Chapter 134: The Draconic Aura
"Keep them away!"
Terio sprinted across the training platform while the three squirrels chased him with relentless determination.
"I’m trying!"
"They won’t listen!"
Lara ran after them, tears welling in her eyes as she desperately tried to regain control of her babies, but nothing worked. It was as though they had forgotten she existed, no longer recognising the person they had always treated as their mother. She had never experienced anything like it, and the sight made her heart sink.
Worse still, the moment they broke free of her control, they turned their murderous intent toward her new friend.
’Please...’
’Please stop...’
No matter how hard she pleaded, the squirrels ignored her and continued hunting Terio.
’Shit.’
’I forgot how sensitive monsters are to my draconic aura.’
He had no one to blame but himself. Trying to impress Lara, he had forgotten the most obvious weakness of his ability.
As he fled, something caught his eye.
’The stick...’
’Will it work?’
It was the wooden stick Lara had been using to play with the squirrels before he interrupted her. She had casually tossed it aside, and the memory of the three happily chasing the dangling bait flashed through his mind.
’It’s missing the meat.’
He snatched it from the ground.
’Damn it.’
’Where am I supposed to find roasted meat now?’
His gaze swept across the area. Only one table still held a few raw cuts. The roasted meat had long since disappeared, mostly into the stomachs of the three beasts now trying to tear him apart.
"Stay back!"
"Now!"
There was no more time to hesitate. The squirrels were frighteningly fast, nearly cornering him several times already. If this continued, escape would become impossible.
’If this fails...’
’I’m sorry.’
’I’ll have to kill them.’
Against ordinary monsters, even three C-Grades, he would not have hesitated. His flames could wound them gravely, perhaps even reduce them to ash.
But these monsters belonged to Lara. He had no desire to watch her lose her babies.
"Are you sure?"
Lara froze when he shouted at her. Seeing his firm nod, she reluctantly stepped back. Then she watched him pull out a Mana Crystal.
The moment she saw it, panic seized her heart.
’Please... come back to me...’
She knew exactly what he intended to do. Against Terio’s flames, her babies stood little chance of surviving.
She begged them until her voice nearly broke, but they never slowed.
The next moment, Terio came to an abrupt stop and unleashed a roaring torrent of orange fire, engulfing nearly a hundred meters around him.
The three squirrels finally halted.
"Come to Mama."
"Come here."
Hope surged inside Lara as she saw they had stopped outside the sea of flames. She called to them again and again.
Yet nothing happened.
The squirrels remained motionless, staring only at Terio, as though they could neither see nor remember their mother.
"Lara... Your babies are going to get hurt! Call them back!"
"What happened here?"
"Is that Terio?"
"This fire..."
Cher, Silas, Darius, and Alfred rushed out from their separate meetings as soon as the commotion echoed across the floating platform. They had all heard the shouting and screams, and every one of them emerged with the same thought.
They thought they were under attack.
Instead, they found themselves staring at a scene so bizarre that they froze in place. An orange sea of flames engulfed a part of the platform, while three enraged squirrels darted through it with unmistakable hostility.
"It’s Terio..."
"Please help him..."
"Please don’t kill my babies..."
The moment she saw Cher, Lara finally broke down. She collapsed onto the ground, her body trembling uncontrollably as tears streamed down her ashen white face. Relief, fear, and helplessness all crashed over her at once.
"Stay back!"
Terio’s shout echoed from within the flames, stopping everyone in their tracks. A heartbeat later, the fire vanished as abruptly as it had appeared.
Terio stood at its centre, gripping the long wooden stick, now covered with several chunks of roasted meat tied along its shaft. As he swung it from side to side, the three squirrels instantly snapped out of their frenzy and leapt after the dangling meat, trying desperately to snatch a bite.
Terio finally let out a long sigh of relief, though he never lowered his guard.
’Time to repay the torment you put me through, you bastards.’
A grin spread across his face as he sprinted away again, deliberately making it as difficult as possible for the squirrels to catch the meat.
"Can someone explain what is going on?"
The others stared in bewilderment.
Only moments ago, Lara had made it seem as though Terio’s life hung by a thread. Now it looked as if he were simply playing with her beloved babies.
Leaving Terio to his game, they hurried toward Lara instead. Cher knelt beside her and gently rubbed her back.
Although her babies had returned to normal and Terio was clearly unharmed, Lara couldn’t calm herself. The terror of the past few minutes still gripped her so tightly that her body continued trembling, tears refused to stop, and for several long moments she couldn’t utter a single word.
"It was Terio’s ability."
Darius finally answered Silas, though the weight behind his words suggested there was far more he wasn’t saying.
"That fire wasn’t ordinary."
Alfred spoke with an unusually troubled expression.
"It carried a draconic aura."
His words immediately drew everyone’s attention.
"You all know my ability lets me cover my upper body with draconic scales."
He paused, his eyes following Terio as the youngster continued tormenting the squirrels with the meat-covered stick.
"That is why I can tell his ability is also connected to dragons."
Silence settled over the group.
"He..." Alfred hesitated before quietly finishing, "...is like me."
The strange weight behind those words escaped everyone except Cher. A conflicted expression crossed her face as she looked at Alfred.
"You don’t mean he also came from your... place?"
She deliberately avoided mentioning the lab, but Alfred understood her meaning immediately.
"I’ve never seen him before."
Alfred was certain he would have remembered an orange-haired boy like Terio. His answer, however, only deepened Cher’s curiosity and confusion.
"We need to talk."
As everyone watched the chaotic spectacle unfolding outside, Cher and Silas turned toward each other and spoke at the exact same moment.
The coincidence drew a few puzzled glances, but Alfred and Darius immediately understood what it meant. During the two meetings, both Silas and Cher had uncovered too many secrets, and each now carried pieces of the truth the other had yet to hear.
’He’s going to tell her...’
Darius watched the two walk away, his expression clouded with uncertainty.
’I told him he could reveal my secret to anyone.’
’What truly worries me is what she’ll do once she learns about that thing.’
His gaze drifted toward Terio, and the memory of that orange fire resurfaced alongside a cascade of fragmented visions that appeared without warning.
A few moments later, a faint smile formed on his lips.
’Perhaps the situation isn’t as hopeless as I feared...’
Alfred, on the other hand, had already guessed what Cher intended to discuss with Silas, yet it no longer mattered to him. He had made peace with his past long before entering the academy, and the thought of others learning the truth meant little, so long as Cher did not seek revenge.
’That Terio...’
There was another matter occupying his thoughts far more than anything else.
’How does he possess draconic fire breath?’
"Do you know what kind of ability he used?"
Having arrived only after the flames had begun to fade, Alfred had seen too little to judge for himself. He turned toward Lara, who had finally recovered enough to stand while watching Terio play with her three squirrels.
"Is he a Hunter or a mage?"
Darius asked as well. His visions had revealed nothing about Terio’s profession.
"He is an Elementalist."
The answer caught both of them by surprise.
Lara slowly described everything she had witnessed, explaining how Terio unleashed wave after wave of blazing fire and how devastating each surge had looked.
Meanwhile, Silas followed Cher into the shuttle. It was the same place where she had questioned Alfred, and he offered no objection.
The moment the door closed behind them, she spoke without waiting for either of them to sit.
"I heard what Alfred told me about Darius’ ability."
Cher momentarily.
"An ability that sees the darker side of the future... It’s unlike anything I’ve ever heard of."
She had already learned what Darius revealed to Alfred, and hearing that vague revelation only made her more eager to understand more.
"I also need to tell you something about Alfred’s past."
For a brief moment, her thoughts returned to that tragic night.
"And..."
"I need to tell you something about myself as well."
"In a way... it’s connected to Alfred’s past."
She steadied herself almost immediately. Ever since deciding to let Alfred leave the past behind, she had resolved to tell Silas everything.
Yet as she looked at him, she realised he had not spoken a single word since entering the shuttle.
"Why are you so quiet?"
Silas finally raised his eyes.
"The dragon blood we obtained..."
"It’s cursed."
"We need to decide what we’re going to do with it."
The revelation struck Cher like a bolt of lightning, eclipsing even the shock she had felt after discovering Alfred’s connection to the lab.