The Abysmal Territory

[51]

“Silica, Akeiko, sorry, I didn’t intend to distract both of you, I thought that you wouldn't since you’re too focused doing your things,” Teiko said.

“What is that?” Akeiko asked.

“Sorry that I kept this a secret up until now,” Teiko said.

Teiko told both Silica and Akeiko about the power that resides inside of him. They were amazed about how Teiko endured the process, then returned back to learning the new skill since they became motivated by Teiko’s story.

“So I’ll start cooking so they can eat after they’re done,” Teiko said.

“Yay, that’s what I’m waiting for! So what’s our dinner for today,” Saki asked.

“Cooked King Scorpion,” Teiko replied.

“What?! Are you out of your mind?” Saki said.

“Don’t worry, I’ll taste it before anyone. I’m also confident that this will turn out good,” Teiko said.

As Teiko cooked, the fragrance from his cooking dispersed throughout the area. 

“I can’t wait to eat this,” Saki said.

“What happened to you ‘are you out of your mind’ thing?” Teiko asked.

“Did I say something like that?” Saki said.

Akeiko and Silica finished learning their new skill and were too excited about what Teiko was cooking.

“Just the perfect timing, the Cooked King Scorpion is already done. I extracted its poison so you don’t have to worry about ingesting it,” Teiko said.

The four happily ate their dinner together.

“I’ve never thought that it would taste like this, I only visited the sea once so eating seafood is a very rare occurrence. This scorpion tastes the same as seafood,” Akeiko said.

“So this is the taste of the seafood?” Silica asked.

“Yes, I also tasted just one seafood when my father brought one in our house. But I’m glad that I learned how to cook this from my mother if it was just one time,” Teiko said.

The four rested for that day and started to explore the third level where the lesser dragons reside.

Saki explained that there are four types of lesser dragons that we might encounter, the fire dragon, the earth dragon, the elder dragon, and finally the ancient dragon. We need to get one of the sacred crystals before going back to the second level using a different passage so we would likely encounter at least one of the dragons. Teiko thought.

“So the thing we should remember is that we should never fight two lesser dragons at the same time,” Akeiko said.

“Yup! Although lesser dragons don’t interact with one another, they team up if they have the same enemies. They enjoy fighting one another but not in battle but on who could defeat their enemies first,” Saki said.

“That’s terrifying, I hope that we won’t encounter four of them at the same time,” Silica said.

The other three looked at Silica at the same time.

“What?” Silica said.

“Saying that would just bring bad luck to us. We might encounter four of them, so be careful about what you are saying,” Teiko said.

“Don’t worry about that Teiko-nii, the chances that it will happen is less than the chance of finding the golden wolf fang,” Saki said.

“Did you forget that we encountered them on the same day you talked about that thing?” Teiko said.

Saki laughs. She said, “Don’t be stupid, Teiko-nii. That thing is just a coincidence, a coincidence, okay?”

As they are going outside of the secret passage, the door behind them closes.

“Ahm, is that a bad thing?” Akeiko said.

Four lesser dragons were fighting each other when they went out of the passageway. As the dragons saw the four, they stopped fighting and just looked at each other.

“What did I tell you guys?” Teiko said.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to do this,” Silica cried out.

“I have nothing to do with this, okay?” Saki said.

“Are they communicating with each other?” Akeiko asked.

“They might be talking about who gets the most kills from the four of us and would win their argument,” Teiko said.

“Don’t say something like that, should we go back to the passageway?” Silica said.

“I don’t think we can, the passageway earlier is just for going down and it would not open from here,” Saki said.

“Then, let’s just destroy the wall and go back,” Akeiko said.

“It’s too late, they notice our presence already. Once we move, they would immediately try to take our life,” Saki said.

“Can you do something, Saki?” Teiko asked.

“Of course, I can. I can defeat them on my own, but that would mean that I do everything. It would break our pact that I’ll not help you with anything,” Saki said.

“That is better than letting the three of us die, right?” Teiko said.

“Your power increased, right? Are you not confident in this situation?” Saki asked.

“I would if there’s only one, but there are four of them,” Teiko said.

“Don’t worry about that, they have pride just like you,” Saki replied.

One of the dragons flies down on the same ground as the four. The other three landed on other rock formations away from the other one.

“What are they doing?” Akeiko asked.

“They wanted to fight one against one. Maybe the fastest to win among the four of them will win their fight,” Saki said.

The lesser dragon that had a red skin growl then breathed fire that almost reached Akeiko.

“Does it mean that this thing wanted to fight against me?” Akeiko asked.

“That’s the only probable reason that it will do something like that,” Teiko replied.

“So I have to fight one of them, too?” Silica asked.

“That may be the case, Silica-nee,” Saki said.

“Don’t worry, Silica. I believe that you can do it,” Teiko said.

“Yeah, if we can’t defeat something like this, then we’re not gonna make it to the Hero’s trial,” Akeiko said.

Akeiko walks to the center of the battlefield where the four lesser dragons are previously fighting. 

“So you wanted to fight fire with fire, huh? Then don’t regret picking me to be your opponent, fire dragon,” Akeiko said.

“Should I become the announcer of this battle?” Saki asked.

“Can you please shut up for a moment, Saki. This is a serious fight unlike my match with Akeiko, but please if ever the fight goes wrong, please intercept the less dragon. You could kill the other three as well,” Teiko said.

“Okay! I keep that in mind, but I do believe that the fire inside Akeiko is greater than that of this cute little dragon,” Saki said.

“Then, let’s begin!” Akeiko declared.