Chapter 20
Death to the Old Dragons & Rise of the New Dragons
It has been months now since Aaron and the JSDF have entered into Falmart. Yao Ro Dushi, a dark elf of the Dushi Clan and of Schwartz Forest, has finally approached the base in hopes of seeking help to defeat the Flame Dragon and avenge her people. Who have been burned alive by that dragon. She carries the most sacred treasure of the Dark Elves of Schwartz which would be payment enough along with her services. However, once there, Lelei translated for her and tells her that the JSDF won't help her predicament since the Schwartz Forest is outside of the Empire and part of the Elbe Kingdom. But Aaron intervene and tells them that the Elba Kingdom is actually part of an alliance with the empire. Not to mention that the crown prince is unable to solve this problem due to his incompetents.
And so, the lieutenant general approves, and the 3rd Recon along with Aaron go straight towards the Schwartz Forest with Tuka, Rory, and Lelei in tow. Not to mention the heavy armaments needed to kill the Flame Dragon. And on the side note, Yao swears herself to Itami.
They drove their jeeps across the land to get to Schwartz Forest. Aaron is using his stone to secretly tell someone about what he is doing via telepathy. In the meantime, the group have a bit of a conversation.
"I am so glad you're helping me and my people." Yao expresses her gratitude as the JSDF and others are willing to help.
"You shouldn't, really." Itami looks back at her with a smile. "We are the Self-Defense Force who cares. Doing humanitarian reliefs is what we do."
Although Sgt. Takeo Kurata is a little unsure. "Are you sure about this sir? I mean that is a lot of firepower."
Itami then turns his attention to Kurata with a serious look. "In case you forgotten, we almost got roasted alive by that thing. 50 calibers didn't event made a scratch on that thing. We had to use an RPG to take out its arm. Not to mention that Aaron in is disguise managed to chop off its tail with one strike."
"Yeah. But if we have him, then we do we have so many explosives if he can kill a dragon with a single sword attack?"
"It is to help the villagers. If we arm them, we at least give them a fighting chance."
"While we're at it, how about we armed chimpanzees with flamethrowers? That will work out just fine." His tone sounds a little more sarcastic than normal.
Itami laughs at the sergeant's sarcasm. "I get your point. But if we help them out and teach them on how to use them properly, it will work out just fine."
Takeo gave a disapproval sigh. "I swear lieutenant, you are too damn relaxed. You know that?"
After a few hours, the team has arrived at the dark elves' home. What is left of them are still recovering from the Flame Dragon attack and still wear their bandages. Some of them are trying to do their best to live a normal life, but it is hard with such wounds. One of the surviving children ran up to the adults and tell them the good news.
"HEY EVERYONE!" the child shouted. "YAO DID IT! SHE BROUGHT THE GREEN ONES TO US! WE ARE SAVED!"
"The green ones are here?!" says a surprised elder dark elf.
A female dark elf then says with tears of joy, "Yao did it! She brought them!"
The convoy stopped and the dark elves ran up to them. Many of them shake the 3rd Recon Unit's hands as a sign of gratitude that they showed up in their time of need. With that out of the way, the 3rd Recon started teaching them how to use the new weapons to defend themselves when the Flame Dragon returns. Aaron even tell them that Giselle is responsible for the Flame Dragon's release because she wanted to create hybrids with both the Flame and Water Dragon. Not to mention that she is also practicing Hardy's natural selection with the dragon. Because of this information, they now hate Hardy and disowned her.
A few days have passed and the dark elves quickly learned on how to use the rocket launchers. Yet what they don't realize is that Aaron has a plan in motion and it on its way. On the night of the fifth day, the Flame Dragon finally appeared. However, its tail looks like it is starting to grow back along with its arm and both eyes are open with the arrow removed. Despite this, they are ready to take it down.
"EVERYONE, FIRE!" Itami signal everyone to fire their rockets.
Everyone started firing at the healing Flame Dragon. Rockets are shot right at the target as Aaron uses his own rocket launcher. A quintuple rocket launcher with infra-red sights, thermite rockets that ran reduce the dragon's scales to molten substances, lock-on targeting computer, and railgun functionality to give the rockets an extra boost in speed. Aaron fires all five shots at the dragon at super sonic speed.
Unfortunately, the dragon managed to dodge all five shots.
"What the-?" Aaron is actually surprised that the dragon managed to dodge rockets that are going 6,700 mph. (That is the combine speed of the railgun and rocket going off.) And that of the regular rockets. "How the fuck did it dodge that?! I had it locked on and everything!" He then uses magical detection to see how did it dodge so fast.
"TAKE COVER!" Itami ordered. The Flame Dragon spews out its fiery breath down on the unit and the dark elves. Luckily, everyone got out of the way.
After Aaron finishes scanning the beast, he did found out that it has been given a temporal magical ability. But that is not all he is detecting. The beast is given a mechanical eye where the wounded eye was and to make matters worse, nanomachines. The reason for the healing is because there are thousands of microscopic machines coursing through its veins.
"How the fuck?" Aaron is surprise to see the advance tech and magic in the ancient beast. "This isn't good." But then starts to smirk, "But this is a good challenge. HEY ITAMI!"
Itami is behind a tree with a rocket launcher, "WHAT IS IT?!" He yelled out.
"GOOD NEWS IS THAT I KNOW WHY THE DRAGON IS WHAT IT IS NOW! THE BAD NEWS IS THAT IT IS GIVEN A MECHANICAL EYE, NANOMACHINES, AND A TEMPORAL ABILITY! SOMEONE GAVE THIS THING MY TECH!"
"WHAT!?" Itami shouts in surprise.
"I'M GONNA NEED SOME TIME TO PARALYZE AND REMOVE THEM! CAN YOU KEEP IT DISTRACTED! IN CASE YOU'RE WONDERING WHY, IT IS BECAUSE GETTING RID OF EVERY SINGLE NANOMACHINE TAKES TIME! IF I DON'T, THEN IT WILL RESURRECT ITSELF WHEN WE KILL IT! EVEN WITH MAGIC!"
"ALRIGHT BUT MAKE IT QUICK! THIS THING IS PLENTY ANGRY!" Itami then reloads his rocket launcher. "Man, this sucks." he mutters to himself. "I can't believe I volunteer to do this."
The Flame Dragon then set the whole forest a blaze, hoping that the heat and smoke will draw out anyone. Everyone started firing again while Lelei uses her magic to strike it down while Tuka uses her new compound bow. Rory charges right at the dragon with her weapon. She jumps up in the air as she is ready to swing her axe at the Flame Dragon's right knee. Unfortunately, all she gets is a large 'DING' sound and no damage.
"Are you kidding me?!" Rory is upset that she doesn't do any damage.
Itami notice how Rory's attack didn't work. "Guess those nanites cause the scales to become harder than ever. Ain't that a bitch." He aims his rocket launcher and fires. He missed of course because of the temporal ability.
Aaron focuses on all his energy to not only destroy the nanites, but reprograms them to paralyze the Flame Dragon to make it easier to kill. Everyone is doing their best to distract the beast with only a few rounds of their launchers. But the creature keeps on dodging every single shot and bounces Rory off every time. Rory becomes frustrated and started aiming for the parts that are already chopped (or blown) off. But the exposed flesh is just as hard as well just like the scales.
A few minutes later, the dragon has finally become paralyzed.
"SHOOT IT NOW!" Itami screamed. Everyone fired all the rockets they have left at the ancient beast that breaths flames of the inferno.
They shoot at its wings first so it wouldn't get away. They shoot at the good arm so it won't crawl away. They even shoot at the legs so it wouldn't run away. Shino Kurobayashi even grabbed Aaron's rocket launcher to fire at the thing. But due to the weight and recoil, she dislocated her shoulder.
"FUCK!" she screamed. "I hope that was worth it!"
The rockets she fired struck the beast. However, it is still not enough to bring it down. The scales are hard enough to withstand high temperatures, even thermite which is hotter than lava. The dragon then looks at Tuka who is just standing there and in horror. Tuka's PTSD starts to take over her mind as she have flashes of her memories of her father facing the Flame Dragon. Tuka is completely paralyzed as the dragon stare down at her. It slowly opens its mouth to burn her alive as hot glowing flames start to become visible through its teeth. That is, until an arrow was fired and gotten to its organic eye.
The dragon withhold its breath as it roars in pain. Then a mysterious figure comes out of the shadows and yanked her away as the dragon breaths down fire. What happens next is a yellow energy beam from the skies at the dragon's left wing.
"What was that?" Takeo looks up at the direction of the energy beam.
Everyone then looks up and see some wyverns that aren't native to the world with people in some strange armor they never seen before.
In the air, one of the armored figures in red and scaly armor yells, "DRAGON FLYZ! MAXIMIZE!" while riding on the dragon Smog.
"FLIGHT, IS MIGHT!"
Some of them aimed their wrist-mounted lasers at the beast and started firing. Some of the dragons use energy beam breaths on the dragon and started putting some holes in the Flame Dragon.
Now for some lore: Dragon Flyz. A combination of Dragonators of Dragon Flyz, Dragon Riders from Eragon, and Dragonborns from Elder Scrolls. They are the elite organization of warriors and knights that protect the Feudal Systems and some born from post-apocalyptic worlds. Similar to the Space Marines and their death worlds. Gifted with both magic and strength, many believe that they are blessed by the Lord Sovereign himself and are sworn to protect the weak. Bring justice to the unjust. And are pure and noble to their very hearts, no matter what race they are. They are the very definition of honorable knights. During the early stages of training, they seek out a dragon egg that will be their life-long partners. The way to tell is the mark on the back of their right hands that will glow when their partner is near.
Now back to the story. Aaron finally got rid of every single nanite in the Flame Dragon's body as the Dragon Flyz obliterated what is left of it. Leaving only seared flesh and red scales from the obliteration. The red armored Dragon Fly jumps from his mount and extends his wings then proceeds tom land.
"You guys are a little late." Aaron says to the red rider captain.
"Forgive me, sir." the rider slams his fist on his chest and bow his head. "We have no excuses for our delay."
"Well..." Aaron then looks at the charred remains of the Flame Dragon. "At least you guys did the job. Not to mention that I had to use up most of my time to destroy the nanites. Speaking of which..." he then turns his attention to the captain. "Did anyone find out who or why the Flame Dragon is enhanced."
"It was stolen, sir. By Giselle, the apostle. She managed to steal some of the tech and found out their purposes."
"I see."
While the two are having a conversation, Tuka then sees the face of the person who saved her. Her eyes widen in surprise as the light of the moon reveals his face and sees someone very familiar.
"...Father?"
That is right. It is Hodor Ray Marceau. Tuka's father who has a bit of a seared left ear that isn't all too bad, but is alive and well.
"Father!" Tuka gave him a huge hug and hold him tightly as tears stream down from her face.
Her father hug her back. "It is alright, my daughter. I am glad to see you too." He also shed tears of joy for seeing his daughter again.
That is that. The Flame Dragon is defeated, the dark elves rejoice as they harvest it (what is left of it), and Tuka is reunited with her father. Everyone wins! But, there is more to come.
It is late morning, around eleven the next day, in Romalia as Tyule is busy shopping for a new outfit for herself. She sees all kinds of outfits that she only seen a few times that are different from what she normally sees. As she window shops, she sees Noriko running towards her.
"What is wrong?" Tyule asked as Noriko tries to catch her breath.
"Were you in a carriage today?" she asked in a serious tone.
"Huh?"
"I just saw you in a carriage with some maids on your way to the castle!"
Tyule is confuse. "Which castle? There is like a hundred of them."
Noriko then pointed at the large castle at the center of the town. "That one!" She is pointing at Aaron's castle.
They head towards the castle and see the carriage go through the cast iron gates. The two try to run towards it but the gates close automatically. Because of that, they have to watch while hiding behind the brick fence posts. They watch as the carriage door is open by Sebastian. What they see next is something that surprise them completely. It is another Tyule, but with a swollen belly and dress like a noble woman.
"The holy hell?" Tyule says quietly to herself as she sees another Tyule.
"She looks just like you." Noriko whispers to Tyule.
"But that can't be! I'm right here! Must be a look a like. I heard there are small chances of people looking identical to you."
Sebastian bows to Tyule along with the look-a-likes of Persia, Mamina, Delilah with also pregnant bellies. "Welcome back, ladies Tyule, Persia, Mamina, and Delilah. I hope you had a pleasant journey."
Tyule then gives an extremely shocked expression for what she just heard. "Are you kidding me?!" Her whispers were a little louder than before but luckily they didn't hear.
"Just what is going on?!"
"I don't know, but I am completely creeped out now! We should find out when the opportunity arrives."