The Dragon on Skyfire Mountain
Legions of students flowed down the slopes of Skyfire Mountain, their chatter a combination of excitement and tiredness. While some of them walked with the vigor of youth, their passion fueled by the excitement of the chase, others dragged their feet in tiredness, their bodies exhausted and their limbs aching. But in all conversations, there was one topic—the sighting of the Thunder Serpent.
The lecturers had already delivered a judgment on this matter. The people claiming to have seen this monster were simply deluded; after all, in a realm of cultivators, not a few demons resembled dragon-like beings.
Kai Dawnsworn wore a hint of a smile when he spotted a familiar face that had come down the path. Feya's red robes were streaked with dust now, hugging her physique minutely, but her face remained effervescent with a beauty unaffected by the dust. Her dark eyes shone sparkling with mirth at her gentle laugh, chatting with Gary side by side.
The students were not oblivious to Kai's attention towards them. They allowed a quick look at Kai in order to see how he observed them.
Feya had been catching a few glances herself and allowed her eyes to stray towards Kai for a moment. However, as soon as her eyes locked with his golden gaze, she deliberately turned her eyes away, not feeling brazen enough to hold his eyes. Feya stopped her talk with Gary mid-flow.
Gary observed this sudden transition. His placid, proud smile momentarily faltered before he glanced down the mountain path. His eyes fixed on Kai, who stood a short distance in front of him with a relaxed slouch yet an undercurrent of command. With a brief acknowledgment, he turned his attention back to Feya, pushing aside a spark of competitiveness.
Kai chose not to listen to the whispers and glances surrounding him. He turned to Boomer with a serious look on his face. "Do you think the academy would keep it a secret from us if it were a dragon?"
His eyes narrowed in thought. Then, after a moment, he nodded slowly. "Yes," he said.
Kai's gold eyes were shining with determination. "Well, let's go see for ourselves before they shut down the whole mountain," Kai suggested, not hesitating a moment before dashing up the mountain slopes with every muscle tensed for action.
Witnesses were in a state of shock. Feya's black eyes widened in amazement at Kai's disappearing form into the woods up above. She fought an urge to speak, but her lips remained locked in a silent struggle to understand Kai's motive. "Did. did he just ignore me?"
Boomer lagged right behind him, moving with a fluid, predatory motion. He glared at Feya and Gary with an icy stare, leaving them both dumbfounded.
"What are they doing?" Feya's voice shook with a hint of confusion.
From among the crowd, others echoed her sentiments. Why would they go back into harm when all else were leaving?
"Is he insane?" a student whispered in a hushed query. "He didn't want to go before, but now with a serpent sighted, he turns around?"
Even Kai did not have a good reason for this. However, this wasn't an ordinary beast because they were referring to a legendary creature. The mind of a cultivator, which had mastered FreeMind Meditation, would greatly benefit from observing this creature.
"•Boomer's face mirrored Kai's curiosity," narrates Fannie Kew in "Boomer," "Both of
The primary mountain route had a barricade composed of senior brothers of Greenhold Academy, their faces stern in denying passage. Only those with exit stamps were allowed inside. Kai and Boomer, however, had planned for this contingency. They turned right onto a side path, hardly noticeable from the main route, a shortcut through thick vegetation.
They encountered a series of checkpoints on their way, but each roadblock further proved their intuitions right: the academy spread information very strategically.
"We can't just keep wandering blindly,"Boomer growled, a hint of anger creeping into his voice. "Which way do we go?"
Kai's eyes narrowed as they scanned the landscape. "Follow where the evacuation crowds are largest. That's where the center of lockdown is going to be."
Boomer nodded in understanding, a spark of comprehension flashing in those black eyes. The two of them moved silently, integrating with the shadows as the sun sank lower in the sky, bathing the forest in deep amber and violet shades. As night began to fall, their movements eased with fewer students out in the paths.
Time crawled forward, each minute an eternity unfolding. At last, Kai leaned against an ancient tree to give his golden eyes a chance to relax and rebalance. The atmosphere surrounding them was ominously quiet. The whispering sounds of night wanderers were unheard. No demons were stirring. but a strange electricity hung in the air.
Then, suddenly, a streak of lightning flashed across the sky, casting a brilliant light on the dense canopy above. The face of every guard in the area went grim.
Is it here?
Thunder boomed, with lightening flashing with increasing rapidity, and the storm raging above becoming more and more disordered. Kai's heartbeat accelerated with excitement and nerves.
"A dragon. it's really a dragon!" A voice called out from somewhere in the depths of the forest, shaking with amazement.
Kai leaped to his feet, staring up at this light-filled sky. Then he saw it: a gargantuan dragon twisting and swooping through the dark heavens, a giant stretching out over four thousand feet in length, this colossal creature fading in and out of sight as if it were a living shadow. Every movement had a meaning, every bellow boomed through this sea of leaves. Lightning flickered across its body, thunder booming in accompaniment.
"Dragon…," a whisper barely above a breath. His black eyes mirrored the tumultuous light above. No phrase existed to describe this wonder, this fear, this awe.
Then, for an instant, the woods seemed to hang motionless, catching its collective breath at this ancient being's effortless, god-like passage, a presence so sublime, so majestic, an apex predator without equal or precedent.
Kai's heart thrummed in his chest, racing with the prospects. To see it firsthand might upend everything: his cultivation, his knowledge of magic, even his fate.
And above this turmoil, a roar resounded from the dragon—a sound which shook both earth and spirit in this mountain.