Dragon Game: All My Dragons Are Ranked 'SSS'
Chapter 46: No longer Strangers

Chapter 46: No longer Strangers

He tilted his head slightly. "How do you even know that?"

Ayvira looked at him for a second, then toward the clearing. Her expression was unreadable at first, calm, but there was something behind it. Perhaps a heaviness?

"I have a skill," she said eventually. "It lets me scan land within a certain radius. Territory-based." She paused for a moment. "I used it earlier when I sensed the tension."

Drahon raised a brow. "A passive?"

"No. It’s something else. Like a sixth sense, I guess? But it drains me, so I don’t use it unless I have to. It doesn’t even show up on my stat screen." She glanced at him. "Weird... right?"

Drahon nodded slowly. That was weird. No system notification, no UI reference?

Definitely suspicious.

"So what’d you sense?"

"A bunch of demon dragon monsters. Tier A." Her voice was low now. "One of them is radiating enough energy to make my head throb. Could be a mini-boss. I didn’t scan too deep. I didn’t want to attract anything."

"Damn," Drahon muttered.

There was a silence between them.

"Can’t we just... summon our dragons?" he asked.

"I mean, since it’s so dangerous, we could just use our dragons and zoom through the place."

He didn’t mean to sound desperate, but if there were a dozen Tier A monsters nearby, yeah, he was starting to panic just a tweensy bit.

Ayvira exhaled. "I tried that earlier."

Drahon looked at her.

"I had wanted to use my dragon to pass since I scanned the place as dangerous," she said, "but something blocked it. Not a cooldown, neither was it a system lockout. It was like... something in the air, I don’t know, resisted it."

Drahon blinked.

"What do you mean resisted?"

"I mean, I felt it. Something sort of cosmic. Like the air around this place rejected the summon."

She looked up at the dark sky, her brows tightening a bit.

"It’s a suppression field. Not artificial. Feels ancient. Like... this territory wasn’t meant for dragonkind. Or maybe dragons that aren’t corrupted."

Drahon didn’t like that.

So basically, corrupted dragons had free rein... but theirs were benched?

And why was it called Dragon Game if they couldn’t use their dragons?

"Guess we’re not as overpowered as we thought," he muttered.

Ayvira smirked. "Speak for yourself."

They both chuckled softly, and for the first time in his life, that was the first time Drahon was actually chuckling along with someone.

Then Ayvira gestured behind the rock wall they were standing by.

"I suggest we go west. There’s a massive tree I spotted during the scan, the biggest one around here. Has a natural clearing up top. We can camp there."

They moved westward, the trees parting gradually as the air grew cooler. The wind picked up, brushing against their skin like a soft whisper. It didn’t take long before they reached it, the tree.

It was massive.

Old and ancient. The kind of tree you’d think birthed other trees. Its trunk was wide enough to fit a small house, and its roots coiled across the ground like sleeping serpents. The bark glowed faintly under the moonlight, veins of silver webbing through the cracks. Its branches stretched out into the sky, thick enough to walk on.

And there, at the midpoint between the base and the top, was a natural hollow. A clearing made by either time or magic, shielded by the thick outer branches like a nest.

Perfect for hiding out.

Drahon grinned. "Alright, I see it."

Without waiting, he bent his knees slightly, a faint light briefly glimmering across his legs as he activated his skill.

[Draconic Leap – Activated.]

In one fluid motion, he launched himself upward, clearing the distance like a bullet. His boots hit the branch above with a solid thud, and he grabbed onto a vine to steady himself.

Ayvira watched, maybe impressed but definitely not underwhelmed. She then raised her hand, muttering something under her breath.

A red glyph bloomed beneath her feet.

[Draconic Arcstep]

She shimmered slightly, then vanished.

For a second, Drahon looked around, confused. Then woosh, she reappeared right beside him, crouched gracefully on the same branch, as if she’d been there the whole time.

Drahon blinked. "That was-"

"Teleportation. Limited range. Needs a strong monster essence circuit as anchor," she said. "Too complicated to explain."

He nodded very quickly. That was almost a rude reply, like she didn’t want to but just had to.

They both climbed the final level to reach the clearing. The space was flat, roughly circular, and surrounded by thick leaf-walls and bark. Soft moss covered most of the wooden floor, and the wind barely touched them here. It was cozy, quiet, and oddly warm.

"Nice," Drahon said, tossing a bark he saw beside him to the side and sitting down. "Way better than sleeping next to rotting dragon corpses or even in the wild of this forest."

Ayvira just nodded, sitting cross-legged and unsheathing a small dagger from her side. She spun it slowly in her hand, eyes still alert.

There was still tension in the air, like neither of them fully trusted what lay ahead.

But at least, for tonight... they were safe.

Drahon scanned the place, trying to be hundred percent safe. He too could scan with his system like Ayvira, but it was only for potential danger, not precisely the type of monsters or creatures like Ayvira.

Runes only he could see appeared in front of him and he stared at it blankly, like nothing was there:

[SYSTEM SCAN INITIATED...]

› Range: 50 meters

› Lifeform signatures: scanning...

› Corruption traces: analyzing...

› Structural terrain: stable

[RESULTS:]

— No hostile lifeforms detected

— No signs of corrupted energy

— Environment: Dense forest, low movement

[STATUS:]

— Area clear. Sleep with caution.

He leaned back against the bark wall, letting out a quiet sigh. His muscles ached, not from battle, but from all the damn walking. He shifted, trying to get comfortable on the mossy floor. Not exactly a bed, but it beat the dirt.

Ayvira hadn’t said much since they climbed up. She was just... sitting there, staring out through a small gap in the leaves, watching the distant horizon. Her blade rested beside her, within reach. Always within reach.

"You sleeping?" he asked after a moment.

"No," she replied. "Just resting my eyes."

"Same thing."

There was a short silence.

He was genuinely surprised how they had tagged along the whole time, noting they just met some hours ago.

Then she added, quieter this time, "Wake me up if you notice anything."

Drahon nodded. "Same."

For some reason, he was surprised she was okay with sleeping at the same place. She earlier said she had trust issues but right now, she was acting alright... like they had known each other for ages.

They didn’t say goodnight. They just sat in silence for a while longer, until the exhaustion started pulling at their eyelids. One by one, their senses dulled, the weight of the day finally winning.

The wind rustled above. And soon, sleep took them both.