SSS Rank Dragon Tamer: Unleashed
Chapter 49: Outer Ring

Chapter 49: Outer Ring

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Doors opened. Chimney soot puffed. Apprentices jogged past with bundles of ore-strips wrapped in cloth, and a few night-shift miners trudged home in groups, eyes bleary but alert enough to recognize the lean boy with the Hollowback.

"Hollowback Tamer," one whispered. Another muttered, "The one who floored Ayan Vaelor." The story of him punching a D-rank tamer had spread like wild fire in last two days.

Whispers slithered in their wake like rumors born from smoke. Zephyr ignored them. He kept his eyes ahead, his breath slow and steady, counting heartbeats, visualizing drills. He saw flames coiling from claws, arcs of movement, the phantom echo of Ayan’s grin. Every step away from Emberfall was a step closer to readiness.

Two days of forced rest had done more than heal. Star’s hide was no longer puckered and raw. Zephyr’s knuckles had darkened to purple but scabbed firm. They’d spent the downtime poring over maps, Arlen’s hand-drawn charts, and every line of the challenge parchment. Ayan’s official challenge letter sealed with wax so smug it may as well have laughed. Every detail had been studied like scripture. A map of vengeance.

The city wall loomed to Embergate East. It was a massive wrought-iron arch flanked by guard towers etched in glowing ward glyphs. The sentries waved them through with a nod. No need to question who or why as long as they got the permission papers.

Then, finally, they crossed the eastern aqueduct.

It ran like a river of fire beneath grated iron slats, molten runoff from the high kilns of the mountain smiths above. The heat pulsed through the soles of their boots. Golden orange light cast flickers up their legs as if they were walking through the mouth of a volcano.

Beyond the aqueduct, the terrain shifted. Cobblestone gave way to volcanic gravel. Trees clawed into view, black barked, thick limbed, leaves curled red as old blood. Emberwood Forest.

It didn’t sprawl like a normal woodland. It loomed. The trees stood with the patience of ancient things, bark charred by time and scarred by lightning. Each leaf caught the morning sun like a coal under glass. In the distance, smoke devils twirled lazily above the canopy. The remnants of deep forest fumaroles, where molten cracks in the bedrock breathed their long, slow sighs.

The forest felt alive. Not like an animal, but a watchful, coiled entity that tolerated visitors the way a dragon tolerates birds nesting on its back—carefully, temporarily.

Zephyr slowed the mule-cart to a crawl. Star rose to his feet, wings trembling once, tail flicking like a whip. Fenna placed one hand on her hip, her other brushing the steel knife strapped against her hip.

No one spoke.

Zephyr reached up, brushing a hand along Star’s warm flank. The drake turned to him, their eyes locking.

"Time to forge a density," Zephyr murmured aloud. "And wings to wield it."

Star rumbled low in his chest. Then they crossed the treeline. And Emberwood swallowed them whole.

The red-leafed canopy parted like a breathing curtain as they entered the deeper heart of Emberwood forest’s outer ring. The road was no longer a road. It was just scorched trails between mossy basalt and twisted roots the color of dried blood. When the city walls faded behind the ridgeline and the last forge-bell echo died in the breeze, a thick hush fell over them.

They had arrived.

"Gods," Fenna breathed, stepping off the cart. "It smells like boiled stone and cinnamon bark."

Star leapt down beside her, claws gripping the uneven rock as his nostrils flared. A curl of smoke puffed from his snout as if tasting the air. Zephyr followed, bo staff slung across his back, his eyes scanning the distant trees where the leaves glimmered in shades of maroon and ember orange.

"The heat’s different here," he said. "Dryer. Even the air hums."

Indeed it did. A faint tremor, almost subsonic, pulsed beneath their boots with every few steps like the forest itself was breathing from some volcanic heart. Above them, the sun burned through broken cloud cover, striking motes of ash drifting lazily through the light.

Two hours in, they found it.

A ring of basalt boulders stood in a partial clearing, each stone misshapen and lumpy like half melted candles. Dry grasses clung to the spaces between, and steam hissed faintly from a sulfur pool just north, but the breeze spared them the worst of the stench. Flat ground. Wind protection. Line of sight.

"This is the place," Zephyr said, sweeping his hand around the air. "We will call it... Ember Nest. It will be our camp."

Star gave a pleased snort as if agreeing.

Fenna pulled the mule to a stop and began unloading. She worked fast, practiced: untying the coils of rope, unpacking the water jugs, lining up wax leaf bundles. "We have food for a week if we ration tight. Jerky, pulse cake, foraged root seed, three charmed waters. Rest days food, we need find in wilderness."

She glanced toward the sulfur steam. "Let’s not refill from the pools unless we want to die in our sleep."

Zephyr nodded, then turned to Star.

"Inspection," he said softly, crouching beside the fledgling. "Let’s see what we’re working with."

In full daylight, Star’s scales gleamed brighter and light refracting along the edges like molten crystal. The bandaged flank had healed to scarred flesh, tough and ridged, but it no longer seeped smoke. Zephyr touched each wing joint, checked talon flexibility, opened Star’s jaw to inspect fire channel flow.

"Star, say AHH!" He opened his tiny mouth, small sharp teeth open up. Inside was pink as a peach. There was a tiny spark of fire on this throat. Then he checked the system window:

[Star’s Current Profile-

Name:Star

Form: Drake Fledgling

Wingspan: 0.55 m

Core Grade: Level E

Stats: Strength 100, Fire 100, Wing Power 100, Agility 100, Sense 100

Abilities: Spark Dash, Ember Trail, Tremor, Dominance (Lv 2), Sense. Condition: Healthy, Power 80%(Not fully healed)]

Each number was modest but to Zephyr, they were a map of raw, uncut potential. He pressed two fingers to the young drake’s armored shoulder plate.