SSV 4 Chapter 9 (Patreon)

Merry Christmas, to those who celebrate.

The dragon breathed fire until it exhausted one of its powers. Then it flapped its wings, hovering in the air for a moment and watching me with an intelligence that was unnerving.

“Yeah, you didn’t kill me big boy.” I punched four drills of kinetic energy into its large wings. I wasn’t even sure how something so large was staying aloft.

The wings were a major vulnerability, and I intended to use it.

My kinetic drills hit and the dragon’s four wings strained. It took a moment of concentration before they punched through, and then I expanded them, shredding the dragon's wings.

It screamed and flapped its bloody appendages in the air and… still remained aloft.

But I could tell that one of its powers was seriously straining.

Reaching into its ki, I tried to starve that one power, but it was like trying to use a bucket to bring the water back up from a waterfall.

I got frustrated, and with a deep grunt, I shunted all of the ki entering that power into one of the others, like diverting a river. It was easier than trying to stop it entirely.

The power that allowed the dragon to fly faltered as it breathed another round of fire at me. The fire blazed forward but tilted as it crashed back down to the earth.

Lifting my hands, I multiplied the gravity around the dragon, wanting to keep it pinned as I summoned more beads of destruction.

As soon as one went off I was summoning another in a rapid gatling of attacks. I was annoyed that I’d wanted to show off in front of the guards and the dragon was putting up such a tough fight. But that also meant it was a good thing I had come.

Beam after beam of my beads of destruction destroyed the dragon and the surrounding hills, vaporizing everything in their path and filling the air with a chain of booms that merged into one long drawn out low note as the air vibrated.

I knew power of that magnitude could draw attention from a BSH satellite or titan alarm, but I ignored it. They had somehow missed New Haven for so long. They might have a blind spot where we were.

It took a while, but I started to feel the ki start to bleed out of the massive ball below me.

Dust filled the air, and I waited atop the carriage.

“Is it done?” Pollen asked, having become the spokeswoman for the group.

“Yeah. It feels like it is dying.” I looked over my shoulder

The entire group of guards were watching me with wide eyes full of shock, a small twinge of fear, and a whole heap of respect.

“Uh. Mr God of Fertility. What is that power?” The butterfly girl spoke up.

I flashed a frown at her. It was rude to ask powers, and I had kept mine secret for so long that I naturally bristled. There was even the sudden reflex that I should kill them all to keep it a secret.

They all shrank back except Pollen and Melody.

“Sorry. I have been hiding my power for a long time. I once killed a hero when I was a kid, and I’m not exactly comfortable talking about it.” I blew out a breath. “But I can control energy, in all its forms.”

“And he has enough power that he can put on a display like that.” Melody added a little more to it.

They all nodded, eyes still wide.

“Incredible. I don’t even know if Daeva could have fought that monster.” The butterfly girl commented.

I shook my head. “We’ve fought. She lost, but she could have probably fought this one.”

The guards were a sudden blur of twitching antenna.

“How do those work?” I pointed at my head where my antenna would have been.

Pollen frowned. “Uh. There’s a sense of vibrations in the air that come from them. Ones that are outside the range of human hearing.”

I considered that. It was an ability I never would have thought could be interesting, but as they all communicated, it definitely had its perks.

I turned back, wanting a clearer view now that the dust had settled.

The Dragon had lost a good portion of its neck in the barrage of attacks. It was definitely dying, despite trying to heal itself. I’d done enough damage that it wasn't able to heal fast enough.

“Was it really that tough?” Melody asked.

“Yeah. It was pretty tough, and it had crazy regeneration. It wasn’t quite the body mass of the leviathan, but it was high in terms of regeneration. I’d put it maybe a step above the Chimera. Hard to judge it on the Roc, since the Roc was only so deadly because it flew.”

“This one flew too.” Melody pointed out.

I nodded. “Yeah, it did. Definitely tougher than the Roc.”

“So, was this a titan?” Melody asked.

I frowned. There were seven known titans, and since they were largely aquatic, we had experienced several. But this one wasn’t one of the seven. Yet it was clearly at the level of a titan. Which meant, there could be many more titan level monsters outside the city we hadn’t identified yet.

It wasn’t insane to think that we saw the Roc and the five aquatic ones most because they were the most mobile.

That just left the Fenris Wolf to roam the land.

And if Daeva believed the wolf was on a higher evolutionary level than the other titans, then it was possible it was preventing other titans from reaching the cities.

It was a chilling thought that we had observed the world around us and came to finite conclusions only for them to be false. Because I had to say, this dragon had been at the level of a titan. “Yeah, Melody, it was a titan. And I really need to take that trip tomorrow with Daeva.”

Flying down to the dragon, I used my power to sever the last of its neck and then reduced its gravity and pulled it up into the air, floating it by the carriage.

“Alright, we are heading back. Thanks for letting me know where this was happening, Pollen. I can send you back to your home after we get back.”

“No problem.” The bee girl smiled. “This was the most excitement I’ve had in a long time. Now I understand Stella a little better. She’s your harem recruiter?”

Melody snorted and I laughed. “Sure. You can consider her the recruiter, but I’m the final pass. And I have a number of girls still in Point City.”

You better not forget about us. Mona interjected as she wrapped herself possessively around my mind.

She had been acting odd lately.

I have not been ‘odd’. She picked up the thought. I have been understanding you more. Emma already knows you too well. There was a heavy mental sigh from her. Look, I want you all to myself, my fated. But I understand that isn’t going to happen. Angelina has been working with me on it. I’ve been digging through your mind and come to the conclusion that we need to surround you with as much love as possible.

Excuse me?

Listen Miles, you went through a darkness and your natural tendency is to withdraw. The best thing we can do is just smother you in love to keep you afloat.

I didn’t like the idea of them managing me.

We aren’t managing you, my stubborn fated. We are being faithful girlfriends or lovers and trying to make this work and trying to take care of you. Did you know that when Stella asks for a hug, it isn’t because she needs a hug? It’s because she thinks you need a hug.

Everything she was saying made me a little grumpy.

Don’t be like that. Just let us continue to orbit around you and take care of you. You get to take care of us in return. It’s only fair.

There was an incredibly soothing sense from her that washed over my mind and made me physically relax.

Just wait until you go to sleep tonight. I’ll talk to you more then. Mona then pulled away from my surface thoughts.

I could have chased her deeper into my mind, but I let it go.

She wasn’t wrong. But I… I just didn’t like people pushing me one way or another.

“Why does he make that face?” Pollen asked, her antenna twitching like she was trying to feel something.

“He’s talking to another of his harem who is a telepath. She’s always in his head.” Melody explained.

“Ah.” Pollen’s antenna stilled. “Guess I should stop trying to pry.”

“Can you pick up other telepathic signals with those?” I knew that they could receive telepathic communications at long range, but I wasn’t sure if they could eavesdrop.

“Sometimes. But I couldn’t pick up whatever you were doing. There was something in the air, but not enough for communication.”

I nodded, just accepting it for what it was. Mona was an oddball, even when it came to her telepathy.

“Think I could mount this on my wall?” I lifted the dragon head closer to the carriage as we flew back to New Haven. I made sure to take us slower than when we’d arrived. That seemed to freak Pollen out, and we had time. Besides, pulling the dragon that quickly might be a bit much, even for me.

It was taking enough of my power to hold it aloft and move it, shielding such a large body from the wind pressure while moving it quickly would be difficult.

But I waffled my head a few times and decided to attach two very small light sails to the corpse and the carriage.

We picked up a little speed. Maintaining the sails took up less effort than just pushing everything along.

“What’s that?” Melody asked.

“Playing with how exactly to push us. Though we aren’t far.”

I looked up and several supers were flying high above New Haven. “What’s that?”

“You caused quite the disturbance, God King.” The butterfly girl said and the rest nodded. “The people of New Haven are likely worried.”

“Ah.” I understood. “Then should this help?” I lifted the head and body separate from each other to show that it was dead. “Don’t want them thinking it is a giant monster flying towards them.”

“That should help.” She replied with a strange tone that I couldn’t quite pickup on.

As we got closer to the city, the people saw who I was and what I was bringing back, seeming to go from fear into celebration.

They applauded and there were those that couldn’t fly that had gotten as high as they could, standing on roofs and joined the fliers in cheering for me.

My heart swelled as they celebrated my return.

It felt like what I imagined ancient generals had felt when they’d returned from a winning battle.

Or… what a hero felt like.

The thought made my skin prickle. I was still uncomfortable with being seen as a hero.

I went to the large field where I’d placed the last monster and slowly lowered the dragon as the tradesmen began to come into the area.

I released the others I’d brought with me, and the guards all shot back up into the air to take the positions and calm down the city.

Melody moved over with Pollen. “I’ll fly her back. Your method of throwing people across a city can be jarring.” She smirked at me.

I let out a small huff but let Melody fly off with Pollen.

My purple elf was all smiles as she flew off. She was proud that I was interacting with the rest of the people here, and while her focus was on how being in the city was good for me, I could see that she was brighter as well.

Melody had felt insecure about her powers, and then about her new muta look. Being in a city where people openly used their abilities, and varied largely in appearance, seemed to be putting her at ease as well.

The same woman I had talked with before stepped up to appraise the monster. “A dragon?”

“Pretty much.” I let the head down. “It was tough to bring down, so the corpse is a little messy. Sorry about that.”

She stared at it for a moment trying to appraise its value.

“Do me a favor though?” I asked and she perked up. “Go ahead and try to cut the skin. Like I said, it was tough. One of the toughest I’ve fought.”

She seemed offended, but her arms grew into large blades as she walked up to a side of the dragon and chopped into it. But as she struck, her blade got stuck.

The skinner struggled to get the blade out and tried again, only for the same result. She couldn’t cut more than a few feet with each attempt.

The rest of the people lining up to take it apart frowned. Many of them seemed to be close to abandoning the line.

“I was worried about that. It was tough for me too. I’ll give you the leather for two hundred, but I’d like you to set aside some of the tanned hide for me? I would like to see what I can do with it.”

She shrugged. “It’s tough and stiff. It would make some good bags or boots. I don’t know if you are going to get it to bend enough for anything fancy though.”

I nodded, but I focused instead on the dragon making it weightless and lifting it up before shoving small kinetic blades under its skin. I used the kinetic blades to peel the skin back, moving them back and forth to slowly cut the hide free.

“You are going to make me obsolete.” The skinner crossed her now normal arms with a frown.

“Eh. I’m only taking the time to do this because I knew it might be too hard. The monster was as strong as a titan.” I replied casually.

But the skinner and the other workers that had lined up all made noises of shock.

“This… is a titan?” The woman with blade arms asked.

“Yeah. So don’t feel back that you couldn’t skin it easily.” I peeled off huge chunks of its thick hide and stacked them up on the side.

She nodded and looked at the monster in a new light. “And you killed it alone?”

“Yeah. Took a little bit though.” I replied honestly

Someone further back the line laughed and when I turned they snapped their mouth shut. “Sorry, God King. I just felt the quakes in my home. I can’t believe how casually you are treating this.”

I smiled at them. “This is the second titan I’ve killed alone, and I participated in the death of another.”

All of them were looking at me with new respect.

“Are you sure I can just take the leather? I didn’t do anything to retrieve it.” The tanner eyed me skeptically.

“You are going to sell it to contacts and people that I don’t have the time for. Take the leather. I’ll sell it for two hundred and maybe a single sheet of the leather after it’s been cured?” I repeated the offer from earlier.

She nodded. “I’ll give you the best piece of the bunch.”

Finishing the skinning, I stepped back. “Alright, who wants to try and harvest the rest? I’ll help with it if it is too tough. Come on up.”

“Sir, you put the head to the side, is that available?” Someone asked in the line.

“I want a mad scientist to take a look at it, but you can take all the teeth you want.” I recognized the person. They’d previously wanted bones and teeth.

They nodded excitedly. “Yes. Thank you.”

Others came up, offering a premium for the titan pieces, and the skinner stepped up to help some of the people. Her blades were able to work through the flesh easily enough that I stepped away, lifting the toothless head with me and bringing it over to Skel’s lab.

The drop of the skull outside made the skeleton open the blinds. “What the hell is that?” She shot out of view for a moment before appearing out of the door and inspecting the giant dragon head.

“It’s a titan. Well, I would consider it as tough as the titans I’ve seen. When I inspected it, I noticed that it had four powers. And I figured you’d do well to take a sample, or a few samples, from it.” I put my head on its snout.

“Absolutely. Yes. A few flesh samples and maybe some blood? Oh, and some bone marrow.” She paused. “I think I need you to collect them though. I doubt my scalpels would do much.”

I chuckled and reached inside the skull, collecting what she wanted and pulling it out of the nostril. I wrapped the samples in kinetic bubbles to keep them safe. “Jars though?”

“Yes.” Skel rushed back inside her lab and came back out with a small armfull of jars and put them quickly down on the ground. She went to work, opening up the jars one by one for me to stuff a sample in and then sealed them.

When we were done, she rushed back into her lab to put them away, her arms full with jars. “I’ll be right back.”

Skel came back out with an old voice recorder that still had a tape track in it. “I wanted to ask you about what you saw when you looked at its powers.” She was holding down a button that I assumed was to keep it recording.

“The ki within it was extremely bright. I had to focus to pick out its four powers.” I replied.

“How did their powers compare to a human’s?”

I paused. “Huge. Yeah… a human’s physical abilities are normally limited to the size of their body. So, while they have the same limitation, their bodies are bigger and support more ki in that way.”

“Yes, that makes sense. I’ll share that observation with Wells. She’s had some interesting things to say about her ki research now that you’ve cracked it open, so to speak.” She nodded along.

“Wait, are you in communication with Wells?” I asked, surprised by that fact.

“Yes. She sent a sat phone with her package to keep in communication. We are both privy to information on powers that no one else in the world is because of you. Sometimes even mad scientists need another person to help build out ideas and theories. So, this titan had larger loops of ki powering their body. But four powers?” She asked, and I could see the interest in her eyes. She’d found a new anomaly to study and pick apart.

“I was hoping you’d be able to help with that one. It isn’t impossible that it has four X chromosomes, is it?” I asked.

She frowned. “Polyploidy. Super common in plants. But in animals and people? It tends to mess things up. It makes them larger…” She paused. “Shit. I’ll test that. If it is a multiple of two, it would be easy to miss, especially if you weren’t looking for it. I’ll talk to Wells and see if the BSH has any other titan samples handy we could use to compare. I’d love to design an experiment for polyploid testing.”

“Great?” I hadn’t followed everything she’d said, but using other titans made sense.

“Yes, fantastic. It could help us understand many things. Though, I can confirm that Daeva is normal in that sense. Her power came from the original monster fruit project.” Skel continued on. “Oh, but I was going to catch you earlier. I’ll need you to come help me with a patient in two days. We have a candidate to copy Fankie’s power.”

“The flour mill woman?” I asked.

Skel laughed. “You’ve been busy. Yes. She runs the flour mill, but she also fills the old water tower. She’s absolutely vital to the continued success of our plumbing.” Skel put the recorder away and gave me a very toothy grin. “Anyway, you’ve provided enough. Thank you. Have fun with your dragon skull. I need to get to work.”

I stood just outside as Skel closed the door, her head clearly already focused on her new research project.

I looked down at the dragon skull, frowning at it. “Just you and me, I guess.”

What was I going to do with the dragon skull? Mount it at the front of Obsidian’s lair to give it ultra villain vibes?