Legends: The Emerald World

As the dragon's breath was about to release, his eyes rapidly shifted to the left, glaring straight at the tiny spider standing on top of the ballista. The massive bolt had already been fired, and he knew he couldn't dodge in time. 'Who are you calling a lizard, spider!' He heard and understood her words.

Dragons are far more intelligent than humans and have ample time to waste, while sitting inside their lair for decades they tend to spend it testing spells or reading books they looted from cities and other races. After centuries they would've amassed a massive wealth of knowledge and coins, making them extremely dangerous.

It wasn't uncommon to find a dragon that knew tens of languages, some of which belonged to animals. This black dragon rarely bothered to clean his lair so he's well versed in the language of spiders and cockroaches, alongside many more languages.

The ballista's bolt went straight into the dragon's throat, jamming it shut. Shin had carefully planned everything so the dragon would be in a perfect position and the spider could hit right where he wanted.

With the dragon's throat blocked and the fire burning inside his chest growing hotter, he couldn't release that energy and it ended up exploding inside his chest.

For a second, the dragon's chest inflated like a frog. He flashed bright red, and shrunk back, unleashing a massive boom.

The whole fort cracked and the dragon fell, smoking and bleeding from his nose and mouth. "He died?!" The captain gasped at the sudden development, looking at the dragon with a gaping mouth.

Ase Jumped toward Shin and carried him, the spider had already returned to her master and hid inside his messy hair. 'Now all shall respect me, mother has no chance against my great power.' Shin could hear her thoughts.

"No! We must escape immediately!" Ase shouted at the captain as she repeated what Shin told her. "The dragon is still alive, he'll recover in just a few hours."

"Who cares?!" The shonky prisoner rushed toward the dragon. "I'll take one or two scales, they are worth a fortune!"

Dragon scales are expensive, and based on their quality, they could sell for over 2 platinum coins.

1 copper coin = 0.01$

1 Iron coin = 100 Copper coin = 1$

1 Silver coin = 100 Iron coin = 100$

1 Gold coin = 100 Silver coins = 10,000$

1 platinum coin = 100 gold coins = 1,000,000$

2 platinum coins were enough to buy a whole mansion and pay for servants and living expenses for a decade. Getting even a single scale is enough to set a man for life if they managed to sell it without getting killed or robbed.

"Don't!" Ase shouted at the shonky prisoner, but he never listened to anyone. And now with such a large sum of money before him, he can't even see his surroundings. From that dragon, he could peel more than a couple of scales. He will be swimming in money.

As the shonky prisoner approached the dragon, his eye suddenly dried out and his clothes burst into flames. He screamed, but the fire used that to ignite his lungs and organs. In less than ten seconds his body had fallen to the ground, charred like a piece of charcoal.

The stones around the dragon's body started melting and the heat finally started reaching everyone else.

"Get close and even your armor will melt!" Ase growled at the captain, "We can't reach the dragon. All that heat from the death roar is slowly getting released from its body. We must run."

Soon enough, the heat would set the whole fort ablaze. Unless someone is immune to fire, reaching the dragon is impossible.

"I wish that it had killed him." The captain growled as he turned back and rushed toward Ase. What he didn't know is that they were lucky the dragon didn't die, if he did without releasing all of his magical and spiritual power, his body would've exploded in a powerful blast enough to destroy anything in a mile radius.

Ase who carried Shin and the spider, the large prisoner, the old one, and lastly the captain, all rushed out of the fort, running down the slop of the mountainside as they looked toward the water-filled mote.

"No!" The captain growled, "We rush back east to the empire, only they have the military power to kill the dragon."

"We aren't going back!" The large prisoner growled, "I'd rather go die to that dragon than go with you." He glared at the captain with an enraged face.

"Do you know many innocent people would die if that dragon isn't dealt with?" The captain growled at him.

"Let them die, the same way you killed our innocent people." He spat on his face. "I can still remember it, the kids crying as your men burned our houses."

The captain reached toward his sword, but Ase suddenly kicked the large prisoner toward the mote with a passive face. "Off out go, meow."

"What are you doing?" The captain growled at her, but she grabbed him by the hair, her claws digging into his scalp. "You as well, meow." And immediately pushed him into the water as well.

She turned toward the old prisoner, but he jumped on his own, fearing that she might break his hips with a kick.

Ase looked at them swimming in the water with a smile and nodded, she bent down and jumped, landing in the same spot. "Meow." She jumped again, landing in the same spot without even getting close to the water.

"Jump…" Shin whispered in her ear.

"I can't meow…water is scary." She replied, sweating buckets as the water surface looked too far away as if she was jumping from the highest cliff in the world.

All cats hate water.

"MEOW!" She cried, her hair standing up as she felt Shin's hand clenching on the base of her tail. "That's a private…"

"Jump, or I'll rip it off." He started pulling and twisting her tail in place… She closed her eyes. 'Honestly, he has no strength…it feels a bit weird…' She thought Shin couldn't harm her even if he wanted.

She looked at the water again and gulped, feeling the strength in her knees wane and fade away. She bit her tongue and closed her eyes. As her knees couldn't lift her body anymore, she fell into the water face first.

"MEOW!" She screamed, splashing and swinging her arms everywhere, trying to get out of the water. Shin tried to calm her, but all cats hate water to the bone and no amount of words would calm them down. That is why she kicked everyone into the water, it was common among cat beast people to kick and push each other into the water when they must do it.

Ase bit her shaking arm, growling as she tried to calm herself down, this was just water…To her this felt like a naked human jumping in a spider-filled river, the feeling of water on her skin was both disgusting and horrifying.

Ase failed to calm herself down, but she at least managed to force her arms to swing forward. As sloppy as her moves were, she still managed to swim with the current and catch up to everyone else.

They must get as far away from the dragon as possible before it recovers. Washing their scent away with the river is also a must as a dragon's senses can span over forty miles, twice that of polar bears.