Rise of the Last Dragon Rider - Chapter 027 - An impossible contest (Patreon)

Sedel stood prepared.  A timer would be given and after twenty seconds all targets down would count.  She had a red sash tied over her eyes and Kaen marveled at how calm she seemed to be even though she couldn’t see.

“She has done something like this before, hasn’t she?”

Queleth nodded and flashed a playful smirk.

“She has been the winner for the last ten contests in a row.  There isn’t much you can do to phase her.”

Letting a groan escape, Kaen heard Pammon thrumming behind him.

“Even my dragon thinks I may have shot myself in the foot.”

Sedel laughed as she heard Kaen’s joke and took a few breaths to recenter herself.

Drawing five arrows at once from a quiver on her back, she loaded them all, uninhibited by the blindfold.

“Go!”

The timer flipped over, and she released Fan Shot.  Four waves of five arrows lept from her hand racing toward the targets, mowing down targets close to her.  Each shot took out a target, dropping twenty in just moments of starting.

She launched a multi-shot, followed by a split shot, all striking targets and bringing her up to twenty-four.  From there she began firing arrows methodically, listening to the sound of the arrows hitting the targets and calculating the distance between each of them.  One would have thought she had no blindfold on the way she hit target after target.

Kaen saw her lips moving as she fired, counting each and every target and shot.  He had been wrong, and he knew it now.

Time was ticking down, and she was letting an arrow go every second.  Her speed and skill was amazing.  He knew his dexterity was higher, but her actions were one that practiced every day.  What she could accomplish was hard to fathom.

“TIME!” shouted Queleth as the last grain of sand fell in the hourglass.

Sedel held her bow up, and the crowd cheered.  She took it off and gave a slight bow to them before turning and giving a bow to Kaen.

“Thirty-seven!” one of the men shouted from the sides.

The crowd roared even more, and Kaen let out a whistle as his eyebrows raised in respect for what she had done.

“You didn’t want to tell me this isn’t your first time?”

She walked over to Kaen handed him the sash, and smiled.

“Does the spider tell the fly where they hang the silk or wait for it to find out?”

Pammon began thrumming, and Sedel gave a slight bow to him as she grinned.

“It seems even your dragon agrees with me.”

Pammon flashed a toothy smile and nodded his head.

“Time to face the music, I guess,” Kaen announced as he walked up to the starting spot.  It would take a few minutes to replace all the broken targets.

Putting the blindfold over his eyes, Kaen grinned.

Are you ready?

This feels like cheating, and she seems like someone I could enjoy watching kick your rear.

It isn’t cheating.  I stated we would show what each of us could do.  You can look for me, and I can follow your vision.

Even then, how do you expect to win? Your two skills will only strike seven between multi-shot and twin shot.

You know what I’m going to do, and don’t pretend you don’t.

A groan came from their bond, and Pammon snorted.

Kaen loaded the two arrows for his first shot and then considered why he was doing what he was doing.  He had seen these families and their children.  He knew if the kingdoms didn’t get united, even these outlying villages and other small groups of families would die.  He couldn’t lose.  He needed to unite them all, and this was the first step.

He felt his lifestone become hot and start to burn.

Pammon focused on him, and he felt his vision shift to what Pammon was seeing.  It took a moment, but he worked out the angles.  He could see the targets and knew where he needed to shoot, even from where he was right now.

“When you are ready.”

Kaen nodded and took a breath.

Ready?

Always.

“Go!”

Kaen let the two arrows go, and they took out the first two in the middle closest to him.

He activated multi-shot, and arrow after arrow streamed out in a split second, dropping the next five in a straight line.  Without hesitation, he fired off arrow after arrow for the next seven seconds.

The next arrow he pulled, he pushed the mana into the arrow.  Sparks began to glow, and Kaen could feel Pammon smiling.  He pushed more mana into it, letting it crackle and pop.  The heat of it felt warm against his fingers.

Three seconds!

Kaen let the arrow fly free, a bolt of lightning striking from his bow, igniting the target at eighty meters away, unleashing a lighting storm that erupted in a full circle around it, taking down targets and boxes that held targets.  Mayhem was unleashed as Kaen destroyed most of the course for forty yards in every direction.

"Time!"

When Queleth shouted this time, it was more in disbelief than in pride.

Again, when Kaen took his blindfold off, he saw the crowd staring at the carnage before them.  No one knew what to say or what to do.  He had not only defeated their champion, but he had destroyed her completely.

As everyone stood there in silence, Kaen felt a hand grab his arm and lift it high.

He saw Sedel holding his arm high into the sky.

"The winner!  Dragon Riider Kaen!"

With her affirmation of the win, the crowd began to clap and cheer.  It wasn't as heartfelt as the first time, but they acknowledged that he had done the impossible.  He had won.

I think you have just crushed their spirits and stolen their treasure.

Have faith in me.  I’m not a heartless dragon who eats all their animals.

Pammon thrummed as he snorted and laid his head down on the ground to watch what was about to unfold.

“This is yours by right of the contest,” Sedel stated as she held out her bow.  Her voice cracked a little, and Kaen saw her hand tremor as she held it out.

Putting his hand on her hand and the bow, Kaen smiled and shook his head no.

“I’m afraid I cannot use it.  It is much too big for me, and besides, I would dishonor the gift my father made me.  Perhaps you can keep it until next year's champion can claim it.”

She looked up at Kaen’s face and saw his smile as he said those words.

Kaen could see her eyes well up, but she did not allow any moisture to fall from her face.

“I would be honored to guard that which belongs to you until the next champion can claim it.”

“Good!” exclaimed Kaen as he patted her on the shoulder and smiled at Queleth, who looked like an approving parent.  “Now that this is settled, Pammon and I need to depart and continue our journey north, but I wanted to say I look forward to the next time I stop through here.”

The ones who had gathered to watch Kaen claim their champion’s prized treasure all bowed to their knee as Queleth came up next to Kaen, dropped to his knee, and touched his head to Kaen's hand.

"We are honored to have met you and been blessed to have provided you shelter and food.  May the forest watch over you as one of her own."

Kaen smiled when he heard Queleth speaking in the Elvish language.

"I am honored to be considered one of its children and will do what I can to protect it from those who seek to harm it."

Standing up, Queleth clapped him on his shoulder and gave an affirming nod.

Hours after having left the village, Pammon was still thrumming from his enjoyment of Sedel’s joke.

I think they did not realize the dragon rider had set such a large web and ensnared them all.  Perhaps they will warn the others of how dangerous he is to bet against.

Kaen laughed and didn’t care that the wind carried the sound away.  Pammon was right.  He had managed to survive a bad moment and won the hearts of another group of people in the world he was trying to protect.  There would be many more he would have to try and win over, and he knew there was no promise all would be successful.

Flying for two more days was consumed by mapping and marking the two maps he had as best he could.  It was a chore as Kaen saw more and more of the landscape had changed in the last two hundred-plus years.

Roads were gone. Other ones had sprung up.  He had seen the signs of a few villages that were new along new roads and a few clearings where fields had been cut out and created.  They kept away from others as neither wanted to waste more time or have to deal with the possibility of running into someone hostile.

When the cliffs of Tanulivar came into view, both of them felt relief as they knew they were closer to their goal.

We are not stopping and talking with the dwarves first?  What changed your mind?

Our stop with the wood elves has added a day, and I would prefer to keep to our original schedule.  The longer we are away, the more I worry about what is happening at home.

Do you really think he will make a move on the kingdom like that?  He hasn’t for two years.

That is because Tharnok was still around.  He wouldn’t make a move like that even with Elies being injured.  Now that we know Elies and Tharnok are gone and that Havannath may be trying to align with them, word will travel, and they will know the kingdom is unprotected.

Pammon grumbled as he did when frustrated.  Kaen knew that Pammon often felt he worried too much about things he couldn’t control.  It was that part of him that drove Pammon crazy.  Focus, train, do.  Easy for a dragon who only had to worry about a handful of people.

If we manage to find what we are looking for and succeed in hunting the griffons, then we can visit the dwarves.  Hess told me not to expect much help besides the occasional adventurer.

You realize dwarves do not like dragons… Tharnok mentioned that multiple times.

Ignoring Pammon and his constant negativity, Kaen focused on the map he had out.  It was his second piece of leather, and he was reaching the end of the map that he had copied from Herb.  No maps were going past the peaks of Tanulivar.

As they flew slightly beneath the clouds, Kaen noticed that the land beneath them was cleared out farther than he had expected from the dwarven cliffs.

It is as if they harvested all the trees for miles and miles.

Kaen saw it.  There were farms all over, and Kaen began to understand what he was seeing.

They are planning on hiding in their mountains.  They are stockpiling food and going to see how everything works out.

How can they expect to survive if they do that?

Kaen considered that question as he saw the massive change in the landscape.

They might survive, but they won’t really live…