‘Alright, we are about 8 to 10 meters deep underground, with about 4 to 5 meters of colpsed dirt to the surface. How much support do I o dig my way through without colpsing the tunnel?’ Draco questioned.
His grandfather was already going to have a hard time digging out Anita, Rize, and Rita; the st thing he wao do was cause more problems by further colpsing their already limited spabsp;
‘Ok, I do this. I just have to allocate my mind correctly. Think of this as Minecraft’ Draco thought.
Pg his hand on the dirt, he began molding the magical energy surrounding his body into a square shape.
With the addition of the earth element, the dirt became easier to mold.
After molding, he hardehe dirt into a pact sb to make it more durable, redug the likelihood of colpse.
He alsthehe edges to prevent excess dirt from falling and filling the empty space.
After experimenting with the first three steps to be safe, he took note of the amount of mind it cost him, the time it took to mold each step, and the time it took to harden the area around it to support the dirt above.
"This isn't going to work," he thought, shaking his head.
The process was too lengthy and mind-ing; he needed a more effit method.
So he stopped making stairs and decided to go for a jagged slope.
He would mold a hole and harden the edges in a circle, like a pipe or tube.
The inside wouldn't be smooth and would have jagged edges so he could climb without slipping.
With the p in pce, he began w.
He couldn't afford to make a mistake; it would be over for him and his unscious siblings below the stairs if he did.
‘Grandpa John will have to figure something out about his end,’ he thought.
He deliberately avoided thinking about what he would do when he reached the surface where the bck dragon likely still lingered.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Meanwhile, on the surface, the bck dragon stared at the house it had now pletely pulverized with its cws.
It saw ion from the people, no the ants that had run inside.
The familiar smell of blood from them turning into meat paste wasn’t there, indig that the ants were still alive.
Enraged, it began fpping its massive wings, taking to the sky.
It hovered over the area where the house oood. Its single eye menagly staring at the ruins.
It was certain that they were still there somewhere, so it opes massive jaws.
Gathering energy, it des breath attad unleashed it in one fiery beam.
A light fshed from its jaws, unleashing a scorg beam at the ruins of the house.
The beam traveled fast, burning through yers of dirt, turning them into molten robsp;
It peed deep past the middle of the underground celr and tinued on.
After it was dohe bck dragon could perceive the familiar smell of charred flesh mixed with acrid smell of molten rock.
‘How amusing’ the dragon thought.
It could still faintly sehe child’s draic aura beh the earth but found it amusing that the child might still be alive after its attabsp;
Even more amusing was that the child’s draic aura had suddenly spiked up by a signifit amount for a brief moment before disappearing.
The only think it could now sense was the remnant of what seemed to be the aura of a water spirit. But that too didn’t st long and soon disappeared.
As amused as it was with the situation, the dragon realized that it had already wasted a signifit portion of its time dealing with ants.
For now it was satisfied with its work, so it fpped its massive wings and turowards the town.
It was going to burhing down before moving on.
Before leaving, it gave st look at the farm.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Before the attack, oher side of the dirt wall, Mark, Chise, and Rose were still unscious, while John and Marcus were awake.
"Marcus, we have to hurry. Any ideas on how we dig through this?" John asked.
He tried rushing the digging process but it turned out badly.
The more he dug, the more dirt fell from above to fill the spabsp;
Time was running out, and they o save Anita, Rita, and Rose quickly.
Anita would normally have been able t off something like dirt. She was a level 5 adventurer, even if retired.
Sadly, she had been in the middle whehing colpsed.
She had been carrying the unsark while Rita and Rize were carrying the unscious Rose and Chise, respectively.
Wheunnel began colpsing, they were qui their thinking and threw those they were carrying towards the other side before being buried.
Now they were studer the weight of dirt and rocks, they couldn't move.
They could only pray that the others could dig them out fast enough before they ran out of air.
"We try sliding the dirt to the edges from the top to fill the space like water; there shouldn't be that much dirt left betweeop of the dirt mound and the surface," Marcus suggested.
"Let's get to it quickly; the kids must be scared," John replied.
They immediately got to work.
But how could they have known that their efforts were going to be meaningless.
Rumble!
A rumbling sound followed by the fpping of wings, and then a strange sound reached their ears.
But they ig for now; Anita, Rita, and Rize heir immediate help.
One mihey were digging, and the hing they knew, a scorg beam of light hit them, ending their lives almost instantly.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Oher side, Draco was toiling away, trying to make his tuo the surfabsp;
Then ground and walls began shaking, followed by a sudden spike iemperature.
Looking back dowairs, he could see that the dirt wall blog the other side suddenly began glowing red.
Quickly, he stopped what he was doing and rushed toward his unscious siblings who were close to the bottom of the stairs.
Quickly, he rushed and dragged them further up as fast as he could.
The dirt around the area sooed into what looked to be molten rock, revealing the devastation oher side.
The air was thick with the stench of charred flesh and the acrid st of the molten rock.
Amidst the hellish se, Draco's eyes stared wide with horror, his heart shattering into a million pieces.
His family and teacher, the very foundation upon which his world had been built, had bee nothing.
The seari of the dragon's breath had stripped away their vibrant lives, leaving behind only molten rock.
“A.... aaaa…..aaaaaah” uandable words refused to e out and got stu his throat.
Dropping to his knees, Draco clutched his chest with one hand, his firembling, his heart pounding and his eyes desperately darting around as he tried in vain to find any remnant of life.
But all he could see was molten rod dirt.
Tears streamed down his face, hot and uing, as the weight of his loss crashed down upon him.
The world around him faded into a blur, the hissing sounds of molten rock g against an underground water source faded into the background.
In that moment, adrift in a sea of despair, Draco sat on the dirt, silent, refusing to prehend what had just happened.
'Are our lives so insignifit?' a thought popped into his head.
His hands ched into tight fists, nails digging into the palms of his hands, as a primal scream of anguish tore from his throat.
The sheer iy of his grief threateo e him, leaving him feeling utterly powerless and lost.
With each passing moment, Draco felt his reason slipping away, like a flickering fme in the face of a raging storm.
His emotioransitioniween fusion, despair, partial realization, te, the stro being an unbridled hate for the one eyed bck dragon.
Iirety of his existeh past and present, he had never hated anyone as much as he did now.
He even failed to realize the alternating elements, responding to his emotions.
As the weight of his loss threateo drown him, Draco found himself questioning the very purpose of his existenbsp;
His body twisting and turning into a monstrosity, responding to his rage.
'Should I just let everything go, wouldn't it be so much easier?' a passing thought crossed his mind.
He was about to give into the madhat threateo e him.
His tail slowly swaying from side to side, his eyes hollow staring at the va , as he sidered the option.
He fell into a trance, slowly isoting his mind from the outside world.
The transformation began with, his body vulsing violently, bones crag and shiftih his skin.
His spine elongated, vertebrae protruding further, extending and reshaping into a powerful spiked tail.
Sharp spi along its length, the scales hardening into a crude, jagged armor.
Draco's hands a tort, fingers and toes lengthening and sharpening into razor-sharp talons.
His nails b and thi, curving into vicious cable of rending flesh with ease.
The bones in his forearms cracked and bulged, muscles rippling as wings slowly unfurl from withihery and bat-like.
His face distorted the jaw unhinging aending outwards.
Rows of serrated teeth emerged, dripping with caustic saliva as his mouth widened into a feral, gaping maw.
His pair of horns elongated further from his temples, curved and deadly sharp.
Draco's eyes sunk bato his skull, the sclera bing as his irises shifted into a slitted, red reptilian pupil.
His ened and broadened, nostrils fring with each breath he took.
Scales began to creep across the rest of his body, glimmering like polished onyx.
Crystal like protrusions begaending from his scales with poiips across his body.
The transformation was nearing pletion when …………..
“Draii” a soft childish voice called out shakily, sounding sacred.
Dimitra had woken up only to find a horrifying creature that somewhat resembled her brother.
Slowly turning its head, its horrifyingly chilling gaze stared back at her, sending shivers down her spine.
Dimitra took a step back, she wasn’t sure if this creature was her even her brother.
Looking at the person that called out, Draco could see that it was Dimitra, her i eyes stared at him in fear, jolting him back to his senses.
'What will happen to them if I let myself go?, What about Cir who lost all her family ?' he thought, staring at Cir and his siblings.
The thought of losing them too because he couldn't trol his emotio even worse, f him to somewhat calm down.
'Calm down, Draco; Breath . Think of them, they are just 7 to 8-year-old kids who are unaware that we just lost our family. You have to be the adult in their lives,' Draco advised himself.
He keenly aware that in the wake of such devastation.
The once-vibrant tapestry of their lives had been ripped apart, leaving them to front the harsh reality that nothing would ever be the same again.
