Chapter 421: Mud Elf
"On my mark, we jump," Reiko said as the final moment neared.
Akane, contrary to her general demeanor, had a serious look on her face. Underneath that facade, however, she was a mess of conflicting thoughts and emotions as she sorted out what she’d been asked to do.
Find a spot. Make a fort. Easy victory. She gulped. She’d never had an easy victory in her life. Especially not in any of the perennial clashes with the mage lords of her region. She’d even been nicknamed "Muda Elf" as a cruel pun in High East Rethani because all she was good for was playing in the mud - at least according to her commanders, siblings, and her mother’s councilors.
What if the dragon is too big though? What if it doesn’t take the bait? I’m too young to die!
"Jump!"
"W-wait-whoa!" Akane made panicked noises as she half-jumped half-stumbled through the portal leading out, mere minutes ahead of whatever phenomenon the cultists had unleashed after reaching their destination - the midpoint of the Path of Blood That Seeks Hell, a notoriously difficult dungeon that was the heart of her home city, Sahin.
It was a place for warriors to prove themselves... and the place where she’d only managed to confirm her cowardice.
The prospect of failing again twisted itself through her gut even before she fell face-first into the dirt outside the dungeon, rolling to a stop on her back against the stump of a felled tree.
She looked up and saw death.
A dragon larger than any other she’d ever seen, serpentine in a way she’d thought only existed in the symbols of Retha, stared down at her with one cruel eye.
"Oh gods! What am I supposed to do?! What were my orders? What were my orders?!"