"Dragon!"
"It's a dragon!"
"Alert! Enemy attack!"
"Go get the general, now!"
The moment the dragon's oppressive presence swept over the Gates of Mourning, the entire city fell into chaos.
Flames blazed through the night. The quicker soldiers sounded their horns, and beneath the droning blasts, the dragon roared again.
"Roar!!!"
That deafening roar cast a shadow over everyone's heart, and fear surged up from deep inside them.
The soldiers closest to it had already gone weak in the knees from that single roar.
Some collapsed to the ground and stared blankly at the dragon, their courage already shattered.
A dragon!
A creature that lived only in legends and stories!
And now it was right above their heads!
This dragon was unimaginably huge, like a massive warship hanging in the sky before them. Its gaping maw was large enough to swallow a strong horse whole.
Its entire body was covered in broad, thick black-red scales that glinted coldly in the dark night. Its draconic eyes were filled with violent fury, and its enormous wings blotted out the sky, radiating the crushing pressure of a supreme predator.
"Where is she?!"
The dragon roared again.
But no one could understand what she meant. All they knew was that this dragon was furious beyond reason.
Shaking with fear, the Noxian battle groups finally reacted.
No matter what, they could not allow some savage beast to run wild on their territory.
A rain of arrows was launched into the sky at once.
Watching the arrows fly toward her, the dragon's eyes flashed with disdain. Then she opened her jaws, and fire began to glow inside.
The next second, black flames erupted from her mouth, swallowing the arrow storm and crashing down over the crowd.
Then her enormous body swept sideways, collapsing rows of houses in a single pass and sending dust and shattered stone flying everywhere.
After just that one strike, no one dared question the power of a legendary creature ever again.
Patria was jolted awake by the huge commotion. When he heard that thunderous roar and looked out through the window, he saw flames rising into the sky and a colossal figure rampaging through his city.
Instantly, he realized something was very wrong.
Before any adjutant could even report in, he hurriedly threw on his armor and rushed outside.
Halfway there, he ran into an adjutant running toward him in panic. "General, that dragon's gone mad for some reason. It's already hurt a lot of our men."
"I can see that." Patria's face was dark as storm clouds as he strode forward. "Pass down my orders, strike back against that dragon! Whoever injures her will be richly rewarded. The one who slays the dragon gets a bounty of five thousand and a promotion to deputy general!"
"Yes, sir!"
The adjutant accepted the order and ran off immediately.
Patria took up his weapon and stared in the dragon's direction, his expression dark enough to drip water.
Why did every bit of bad luck have to land on him?
Who would have thought that while sleeping peacefully, a dragon would suddenly come flying over like a lunatic and start killing people?
A dragon?
Even he had never seen one before, yet now one was right there in front of him.
That terrifying combat power made even him feel a chill of fear.
Damn it!
How could something like this even happen?!
Heavy rewards always brought out the brave. Before long, the Noxian army's counterattack began.
The dragon possessed terrifying strength, but she was not invincible, otherwise stories of dragon slayers would never exist.
And for some people, the words dragon slayer were an irresistible temptation.
A title like that was destined to echo across Valoran. After that would come endless wealth and status, a rise to the top in a single leap.
That was the kind of chance countless people dreamed of.
But in stories, most challengers ended up as nothing more than dry bones in a dragon's belly.
Only those truly chosen had the right to accomplish such a feat.
Unfortunately, a lot of people believed they were the chosen one.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The dragon's enormous body swept past, bringing one building after another crashing down.
Before long, wounds began appearing all over the dragon's body, blood oozing out from between the hard scales.
Yvva hated this feeling. She glared with loathing at those humans shouting like insects below. To her, every one of their faces was just as hateful as that thief from long ago.
Even though she had hidden from them for so many years, those shameless humans had still found her home and stolen her child.
Her child had been tainted with the lowly blood of humans, and all she could do was endure it in silence, for five years, ten years, twenty years.
To a dragon, that span of time was no more than a fleeting moment, but through every day and every night of it, she had to endure that humiliation.
Her other children had finally grown strong enough to spread their wings.
She no longer had to endure it, and she no longer wanted to. She was going to kill these damned humans and vent her fury!
And she would kill that pitiful child of hers too, the one tainted by lowly blood. Dragonkind could never permit such a mongrel, stained by impure blood, to remain out in the world. To Yvva, it was a lifelong disgrace that could never be washed away.
Only by killing her, only by erasing her from this world, could Yvva pretend none of it had ever happened.
"Where are you?! Get out here! I know you're here!"
Yvva threw back her head and roared, her massive, furious cry rolling across the sky above the Gates of Mourning.
She could feel her child's aura nearby!
And that child had actually chosen these filthy humans as shelter.
The noble blood of dragonkind was being defiled over and over by her very existence. Just the thought of it made Yvva feel humiliation and rage coursing through her entire body.
If she refused to come out, then Yvva would kill until she did!
Yvva raised her head and unleashed a savage breath attack. Flames surged out and instantly swallowed a nearby unit whole.
Screams rang out inside the fire, while Yvva's breath swept mercilessly outward and farther still.
Everywhere the dragonfire touched, towering flames burst to life. The black-red inferno looked capable of burning everything to nothing.
"Ahhh!"
"It hurts! Help me!"
"Water! Get me water!"
The screams kept rising one after another. Soldiers staggered out of the flames and begged their comrades for help, only to collapse lifeless to the ground a few seconds later.
"Yvva, the dragon…"
Some of the older, more experienced soldiers looked at Yvva spewing black fire and spoke with trembling voices, finally recalling the old legends of the dragon.
According to those legends, this dragon could destroy an entire city with ease.
And the tales of her dated back to a time long, long ago.
Even now, stories of her still seemed to survive across Runeterra.
Why had such a powerful creature descended here?
No one knew the reason, but everyone understood one thing, if they did not resist, they would end up just like the others, swallowed by flame.
"I don't care what kind of dragon she is, kill her!"
"Fight her to the death!"
"Kill!"
The soldiers raised their weapons and shouted to steel themselves.
The battle grew even fiercer. The dragon's breath looked ready to consume the entire Gates of Mourning, while humanity's counterattacks kept carving fresh wounds into her body.
Yvva beat her massive wings, whipping up a violent gale as her huge body charged madly through the city, crushing who knew how many humans without mercy.
She smashed through building after building. Then one of her enormous claws slammed down hard, cracking the earth, and the two humans beneath it were smashed straight into ketchup.
Patria began directing the battle.
The Gates of Mourning deployed siege engines. These old creations had been refined generation after generation by war masons, and now they were one of Noxus's deadliest weapons on the battlefield.
The siege engines were massive too, but in front of the dragon, they still looked far too small.
At the very least, they could strike more effectively.
A giant boulder launched from one of the engines slammed hard into Yvva, forcing a pained roar from her throat.
Yvva grew even angrier. She charged straight at one of the siege engines without a shred of restraint, and her huge claw came crashing down, ready to crush it into scrap.
But when the claw fell, it was stopped by a barrier that suddenly flared to life.
Yvva instantly understood that some lowly human mages were hiding in places she had failed to notice.
She despised mages even more. Those humans abused the power this land had given them with reckless abandon. She had no idea how many of her kin had died at the hands of human mages like those.
The fury rising inside her made the dragon's aura even more violent. She opened her bloody jaws toward the magical barrier and unleashed a torrent of fire.
Under the intense heat, the barrier was nearly shattered, and when her claw came down again, both the shield and the siege engine were destroyed together.
Patria ground his teeth as he stared at the dragon, clutching his weapon tightly.
This damned dragon had already killed who knew how many of his soldiers.
Did it really have to come down to an all-out bloodbath?
The wounds on Yvva's body multiplied. Dragon blood seeped constantly from them and ran over her black-red scales, making her already terrifying body look even more monstrous.
Her entire body radiated a savage aura, burning with what seemed like an inexhaustible supply of magic.
All around her lay collapsed buildings, raging flames, corpses scattered through the fire, screams sounding from every direction, shattered siege engines, and total devastation.
Yvva could feel her child's aura nearby now, very close.
She locked onto its source and lunged straight for it.
Then she slammed down with one claw, splitting open the sewer below. Amid the rolling rubble, a puppet was revealed.
From inside the puppet came the unmistakable aura of her child.
A dragon's intelligence was no less than a human's. The moment Yvva saw that puppet, she realized she had been played.
The child she was looking for was not here at all!
"Roar!!!"
In an instant, overwhelming rage flooded Yvva's heart. She spread her wings wide and let out a furious roar at the heavens.
Pitch-black flames blazed across the sky. A terrifying blast wave erupted from her body and swept outward in all directions, the temperature climbing higher and higher under the waves of fire.
The horrifying pressure left the nearby soldiers trembling in fear.
All they knew was that this dragon looked even angrier than before.
The next second, they saw Yvva beat her wings and rise into the air. Without the slightest hesitation, without even sparing another glance for the city she had just ravaged, she flew off into the distance.
"You can't escape!"
Yvva fixed her eyes on one direction. She could feel that aura again!
Even if she was being tricked a second time, she would still fly after it!
No matter where her child fled in this world, Yvva would find her, and with her own claws wash away this disgrace!
The dragon's enormous body quickly vanished from sight.
The soldiers at the Gates of Mourning were left completely dumbfounded.
"That's it? It just left?"
Some people still had not recovered from the battle, and their voices were thick with disbelief.
That dragon that had been slaughtering its way through everything had just left like that, for no clear reason at all?
Anyone could see the battle had only been half fought.
Patria watched the dragon disappear into the distance, confusion rising in his eyes as well, but the most urgent matter right now was handling the city.
Looking at the devastation all around him, his whole body trembled with frustration.
He called over an adjutant. "Count the dead. Get the healers moving immediately."
"Yes, sir!"
The adjutant accepted the order and rushed off.
The entire Gates of Mourning began cleaning up the wreckage left behind by the dragon battle.
As he walked over the ruins, Patria suddenly realized something.
The direction the dragon had flown off in seemed to be Hill City.
Before he could think more deeply about it, a windwing rider came flying in from above, hastily landed, and reported, "General, I confirmed that the dragon from earlier flew toward Hill City. If nothing unexpected happens, the two will cross paths in about half an hour."
The moment Patria heard that, he asked at once, "Are you certain?"
"Yes, General!" the windwing rider replied immediately. "I didn't dare follow too closely, but it was obvious the dragon was heading straight for Hill City."
With the way that dragon had been raging like a lunatic, Patria would never believe that it might pass Hill City without breathing fire on it a couple of times.
What he did not realize was that the dragon had been heading for Hill City from the start.
At that very moment, Patria suddenly understood that this was an opportunity.
A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!
Creatures like dragons had not appeared on Valoran in a very, very long time.
Now that one had descended again, no one knew why, but a bloody clash with Demacia was certain to follow.
Patria's gaze swept across the wreckage around him.
Just like this.
The moment those two sides went to war would be the perfect time for him, Patria, to strike through the gap!
Thinking of all the humiliation he had endured over the past half month, forced to watch enemies flying over his head day after day, Patria gave the order without hesitation. "Gert, take ten thousand men and hold the Gates of Mourning! Everyone else, assemble at once and march with me toward Hill City! We must arrive within two hours!"
Normally, the journey between Hill City and the Gates of Mourning took around six or seven hours, but with a forced march, it could be shortened to two.
The speed of a Noxian march was never slow. Once Patria's order spread, the troops gathered with astonishing speed.
The moment the soldiers learned they were attacking Hill City, they seemed to forget the dragon's terror entirely and grew excited as if they had been injected with pure adrenaline.
Hadn't they also been swallowing humiliation in silence these past days, enduring that horrible stench and going several nights without proper sleep?
Patria rode at the front, his eyes cold and vicious.
Behind him, the army advanced at speed. This time he had brought nearly all of his forces with him. This battle would be the decisive one!
If he could break Hill City, then afterward he could keep pushing forward in one straight line, and every step would be another mountain of military merit!
Most importantly, that second prince of Demacia!
He was going to capture that bastard alive and make him experience what it felt like to have someone flying over his head every day!
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