Chương 24: Reborn as the Dragon: — Chapter 24 - Aren't You Afraid of Me?

Tearing pain crashed through every inch of his body. Su Nian felt his skull detonate, his vision collapsed to black, and he was out before he hit the ground.

"Hisssss..." Anyone watching from the outside would have recoiled in horror. Every bone in Su Nian's body was churning, snapping, shifting. Migrating. His body began to shrink. Muscles tore apart and knit back together, wrapping around still-beating organs. Blood vessels surged beneath his skin like fishing nets pulled taut, burst through the surface, and tangled with the new muscle forming around them, fusing in configurations more intricate than anything that had existed before. The sight was grotesque.

Monstrous. And yet buried inside it was something almost sacred, the raw, violent holiness of life remaking itself. The grinding and creaking never stopped. No wonder the pain had taken him under. He didn't know how much time passed before awareness trickled back. Su Nian moved his stiff limbs with effort, and the familiar weight of strength settled back into his body. Familiar. But different now. Denser. Ready to detonate.

As he opened his eyes and pushed himself upright, CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK, a rapid-fire series of pops rang out from deep inside him, like a fistful of beans dropped into a hot pan.

"I... I think I got smaller." Su Nian shook his head, confused. The cave around him seemed larger than he remembered. That was actually an illusion. He had gotten smaller, Deathwing's body structure was that precise, that efficient, having stripped away nearly every flaw that plagued the Black Dragons of this world. His dragon head had become the same broad, heavy type as Deathwing's.

His snout was short and wide, the muscles of his jaw thicker than before, his fangs sharp and densely packed, like rows of steel needles arranged in perfect formation. His neck was a column of knotted muscle. He hadn't replicated Deathwing's excavator jaw, though. That modification quota had gone somewhere else entirely. A pair of forward-sweeping demonic horns now jutted from his skull, thick, sharp, curved like scimitars.

They connected with three pairs of dragon horns sweeping back, the whole arrangement forming something between a helmet and a crown of iron, and it framed every ounce of his savagery in exactly the right light. That's what he'd been going for. Su Nian raised a claw and slowly closed it. His thick, tapered talons clicked together with a clean CLACK CLACK CLACK. His wings had fully separated from his forelimbs now, independent structures, newly formed, already answering his will without resistance.

His body as a whole had compacted. Limbs thicker. Sturdier. His chest especially, wide, braced, radiating a kind of violent beauty. He looked himself over. Su Nian, now the most jacked dragon in existence. Condensed. Stronger. The only two things missing were Deathwing's iron-textured scales and the Molten Heart blazing through his chest. Those would come later. Future modifications. He wasn't there yet. [Ding!" Explosive Dragon Form" has been solidified. Improvements from this modification:] If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. [Total muscle strength +50%] [Bite force +200%] [Speed -10%] [Scale armor defense +30%] [Forelimb dexterity +100%]"Speed's a minor loss~ Everything else is absolutely insane. That's Deathwing's body for you, truly worthy of being called the dragon of world destruction." Su Nian finished reading, opened his dragon mouth in a wide, savage grin.

Deep inside, the breath organ pulsed with faint, sickly green light.

"Keheheheh..." That hoarse, evil cackle echoed through the cave. In the dim light, the stone walls caught the shadow of a massive dragon, chest thrown out, wings spread wide, silhouette pure menace.......

"Doggy, why hasn't Mister Dragon come out yet?"

"Doggy, why are you called dog-heads and not dragon-heads?"

"Doggy, doggy..."

"AGH, by Kurtulmak, please, little elf, I assure you, the master will be out very soon!" Bolikri clapped both hands over his lizard head and cut Anna off mid-question. In the last half hour, this half-elf child had asked him over a hundred questions. Ninety-eight of them were about the Black Dragon. The remaining two were variations on why Kobolds weren't actually dogs. Damn it. They didn't want to be called dog-heads either, okay? But their calls sounded like that, what were they supposed to do about it?

Dragon-heads would have been so much more intimidating! Anna went quiet. Her wide, lovely eyes began filling with glistening tears. Her aggrieved gaze drifted past Bolikri, landing on the towering shape that had appeared behind him. She blinked. Then she followed her instincts and threw herself into the Black Dragon's arms. Her soft little hands wrapped around his neck, thicker now than she remembered, and her pink cheeks were still streaked with the faint tracks of manufactured tears.

She buried her face against him and murmured in a tiny, pitiful voice:"Hehe~ Mister Dragon, Anna missed you... The dog-head chief was yelling at Anna just now, he was so mean... Wuwuwu..." Su Nian: "......? –_–?" Bolikri: "\(oДo*)!!!"

"No, master, please let me expl, URGH!!" Bolikri spun around. A vast shadow swallowed his entire field of view. The pressure that came with it hit like a physical wave, and his knees nearly buckled on the spot. By Kurtulmak. Bolikri's soul shook. What was he looking at? A crown of pitch-black dragon horns. Demonic curved blades jutting forward. A broad, ferocious snout. A body that was a size smaller, and somehow, impossibly, more imposing for it.

Bolikri swore on every deity he knew that he had never seen anything so perfect. So crushing. So utterly, completely evil. It was as if every inch of the Black Dragon's skin, every cell in his body, had been carved with the symphony of destruction and death. If not for the familiar aura rolling off the dragon before him, and the faint thread of blood connection that Bolikri could feel through his veins, he would have wet himself already. Assuming he wore anything worth wetting, rather than a scrap of fraying cloth.

"Gr— great mas— master —" Bolikri's lips shook. He lowered himself to the ground, trembling, pressing his dog-head flat against the stone. Fear, anxiety both rose in him and then dissolved almost immediately, replaced by something blazing and electrified. He didn't understand how the master had transformed in the space of half an hour. But the result was undeniable. The master had become something greater. And if the master grew stronger, his followers grew with him. That was how it worked.

Bolikri searched for words and couldn't find any that were adequate. It was like standing before a dragon emperor of myth, even stealing a single glance was enough to turn his legs to water, to push him down against the earth in complete and involuntary submission.

"Your brilliance shames the sun and moon! A demon's cruelty is nothing beside your ferocity! Even the ancient hydra trembles at your name, even the gods... would fall from their thrones!" The Kobolds around him had all done the same without being asked. Every last one, pressed flat against the ground behind Bolikri, shivering, not a breath louder than a whisper. [Broken Fang Clan loyalty +10. Current loyalty: 90 (Reverence/Fear)] There was one exception.

Among every living creature in that cave, only Anna stayed exactly where she was, nestled quietly in Su Nian's arms. Her big eyes blinked slowly as she studied him, taking in every changed detail with open curiosity. The warmth in her gaze hadn't shifted by a single degree.

"Aren't you afraid of me?" Su Nian dipped his head down, bringing his massive, ferocious dragon skull right in front of her face. His forelimbs drove into the stone floor on either side of her. He parted his jaws wide, showing every needle-sharp fang, and let a low growl rumble up from his chest.

"Not even a little~" Anna reached up and wrapped both arms around his monstrous dragon head without hesitation. She closed her eyes. Her lashes trembled faintly. Her forehead pressed against the bridge of his nose, and the softest smile curved her lips.

"Anna can feel it," she murmured.

"No matter how much you change... you're still Anna's Mister Dragon." ➤ Next: Black Dragon's Blitz on the Silver Mine