Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder-Chapter 1521 - 120 : Dimmed Light

*Axureon*

Pyroth descended from the storm-dark heavens like the harbinger of desolation itself. Even from my twisted angle, I could see his crimson eyes burned like summoned hellfire.

“Axureon!” Pyroth raged, the back of his throat lit like a lantern held by the reaper himself.

I reached out, lassoing his upper body with my arms and using Pyroth’s own tremendous force against him as he plunged toward me. I flipped him over. Using every ounce of my might, I slung him downward toward a craggy outcrop of rock.

In that split-second, he showed his vulnerable, charcoal-gray chest to me. I summoned my dragon fire and blew a scorching ray right at the center.

“Do you think your weak embers will stop me?” His deep voice reverberated, recovering with his wings and taking my flames straight on.

He didn’t even flinch when the full strength of my fire scorched him head-on. He turned his hind legs back, the claws on his feet crunching into the rock, leaving two large holes. Bending his muscular legs, he sprung back at me.

I nearly allowed myself to overthink during the battle and narrowly missed Pyroth’s column of flame, diving just in the nick of time.

Even in the thin air of the attitude, I knew I couldn’t withstand Pyroth’s flame even to the most armored parts of my body.

Then we clashed. His teeth were against my extended talons. I kept his massive fangs at bay, clawing and slashing at his jaw and gums only for him to take my left arm in his mouth.

Just before he crunched down upon my vulnerable arm, most likely ready to rip it straight off my shoulder in a bloody shower of viscera and bone, I jacked my right arm back and punched him where his mandible met his skull.

It instantly caused his jaw to release, and I retracted my bloody left arm. Pyroth wasn’t finished. He reached out to my throat, ready to strangle me. I barely blocked in time.

This time, he took my right wrist. Before I knew it, he copied my technique and threw me into the cliffside.

In a last-ditch maneuver, I brought out my strong right leg with sturdy claws. With a sweeping crescent kick, I dug my claws into the soft patch of skin under his jaw.

A spurt of blood erupted from his mouth. Before I could relish the victory, he dug his razor-sharp talons into the right arm he still had immobilized and twisted.

I snarled as the bones in my arm crunched and my ligaments snapped. Pain exploded through my nerve endings as I craned my neck down to crunch down on Pyroth’s arm to release mine. I tasted nothing but air as Pyroth retracted his arm and slashed out with the talons on his left arm.

I dropped down, and his claws scratched the top of my head crest instead of gouging into my eye. Gritting my teeth through the agony of my now useless right arm, I realized that I had to end this battle fast. No matter how many techniques I used, my stamina and strength were no match for his.

I had to end this now.

“You’re a pathetic, despicable waste of a dragon, and I will paint the mountains in your blood to have my progeny returned to me!” Pyroth bellowed, his voice causing my stomach to twist.

A scythe of lightning sliced around the mountain pass, painting Pyroth into a menacing silhouette of bloodlust and madness.

His roar and my snarl echoed through the mountain range like the thunder that boomed around us as I engaged him again in close combat. Blow for blow, slash for slash, bite for bite, I used every ounce of my agility to at least ensure that I was dealing him damage.

However, my blood had begun to drip down into the valley a thousand feet below, and my right arm, dangling like a wet flag, was slowing me down. Pyroth still engaged me. He was as unhinged as his jaw that I had dislocated.

His slit pupils lolled back in his blood-red irises, completely incensed with rage and desperation.

“Give me what is mine!” he raged as if I was the one who slighted him.

Soon, my breath couldn’t come to me fast enough, and my fire had petered out to a pathetic spurt of mostly smoke. This battle was lasting an eternity, and I couldn’t keep up.

I had time for one last move, a final full measure.

Dipping my head back, I clamped down on Pyroth’s neck. I grabbed his right wing and tore the thin membrane as we descended into a back dive. Pyroth thrashed, his left wing unable to keep us aloft against the death spiral I had plunged us into.

Like a smoking meteor from space, we rocketed toward the forest floor of the valley hundreds of feet below. His body gripped my right shoulder. I clutched onto his wing as we spun faster and faster, locked in a deadly embrace.

Like two raptors vying for the same prey, we dove headfirst toward the sodden, pitch-black valley below.

Right before we hit the valley surface, I contorted myself to be on top in a last-ditch tactic.

We hit the ground.

There was only darkness and...

Pain.

I heard the sounds of dripping, pattering, and splattering.

Waves of dull pain and lances of agony speared through my nerve endings. I shifted a wing only to be rewarded with more pain. I was confused as to what had happened.

Surely I could rest.... Wherever I was, it was dark and wet. It would be safe for me to recover there.

Nothing would get me...

I shifted my left arm, feeling cracked scales that weren’t mine.

My eyes flashed open.

Pyroth took the brunt of the fall and was passed out cold but not yet dead.

If I finished him off now, Keelana wouldn’t need to go into exile and Egoren would be safe.

But I felt the presence of other dragons approaching from the south.

Roars echoed from way too close. They were no doubt from Pyroth’s generals.

I made the tough choice and gave up trying to finish off Pyroth.

I dragged my cracked scales out of the crater, looking toward the mountain pass I told Keelana to fly through.

To my relief, I didn’t sense them. It meant that they had obeyed my command and continued onward, and no misfortune happened to them along the way.

I followed the faint trail that Keelana and her children left in the buzzing air and managed to catch up with them right before the last turn to the border of the Light Realm.

“Axureon! You did it!” Keelana exclaimed. The children all fluttered their wings in celebration as well.

“Guess Axureon beat that other guy in a race!” her eldest said.

“No way, it wasn’t a race, it had to be a spar!” the youngest piped up.

The children didn’t seem to know what had actually transpired or that the dragon pursuing us was their biological father.

“Is he... gone?” Keelana asked, slightly breathless.

If he was, they wouldn’t need to go any further.

“I don’t think so, no. We should continue,” I instructed. Keelana nodded. Her expression was not grim, but the light had left her face.

A shimmering expanse of radiance and warmth in the night sky soon beckoned them.

“It’s the threshold of the Light Realm,” I said as we began to glide down toward the polished stone terrace between two cliffsides. This entryway, tucked in a crevasse, only lit up when it expected invited visitors.

As we descended down to the small white marble terrace, the children let out cheers that they had won the race and couldn’t wait for their prizes. Keelana calmed them as we all changed back into our human forms in time to be greeted by a most esteemed individual.

It was Isaac Black, Alpha of Drogomor.

I held back some surprise. I hadn’t expected him to show up in person. I had expected a royal envoy at most.

I bowed, as did Keelana. She motioned for her children to do the same.

“Greetings, Axureon and Keelana. I am Isaac Black, Alpha of Drogomor, though you may already know that, judging by how you’re bowing, which I assure you is most unnecessary,” he greeted, his eyes warm and inviting.

I straightened up, wincing as I did so from my injuries.

“Your Majesty, I implore you to please take Miss Keelana and her children into Drogomor. It has become too perilous for them here, and we cannot ensure their safety. On behalf of the dragons, please allow her to seek exile and refuge with you so she can raise her children in peace.”

I had prepared this speech ahead of time, making sure that I touched on everything without revealing too much.

The Alpha of Drogomor let out a deep breath.

“We must have such an uptight reputation for you to tell us such a speech,” Isaac sighed. “Of course, we will take them in."

Isaac turned to Keelana, who was openly weeping, not in sorrow but in gratitude.

“We don’t turn down refugees, especially mothers with their children,” he continued and motioned for them to cross the glimmering border. “But you must come now.”

I eyed him. He had to be on a tight schedule or sense something on the horizon.

Keelana shocked me by embracing me lightly, her tears falling on my unharmed shoulder. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

“Thank you. Thank you for everything. I won’t forget it.” She paused, leaning back. “When my children are older, I will properly explain everything to them and your pivotal role in it. My only regret is that you will not be a more central figure in their lives going forward.”

“There’s no need for your thanks, my dear. Please go. Be safe and thrive. I will think of you and your children until my last breath,” I said, my throat thick with unspoken sorrow.

I knew it was selfish to succumb to such melancholy, but I couldn’t help it as her children waved me goodbye and passed by Isaac.

“I’ll protect them with everything Drogomor has at its disposal,” Isaac vowed before leaving.

I allowed myself to stand and watch until they could no longer be seen, praying to the heavens that all would work out for Keelana and her children before shifting back into my dragon form and gliding back the way I had come.

I had managed to heal some of my more superficial injuries but needed to get medical attention for my...

Smack...

Dazed, I began to fall through the air, paralyzed. What had I hit? A magic barrier? I desperately tried to pump my wings but to no avail.

The ground suddenly came upon me too closely. I couldn’t even curl to protect myself from another collision.