Chương 193: Reborn as the Dragon — Chapter 193 - Anna's Dragon Breath

Faced with his little treasure's sorrow and confusion, Su Nian's old face reddened. He involuntarily pulled in his front and back claws. Being stared at like that still made him uncomfortable. The problem was his face was pitch black. That brief flash of embarrassment went completely unnoticed by anyone in the vicinity.

"Uh... I'll be able to take human form soon, Anna! I'm already close to Tier 5. Based on how fast I've been advancing, I think within a month — two months at the most — I'll reach the tier of an adult dragon..." He wasn't entirely certain, but his rate of improvement was genuinely outrageous. A unique case across the entire continent.

"Two more months..." The little cutie pouted unhappily, her soft hands gently kneading the Black Dragon's enormous tongue.

"Uh... transformation can't be rushed. If you rush it, development suffers. And poor development affects fertility — the offspring end up as drakes instead of proper dragons..." His tongue was currently being hugged by his little treasure, so Su Nian could only produce sound through raw vocal cord vibrations. Still perfectly clear, though. This time he was bluffing Anna a little, just enough to put her mind at ease.

"That can really happen?" Anna looked genuinely alarmed. She'd inherited some dragonkin bloodline knowledge, but certainly not as comprehensively as a Black Dragon, so she took his words completely at face value.

"Brother, I'm sorry, it's all Anna's fault. Anna won't rush you anymore. Don't you hurry either. Let's be good and develop slowly. Healthy growth~" As she said it, she made a little flexing gesture with her tiny fist, then gave the Black Dragon's tongue an apologetic kiss. Truly. Little cuties were so easy to fool. Su Nian quietly gloated. His main concern was Anna tempting him all day. If he did something that ended up hurting her, he'd never forgive himself.

As an old, cautious dragon, everything came back to one word: steady. As long as he could keep Anna steady, then...

"Brother, is there somewhere to bathe in the dungeon?"

"Anna sweated so much while healing you just now. So much. I need to wash up properly... Can you take me there?" Ah. This. (￣ー￣) Looking at Anna in front of him, eyes sparkling like little hearts, face flushed like peach blossoms, soft and achingly pretty, Su Nian felt something short-circuit in his dragon brain. He'd dodged the first of the month. Couldn't dodge the fifteenth. Was this going to be the beauty trial after all?

"Bathing is very simple, Anna. There's a proper bathhouse in this dungeon. But before we get to that, I need to make a small modification to you." Su Nian looked at her with a composed expression and retracted his tongue. Anna's warm, soft body hugging it had been genuinely comfortable. But too long in the open air. It was starting to go numb.

"A small modification?" Anna blinked, confused. The soft, huge tongue had vanished from her arms, which left her quietly disappointed.

"That's right." Su Nian nodded and carefully reached for Anna's golden thread. Far more gently than he ever handled the monsters under his command, not even close. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Anna felt the difference immediately. A warm energy seeped slowly into her body. It carried the aura of raging flame and raw ferocity, and with it came the strange, open sensation that everything inside her had been laid bare before the Black Dragon.

Through that energy, she caught a vision, blurred but unmistakable. A majestic, enormous Black Dragon, pouring its breath down onto the earth below. Houses crumbled. People screamed inside the flames, their bodies dissolving to ash. Charred remains scattered across scorched wasteland. The dragon looked a lot like her brother. But its presence felt darker. More savage. And most notably. It had a very strange iron chin.

"This is the true Dragon's Breath inheritance... but..." Anna hesitated. If she accepted this inheritance, was she going to grow a horrifying iron chin?

"Don't worry, Anna." Su Nian's voice was gentle.

"Accepting the inheritance will strengthen your Dragon's Breath technique. You won't grow anything strange." He comforted her, but inwardly, he was puzzled. Why had Anna seen Deathwing's breath? None of the monsters who had received the Dragon's Breath inheritance before had experienced anything like this. [The host's special dependent Anna possesses a Dragon Heart. The host's own modification direction also bears the shadow of Deathwing.] [The Dragon's Breath inheritance has resonated with Anna's Dragon Heart. After this inheritance, Anna will obtain a Dragon's Breath technique with power equivalent to the host's own dragon breath.] The System answered promptly, helpfully, even before Su Nian had thought to ask. As systems went, it was getting pretty good at this. To Anna, Su Nian was the most trusted, most beloved dragon in existence. So if he said it was fine, she wasn't going to hesitate. If it meant getting stronger, she'd try it.

She opened her mind, closed her eyes gently, and let the Dragon's Breath inheritance settle into her. Before, when she used the Dragon's Breath technique, she'd simply been gathering fire elements and imitating the dragon's method of expulsion, essentially pointing concentrated flame and letting it out. But after receiving the inheritance, something fundamentally changed. Anna opened her eyes. She pursed her red lips, then tentatively, slowly, raised one small hand.

The golden-red vertical pupils in her eyes glimmered. A dragon's roar rang out, and above her upturned palm, a blurred dragon head coalesced from violent, churning fire elements. It bore a strong resemblance to Su Nian. The only difference was the iron chin.

"Aslada-draetgen-poderaha!" A short incantation. Anna's normally soft voice carried something new beneath it when she spoke, a low, resonant undertone, something between a roar and a dragon's cry. The Dragon's Breath technique fired.

"ROAR!" The fire-element dragon head bellowed, maw tearing wide open, spewing a cone of crimson molten flame outward. It held. It burned. It didn't fade. Su Nian was standing right beside her. He could feel the output clearly. The coverage area was slightly smaller than his own breath. But the temperature was almost identical. The only real difference was that Anna's version was pure molten flame, no corrosive component. No acid. No rot. Even so. It was terrifying.

Anna had, for all practical purposes, become a dragon wearing an elf's skin. Everything she could do, everything she commanded, was already indistinguishable from a true dragon. Except for the part where she didn't look like one.

"Brother~ Anna got stronger again~" The little cutie was very clearly pleased with herself. She wasn't sure exactly when it had started, but even though she knew plenty of spells, her favorites had always been the fire ones. Fireball. Flame Burst. And now this, Dragon's Breath.

"Brother, Anna can protect you even better from now on~" She let out a bright little laugh, gave a small hop, and her dragon wings snapped open behind her, carrying her straight up to the Black Dragon's cheek. She pouted her soft pink lips and pressed a gentle kiss there. A small, sweet sound. She left behind an adorable lip print. Su Nian looked at Anna's glistening lips. At those little dimples. The slight curve of her smile. Her pale neck. The delicate line of her collarbone.

The soft, bare slope of her shoulder... Gulp. He swallowed. Damn it all. He really, really wanted to kiss her. That halter top was just completely unfair. Yes, it was designed to give her dragon wings room to spread, but still, But there was absolutely nothing he could do about it. In that moment, he felt a violent surge of resentment toward his own enormous body. Right now, just his tongue alone was big enough for Anna to sleep on. Kissing? Don't even think about it.

"Brother's heartbeat is so fast~" At some point, Anna's small, delicate frame had nestled right against his chest. Her little ear was pressed flat to him. She was listening quietly, a sweet smile on her lips. Her bright eyes held just a trace of mischief, and an enormous amount of warmth.

"Is it because brother's heart moved?"

"But why would brother's heart move?"

"Could it be... because Anna is going to take a bath?"

"Eek~" She smiled and darted away like a flower sprite, landing lightly on the Black Dragon's palm. She wrapped her arms around one of his claws, something that used to be easy when she held his arm, but now his claw was simply too large to get her arms around.

"Brother, the dungeon is so dark. Can you come with Anna? Can you stay with Anna the whole time? If Anna is alone, Anna will be scared~" Her pretty face was flushed pink. Her voice was soft and pleading and entirely impossible to resist. Su Nian opened his mouth. Not a single word of refusal came out. ➤ Next: Polymorph