Cherreads

Chapter 24 - Side story 1—The mysterious Paladin

There's a figure running through the forest accompanied by three other figures until they seek a small village.

The figure which was running in front of the group, is a very tall woman 1.75 m to 1.80 m, equipped with full-body armor which resembles the form of a dragon, the helmet is exactly like the head of a western dragon; the shoulders had encrusted, two claws holding a cape, the gauntlets and boots had the shape of claws, all the armor is detailed to the extreme, the color of the armor is a mix between black and violet, contains some gems whose colors vary from emerald, amethyst and topaz, the armor is inscribed with many powerful inscriptions, on the back had a violet shield in the shape of a dragon's head and at the waist, there's was a flashing silver sword with a handle that shares the same design as the shield and the helmet, one dragon head, this time an eastern dragon head with the jaws open in the middle, from which emerges the blade.

One of these figures speaks: "Young lady, this is Hallstatt, the small village described in the rumors which links the last sighting the sinful dragon Radu Cel Frumos."

The figure with the armor that was in front of the group of people nodded with her head and said: " I can see the destruction of the sinful dragon, even sense his sick breath."

From the small village, a person sees them and then comes running waving a hand. The person who comes is a woman wearing robes, the robes have intricate patterns of two emerald dragons, one western and the other eastern and many shining inscriptions.

The women then stopped in front of the group and said: "I had been waiting for you, miss Violetta, the sinful dragon attack this small village. Fortunately, we came in time and managed to repeal the attack."

Violetta looked at the woman in the robes to the face and asked: "Manage to repel?, aren't you and your team supposed to kill the sinful dragon?, I mean, your team brought the dragon-suppressing formation, the information about the sinful dragon said it is at spiritual palace realm grade 7, so even if you brought with you spiritual palace realm grade 3, 4 or 5, you should be able to kill it."

Embarrassed, the woman in the robe said: "Miss Violetta, the sinful dragon is much stronger than we originally thought and even that, the dragon turned out to be a rare variant, something that was not mentioned in the report from the Dragon Order."

The woman in the robes continued speaking "We used the formation, and with the help of Eleanor Gale, the Duchess of Cardiff, from the Red Dragon Kingdom and the fighters, we brought with us but despite the superiority thanks to the formation, which reduce the sinful dragon combat power from spiritual palace realm grade 7 to be inferior to the Duchess's spiritual palace grade 5, we could not kill it, the dragon had such powerful regeneration thanks to its variant, 'Reactivated Obsidian' which allows him to almost completely recover from any injury, when he saw himself overcome by the Duchess he decided to fly at full speed, the Duchess and other members chased but the dragon used all his power and energy in escape, even ignoring the attacks hitting his body, the Duchess is actually returning from the pursuit, I think you can catch up him your full speed."

Then, Violetta looked at her companions and said: "I'm going to go alone this time."

One of the women from Violetta's team quickly walked to Violetta's side, this woman is quite small, around 1.4 m to 1.45 m, slim and feeble, even compared to a normal human woman, you can clearly tell she is a Halfling, by her strong resemblance to humans.

The Halfling Woman then spoke: "Young Lady Violetta, I can't let you go alone again. don't you remember the last time? you almost died against the Flashing Silver Dragon, Yin Guang!"

Violetta shivered a slightly as the memory of her first battle alone against a sinful dragon came back to her mind, she could remember how Yin Guang pushed her to her maximum power, one spiritual palace realm grade 9 peak versus a grade one, she had presumptuously thinks that with her bloodline and her mother's legacy alone, she can defeat this beast of a creature, but how badly she underestimated her opponent, which ended up forcing her to use all her secrets cards even her bless and her father's inheritance, going as far as burning her vital force, at the end of the battle, she had almost died if not because her emerald heart and the rescue of Lucia Corvini, her loyal nanny, the Halfling Woman which is now scolding her reckless behavior.

Violetta's reply to Lucia's questioning: "I remember, but you don't have to worry Lucia, I'm not that reckless anymore. Now I'm more cautious and have more tools to fight sinful dragons, believe me"

Lucia said: "No is no, i can't let you go alone, Mistress Celestina, your mother left me in charge of your safety, i can't let you put yourself in more danger."

Violetta wanted to say something, but she couldn't reply, not to Lucia. Another team member saw this and spoke for Violetta: "Come on Lucia, Violetta is more powerful than before and the enemy is weaker, trust her."

The remaining team member touched Lucia's shoulder. With this Violetta was finally able to begin the pursuit of the sinful dragon.

This time Violetta didn't have to hide her presence running through the forest, so she started flying at her full normal speed.

At a certain point she began to recite a chant: "Wings of the dragons, let me fly like the king of the skies, riding the winds even through rain and storms, WAKE UP! SHOW YOUR TRUE FORM!"

On her back, the cape begins to transform acquiring a different shape, going from an amorphous form emitting glowing lights, to one resembling draconic wings, increasing Violetta's speed even further.

On her way to catch the sinful dragon she noticed another dragon returning from the same direction, this dragon which her color was green-cyan, was a wind dragon in her hands she is carried few people with the same type of robes, as the priestess who received her team in the small village.

This confirmed what the priestess had said about the dragon ignoring all the attacks and continuing to fly, because the fact that a wind dragon couldn't catch up with an obsidian dragon in speed, was another matter entirely.

From what the priestess had said alone, she could deduce that this dragon was the Duchess Eleanor Gale, as the Duchess was passed by her side, she sent a spiritual message which said: "Radu is almost five minutes away, I'm almost drained of energy, so please Miss Violetta take care of it."

Violetta nodded and drew her sword and held it in front of her and recited a chant: "Oh, flashing silver that covers thirty thousand kilometers, resurging flashing silver dragon, Flashing Silver Torrent!"

 

After that the image of an eastern flashing silver dragon appeared, she was standing inside its head, the body extending beyond her back. Taking impulse to resume her flying, with only a flash of silver could be seen in that moment.

...

The image of the Flashing Silver Dragon could be seen on the horizon, anyone who saw the image had to rub their eyes because in one moment they could see the image, and the next, it was gone, this was her true maximum speed.

As Violetta flies, she searches for the sinful dragon, at a certain point she spots a black dot moving at great speed, but it is far too slow compared to her.

The closer she goes to the dragon she could see a western dragon, whose color was pure obsidian black, his scales were like really sharp obsidian blades with pikes emerging from the base of its tail, running along its spine up to the neck, its two horns give it a frugal aspect.

In an instant, she is flying above the sinful dragon Radu, at that moment she launches an attack pointing the tip forward, the image of the dragon surrounding her opens its jaws as she whispers: "Flashing Silver Cannon!"

Then from the open jaws, a massive silver sphere very brilliant emerges, radiating a dazzling light that illuminates the entire area, the massive sphere launched at high speed, the obsidian dragon senses something strange and tries to evade, but the attack is too fast that, he only could feel is the impact, before he is sent crashing to the ground.

A human figure rose from the impact zone, shaking the dust off his body, reaches out to touch the injury on his back and says: "What bastard they sent this time..."

Set his sight in the sky, he can see one humanoid figure, after this he laughed loudly 'HAHAHAHA' and said: "What a bunch of idiots, sending a mere mortal to kill a dragon, I thought for a moment they sent this time a true expert and my luck had run out."

Violetta ignored the clear provocation and launched another attack, even more powerful: "Emerald Slash!" A semi-circular emerald green energy slash, swiftly rushed toward the dragon in human form.

The man instantly transformed back into his dragon form, dodging by a little margin, in midair, he flapped his wings aiming Violetta's position, unleashing a black mist that scattered into a storm of obsidian fragments in a shape of a arrowhead.

Violetta only smiled inside her helmet and launched another emerald slash, then another, and another, three consecutive attacks tore through the storm of fragments, shattering them. The dragon attempted to evade, but only managed to avoid two, the third attack partially landed, wounding his right side.

Suddenly the injuries in the back and his right side began to emanate light between orange and red, then at high speed, his wounds began healing, Violetta squinted her eyes and thought this fight could be a little fun.

Radu realized that the height difference could be too problematic, so at his maximum speed, he approached Violetta and launched a melee attack with his claws, followed by him saying: "Obsidian storm!" Again, the same black mist appeared and followed by the storm of fragments, but Violetta blocked the claws with her sword, as for the fragments, she simply stomped her foot in the air and said: "Emerald Clash!"

An expansive wave of power destroyed all the fragments, Violetta quickly launched a counterattack with the tip of her sword taking advantage of proximity, saying: "Emerald Impact!". A emerald-coloured energy torrent was expelled front the tip, getting through the body of Radu and sending him flying backwards.

This time the wound was more serious but that's didn't matter, the same light between orange and red emanated from the wound and even brighter, than before.

Radu annoyed was determined to kill this ant, but just notices the change in the aura, he shifted his focus to defense and said: "Obsidian Barrier!" an obsidian semi-sphere took form.

After that the voice of Violetta can be hear saying: "Silver Flash Slash!", followed by a bright silver energy slash, impacting the obsidian semi-sphere beginning to cut through the barrier, making crushing sounds, but the barrier started regenerating immediately, emanating the same light from the wounds, less brighter. After seeing this Violetta opened her eyes and amazed said in her mind: "So the regeneration also applies to his techniques and skills, noted."

Even though the barrier is regenerating, that can't stop the bright silver energy slash penetrating the barrier, second to second, centimeter by centimeter, the slash progress and the barrier regenerate, until the last layer, where the slash had lost all its energy, Violetta didn't wait and launched another emerald slash, destroying the barrier, which at that moment had completely regenerated.

Radu didn't stay still, even before Violetta launched the emerald slash, he whispered: "Double crystal proxy, Ten Thousand Obsidian Bullets!", after that in both sides, the right and the left, two black crystals between 30 cm to 50 cm appeared, each one launched hundreds of little shards of obsidian.

The slash almost impact on Radu and Violetta had to use another emerald clash to destroy the obsidian shards, this give enough time to Radu to approach again to Violetta, this time, he grabbed her and hit her with his tail, sending her to ground, but he didn't stop there, quickly the natural inscriptions on his neck began to illuminate, soon, the dragon opened his maw and fired his dragon breath, one purely black like obsidian, which contains fragments of the same material.

As Violetta falls, she doesn't lose her calm, even after seeing the breath approaching her, on the contrary she has a mocking smile, for the first time in the fight she took her shield on her back, then attaches it to her left arm, puts her arm in the strap and pointing the shield's lower part at the breath, squeezing a mechanism that works like a hand grip, the shield which resembled a dragon's head, suddenly opened its jaws and something incredible happened, the breath is rapidly absorbed by the open jaws of the shield.

But this didn't prevent that Violetta crashes with ground lifting a cloud of dust, Radu, thinking she is dead or at least heavily injured, he delighted in this thought and said: "Pff, a mere mortal think can defy a draconic being, how ridiculous."

From the impact zone Violetta jumps using an emerald clash to gain impulse, when she arrives in front of Radu takes his tail and starts spinning in circles, then lets him go and squeezes the same mechanism, opening the jaws of the dragon's head which releases surprisingly a dragon breath saying: "I'm a mortal, yes, but the emerald dragon god, accepts me, just as I am."

Radu in shock, realized that this a elf women and that thing enrages him more, furious he said: "At idiot elf women that serves a dead god, is pretty fitting."

This time Violetta did get angry and without holding back say: "A blasphemous trash tries to sermon me, a filthy sinful dragon, dares to criticize my god!"

Then Violetta started to recited a chant: "Oh glorious emerald power, that kills every enemy, that opposes you, obliterating everything in your path, destroying the enemies of this universe with your great power, bless me with your power to overcome my enemies and pierce them with my sword!, EMERALD SLASH!"

Radu sensing the danger immediately uses obsidian barrier several times, fifteen in total, but this is still not enough to appease his dragon instinct, his heart beats strongly and rapidly, so he tried to evade, but the powerful emerald-energy tide gets through the barriers so fast that it inevitably grazes his chest, because of that, the attack's great power cuts almost through his heart and lungs, missing by millimeters

The attack hit the ground, sending waves of power through the area, destroying trees, rocks and making a little crater, Radu sensing a deadly threat for the first time in a long time, said quickly: "Wake up my heart, that energy inside me, once again sees the light of my blazing blood"

Violetta doesn't want to extended this fight anymore, there is no fun in her anger, at full speed, she launched another attack, but Radu, radiating this red-orange energy, has fully recovered, but this time the light doesn't disappear, in his chest the light is clearly visible through glass scales, while dodging the attacks, he says: "I admit, I underestimated your power, mortal, but there's nothing you can do. Let me show you my true power."

Radu shifted from being on the defensive, to launching a full attack: "Ten crystals proxies, one hundred thousand bullets of reactivated obsidian!" after that, ten crystals like the ones before appearing in the air, but this time emanating that strange light, fired by the crystal, each bullet liberated a high temperature, that Violetta can sense from 10 to 20 meters.

With serious face, without losing a single second, she stomped the air, producing an enormous emerald clash and sent counterattack with the silver flash slash, this fight continues with several exchanges, until an hour passes.

Radu had already understood the attack pattern and had a rough estimate of the power of Violetta, He thought this elf was monstrous woman, so the faster he defeated her, the higher his chances of survival.

Radu launched himself at Violetta grabbing her sword and shield before he began hitting her with his tail and hind legs, until Violetta was struck with enough force to be sent crashing to the ground, this time he had already charged his breath, since the start of the struggle, the natural inscriptions on his neck had been shining, but now the light's color shifted from ominous one that more than shining, it seemed to emit darkness, but then it shifted to a bright and blazing red-orange, then dark breath with obsidian fragments was expelled, but a red-orange light is growing in the interior of the breath.

Violetta, who had been falling, saw this, frowned and realized, she couldn't evade it this time, so with her shield like before pointed to the breath, the dragon jaws tried to absorb the breath and thought it succeeded at first, the longer the times lasted, the hotter it became, even began to melting the shield that shaped like a dragon's head, though it the molten metal hadn't yet reached the part she was holding, she can sense the immense heat is the shield emanating, but she can't let it go even if she is sensing a penetrating pain, how she is doing now.

After that Violetta laughed loudly 'HAHAHAHA' and said: "This was entertaining sinful dragon, i have to admit, this was a really good fight, I didn't expect that you had a second breath, and the third use of the breath in the fight was that new breath, even more impressive, that new breath was able to destroy the Amethyst Devouring Dragon's Head, you are a worthy opponent even if you are a dirty trash, but the time to have fun is gone now."

Radu tried to attack various times in a row, but Violetta evaded each strike effortlessly, using flashing silver torrent, in a single instant she appeared above him as if she had appeared out of nowhere saying: "There's nothing you can do for evade this time, sinful dragon Radu Cel Frumos, this is it's your end."

Radu tries to run but Violetta which has removed her helmet smile to him saying: "Oh glorious Emerald God Dragon, by the treaty sealed by your loyal believer, cast your powerful gaze to see the fruits of the treaty, granting the most precious bless, that you can see her achievements!"

In the sky, two massive rifts appeared and then opened revealing a pair of colossal dragon eyes, each eye were divided vertically into one part emerald-colored and the other amethyst-colored with a black vertical slit pupil of a dragon that seemed to act as a crack separating the two parts and from which in the middle came out the golden hands of a clock, which turned as one, it had several golden symbols on the circular edges, which could easily be deduced that they were numbers, the eyes in the sky emating such powerful aura, that Radu couldn't avoid gets paralyzed.

In that moment Violetta pointed with her sword to Radu's heart brilliant in a cold voice said: "Spatial Perforator!" a terrifiying power was expelled toward Radu, he could see, he could see, how the death itself was coming for him.

The Spatial Perforator, despite its simple appearance which is a Amethysth-Violet circular line, moves with an extreme speed, soon the attack is pierced Radu's chest as if it were nothing, without encountering even a mote of resistance.

After that, Radu plunged into free fall, like a deflating balloon with air escaping from within. finally crashing sonorously in the ground, Violetta then landed beside him and heard his dying voice: "How? how a mortal can be such strong?, I don't understand."

Violetta replied: "There's many things we cannot understand, but I going to show you why." Then Violetta removed her chest plate, revealing her exuberant body that was covered by a cotton shirt.

With that a familiar aura can be sensed by Radu, with open eyes said: "This is... this is... a dragon bloodline!" Subsequently his eyes stopped in the neckline looking at the center of her chest, he could see a mark.

this time his eyes nearly popped out as he shouted in surprise said: "You are... you are a dragon descendant! you are the daughter of a dragon!, who is your father?!..." He tries to ask but suddenly, gets a realization, he saw this same symbol before, he has seen it in...

After that, Radu scared said: "Impossible, this cannot be, how... how do you exist!?, that person never had a descendant, you cannot be the daughter of..."

Violetta, even before Radu could finish his sentence, whispered: "Spatial Slash" An Amethyst-Violet slash in extreme fast, cuts Radu's head before he could pronounce her father's name, following that, she said: "I respect you like a worthy opponent, but a pigswill sinful dragon cannot pronounce his name."

After cutting off Radu's head, a mysterious artefact looking like a pendant or amulet or necklace which hanging the other side of her waist, illuminates briefly and fades just as quickly.

At that moment, a halfling woman finally caught up with Violetta. clearly worried for her safety, ran to her and hugged her, saying: "Young lady, are you alright?, are you alright?" Thereafter she started inspecting Violetta seeking potential injuries and other damages.

Next, she set her gaze at Violetta's destroyed shield and said: "Young lady the Amethyst Devouring Dragon is ruined!, the shield, made from the precious Amethyst Stellar Meteorite, is now gone." After that, she removed the shield from Violetta's arm and as if having a premonition also removed the gauntlet from Violetta revealing a heavily burned arm.

She screamed in concern: "Young lady, why? why don't you let go of the shield!?"

Violetta who had been quiet all this time, said: "Don't worry Lucia, I still have energy." Then concentrating energy in her chest, her mark started glistening and she said: "Oh, My emerald heart beat, beat strong!"

Following that, her arm started regenerating at high speed even faster than Radu's regeneration. Then, a great shadow rose from the behind, and a giant claw tried to attack Lucia, Violetta clearly furious, injected energy into her other arm and screamed: "Emerald Dragon Claw!"

A giant emerald-green energy claw grabbed the lifeless body of Radu and smashed it against the ground, producing a rumble. Violetta setting her gaze on Radu's liffeless body. next said to Lucia: "What strong vitality, even in death can he follow his instintics, fortunately the devourer core in the shield is intact, with this vitaly and regeneration, I had a perfect substitution for the Amethyst stellar Meteorite ore."

...

In the end, Violetta departed with Lucia to the little village, resuming her journey to accomplish her promise.

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