*Credit to Metal Pen for the original story and thank you for letting me adopt it*

Hey everyone as you can tell I took a little break from working on this due to school and other stuff going on, but I am going to make more of an effort on this. If some of you do remember the original then you can already see where the story differs from the one written by Metal Pen. I will be trying to get an update out at least once a week over the weekend maybe two depending on school work. I might get a chapter out throughout the week like I said it really depends on how busy I am with schooling. Anyway Happy new year everyone and please enjoy!

Chapter 10 – No Man

Multitudes of sounds could all be distinctly heard each from their own locations, all of which were being picked up indiscriminately by the ears of the Dragon. Some were whispering as to why their mistress was walking alongside a male, others spoke in hushed tones of the boy's identity, and yet the most intriguing sound to reach his ears was the almost deafening silence that came along with stares of disbelief from the eldest hunters who stood apart from the rest.

Thalia, a face he knew all too well, stood next to some other hunters that Percy was sure he recognized, however their names escaped him. Thebes and Atlantis? No, that wasn't right, he knew that they both sounded like cities but were spelt differently, or that was at least what he thought it was.

"Phoebe, Atlanta, perimeter check. Thalia, firewood. We'll explain everything once we're all set." Artemis ordered at the speed of light. The other two hunters, Phoebe and Atlanta, not Thebes and Atlantis, immediately got onto their given tasks. Thalia trailed her eyes for a few seconds before she too forced herself away from the ghost in front of her.

It had been three years since they'd seen each other and now she wasn't really sure about how she was supposed to react upon seeing one of her closest friends returning.

Artemis had turned her head ever so slightly and had been about to ask Percy something but found herself caught up when she saw that his dazzling emerald eyes were already firmly awaiting her command. This was her territory, and territory was something that Dragons respected. In her domain, he would answer to her and her alone. Before Artemis had actually been able to say a word, Thalia had returned with a stack of wood that most wouldn't assume someone of her build to be capable of carrying, but that was one of the many perks of being a hunter of Artemis.

Thalia dumped the pile of logs into a stone pit that was covered with ashes of previous fires. They all knew the drill at this point. Percy looked around stoically, the scent that he'd briefly picked up from Atlanta and Phoebe was getting stronger, which meant that they were already finishing their perimeter check and would soon be back. Now all they needed was for the fire to be built and Artemis could go on to explain what was going to happen.

Percy stepped forwards slightly. He wasn't sure why they were even going to build a fire, as judging by the shadows being cast down from the sun, it was noon at best. It was possibly a little cold for the hunters to be sat around listening to Artemis' debriefing for any prolonged period of time though, Percy wasn't sure, he was never good at judging temperatures anymore, not since the core of his body began to beat with the heart and soul of a Dragon. His own body temperature kept him warm in nearly any climate.

With a quick huff of breath, flames spewed out of his mouth and lashed around the logs in the fire pit, setting them aflame which caused a pleasurable wave of heat to engulf the three of them who stood around it.

"So yeah, long story short, I'm a Dragon now, Thalia." Percy told her with a well hidden façade of smugness cast out from a side glance in her direction. Thalia merely smiled as she looked on with her arms folded.

"I don't know what I was expecting but it's you, so nothing really surprises me anymore." She announced before grabbing him and pulling him into a tight hug. "I'm just glad that you're safe. You could have asked any of us for help, you know we wouldn't have hesitated." She promised him.

Artemis looked on from behind neutral eyes as her lieutenant hugged someone that she'd come to find herself wanting for herself. Artemis was a master of disguise though and not even Thalia would have been able to detect the smallest hints of annoyance that the Goddess got from seeing Percy in the arms of another.

The day stretched on before them as Artemis went on to explain to all of her hunters exactly what had been happening.

"So, long story short, while he's still a male, I highly doubt you could class him in the same boat as the rest of them." Artemis had explained, looking around from face to face. She seemed to have persuaded most of them save for only a few faces of doubt here and there. She didn't expect them all to just immediately believe her.

"The soul of a Dragon sounds like just some fancy title that you thought up while you were missing. So you can breath fire now, what's to say that you didn't just stumble upon something that allowed you to do that? You're just the same as every other male that tries to get one up on the world." Phoebe announced with folded arms. She held the faintest trace of a smirk on her lips. Percy's ears picked up the individual tones within her voice. He was pretty sure that she was testing him, that she didn't really harbour any hatred towards him but that she just wanted to bait him out.

Percy grinned ever so slightly, "I know you're playing me, but I'll do what you want." He laughed ever so slightly before getting up from his log perch. He held out his arms for a few seconds before the skin turned rough and scaly. It was tinted azure which began darkening at the speed of light before it settled on a hue of green that was so shiny and vibrant that you would have believed him to have pure emeralds stuck against one another to form his skin.

Long grey claws erupted from his fingers to form the talons of a Dragon that rested carefully at the tips of his hands. The transformation ran the entire length of his now muscle bound arm. They all stared in complete shock. "At the very core concept of my existence, I am no longer even remotely Human. I'm barely even still considered a Demigod. I am completely a Dragon, even physically. This is just the body I use when hunting down anything lesser than an Ancient Dragon." A few more seconds passed before his arm shrunk back down to the way it was before, his skin returning to a casual tan.

"If we were ever going to make an exception for someone to be accepted in the presence of our Hunt, I think someone classified as no man is the best man." Thalia grinned, getting the approval from nearly everyone in the Hunt.

"With all due respect to all of you, even if you didn't accept me and still tried to kill me, you'd be at it for a while, because disregarding the fact that I literally hunt down Ancient Dragons, I am just as immortal as Lady Artemis." He told them all slowly.

"That doesn't mean that we can't have fun an-" Atlanta had never had the chance to finish. Within the blink of an eye, Percy's body had become a blur to all of them. His face stopped short only inches from hers, the wind blew her long brown hair back in a furious cascade of whipping ends. She looked stunned and in horror as her eyes were locked onto his fierce gaze, but he wasn't looking at her. He had one hand on her shoulder, the other arm reached far past her head. She could already tell that his sword was in his hand from the way that even the air being displaced next to her face had felt hot when it caressed her cheek.

"Take another step and I'll devour your soul." Percy's voice growled viscously. With the hand that was on Atlanta's shoulder, he pulled her from in front of him and safely put her behind his back. All of the Hunters and Artemis herself had their bows drawn, strangely they weren't drawn at Percy for his sudden outburst but at the line of trees that the Dragon himself was now facing. They didn't know what had set him off but they were putting their trust in him already.

There was a pause of silence before a chuckle filled the air, it was slow and dry, meant to tease those who stood before it. Out of the cover of the trees that Atlanta and Phoebe had been propped up against, a slender man with extremely pale yet not unhealthy looking skin, had stepped out. Now in full view, Percy's sword lowered by only a few degrees when recognition flittered across his face.

"Heavenly Dragon, Icewyre." Percy announced through gritted teeth. This wasn't a good sign. The Heavenly Dragon was the right hand of Ddraig, said to be tied as the second most powerful Ancient Dragon there was, rivaled only by the Hell Dragon, Azyat, who worked as the left hand of Ddraig, so to speak.

"The old man said that you were good but I wasn't expecting you to be able to sense me in what is essentially a completely Human body. Damn man, you're something else, not looking forward to the day you decide to take my head." His laidback tone betrayed the meaning of his words that his challenging gaze of icy eyes suggested.

He casually ran a hand through his short dirty blond hair as he reassessed the situation. "So, I didn't want to catch you in the company of these Hunters, they shouldn't ever be subjected to the horrors of drake politics but unfortunately it didn't look like you were about to depart any time soon." Icewyre shrugged casually.

"The old man knows of your plan, just as he knows of our corruption. The lesser Dragons all call YOU the defiler, but us Ancients... We know better than that. You could be our saviour for all we know." He continued. Icewyre propped himself up against a tree, folding his arms and staring into the distance. Percy glanced at Artemis for a split second before putting his sword back into it's scabbard in his coat. If this Dragon decided to attack, then he wouldn't need his silver sword to kill him.

Artemis lowered her own bow but didn't stop the rest of the hunt from aiming theirs. "You can feel it, can't you?" Percy asked, cocking his head to the side slightly. Both Dragons looked at one another as the question hung in the air.

"Yes. It runs in my blood like a boiling fire. Not such a bad thing for a normal Dragon, but I'm the only living Heavenly Dragon. We're born of Ice, defiler, not fire." Icewyre told him with a heavy look of agony in his tired eyes.

"You're fighting against it, just as Azazel and Mirroth did." Percy hummed quietly. He knew full well that no matter how quietly he spoke, a fellow Dragon would always be able to hear him.

"Azazel was the Dragon of Death, he knew perfectly well just how deep this corruption has been sown. He refused to live with Ddraig in the oncoming days, he KNEW that you were coming and he accepted that. He told Ddraig that if you could kill him, that he would rest his soul in your hands, waiting for the day that he would come back with a free mind. The same went for Mirroth, though she was just incredibly stubborn sometimes, so I'm not really sure what actually happened with her. Pretty savage to be carrying her spine around with you though." Icewyre seemed initially disturbed with his last sentence but it passed as he shrugged.

"You've all banded together with Ddraig? All eight remaining Ancients?" Percy asked, seeing the possible end to his mission if Ddraig was willing to help him.

"There aren't eight remaining Ancients you dope, there's ten. There are eight Ancients including Ddraig where we're holed up though and that's the best you're ever going to be able to hope for. You didn't really think about the curse this box has put upon you, have you? The two you've slain so far, the other eight that you're aware of, then there's you, an Ancient Dragon in your own right, but then... Well, I guess nobody ever told you about Naia, huh?" Icewyre looked uncomfortable. He never expected that he'd be the one to explain Naia to the defiler.

"Straight over my head." Percy admitted. His hand begun to itch at the mere mention of the name. It just sent a chill running straight down his spine, who the hell was Naia and why did his heart beat angrily at the mention of it?

"You're the second person to be cursed by Pandora's Box. You're the second Dragon Hunter to have been reborn as an Ancient Dragon, Naia was the first, and when she finds you... I don't know what will happen. " Icewyre shrugged yet again. He was a pretty carefree Dragon but that wasn't going to let Percy become too lax around him. The emerald Dragon knew exactly how well these Ancients could hide their true intentions.

"Naia would slaughter us all without reserve, YOU want to save our race. Ddraig is willing to meet with you on peaceful grounds. You already know where we are, so until then, farewell." The Heavenly Dragon waved behind him as he walked off into the darkness of the woods. It was a few minutes of silence as Percy continued to stare down the throat of the tree-line before a great white Dragon soared above the trees and high into the sky.

Artemis had said nothing so far and she wasn't sure what she COULD say. He was supposed to be unique in his existence, forever alone to walk the paths of time, forced to kill his own race, but to hear that there was another? A pang of immense jealously struck Artemis like a bolt of lightning.

"Hmm." Percy hummed to himself under his breath. That was a lot to take in but he could at least push everything about this Naia to the back of his mind while he focused on preparing to go and meet with Ddraig. That could help him immeasurably if the Ancients were willing to go along with his plan.

Why did it feel like his Dragon soul inside burnt with rage, igniting his body as if it were on fire, solely at the mention of that name? Naia...