Draylen hurriedly scanned the oasis, there were large palm trees which bore head sized green fruits. There were several fish swimming in the water, along side wrecked debris and logs, this is what made it so difficult for him to find the Oasis River Drake.

'Oh, that's right.' He mumbled.

"Life sense."

All of the living organisms in the oasis became shrouded in misty colours and lights. But one in particular caught his eye, a strong throbbing orange light.

"That's got to be him." Draylen nodded, before stopping just by the edge of the water, right before the Oasis River Drake.

He turned around to face the incoming Sun Blessed Cougar.

-Crash!

Draylen could hear the sounds of trees being knocked over in his pursuer's reckless charge. He couldn't help but feel slightly nervous as if he failed to dodge the tier 8 monster's attack, he would surely be injured, if not killed.

Whilst previously, he had managed to get away smoothly, Draylen wasn't sure he had enough mana to repair his wounds this time, especially the ones which the Sun Blessed Cougar could inflict.

Then why would he only need to avoid a single attack?

Simple.

From before, he knew how the cougar wasn't able to handle it's momentum well on ice, thus he wanted to borrow the force of her attack and send her flying into the water, where the Oasis River Drake was. Draylen didn't want to directly ask the drake for help, what if it only tolerated him due to Charcoal's bloodline? In reality, this drake could kill them instantly without batting an eye.

Whilst it was true that creatures with higher draconic bloodline purity could command others, they needed strength in order to really control them, strength which Draylen and Charcoal didn't have. Thus he had to rely on this kind of tactic to survive.

-Raawwrr!!!

An orange blur flashed in Draylen's peripheral vision.

'Now!'

Just as it got closer, the boy ducked down and launched an ice arrow with his remaining mana. The cougar lost grip on the ground as she leapt forward, flying through the air in a mass of flailing limbs.

'Oh no, she won't fall into the water at this rate!' He thought, brows furrowed.

Whilst the original plan was for Draylen to use the cougar's momentum to send her into the jaws of the Oasis River Drake, it seemed that it wasn't going to happen. Instead of flying into the water, she flew towards Draylen instead.

In a split second, the cougar was almost on top of him, about to maul him with her sharp claws.

'Not good!'

A sudden burst of adrenaline rushed through the boy's veins, he instantly decided on what to do.

"Hyaaarrt!"

He rolled his back before kicking out with both his legs, using his hips and lower back to generate power. Draylen's legs collided with the cougar's under belly, his strength combined with her momentum sent her reeling away, over his body and into the water just behind him.

-Splash!

And what happened next didn't need to be explained. The log, or rather, the river drake lazily opened it's eyes before leisurely swimming forward and biting down on the cougar around her neck. Even though this happened underwater, Draylen could clearly hear a snapping sound, much like the breaking of bone and then the frothing of water, before an eerie silence.

He lay back against the ground, covered in sweat. Breathing soon became laborious and he almost instantly felt acute pains all over his body as the adrenaline went away. Draylen's face became a painful grimace as he noticed a gaping red wound on his chest, probably what the cougar had inflicted as he kicked her upwards.

"Aarrghh." He groaned, gingerly covering his wound with his hand.

'I need more mana.'

Draylen closed his eyes and tried to shut out the pain and exhaustion, focusing on the flow of mana within and outside his body. He then attempted to draw some in from the outside but instead he felt a sharp piercing pain that shot through his entire body like a lightning bolt.

Thus, he had no choice but to stop and instead lie powerlessly on the floor. Luckily for him, his familiar armament had stopped most of the cougar's attack, blocking the majority of the force. Instead, the wound came purely from the sharpness of her claws.

'what would have happened if she hit me full force without my Shadow Veil or familiar armaments to protect me?'

Before, the cougar had to hit him in order to dispel his Shadow Veil and like now most of the force had dissipated in the process. However, the difference between then and now was that Draylen currently had little to no mana, whilst before he had plenty.

But, at least he was still alive, that's all that mattered. As he was a Dragon Summoner, he and his familiars shared attributes, he currently had regenerative abilities similar to that of a dragon child, which meant that he wasn't in a life threatening situation, only in immense pain.

And so, Draylen spent the rest of the day lying by the water edge, silently recuperating.

'But really though, that cougar was crushed like an insect. Perhaps her domain was too weak in front of the river drake, or was it the disparity between cultivation which led to her instant defeat?'

.....

Auria Empire, Imperial Capital Audience Chamber.

Two men flanked by several attendants slowly entered the large decorated chamber. They walked along a royal red carpet, which was laced with gold and other priceless commodities. At the front of the group walked an old man, he was the one who had brought them here, whilst in the centre walked a black haired, red eyed man.

Usually, this red eyed man carried a pair of small throwing axes, but those had been confiscated by the royal guards. This man was called Fahrad and he was the head of the 'Bloody Emperor' Fratry.

Normally, he would have wanted to look around and see the difference in accommodation between himself and the emperor, but upon seeing how the old man in front of him kept his head at a respectful bow, he had no choice but to suppress these urges.

'Ah, that's not right. This isn't the emperor's accommodation, merely his tea house.' Fahrad mocked silently.

Originally, Fahrad had no clue that he was being taken to the emperor's audience chamber. The day was the same for him as any other, training in the morning, paperwork in the afternoon and sleeping with beauties- erm no, greeting guests in the evening.

Unfortunately, his day did not go as planned. He did not train, nor did he get to 'greet guests', instead, a good friend came and invited him out to have some fun.

'Yeah right, fun.' Fahrad thought bitterly.

'I'm already finding it difficult to hold back the urges to steal this carpet, this is more like torture!'

He let out a silent sigh as he followed the old man. When the old man knelt down, so did he. They knelt for what seemed like hours before the voice of a palace eunuch greeted his ears.

"His majesty, Dragon Emperor has arrived!"

Fahrad unconsciously clenched his jaw and held his breath.

'What is it that this man has which I do not?' He wondered.

However, his question was instantly answered by the following conversation.

"Please, raise your heads." A soft voice came, almost caressing his ears.

Fahrad's head snapped upwards, like a rubber band snapping, showing how hard it was for him to lower his head. On the other hand, the old man slowly gazed upwards, towards the man whom they called emperor.

"Your majesty, it has been quite some time." The elderly man said.

"Hah! It has, advisor Eisen! Come, what news have you to seek an audience now?" The emperor laughed warmly.

Fahrad frowned slightly. He originally thought that all of the nobility were snobby assholes who cared nothing but what they ate for dinner and if their children had bullied enough commoners. Yet from the two's greeting, the emperor seemed uncharacteristically friendly.

"Yes! The empire has had a slight disparity of talents recently, has it not?" Eisen replied.

The emperor furrowed his brows.

"Advisor Eisen, friend, you know I prefer not to speak of such things. Now is a time of peace, I would rather spend more time trying to lessen the taxes on the common people and argue with the nobles than that."

The advisor, Eisen shook his head slightly.

"Your majesty, you are still very young. You yourself know how much a strong army is to an empire, military might is the lifeblood and strongest pillar which holds our nation up. Why even your predecessors acknowledged this fact. You must embrace it rather than reject it. Whilst caring for the commoners is important, what does it matter when the empire is ravaged by it's enemies and the commoners have no place to call home?" He asked in a somewhat condescending tone.

There was a short silence before the emperor sighed.

"Of course, the truth is harsh. I dream of a reign of peace but cannot rid my empire of war. Come then, dearest friend. Speak of which glorious news you came to tell me in the first place."

Eisen nodded.

"I have scouted fifty odd talents across our empire, some within and some on the outskirts. Not only do these talents have high affinity for the way of summoning, they are also very young, with the smallest at eight years old and the eldest at fourteen."

A small grin found it's way onto the emperor's face. Even his eyes seemed to be smiling.

"Continue."

Eisen returned the grin and resumed speaking.

"One of these talents and also one of the most promising come from your favourite household, one of our noble houses."

"You mean-"

"Yes, your future son-in-law who is engaged to the princess has shown strong aptitude, he has already reached tier 4 at the age of eleven, with only the tutoring of his father and elder sister." Eisen said.

"Wonderful!" The emperor clapped joyfully, smiling widely, revealing pearly white teeth.

Fahrad knelt quietly, listening to a conversation which he shouldn't be able to listen to with his current status. However, with the things he did understand and the things he had gleaned from the conversation were-

'His majesty is a dignified man,

his majesty is an integral man,

his majesty is a humble man.'

The emperor and the advisor continued to chat for a while, before something they said caused Fahrad's ears to perk up slightly.

"Your majesty, both fortunately and unfortunately, someone even more impressive than your soon to be son-in-law has been scouted as well. A boy one year younger than him is a tier 6 expert and is currently in the middle of breaking through to lower tier 7." Eisen said with a straight face, revealing no emotions.

It was almost as if he were waiting to see the emperor's attitude before expressing his own.

"Hmmnn?" The emperor made a sound reminiscent to curiosity.

Eisen then began to elaborate.

"A Dragon Summoner."