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‘Boss, I just remembered a subject that we left aside.’ Treevor spoke this time, making Athos nearly burst a vein of irritation, if he had any left.

‘What is it, Treevor?’ Athos asked almost growling.

‘Remember what the queen of the hive hawks told us when she arrived with the storm, a few days before the start of the battle?’ Treevor pretended not to notice the anger in Athos’ voice and asked.

‘I vaguely remember that. Something about a small man who sank into the earth and disappeared, right? We dismissed it as just a monster with earth affinity and the queen seeing poorly because of the distance. Why bring up the subject now?’

“It’s because I believe she might be right. I had forgotten because it wasn’t relevant, but I remember encountering something similar when crossing borders.’ Treevor spoke.

‘And what exactly did you see?’ Athos was curious about where he wanted to go.

‘At the time, I was weak and bleeding amber energy, so I ran as fast as possible after making sure I was away from the fortress and human eyes. I vaguely remember visa a dwarf, but he quickly fled and I had no time or reason to pursue him. At least not at the time.’ Treevor vaguely remembered what happened, as the pain and rush nearly blinded him.

‘What are dwarves?’ Athos asked confused. Khali had never mentioned species other than demihumans, as it wasn’t his job to investigate them and there shouldn’t be any other species thousands of miles away.

.....

‘Dwarves are one of the intelligent species in this world, just like elves and humans. They look like small human beings, measuring a maximum of 1.20 meters in height. Dwarves are beings attuned to the earth and prefer to live underground or in large mountains.’ Treevor explained the greatest characteristics of the species to the ignorant Athos.

‘It doesn’t seem worth going out of our way to hunt them. It would be different if they were excellent warriors, but with such small bodies, I doubt they would be very useful in battle.

They would be good builders or useful for building underpasses, but it’s not what we need right now.’ Athos didn’t show much interest in them, at least not until he heard Treevor’s next words.

‘They are also the fathers of runesmithing. Dwarves are not only attuned to the earth, but also to metals and can forge weapons like no other species can. My grandfather taught me that dwarves have metal-related racial abilities, though he didn’t know what it was.’ Treevor explained excitedly.

‘Is it just me or are you inciting me to hunt these dwarves? I thought between the two of us I was psycho.’ Athos asked in confusion, but a bloodthirsty glow began to spread through his eye sockets, so it was obvious that he was already thinking about how to hunt them down.

‘I, I don’t... I don’t know.’ Treevor suddenly began to wonder. He was just making repairs to the corrupted willow, when a sudden bloodlust hit him and he started looking for anything to kill.

He started to think about going out hunting just to calm down, when he remembered what the queen had said. Now that Treevor thought about it, this sudden bloodlust was really strange and it wasn’t the first time it had happened.

‘It’s nothing, boss. I just remembered these dwarves and thought they would be a great addition to our army.’ Treevor lied through his teeth, already knowing what the problem was and avoiding thinking about it.

Athos did not believe his lie, but he did not pursue the matter.

‘Emília, I have a job for you.’

‘Master, is something wrong?’ She asked, not expecting Athos to get in touch so soon.

Athos summarized his conversation with Treevor and quickly explained his idea. ‘If Treevor’s guess is right, there might be a dwarven village or town a few hours away. I want you to lead the two teams of mage slayers and investigate whether it’s true or not.’

‘Understood, master.’ Emília replied, disguising her disappointment at knowing that her departure would be delayed.

‘I’ll send the queen with you so she can guide she to the place where you saw the dwarf disappear. It should make searching a bit easier. If possible, try to kill one of them to get information.’ Athos commanded and Emília nodded, feeling the chains of the three teams gathering in her.

‘Does anyone else have any other business to discuss with me?’ Athos asked through the general link, his voice sounding more like a threat than a question.

Even those who wanted to speak with him fell silent upon hearing his tone of voice. After a few seconds of pure silence, Athos finally turned his attention to the skeleton dragon, which lay on the ground in front of him, tired of waiting.

“I’ve already finished everything I had to solve boy, we can test what you can do now.” Athos spoke and climbed onto the dragon’s back, which quickly rose and stretched its wings to fly.

“Shall we start with a test flight?” Athos spoke and immediately regretted his words. The skeleton dragon flapped its wings as hard as it could, rising tens of meters in less than a second.

The problem is that Athos was not able to keep up with his speed and stupidly fell for tens of meters. He quickly conjured an air cushion to cushion the impact and looked around, making sure no one had seen his embarrassing performance.

‘You will never tell anyone what you saw here.’ Athos ordered the few nearby skeletons, considering the possibility of killing them just to ensure they wouldn’t say anything.

He shook his head to get the idea out of his head and jumped, conjuring platforms of air under his feet until he reached the dragon and climbed onto its back again. The skeleton dragon turned its head back and nuzzled Athos in apology.

“No problem kid, just accelerate gradually ok?” Athos spoke to calm the worried dragon.

The skeleton dragon began to fly again, this time at a more moderate speed. It accelerated little by little, giving Athos time to get used to it.

“This is amazing.” Athos spoke as he looked down at the dwindling fortress below. They continued soaring until they broke through the clouds and the dragon slowed down its flight speed.

Only now did Athos realize that it was the middle of the night, seeing the gigantic full moon overhead. He could see perfectly, whether it was day or night, so it didn’t make much difference to him.

“I’ve always wanted to fly on a dragon’s back like this. I have to remember to thank the necromancer who sent you to kill me before I rip his throat out with my bare hands.” Athos spoke happily, before realizing that he had forgotten something important.

“Come to think of it, I still haven’t named you, have I? You’re definitely my strongest undead, I can’t keep calling you a boy forever. I don’t even know if you’re a boy.” Athos while looking thoughtfully at the dragon. It was useless trying to find out now, as his friend was missing in the dark mist.

Athos thought for some time as he enjoyed the cool night breeze on his face, but he couldn’t think of anything, so he just said the first thing that came to mind. “How about Simogo?”

The skeleton dragon looked at him with a strange look, as if he didn’t like the name.

“It’s your name from today, Simogo. Mine is Athos, but most call me by different respectful names.” Unfortunately for the dragon, Athos took that look as not understanding what a name was.

“Wait, we should be testing your skills, not enjoying the breeze, Simogo.” Athos had been so entertained that he almost forgot why he was flying on the dragon’s back.

“But there isn’t a good place to practice. Your attacks are too powerful to practice near the fortress and just casting spells against the ground is pointless. We need a good target to practice on.” Athos spoke and began to think.

‘No monsters near the fortress and even if they did, a scratch from Simogo would kill them. If I want to test your powers, I’ll need at least an army and it’s still doubtful if they would be a good challenge.’ It was Athos’ honest assessment of the skeleton dragon’s capabilities.

That’s when he realized. If Athos wanted to face an enemy army, there was a fortress a few days’ journey away. It took the human army 10 days to cover the distance, but flying at full dragon speed and non-stop, Simogo could arrive in a day or less.

“I planned to run away after destroying a single fortress, but one or two doesn’t make much difference, does it? It will be a good way to test your powers as well as accumulate a little more life force.” Athos spoke as he checked his own core.

Despite the several thousand corpses turning into the undead in the last few hours, its core showed no signs of further progression. Athos had gotten used to an evolution after every major battle and he didn’t intend to change that now.

‘Hey you. Find Treevor and inform him that I am going away for a few days and will take Simogo with me.’ Athos spoke to one of the hive hawks that was within range of the link.

He intended to leave immediately, before Emilia found out about it and rushed to stop him. Athos was grateful for her concern, but at times it was suffocating and irritated him.

“Let’s go. I know a good place to test your power.” Athos spoke and left with Simogo towards the fortress of the golden bow.

In the fortress below, Treevor had just been informed of Athos’ departure and was full of questions in his mind, but the biggest one was:

‘Who the hell is Simogo?’

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