King Explosion Murder the Shield Hero

by BKL777

This is the story of hero in training Katsuki Bakugou being transported into the world of Melromarc and is the new cardinal shield hero in their darkest time of need. Bakugou will go on many new adventures in this fantasy world to become their world's greatest hero whether they want him to or not.

8. Chapter 8: Gaelion

Chapter 8: Gaelion

Erhard the blacksmith has been cleaning up his new creations as of late at his store counter. Due to the high demand for weapons lately by the waves, business has been plentiful, so he had been at work more often then usual. But today was a slow day so he finally had the time to polish his merchandise making them look great for potential customers.

But he then heard his doorbell go off and quickly turned around to start business again, "Greetings welcom...Whoa! What the hell!?" Erhard shouted in shock once he sees a large Dragon barely able to fit through his store door.

Before he could wonder where this thing came from, he quickly figured it out when he looked behind and saw Cardinal Shield Hero Bakugou and his elf sidekick Neia next to him.

Erhard calmed down but he did roll his eyes, "You seem to always bring in the strangest things don't you, first a supposed extinct elf and now a big domesticated Dragon. I hate to know whats next after this."

Kirishima was mostly sniffing around the various armors and weapons as his master/father Bakugou talks to the unsurprised Blacksmith, "Look baldy I just want some dragon accessories and maybe some advice in why the hell my dragon grew 20 times his size in a few seconds."

Erhard answered him quickly, "Sorry, I only create and sell weapons to humans or humanoid creatures like demi-humans and your elf friend. And I don't know anything about dragons."

Neia then spoke up, "Well where can we find that stuff at then?"

"Your best bet is probably going to go to Mr. Beloukas down the street, he is the expert on beasts and has the equipment you can buy from.. HEY! HEY! Don't eat that!" Erhard shouts toward Kirishima who had a shield in his mouth as Erhard rush's over to rip it off with Kirishima holding on to it and not letting go.

But Bakugou didn't pay attention as he was trying to remember the name, he had been through this city multiple times and can't remember any merchant with that name who provides that kind of service. He then turns to the two fighting wanting the shopkeeper's attention again, "Kirishima spit it out now!" he ordered his dragon.

Kirishima immediately responds and let's go, sending Erhard off to ground on his butt, he got his shield back but it was now covered in dragon drool, "Great and I just had it cleaned too." Erhard complains now looking mad at the dragon who just stares back with his yellow reptilian eyes.

Bakugou then got back on topic, "So who in the hell is this Beloukas asshole and where is he at?"

Erhard sighs and got back up as he attempted to get some of the drool off his merchandise, "You can't miss his shop, it's that giant tent with all the cages and stuff."

Bakugou looking irritated quickly knew who he was talking about and he didn't like it, "Don't tell me it's that little midget slave trader piece of shit isn't it?!"

Erhard puts the shield on his counter as he answers back to Bakugou, "Yeah, but he also deals with stuff involving monsters and whatnot. Your probably not the biggest fan of slavery which I don't blame you, but I mean if you think about it, a battle monster or a domesticated animal is basically a slave to a human so it fits his business well."

While he knew Erhard had a point Bakugou still hated the idea of comparing his dragon pet to a slave.

"Well Sir Bakugou there's no harm in at least looking into it, though if you don't mind I think I will remain here to help sir Erhard out while you are doing that, I...uh think we owe him after messing up his shield." Neia says and excuses, she still had bad feelings with anything to do with slavery after she nearly got enslaved herself a few weeks ago, so she wanted to sit out on that.

Bakugou didn't like it either but he knew he didn't have much of a choice anyway and Neia wasn't necessary to bring along anyway, so he turns back out the door, "Fine Blue I'll meet you back here hopefully soon. Come on Kirishima let's just meet that piece of human garbage and get this over with." He turns and he and Kirishima left the shop.

Erhard himself continues to wipe off the drool covered shield with Neia helping him out with other things.

After some walking in town Kirishima and Bakugou made it to the large slave trader tent where they walk inside, seeing many different enslaved demi-humans locked up in cages.

It was quite the sad sight, so many of these demi-humans are forced to live inside these cramped cages to eventually be sold off to God knows where, as property. Bakugou knew he had to end this eventually and he promises himself he'll do it before he heads home.

Eventually, the two found the slave trader Mr. Beloukas, he had just finished up with another customer buying slave equipment and quickly noticed Bakugou and his dragon.

The man walks up to him with a big smile like you see from a car dealership salesman, happy to see his hopefully next customer, "Well well, look who it is, the Cardinal Shield Hero welcome back, you finally decided to come to my business after so long. Step right up and I shall show you our best merchandise." Beloukas the Slaver excitedly announced now recognizing Bakugou who didn't look amused.

"Listen here you midget, I'm not here to buy slaves from your slimy hands! I just want you to take a look at my dragon and tell me all you know about him and his species, and then me and him are out of here!" Bakugou yells at the guy who still had his grin.

"Very well shield hero. If your willing to pay the 100 silvers fee I'll examine your beast and tell you what I know. And if you wish to make him stronger I could interest you to some equipment that would be perfect for this lovely and valuable creature" the slaver bargains with Bakugou as he looks at his dragon.

Bakugou quickly reaches out and tosses him a coin bag, "Fine whatever here you go, just get it over with."

"Well alright then let's examine the beast." the slaver grins.

"And don't you dare harm him! If I find out you are abusing him like you do with your slaves I'm going to be the one whipping your ass off!"

The trader continued to do his smug businessman smile, "Don't worry shield hero, I promise to not harm your property as much as possible."

After about half an hour the slaver and several servants who were covered up head to toe in robes had helped examine the dragon to find out about his mysterious growth spurt and any other knowledge that could help develop Kirishima.

Once out of the locked cage Kirishima, the slaver came up to Bakugou to tell him what he found out about his dragon who was quite docile the whole time.

"This is quite fascinating, I didn't think I have ever seen one myself in person at this stage of its life." the slaver says out loud to himself.

"What the hell are you talking about midget?" Bakugou demanded to know as he checks around his dragon to be sure he wasn't being physically abused.

"Why young man you have gotten yourself a pure-blood Fire Wyvern dragon." The slaver excitedly told him, 'They are said to be some of the most powerful dragon breeds in all of the land, very rare but also very hard to control like most pure-bloods are, I'm surprised how tamed this one is." he continued.

"Ok whatever, so why did he suddenly get so big?" Bakugou demanded

"They say that some pure-bloods can change their size once they reach a certain level and age, either through there own will or by there owner's command. It's usually to conserve energy and keep there food demand low, as well as fitting into small places or just fitting in an environment. You're free to try it yourself." the slaver answered.

Bakugou immediately turns toward his dragon to see if this guy wasn't spouting out bullshit, "Kirishima, get small!" he ordered.

Kirishima quickly enveloped himself in fire and once it dissipates Kirishima was now back at his small toddler size as he runs back up to Bakugou as he began to pet him.

Beloukas then continued, "Yes very energetic and full of energy, centuries ago his kind was sought after for there eggs that had been used to help power up various magical devices. The babies would remain dormant in their eggs for as long as the thing powering them continued to absorb their energy. They were never domesticated though due to there temperament and tend to attack any person when they get the chance. Their are also said to be immune to even the most powerful slave crests."

Bakugou at least now knew why Kirishima's egg was inside a Golem. Poor thing was probably stuck inside that rock monster for centuries stuck in embryo form in an egg while that golem remained behind a wall doing nothing but absorbing the egg's energy for its long-dead alchemist owner.

The Slaver then adjusted his hat ready to profit from this, "If your willing to sell him off now, he probably be worth 50 gold pieces. With that you can buy..."

"Piss off cheapskate! My dragon is not for sale!" Bakugou interrupted getting offended by this guy already.

"Ah, but you see Shield Hero, you want a good combat beast who can fight off your enemies, your dragon may be fine now but once he reaches higher levels he will probably not be able to keep up with more powerful enemies compare to other Dragon breeds. So why not give a go at the monster egg lottery." the slaver then showed off a large case with a bunch of random eggs with a painted slave symbol on each of them, though one spot was already empty. Bakugou knew this guy is now just trying to pester him to sell Kirishima but he might as well hear what this was all about, "For only 100 silvers you are guaranteed to have a filolial that will double in value once properly taken care of, and if you hit the Jackpot you could win yourself a Tyrella Dragon which alone is worth 20 gold pieces once it matures." the slaver continued.

Bakugou wasn't remotely impressed by it, "Sounds like a damn loot box if you ask me."

The slaver was confused by that statement, "Uh, a Lootbox?" the slaver wondered.

"Its another word for scam in my world. I would pay for this stupid egg for a chance to get this supposed super special dragon, but then I get some dumbass bird wasting my money, making me want to come back to buy another egg hoping for a dragon, only to get another dumbass bird. It's a trick just to make idiots buy eggs over and over again to get the supposed valuable prize only to get jackshit in the end when they wasted their money. So yeah screw that manipulative bullshit." Bakugou lectures him, he remembers how many gotcha mobile or online games in his world would do that kind of thing that some people get suckered into, and next thing they knew those people would spend away tens of thousands of Yen on virtual garbage.

"Come on, don't be so pessimistic about it. Many great adventures try it out at least once and never regret it. Hell, even the Sword Hero decided to buy one himself."

That part quickly caught Bakugou's attention, "Wait Paleface was actually here once? What the hell was he doing?" he asked, wondering what Ren of all people would be out at a slave market, considering how much of a loner the guy was.

"The sword hero? Why yes, he came by into my business one day, I think it was the day after the second wave hit and he just wanted to ask a bunch of questions to know about how slavery operates in the kingdom, the laws behind it, and how the slave crest works. I offered him some of my stock but like you he refused to buy anything, but he did decide to try out the monster lottery and bought himself his own egg. So what do you say?"

Bakugou still wondered what was Ren's motivation to know more about slavery, he thought perhaps Ren wanted to find out more about it when Neia almost got enslaved herself at that night and how the royal family was acting casual about it. But that was something to think about later as he went back to talking, "Still no! You think I give two shits if paleface wasted money on this scam you should rethink otherwise. And besides, why should I chance myself in some lousy dragon when I got my own one right now?"

The slaver was quick to give his answer, "It's very simple Shield hero, your fire Wyvern is definitely a powerful dragon breed, but the downside of them other then them being hard to control as they level up and as I said before they are immune to most slave crests, is that they take forever to properly mature. You see it takes over 60 years for them to properly develop from this stage of life into adulthood where they are at there strongest. But by that time, your days of fighting monsters will probably be long over and the waves would be ancient history. A Tyrella dragon on the other hand while nowhere near as strong as pure-bloods would be in their mature forms, They develop far faster so you will have a pet dragon at his peak far earlier then your pure-blood , not mention faster as there lack of wings are compensated for their powerful legs. A pure-blood Wyvern can't even fly until they're at there adult stage which again is over 60 years."

As much as Bakugou wanted to punch this bastard in the face he didn't seem like the type that would lie about this. But even if this was the truth Bakugou would never think of trading in Kirishima, he had already bonded with him so much it be like if he just sold away his own kid for some supposed better one. Though the age thing seemed strange considering Kirishima isn't even a month old yet and he had some random giant growth spurt, if it really takes that long for him to go into adulthood it probably should've taken him longer to grow in his teenage form. His only conclusion would be the shield and the powers behind it dramatically affected his growth, and with that in mind perhaps him reaching adulthood so soon wasn't that far off. So he had even less of a reason to buy some 'domestic dragon' on a game of chance.

"So how about it? Why not just buy the whole case off and your most likely going to be guaranteed a dragon that way anyway." the slaver continued to pester him.

"FOR THE LAST TIME NO! Kirishima is not for sale! So keep your cheapass dragons to yourself." Bakugou yells at him as Kirishima jumps on his shoulder again.

Beloukas knew when he had a catch or not, and he can see Bakugou wasn't biting anymore so he knew it was no longer worth the effort so he just closes the case and puts it back on a table, "Very well if that's your choice I won't bother with it. But you're probably going to still need some armor and accessories for this beast you have. So why don't I show you what I got and fit up your dragon.

"Fine whatever just show me what you got," Bakugou responded, as much as he hated this guy and this place in general he might as well look into his non-living merchandise.

Most of what he had was mostly fluff, but there were some useful things he had. First was a jar of dragon treats, pretty much pieces of dried up meat with some spices added in to make it good to reward dragons for good behavior making it easier to train Kirishima to do tricks or obey commands, second was a spiked collar which helped boost Kirishima's speed and agility stats, third was a teething rod which helps dragons sharpen their teeth as well as allowing old or broken teeth to break off to allow newer and stronger ones to replace them, and fourth was an armored saddle, not only boosting up his defense like armor but it would allow Bakugou to ride him in certain scenarios, but the downside was he could only support one person at a time so Neia couldn't rid him at the same time so it wasn't useful for long term travel, but it could come in handy in other scenarios, adding to it the saddle seems to be able to shapeshift with his size, so in his toddler form the saddle looks like a metal band around his body. All costing about 3,000 silver.

After that he and Kirishima on his shoulder were off to meet back with Neia, "Come again soon Shield Hero, we will always be in business for any need of manpower." the slaver finally says to Bakugou.

"Go to hell!" Bakugou yells back as he walks away wanting to get out of here as fast as possible.

---

2 days after their trip into the slave market team Bakugou was on the road again in another wagon. Bakugou had taken up a special quest that interested him.

It involved a dragon and considering his little pet it could be a chance to learn something more about them to improve his dragon or at least gather materials to boost his shield with Dragon related materials.

The flyer for the quest had said: "Town in danger! Giant fire-breathing dragon has come to terrorize our village! Please help us as soon as possible to slay the dragon!" and below it was the location: Mirso town, the quest giver: Lord Smi, and the reward is 25 gold. Seemed like a straight forward mission to just kill a dragon, though Bakugou knew it would probably not be remotely easy. But of course, he knew him and his team were the same ones who took down a giant multi-headed hydra that was 3 times there levels before, and 2 of the 3 other cardinal heroes, so he had the confidence to succeed in this mission. Bakugou was now at level 54, Neia was at level 36, and Kirishima was at level 28

On the way to the town, Bakugou continued to work on his gauntlets, they were almost done, as he puts on some of the finishing touches on his metal gloves. While he was crafting them, Neia continues her training as she reads more on the techniques of fighting with two swords as well as her water magic, but actually doing proper water magic continues to be the bane of her existence.

Kirishima had been at walking alongside the wagon in his bigger size. Bakugou wanted his dragon to increase his stamina as he walks along on the road for great distances. Though Bakugou had to continually make him calm down whenever he looks at the Filolials moving the wagon with the birds giving equally angry looks back. Bakugou had been aware of Filolial and Dragons hatred for each other like dogs with cats, but he's been trying to discipline his dragon from just attacking the birds and to be obedient with his master and follow his orders properly.

Bakugou eventually completed his gauntlets. Through the portable anvil and all the material he gathered, the teen had finally created his own sweat gauntlets.

They were not as balky as his old ones and they resembled thick red metal gloves rather then grenades. But they function pretty much the same, collecting sweat from his palms allowing Bakugou to not only create bigger explosions but also to store it up during fights. They used magic and enchantments Bakugou had applied to hold on to as much sweat as his old ones, but with less space and weight to them making it still easy to move around on with his shield.

He tested them a few times on the wagon from the back to know they were working fine, but he wouldn't be able to test them yet until he goes into active combat. And the town they were approaching to will provide those big tests.

The team finally made it to Mirso town, it was a small little hamlet in the woods surrounded by some mountains. It was mostly a logging town with a few stores for the people of the area as well as some for traveling adventurers or merchants.

At the edge of this village was the small mansion of their local lord, which was the shield teams destination as he's the quest giver.

After some talking with the guards with Bakugou's shield in its book form, they were escorted inside the place toward the lord's office. They were then ordered to wait outside the office and await the guard's response.

After waiting about an hour or so the guard had finally came back out and Bakugou and his crew were allowed inside.

Once inside the office they got a good look at the lord.

The lord whose name was Smi, seemed like a man on the heavy side with a large belly, short greasy brown hair, a chubby face, and smelled of beer and alcohol. Not someone you expect to run a town, but it didn't matter to Bakugou as long as the guy paid up when he's done with it. There were also 4 threatening looking guys there, they were not guards looking more like mercenaries that might've had business or were associated with the local lord.

The fat lord finishes looking at some documents while drinking a jug of beer, he then smiles toward the hero, "Ah welcome to Mirso adventurer, didn't ever expect someone like you to visit an old dump like this but the help is appreciated regardless. I'm guessing you're here for that dragon quest considering that is the only thing worthwhile in nowhere's land."

Bakugou could tell this was a man not fond of his job or the place he was at living in general, but Bakugou still didn't care and got straight to the point, "Yeah whatever the names Kacchan, so mind giving details fatty?"

The lord can tell this kid was a brat, but he just smiles as he pours himself more beer, "Yeah, of course, that damn thing has been a pain in the towns ass for a while, burning our houses, killing our livestock, or just flat out eating us. So I just want you to kill the damn thing and you can be on your way."

Bakugou could barely stand the pig of a man but he wanted to know more, "So when did this giant flying lizard showed up and why haven't you called the crown to take care of it before?"

"Why the hell does that matter to you? Who cares about the backstory of a dragon? Just kill the damn thing and be on with it." Smi rudely answered which was getting on Bakugou's nerves looking more pissed off at the beer smelling lord.

"Uh... Lord Smi there is someone important that wants to see you right now?" a guard suddenly requests out from the door.

Smi didn't look happy about it though, "Can't you see I'm busy here idiot. Unless it's the King or Queen of Melromarc which I doubt it's either, tell the bastard to wait and stop interrupting my meeting with this brat." he continued to act rudely and ordered the guard.

"But Sir he is someone you really need to talk to, it's best if you see him yourself and..."

"If this bastard is so damn important then just bring him in already, so I can tell him in person to fuck off!" Smi got mad at the guard losing his patience.

The guard panicked as he quickly closed the door to talk to whoever is on the other side. Bakugou didn't care as long as this person will just get in and get out to finally get on talk with the unresponsive lord.

But when the door opens up, to Bakugou's displeasure it was none other than the cardinal sword hero Ren Amaki.

Ren had his serious face on as usual wanting to talk to the towns lord, "Look I just want to..", but that face quickly disappeared as soon he as got in the room and saw Bakugou looking really pissed off at him now, "You got to be kidding me?" Ren mutters out loud as soon as he realized what he walked in to.

Bakugou still pissed off about this stomped his way up toward Ren, "What the hell are you doing here paleface!? This is my quest and we don't need your cowardly ass around, so screw off!" he yells at him. Despite Ren being the better of the three other 'heroes', Bakugou still held a grudge against Ren for him doing nothing at his trial when he knew it was unfair. Bakugou also assumed he was here to take something away him or to screw him over like what Motoyasu attempted to do before with Neia.

Despite looking surprised Ren collects himself and attempts to talk him down, "Bakugou I'm not here to cause you any harm, I'm just here for a quest to kill off some dragon, so your free to do whatever you want and I'll be out of your hair." he tried to reason with him, but it did nothing to cool off Bakugou, in fact it made him even angrier as Ren said his real name in front of the towns lord now clueing him in that he was the shield hero.

"That's my job, you idiot! This fat bastard already gave me it so you can screw off elsewhere!" Bakugou yells at Ren, with the sword hero refusing to budge.

And Lord Smi just sit there smiling as he enjoys the show drinking from his jug.

Ren continued, getting more defensive of himself, "Look Bakugou your not the only hero around here. And you know, maybe if you didn't act like an ass to everyone maybe no one would've accused you of assault and attempted rape in the first place."

Bakugou was now getting extremely mad at Ren, now allowing his quirk to go off in his hands. With Neia growing more worried that Bakugou might attack and get them all kicked out of the town.

Ren might still feel sorry about the whole trial thing, but he was determined to get stronger and nothing was a better way to prove one's strength than fighting a dragon. He wasn't going to leave just because some angry 15 year old teen threatens him.

But before Neia could intervene, Lord Smi decided to speak out first, "Now Now, who said this job had to be first come first served." he then takes another sip of his beer with Bakugou and Ren now looking at the slob of a lord as he continued, "Look the both of you want the same job for the same reward, well then you can both take the quest at the same time and whoever can kill the Dragon first will get the reward and recognition. How does that sound?" the lord negotiated.

Despite the two's contempt with each other they did see the lord's point and backed down, "Fine! Me and my team will kill the scaly bastard first and then paleface can fuck off elsewhere!" Bakugou declared as well as insulting Ren.

"We will see about that Bakugou, unlike you I won't need any teammates to help me here," Ren asserts himself to Bakugou which only just made the shield hero madder.

"WAS THAT AN INSULT PALEFACE! Let's see you fight Blue or my Dragon and see how long you would last!?" Bakugou exploded at him with Kirishima growling on his shoulder, though Neia was looking away in embarrassment not wanting her master to drag her into this argument.

But after finishing another jug of his beer the lord butted in again, "I don't care how either of you two 'heroes' kill the damn thing, just kill it now and you can both fuck off and argue elsewhere." he orders them as he pours himself yet another serving of beer.

Bakugou quickly turned back to him, "Hey I'm not done with you fatty! You still haven't told me jackshit about this dragon yet! Tell me about it now or I'm going to destroy that liver of yours first before you do!" Bakugou threatens him, but Smi wasn't remotely intimated by him as his mercenaries were gripping on their weapons awaiting for something to happen.

Ren then spoke his mind, "I personally don't see the point of asking about some random trivia on a dragon either Bakugou. You can waste your time with pointless questions, I'll be just on my way to just kill the dragon before you can get to it." Ren then turns and exits the office not seeing a point to be there anymore.

Bakugou then got pissed off again, "Like I give any damn's what you think paleface!" he yells at him, though he knew that the lord didn't care to tell him anything and probably even less so now suspecting him as the shield hero.

"Come blue let's just go, this place smells like shit anyway." he insults as he and Neia leave the office as the slob of a lord smiles knowing he was now in a win-win situation.

Once outside the mansion Bakugou and Neia see Ren with his team discussing what there plan is, "Ok so I'll be heading off to the northern mountain and hunt down the dragon. The rest of you will remain here until I come back." he ordered his team as they bow.

"I don't know why your are even bothering with them if you're just going put your extras on the sidelines," Bakugou say to Ren as he walks up near the sword hero.

"Look Bakugou you got your own team, so you can do whatever you want with them. But my team is not needed here, just as we don't need to know useless information about some random dragon." Ren asserts back with Bakugou who was starting to growl and grit his teeth at the sword hero.

"You couldn't even stand up to a victim in a sham of a trial, what are you going to do against a giant fire breathing dragon?!" Bakugou insults again

"I told you a million times already I'm sorry about that, but that doesn't mean I'm going to let you take my chances of getting stronger to fight the waves." Ren retorts back at an angry Bakugou.

"Master Ren when do we get to fight the Dragon already? I'm so bored." said a young voice, and not far behind Ren was the source of the voice that caught Bakugou's attention. It looked like a little girl no more than 8 years old. She had long dark black hair, bright red eyes, white skin as pale as Ren was, wearing a black dress with purple highlights, and was barefoot. Though the strangest part of her was the fact she had wings. Wings like an angel, but the feathers were black as coal. It was definitely something he never saw before in this world.

Ren sighed and looked down toward her, "Not now Scarlet. I'm trying to talk about important adult stuff right now." he explains to her as the winged girl stood there acting like Ren's child.

It made Bakugou raise his eyebrows, "So what's with the loli paleface? I didn't think you as a pedophile." Bakugou questioned him.

"Hey, it's not like that at all! It's complicated, she's... she's not really human. Scarlets young and she's.." But before Ren could finish Kirishima started growling at the girl with her looking back angrily toward the dragon who had just jumped off of Katsuki's shoulder and transformed into his bigger form.

And just as quickly in a flash, Scarlet transformed into a giant bird-like creature, about 9 feet tall covered in thick black feathers while maintaining her bright red eyes, "Evil dragon. I hate all of you." the bird monster spoke as she and Kirishima stomped up against each other growling at one another with both of them spreading out there wings in intimidation.

"Scarlet! No!" Ren yells and Scarlet is suddenly shocked by purple electricity from her chest causing her pain.

She then forced herself back into her girl form. "Scarlet what did I say about attacking random dragons?" Ren lectures her.

"To not attack them without your permission." Scarlet quietly responds looking sad back at Ren, "But Master Ren that dragon smells and looks ugly! He should be eaten!" she continued but Ren just shakes his head with Kirishima remaining close to Bakugou and Neia as they watch. Bakugou could easily guess that the bird girl thing was probably what was inside that egg Ren bought from the slave trader.

"You said that last week when you ate some nobleman's prized young dragon breed and I had to pay him back 10 gold in damages." Ren responds with the girl looking away in shame from the reminder of that little event, he then just sighs and looks back at his team once more, "Alright again, you all know the drill." he orders them as they all bow in respect.

After that, Ren's group then left toward the towns bar as Ren himself looks back at Bakugou, "Like what the lord said, the first to kill the dragon gets the rewards and spoils, so good luck catching up." Ren asserts again to Bakugou who just huffs angrily at the sword hero again looking away as he pets Kirishima

But as Ren heads north he noticed that his child filolial was following behind him going against his orders, "Scarlet I told you already to go with the others." he turns back and orders her.

"But master can't fight evil dragon on his own. I must be with you master Ren." she insisted.

"Scarlet you are still young and I can take care of myself. Just go with the others and it will be fine." Ren continues.

"But what if master dies? What will happen to me? I don't want to be alone for the rest of my life." Scarlet lets out with a concern voice.

Ren could feel her worries as she looks down in a sad manner. While he prefers to go at it alone, he was also worried about Scarlet's safety as well. But as he looks at his little filolial, he understands that she was not just some helpless girl, he saw himself that she could fight in some of his missions and grinding against monsters. And to continually baby her won't make Scarlet any stronger and having her be worried about him all the time won't do much for her mental health. So after some thinking he smiles and starts to pet her on the head, "Don't worry Scarlet I won't die, if you really want to fight this dragon with me then you can, just remember to follow orders and don't overdo yourself like you do sometimes."

Scarlet quickly smiled again, "Thank you master Ren, I'll do as you say and protect you against evil smelly dragons." she responds with Ren happy to see her in a better mood as he and Scarlet head there way out of town and head toward the northern mountain again.

Bakugou just huffs again still maintaining his ever-present angry face.

"Aw, that was so cute, they were like father and daughter." Neia gushed over.

"Whatever it's just some dumb bird that can turn into a brat."

"Oh come on Sir Bakugou, how's that not any different than you and Kirishima?"

"I have a damn dragon here, he's actually of use to me in combat. And I don't need a slave crest just to put him in line." Bakugou retorted as he pets his dragon on the head. He wouldn't admit though, seeing Ren with his filolial did make him feel more appreciative of Kirishima, being someone who gets him and would never complain about his attitude.

Neia just shrugs and just smiles knowing what Bakugou really thinks, "Well alright then what now? Are we going to search for the dragon as well?"

"Not now blue, before we do so let's get some info out of this town on the dragon that fat bastard refused to talk about," Bakugou says to Neia, and with that, the group went around the small town to ask questions.

---

After about an hour later team Bakugou had talked to most of the townsfolk on the subject of the dragon under his Kacchan alias.

Many of them said the same things, that the Dragon had actually been around for a few years, it would fly around near the northern mountains sometimes roaring across the valley.

All of this was relevant information that the lord could've told Bakugou but had refused to give it out. What was odd though was the fact that the mission flyer and the lord was acting like this was a recent issue when it really wasn't. But as he went to ask deeper questions he found something odd. For a town being supposedly terrorized by a dragon, it hardly looks like it. Everyone was all calm, nothing looks like it has been burned, and when he went to question some of the livestock farmers none of them claimed that any of their stock were captured or eaten by that Dragon. And when he went to the local graveyard and talked to the curators of it according to them none of the death's in recent years involved being eaten by a dragon or being burned to death.

It made Bakugou extremely suspicious, why would the town lord be giving out a quest to kill some dragon that wasn't even doing any harm to the town and lie about it, even in a practical standpoint it seemed like a waste of resources. Some of the villagers even claimed that the dragon would actually scare away some of the monsters in the woods keeping them away from the village area, so killing it would actually be a detriment to the small town.

Bakugou had also already noticed that some shady individuals had been summoned to the lord's manor after he and Ren left it, these turned out to be the only people that acted hostile around Bakugou and his team when they were asking questions. One being a local slave trader, another being the local three heroes church head priest, and the town bartender. Currently they stood outside of the manor awaiting to be summoned in.

Bakugou knew something fishy was going on around here and he was going to find out about it.

Neia looked concerned knowing what Bakugou was going to do, "Sir Bakugou are you completely sure you don't want to just demand to go inside again and be more persuasive?"

"You know that fatty won't say anything to me anymore, and he already has paleface to do this damn job already so he doesn't care about me at all," Bakugou responds as he walks away.

"But sir Bakugou what if you get caught?" Neia asked

"I was already prosecuted for sexually assaulting a princess, this is nothing in comparison," he responded and went off to listen in to what the Lord wanted from these individuals at his manor.

After the suspious group went into the manor Bakugou sneaked behind toward the backyard being able to dodge and avoid the guards.

After some stealth he made it to the back of the manor, he saw a window and judging how the house was structured he knew it was where the lord's office was at. With his explosion quirk, he launches himself up next to the window on its ledge.

"Voice Gengar shield," he said softly with his shield turning itself into a stereo microphone like object, normally the shield would be used to amplified loud sounds, but it can also be used to hear quiet sounds through walls. Bakugou pressed the microphone shield end on the wall as he placed his ear on the other end to listen in on the lord's office.

He heard nothing of importance for over 10 minutes, but Bakugou had the patience and waited for those four individuals from before to come in. They soon came in the office as Bakugou hears the sound of an open door, "Ah so you finally arrived. Guards, you can leave now, I like to talk to my associates privately." Bakugou heard sounding like lord Smi as he then hears footsteps going out of the office.

"Glad to see all of my friends here now," Smi said as Bakugou continues to hear outside.

"I hope you didn't bring us here just to chat, where's my money? You still haven't paid for that shipment of beer months ago." The bartender demanded from the lord.

"Relax relax, we will all get our money soon plus extra once the 'dreaded' dragon is vanquished, and those heroes bugger off somewhere else." says the lord which Bakugou could also hear him jugging down more alcohol.

"That stupid thing again, you had that quest out for months and no adventurer wasted his time on a tiny ass town like this."

"Were you blind idiot? The Sword hero was here, if there was anyone who can kill a dragon like that, it be a cardinal hero." the priest affirms out loud to him

"Still I don't see how we are going to get any money off a dead dragon?"

Smi then chimed in again, "First of all, that dragon has a den on top of the east mountain where it seems to rest at night, and you must have heard the stories of what dragons keep in there den's, valuable treasures and gold. Once it's dead it will be an easy steal and we don't have to do anything to get it. And after we loot it of everything and share the plunder with each other, the dragon's corpse is going to make us real gold forever." Smi says to them.

"The loot from the dragon I can understand, but who is going to waste money on a rotting corpse?" one of the men asked

"Peasants are gullible idiots, they will pay anything that seems mildly impressive. And what's more impressive than a cardinal hero coming to our town to slay a mighty dragon. People from all over will head there way out here to see the fallen dragon a cardinal hero slew. And more people coming in means more tolls, tax, and trade. It will be guarantee money for life to go right into our pockets." Smi explains as the group laugh softly with each other liking the idea.

Though the bartender had another thing to say, "But aren't you paying the heroes 25 gold just to kill the beast?"

"Oh none of that is my money anyway, that's just commissioned money from the crown to pay adventures for jobs like this. If I kept that money for myself the Queen will be on my ass about it. But as long as the job is done, the adventurer is paid off, and we keep quiet on the dragon den, we will keep all the plunder to ourselves and again profit off the dragon corpse."

"I'm surprised the crown trusted you that much for your position lording over this dump. Weren't you 'rewarded' this job 7 years ago when you got drunk at the queen's birthday party and started a drunken brawl with some fat noblewoman and beaten the crap out of her?"

Katsuki then heard the sound of broken glass, "Don't ever bring that shit up, that damn fat bitch ruined my reputation all because I indulged a little bit myself in a damn party, I hope she's eaten alive by the wave monsters!" Smi yells angrily at his comrade.

While Smi tried to calm himself down one of the mercenaries spoke up, "Well I definitely can use the money right now, my entire guild was dissolved recently."

"What happened?" another asked

"the cardinal bow hero was once a part of my guild, but he screwed up, when he tried to kill some King from some backwards ass country and he failed miserably. When that King kicked him out of his country he accused the guild for sponsoring his failed assassin and having a public mission of it to begin with. I guess all the other big wig nobles and monarchs from other nations didn't like that either and the backlash caused the guild to be banned in multiple countries, some of the leaders of the guild got imprisoned by association, and finally all the guild branches were then fined to death by these monarchs that quickly bankrupt the whole guild. And that stupid King still lives on." the mercenary finished.

"Whatever with all that money from the dragon we can all create our own guilds and do whatever we want with them."

The Slave trader then spoke up, "Let's also not forget about that Demi up in the den as well."

"What demi?" one of the mercenaries asked.

"From what he scouted out from the dragon den without getting spotted, he saw a small female wolf-demi coming in and out of that den. I don't know why the hell that dragon didn't incinerator her by now, but hey if she is a virgin she will sell for a good price in the slave market, and that's more extra money for us."

Bakugou then heard the sound of laughter and the pouring of beer glasses, "Now let's cheer for soon to be easy money and to new riches to come men." Smi announced and the men cheered as they drink away.

Bakugou heard enough and jumped off and sneaked away from the manor.

He makes it back to Kirishima and Neia as they waited for him, "Are you ok Sir Bakugou? Did you learn anything?"

"I learned more than enough from those greedy bastards, come on we're going to the eastern mountain."

"Is that were the dragon is at?" Neia asked.

"Hopefully not right now, but it should be where the rest of the answers will be at," Bakugou answers back, as he continues to move on eastward with Neia and Kirishima following him to find those so-called answers.

---

Bakugou and his crew were still walking up the mountain to this supposed dragon den at the eastern mountain. Eventually after a long hike and killing a bunch of monsters on the way they were almost to the top.

Bakugou told Neia what he heard from the lord and his friends, there was more to this dragon then just some random monster and Bakugou was going to find out, even if it meant that Ren had a major head start.

"Are we almost there Sir Bakugou? I just wished Dragon's didn't have to live so high up," Neia lets out feeling tired from all of the hiking.

"Getting tired again kid, I thought you have outgrown that after training blue?" Bakugou playfully joked.

"Running in an open field and hiking up a tall mountain are two different things. And would you not call me kid Sir Bakugou, as I'm aware your only 15 and I'm 20 so technically I'm the older one here."

"Yeah but isn't that like 2 in elf years?" he jokes

"Elven longevity doesn't work that way Sir Bakugou!" Neia getting irritated over Bakugou who just laughs.

But soon enough the three were finally up the top of the mountain and see a large cave where the dragon supposedly has its nest at.

Kirishima sniffs around to detect the dragon but so far nothing seems to alarm him, so it seemed safe, Bakugou activates his light spell and the group slowly walked in acting as cautious as possible.

Soon they found themselves inside the cave center, it looked nothing like one would expect a dragon den would entail. Rather then a treasure trove of gold or even piles of bones, the cave was mostly empty with large open space and glowing fungus that helps light up the cave, except one corner of the cave, there was a bunch of normal housing stuff that one would think someone lived here, but who would live in the same place with a giant fire breathing dragon? Things like a bed, a wardrobe with clothes, a cabinet of food, and a small chest filled with a bunch of children's toys. And none of it looked old or anything, they are relatively new.

This all seemed fishy and Bakugou and Neia continued to look around the cave for answers.

Kirishima continued to sniff around to detect anything in the cave for his master Bakugou, and after smelling some of the toys he found a trail of something, he continued following it until he was up against a small child size hole on the side of the cave where he also heard some heavy breathing, he stuck his head in the hole and saw a frighted Demi-human.

She was a young girl no more then 12 years old, she looked human but had wolf-like ears and a small tail sticking out of her blue dress.

She looked scared at first trying to hide herself away from him, but as Kirishima got closer she started to calm down a bit.

Kirishima was not alerting Bakugou like he usually does as he just slowly approaches the strange half wolf girl.

She got curious and started to pet on Kirishima's head as he calmy growls. she then smiled as she continues to pet the young dragon, "You're a very beautiful creature, are you lost?" the girl asked Kirishima as he remains friendly to the now at ease Demi-human.

Neia then wondered what Kirishima was doing and as she walked up she saw the girl, "Uh excuse me?"

The girl then turned and quickly panicked as she runs out of the hole away from Kirishima into a corner behind a bunch of stalactities holding onto herself in fear of the stranger.

It alerted Bakugou as he puts away a random Childs book from the noise, and Neia tries to approach her trying to calm her down, "I'm very sorry. No need to be scared we are not here to hurt you."

"Please go away! I don't want to be sold off to slavery. Father please come back and help me?!" she shouts as the girl continued to look away from the strange blue woman.

Neia knew not to get to close to frighten her more and she tried to think of something quickly knowing Bakugou won't be the best to handle this situation.

Kirishima then walked up to her next to Neia, as the girl looks back she started to look less scared she sees the beautiful dragon remaining next to the blue woman without any fear or worries, "Is.. is he yours?" the girl finally stands up and asked Neia.

"No he is actually my masters, but you can say that me and Kirishima are kinda like siblings. You can continue to pet him if you like." Neia responds as she gives light pets to Kirishima as Bakugou walks behind them deciding to remain silent for most of the ordeal.

Kirishima moves up closer to the girl again as she nervously comes closer to him as she pets him. Being with another monster always gave her such comfort that she slowly began to get out of the corner to get a better look at the young dragon.

Bakugou then took out a small dragon treat and gave it to the girl, "Here he likes this." the girl wasn't sure what it was, "Well come on take it? It's not going to bite." Bakugou asked again in a somewhat demanding way doing his best to not scare the girl away, the girl while still nervous didn't want to say no to this angry looking spiky-haired man and took the dry meat.

She gives it to Kirishima as he eats the treat and moves closer to the girl rubbing up to her in comfort making her laugh in joy, "You are an amazing character little one, you have a good sister and father on you." she says to the young dragon now no longer showing any fear of the strangers.

After letting her pet the dragon some more Neia finally decided to ask her a question, "So what is your name?"

"My name is Wyndia. It's nice to meet friendly new people, what are your names?" the girl answered and asked.

"My name is Neia, this big guy is Kirishima, and Mr. Grumpy pants over there is named Katsuki Bakugou the shield hero."

"Blue I told you before, I'll be the one to introduce myself!", Bakugou softly growled back into his angry face which Neia just giggles with Wyndia giggling with her.

After that Bakugou then went to ask some questions to the girl, "Look kid I'm getting straight to the point what the hell are you even doing here?"

"Well this is my home, I live here?' Wyndia responded which puzzled the young hero.

"You live here by yourself?" Neia asked.

"No I live with my father, his name is Gaelion. He's uh... actual a... uh... Dragon."

This fact surprised both of them, "Wait a second? You live together with a giant ass dragon and you call it your father?" Bakugou asked sounding more serious wanting this cleared up.

"Yes, well he's not my blood-related father obviously, but he is pretty much a father to me now."

Bakugou wanted to know the whole story on that, "Alright then, tell me the story of how in the hell that happen?"

"Sir Bakugou please don't try to be too invasive on her, that's probably very private." She tries to defend the girl wanting to respect her privacy.

"Oh no it's fine, I don't mind telling. It was years ago, when I was just 4, me, my mother, and father were slaves to a cruel nobleman, I barely remember much before that, but we and a bunch of other slaves managed to escape and made a run for it. We were being chased by men attempting to recapture us. My blood father died trying to get away from them. We ran and ran and ran for hours on end, but it wasn't enough to lose them and me and my mother were surrounded and those men were ready to re-enslave us or do worse things to us. That was until he came."

"Who came?" Neia asked

"Gaelion. His shadow covered most of the ground, his body soared across the night sky, and the force of his body landing on the ground felt of an earthquake. He attacked the human slavers who had no chance against him as he either ate or burned all of them to death. After the slaughter, me and my mother were just as terrified as the dragon tower over us, but he didn't eat us. He showed worriedness and compassion to us, two demi-human runaway slaves. He offered us protection and comfort for as long as possible. With no other options or our fear of refusing the dragon, we accepted his offer. We were scared at first to have a giant dragon always watching over you and providing food. But over time, the three of us began to bond with each other, learning more about us and doing things together. Over time it turned out that the old and wise Gaelion was one with heart and love inside himself. Over time our worries were no more and we became basically a family. And for over 7 years me, my mother, and Gaelion had been together as a new family. It was a happy time together, but my mother about a year ago, had caught a deadly disease, one with no cure no matter how hard Gaelion tried to find one. Mom eventually left behind the earth and went to heaven. It was a sad time, but Gaelion continued to be there for me, still promising to protect me. We are still family together, and as far as I'm concern, he was a father to me, and he was happy for me to be his daughter." Wyndia finished telling her story.

Bakugou didn't show much emotion, though it was mostly just to remain looking tough then not feeling anything, though he had a more neutral looking face than usual rather than his constant angry look after hearing the story of a monster protecting a family.

Neia on the other hand was getting somewhat emotional about it with tears coming down her eyes, "That was a wonderful story Wyndia. I'm glad you were taken good care of after such times."

Wyndia just smiles showing her optimism.

Bakugou then quickly sighs and wanted to get back to questioning, "Ok whatever, enough sappy life stories. Let me ask you kid do you know much of that small town down at the mountain?"

"That little village? Yeah, I see it from up high all the time, but father told me to never go down there with all of the demi-human slavers." Wyndia responded

"Well has your father ever terrorized the town? Eating people or burning anything?" Bakugou continued asking.

"What? No! Father would never do that? He may not be fond of humans, but he would never harm normal people with families. And he said that humans would always want revenge or blood after such acts, so killing entire villages is asking for trouble."

Bakugou knew that lines up with a lot of things he learned about, "So this fire breathing dragon did no harm after all. That fat bastard is basically trying to make money off the murder of an innocent bystander and his adoptive daughter."

"What are you talking about Sir?" Wyndia wondered.

Bakugou was blunt with her, "The fat bastard that runs the town down there had set up a quest to kill your dragon father with a reward, and afterward profit off his corpse and take whatever is valuable in here for him and his crooked cronies. Including you"

"What!? But how could he? My father never brought harm to him, and.. and... Oh no please sir don't.."

"Don't worry kid we aren't going to harm your dragon dad. Now with everything cleared up we now know what's really going on here."

Wyndia was now relieved to hear that, "Oh thank you sir!"

"So what now Sir Bakugou?" Neia asked

"It's time to get back down there and show that fat bastard who he should be really afraid of," Bakugou answered as he cracks his knuckles.

"ROOOOOAAAAAAAAARRRRRR!"

A loud roar is heard from outside the cave alerting everyone in it including Wyndia.

"What was that!?" Neia shouted.

"Outside quick!" Bakugou answered back

They all run outside to see what was going on.

Once out they didn't immediately see anything but as they all look outward across the valley toward the northern mountain they could see smoke and loud explosions happening over there.

"What's going on?!" Neia said out loud.

"Shit! Paleface, I forgot about that idiot. He's found and is fighting the dragon!" Bakugou said out loud which terrifies Wyndia knowing what was happening.

"No father! But he hasn't harmed anyone. He can't die like this!" she shouts afraid of her father's health.

Both Bakugou and Neia knew they couldn't just let it go through, "Sir Bakugou we have to stop sir Ren and explain to him the truth!"

"Damn it! Why did it have to be halfway across the damn valley? There too many monsters in this region to save time to fast travel and it will take us forever to get there on foot!"

"But Mr. Bakugou you have to save my father, he's too prideful to leave a fight like this." Wyndia ran up to him looking teary-eyed.

Bakugou continued to think as fast as he can to get to the mountain quickly enough, but his options were low and he knew he was on a small amount of time.

He then heard Kirishima screeching, as Bakugou quickly looked toward him as he had his wing down with his saddle pointing toward Bakugou. The shield hero quickly knew what his dragon had in mind, "Hell yes! Good thinking Kirishima, I knew it was right to keep you." Bakugou quickly runs upon his dragon to get on his sattle ready to go out as fast as they could.

Bakugou as he readies himself out he looks back at Neia and Wyndia, "Blue their's not enough room for you or the girl. You two are going to have to get there the slow way. But meet me up there as fast as possible!" Bakugou ordered.

Neia grabbed hold of Wyndia as she got on her back as she holds on to the elf, "Yes Sir Bakugou. Please hurry." Neia responded

"Ok Blue, just watch out for the kid.", Bakugou then turns away toward the cliff, "Kirishima! GO!" Bakugou shouts and Kirishima was off running off toward the cliff with his winged arms out. Once at the edge Kirishima makes a large leap and the two glide across the valley gaining a large amount of ground as they head there way toward the northern mountain as fast as they could.

And with Wyndia on her back, Neia uses her magic-powered abilities to jump off the edges of the mountain to catch up and hopefully meet up with them later, "Come on sir Bakugou, save Wyndia's father in time."

Eventually, the glide ended for Kirishima and was forced to land and had to gallop and run from there on the ground, as Bakugou holds onto his reins he continues to make Kirishima run as fast as possible toward the mountain. Along the way though, multiple monsters came out to attack the two. Bakugou knew there wasn't any time to waste and tried his best to ignore them as Kirishima continues to run as fast as he could. When monsters did get close or attempt to block the path Bakugou either blasts them himself or Kirishima breathes his fire at them. It was a long distance but the two knew they had to hurry before it was too late.

---

"Meteor Blade!" Ren shouts as he blasts another large attack at the evil dragon.

This dragon was definitely the real deal, he towered over most of the forest trees and was longer than even two transport buses back at home. He was purple-colored, had bat-like wings on his back but unlike Bakugou's dragon his hands weren't attached to the wings themselves, and had bright red eyes, "Is that the best you can do human? You think of yourselves to be so strong that you have to challenge my kind like some game animal to prove your own shallow prides?! Well let me tell you, I'm not going out to be some damn trophy of yours. You'll die first!" Gaelion threatens and yells at Ren as the dragon swipes and smashes at the ground as Ren continues to dodge out of its way.

Ren continues to shoot out various magic attacks blasting at the massive dragon as he tanks the hits, "Is that it? Your kind becomes more of a joke every generation you inbreed with yourselves!" the dragon taunts as he tries to smash Ren with his feet, but Ren continues to dodge away and continued to barrage him with more long-range attacks.

Gaelion then breathes fire at Ren, unlike most dragons Gaelion's fire breath was blue colored fire. Ren does his best to avoid the flames as much as possible as he hides behind the rocks.

After finishing his breath Gaelion taunts Ren again, "Come out human. I know you want to play. Unless you are as cowardly as mice."

Then quickly out of nowhere Gaelion gets hit off the side of the head by Scarlet in her bird form. She uses her wind magic to remain in the air as it annoys and distracts the dragon as her master lets his abilities to cool down, "Why, looky here? You have yourself a flying rat. But there will be no queen to protect you now!" the dragon insults as he attempts to chomp on the flying attack bird.

While the dragon was distracted Ren attacks again, "Crimson blade!" and a bunch of energy attacks appear and strike at once at the dragon. Scarlet then attacks again near his neck as Gaelion attempts to fling her off of him.

Ren then charges up his blade with his magic energy and once close he jumps and stabs right on the dragon's side. Gaelion shouts in pain as his attention goes back to Ren as he breathes fire at him again.

As Ren temporary retreats Gaelion spreads out his wings and with large gusts of wind launches himself up in the air and flies across the top of the mountain as Ren hides behind some more rocks as Gaelion breathes fire down on him.

Gaelion remains up in the sky as he laughs to the two as he continues to rain fire across the mountain.

As the two remain hidden under some rocks Ren finally came up with a plan, "You understand the plan now Scarlet?"

"Yes master Ren," Scarlet answered after Ren told her his plan.

Gaelion circled around the mountain once more to continue to breath down fire, Ren and Scarlet finally run out of the rocks and after jumping on to her beak Scarlet launches Ren high in the air at the flying dragon's hight.

Gaelion attempts to bite him as he was mid-air, but just missed him as Ren quickly stabs his sword right on one of Gaelion's wings and his sword begins to cut through the skin of the large wing until he cut though to the end and the sword hero begins to falltoward the ground.

With the damaged wing Gaelion could no longer fly and ends up crashing into the mountain.

Ren was quickly saved by Scarlet when she jumped in the air and Ren lands on her back. When she landed on the ground they refocused their attention on the dazed dragon. "Meteorite blade!" Ren shouts again and launches his strongest long range attack right at the dragon's wound on his side from earlier as he shrieks in agony while still dazed from the crash.

"Scarlet to the right, NOW!" Ren orders as the two separate again dividing the dragon's attention as he still feels the pain of that attack.

Scarlet attacks near his head as Gaelion attempts to eat the bird. Ren charges up his sword again aiming and running toward his wound ready to finish him off.

Ren shouts as he power jumps himself up in the air ready to strike and end this battle for good. But then

"Air Strike shield!", shouted a voice and suddenly a green energy shield appeared right below Ren.

Ren strikes the shield stopping his attack surprising and confusing the teen.

Gaelion immediately noticed Ren and used his long tail to strike Ren sending him flying to the ground and smacks Scarlet into the cliffside.

Both Ren and Gaelion were wondering what that was, but that got quickly answered when Bakugou riding on Kirishima finally climbed up on the cliff on time as the shield hero jumped off his dragon.

"What the hell was that!? You nearly killed me!" Ren yells at Bakugou as he runs up to the downed sword hero.

"I'm here to save a damn life paleface!" Bakugou yells back at him.

"I don't need your protection, I was doing fine!"

"Not to you idiot, it's to... LOOK OUT!" Bakugou shouts as Gaelion was up again and readied his breath attack.

Bakugou jumped in front of Ren as the dragon attacks with his fire. The flames were strong and intense as Gaelion continued to exhale more and more fire at the teens.

The mighty dragon then stopped as he looks down on the two, "So another human has come to challenge me? Now this is getting fun." Gaelion amuses out loud to himself.

Bakugou attempted to calm the situation, "Listen you overgrown lizard! I'm here to..." But then Gaelion attacks with his clawed hands intending to smash the loud hero.

Bakugou was forced to blast himself away in the air with his quirk and Ren manages to roll away into some more rocks to allow himself to heal up.

Gaelion attempts to bite at the teen while he was in the air as Bakugou did his best to avoid the attacks. "You idiot! Stop trying to eat me! I'm trying to save you from the other idiot!", Had this been a true fight to the death, Bakugou would've engaged the dragon more directly but he wasn't trying to kill him, he's doing the exact opposite but Gaelion wasn't listening to him.

Bakugou then saw Kirishima jumping on some of the cliff rocks and to avoid Gaelion's teeth he blasted himself away toward his teen dragon as Kirishima jumps in the air to grab him as the two run to get themselves some distance from the elder dragon's attacks.

Gaelion found the whole thing amusing, "So human? You have one of my own kind as a slave. I'll have to put him out of his misery as well!" Gaelion then used his fire breath again as Katsuki and Kirishima run across the mountain to avoid the deadly breath. Bakugou would continue to shout at him to stop but Gaelion continued to not listen to the teen.

"Crimson blade!" shouted a voice as a bunch of energy attacks hit Gaelion on the side forcing him to stop attacking Bakugou to look back at Ren who had reenergized himself.

Gaelion used his fire attacks at Ren as he used his own power jumps to avoid his deadly breath. But to the dragon's surprise, Scarlet had also recovered and jumped on his head from behind and started pecking at his face trying to go for his eyes making Gaelion stop his breath attacks as he smashes his head into rocks to get the pest off him.

Ren then goes for that wound on his side again as his blade charges up.

Bakugou quickly took notice of both situations and commanded his dragon as they charge from up on the cliff above Gaelion, "Kirishima, go after the bird now!" he ordered.

Kirishima then jumps off toward the dragon's head as Bakugou jumps off his dragon toward Gaelion's side.

Kirishima tackles Scarlet off Gaelion's head and the two fall down to the ground of the cliffside again.

At the same time, Ren goes for the kill, only for Katsuki in the nick of time with his best defense shield out as he lands in front of the sword hero stopping his death blow.

Kirishima and Scarlet began to fight as they bite and peck at each other, "Evil dragons will die!" Scarlet yells at Kirishima as he began to spit fireballs at the bird's face making the two fight harder than before.

It wasn't much different with Ren and Bakugou as Ren starts striking at Bakugou as he blocks his way to the dragon, "What the hell is wrong with you!? Is killing me worth the bragging rights of killing a dragon!?" Ren scolds Bakugou thinking he was still here to kill the dragon.

But Bakugou was trying his best to set things straight as the two clash, with Bakugou not even using his quirk to attack, "I told you a million times, I'm not here to kill the dragon! I'm stopping your idiot ass from killing him!?"

That last part baffled Ren, "What!?".

"Hydra shield!" Bakugou yells with his shield transforming into 3 small hydra heads as they bite down on the sword heroes arms and shoulders forcing him to stop as Ren struggles to get them off, "Now listen to me already dumbass this dragon..."

But Bakugou was interrupted after Gaelion finally attacks again after catching his breath as he attempts to smash the two with his claws squishing the hydra heads forcing the two to jump away and separate as both of there animal companions continued there own fight.

"I find you humans arguing amusing. But it's about time I have some more direct fun again." Gaelion gloats as he continues to try to smash the two.

As the two heroes avoid Gaelion's attacks with Bakugou trying to reason with him again, "Will you stop this! I'm trying to convince this idiot to not kill you and you're just making things worse!"

"Why do you even care for my well being you sweet smelling human? Why do you even care at all?" Gaelion questions while still trying to kill Bakugou, now curious as to why he was trying to stop the fight the sword hero started.

"This isn't about you! This is about Wyndia!" Bakugou shouted thinking that saying his adopted daughter's name out loud will calm him down.

It didn't

Gaelion immediately recognized the name he shouted. Now he had his daughter on his mind. Suddenly his amusing pleasure of the humans disappeared, It was now of pure anger and rage, "Wyndia? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH HER YOU GREEDY PRIMATES! I'LL KILL ALL OF YOU!", Gaelion roared at the top of his lungs thinking the humans had done something bad with her if Bakugou knew of her name.

Gaelion began to rampage across the mountain top as he smashes, crushes, and burns everything around him to kill the humans. The rage was so intense that it even made Kirishima and Scarlet stop there fight they avoid Gaelion's wrath.

Things have gotten uglier for Bakugou as not only will it be hard to stop Ren from attacking Gaelion, but now he has to deal with a blood rage dragon.

---

Back with Neia and Wyndia, the elf warrior continues on with the young demi wolf-girl on her back as she runs as fast as possible to the battle at the northern mountain, hoping Wyndia can stop her father's rage.

But as they run across the forest to the mountain, they began to attract numerous monsters. Neia had been avoiding them as much as possible, but with her unique blue skin and the loud noises coming from the battle ahead, monsters began to chase after the two. It was becoming a scary sight as the monsters start to gather up near the two as Neia tries to go faster, "They're gaining on us!" Wyndia shouted scared.

"Hold on we're almost there!" Neia shouts back at Wyndia as she to run as she can.

"Watch out in front of you!" Wyndia shouted with Neia quickly noticing a pack of deadly saber-tooth cats in front of them, finally ambushing the two.

Neia was forced to stop as she draws out her sword as dozens of animals and monsters surround the two. As some attack, Neia was able to cut some of them down. But she knew it will only be a matter of time before they all attacked at once as more and more surround the area. But she was mostly concerned about Wyndia's safety fearing her life could be at risk.

Neia knew she had one fail-safe though, but she had to get Wyndia out of the way first, "Wyndia, you flew before with your father right?" Neia quickly asked her.

"Yes plenty of times, why do you...Aaah!" Neia throws Wyndia up in the air as the swarm of monsters goes for the opening to kill, until Neia places her hands on the ground and shouted, "Electric surge!"

A giant surge of electricity went through across the ground affecting all the monsters. It was so intense it made all of them stunned as megavolts of electricity destroy their nervous systems.

Wyndia finally falls back down, but Neia manages to catch her completely unharmed after her attack finished.

They look around as the standing corpses begin to fall on the ground with there brains fried. Neia even leveled up to 37 from it.

But they knew they didn't have time to aw at the carnage as they hear the noises from the battle up the mountain again. Neia goes on the run once more hopefully with no more monsters following the two.

---

The battle had gone on as rage-filled Gaelion continues to tear the landscape apart. Both Ren and Bakugou were riding on their monster companions as they avoid the dragon's wrath.

But Ren was refusing to just run and continued his magic attacks at Gaelion.

Bakugou did his best to stop them all, but he was only able to use one airstrike shield at a time and was forced to engage Ren as much as he could as Gaelion continued attacking as he sets the cliffside on fire, "You will not harm my daughter! I'll be sure you will all burn!".

"Scarlet attack the small dragon!" Ren ordered, he had about enough of this battle and had Scarlet go after Kirishima again.

Bakugou blasted himself off of Kirishima again and as the two monster companions attack, Bakugou blasts himself toward Gaelion.

After avoiding his fire breath Ren starts slashing at his stomach and does it again and again as Gaelion roars in pain.

Gaelion had enough and started to flap his wings in the air. The power of his damaged wings and wind magic, he creates a powerful wind storm across the cliffside as it nearly blows both Kirishima and Scarlet off the mountain as they stop fighting each other to hold themselves on the mountain.

Bakugou and Ren do the same as they both used their abilities to weigh themselves down.

"I've had it with you pale apes! I'll just blow you off and let the mountain take care of the rest!" Gaelion shouts as he continues producing the intense winds.

But as he continues this, Ren was charging up his sword one more time with his sword glowing with intense magic power.

Bakugou noticed, but the winds were so powerful that he couldn't explode himself to stop Ren.

Rens sword glows brighter and brighter as most of his power builds up in the sword with a bright red light emitting from itself, as he aims his sword right at the dragons cut up belly.

It seemed like the end, but Bakugou had one more trick up his sleeve. Despite the strong winds pushing against him, Bakugou held one hand out toward Ren, with his other hand clutched on the palm.

Ren starts to yell out as he aims his attack with the blade ready to fire, until.

"AP SHOT!" Bakugou shouts out and with his explosion concentrated as a beam launches at Ren and blasted the teen in time, knocking him off-balance with his sword firing off his attack.

The powerful attack barely misses Gaelion, but the energy beam contiunes to head straight to the top of the mountain.

And Then-

"BOOM!"

The energy attack caused a giant explosion that shook the whole mountain, causing a giant avalanche of rocks. And this avalanche was huge with many of the giant rocks rolling down the mountain were about the size of Gaelion himself.

Before he could notice Gaelion gets hit and eventually pushed off by the massive boulders.

Everyone else was also affected by the avalanche.

Bakugou after running next to Kirishima was forced to activate a shield prison on him and his dragon as they roll down the mountain in it.

Scarlet would've just jump and glide away, but she saw her master on the ground still stunned from Katsuki's blast, and had no means of protecting himself from the avalanche.

Scarlet jump into Ren's way and grabbed hold of her master as she protected him with her soft feathers as the large bird companion rolls down the mountain with the avalanche of rocks.

Everyone rolls and falls down until the rock slide, until it finally stopped beside a cliffside near the base of the mountain.

Katsuki had protected himself and his dragon thanks to the shield prison as it disappeared away, but Bakugou felt extremely sick after all of that rolling and bouncing inside the ball, "Damn that ball thing, damn that dragon, damn paleface, and damn my stupid stomach!" Bakugou then barfs out next to some rocks as he continues to recover from his dizziness

Kirishima jumped further down the mountain deciding to lay down to recover from such an exhausting battle.

On the other end of the mountain base though, it was a different story. Ren is bruised up and was aching all over. But Ren immediately took notice of something after he got himself up, "Scarlet!".

Scarlet was in worse shape. Injured and hurt all over, she was silent barely conscience from that event. Ren was scared and sick to his stomach, "Scarlet! Scarlet! No! No! Please speak to me!" he shouts to her, worried that she might be dying. Ren with his sword still in his hand took out a bunch of health potions and did everything he could to keep her alive.

"Scarlet! Please Scarlet! Don't do this to me!" Ren shouted more scared than he ever was before.

Ren was almost about to cry as he throws more healing potion on her thinking the worst had happened, but then he heard some breathing from Scarlet and was relieved.

Scarlet then transformed back into her human form still injured barely awake. She attempted to talk to Ren, "Ma.. ma.. master... did... did I do good out there?" she could barely say as Ren holds her hand and smiles.

"You were perfect out there Scarlet. Just rest yourself and sleep." Ren comforts her, as she smiles and quickly falls asleep to rest.

Ren was relieved she was alive, but there was also a wave of deep anger inside of him, an anger that needed to be released.

He then heard some groaning and turns to see the dragon again, but most of his body was covered in rocks with only his head exposed with many of his bones broken from the fall and is unable to get up. The once proud Dragon Emperor was now in the most vulnerable position he has ever been in his long life.

Ren then grips his sword harder and looked absolutely mad at the injured and helpless dragon. All he could feel was anger, this monster had nearly killed Scarlet who was just a child and a true friend to him, who risked her own life to save his from the avalanche.

He didn't even care about the reward, the glory, or the material drops anymore. This was now personal to him. He wanted this monster to suffer in the pits of hell for what he put Scarlet through, and was ready to just end it as he drags his injured self toward Gaelion.

Bakugou after he recovered from his barfing turns around and saw what Ren was going to do, "Shit!" he yells to himself as he moves as fast as possible to stop Ren before it was too late.

Neia and Wyndia themselves had made it below the base of the mountain and were looking around wondering why it was all quiet all of the sudden.

"Father!" Wyndia suddenly shouted, with Neia quickly looking at her direction to see Gaelion stuck under piles of rocks with Ren dragging his sword toward knowing what he was going to do with it.

"Ren! Sir Ren! Don't! Stop!" Neia shouted, but she could tell he couldn't hear her. Neia with Wyndia still on her back continued to run and climb up the mountain cliff toward Gaelion to stop Ren.

On the other side though Kirishima did hear Neia recognizing her voice and finally stopped resting and was climbing on the cliffside toward her voice.

Neia tries as hard as she could to climb up to Gaelion and Ren but the area was to steep even for her, it seemed hopeless.

But then they both heard a shrieking roar and it was Kirishima clinging on to the side of the cliff above them.

Neia and Wyndia quickly looked at each other, "Can you do that throw thing again?" Wyndia asked.

"Of course hold on tight." Neia then grabbed hold of the girl and with her power strength she throws the girl up high up the cliff, and just right before her momentum stopped Kirishima grabs Wyndia with his foot and throws her up again upon the flat cliffside. With no time for thanks, she ran off toward her father and Ren before it was too late.

Back with Ren, he was finally right up at Gaelion. The dragon emperor breathes heavily as he also looks up to a mad Ren.

Ren could only feel rage as he looks down on the now helpless dragon. Ren didn't even say another word to him, he knew what the Dragon could see and it wasn't a good sight. With the young man full of rage at the dragon, no talk from Gaelion will stop him.

Ren finally grips his sword with both of his hands and raises it up ready to just strike the dragon down and be done with it.

Bakugou was running as fast as he could from behind, and as he runs he holds out his hand again as he ready's another AP shot.

Ren holds back his sword from behind as he readies to strike.

After a few seconds off looking at Gaelion, cold in the eye, Ren throws down his sword then...

"STOP!" Ren halts his strike as some random wolf girl jumps right in front of his sword strike. "Please Sir stop.",The girl was breathing hard and looked scared as she stands near the injured dragon. It also made Bakugou stop not too far behind Ren still having his AP shot attack ready when Ren finally goes for the kill again.

Ren was completely confused but it didn't stop his anger, "Kid! Get out of the way! I need to kill this monster now!" he shouts at the random girl.

"No! He's not a monster, he's my father!", Wyndia finally cries to the sword hero.

Ren was quickly baffled and couldn't wrap his head as to why the girl would say that or who she even was, "I mean it! Get out of the way now!" he commands her.

But she still refuses, "No! Please sir, please listen to me, he's not just some dragon. He is the only family I have. Before I could barely talk he has raised me, fed me, and protect me from danger for most of my life. What monster would do that?".

Ren still felt rage, but now he was just confused. Feeling conflicted by this random girl feeling emotional for this monster that nearly killed Scarlet. It was suddenly hard to hold his sword now, "But he... But he..." Ren tried to say something but couldn't think of anything.

"Sword." Ren heard and when he turned toward it, it was Gaelion finally speaking in a very weak voice. "Human with the sword... ple.. please, if you have to strike me down here. Please take Wyndia with you. Please protect her, provide her food and love. Don't let her be taken advantage of by other humans. Let her grow and let her do what she wants of herself."

"Father no! Please father don't leave me!" Wyndia turned to cry on Gaelions head now thinking this was going to be there last moment together.

Ren couldn't believe that came out of that monster. It wasn't the sound of a desperate lie, it was genuine from the dragons giant heart. He did care for this demi-human girl and the demi-human girl really did see him as a father.

He hated this dragon, but was he really going to kill a girl's father just to satisfy his rage.

Wyndia remains beside Gaelion not wanting to be away from him as Ren held his sword behind him again, but the look of his face was different than before. It was not of anger, but of someone conflicted. One side of himself wanted to kill him, but the other wanted to stop. It was tearing him apart as he shakes and sweats.

It remained silent for half a minute with everyone waiting to see what Ren will do, with Katsuki still behind ready to shoot at him.

Ren continues to hold and hold, not knowing what to do, it hurts, it was confusing, he couldn't take it anymore and finally shouts with rage finally making a decision, with everyone fearing the worst, as Wyndia hugs Gaelion with her eyes shut and Bakugou charging up his attack.

*Clank*

A metal sound was heard on the ground, but other then that no other sound was made. Wyndia opened her eyes and saw her father still breathing. She turns to Ren and saw him breathing heavily with his sword on the ground, "I can't believe I'm doing this, but I can't kill a father in front of his child. I'll spare him." Ren finally announced.

Wyndia's sadness immediately disappeared and rather than tears of sadness, she was now shedding tears of joy. She runs up to a surprised Ren and hugs him, "Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you for not being the monster."

Ren didn't know what to say, he was still confused by everything. Who was even this girl and how is this dragon her father?

Bakugou witnessed the whole thing and lowered his arms down knowing that the fighting was finally done.

"Master Ren?" The sword hero immediately recognized that voice and it was Scarlet up again struggling to remain standing up.

Just before she tripped herself Ren catches her, "Are... are you alright now master?" Scarlet asked.

Ren could only smile, "Of course I never been better." Ren hugs her again happy to see that she was fine despite her injuries.

Bakugou huffs to himself finding this being too mushy for him, but as he turns he sees both Kirishima and Neia now up on the cliff. He smiles back at the two of as he pets Kirishima on his head, "You did good big guy. You as well blue."

Neia didn't say anything and just gives Bakugou a proud smile, happy for everything to turn out fine for everyone, even for the sword hero.

Bakugou then turns toward Gaelion and Wyndia as she hugs at her father's head wanting to comfort him with his injured body.

Bakugou then walks up to the two, "Ok kid, mind moving over? I'm going to help your dad."

Wyndia wasn't sure what he was going to do, but she didn't protest and walks away from Gaelion.

Bakugou walks up with his hands out, " I am the hero of the shield who commands the origin of power. I have read and deciphered a law of nature. I call forth the power of the nature of healing!" he chants expelling out a green energy.

Gaelion is then covered in a green aura, with many of his cuts rapidly healing up, even the deepest ones.

This immediately alerted Ren, "What the hell are you doing?! Sparing it was one thing but you are really going to let him be at his prime again!?" Ren yells at Bakugou.

"Shut up already Paleface! This was all your damn fault anyway. Are you just going to let the kid stand there with her father bleeding out!? Besides if he does do anything funny I can take him down myself!", Bakugou yells back. Ren was still cautious after all the time they spent to even take down the thing. But he did understand his point, it would be terrible to let a child continue to look at her father injured and nobody did anything to help him.

"Blue, go help the bird kid while I'm at this," Bakugou ordered with Neia immediately nodding yes.

As the dragon heals Neia applies her own healing magic on Scarlet as her cuts and bruises also heal up.

Kirishima was just resting with Wyndia sitting with her petting his body, but when he looked up toward Scarlet, the bird girl decided to stick her tongue out mocking the dragon. But Kirishima was just tired and just ignores her to rest on the ground from all the running and fighting.

After a few minutes, Scarlet was fully recovered from her injuries, she was now able to stand up properly again.

Also just in time, Bakugou finished up healing Gaelion from all he was inflected from the battle, nearly exhausting the teen after healing such a giant beast.

Gaelion now with his full strength again raised himself back up, pushing over all the rocks that once covered his body.

Everyone steps back as the dragon emperor rises up again.

They were all tense at that moment, especially Ren and Bakugou fearing that Gaelion will attack again starting the whole thing all over again.

Gaelion looks down at the two heroes with great power in his eyes. Everything was silent for the moment awaiting for Gaelion to finally do something. Even Wyndia was unsure what her father will do.

"Sword!" Gaelion speaks loudly to Ren as he gripped his sword on its hilt awaiting for an attack. But to him and everyone's surprise, no attack happened. Gaelion lowers his head down in front of Ren resembling a bow to him, "Thank you for sparing me, It takes great strength to kill a opponent such as me, but it takes even greater strength to spare an opponent. Thank you again, not just for me, but for my daughter to."

Everyone was surprised to see this prideful dragon thanking Ren after all of this. But at the same time were relieved now seeing Gaelion wasn't as bloodthirsty as one expected.

"Father!" Wyndia cheers in happiness as she runs toward her adoptive father to give him a hug which the mighty Dragon embraces with his own love.

Neia could barely hold back tears from the sight, but Bakugou just rolls his eyes, "Sure he thanks the asshole who tried to kill him, but he doesn't thank the guy who helped saved his ass in the first place?"

But after Wyndia's hug Gaelion looks down toward Bakugou with his head down at his level as well, "I of course thank you as well Shield for healing me. I'm also sorry for trying to kill you as well. I allowed my pride and fear of Wyndia's life to control myself when I should have listened to you. I owe you a great debt to my life, the hero with the shield."

"Yeah whatever, but it better be worth something you giant fire breathing bastard. And don't let your damn pride get in the way of your daughters well being ever again You have to always think of the people that depend on you!" Bakugou lectured the dragon emperor as he raises his head up at his level again as he gives out a small smile toward his daughter.

But Ren finally spoke up, "Ok can someone here tell me what the hell is going on here? Who the hell are you two, why does she call the dragon father, and why did you attacked me Bakugou?"

Neia spoke up first to answer, "Well alright Sir Ren, but its a long story.".

After a few minutes of talking, Bakugou and Neia explained the whole situation to both Gaelion and Ren. Both on Wyndia's backstory with Gaelion and her mother and Lord Smi and his cronies' true motivation on why they wanted Gaelion dead.

It was a lot to take in but Ren got most of it, though some things were still muddled to him, "Ok so I guess that explains a lot, so you weren't just some mindless malevolent monster and you genuinely cared for your adopted daughter, but Bakugou I'm still iffy on your claim on Lord Smi and his friends. He may be a fat bastard, but what your accusing him of is a pretty big claim to make without evidence."

"You didn't seem to care about that when someone got accused of an attempt rape of a princess." Bakugou reminds him.

"I would say sorry to you about that again but I know that you would hardly care even if I did. But my point still stands, you can't just make an accusation like that without proof of it. And one that doesn't involve beating the crap out him and forcing it out of the guy." Ren retorts back.

Bakugou hates to admit it, but he did have zero evidence of Smi's greed but he wasn't going to let the bastard nearly get away with this or let him make some other future adventurers do the job anyway. Bakugou was silent for a second, thinking of a way to prove it without brute-forcing it out of Smi. But eventually Bakugou had an idea.

"Ok listen Paleface, I have a way to prove it, you just got to follow what I say," Bakugou demanded, Ren feels like he's going to regret getting involved, but he feels like he still owes Bakugou after the trial incident so he will at least listen in.

As Ren approached him, Gaelion was also closing in on the two cardinal heroes, "If you don't mind heroes. I would like to listen in on this plan as well?" Gaelion asked.

"Why for?" Ren asked wondering why he needs to bother.

"If this random human wishes to slander me and send heroes off to kill me. I wouldn't mind having my name cleared up. And if he truly wanted to enslave Wyndia after my death, I should be the one to give him a piece of my mind on that." Gaelion answered.

While Ren was still uneasy with the dragon he fought half an hour ago, he still wanted to give the benefit of a doubt and trust Bakugou on this.

Bakugou just smiles now that he had everyone's ears to listen to him, "Alright this is what we're going to do."

---

Ren was now at Lord Smi's office again as he shows off his bloody blade to him as proof that he battled and killed the dragon. He noticed that there were more people in the office this time than before. A church cleric, a slaver, a bartender, and a bunch of mercenaries all watching him.

Lord Smi looked satisfied, "Ah very good work Sword Hero, we all heard your great battle all the way from the village. Some had doubts you would come out of it alive, but you prove them wrong." the Lord says to Ren trying to kiss up to him.

But Ren hardly cared, "Whatever, where's the reward you promise me?"

"Getting to the point I see. Of course, here's your reward 25 gold pieces for your troubles." Smi says as he gives him his pouch of gold, "I do wonder what happened to that loud friend of yours? He seemed to have been a whiner." Smi continues referring to Bakugou.

"Kacchan just left after I killed the dragon, he had a temper tantrum and left town as a sore loser," Ren answers him.

"Honestly I'm not surprised he seemed to be nothing but trouble anyway, so are you off elsewhere yourself?" Smi asked being quick to ask that question.

"Of course me and my team are heading back to Melromarcs capital to resupply. So we are out of here as well. So good day lord Smi." Ren finishes and turns to walk out the door on his way out of town.

Once the office door was shut the bartender finally spoke up, "So when do we loot the keep?"

"Soon, we just got to let the sword hero leave town, and with him out of the picture all of the spoils will be ours," Smi answered with his comrades liking the idea as they cheered again for future riches.

---

About an hour or so later by the evening of that day Smi and his crew of 7 other men were walking up the mountain to the supposed dead dragon's lair.

All of them including Smi himself was excited about looting the place, "Haha, this was too easy! We get the heroes to kill off that dragon and now all of his stuff will be ours." Smi laughed as the group made it into Gaelion's cave.

The crew went on to tear the place apart looking for the dragon's loot. But as they continue to look they were disappointed to not find anything valuable, "What the hell kind of Dragon's lair is this Smi!? It's mostly just a bunch of children's crap and rocks!" one of Smi's mercenary friends yells at him.

Smi just ignored him, but he was feeling equally mad that there wasn't much in here, until one of his crewmates found a small chest inside a bunch of boulders. After taking it out and breaking the locks they saw that it was filled with hundreds of gold coins. Most likely Gaelion's private gold stash.

The crew now looked excited again looking at all of the gold especially Smi, "Not as much as I expected, but this will definitely pay for years worth of beer. Now, where was that demi at? She should be here?" Smi speaks as he closes the chest with the rest of the crew looking around for this demi-human girl.

As they continued to search for her, one of them said, "Hey I found her and it looks like she's a keeper!" as the man walks up to his group with the girl, the slaver takes a good look at the supposed "demi", she was a dark-haired red-eyed girl with wings and what looked like dog ears on her head.

Smi just sinisterly smiles along with his slaver friend as they look down at the girl, "She will definitely fetch a price, she should be worth about 10 gold at least." the slaver continued with the crew laughing to themselves. She looks like a weird demi, but to the slaver, weirder meant more unique and more unique means that he could sell her off for even more money.

"I say this was a profitable expedition boys, after we sell her off let's head for the capital and celebrate at the brothels!" Smi cheers with the rest of the crew cheering on as they tie the girl up.

Once properly wrapped up in rope without any resistance the girl spoke up, "My master will not be happy about this, you're all going to die." the girl bluntly told the group who all just laughed at the girl.

"Ha your so-called "Master" is dead. And his body is going to make us even more money as soon as the word gets out." Smi laughs as he pets the 'demi' on the head thinking she is referring to the dragon. They all began to laugh thinking everything was good for them now.

"So this was why you wanted the dragon dead for?" Smi and his crew stopped laughing and were surprised to hear that voice wondering who said that, and as they turn they saw the sword hero Ren walking in from the dark corner of the cave, "You set that whole quest up just to steal from a dead dragon, enslave that demi-human he was protecting, and then parade his corpse around as some sort of tourist attraction."

The crew was surprised to see him again and the fact he knew about this place, but Lord Smi attempted to sweet talk him, "Sir Sword hero. It's a... It's a surprise to see you again, what with you being out here?"

"Don't you dare ignore what I said, I heard everything you and your friends bragged about when you got into this cave. You better have a good excuse for all of this." Ren demanded with the crew grabbing onto there weapon hilts awaiting the sword hero to make a move.

"Now now Sword, we are merely collecting from a dead uh... Dragon's belongings, why let it all sit and collect dust?" Smi tried to excuse.

But Ren wasn't buying any of it, "And what about that girl you plan to sell off to slavery?"

"Why do you even care? She's just a demi-human, most of her kind are enslaved in Melromarc, and I didn't see you freeing any slaves from anywhere else."

"I don't care how people like you think about demi-humans, all I see is a helpless girl you intend to sell off as property. You have lied to me about everything and deliberately left out information like the location of this cave, just so you and your friends can keep it all to yourself." Ren continues as he looks angrily at Smi's crew.

"Look how about this, if you care so much you can keep the damn demi and you can have a ninth of the treasure if it will shut you up." Smi bargains in a rude manner.

"I don't care about the money, you deliberately lied to me about all of this. I'll have all you taken up to the center of town and you will tell everyone about what you have done, then I'll take you and your friends to the capital and you will answer to the crown directly about all of this." Ren finishes as he takes out his sword and begins to approach the group.

Smi puts one hand behind himself as he tries to bargain some more, "Now now Sword hero, we don't need to involve the crown or anything." Smi then pulls out his magic wand from his back pocket, "We can just talk here and just settle this between us. I mean we could... PARALYZE!" Smi shouts with his wand out launching a beam of magic energy out to Ren.

Ren quickly gets hit by it, now he was frozen in place, unable to move no matter how hard he resisted.

Smi then laughed, "Hahaha, not so strong now are you sword hero. There's no way you can get out of that. You're now nothing more then a helpless brat with a magic sword you can't even use. Hahaha, Now time to take you out of the picture." Smi then turns his head toward the bartender, "Gar, why not give him your stomach melting 'special' and make it the sword heroes last drink."

The bartender smiles as he begins to approach Ren taking out bottles with green and yellow fluid as he pours both into a beer bottle, "Acid of a hydra and poison from the killer jellyfish of the Island of Campir. This will melt all of your organs to jelly regardless of one's level. I heard it's rather painful too."

The group together laughs at Ren as he continues to struggle to get out of this spell, but the murderous bartender was now right up to him as he finishes shaking up the deadly drink.

Smi decided to mock him one last time to rub it in at the sword heroes' face, "Looks like you are going to be of greater use to us now. The great sword hero, who sacrificed himself to save the poor town from the deadly dragon. Ha, it will bring in more travelers. It's too bad your crew wasn't here, I guess there are some disadvantages to working alone."

Ren the smiles, "That's where your wrong, I'm not alone here."

"Huh?" Smi expressed in confusion.

"DIE!"

Smi quickly turns himself to see Bakugou with Neia not far behind him jumping from the shadows with high speeds and he blasts Smi at the side of his face, not only pushing back his crew but sent Smi flying across the cave until he smashes face-first into a cave wall allowing the shield hero to smash his wand on the ground.

With the spell instantly broken Ren just in time head butts the bartender in the stomach making the guy fall on his butt, with his acid-filled drink falling and breaking on his own face. He screams in agony as the liquid literally melts his face all the way to the bone.

Ren got himself back up gripping his sword as he goes to fight the men back.

All of Smi's crew quickly went for there weapons, "Its the Shield Devil! Attack him!" the cleric shouted now recognizing Bakugou especially with his shield now activated.
The mercenaries then took out there magic-powered swords, ax's, and hammers, the slaver had brought out a magic-powered electric whip, and the church cleric had out a magic wand to buff them up with his spells.

Ren runs to attack the two swordsmen mercenaries as the magic of there swords clash. Bakugou fought the two other mercenaries off, Neia engages the slaver, and the clerk decided to stay in the back out of the fighting as he provides his group with magic.

These men were no pushovers and put up a fight with there combined efforts, but in a short minute, they ended getting overwhelmed by the heroes.

Ren stabs one mercenary through the throat and Bakugou blows through another's stomach with his quirk.

Neia continued to dodge the slavers whip attacks as he tries to catch the elf girl off guard and tries to fool Neia with his magic tricks and spells.

Once supposedly off guard, the slaver managed to wrap his whip around her wrist, "Now time to learn your place demi!" the slaver mocked as he activates an electric spell on the whip and laughing about it.

But that laughing stopped when he realizes the electric shock did nothing to her as the elf remains standing up not affected by the electricity.

He stood there awkwardly smiling realizing how screwed he was, "Ok then, my turn." Neia mocked back, and before the slaver could understand Neia instantly transfers back a giant surge of electricity through the whip back at the slaver as he screams in agony as his body is fried up from the millions of volts that melted his brain until he falls down dead

The cleric could tell things were going really badly as his protection spells were failing his friends, "This is terrible, I must warn Pope Balmus of this at once."he mumbled to himself but as he attempted to step back toward his way out the cave he felt some strange slimy liquid drop on his shoulder, he turns up to the source of it and to his horror, it was Kirishima up on some rocks next to him drooling.

The cleric panicked and attempt to cast a spell, but Kirishima jumps on him knocking him to the ground. And just as quickly Kirishima bites onto the screaming corrupt churchman as he rips and eats his head off.

There were just the two mercenaries left, as they were fighting the respective heroes with Neia finally joining in to help Bakugou. Both Mercenaries were tough, but were also getting the crap kicked out of them as Ren slashes though the mercenaries sword completely cutting it in half. Bakugou continued to blast the hell out of his mercenary opponent as he blasted the guy over and over again with the merc's armor falls apart.

Ren finally blasted at his opponent at the chest with a magic blast from his sword to send him flying.

Bakugou blast punches his opponent in the face and while stunned Bakugou gave out a powerful kick.

The two mercenaries then bashed into each others backs and before they could react Ren stabs them both through their stomach's.

Before Ren pulls out Bakugou screams at them with the mercenaries looking horrified as Bakugou finishes them by blasting both of there heads off there bodies, killing the last of them.

After that Ren puts away his sword and speaks to Bakugou, "Well I admit, I didn't think it would come to this, but I guess things worked out anyway."

"And!"

"Ugh... Ok ok, you were right about this whole thing.

"And!"

"... And I was wrong."

"Ha, like I said, that fatass and his cronies were crooks."

"I guess I also owe you this for saving my life back there," Ren took out the reward coin bag Smi gave to him eariler and throws it to Bakugou as he catches and puts away the gold without a word, "Speaking of fatass, where is he at?" Ren then asked.

Everyone looked around and noticed Smi or his large body was not around, not as a corpse or anything.

Bakugou quickly thought it though, "If I had to guess." he and the crew turn towards the cave entrance.

Near the way outside, Smi attempts to make a run for it out of the cave as he continues to hold on the 'demi-human' kid, "This was a fucking disaster! But I'm not leaving this dump of a town empty-handed. You will still fetch a fine price to the slavers brat."

"I only belong to master Ren you foul-smelling man." the girl insulted him.

"I told you already brat your master... Wait Ren? The sword hero? But how?" Smi paused, but before he could think about it the girl transformed into her giant black bird form breaking her ropes with her fake ears falling off.

Smi looks horrified now realizing the sword and shield hero set the whole thing up from the beginning.

Scarlet then kicks Smi right in the crotch, launching the fat bastard up in the air in pain out of the cave.

After he lands hard on the ground, Smi groans to the pain from the kick as he holds onto his crotch next to the cliffside. But he was soon consumed by fear once he looked forward to see Ren, Bakugou, Neia, Kirishima, and bird form Scarlet now surrounding him.

Smi got himself back up, he knew making a run for it was now useless as he was behind a steep cliff and heroes blocking the way down, he resorted to his only weapon left in his arsenal, negotiating or more appropriately begging, "Wait! Please Sword hero and Shield hero. We... We don't have to be violent here... Uh.. Uh I can give you whatever you want I promise." But his words were hollow to the two heroes as they and their groups walk closer making the pathetic man as he sweat more, "No no no no, I mean it. Do you want gold, I can offer you my entire savings as well as the town's funds. In fact, you can have the town itself and my manor, all of this land is both of yours now, you're both the new lords of this area. Just please let me live!" Smi continues to beg.

Ren and Bakugou stopped themselves, now looking interested in the deal, "You actually mean it fatty?" Bakugou asked

"Yes... Yes it's all yours! I'll just resign and you can do whatever you want and I'll just leave Melromarc forever and never come back." Smi continued begging thinking he had some hope to get out of this mess.

The two heroes then looked toward each other, "That does sound like a fair offer. What do you say Bakugou?" Ren asked him.

"Hmmm, sure why not, we take the land and the pig can squeal away with his fat ass." Bakugou agreed, Smi was now feeling somewhat relieved that his life was spared.

Until Bakugou looks back at him once more, "Though before we can go forward with it, you should probably talk to our third party before we can agree." Bakugou finally says to him.

Smi was left confused, "Third party?" but suddenly a loud shake of movement was felt behind him with what sounded like deep growling. Smi was terrified but he finally decided to look behind himself and it turned out that 'third party' was none other then the giant dragon he ordered to be killed, still alive and well as he grips down his hand claws on the cliff looking down directly at Smi with deep anger in his eyes.

"So you are the one that wanted me dead, slandered my name, and intended to steal away my daughter!" Gaelion speaks out.

Smi looks on horrified to be seeing the so-called dead dragon still alive and on his back was the demi-human Wyndia looking just as mad toward the terrified evil fat man.

The fat lord now knew everything was screwed for him.

Smi attempts to make a desperate run for it, but Gaelion stops him by smashing his clawed hand on the fat man. Gaelion then slowly lifts him right up to his head as Smi squirms all he could to escape until he dangles upside down forced to look toward the face of the mad dragon.

Gaelion says his last words to him, "Now here's what I think of your little deal!" Gaelion then breathes his blue flames on Smi making him scream in agony as he burns to a crisp from his claws. Gaelion then puts the burning fatman in his mouth and begins to chew over and over causing greater pain to Smi until after his screams go silent and Gaelion swallows what's left of him whole.

Everyone cheered on as Smi and his cronies had all been defeated, with not only was Gaelion's name cleared, but Wyndia was now safe.

Bakugou then turned toward Ren, "So you got something to say Paleface?" he asked from Ren.

"Again I'm sorry for not believing you in the first place and I'm an idiot for not doing any research first." Ren apologizes again to Bakugou.

"Not to me you moron. That giant bastard you almost murdered a couple of hours ago." Bakugou pointed toward Gaelion as he climbs himself up from the cliff with Wyndia safely slidding off him.

Ren knew Bakugou was right and despite what he felt about the dragon earlier today, he himself was the one acting without thinking things through before. Ren moves up and takes one knee to the ground and lowers his head down, "I'm sorry Mr.. uh...Gaelion. I was wrong to attack you before and attempted to unjustly kill you." He then lifts his head up toward Wyndia, "And I'm also sorry for making you so worried and brought you to tears. Had I know he was your adoptive father I would've never done any of this."

Wyndia was smiling, "I accept your apology sir sword hero. I hope this will be a new start between you humans and my father." she thanked and everyone looks up at Gaelion.

"I accept your apology as well. I still hold up to my apology of course, I was acting just as foolish as well. In the end I hope we can both learn from this. Thankfully everything turned out fine." Gaelion finishes showing a small smile on his face as he gently comforts his daughter.

Neia though did speak up, "It's unfortunate though that your home is a wreck with those bastards tearing it apart and our little battle in there. I don't think you want live where bloody corpses were at."

Wyndia though didn't seem upset, "Don't worry about it, we can always find a new place to live. Homes can be replaced, but family cannot. As long as father is still with me that's all that matters." She says as she hugs her father's head after he lowered it down.

Bakugou then turned toward Ren, "Well Paleface, since this was all your fault in the first place. You should be the one to get them a new house." he told him bluntly.

Ren immediately got defensive on that, "What do you mean my fault? That whole thing earlier was your..." but he stops when he thought about that for a second, "Ok you have a point, but I don't know what to do, I don't own any house's or anything." He continued.

"You do now idiot. Don't you remeber what happened just a few minutes ago?" Bakugou hinted at him.

Ren then starts to think about that as he scratches his chin, thinking and thinking until, "I got it. I know of a place."

---

Back in the town of Mirso, things seemed peaceful as everyone goes on with there days in the quiet town with the adults working and the children playing.

But suddenly a large roar of wind came from the edge of the forest making everyone turn. And the source of the noise and wind quickly appeared. It was the dragon finally coming close to the village as it flies across the sky close to the treetops.

Many of the people were surprised but also terrified at the same time, everyone thought the dragon had perished under the sword hero and here it was alive and well.

It flew around near the town until it was near late Lord Smi's manor, and after some circling it finally landed on the ground next to the manor, terrifying all of the guards near it.

Almost the entire town came up and were wondering what was going on. Despite the dragon's presence it wasn't doing anything, good or bad.

It wasn't until they all saw people jumping off its back. And after a closer look one of them was none other than the sword hero, with some small winged little girl, and a wolf Demi-human.

And right behind them was the obnoxiously loud blonde haired hero that was asking questions earlier around town, along with his strange blue skin partner, and his own personal dragon pet.

The townsfolk were confused by all of this and were wondering what was even going on anymore.

It was all blank, until the Sword hero finally came up in front of the the manor looking toward the townspeople.

He finally spoke out, "Attention people of Mirso! I'm here to inform you that your old lord Smi is dead." Everyone was shocked by the news, hardly anyone cared much about the lazy drunk old lord but it was still quite the news to be immediately given.

Ren then continued to give details, "Don't feel any sorrow though, he was corrupt and morally bankrupt. He nearly had me murder an innocent father and was going to kidnapped a little girl to be sold off as a slave. So me and my comrades had to put him and his friends down. So as of now under my authority as the cardinal sword hero, I'll be the new acting lord of this area and will confiscate all of his property and belonging's including this very manor."

Ren then allowed Wyndia to walk in front of him, "I should also inform all of you that this bright young girl will now be under my protection and will be allowed to dwell in my new manor as a free Demi-human. This goes the same with her guardian/father Sir Gaelion." he then points up toward Gaelion himself making everyone surprised that the sword hero was doing all of this.

"Anyone who attempts to harm either of them will answer to me. I'm also announcing as of now, under the slave dominion laws signed by Queen Mirellia, as the acting lord of this area, I declare demi-human slavery illegal in this region. The slave market branch here will be shut down and those with slaves will either have to leave the area with them or be forced to free them while I compensate their owners for there original payment. And this manor will be a sanctuary for those newly freed Demi-humans, to be safe at, and again those that try to re-enslave them or do general harm to the free demi-humans will answer directly to me as I did with Smi. Those who own slaves will have 48 hours to make up your minds." Ren finishes making use of all he learned from Beloukas weeks ago.

Everyone was shocked by all of these sudden new changes. But none would protest against a cardinal hero or the giant dragon next to him. Those that would've had already been killed by the sword and shield hero at the mountain earlier.

The townsfolk gossiped to each other about all of this as they eventually dispersed.

Bakugou then looks back at Ren, "I hate to admit it paleface, but that wasn't too bad. I guess you did some research after all." Bakugou lets out, though still with his angry contempt face.

"Yeah I might get some angry lectures from Aultcray after this, but I can take it if it means fixing my mistake," Ren also admits.

"This still doesn't make up for that trial Paleface!" Bakugou bluntly told Ren.

"I know. I know." Ren sighs.

"But I guess your not that much of a piece of human garbage after all." Bakugou also says.

Ren's still feels guilt from that whole trial event and hoped to eventually make up for it. The fact that Bakugou was willing to say that to him without shouting at his face at least means that progress was being made even if its just a small one.

"I'm still bored master Ren, I just wanted to eat a dragon and all I ate was a bunch of rocks today," Scarlet complains acting like the little girl she is.

Ren just smiles back petting her head, "Don't worry we'll find you some small dragons to eat later on. I think you deserve a reward for being a good girl out there."

Scarlet let out a smile, happy to see her own usually serious master looking and acting pleasant.

Back with the group, Wyndia looks up at the manor. Amazed to be in a normal home, already imagining all the monsters she can take care of now with the added space and fresh air then the inside of dark damp caves. And Gaelion is just as happy to see so much joy in his adoptive daughter.

Wyndia then went up to Ren and Bakugou to bow, "Thank you so much for this Sword and Shield hero. I never thought I would see such kindness from humans before. I thought most of you were greedy slave drivers, but I can see now you are more than that." she thanked and then turn her head toward Bakugou, "Especially you Shield hero Bakugou, even though you are not the most pleasant person to be around. You still did so much to stop Sir Ren's mistake and cleared my father's name."

And speaking of her father, Gaelion lowered himself toward Bakugou as well, "I also again give my thanks Shield hero for doing what you have done today, not just for my sake but for my daughter's as well."

"Yeah and again whatever, just keep your daughter protected and any other demi-humans seeking sanctuary here. If you do see a Red-headed whore with a bitch baby of a spear hero eventually, make sure you incinerate them for me," Bakugou said back.

But Gaelion wasn't done yet, "I also wanted to give you some things for you Shield hero." Gaelion scraped his body of a few of his hide scales and pulled out a tooth, "I want you to have these as an apology for my ignorance earlier, my scales are stronger than the strongest armors, and my teeth are sharper than any blade. I'm sure someone like you would find some use for them."

While it may seem weird at first, these were still powerful materials that could be made for armor and a new sword. It would probably be for just Neia, but a powerful sidekick was still good for Bakugou as he takes the offers, "Yeah, ok this is fine I guess."

"There's one more thing I like to give to you and your dragon partner. But knife ears would you be able to heal me after I do this?" Gaelion continued and asked Neia who was somewhat confused by the request.

"Uh.. yeah sure, but why?" Neia asked.

But Gaelion didn't give an answer and with one of his claw's he stabs himself a little above the stomach shocking and somewhat grossing everyone out wondering what he was doing.

But after some groaning Gaelion finally got what he wanted, "Urggg... Here we are." Gaelion finally pulled his claw out on the tip was what looked like a glowing purple crystal.

Everyone wondered what it even was or what it was even doing inside his body.

But as Neia was healing up his self inflected cut, Gaelion extends his claw with the crystal to the shield hero, "This is for you and the one called Kirishima." he told Bakugou as the teen grabs the bright shiny rock with Kirishima walking up curious by it as well.

"Well, what the hell is this thing?" Bakugou demanded as he feels this crystal's power.

"That is the Dragon Emperor core, or well merely a fragment of it. It is still a powerful object with great potential especially for a young dragon like him." Gaelion explains as he looks toward Kirishima sniffing at the crystal.

Bakugou still wasn't sure what a dragon emperor core meant, even his menu only showed *?* on the crystal. But he has no reason to doubt Gaelion and quickly crushed it into two pieces, "Here Kirishima, eat it." He orders his dragon with his hand out.

Kirishima quickly licked his piece off his masters hand and swallowed the piece whole. Bakugou took his piece and allowed his shield to absorb the crystal, which says *Shield unlocked: unknown shield requires higher level to unlock.* Bakugou was disappointed that it didn't amount to anything yet, but if it was really something for a giant dragon to pull it out of his stomach, he'll have the patience to unlock the shield later as he and his teammates level up.

Kirishima's stomach glowed purple with the crystal creating energy and power inside him. Bakugou could see through his menu that the crystal thing had automatically double his dragons stats, now stronger than ever before as well as feeling more energetic.

Bakugou feeling proud of his dragon went to pet him, giving his dragon joy and comfort from his father, "As I said before Kirishima, you're the only dragon I need. You're going to be the ultimate Dragon emperor one day and I wouldn't miss it for the world when the other dragons see you stand up high as the number one Dragon of this world." Bakugou praised Kirishima, despite being unable to talk he understood every word Bakugou said. He never felt so happy in his short life. It gave the young dragon joy and energy, with the core inside him getting brighter as he started shrieking in joy as he opens up his winged arms getting louder and louder.

Then all the sudden Kirishima started glowing a bright light. Shocking and surprising everyone, Ren wanted to know what was going on, but before he could say anything, the bright glow continued to get brighter and brighter with everyone including Gaelion forced to close there eyes and step back.

The glow grew bigger and bigger with Kirishima's shrieking sounding deeper and deeper then it did before. Soon the bright light changes into a giant ball of fire with the area getting hotter from the fire's flames.

It seemed to have gone on for more than a minute with Bakugou holding out his shield and Gaelion putting one of his wings around everyone to protect them from the fire's heat.

But suddenly the fire just stopped with the glowing light gone as well.

Everyone finally opened their eyes and looked to where the light and fire came from. And they were all surprised, even Gaelion to some extent.

It was Kirishima again, but no longer just the size of a large horse, he was massive now. Nearly the size of a small bus with his arm wings massive and wide. He wasn't as big as Gaelion was but he was still large for a dragon for his age.

Bakugou was shocked at first, but his surprise expression quickly changed to a smile, a smile of pride toward his pet dragon now grown in his adult stage with his stats increasing times 3 combined with the stat increase from the dragon core. Far more powerful then any store bought dragon could offer, "Hell yeah Kirishima! Now you really are on your way to become the number one dragon!" he cheered.

Kirishima was still so happy he started to roar across the valley now embracing the power of his adult form.

Neia was also happy to see little Kirishima so big now, remembering seeing him as just an egg, then to a hatchling to now a grown adult.

Wyndia and Gaelion were just as wonderous and fascinated by this young dragons transformation both happy to see such a wonderful creature to be fully grown up.

Ren though was confused, "What... What in the hell just happened?" he asked out loud.

Gaelion then turned toward Ren to give his guess, "I have heard before that his breed, the fire Wynvern's can develop and grow based on their state of emotional satisfaction and happiness. I also guess that the magic shield's power and the Emperor's core fragment had greatly affected Kirishima and accelerated his growth."

It might not answer everything, but regardless, it was still quite the sight to see for everyone. All except for Scarlet who looked unimpressed, "Yeah so what, I'm far more good looking than him and I don't need fire to do it." she pouts to herself feeling jealous along with her bias instincts on dragons.

Kirishima then opens up his large wings and started to flap them creating a large gust of wind almost like what Gaelion did in the mountain battle, but then Kirishima started to lift himself off the ground. Now floating in the air as he flaps his wings, he went up higher and higher until he was far away up from everyone. He then spread his wings outward and was now gliding through the open sky, but unlike before, he wasn't at all descending, he was remaining in the air.

He was now flying.

Everyone looked amazed as this creature was now doing what all winged pure-blood dragons strive to do. To be in the sky and soar with the wind.

Kirishima continued to do circles until he decided to land back down near everyone who all look at awe at him.

But then Kirishima lays down his left-wing out and placed it right near the man he saw as his father, Bakugou.

The shield hero looked surprised at first, but after looking at his dragon making a small smirk he could clearly tell what Kirishima wanted to do with him.

Bakugou then makes an excited smile and begins to run up his wing, "Hell yeah Kirishima now this is what I'm talking about!" Bakugou then sat down on his back, he was surprised to notice the saddle transformed with him allowing the hero to sit in comfort on his hard scaly Dragons back.

Bakugou then grips on and shouts, "Kirishima! Fly!"

And with that Kirishima flaps his powerful wings and lifts himself up again as he and Bakugou were now up high in the sky.

Despite the powerful winds blowing on him, Bakugou felt a great rush of excitement as Kirishima flys all around the sky doing flips and twirls giving the teen excitement he would never felt in his old world as they glide across the forest and mountainous landscape.

Back on the ground, Wyndian looks up in excitement as she watches the two up in the sky making her feel joy from the display. Neia was also with her enjoying the show together.

Ren looks up as well to enjoy the show, though in a more conservative manner. Scarlet was looking up as well, though not in excitement or disapproval either, she seemed more curious about it than anything else, "Master Ren, do you think I can fly like that one day?" she asked.

Ren smirks and pets her on the head again, "I'm sure you will one day. You just need to be patient and train more." He said to make her feel better, he wasn't so sure if it was possible for her, but hey if Bakugou could do the impossible then maybe so can he and her.

"Yeah, and I will fly you around as well, and even higher and faster than the stupid dragon. I can't wait for that." Scarlet expresses out loud, with Ren just smiling.

But then Ren turns toward Gaelion who was also standing around watching the show. Ren decided to walk up to him just to get some outlook on the dragon while Scarlet went up to Neia and Wyndia.

Once next to the elder dragon Ren finally spoke up to him, "I'm surprised to see you watching, seeing other dragons fly around is probably nothing new to you."

"It isn't, but I haven't seen such a bond between a human and another dragon in centuries," Gaelion answered as he still looks up.

"You sure? I've seen plenty of people with dragons before." Ren commented.

"Yes, but that is nothing more than servitude to a human, being breed to be of service to a human, and is only seen as a servant to a human. But this... this is a true bond between a young human and a young dragon, with this Bakugou seeing it as his equal, not of as a creature beneath him. As cold-hearted as I'm to you humans sometimes, you have proven yourselves again and again of being able to change yourselves and do great things with it." Gaelion explains, it was an interesting perspective Ren never thought of himself. In some respects it similar to what he and Scarlet had. He may usually be a loner, but something about Scarlet gave an urge to not want to fight alone without her again.

He did still feel some guilt in having a slave crest still on her, only because she wouldn't listen to him when she started to grow bigger and gained her human form. It made him think, perhaps soon in time when she doesn't just attack and eat every dragon she sees, he will finally free her from the thing and let her make her own choices and if she wanted to leave him forever then he would accept it, but if she wants to remain with him then he be glad to keep her as his battle partner.

But Ren did have one more thing to say, "So why did you save Wyndia and her mother on that day? What exactly did you benefit from saving two escaped slaves?"

"Why does one save others in general without reward? I was there watching them on that day and when I heard them cry for help I had to get moving and save them. I continued to help them from there on even when they were terrified of my presence. Life kind of just moved on from there and over time I began to see Wyndia as my daughter and she saw me as a father to her, and I would protect her with all of my life." Gaelion explains.

Ren never thought he would be given such a lesson from a fire breathing dragon. But it was true, a hero doesn't always try to justify why they have to save or help a person. They do it regardless, to help other people around them rather than only helping themselves.

Ren then looks up again at Bakugou and Kirishima as they continue to fly around, "I think in some weird way Bakugou is also like you. Loud, prideful, and head strong, but at the same time, has a hidden noble heart he hides to himself." he finishes with Gaelion looking down at Ren and then looks back up at Bakugou again.

"Yes, I can definitely say this Bakugou fellow has a soul of a dragon. Not only does he have the fire, but he also has the wings to guide him across the blue skies." Gaelion finishes as he and Ren both look up again.

Bakugou and Kirishima continue to glide through above the forests as they make their way toward a mountain. They fly up and up and then gracefully fall until they were finally at the top where they land at the peak.

From there Kirishima raises himself up on the peak along with Bakugou still on his dragon as he sits and holds on tight on the dragon as they look out across the valley. This was definitely something Bakugou was never going to forget as his dragon finally roars across the valley with Bakugou holding one fist in the air

"ROOOOOOAAAAAAARRRRRR!"

"HELL YEAH!" Bakugou shouts.

Kirishima then breathes a giant stream of his fire up in the sky for everyone in the valley to see.

Everyone awed at it as the beautiful fire lights up the evening skies.

Ren just had one final thing to say as he watches the display himself, "Yes, he definitely has the soul of a dragon."

---

Authors note: For anyone scratching their heads on Ren's filolial I will answer this. Yes, this is supposed to be Filo, sort of. I don't know if they ever say it in the main light novels, but in the Spear hero spin-off story it implies that when a Filolial is picked and raised by a different hero the Filolial will take on a different form based on there owner and his personality. So the implications are that even if Motoyasu went back in time and were to pick the exact same egg that Noafumi did, it will not be the exact same little happy-go-lucky blonde girl. I liked the idea of it and made Filo into a different person with Ren as her master being like his goth daughter. So yeah this is technically Filo but in a different coat of paint with a more inspired name, I mean it really wouldn't matter if it was a different Filolia egg but at least I can say that Filo is technically in the story like I said in chapter one even though it might be cheating but whatever.

And if you are wondering about the wrath shield, don't worry it will eventually appear later in the story, let's just say it will be when Bakugou is really really pissed off that will unlock the cursed shield.

Again thanks for reading and I hope to continue to the next chapter soon.