Dragon's Awakening: The Duke's Son Is Changing The Plot
Chapter 148 - 147 - The guy who wants his protagonist moment.

Chapter 148: Chapter 147 - The guy who wants his protagonist moment.

Somewhere dark.

Smack.

A palm—not even a real one, more like a tiny paw—connected with the side of Alex’s face.

Smack. Smack.

"Guh—What?" Alex groaned, eyes fluttering open dramatically like he had just woken from a thousand-year slumber.

The world was blurry, the floor was cold, and right in front of him stood a very stern-looking squirrel.

"...Nibbles?" He blinked. "Bro, are you slapping me?"

Nibbles raised a paw again with surgical precision.

Smack.

"Ack! I’m awake, I’m awake!" Alex waved his arms, shielding his face like a puppy dodging bathwater. "Why are you hitting me, man?!"

Nibbles squeaked furiously.

Alex paused. "Wait. What time is it?"

Nibbles squeaked again, louder this time.

"...We’re trapped?!" Alex’s eyes shot open to full size, anime sparkle and all.

Another rapid-fire squeak.

"Wait wait wait—you’re saying... the evil teacher injected me with something and kidnapped us? Both of us?!" His voice cracked on the last word like a boy going through a second puberty.

Alex rubbed his head, squinting like he was trying to remember math. "Ohhh yeah... the duel! I was watching the duel, then some old teacher guy was like, ’Hey Alex, come here for a second,’ and I was like, ’Okay, respected adult person,’ and then—"

From within his chest, a deep, guttural growl rumbled.

"I wanted to see the duel, too," growled Blargh, the symbiote that lived in Alex’s body. His voice was like a volcano gargling gravel.

"Right?! That battle was supposed to be epic! The entry alone was legendary!" Alex said with righteous outrage. "And now we’re here! In this weird room with this suspiciously square door and zero snacks!"

Nibbles squeaked again, more urgent this time.

"Oh..." Alex blinked. "Right. Kidnapped."

"Yes. Trapped. Kidnapped. Possibly about to be experimented on," Blargh growled.

"...We should probably do something," Alex nodded sagely.

Nibbles stared between the two with the deadpan intensity of someone who had already told them that three times.

"Hey, little guy," Alex said, stretching his arms with a cartoonish pop. "You do know how strong we are when we transform, right?"

"Yeah," Blargh added darkly. "Tell him, Alex."

Alex smirked. "We’re, like, super strong."

"We could melt a demon with our pee."

"...We never tried it, Blargh."

"Still counts."

"Anyway!" Alex stood up, bouncing on the balls of his feet. "This is it! Our moment! Our arc! I always knew the day would come when I’d be the one in a dark room with zero context and a shady backstory and a big door I’d have to punch through!"

He cracked his neck dramatically. "It’s finally here..."

Nibbles raised a skeptical paw.

"...My protagonist moment!"

Cue imaginary theme music.

With a single shoulder roll, Alex summoned his inner blaze.

Lava-like lines began to crack across his body, glowing from within like fire trapped under his skin.

His muscles expanded like popcorn in a microwave, and his flesh rippled and morphed, black slime-like armor stretching over him in jagged tendrils.

In seconds, Alex was gone.

In his place stood Blargh—a hulking, eight-foot creature of muscle, flame, and teeth.

Black body like polished obsidian, flame-colored cracks pulsing with heat, a molten glow bleeding from his eyes.

His claws dug into the floor, smoke hissing from his breath like he was simmering with contained chaos.

"Raargh!" Alex roared, his voice and Blargh’s blending like a death metal remix. "I feel the power!!"

Nibbles looked up at him.

Way up.

Blargh-Alex leaned in close, his face now an eldritch grin of teeth and shadow. "Hey, little guy."

Nibbles tilted his head, not in the least intimidated. To the little squirrel, Blargh-Alex was a Whaleshark.

They looked dangerous but were harmless.

Alex, on the other hand, continued, "Do you know..."

The flames in his veins pulsed. "Who we are?"

Nibbles squeaked in confusion.

The massive grin stretched wider as Blargh-Alex straightened, a roar leaving his impossibly wide mouth.

"We are BLARGH!"

The walls trembled.

The door rattled.

Nibbles stared up in silence, ears twitching.

Then, with the boundless enthusiasm of a man whose brain was primarily made of protein powder and plot convenience, Blargh-Alex charged at the door.

"MY PROTAGONIST MOMENT! HERE I COME—!!"

BOOM.

The walls trembled. Dust rained from the ceiling like confused confetti, the floor cracked under the pressure, and for a moment—just a moment—it felt like the entire room was about to collapse.

And then...

Silence.

A faint echo bounced around the chamber like the room itself was going, "Uhh... was that it?"

Nibbles stood in place, his tail puffed and twitching, ears perked high. He blinked twice. Then he let out a confused squeak.

Against the wall, in the shape of a vaguely human crater, Blargh-Alex stood with both arms straining against the now slightly crooked door, his entire molten-lava-meat-mountain form vibrating from the effort.

"I’ve got it!" He hissed, teeth gritted in grim determination. "Don’t worry!"

The door groaned like it was mildly inconvenienced, but otherwise, it didn’t budge.

Not even a polite wiggle.

..............................

One minute later.

Blargh-Alex sat slumped against the very same door, legs stretched out, head hanging back like a rejected video game boss.

"We’ve not got it," he and Blargh muttered at the same time, in perfect demoralized stereo.

"You can worry now."

Nibbles, still in professional battlefield squirrel mode, began pacing the room.

His tiny paws made soft pat-pat sounds on the cold floor, his tail swishing like a fuzzy metronome of urgency.

Left, right, left, tail twitch, and then a dramatic pause.

Then—

His gaze caught something.

A vent.

High in the corner of the room, near the ceiling.

Dusty, old, and suspiciously out of reach for any normal creature.

There were no steps or ledges, just a smooth wall and a possible exit that screamed plot device.

Nibbles’ eyes widened. He squeaked.

Alex cracked one eye open.

"You what?" He asked in a tired voice.

Nibbles squeaked louder, more excitedly, pointing both paws upward like a tiny rodent Moses showing the way to promised freedom.

Alex followed the line of the squirrel’s paw.

"...A vent?" He asked, eyes slowly crawling up the wall to the very small, very distant metallic square.

He looked back down at Nibbles.

Then back up.

Then back at Nibbles.

Then he flopped dramatically against the door like his soul had left for a vacation.

"...I can’t enter the vent."

Nibbles squeaked once more.

"I know, you can," Alex sighed. "Gimme a minute."

He needed a minute to get over the fact that he wasn’t the protagonist today. Again.

He had realized that.

Then, after a full minute of depression and an eagerly waiting squirrel, Alex moved.

"Blargh," he muttered. "Let go of a pinky."

There was a disgusting squelching sound as someone stepped on shit as a pinky-length tendril of Blargh’s black goo-body pulled back from Alex’s form and slithered toward the waiting squirrel.

As soon as it touched him, Nibbles began to change.

First came the black ooze—covering his fur like thick ink—and then came the crackling glow of lava-pulse veins stretching across his tiny form.

His cute squirrel eyes glowed a menacing orange. His teeth sharpened. Tiny flames flickered from his ears like war horns.

He was now...

Mini-Blargh-Nibbles.

And he looked terrifyingly adorable.

Even Alex had to admit, "Okay, yeah, that’s objectively the most badass plushie I’ve ever seen."

Nibbles hissed with a high-pitched growl, then launched himself into the air with a hiss-pop of fire, grabbing onto the wall like a demonic gecko on espresso.

"Not me, huh..." Alex murmured, watching the squirrel ascend like a tiny god. "It’s not me today..."

He wiped a single imaginary tear.

"...Nibbles and Blargh are the protagonists now."

A beat of silence passed.

Then Blargh mumbled from inside his chest.

"...Will you cheer for us?"

Alex whispered reverently, "I will respectfully cheer for my best buddies."

.........................

Meanwhile, back in the medical ward where Graye was admitted.

Raven, Clara, Siris, Selena, Lia, and Jessy sat with serious expressions while Graye, who didn’t know what was going on but knew something was wrong, kept shifting from one person to another.

She patted their heads and muttered, "Don’t worry. Everything would be fine. I can feel it in my... hair."

That was consolation—at least in her mind, it was.

However, no one spoke anything as they didn’t care about it right now.

One of their core members was missing along with their fluffy general. This was no light matter.

Squeak!

It was then the Clawtail Recon Squad arrived, causing everyone to raise their eyes in hope.

"Anything?" Raven asked, only to grit his teeth as he saw them shake their heads in a no.

Before he could even react to that, the shadows shifted, and Jake stepped out of the shadow, his fists clenched as he punched the wall, shattering it without effort.

They didn’t even need to ask if he found them.

The answer was clear.

Silence covered the room, only the sound of breaths echoing.

That was until—

Caw!

Glass shattered as a massive black crow burst through the window in a storm of feathers, circling the room like an omen.

It landed with a loud thump on the potion-covered table, scattering the test tubes and herbs.

The thing that caught everyone’s attention, however, was the thing strapped to its leg.

There was a tiny, rolled-up scroll sealed in silver wax.

Raven’s eyes sharpened as he locked eyes with the crow, who looked at him with obvious malice.

Behind his back, he made a gesture, and Jake’s eyes sharpened before he ducked into the shadow.

The next second—

Whoosh!

He appeared behind the crow, holding it in its place, not killing it.

Raven then moved, snatching the scroll and breaking the seal, only to see a single message written on it, and as soon as he saw it, Raven’s eyes turned cold.

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Follow the crow alone if you want that dumb guy and the squirrel alive.

– Travis Crymont.

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