I Received System to Become Dragonborn-Chapter 993: Showing

From the shadows, just a few paces away from where Arty and Jan's group crouched, the fourty-something man lingered, cloaked in a hood and mask.

He stayed perfectly still. His body pressed low against the brush, his presence cloaked by years of practiced stealth and his spell.

Beneath the fabric that concealed his face a smirk curved across his lips. The sight of the supposedly brave adventurers huddling beneath bushes with their hair whipped by the wyvern's wing-gusts, was enough to amuse him.

Inside his pouch, carefully tucked away, was the spent scroll. Its runes that once brilliant now dulled to ash and silence. That one piece of parchment had summoned the very wyvern that now circling above, its piercing cry shaking the leaves loose from their branches.

The assassin had no more use for the scroll, and yet he kept it hidden close, as though some fragment of its power lingered.

Even as he crouched there his mind lingered on the question that never failed to unsettle him. How had the Organization managed to bind a creature as wild and destructive as a wyvern into a single scroll?

He had worked in their service long enough to stop questioning most of their miracles, but this stretched even his hardened imagination.

The more he thought about it, the more he realized how deep and unfathomable their power must be.

He allowed his gaze to move back toward the group. The wyvern's shadow stretched wide over them but instead of the terror he expected to see in the girl's face, there was a strange light in her eyes.

She was smiling. Smiling at the sight of the beast swooping down to devour them.

The assassin's brow furrowed beneath the hood. Is she insane? Her wide-eyed delight looked more like a child marveling at amazing things rather than a person staring death in the face!

She must never have seen a wyvern before. He was certain of that. But her joy at this moment was something he couldn't comprehend. It was unnerving for him.

He knew little about her. He only knew about the adventurer's group. Jan the ranger, Hund the swordsman, Esther the witch, and Annette the priest.

They were a familiar band, with names that traveled the taverns of the kingdom. But the girl? She was a blank space in the assassin's knowledge and in his line of work, mysteries were usually dangerous.

But, he told himself it didn't matter. His task wasn't to know about her. His task was only to follow and stir trouble when the order came, and to vanish again into the dark.

And now, with the wyvern unleashed, there was little more to do at least for now.

He chuckled silently. The sound was lost beneath the whipping wind of massive wings. The beast would do the rest. All he had to do was watch the show.

—

The wyvern dove. Its wings snapped downward with brutal force sending another violent gust that flattened bushes, grass, and branches against the earth. The group's cover was no cover anymore.

"It already knows we're here," Esther said, her voice tight as she gripped her staff with both hands. "We're its prey now so hiding won't work."

"Right," Jan answered, drawing a sharp breath. "I don't like this, but we fight."

"I want to fight as well," Arty said quickly, her eyes gleaming with excitement.

Jan shot her a firm look. "I think you'd better stay back. I don't want you to get hurt."

"I'm not going to get hurt." Arty's voice carried both warmth and resolve, her smile unshaken. "Trust me."

Jan hesitated. In her gaze he didn't see recklessness. She wasn't grinning like a fool charging into danger. She was steady and confident as if she knew her own strength.

He remembered then that she was Erend's sister and she had trained under Archmage Sylmira herself.

The Archmage would never have allowed her out here if she wasn't ready. That meant she could be trusted to stand with them.

Finally, Jan nodded. "Alright. You can fight. We do this like usual."

Hund, Esther, and Annette all gave quick, knowing nods. They had done this countless times. Each of them shifted into position, the rhythm of teamwork settling over them.

Then, without waiting for another heartbeat, Jan broke from the bushes with fast movement with his bow already in his hands, his eyes locked on the beast above.

Jan burst from the bushes in a sprint, his bow raised in one fluid motion.

SWISH!

An arrow flew almost immediately, whistling through the air with deadly precision.

It struck the wyvern in its eye just as the beast was diving. A piercing shriek tore from its throat. Its massive body twisting in agony as blood sprayed from the ruined socket.

The wyvern swerved and then slammed into the ground with an earth-shaking crash a few meters from them.

Esther, Hund, Annette, and Arty rushed out from the bushes after Jan.

The wyvern roared and tried to rise, thrashing its wings, but Esther was already moving.

Her staff glowed with a violet shimmer as she thrust it forward and a surge of purple light lanced out and wrapped around the beast.

Ethereal ropes snapped into existence and coiled around its body. The wyvern thrashed and screeched in frustration but the bindings were still held in place.

"This will only last for a few seconds," Esther said with a calm expression.

Jan glanced at Arty with a half-smile. "Alright then, Arty. You said you wanted to fight, right? Let's see what you've got."

Arty nodded firmly. "Sure."

She drew in a breath and then let her Magic surge forth. The air rippled around her, a sudden torrent of power pressing against everyone's skin.

Hund instinctively took a step back, wide-eyed, while Annette's lips parted in surprise. Even Jan, battle-hardened and calm, felt his chest tighten at the raw force she radiated.

Arty rose into the air with wind Magic. Her aura burned bright and fierce.

She gathered Magic energy and in the next instant a blazing fireball ignited in her palm.

She hurled it down without hesitation.

BOOM!

The explosion erupted against the wyvern's body, engulfing it in a torrent of flame and concussive force.

The ground shook violently, flames surged skyward, and shards of stone and dirt blasted outward in every direction.

Jan, Hund, Esther, and Annette froze, stunned. The sheer violence of the fireball's power that she conjured in the blink of an eye left them speechless.

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