Paryl was shaking. Every instinct he had was screaming for him to run.
The weirdly clothed man was still standing in front of him, grinning like a lunatic. The man suddenly exclaimed, his red hair bouncing wildly:
"Kid? Do you want me to dispatch those losers following you or not?"
Indom was curious as to why the boy was staring at him so intently while completely silent.
"Kid?"
'Even if my legs worked, and I wasn't tired, I don't think I could run away from him. And where would I run anyway? Directly into those facility goons? I'm also in a small clearing, so anywhere I run, they'll see me from the forests.'
Just when the people were about to reach him, Paryl suddenly exclaimed:
"Please help me take them down, mister!"
The weirdly clothed man snorted.
"Help you? You just sit there nice and enjoy the private show, 'kay, kiddo?"
Paryl was dumbfounded. Even if his instincts told him the man was outrageously lethal, he didn't believe that anyone could dispose of four proficient warriors merely by their own hands.
"But they're strong, Mist—"
The red-haired man gave the boy a quick thumbs-up.
"Kid, relax. They may be strong, but I'm strong, alright?"
The man's cocky tone did nothing to soothe Paryl's nerves, but it was obvious he wouldn't change his stance on the topic. In the end, the boy could only say one thing.
"I hope you win."
The man smirked, ditching his coat, not even batting an eye as the clearly expensive clothing item got sullied in the mud.
"Hope? You dare doubt me, you insolent child?"
Paryl didn't answer, nor was he expected to. The man just laughed loudly in response to his silence.
"Shut up and pay attention."
Two assailants came from a small forest next to the man. Worse yet, they were in his blind spot. One of the men fell back and launched a fire attack at him; the other exploded forwards with unprecedented speed, water enveloping his fist.
The attacks were just about to reach him.
By all rights, being attacked from the back by two skilled opponents was a death sentence.
Regardless, the Dragonkind Emperor lived.
Azure flames sprouted from the red-haired man's back, burning away any water magic that could've been used to damage him. His hand shot backwards, grabbing the attacker by the throat. He then tossed the man into the fire magic his teammate shot, as if he were weightless.
The magic and assailant collided. The mana missile exploded, sending the assassin flying sideways. The man crashed into the ground roughly, tumbling in the mud for a few meters before stopping. He was barely holding on to consciousness, but his left leg and both arms were broken, making him useless in a fight.
The red-haired man then yelled to the long-range mage:
"Oi! I don't like hurting weaklings! It's beneath me. So, if you want to escape, I'll give you one chance to do so. Pick up your buddy over there and scram!"
The mage was considering it. If he fought, he'd lose; he knew that. The man was so unrealistically powerful, he could even conjure Inferno in less than a second! But if he ran, the overseers would have his head on a platter. He gulped, feeling powerless.
"S... Sir… I can't give up, or I'll be killed... Please let me live!"
Indom sighed. He created a small ice ball in his hand. Ice was usually used as defense due to its property of mana resistance, but it was also quite sturdy.
The red-haired man smiled, then chucked the ice ball directly at the mage's head. He was knocked out before even being able to blink.
"Kid, let's practice math. There were four people. I took two of them down. How many are left?"
Paryl snapped out of the stupor the effortless beat down of the attackers put him in. He answered meekly:
"Uh... two?"
"Damn, kid, you really suck at math, huh? We'll have to work on that."
"In reality, the answer is actually zero."
The moment Paryl opened his mouth to retort, two people slammed into the ground at high speeds, having been uplifted and then let go by Gravity, the superior form of earth magic. Their bodies were battered by the fall, but it seemed they were alive, albeit barely.
The red-haired man stepped over their unconscious bodies, towering over Paryl.
"So kid, you liked what you saw?"
Paryl was in awe of this man's incredible power; his dragon was like a tiny kitten in comparison. He was glad the man wasn't his opponent.
"Y... Yeah, I did… Mister, who are you?"
Paryl's mind was thinking about dozens of possible identities for the strange man. Everything from the possibility of him being an evil specter sent to haunt him for murdering, to him being a powerful rank 1 warrior who was running away from something.
"Me? I'm Emperor Indom, the first dragon, of course!"
Out of all the answers Paryl could have received, this was probably the weirdest one.
"Emperor... what? I've never heard of you."
"Heh?! You've never heard tales of the mighty Indom? You're missing out, kiddo!"
"I… I'm sorry, mister, but I've also heard the dragons are extinct?"
Indom's face tensed for a moment, but then he broke out into a laugh.
"Hahaha! Dragons?! Extinct?! Please, we survived way worse than that. I'm sure a couple of hundred dragons hid somewhere outside my empire and survived."
His smile slowly faltered.
"I'm sure of it."
Then, before Paryl could reply, he rapidly turned his head away from the boy, looking towards the sky.
"What is it, Mr. Indom?"
Indom's eyes widened as he pushed all the mana he had into his legs, grabbed the boy, and ran into the forest at his maximum speed.
Paryl didn't even have time to process what happened; from his perspective, he just teleported into the woodland, his view of the clearing they were in half obscured by a small bush in front of them. The man was holding the boy tightly, his hand covering Paryl's mouth.
Without warning, something came crashing into the small clearing at an alarming speed.
A wave of mud and dust erupted, obscuring whatever had fallen. Before Paryl could even see what the object that fell was, he saw veins pop up on Indom's forehead. He was shaking with completely unhidden rage.
Slowly it cleared, revealing a woman standing proudly.