Dragon's Tale 90

While my reluctant ally didn’t appreciate the idea of swimming for a great distance, she also failed to come up with an alternative plan, that was determined. 

That didn’t mean we were free to leave the ruins of our battlefield. There was still looting to be done. 

Luckily, while actually using patrician weapons required the bond of bestowment ritual, just carrying them was much simpler. A little layer of mana to prevent contact was enough, after she cast that spell, I gathered all of them into a large bundle, while she collected dragon hearts into another one. 

Together, we were holding enough treasure to make countries take notice, let alone the noble houses. Even with their position among the patrician houses, it was still impressive for House Junia to gather such an impressive treasury and keep it hidden. 

I tried to ignore just how badly they would work to get them back, and try to get me to pay them back. I just hoped that the distance we would be able to put before our little heist got noticed would be enough. 

As we climbed the stairs, an eerie silence dominated the building, showing that every single soldier in the building had attempted to attack us, only to die to the last man. 

Another disadvantage of the magical brainwashing they had gone through, was the complete lack of initiative. 

“So, I’m yet to learn your name, beautiful,”  I said in an attempt to break the silence. 

“You can call me Xia,” she answered. 

“Xia,” I repeated as I tasted the unfamiliar nature of her words. “It’s a beautiful name, worthy of an exotic beauty like you.” That earned a dismissive glare from her, suggesting that, I wasn’t exactly the most handsome man imaginable. 

Maybe it was the scales that covered me. I decided not to look in the mirror. Looking down to see my limbs was more than enough. I didn’t need to know how my face looked. 

“And I’m Marcus, Marcus Scipio,” I said. 

Yet, that earned an unexpected reaction. “S-Scipio,” she said as she stammered, skipping a step as she did so, almost falling down. 

I tried to reach toward her reflexively, only to stop myself halfway, realizing that such an attempt was more likely to kill her, and even the least amount of damage was better than the bruises she might receive falling down. “Did you say Scipio?” she repeated after she stumbled. 

“Okay, it’s definitely something we’re going to talk about once we escaped,” I said as I looked at her, curious why the name of an old Patrician house that had fallen low enough to be pushed out of Rome elicited such a reaction from her. 

But not curious enough to stop our escape attempt halfway. Avoiding the fury of House Junia was more important than questioning her about her mysterious reaction. 

Especially since I had a feeling that particular line of questioning was going to trigger a long discussion. 

Instead, I continued to climb the stairs even as I arrived at the ground floor. “Where are you going?” she asked. “The exit is here.” 

“I’m going to pick some uniforms from the storage,” I said even as I quickly climbed to the first floor. Yet, when I tried to open the door of one of the storage rooms, I had succeeded in a peculiar way. I pulled the door off its hinges rather than opening it. 

It would have been an impressive achievement if the door was locked and I was trying to do so, but considering it was not, it was hardly a good sign of my own control. 

Things hardly got any better as I tried to wear one of the uniforms, only to shred it to pieces the moment I grabbed it. The second was the same. The third attempt went much better, and I was able to actually, grab a shirt successfully, though that was the limit of my achievement. 

Before I could raise it up, it was already shredded. 

My new claws might be excellent weapons, but they were certainly inconvenient for daily activities. Still, I didn’t have the right to complain. I was lucky that they were nimble enough to allow me to hold a spear — and even luckier that the Spear was far too strong to be damaged by my new sharp claws. 

I took a deep breath and started focusing on the transformation, trying to force it back using the same trick I had been using since the transformation started to spread. The tactic behind that was simple. I just grabbed the unique sensation under my skin and pull it back, stuffing it back to my core. 

Unfortunately, with the recent flood of mana, pushing back the sensation got much harder. The process was still simple, but simple didn’t mean easy. Lifting a pound of weight was simple and easy, and lifting a thousand pounds of weight was equally simple. Just grab and lift. 

But it certainly wasn’t easy. 

So, even pushing myself to the limit, I was barely able to restore my hands back to their state. Yet, even then, it wasn’t complete, the back of my hands still showing half-formed scales. 

Still, considering that alive and conscious, it was better than I could have expected. I finally managed to grab a shirt and pull it through my head. Though, unfortunately, that caused it to rip. Suppressing the transformation didn’t solve the problem of excessive strength. 

Luckily, before I could fix it, Xia arrived next to me. “Do you mind helping me dress?” I said as I raised my arms while she looked at the broken door and ruined costumes, releasing my attempt to suppress the transformation, the claws appearing once more. 

“I’m going to do something better,” she said as she put her hand on my shoulder, and her magic slipped into my body. 

I had to clamp on the sudden aggression as my instincts shouted for me to kill the unknown aggressor. I managed to keep myself from attacking, but I failed to suppress a snarl escaping my monstrous mouth. 

She took a step back fearfully. “The instincts?” 

“It’s worse than I expected, but still controllable,” I answered. I wasn’t surprised by her question, as foreign instincts — leading to eventual wild madness — were one of the things I had noticed on the research notes she had shared with me. 

And, more importantly, I could feel the transformation getting easier to control after her spell. I repeated my attempt to suppress my transformation, but this time, easily pushed the transformation down my wrists, even weakening it around my elbows. “It’s working,” I said as I raised my arms. “Try the spell again.” 

She said nothing as she pressed her hand on my shoulders, and I felt her soft magic infusing into my body once again. This time, I closed my eyes and focused on the way it had been interacting with my transformation. 

I didn’t understand the process behind it, but the impact was much easier to understand. For the lack of a better term, it was softening the transformation, allowing me to pull it back much easier. I felt a sense of warmth spread along my arms, then to my shoulders and to my chest. 

Yet, as it spread to the rest of my body, Xia let out a gasp and pulled back, cutting the mana off without a warning. 

I opened my eyes, ready to attack the enemy that somehow managed to come nearer, only to find out that we were still alone. Then, I noticed her state. She was pressing her hands to her face, while a blush crept to her face…

A chuckle escaped my mouth as I realized the reason for that. A glance down was just what I needed to confirm that impression, a certain part of my body peeking through my pants in the full mast. I wasn’t surprised by my erection, as extremely boosted desire was one of the side effects of the transformation, and with my pants ruined by the battle and transformation, the view was rather noticeable. 

“Just keep your gaze for a moment,” I said as I grabbed another shirt, only for it to rip the moment I tried to pull it down. 

Apparently, pushing back the transformation didn’t remove my new enhanced strength, at least not entirely. In the long term, it was good, but it didn’t change the fact that it was a great inconvenience at the moment. 

“My strength is still uncontrollable, it seems that you’re going to dress me,” I said as I looked at Xia. 

“You’re not serious,” she gasped, her hands still on her face as she kept them closed. I couldn’t help but feel amused at her sudden shyness despite everything. 

“Unfortunately, you have to, unless you want to try to avoid notice while walking next to a naked man,” I answered with a chuckle as I looked at her. 

She said nothing as she grabbed another shirt, her blush getting bigger as she got closer. 

Pity that our time was too limited for me to enjoy that reaction…