even see the precarious setup. Unfortunately for whoever’s plans he was about to ruin, he had been prepared. Aaron didn’t always have [ Gorgon’s Soul Vortex ] activated, but when converging on a quest objective with their sector’s most powerful rankers, he had decided that it was a small precaution to take.

As they got closer, Aaron instructed Erdek and Ikran to take a different path and prepare an ambush of their own. Thanks to his senses, he had a pretty good idea of where they were. Although he hadn’t honed in on their precise location to prevent them from detecting him.

It was pretty clear that Erdek didn’t like following his instructions, but she did when he explained that he was planning on walking straight into the trap and springing it while they took the enemy’s flanks.

Good to know she’s negotiable when I’m the one eating attacks.

Aaron didn’t particularly like how giddy Erdek got at the thought of him walking into a trap. But he let it go since she was following the plan.

With his two companions circling around, Aaron marched straight ahead. But he wasn’t intending to just spring the trap on himself and take a hit. No, he had no intention of taking any hits at all.

Seconds before he walked into the center of the trap, where he sensed the energy pulsating from the ground around him, he dilated time. He knew they were watching, and training their sights on him, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. He had seen it all through the threads of fate.

The combination of Aaron’s two powerful abilities, slowing time and reading fate, made what came next almost too easy.

The perfect unison of catastrophic explosive traps and Skills raining down upon him was rather incredible, ripping apart the land and blowing it to smithereens. Unfortunately for his attackers, he phased straight through horrifying bombardment.

However, they had backups for even that, it seemed. The ground beneath him came alive with the electrifying energy, as some light liquid seeped through the earth itself.

Against someone else, the combination of trap Skills and other Skills launched in ambush would have been almost impossible to survive. But it wasn’t somebody else; it was Aaron Dober.

He had seen the electrified ground before it came, and bounced just above it. Although he still felt a zap from the electrified arcs beaming above it.

His attackers weren’t finished, though, and exploding arrows followed. They shot at him like cannons, filling their air and exploding into a rain of deadly shrapnel.

Through sheer mana, Aaron created a temporary surface and pushed off of it, launching himself into the air as he phased through the shrapnel.

A massive breath of flames followed, filling everything with its burning heat. And for a moment, he thought it might have been Erdek.

He phased through the flames for a split second, but realizing that they just kept going, and that holding his [ Wraith Phase ] for that long was a waste of energy, he released it, and tanked the damage, drawing down on some of his adipose reserves as he healed his way through the flames.

As he passed through the flames, he spotted their origin. It was the source of the most powerful energy signal, and his target.

Aaron brushed away at smoke and flames as he neared his target, and its scaled form filled his vision.

“Wait, is that a fucking dragon? Gnome dragon? Is that a thing?”

Aaron tilted his head as he reached the dragon, and a shimmering shield appeared between them, blasting him with a wave of energy that peeled back his skin.

Unfortunately for the dragon, the surprise trap Skill didn’t even kill, and it wouldn’t have stopped him if it did.

Aaron’s fist followed through and slammed straight into the side of the pint-sized dragon’s face, sending it bouncing along the ground.

In truth, the dragon wasn’t that small. Probably still six-foot tall, and dressed in a peculiar trenchcoat.

Lord Draxas [ Level 118 ]

Titles: [ Tutorial Champion ] [ Head of the Snake ]

“Of course it’s named,” Aaron facepalmed. He hadn’t been thinking and was hoping he would see its race by inspecting it. But obviously it wasn’t a standard monster.

“Bugger. Oh well,” Aaron huffed and cracked his knuckles as he marched toward it. He had really wanted to know what it was.

The dragon raised its clawed hands, forming another shield, which shattered the moment Aaron punched it with [ Soul Shattering Strike ].

The two others he had sensed, who had been firing arrows at him, turned to join the fight. They looked like little, winged lizards, but they didn’t get a chance, as Erdek and Ikran descended upon them.

“What are you anyway? Pygmy dragon? Gnome dragon? Half-dragon? Dwarf dragon? Midget–”

“What are you talking about?” Lord Draxas hissed and snorted flames. “I’m a red dragon! Do your soft, spongy eyes not see?”

“Red dragon?” Aaron raised a doubtful brow. “Sure you are, mate. Didn’t mean to offend.”

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“I’ll show you the power of a red!”

Lord Draxas’ wings spread wide, and a tunnel of infernal flames poured out of his mouth.

Aaron had phased for a split second, then dodged to the side, and before the tiny dragon knew what was going on, he buried a fist in its stomach.

“Bah-what?”

Lord Draxas coughed and toppled over. Aaron raised a fist to finish the job, but before he could, the dragon’s trenchcoat opened, and three kobolds rolled out.

“Huh?”

Aaron blinked and froze for a moment. That was not what he had expected to see.

“I thought you were a… well, actually, I dunno what I thought you were. But not this.”

“You have soiled me!”

“The dragon! The dragon has been broken!” The two other kobolds shouted and scattered, running around confused.

“Calm yourselves, sisters! We must reform!”

Aaron shook his head. He felt weird finishing them off in this condition. The head of the fake dragon still had some fight left in him from the looks of it, but the other two were just running around like headless chickens.

Not only that, but the two other kobolds had surrendered to Erdek and Ikran, who were equally confused.

“Are all kobolds this cowardly?”

“Dragon, not kobold!” Lord Draxas snapped and then turned back to the other two. “Get a grip! We still got this!”

“We should finish them,” Ikran said coldly, and that seemed to get through to the lead kobold, realizing how desperate their situation was.

“No, please! We sorry!”

“Yes, we sorry!” Pleaded the kobold held down by Ikran.

“Don’t kill us! We’ll do anything, anything you want! You be our new master! Please, just don’t kill Draxas!”

“Anything?” Aaron raised a brow and looked over to his companions.

He was a little surprised that neither Ikran nor Erdek was in a rush to kill the little, scaled creatures. Then again, it hadn’t been much of a fight, even with all their traps placed. They really didn’t pose too much of a threat, and if they could be valuable…

Aaron hesitated. He wasn’t too worried about most enemies they might come across. But he hadn’t fought everyone in the trials, and it wasn’t just Mo’han who was powerful. There were other elites like Mandor who had entered the trials very early, and he didn’t know them too well. Maybe they could be a threat, and so he got an idea.

“Alright, I’ve got an idea for your redemption,” Aaron said thoughtfully.

Draxas

Lord Draxas cursed under their breath as they led their small group into the timberyard. They had reformed their true shape, but the humiliation of having it broken before the eyes of the soft skin wasn’t forgotten.

And to make matters worse, the softskin was now leading their group into the timberyard as bait. The devious man wanted to use them to draw out any others who might be planning ambushes.

But there was nothing Draxas could do about it. The plan had been perfect, the traps arranged with great detail, they had made sure of it themself. And yet, somehow, the cheating soft skin had avoided almost all of the damage and charged straight through it. And worst of all, he had made it look easy.

“Stupid soft skin. Call me a gnome dragon. The nerve of him! I’ll repay that insult tenfold!”

Muttering under their breath, Lord Draxas led the group into the heart of the timberyard. They knew the villainous human and its followers were watching from afar, ready to use their valiant lives for their own gains.

No other rankers, it seems.

Lord Draxas looked around, but didn’t spot much. Not much besides the final formation of horned monsters standing by the main sawing station of the timberyard.

The boss pointed at them and their companions and led the charge of several dozen monsters toward them.

But before the defenders of the timberyard reached them, the soft skin and his followers burst out, and engaged them in a deadly battle.

This was their chance, Draxas knew. They ordered his two companions to join the fray, and they slipped away.

With nobody guarding it, they could now easily claim the timberyard for themselves, and then simply escape before they caught up. It was almost too easy, and while the instructions had suggested that resources could be stolen from other teams, the stupid soft skins would have to wait several hours before they could, during which time Draxas could gather support to drive them back.

And even if they decided to leave the timberyard, and claim another. The cooldown timer would slow the soft skin down and be a satisfying revenge for the embarrassment he had caused the great red dragon.

Reaching the quest marker and the flagpole that allowed him to claim the resource, Draxas found himself alone and smiled.

Now’s my chance!

Draxas knew that their two companions wouldn’t be able to escape and would likely die. But that was a sacrifice they were willing to make. After all, they were the dragon. There was no goal more worthy for their kobold companions than to give their lives so that Draxas could finally fuse and turn into a real dragon.

In fact, they should consider themselves blessed to have even been part of the process.

Moving towards his goal, Draxas reached out, ready to claim the timberyard. But just as they were about to, a flash of black ink appeared before them, materializing into an imposing figure.

Tentacles whipped out from the figure’s sharp maw, and its gray hand reached out to claim the timberyard.

Then, a second later, the soft skin appeared at their side, knuckles brutishly bloodied like the barbarian he was.

“Thanks, mate. You did good. Just as we asked.”

The fact that the soft skin smiled at them infuriated them even more. But what in the dragon god’s name did it mean by, mate? They dared to consider the thought. It was far too devious.

Did the soft skin really want to do that?

That devious soft skin wants to claim us?

Draxas grimaced at the dreadful thought. There was no way they would let that soft skin mate with them. Not while they still breathed. And preferably not after they stopped either.

A plan needed to be formed. Any plan. Even one that resulted in their death. If not… no, Lord Draxas couldn’t even entertain the thought.

But if they could reach out to other parties from their world and have them all gather to ambush the soft skin as a unified front, then they could defeat it. It was strong, very, very strong. No doubt about it, but it wasn’t strong enough to defeat all of the rankers from their world?

No. Lord Draxas highly doubted that. They had many strong individuals, and they worked well together. Besides, numbers alone wouldn’t be so easy to overcome, not even for one as powerful as the soft skin.

And if it failed… well, the thought was too unpleasant to even consider.

The human intended to mate with them and contaminate their genes. To want to mate with them was sacrilege. It would dilute and ruin their gene pool, right when they were on the cusp of finally becoming real dragons.

Lord Draxas grimaced at the thought of the mutant hatchlings that would spawn from such a coupling. It was disgusting, and it cemented their resolve.

Such a future was completely unacceptable, and the plan they were conniving had to work.

And so, Lord Draxas started to put together a scheme to undo the deviant human. It would send out subtle messages, gather all of the rankers from its world, and unleash the greatest ambush the soft skin had ever seen.

Perfect. This is perfect.

“Aaron, is it?” Lord Draxas forced a smile.

“Yeah, mate. What’s up?”

“It’s just… we saw something on our way here. It’s not far from here. It’s the mortar factory. You’ll need it to complete the tower. We could show you the way. Might as well claim it since we’re so close, no?”

“Really? Yeah, mate. That’d be sick. Lead the way!”