Chapter 92: Winds of change from the north

Rowen appeared from the edge of the small forest clearing not long after Phoebe. He ignored Edward and Violet and fixed his eyes on Minx’s body with a confused look inside them.

Edward was about to speak when Phoebe cut him off: “See Rowen? I told you she’s not of a known species.”

Rowen nodded and turned towards Edward. “Where did you say you found her?”

“In the forests south of the city, close to a village called Cow’s foot. Anything the matter?” asked Edward.

“Well, I don’t know what species of magic beast she is… can you tell me more about her abilities?”

Edward turned towards Minx, waiting for her to respond.

“I can increase and decrease the size of my body at will and I can also use ice magic freely, without the need to study any spells or anything.”

“But no water magic?” asked Rowen next. Edward had already told him she could speak, so he wasn’t that surprised about that.

“No. I use the same mana as Circe, which I know is water mana, but it turns into ice whenever I use it.”, replied Minx.

Even Edward was surprised about this. Rowen kept asking questions for about half an hour before saying: “I’ve never heard of a beast like Minx. There are beasts with a higher affinity for ice that usually live up high in the mountains, but they still can use water spells. Her physical characteristics also don’t match any beasts I’ve seen or read about. There are wolves with this pallet of fur color, but her eyes and ears are strange. They don’t match any of those.”

“Is there any problem with that?” asked Edward, seeing Rowen had a frown on his face as he was explaining everything.

“Even with the city lord giving his okay, we should at least confirm her species. People are afraid of the unknown, so I doubt they will agree to give her a pass.”

“My former party members called her a moon-walking wolf the first time, but her appearance has changed a great deal after eating some monster cores I brought from the dungeon. Maybe this will bring you any clue.?”

Rowen shook his head and said: “She’s not a moon-walking wolf for sure… we can still try, but if you want to be sure you will get that pass, I would suggest heading to Oasis. Registering with their beast tamers guild will get you your permit and you’ll also be able to use it inside our city. Their rules are also a lot laxer for beast tamers than here.”

Edward frowned at his words. He hoped to get this done as quickly as possible before spending some more time with Violet and heading right back into the dungeon. A trip to Oasis would be a pain.

“Edward, I don’t need that pass.” Said Minx as she saw Edward’s frown, “You are also not that often in the city and I’m happy just hunting with you.”

Edward smiled softly while rubbing her head before saying: “Yes, but I already promised I’ll get that pass for you. Now that you can also speak, it would be better for you to meet other people as well.”

Rowen looked at the two and said: “If you still want to go through with the test for her, let me know. I’ll return to the city now. Also, if you want to cancel it, I will return the coins you gave me when you come over the next time.”

Edward nodded and thanked him before pondering on his next move. Phoebe curled her tails around the hand that he was using to pet Minx and said: “You know, you don’t have to worry too much. The moment she hits level 50, she will get a humanoid form just like me and can pass as a demi-human. Then, all these problems will be meaningless.”

Edward sighed and nodded. “I understand. I’ll see what I can do.”

Phoebe nodded and rushed after Rowen as well. Violet came and said: “Why don’t you go to Oasis? I also don’t want Minx to wait here every time you go inside the city.”

“Already tired of me?” asked Edward with a chuckle. He had other reasons he didn’t want to head to Oasis, that being the assassins that captured him and Minx the last time. He didn’t know exactly who they were, but heading into their territory didn’t seem wise.

Just as Violet started pouting and was about to reply, a gust of wind passed through the nearby forest, making both Edward and Minx look up towards the north.

What he saw next made him almost wet his pants. The entire sky soon got covered by giant dragons, all of them heading towards the city. It was like a dragon avalanche threatening to blanket the entire city.

A giant dragon, over 600 feet long, hovered right above the city and his voice resounded in the ears of every living human in the area.

“General Arvim of Darkinire requests an audience with the leaders of the City of Ashes.”

As his words ended, 20 human silhouettes rose from the city and flew up above to meet the dragon. The dragon’s body soon started changing as well, and he took a humanoid form with blue-scaled wings hovering at his back, but the rest of the dragons just created a wide encirclement around the entire city and the forests all around.

Turning towards Minx, Edward said: “I need you to keep Violet safe here for a while. I want to go check things out.”

Minx nodded and Violet looked like she wanted to say something, but before she could, Edward was already rushing toward the city. Since the guards at the gate were also shaking in their boots while looking at the dragons’ display of might, Edward easily walked by them and ran toward Circe’s tower.

Because of his high agility, not even ten minutes later, he finished checking all the floors of her magic tower, but he couldn’t find a trace of her. He easily figured she must have been one of the silhouettes heading to meet the dragon general.

“Guess I can only find out what’s happening on my own…” muttered Edward in irritation before taking his wolf form and rushing towards the direction the dragon and the other humans left in. Once he reached the residential district, he started dashing from one rooftop to the other while carefully looking around. He could spot multiple shadows, most likely assassins, also moving around the rooftops, but they just ignored one another.

When he reached close enough to the city lord’s mansion, he stopped to observe the situation inside.

There were many people in the city lord’s garden, but Edward only recognized a few of them. Seeing the situation was quite tense, and that Rave’s body was pierced by a series of ice lances, Edward closed his eyes and tried to listen to whatever they were saying, but to no avail. There was something that seemed to block even his perfect sense skill.

As he was looking for a closer location where he could hide, a knife appeared at his neck, followed by a woman’s voice from behind: “You must leave this place. There’s nothing for you to find here besides your death.”

Edward started turning back into human form, but before he could, he felt the knife pressing even harder on his neck and he stopped. He knew that for this person to sneak up on him like this, she must be a master assassin and that he had no chance of going against her.

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“Just leave. I will not say it again. The assassin's guild has this place locked down.”

Seeing there was no way for him to communicate, he nodded once and the knife disappeared from his neck, along with the woman who just threatened him. Taking one more look at the situation in the backyard, he turned tail and rushed back toward Violet and Minx. He thought about using Mya’s name to convince the assassins to let him know what was going on, but that was too risky and he didn’t want to test the limits of their patience.

Once he reached there, he found Phoebe there as well. Canceling his wolf form, he was about to speak when Phoebe said first: “You need to leave the city as soon as possible. They are after you.”

Edward frowned and said: “Do you know something?”

Phoebe turned into her human form as well and handed Edward a small handwritten note. “This is what Circe gave me.”

‘The elves and dragons are all a threat. Edward, go south. I’ll buy time.’

Edward crumbled the note and started thinking about what might have happened.

‘Did Kara tell them?’

‘But it shouldn’t take that long for them to act if she did. It’s been over half a year since she left me in the dungeon and they could have just come after me there. For what reason would they wait until now to act?’

‘… there’s something I’m missing. What could have attracted the dragon’s attention now?’

Soon, the image of Rave’s skewered body appeared in his mind and things clicked into place.

‘That rat. He’s the only one who could have stirred up this shitstorm. With the dragons already knowing a human was with Flastrdra in the north, if they somehow got news of me breaking the passage through the mountains….’

With the situation beginning to make sense, he then turned to look at Violet. He knew he couldn’t leave her behind since too many people already knew about their relationship.

‘How can I take her as well… there’s also Minx..’ Thought Edward as he fixed his eyes on Minx next.

Finally, he settled on the red-haired naked fox girl in front of him and asked: “Can I ask you for a favor?” seeing her nod, he continued: “I want you to go with Minx and make sure you get her out of the dragon’s encirclement. You might have a chance if you just act like normal beasts, but I want you there just in case anything happens.”

“No problem, but you’ll owe me a favor.” Replied Phoebe without a trace of hesitation.

“Deal. We’re going to split and use the cover of the forest to rush out. If we all go together, things might turn bad if the dragons spot us. Minx, we’ll meet again at the dungeon’s entrance.”

Minx nodded without hesitation, but Violet grabbed onto Edward’s arm and asked: “Can you tell me what is going on?”

Edward bit his lip and grabbed hold of one of her hands before saying: “I’m not sure of everything myself, but I know all these dragons are here looking for me. Even if they know about our relationship yet, they will probably find out. I want you to just come with me for now and I’ll explain everything I know once we’re somewhere safe.”

Violet nodded and asked nothing else. She trusted Edward more than anything or anyone.

“How are you going to get Violet out as well?” asked Phoebe.

“I have my ways. Let’s go. I don’t know how long Circe can keep the general and everyone else busy.”

Minx and Phoebe nodded and run away in their beast forms first. Edward turned to Violet and said: “I’m sorry for getting you in this trouble, but I can’t think of any other way to keep you safe. Once I turn into my wolf form, please climb on my back and try to hold on as tightly as you can to my body.”

Seeing Violet nod, he wasted no more time before turning. Once Violet was on his back, holding on tightly, Edward rushed towards the south as well, choosing a slightly distinct path from Minx and Phoebe.

He listened carefully and discovered they were indeed barely releasing any sound like this, which gave him some extra confidence. Using the cover of the evening forest, he moved slowly and carefully while avoiding the dragons’ patrols up above.

There were so many dragons that it took him almost three hours to leave their encirclement. He wanted to know if Minx was alright, but he knew that would have to wait until he returned to the dungeon.

He walked a few more minutes until his stamina ran out and he had no choice but to turn back into a human. Picking Violet up in his arms, he started explaining to her everything that happened with Flastrdra in the north, her egg that remained in his care, how the dragons are killing all their newborns, and so on.

Violet did not know Edward had to go through so many things just to save her and it only made her even more touched to find out. She felt quite bad leaving her inn behind, but after listening to Edward’s story, all she wanted was to be with him.

They reached the dungeon’s entrance on the evening of the second day, after Edward recovered some more of his stamina and used his wolf form again, and found Minx already there, waiting for him.

“Any trouble getting here? What about Phoebe?” asked Edward, relieved to see her alright. He trusted Circe to take care of herself, so Minx was the only one he was worried about.

“No. We just walked slowly toward the south and they didn’t even bat an eye. Phoebe returned to the city once I was safely out of the encirclement. I’m happy you two also made it out.” Replied Minx as she came to rub her head against Edward.

“Let’s go in and talk about what we’re going to do next. I don’t think the dragons will give up so soon”

Once Edward’s words ended, he held Violet’s hand and started rubbing Minx’s head as he led the way toward the hidden dungeon entrance.

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