Dragon's Pride (Ch 14) (Patreon)

FYI: Izumi is about 11 1/2 but looks a bit older.

After six months of lazing around the apartment, the excitement of finally getting a location for my Lair has me filled with energy. Which is only made worse from the fact that it’s going to be about another half a year before DAB has it fitted to the requirements I gave them.

Apparently it’s ‘dangerous’ and ‘difficult’ to give a volcano the comforts of modern society. Who knew?

So I’m currently flying across Japan to try and burn off some energy, not really paying much attention to where I’m going. Flying is super relaxing, watching the cities and countryside pass by under me as I speed along. Everything looks so small from up here, and I find myself smiling at the thought of all the people down there being so far below me.

On a whim, I decided to get fancy with my flying, spinning and twirling, doing loops and flying upside down for a while. I laugh the whole time before an idea strikes me and I let a savage grin pull at my mouth. I retract my wings, dropping like a stone as I lean forward. I go into a spin, tumbling head over tail as I fall. I take a deep breath, the rushing air filling my lungs with ease before I go against it, breathing out a wash of emerald flames.

They curl around me, clinging to my clothes, the only flammable material they have available to feed off of. They act as I hoped, and I cut off the stream with a laugh, having turned myself into a wheel of spinning flames plummeting towards the ground. It’s not a quick thing, and I have more than enough time to wonder where exactly I am and feel like it would have been smart to check before I did this.

And then I crash into the ground, dust exploding outwards from the new crater quickly followed by my flames. They consume the dust so quickly that it’s like it was nonexistent in the first place, emerald fire bathing the landscape around me.

I pull myself out of the earth, glancing down and giggling at the perfect indention of my body dug into the ground. “It’s like a snow angel!” The walls of the crater are quite a bit higher than my body, so I can’t really see what my flames are feeding off of. I don’t see any buildings though so I probably didn’t just blow up part of a city. Maybe a small town that lacks tall buildings?

I regrow my wings and fly out to see the damage, and am a bit conflicted to see rolling plains beyond the circle of flames that encompasses the hill I landed in. It kind of reminds me of pudding that someone decided to eat from top-center-out instead of outside-in like a normal person. Basically a fake volcano since there’s no lava.

Can I make lava? The thought suddenly strikes me. After all, lava is basically just super-heated stone, so I should be able to make it if I breathe fire hot enough for long enough. Getting to testing immediately, I look down at the crater beneath me and take the deepest breath I can, holding it for as long as I can in the hopes that it will make my flames hot enough to do the job.

I let out a roar as I let loose with such force that the flames shoot out of the crater in an eruption and merge with the ones surrounding me. But I ignore those for the moment, focused more on the task at hand.

I don’t know how long I hover there, only taking breaks to replenish my supply of oxygen as I feed the flames obscuring the floor of the crater. I ignore when my stomach starts growling as around me, the flames rage, the heat coming off of them warping the air in the area. Eventually though, I do stop. I peer through the flames, trying to make out the floor and see if it worked. I’m just about to fly down and check when suddenly…

“WHAT THE FUCK!?”

A deluge of water gets dropped on my head.

I growl as I shoot up, scales growing across my entire body, claws extending from my fingers and toes, and my muzzle extending. My tail lashes the air, stirring the flames around me as I rise. This is the most I’ve ever transformed before, the only parts of my body not covered by my draconic nature being my hair, shoulders, and neck.

The flames follow me as I rush past them, as if following their master, bursting outwards as I breach clear air and flare my wings to bring myself to a stop. Those surrounding me pull back to avoid being burned. Not that they would have had to worry about that for much longer anyways.

I look around, meeting surprised eyes with my own narrowed in rage. I note the oddity of most of them flying, given that practically none of them have any actual means of achieving flight. I recognize almost half of them, which tells me the identities of the others.

The Water Hose duo. Manual. Backdraft. Half a dozen minor heroes with water quirks and roughly a dozen that I don’t even recognize. And flying above all of them on red feathered wings is a short haired blonde man in an aviator outfit, his mouth hanging open in shock at my appearance. My eyes narrow even further as I stare at him, nostrils flaring as I take in his scent.

He’s brand new. Making his debut? I flash him a menacing grin. “I’m assuming you’re the one in charge since none of the others can actually fly. So I’ll ask you first.” With a single powerful flap of my wings that sends a gale down to stir the flames I’m on his level, staring right into his eyes as he jerks backwards. “Who the hell dropped that water on my head?”

He just stares at me for a moment before a shudder goes through his body, his wings fluffing themselves as he gives me what’s probably meant to be a calming smile. But I can see past it to the caution and fear underneath. “Hey there, kid. What are you doing here?”

I stare at him for a few moments, annoyed at his avoidance of my question. I mentally debate whether or not to answer before deciding to play along, for now. I can always slaughter the lot of them if he plays too long~. “Trying to make lava. What are you doing? Don’t you know throwing water at someone is considered rude?”

His smile gets a bit strained as he glances down at the blaze below us, and I’m surprised to see just how far the circle has grown. It’s easily… I have no idea how large it is, I’m terrible at measuring distances. It’s a lot farther than it was when I first landed though, that’s obvious.

“We’re… trying to stop the fire from spreading to the city?” He says it hesitantly, almost like it should be obvious. Which I guess it would be, if I knew there was a city nearby. Or how large the fire has grown. It’s understandable that they’d want to put it out before anyone got hurt, but that still doesn’t excuse dousing me in water! Sure, it immediately evaporated because it was so hot, but suddenly getting soaked is annoying!

“Fair,” I say after reigning in my anger. I’m still pissed, but not ‘murder them all’ angry. Not that they know that, so I’ll have some fun~. I nod at him before switching us back to the main topic. “So, which of them dropped water on my head?” I give him a wide smile as I tilt my head, showing off my pointed teeth. “I just want to talk.”

He swallows, his eyes trembling as he forces himself to not glance at the culprits. Not something most people can manage given it’s practically an ingrained instinct. Which means that he’s been trained not to do it.

“Oh, I don’t know.” He says airily. “So many quirks fighting the fire, we can’t really see inside it. So it could be any of them.”

My smile widens. “So… what you’re saying is that I should punish all of them to make sure I get the right one?” I eye one of the heroes I don’t know who has a squid quirk and is spitting ink into the fire to entirely no effect. My flames won’t be put out by this group’s paltry efforts.

Seafood… I run my tongue across my muzzle, enjoying the way they instinctively shake at feeling the gaze of a predator upon them.

“I am feeling pretty hungry, and it would be rude to ignore the feast you’ve brought me.” Fried seafood is sounding pretty good right about now, even if it’s not my preferred dish. I eye the hero in front of me appraisingly. Fried chicken is a much better choice though~.

It’s his turn to shudder, and he’s clearly fighting off his instinct to flee. Not that it would do him any good to work up even more of an appetite for me~. “Heh. Well, if you’re hungry I know a few good places to grab a bite. My treat?” It’s hard to tell if the sweat trailing down his face is from terror or the heat, but I’d like to think that it’s a bit of both.

I hum, pretending to think about it as I tap a claw on my chin. “Hmm. Sure!” I give him a bright smile, much to his obvious surprise. “Tell you what, I’ll even take care of the flames for you.”

I turn away from him, looking down at the panicking heroes below us. Clearly their efforts are not going as well as they hoped. I spread my arms out dramatically, pausing as I look over my shoulder at the hero and flash him a smirk. “You might want to move them. Or else I’ll be having a snack on the way~.”

His eyes widen and people suddenly start shooting up to our level, accompanied by their cries of surprise at the unexpected movement. I wait a moment for them all to be on my level before widening my smirk. “Thanks for the meal~!”

I swing my arms closed in an ‘X’ across my chest even as the hero curses, flying even higher as he uses his quirk to drag the others after him. We’ll see if it’s enough as the flames roar, climbing over each other as they gather in the crater, compressing to even higher degrees. My muzzle shrinks and I lick my newly reformed lips before letting a look of pure enjoyment cover my face. “Oh, this will be fun~.”

I stretch out an open hand and clench my fist. The flames seem to roil underneath me before exploding upwards, the pressure demanding some kind of release. I laugh as they surround me and shoot past, which only intensifies as I hear the panicked screaming of the heroes above.

It doesn’t take long for the flames to dissipate, and I casually reach out to pluck one of the bodies falling from the sky as it passes by, letting out a small breath of disappointment at seeing it’s Manual, and he isn’t cooked. A bit burned, but still very much alive. But my expression lights back up as I see a few of the other heroes still falling. If they land and die, I can just cook them on the way!

Unfortunately it’s not to be, as red feathers shoot down and catch them before they can go splat. I look up and puff out my cheeks at the red-winged hero, getting a shaky grin in return. It annoys me so I throw Manual at him, chuckling at the water hero’s scream and the flying hero’s squawk of surprise as he instinctively dodges before more of his feathers detach and move to catch him.

Feeling better at the petty vengeance, I drift down to check on my project, ignoring the shouts from above for me to stop. He’s not the boss of me. I do what I want.

I fly down into the crater, taking in the sight at the bottom. I let out a squeal of joy at what I find, bubbling lava oozing down the walls to add to the pool. I whoop as I dive in, swimming through a decent amount before hitting a solid floor. It’s not too deep, but more than deep enough that my head can’t breach the surface while I’m standing on the bottom.

I crouch before jumping as hard as I can, flapping my wings at the same time to get as high as possible. I shoot out of the lava in an explosion, some of it splashing out of the crater and onto the scoured earth around the lip. High above the heroes seem to be arguing about something unimportant, but they stop the moment I’m close enough to hear.

I give the bird man a grin. “Ok. I’m in a good mood now. I still need to punish whoever dropped water on my head, but I won’t kill them anymore. So let's get that handled and then go grab some food. I’m absolutely famished.”

One of the low-ranking heroes glares at me. “Do you have any idea how much damage you’ve caused!? You’re-”

I fly directly to the man and give him a cartwheel kick to the head, knocking him out (probably) and shutting him up. I look at the bird before tilting my head. “That wasn’t nearly as satisfying as it was supposed to be.” I hold up a finger. “One more.”

“Hey now-”

I roundhouse kick Backdraft in the stomach, putting some distance between us when I hear the man throwing up inside his mask. “Nasty.” I wrinkle my nose in distaste before flying next to the bird man. “I’m satisfied, so let’s go! You can drop off the others when we get to the city. Hope you have enough to pay, Captain Red.”

He looks between the two heroes I kicked to me and back again before giving an uneasy chuckle. “Uh, sure.” A thought seems to strike him and he hesitantly holds out a hand. “And my name is Hawks.”

I smirk as I take it, letting the scales on my arms and legs retract but keeping my claws out. “Izumi. Something tells me that this is the start of a beautiful friendship.”