Drake Helkar's point of view
With a sharp ringing piercing my ears and my vision completely blurred, I opened my eyes slowly, feeling half of my face submerged in the freezing water of a small stream.
I was dazed, with every muscle in my body screaming in pain and unable to process where I was or what exactly had happened, until an infernal burning ran through the entire right side of my body, waking me up abruptly.
"Ahg!" I complained with a hoarse voice.
Turning quickly and clumsily, I saw with horror how my clothes and my skin were enveloped in reddish flames, just like Mork, who did not stop writhing a few meters from me, making noises of agony while he tried to put out the flames with the little water there was in the puddle, burning his scales in the process.
"Shit, shit!" I shouted, dragging myself through the stream that was being dyed red because of my blood, before gathering mana and trying to suffocate the fire on both of us.
However, upon passing a water spell I realized with desperation that these flames were abnormally resistant, refusing to disappear and sticking to the skin as if we had been enveloped by some kind of boiling oil.
Clenching my teeth from the pain that clouded my sight, I increased the pressure and amount of water, managing to put out the damn flames of both of us only after a few agonizing seconds of continuous effort.
Coughing and spitting dirty water, I stayed lying on the bank, looking at my burned skin while I cursed hitting the water upon feeling the stinging in my flesh.
What the shit just happened? I thought, trying to recapitulate everything with agitated breathing. We were in the air, flying calmly... until suddenly I saw a reddish light coming at full speed, and then… I was already falling…
I deliberated, until the sensation that I was missing something invaded me, forcing me to look around.
Zoe!
Panic invaded me instantly. Ignoring the stabbing pain of my burns, I quickly activated Perception to see what the hell was happening, feeling how my heart sank upon realizing that she was up there, actively fighting against the same people who had brought me down.
Shit! I must go support her! I thought, resting my trembling hands on the wet stones to get up and join the battle as soon as possible.
But as soon as I stood up and tried to take a step, my body gave way to the wounds, making me fall abruptly to my knees on the water upon feeling a tearing pain, noting how parts of my right leg and arm were charred and bleeding out.
"Damn it!" I shouted full of impotence, clenching my fist tightly while desperation ate me alive not being able to go help her immediately, since my wounds would take at least several hours to heal enough to be useful in the battle.
Cursing, I stopped in my anger at the sudden explosions that resonated near me, making the ground and the rocks around me tremble. Looking up towards the sky hoping to see Zoe, I managed to see nothing, more than the high and narrow walls of the canyon into which I had fallen, making me think rapidly about how to get out of there as soon as possible together with Mork, before a female voice bounced in the canyon.
"Oof... good thing you survived." She said, charged with a relieved tone that resonated behind my back. "Because certainly if you had died from that attack, probably Tarus would have hit me hard…"
Forcing my aching body, I slowly turned towards the origin of the voice, realizing that from the shadows projected by the rocks in the distance, three people emerged, among them a young girl with a sharp gaze, accompanied by two incredibly large men. Looking more closely, I noticed that these three had their weapons drawn and were approaching with a threatening attitude towards where I was.
Staring at the girl leading the group, I tried to analyze the situation in my mind despite the stabbing pain that clouded my sight. Looking more closely, I noticed that all three were of the human race. The two men were true bulks of muscles, while the girl, besides being quite beautiful, wore very little clothes and armor, something that demonstrated an absolute confidence in her abilities or a tremendous stupidity walking like that into combat.
"Who the hell are you?" I shouted with a raspy voice, forcing myself to maintain my composure while my mind worked a thousand miles an hour, desperately looking for a way to free Zoe and me from this situation.
Upon hearing me, the girl stopped a few meters away, looking at the other two men before shrugging her shoulders with disinterest.
"Hahaha, isn't it obvious, handsome? We are mercenaries." She answered with a mocking smile.
Hearing her response, despite still being confused and dazed by everything that was happening, I forced myself to focus, connecting the dots quickly and realizing that they surely must be men sent by Boris to hunt us down.
"Good point…" I said out loud, coughing a bit of dirty water before continuing. "Then, if you just said that you didn't want me dead with that attack… That means you are not looking to kill us, but only to capture us, right?"
Being close enough now to see the details of their weapons, she nodded, showing a flirty smile that contrasted horribly with the blood and smoke around us.
"Of course, that's the idea. After all, they hired us for just catching you and the problematic girl up there to take you to the Central Continent."
Central Continent? I thought, feeling a shiver upon hearing that immense and distant destination. Shaking my head to clear my mind, I leaned towards the ground to put my hand behind some small rocks there were in the stream, to then use Atlas and take out Belarus, making it look to them like I had picked it up from the water or something similar. Smiling, I lifted it, and with my healthy arm, I pointed it directly at them to buy time, all while I struggled to analyze all the mercenaries surrounding us.
"And what will happen if I decide to resist?" I said threateningly, supporting my weight on my good leg while I looked at them with fury. "After all, it doesn't suit you to kill me if you need me alive, right?"
Upon hearing my threat, one of the large men took a step forward, answering coldly with a deep voice that resonated in the canyon.
"Then we will have to kill you right here. It is true that for taking you alive they will pay us much more, but if you become a nuisance and it is not worth the effort to keep you breathing, we don't mind cutting off your head right now, since the reward for taking your corpse is also quite juicy." Said the gigantic man, showing a large double-edged axe while he took another step forward.
"Yep, that's right." Added the girl, downplaying my sword. "So it will be best if you cooperate quickly and the easy way, so that she also calms down up there." She said, pointing her finger towards the sky, where the rumbles of the battle Zoe was fighting could still be heard.
Getting nervous by her response so direct and lacking doubts, I took a deep breath, forcing myself to calm down so as not to commit a stupidity driven by anger. Using my senses to the maximum, I finished analyzing the mana of the people surrounding us with Perception, realizing that it was useless trying to do something right now.
Damn it... there are five of Legend Rank and thirteen of Expert Rank among all of them. I thought, swallowing hard upon confirming the overwhelming difference in power and numbers there was between us. If I wanted to fight them right now, I am completely sure they would end up killing us both in these conditions. But, if they at least give us a day to recover, we could…
"Alright, alright." I said out loud, letting go of Belarus so it would fall to the wet ground before slowly raising my hands in a sign of surrender. "We will go with you."
I just hope I don't regret trusting so much in what I have in my head. I finally said inside me, keeping my gaze fixed on the mercenaries while the two men approached quickly, grabbing my hands with brute force to handcuff me with special metallic cuffs, which, upon closing with a heavy click, immediately suppressed all the flow of my Dragonkin mana, making my body give way due to the wounds that stopped being treated by my mana.
"Heal him, as we have to take the girl too before night falls." Concluded the human, taking part of her job as successful.