At the edge of the Great Ant Hill wasteland,
"Finally, I made it out!" The cat girl threw away her dirty scabbard and collapsed to her knees in tears of joy. Ahead lay the hunters' temporary camp, unnoticeable from the air but visible from the ground, situated on a cliff midway up the mountain. Several elderly dragon folk were moving a wooden cart with a creak; on it lay a Sandy Dragon that had been subdued by a tranquilizer. A roast chicken was being cooked over a campfire, its skin crispy and tender.
"Hey, is that a stranded hunter? What about your distress signal?" one of the elderly dragon men noticed the filthy cat girl, barely holding herself up. "Ah, and she has ears. Is she a beast folk?" "So, the Ailu cat tribe has individuals like this too~" The three elderly dragon men surrounded the cat girl, commenting on her appearance. However, she no longer had the strength to refute them. This dreadful place was too much; fortunately, that strange dragon always left half a carcass behind after hunting. Otherwise, she truly wouldn't have made it through. But the prolonged consumption of raw meat and beast blood had left her exceedingly weak.
"Here, I have some recovery potions. Let's get your strength back first." After downing a large bottle of herbal juice mixture, the intense bitterness jolted the cat girl awake. "It seems you're just completely starved. However, it's best not to eat too much at once," she was warned. Without hesitation, she quickly swallowed a big piece of flatbread and then gulped down a large bottle of honey water to restore her energy.
For individuals suffering from long-term malnutrition and hunger, the best choice isn't to provide them with high-protein and high-fat foods but rather to give them "sugar." It can replenish energy and boost spirits, providing almost immediate relief for various issues caused by nutritional problems—this is why sugar was sold as a medicine in the medieval era. Additionally, high-concentration spirits, or "life water," were also sold as medicine (wait, isn't there nothing wrong with buying alcohol at a pharmacy?).
"What place did you come from?" The dragon folk spoke in a unique manner; from a purely auditory perspective, it sounded like a series of murmurs. However, they could convey complex meanings clearly to beings of different races. This was a fascinating ability. The ancient dragon folk had completely lost their original language, but that didn't prevent them from using this strange sound to communicate normally with the hunters.
"I... I came from Ul'dah."
"Ul'dah? What kind of place is that?"
"Isn't this the continent of Eorzea?" The cat girl felt disheartened. Could it be that she had been transported to the Empire? "Eorzea, ah, there was a beast folk from Eorzea who came here before."
"Eh?"
"But it seems they have already left, through that crystal thing."
"The Light of Aether! Where is that crystal now?"
"It has already been taken away. Oh, right, you don't seem to be like that Kupo Kupo creature at all~"
"Kupo... Moogle... Kupo..." The cat girl emanated a thick black aura. The emotional rollercoaster from despair to hope and back to despair was enough to push her towards a breakdown. "I'll slaughter you and feed you to the pigs!!!!"
"Kupo, it seems someone is missing me. I wonder who it could be?" The Moogle flew a half-circle around the Light of Aether. "Never mind, let's go report to everyone."
"Minna-san, your dearest postman Moogle, Kupo, has arrived!" The Moogle, carrying a satchel, flew to the entrance of a villa, only to find a turquoise-haired dragon girl practicing her jumps in front of the door, repeatedly bouncing up to try and bite the roasted fish hanging from the eaves. "Are you new here? Kupo!"
"Hmm?" The young dragon turned to look at the white creature and, after a moment of thought, lunged forward. "Meat!"
"Eh~ Is the newcomer this enthusiastic? Kupo is very happy to meet you too~" The Moogle thought the young girl intended to hug it and purposely lowered its flying height, only to find...
"Bang!" The Moogle found itself slammed onto a cutting board, suddenly realizing that this scene seemed familiar, especially with the girl joyfully raising a glimmering kitchen knife. "Help! Kupo!"
The Moogle struggled intensely, but the strength of the dragon girl was not something it could escape from. "Wait, there's that move! Trans, teleport!" The Moogle transformed into aether bubbles and disappeared, much to the young dragon's disappointment. "Next time, I need to think of a way to prevent it from disappearing like that."
"Huihui, how's the practice going?" After carefully calculating meal expenses and task rewards, the Dawn Blood Alliance discovered that Huihui had to practice a secondary job. Otherwise, her output would be too high for many tasks. After various tests, everyone felt she was suited to practice the jumping skills of a dragoon.
Indeed, just think about it — jump up, transform into a dragon, ascend rapidly, then revert back and unleash a "Jump" skill, "Dragonfire Charge." The thought alone was quite exciting, and they even considered giving the skill a new name, like "Comet Charge."
"Roar~ OVO" A large portion of the roasted fish, arranged according to height on the eaves, had already been eaten. It must be said that she seemed to have a talent for becoming a dragoon, and she was quite familiar with using a spear, even though her habit of throwing the spear downwards directly upon jumping wasn't very good.
"Look, what we've got for you!" A weapon that resembled a spear-axe appeared before her. "Heartpiercer, Gae Bolg," an ancient weapon of the dragoon. It took quite a bit of effort for the Lightspinners to repair it using a champion's lance and magical crystals. However, these were merely several replicas of the genuine article and didn't hold much value.
"Let's go to the training grounds and practice a bit. This spear is much heavier than the training spear you were using before."
"Mm~" Huihui nodded. The heavy weapon didn't seem to pose much of a challenge for her, but the subsequent practice was a bit off. Instead of jumping normally and attacking like a dragoon, she simply shot into the sky and dove down. Bits of her crystalline scale armor broke off and burned with a blue-green light that looked like phosphorescent water amidst the high-speed friction. "Boom!"
The spear pierced into the ground, and spiraling blue-green flames fell like a comet. Not only did it smash the wooden target to pieces, but it also spread outwards. Following this were the high-temperature explosive scale fragments, and the rain of blue fire continued for about two seconds before subsiding. The entire training ground was left in complete disarray. "Wow~" Even the dragoon class warriors of the Lightspinners were left speechless, feeling that their official dragoon, taught by the great heavenly dragon, was nothing but a false dragoon.
Additionally, the dragoons of Eorzea are not knights who ride dragons into battle. Rather, they are knights who have trained their powerful aerial combat abilities specifically to counter dragons. They are also knights who possess dragon blood and the power of dragons. It must be said that Huihui seems to be... the true "Eorzean Dragoon."
Firstly, she is a pure dragon, completely different from dragoons who gain power through dragon blood and dragon eyes. Secondly, her aerial combat skills could easily outmatch the local dragon population. (Don't compare gliders to jets!) Her maneuverability and attack ferocity in the sky are quite formidable. Finally, having nearly wiped out the Pteranodons hardly discredits her as a dragoon.
The great dragon roared down, agilely rolling to grasp the spear, returning to her human form. Then, with a soft "Yah~" from the young girl, the heavy dragon lance struck the ground once more. The aether within the weapon and her own aether power surged into the blade, causing fine cracks to appear on the stone surface. "Fun~" For Huihui, it felt like an amusing game, although for animals, play is inherently a part of hunting and a rehearsal for battle.
"I think taking her to Ishgard is a good idea." The Dragon War in Ishgard had formally begun, but it was still in the early stalemate phase. At this time, the Lightspinners had not yet participated in the Dragon Hunt or dealt with Nidhogg. Several families in Ishgard were still bickering among themselves, and of course, Lord Olsch will still be alive at this point~ "It feels like she resembles a dragoon more than I do."
"But you have to ensure that Huihui won't be shot down by those who harbor a pathological hatred for dragons." The millennium-long War of the Dragons has allowed hatred on both sides to reach a pathological level, where the truth and origins of the war have become irrelevant. For a thousand years, the blood of both races has intensified this hatred to its extreme. "That is indeed a problem."
New World, Starfall Base
The sound of roaring from the sky sent shivers down the spine as a sapphire comet descended with immense authority. The "Dragonfire Charge: Comet Style," with its crystalline shards, mixed with the falling dragon lance struck down. "Boom!" The supply ship, which had barely stabilized, exploded completely after completing its daily routine of aerial raids. Huihui quickly departed from the hunter's base.
They had already brought out anti-air dragon lances, and if she didn't leave now, she could really be shot down. Unlike normal Celestial dragons, Huihui's back and wing armor had been considerably reinforced with aether, but her abdomen remained soft and vulnerable, unable to withstand anti-air firepower. However, once she reached adulthood and her body ceased to grow, the soft scales on her abdomen would gradually harden.
As the hunt for prey in the Great Ant Hill and the Ancient Woods became increasingly dire, Huihui gradually ventured deeper into the New World. At this point, she had to face a powerful enemy or opponent. "Roar!" A female dragon, spewing six streams of crimson dragon fire, roared from the highest point of the coral plateau. Not far away, Huihui met her gaze, unwilling to back down, and emitted a high-pitched shriek in response, "Awo~!"
The territories of the two female Celestial dragons overlapped, and now the only question that remained was—"Who will leave?" This land could not support the hunting demands of two Celestial dragons, not to mention there was also a chimera qilin in the area. Fortunately, the latter was an omnivore with a herbivorous tendency, which essentially posed no conflict with the Celestial dragons.
The way Celestial dragons resolved the issue of "who leaves" was simple and brutal: they would fight. The female dragon decisively flapped her wings and accelerated into the air. If there was anything Huihui was lacking compared to her kin, it was her poor maneuverability in small spaces; she could not take off as quickly.
"Whoosh!" The mature female dragon was far more agile than a male dragon. Although she was slightly smaller, that did not mean she was weak. The high-speed jet of crimson dragon fire rapidly closed the distance between her and Huihui. The female dragon did not recognize this was her offspring. In fact, for them, the primary way to identify their young was through scent. Long-term solitude had caused Huihui to lose the smell of her dragon nest (this is also why newborn kittens shouldn't be touched; mother cats will kill kittens that smell like humans because they cannot recognize their own). Thus, to the female dragon, Huihui appeared to be a particularly robust rival.
"Whoosh!" The two dragons rushed past each other at high speed. Utilizing the jet thrust from her wing tips, Huihui nimbly rolled to evade the female dragon's deadly pounce. The latter, unable to maintain her speed after the wing flip attack, entered a temporary state of sluggishness. At that moment, Huihui, having circled wide, found herself positioned at the female dragon's temporary blind spot. "Whoosh! Boom!" A powerful sonic boom erupted above the female dragon's head as Huihui, trailing blue flames, rapidly ascended into the sky. A dragon lance, formed from condensed aether, appeared in her forelimbs.
The female dragon did not engage in height competition with Huihui like those male dragons obsessed with soaring. Her hunting and combat experience made it clear that she had already lost her advantage in the initial encounter. Instead, she chose to fly at a lower altitude, weaving swiftly through the dense coral formations. Although she lacked the hardware capabilities of Huihui, her experience surpassed Huihui's several times over. The intensity of the female dragon's hunting was far greater than that of the nomadic male dragons, who only needed to sustain themselves. The female, on the other hand, had to feed herself—who consumed several times more—and also care for the hatchlings.
This necessity honed her ability to fly rapidly through narrow spaces in search of concealed prey, as well as significantly improved her flying skills and endurance compared to the male dragons. Once they lost sight of one another, Huihui's dragon lance could not be deployed in time, leaving her to circle in the air. This was a test of endurance; unlike the female, who could land and recover stamina on all fours, Huihui had to continuously spray and spiral to maintain her altitude advantage, putting her in a significantly weaker state regarding stamina consumption.
Should she land, her heavy and particularly broad wing flaps would become her greatest weakness, making it impossible for her to contend with the melee combat skills of the experienced female dragon. Huihui had not received any training in close-quarters combat typical for Celestial dragons, so she had no offensive skills at close range, relying only on flapping her wings and swishing her tail. Even well-prepared hunters would find it difficult to be hit by her.
However, her aerial attacks were quite threatening. Hence, the hunters had formulated the strategy titled "Intense Battle! Repelling the Sapphire Dragon," which clearly stated that when encountering Huihui, hunters should make use of the terrain and environment to wear her down. If she could no longer maintain her flight and had to land, it would present a good opportunity for attack. Information regarding Huihui's meat quality had already been published by the Ancient Dragon Research Institute, causing the Storm Dragons to resemble Ge You, as they nearly lost all their fur due to hunters preparing to create thunder attribute weapons.
"Is this a territorial battle between the Celestial dragon and the Sapphire dragon?" Such a huge commotion was hard for the busy hunters to ignore. Soon, a small telescope was set up behind a concealed coral thicket. "It's quite intense; it's rare to see a battle between a Celestial dragon and its subspecies."
"I'm more concerned about what we would do if we encounter one in the wild," Bai Feng said anxiously, watching as the Sapphire dragon continuously swooped down to attack, grabbing stones and other objects to throw. "Do we have to use stamina-draining bombs to wear her down?" The so-called stamina-draining bombs are munitions filled with smoke containing sleep-inducing components, designed to help monsters exhaust their stamina more quickly, reducing their attack frequency and endurance.