The three of them finally arrived at the lake that the butler Albert had spoken of. The lake stretched out for where it meant one of the tributaries of the Godspring River, which flowed north from the city.
It had a harbour constructed next to it where multiple damaged ships had been docked, as it seemed like they were a moment away from sinking into the clear water.
The place was generally empty, with no sign of merchants or common folk labour anywhere in sight.
"I think the people here evacuated the place due to the monster attacks", Lyrrah made her opinion known as she stepped forward to stand next to the lake.
She took in a deep breath as if there wasn't a supposed monster lurking beneath the waters. Tai also stepped forward and pointed at the buildings that were next to the harbour.
"Those must be the warehouses where the merchant's goods are kept before they are picked up by their owners" The warehouses were indeed in bad shape, as some even looked to have lost their roofs entirely.
The sight of the destruction caused to the buildings made Hal shiver. How were the three of them supposed to take down something that could do all that?
Tai pulled a small vial with some sort of purple liquid out of his pocket and proceeded to dribble some into the lake.
"What are you doing?" Hal stepped closer to Tai as the question left his mouth, his anxiety increasing with every step he made
Tai returned the vile in his pocket as a smile twisted his lips, and excitement filled his voice.
"That vile you saw me use is called the aggressor potion, and as its name suggests, it makes whatever monster that smells it become violent"
Hal stepped back from the river as Lyrrah and Tai turned back to him in surprise "You two saw what that monster did to those buildings and ships, and you still want to make it more aggressive?"
Just then, before Tai and Lyrrah could even say a thing, the once calm water bubbled as a giant creature rose from the clear depths.
Lyrrah and Tai backed up as they all stared in awe at the creature. Water poured off its shiny blue scales, and its green snake-like eyes focused on the three tiny creatures below it.
The creature had two hands covered in shiny blue scales with black claws that appeared able to rip any of them in half with one swing.
Its lower body was similar to that of a snake, and its maw had multiple teeth lying within as its eyes stared at them with immeasurable bloodlust.
Hal froze. This monster looked kind of similar to something he had seen before, and he had not seen many monsters since coming to this world, which could mean that "This...This…this is a dragon"
The dragon let out a roar that caused all the water to ripple violently. Tai drew his sword, Lyrrah held out her hands, and for Hal, he felt something fill his soul.
That curiosity that plagued all the scholars that came before him, a simple question revealed itself in his mind 'What will I learn from you, the first being to test my abilities on'
The water dragon braced itself as the water below it bubbled right before it shot out a gush of water towards Hal, who froze in place.
He couldn't move, just like that time. He desperately saw the water travelling at enough speed to fracture his body, but at the moment before impact, Tai jumped forward and swung with his blade, splitting the torrent of water in half.
"Don't give out on me, Hal. I trust you to be strong in this. No student of mine would freeze in the face of danger unless you want me to save you again"
Hal gritted his teeth before a gentle sigh escaped from his mouth as he drew the new dagger gifted to him by Albert "That won't be necessary"
Tai gave him a slight smile before pointing his sword at the monster "If so, then let's kill that thing"
Those were all the words the group needed to hear as they all rushed forward, the dragon shot out more torrents of water that rushed forward to Tai and Hal, who led the charge, but before they could reach them, they suddenly turned, missing them entirely.
Hal turned back to give Lyrrah a glance and saw her actively taking control of the gushing water. She seemed to be struggling to move each one as she urged the group to keep moving.
Hal turned back to the target at hand and raced to join Tai, who was dodging the torrents of water and using his blade to deflect the others.
There was no time like this to finally try out one of his privileges as a scholar; every scholar was given a unique ability that was only theirs to wield as long as they lived, but there were things that they all shared.
One was the ability to shatter their soul and place them into things they would like to affect, making them extensions of themselves.
For those made scholars by the great dragon, they could act as marks to which they could teleport at a moment's notice.
And for those made scholars by the tree, they acted as ways for them to be able to think from different places all at once. Each mark could reason and think, and each mark could plan and scheme, giving them a better version of parallel thinking.
It was just another privilege of the scholars, and one Hal was making quite good use of as he ran forward. He used all the marks he had placed in the pen to calculate and dodge while his own mind thinks of a solution.
For each gush of water that came his way, he dodged like he was a natural, evading each as they shot for him, meanwhile his mind focused and how to mark the dragon.
For him to mark something, he needed to have it in sight for about twenty seconds. That time seemed so small, yet with the dragon shooting out torrents of water each second, having the dragon in sight for that long was impossible.
He dodged one more torrent of water as he and Tai finally came close enough to deal their first blows. Lyrrah protected them from the incoming blasts of water as they both jumped forward.
Tai struck first, but his blade simply peeled off scales from the dragon's surface, twisting Tai's face into a frown as he began to fall into the water.
"Not strong enough", the dragon now brought its attention to Tai and prepared to launch a torrent of water directly at him.
But before it could, Hal struck forward with the dagger, the blade sank into the dragon's scaly body like a knife through butter as the dragon let out a pained roar that caused the water around them to vibrate once more.
Hal felt a force grab him as he and Tai were pulled back to Lyrrah's side, as the dragon's roar caused water to rise at a high speed, some of it painted crimson by its blood.
And then the water froze, the entire river froze over as the dragon brought its gaze back to them, and the blocks of ice shattered as the shards covered the sky.
The dragon's eyes were filled with a madness cast upon it by anger as the shards finally shot forward. Hal saw no room to dodge, and even if they decided to block, there was no way to block them all.
"Is this the end?" Hal took a step back as the shards finally fell upon them, only to stop an inch away from Hal's eyes, then they moved again
Each shard flew up, forming streams of ice that travelled smoothly to Lyrrah's finger as they spiralled into a long, sharp lance of ice. She compressed the ice continuously until all the ice was forced into her lance.
She positioned her finger as if she were holding a gun and fired. The lance travelled at such a speed that Hal couldn't track it with his eyes, as the lance struck directly between the dragon's eyes.
The dragon fell back into the water as Lyrrah knelt on the ground. She was panting, and her voice was hoarse as if she had just run a marathon.
"That thing is…is still alive" Hal and Tai turned back to the lake as the water gushed upwards with the dragon rising back from the depths.
Its scales now looked like beautiful ice, and its claws were longer. Suddenly,an ice spike appeared directly next to Hal, stabbing him through the abdomen, and it wasn't only him.
Lyrrah and Tai were also hit as Hal's eyes moved to stare at the dragon that roared with a maddened voice, but it was not over because at that point Hal called upon his ability