Dragon Game: All My Dragons Are Ranked 'SSS'
Chapter 35: I swear by the ancestral dwarfs, I’ll slay the head of your lord!

Chapter 35: I swear by the ancestral dwarfs, I’ll slay the head of your lord!

"Why are there only two players?" Drahon asked. "Why can’t they be only players or perhaps just NPCs?"

The rune guide:

’[NPCs stay in character, while players do not.]’

[For instance, if you go to war with a powerful ruler, it becomes a strategic battle, kingdom versus kingdom. The NPC will act like a true ruler, skillfully commanding his forces and making the war a real challenge for you.]

Drahon shrugged. Since the NPCs were being in character, that meant they would be very brutal and act their roles really well.

"What will be the goal of the other players as well?"

’[The same goal as you, which is to hatch five mythical eggs.]’

Drahon squinted his eyes.

"Since we all are after the same aim, if the other players fail to achieve the aim, what happens?"

[You’ll have to watch and see. The players in the Dragon Game are numerous and all will be participating in this level, so it’s only natural that not everyone makes it out as a winner.]

That sounded grim to Drahon. He had first thought this would be less simple, but what was he thinking? The higher the level, the harder it becomes.

[The number of eggs there isn’t stated though. Perhaps it might be more than five? But your aim is to secure five of the mythical dragon eggs. Your system will give you more info when you get there.]

[But note, for this level, you need to be smarter, more precise, act like a leader and be brutal. You must have played role-playing video games; that is similar to what you’ll be doing. It’s like reincarnating as someone you are not, only in this case, you will be you.]

Immediately, the runes slowly flickered away, and the last thing Drahon saw from it was:

[Await...]

For a game as grim as this, he was pretty lucky to have a rune guide that explained some things for him, like what he was to do in the next level.

It wasn’t like he was dropped in nowhere and he had to do the thinking himself.

A gust of wind tore from his right, and before Drahon could turn and look at it or even focus on what was happening.

Brain freeze —

The feeling he usually got when he was to be teleported by the game.

He was sitting on a horse, his hands by its ropes, shouts of battle echoing around him.

"You bastards, we’ll kill you all!"

Drahon’s gaze was a bit blurry, and that was because his vision was just settling in this new atmosphere.

The voice had come from the opposition.

Drahon blinked repeatedly, trying to see what was happening in front of him.

"I swear by the ancestral dwarfs, I’ll slay the head of your lord!"

Drahon opened his eyes widely now, his instincts well alert and his vision no longer blurry.

Slay the head of your lord?

Who was the lord?

An axe whizzed towards his face, Drahon, his eyes opening very wide at it, well alarmed, ducked and dodged it.

’The fuck?’

He had been teleported right in the middle of a battlefield.

"Don’t pay too much attention to his subjects, slay their lord whose name I’ve suddenly forgotten."

Drahon’s eyes flicked down to his hands gripping the reins, noticing for the first time the weight of thick leather gloves embroidered with gold thread. His chest tightened beneath a dark, ornate tunic, heavy with silver clasps and a deep crimson cloak billowing behind him. He was dressed like a lord, which he was.

Around him, the air was thick with smoke and the scent of blood. The opposition was brutal. Brutal was even an understatement, they were wild and crazy and then... dangerously brutal.

Their faces were twisted with rage and their weapons were slick with gore.

Men and women fought like cornered beasts, their screams roaring through the chaos. An enemy soldier’s axe cleaved a shield in two in mere seconds, splinters flying into the crowd. Another shoved a spear through a horse’s flank, the animal rearing and neighing in pain.

And then, a man with a beard so bushy and long it could pass for a forest howled and dashed, on his horse, towards an unsuspecting soldier, an axe in hand.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

He felled the head of the soldier.

Drahon also caught sight of a man, blood dripping from a wound, who snapped the neck of a fallen enemy with cold precision.

Crk crk

The thing was, he didn’t know who was on his side, but with a little bit of common sense, he soon did.

The opposition was without proper clothing. Of course, this was to be some medieval setting, but then, they were clothed like some maniacs from the primitive age.

The men had large potbellies and were only clothed in what looked like skirts. Stuffs like that swayed in the wind as their horses galloped forward. Their ladies were clothed in something similar, only they were wearing tunics that looked like jackets to cover the upper part of their bodies.

Drahon noticed that he was without a sword.

He quickly summoned his SSS-Rank golden sword, which he waved above his head.

He looked at the fighters beside him. They were knights, clothed in armor with shields and swords.

Helmets covered their faces so he couldn’t really see what was there.

They were wearing helmets?

He immediately touched his face, almost desperately. He was just realizing that he was wearing a helmet.

Why did this feel like a dream?

So far, the opposition was winning, slaying the heads of his knights like they were puppets.

If Drahon did a rough count, he would say the opposition were about fifty in number now.

They might have been over a hundred though prior to him arriving here, as he could see many of the opposition’s dead bodies on the floor.

Some knights on his side had arrows which they shot in the air towards the opposition, piercing their throats.

"We want your lord to fight! Why is he hiding in the protection of you guys, unwilling to come out and fight?" the leader of the opposition said.

Drahon grinned and then raised his hands up.

"Ok," he shouted, halting both sides who were fighting as everyone paused to look at him.

"You want me to fight, right? Well..., let’s begin!"

Drahon decided that if he was to role-play, then he had to do it well.

He left the protection of being in the middle of the soldiers and sat on his horse, at the front.

The opposition howled like maniacs, gripping their large axes tightly.

Drahon summoned his Scaled Guard skill and with that, he went in.

_____

Eight minutes later...

All of the opposition’s heads were on the floor. Drahon stared at them in amusement, one minute they wanted to chop his head off, the next, he was the one doing that. He unsummoned the Scaled Guard skill, that helped him a lot in the battle, as any axe that was sent towards his neck would just bounce away.

His subjects (the knights) stared at him in shock, all climbing off their horses as they bowed and hailed. For some reason, they didn’t know Drahon’s name (it was just the game’s mechanics stuff, will be explained in the next Chapter).

"It’s Lord Drahon," Drahon said in a cool, royal-like voice.

His subjects followed.

"All hail Lord Drahon."

His system runes appeared in front of him:

[Absorbing savage warriors’ essence....]

Why was the system absorbing essence from the dead warriors, since you can only absorb essence from a monster or beast? Or were they inhuman?

---

Author’s note:

This marks the end of Volume One.

This first arc was short on purpose, more of an introduction to Drahon’s journey, the game mechanics, and the world itself. It was fast-paced, a little mysterious, and left just enough unanswered to pull you into what’s coming next.

Volume Two is where things truly kick off.

Drahon will grow stronger, face tougher enemies, and try to survive the brutal challenges of Level Two.

Expect more intense battles, twists, and game-changing events.

And yes, at last, i’ll be introducing a female lead!

Thanks so much for reading this far! Your support means everything. I’d love to hear what you liked, what could be better, and what you’re excited for next.

If you enjoyed the volume, please consider leaving a review, we need just ten to get a rating!

See you in Volume Two. Things are only just getting started.