Chapter 1: To kill a Dragon
They were always the first to die, the assassins.
With their thin daggers and false confidence, they crept close, certain that a sleeping Dragon was an easy target. They never got the chance to land a strike. They never learned. They always burned.
This one was no different.
An old man this time, black tangled hair falling across a face that was hardened by years of hunting. His boots made no sound as he glided across the rough floor of the crumbling flying ship. Kaedros’s ship.
If not for the scent of musty, dry, human, the Dragon would never have noticed him.
Kaedros kept still on his bed of scorched treasure, pretending to sleep. He masked the glow in his eyes and clutched his technique tighter in the depths of his mind. The moment the dagger glinted in the dark, coated in faint blue poison, Kaedros was ready.
As the blade slashed down, just inches from his jaw, he released the technique.
Mana tore through the air with thunderous force, blasting the old man back. He struck the flying ship wall with a sickening crunch, skull bursting on impact. Red mist painted the stone.
Kaedros rose slowly, red eyes glowing with irritation.
Shouts echoed from the entrance of the ruined flying ship. The rest of the Ascendant bounty hunters were charging in. Four now, missing their scout. A mage, a healer, a warrior, and a knight. Standard formation. Nothing surprising.
He hated them.
Ascendant. Always the same. Like cockroaches.