Icarus awoke and sat up straight. He looked to his left and saw Alazea healing Saarnax, who was currently unconscious.
His head throbbed; he clutched it as he remembered the last moments of their fight.
Icarus had forcibly drawn in mana as well as shielded himself to make it look like he had taken the punch full on.
Of course, it was sudden and instinctual, but it also worked out very well.
Saarnax would likely be fooled into thinking Icarus was far stronger than he was. He smiled as he marvelled at his brilliance.
It was strange, though, he had drawn in mana directly from the body, no, the core of the dead behemoth beside him.
If he hadn't done this, even the residual mana in the air probably wouldn't have been enough.
He shuddered at the thought and looked over to Ingel who seemed to have woken up before him.
"Hey, how did you even survive in that thing anyway?"
Ingel smirked, "You thought I died? Even if dragons breathed the same way as humans, Azlat stores air so it can ignite at anytime."
"Gah!" Saarnax bolted upright and looked around, his eyes locking in Icarus.
Alazea took a few steps back, and Icarus stared blankly back at Saarnax.
"Yo- you..."
Saarnax looked worried but didn't pull his spear out from where it was still lodged.
Icarus tilted his head. "What? Don't even think of attacking."
Saarnax shuddered at the confidence in that statement.
"You're... Not human are you?!"
Icarus' expression turned cold. "Of course I am, what's that supposed to mean?"
Saarnax shook his head, "No, I didn't see it before, but I'm sure! No human has that much mana inside of them! And you're travelling with dragons! You must be a dragon yourself!
Icarus was slightly alarmed to know that this guy could see mana just like Abe, but he just shrugged.
"Well, I'm not, and why would I hide something like that from you at this point?"
Saarnax thought about that and shut up, but his mind was still racing, 'like me?! He's so sure he's stronger than me that he speaks to me like that!'
Meanwhile, Alazea, who was watching all this, looked to Ingel, who was on the verge of laughing.
"Ingel, it's about time for me to return. Are you going to be alright?"
Ingel looked back at her, "Oh, right, I nearly forgot. But yeah, we'll be fine, please don't worry."
Alazea nodded and smiled at him. "Thank you, Ingel. Back at the village, I will build a statue in your honor."
Ingel blushed slightly, "t-theres no need for that!"
Saarnax and Icarus, who had been squabbling during all this, turned at Ingel, who had loudly spoken out.
Saarnax smiled maliciously, "awh the whittle Wed dwagon has a crush on the big white dwagon?"
A vein on Ingel's forehead bulged, and he grew redder, and flames burst out from his ears.
"Damn Wyvern mutt!"
The two started wrestling, and Alazea turned to Icarus. Without saying a word, she planted a hand on his head and ruffled his hair.
"Be strong, child, the world has been cruel to you. I've seen it all this time, the color of your emotions, they have just gone back to those of a normal person's recently, I'm sorry for what's happened, but all you can do is look forward."
Icarus was surprised but remembered that externally, he was about 16 years old; thus, he smiled deviously internally.
To his surprise, she embraced him and patted his head a few times before letting go.
Icarus looked up at her before bowing respectfully, "Thank you, Mistress Alazea."
She waved goodbye, took one last look. Saarnax and Ingel were locked in a wrestling match and did not notice, and Icarus had already said goodbye.
Alazea turned and walked away with a sigh. She had healed the three to the best of her ability for the last time, but now it was time to depart.
She looked up to the sky and prayed a silent prayer to the dragon God Xyrax for the safety of the group.
.
.
.
5 days had passed since the new group had formed.
Icarus should have known.
This blasted Wyvern couldn't be trusted.
"Blasted Human scum! Why won't you fight me!?"
Icarus tapped his foot on the ground in an annoyed manner.
"We have enough monsters to deal with; there's no point."
For the first two days, Saarnax had been intimidated and had listened to his commands, but for the last 3 days, he had seen to have forgotten his fear or maybe tricked himself into thinking it was some kind of fluke.
Anyway, he had pestered Icarus to fight constantly, and it was getting to a breaking point.
He could throw off the Wyvern by telling him to beat some monster first, but he was getting suspicious of that strategy.
The problem with this is that Icarus' Magic, after having reached the Temperature spear, as he calls it, had completely stagnated.
He could not find a way to improve it. The more elements he mixed in could make it slightly stronger, but would cost huge mana and destabilize the spell even more, making it much more effective to use the regular version.
He clutched his head in exasperation.
Saarnax stood hovering beside him like a pest, "Well? Are you man enough to take the challenge?!"
Icarus turned to him and, with about half of the mana in his body, channeled a wind spell into his mouth.
"SHUT THE $*%& UP!"