***
A cool breeze blew across the ocean's surface carrying the smell of the sea towards a city in the distance
Dragon tooth stood out among the waves shining like a crystal even from a distance the city seemed to give of its own brightness that overshadowed even the suns at times
As we drew closer to home my excitement grew, I've been gone for two an a half months and I was excited and scared to see my wife again
Looking beside me i pat the top of my daughters head " hopefully your mother doesn't chew me out to bad for taking you with me."
" if she does I'll tell her i forced you." chuckling i picked her up kissing her on the cheek
" is that what you told shadow to say too?"
" I dont know what you are talking about. " Shaking my head I turned my attention to the other children ' I think she is taking after me a little to much now.'
" did everyone enjoy our little adventure across the seas." Surprisingly it was Salem's brother he has really come out of his shell during this trip
"Yeah it was great I never thought I would ever see the world to this degree it's been wonderful. "
Frida on the other hand has stayed her shy self " yes u-uncle i did thanks you for letting us come."
I told her she can start calling me uncle instead of highness or something like that since her mother basically handled both Elise and I secrets and was close to both of us i thought It was fitting
Shane has gotten a lot more confident after the situation in the mana cloud hells even te'let benefited from our time out
Overall this experience was not only a fun trip for the kids but also helped them all grow in there own ways so I would call it a win regardless of what she well say to me,
these are future leaders after all
*
*
*
It was a while before we finally hit the docks avoiding departing ships as we maneuver back to the spot we left from
A crowd formed as we disembark to watch us among them was wolfgar an his wives,birna and of course Elise with Salem nearby
But as I walked towards every with a big smile and excitement boiling in my heart I halted my steps
' Somethings not right?'....then it hit me as the kids rushed past me to each of there guardians " I cant feel our bond."
"It's about time you noticed you really are a sad man pathetic man." Turning and following my gut i thrust my had into what I received to be open air and did a ripping motion
' I am right.' As soon as I did this i began sensing life that shouldn't be there, because nothing was there
Walking right up to where I was getting these signals lightning shot off of me scorching everything around as the world began to tremble making everything vibrate on the verge of a collapse
" TELL ME CREATURE, DO YOU KNOW FEAR!" My voice was dripping with barely contained rage if this thing has hurt my daughter or gods forbid killed her
I'll make its species wish it never evolved to this point
My elements intensified as misty dragon wings unfolded behind me an two fangs grew from my mouth
" I asked you a question." This time instead of yelling my voice was low like a tiger about to pounce on its prey. Suddenly my world rapidly shifted between a beautiful ocean with family and friends awaiting a reunion to a dark and bleak cavern with the constant sound of water dripping that was enough to drive anyone mad
And standing in front of me was a four legged spider thing covered in a armored exoskeleton it had a humanoid top half with four beady eyes and a mouth like a insects, every limb it had ended in a sharp point even it's two arms
Eventually my surrounding stopped changing as I was left in front of this monster in a cavern I could barely feel in
The air shuddered as the tip of a large scythe like object tried to pierce me but was stopped by shadow using a tentacle of darkness
Behind me a larger version of the creature in front of me attempted to kill me with its massive scythe like arms
I took a moment to look around trying to get a understanding of what is happening,not even seeing this things as a threat at least to myself
Just then I noticed a subtle clicking sound from both of the creatures I didn't know if it was out of fear or them trying to communicate with each other regardless I reduced them to a green blood pile on the floor
Following the path that lead to more life i pass a strange cocoon like structure that was ripped open
' was that what i ripped myself out of?' I didn't have time to think about this as the cavern was flooded with the large version of the creature i just killed
Summoning the coffin I pulled out a pair of Gauntlets and greaves and put them on pouring my mana into them, a thin long blade extended out the Gauntlets coated in my lightning while the greaves encompassed the rest of my feet crack the rock beneath me
With the familiar taste of iron flooded my mouth if knew this needed to be quick
" I'm only going to ask this once. Where is my daughter?" I knew they probably couldn't understand me let alone say anything to me but its about principle
Commanding shadow to climb on my back sprouting tentacles i leaned forward damaging the rock beneath me even more before sprinting forward in a burst of speed slashing apart and obliterate any creature that got in my way
***
In a different part of the cavern a "little" spider crawled across the ceiling trying to search for something or someone
" where,hurry must help." Suddenly the entire network of caverns shook from a violent force impacting it knocking many stalactites of the ceiling
One of which te'let was on acting quickly she shot a drag line to one still in place and dodging a couple that tried to impale her before finding stable purchase on the other side of the cavern
Below her dozens of the weird creatures that have been passing by every few minutes rushed into the cavern and into a tunnel there were many like it around but they seemed to all know which one to take allowing them to get to their destination quickly
Unfortunately te'let didn't have this ability...
but she could however sense the souls of living beings, because of this she entered a tunnel different then the one the creatures took
It was a few minutes of traveling through the tunnel on its ceiling until te'let reached another cavern slightly bigger then the last
That wasn't the only change, among the pointy rock walls cocoons were placed there spaced out some where already open its contents missing
Doing her best not to be caught she made her way to a specific cocoon
As she was about to reach it one of the smaller creature moved over to it looking to cut it open
Letting gravity carry her down te'let shot our her fluid and quickly spun it in a web mid-air an flung it at the creature immobilizing it, landing on the creature wildly thrashing about and clicking surprised by the sudden attack
Crawling up the creature avoiding its pointy limbs. te'let reeled once reach its neck an bit down with her fangs
the thrashing and clicking slowed down as it's soul was sucked until it stopped completely. beside te'let a phantom of the creature she stole the soul of appeared next two her
It looked around confused until it's eyes settled on the little spider for a few moments as it clicked randomly then unexpectedly it knelt before lowering its head
Ignoring it for now te'let crawled to the cocoon and looked inside
Sleeping peacefully without a care a little girl of about ten covered with pink dragon scales in specific areas had no idea what was happening
Once getting inside te'let did her best to wake up Emily up but was unsuccessful leaving her only one chose
Te'let bit Emily her effect was immediate but once it happened Emily shot awake panting and in a sweat
Only taking a second to understand the situation as dozens of large and small creatures flooded the their cavern
" hurry,danger i will help
A familiar girl's voice entered her mind, understanding the voice Emily began ripping open the cocoon she was in an stepped out stretching
Most would say she took after her mother of they ever meet her in person the perfect princess of the dragon king. but she knew the truth there's a lot more of her father in her then even she wanted to admit, she just knew when and where to show it
Speaking of...that devil the cavern violently shook again causing a stalactites to fall piercing one of the creature killing it
Smirking she knew exactly what was going through her father head right now. she wasn't even surprised he somehow broke out of whatever was restraining them
" I better get to him before he ends up destroying the place...and probably these creatures."
But first she had to deal with the enemy in front of her and find her friends
And for the first time since her birth she didn't need to hold. smiling Emily allowed her mana to go wild
" this is going to be so much fun. Come! Amerock" on her shoulder te'let looked at her specter
" help,attack. "
***
" ha-ha-ha-." suddenly the ship Edward was on surrounded by women and leading a vast fleet vanished and replacing it was a heavy armored figure
Letting out a girlish scream he scrambled back but there was nowhere for him to go still inside the cocoon
Turning from him ajalentem went from cocoon to cocoon breaking everyone out among the were most Edward's crew and oddly enough zauto
" we need to get moving i must get to my lord." He seemingly unaffected by being captured un like the rest of them but that wasn't true
looking closer you would notice his eyes shifting and beads of sweat doting his skin
" screw that I need to make sure the rest of my men are ok, not only that but we got to find a way out of her im sure that lightning maniac is doing just fine."
Before a retort could be made they were besieged by dozens of creatures forcing them to fight as they moved through tunnels
***
In a place where all the tunnels converge the largest creature yet finally awakens from a meditative state
In any normal situation she would never release her control of the drones severing their hivemind. However this was not normal situation for the first time in centuries she might have to fight herself
Her carelessness has lead to this situation, if she was more selective of her prey when she abducted them this wouldn't have happened
The first figures to appear in her cavern are small in comparison to the others but the pink one leading the group was scary even to a queen like her
The second group of figures were larger and more numerous one from the larger group rushed over to the little ones as they all stared at the queen waiting for something to happen
And it did the cavern rocked as blue lightning discharged from one of the tunnels throwing dozens of creatures from within out
" where is she huh!, did you eat her is that it...do i have to gut every last one of you?!" In a flash of lightning all except a couple that were tossed into the air from the force of the attack were split open, intestines made to spill their contents
Watching this Edward slowly looked at zauto with a smug expression ' I can't believe he was worried about someone who can do this alone. '
Before the two in the air hit the ground they suffered the same fate
still mid-air hanging onto half a corpse the madman turned his gaze to the queen pointing a finger and blade coverd in green blood at the big creature " you, tell me where she is!"
Using the half corpse as a foothold he shot towards her like a comet leaving lightning streams in his wake
The queen moved to defend herself the skull of his mask looking more imposing as he flew towards her but a voice rang out grabbing the man's attention just as his attack was about to land
" papa im fine!, see." Teleporting mid attack he appeared in front of the little pink one and started making sure she was ok,circling her multiple times lifting up her arms as her did
A blush appeared on her face as he did this pushing him away " stop your embarrassing me, im ok you should worry about yourself you're the one coverd in blood."
" sorry sweetheart papa was just worried. " he went to hug her but replayed the last statement she said and stopped himself
Finally looking around her he saw the rest of the kids and zauto making him let out a sigh of relief
" thank gods mostly everyone is ok" having called everyone to regroup he turned to Edward " im sorry i came across a few of your guys but they were already dead."
" its fine i thought that might have happened to them....more important though what are we going to do about that!" Yelling the last part and pointing at the queen
Draw their attention again the queen began clicking at fast intervals that was different then the others sadly they didn't understand her attempts at communication
" I have a couple ideas." She shuddered as the powerful human walked towards her wish for the first time she had a different method of talking