“Aquis?” I ask, curious and confused at the same time.

  “Yes. As I said, she was one of the three assigned to guard and raise you. You were to be raised alone for good reason. The god of time, my friend, told me why, and chose the guardians himself.”

  “Why were we supposed to be raised alone?” I ask, my confusion boiling over.

  “I can not say.” Aftermath shakes his head.

  “I swear, I will turn you into diesel on day” I say flatly.

  “Dragon bones make bad fuel.” Aftermath points out.

  “It's about the principle of it! You know what I mean.”

  “That is exactly why I say what I say.” Aftermath shakes himself and spreads his bony wings. “Speak with your guardian if you wish to know more. For now, I shall alert your brother. Go strategize.”

  “Take Evelyn then. I'll need to chat with that Ysolda lady.” I stretch a bit.

  “What? I want to stay!” Evelyn interjects. “Let me join too!”

  “That would be wildly unfair for the people here.” I point out. “go play with your tesseract thingy at home. I'll be there soon.” Evelyn grumbles as Aftermath scoops her up with telekinesis and flys off. I don't know why he uses his wings. They don't work. I guess flying without flapping your wings would look funny though.

  Turning away, I make my way into a building. You see, the courtyard itself is directly against the tree. Its also surrounded by one long building encasing it. The building is half dragon sized and half human sized, made of metal and glass yet covered in greenery. It's very pretty, all things considered.

  I make my way through a few corridors to what looks like a planning room. Inside are 5 people sitting at a rectangular table. 2 people are on either side, and Ysolda is at the center. They look like they are about to go to war, from their expressions. Well, they did look like they were going to war, until I entered the room. They all wilted like unwatered roses. I wonder if its the suppression of rank, or if its the way I casually chatted with their god like he was my drinking buddy on a Tuesday evening.

  “Ah, you're…. here.” Ysolda says. I sit down on one of the 2 chairs designed for dragons on the opposite side of the table to her. We both sit at the ends of the big wooden rectangle. It's like the knights of the round table, but, well, the table isn't round. And we aren't knights. Okay, maybe nothing like the round table.

  “You look like someone mentally hit you with a force bolt.” I comment. For those who didn't guess, force bolt is a spell. Just, well, a bolt of force. Who would have guessed?

  “We lost last time.” Ysolda sighed, then caught herself. She seemed to be trying to compose herself before me. Aftermath had told me that the hierarchy in his forest was based 50/50 on Tier and merritt. Its like someones manager was talking to the CEO, and now she doesn't know how to act around their manager.

  “You did. But you lost in style.” I comment. “You lacked eyes on what was going on around you, focusing on only what was in front of you. You need a new strategy. But how about you start by, I don't know, introducing me?” I offer to her. She flushed red, realizing her oversight and nodded.

  “The redhead on the left corner is Darren. He focuses on the offensive members.”

  “Ey.” Darren gives me a wave and a nod.

  “The Dragon on my right corner is Geo. He works with the other dragons in our group”

  “Sir.” Geo gives me a respectful nod.

  “The other one on the right, the pink haired girl, is Janet. She is the head of our mages.”

  “Hey-hey.” She gives me a grin, half nervous and half manic.

  “And the Black haired boy on the left is Connor. He is our head of Archery.”

  “Hm.” He nods to me. I feel like this game of capture the flag is more to them. Aftermath filled me in a bit before our chat, so I know that whoever wins 3 games in a row gets access to the training grounds with the wolves. It’ll put all them up to tier 2, so of course they want this.

  “I'm Ysolda, as you know.” Ysolda gives me a respectful nod. “Would you be ok introducing yourself?”

  “Oh, yeah, sure.” I chuckle. “I’m abhor, a demidragon.” Apparently none of them expected my answer. Everyone froze.

  “What?” I say hesitantly.

  “Well, we win.” Janet threw her hands up. “They can't do nothing against a demidragon!”

  “It's not that big a de-”

  “Just sick him on them and we will be fine!” Darren chuckled.

  “Wait, you do-”

  “I hope I become a demidragon when I evolve.” Geo has a dreamy look in his eyes. “A class along with draconic power is way too unfair.”

  “Well, I guess-” I try again.

  “Can you show us?” Ysolda asks, raising one hand. Everyone goes silent.

  “Yeah, sure.” I say, happy to get a word in.

  Demishift

  In the place of a black dragon, a pale demidragon with a trident stands in my place.

  “Wow.” Ysolda nods, not seeming sure how to react. “You're younger then I am. How is that possible?”

  “Divine bullshi-” I catch myself. “Shins. Yeah, shins. Um… well, my class is called Eternal darkness, my species is called timewarp demidragon, and all my stats are maxed.” All of them look like they’re about to spit blood.

  “How do you exist?!” Janet gawks at me. “Do you have magic?”

  “Illusion, Dark, and time. I practice most with illusion, but Dark comes naturally to me.”

  “Did you figure out some cheat code in life?” Darren asks.

  “You're not the first to ask that.”

  <{(0)}>

  We finish up with that pretty quickly. Once they were done gawking and cursing my luck, they realized what they were saying and who they were saying it to and immediately apologized. Janet actually begs me not to kill her. I don't know why. I wouldn't kill someone for such a bad reason. According to Ysolda, people have done worse for less. That cooled the atmosphere a bit.

  “Anyway, about the game.” I decided to shift the topic. I need to chat with Aftermath about his system some time later.

  “Yes, yes, capture the flag.” Ysolda nods. “Do you… have any ideas?”

  “Abuse my illusions. A lot. Like, a lot, a lot.”

  “That's it?” Ysolda frowns a bit under her polite guise.

  “Of course not. We take a page from their book. I can see through illusions like sandpaper, and I can make illusions that see through illusions. I will give guards some illusion glasses and go for the flag. The only problem is my brother.”

  “Your brother is joining their side, yes, I remember that.” Ysolda nods. “What about him?”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  “He’s a demi too. A demiwyvern. And his stats are like mine. However, my skills and mutations are better as far as I can tell. 1 on 1, I can win easily. But I can't win without fighting… lethally.”

  “How is your brother a wyvern?” Darren asks, confused.

  “Firstly, we are adopted, secondly, wrong question.”I say flatly. “Focus.” I pull my trident back into myself and it vanishes. I stand up and lean onto the table. “Hey Janet, what is the most widely known spell among the mages?” I ask the pink haired woman. She blinks in surprise at me, but answers none the less.

  “There are 3 off the top of my head. Force bolt, Fire bolt and shape earth.”

  “Shape earth?” I feel a grin deforming my lips. “How good are the opponents illusionists at sensing illusions?”

  “About as good as it gets for tier 1, which doesn't do much against tier 2.” Ysolda says, flipping through papers.

  “Pitfalls it is then!” I grin evilly.

  “How would we set up illusionary pitfalls in the middle of a battlefield while they watch?” Darren asks skeptically.

  “More illusions! And it won't be in the middle of the battlefield. We cant manipulate too close to the flag, but we can manipulate from the minimum distance to create a ginormous pitfall around it, and set some water at the bottom. Keep em trapped, soaked, miserable, and alive.”

  “We would be leaning heavily on you.” Ysolda frowns.

  “I don't be doing anything else unless necessary. I'll be in reserve with my illusions and brute force. You have to plan the rest yourself, and keep me as a last resort. I think Aftermath just wanted me to have experience working with others in a group, since we haven't had any opportunities to do that.”

  “That makes sense.” Ysolda nods. “Any objections?” Nobody says anything, so with that, I turn to leave.

  “Oh, one more thing.” I turn back and see Yvone standing up from her seat. “Please wait for me. When the meeting is over I would like to talk to you.”

  “Uh… sure.” I nod.

  <{(0)}>

  “So, what's this about?” I sit on a big block of stone. Since most of my Illusion techniques has solidified as actual techniques, it's time to work on other elements to diversify a bit. I'm starting with earth. My favorite illusion technique is either my illusion mirror, even though its E grade, or my false strike, which makes people believe they are in pain when they aren't. It's probably my most dangerous attack thus far. Why? If your body believes your heart was struck, it will stop beating. Who cares if the strike wasn't real? If your heart stops beating, you are dead.

  Anyways, I'm getting off track.

  “Well…” Ysolda shifts her posture, now looking like she did while commanding the other troops. “I would like to inquire on your relationship with Lord Aftermath.”

  “Thats it?”

  “What do you mean?

  “I thought you were going to ask about something else- oh, nevermind. I guess I just stumbled into the city, some church people saw me, and I was dragged to the big guy himself. Now we are buds and he is shoving levels down my throat.”

  “That- that's it?” She just looks at me for a moment, looking like she's going through a software update before slapping herself in the face and shaking herself. “If I didn't see how you acted around the Emperor, I wouldn't have believed you. Though you are so strange. Not yet an adult, yet somehow have a level. You are also tier 2. You are also a demidragon. You are also a species of dragon I have never heard of. You also have a class I have never heard of.” As she speaks she seems to be losing a few screws in her head.

  “Do you…”

  “I’m fine.” She interrupts me, sighing. “You are too much.”

  “My brother is no better.”

  “Let me guess, he's you but somehow with triple the IQ.” She says flatly.

  “That- wait, is that a joke?”

  “Yes. You're already very smart and strong. A smarter you with the same strength is a damned death sentence.” I raise a boulder and she sits on it. “You’re good at earth magic. Do you have the affinity?”

  “No, I don’t. Only time, Dark, and Illusion. I'm hoping to get the affinity through practice though. I have a title that helps.”

  “What title?” She asks curiously.

  “I accidentally made a legendary skill, which gave me legendary proficiency, which lets me learn skills better, make new skills more easily, and gives me greater proficiency in skills I am trying to learn.”

  “That is unfair.” Is all she says, sighing. “I don’t have a place to judge though. My unique skill is considered a cheat by most.” I whip my head over to her in surprise.

  “A unique skill? What does it do?!”

  A unique skill is rare. It's a skill a person is born with, that they and only they will be able to obtain. Only one person can have a unique skill of a specific type at once. No 2 individuals can have unique skills at once. Well, not without divine bullshit but that doesn't count.

  “It’s a leadership skill: Heart of the general.” She says, but doesn't add anything.

  “Is it personal? If it is, sorry for asking.” I scratch the back of my neck nervously.

  “No, no, it's fine. It is personal, yes, so I won't add anything, but I will tell you that it improves my abilities while in a leadership role.” She explains, patting my tail nervously with one hand. I look at my tail, then to her hand.

  “Why are you patting my tail?”

  “Oh! Sorry…” She quickly removes her hand. “I forget you aren't Chusi. You have a similar personality to her.”

  “Chusi?” I ask curiously.

  “My adoptive mother. She's a tier 3 dragon from the church.”

  “Oh? I didn't know dragons could adopt humans.” I say with surprise.

  “As long as they care for the species they adopt correctly, it's perfectly legal.” She shrugs.

  “Still cool. So it works the other way around too?” I climb off my rock, dismissing it.

  “Yes. Geo was raised by a human and dwarf couple. His parents died in an accident with a hoard of Ents.”

  “Yeouch. I killed one of those things. They're… fun.” I try to make a sculpture of an ent with some stone. It didn’t come out looking exactly perfect.

  “You killed one? What level?”

  “I don’t remember… I think it was level 16 or 17. A little spruce guy.”

  “That's still impressive. I doubt I could beat an ent at this level.” Ysolda nods in respect. I smirk a bit to myself.

  “Ready?”

  “Ready.”

  <{(0)}>

  People are everywhere. All across the courtyard are people of various species and ethnicities, all brought together under 2 seperate colors. I sit in my demiform, wearing a vibrant red pinnie over my black hoodie. On the other side of the field I see Snowstorm wearing a pinnie of his own, in dragon form. It suits him to say the least.

  “You remember the plan?” I turn to see Ysolda standing beside me. I nod.

  “Like the back of my hand.” I turned over my hand to show it to her. “Huh, I didn’t notice that birthmark there.” I start looking at my human hand more.

  “We are doomed.”

  “Sure we are.” I roll my eyes. “First things first, I go with a few earth mages to stealthily make some trenches and pitfalls, then fill them with water. When someone falls in I seal them off to keep them out of the fight. I might be able to even leave pitfalls near their flag but I’m not sure. I’d do those on my own. And if Snowstorm gets close to the illusions, he will probably be able to see through them. But he has to get super close. I told you his weaknesses already, right? Well he probably wrote a damned dictionary on mine. But he isn’t a good enough fighter to exploit them against me. I was always the one who went with Darkness to hunt, so I can fight better. I wrestled a bear for fun once.” I grin

  “I'll ignore that last part. So, you need to keep the illusions away from him. We will keep him distracted while you set the traps. Meanwhile, you have given out the illusionary sight to all of our people already, so we won’t fall into our own traps and will notice anyone they send for our flag. This is a plan with holes, but not easily filled ones without just sicking you on them. This should work.” Ysolda nods in approval and smiles. “Lets do this.”

  “The match begins in ten seconds.” Aftermath’s voice rolls out from the platform, the skeleton looking down on us. Evelyn and Rosaline sit in chairs in bubbles of safety, watching. Both are cheering for red. Heh, take that Snowstorm. I’m the brother with more fans, so that makes me better by very normal and good brotherly logic. Sound logic.

  “And, begin!”

  And begin it does. On both sides soldiers charge each other. Spells began to rain down like, well, rain. The arrows are no different, falling like meteors and slamming into convenient or inconvenient spots for our allies or opponents. Good, it’s going as it should.

  “Gotta go.” I grab 2 earth mages by their pinnies and, in a moment, we are gone.

  Invisibility

  <{(0)}>

  Where did he go? I watch the battlefield with a keen eye, trying to see where Abhor could have went. It’s curious. He went invisible, thats for sure, but he grabbed two earth mages to go with him. Are they trying to build something? I can’t be sure.

  “Snowstorm, what’s the issue?” A dragon comes up beside me to ask, looking over the battlefield. “I don’t see any problems yet.”

  “Of course you don’t, Redwood.” I nod to her respectfully, but not too respectfully. I’m in the position of power here as the second in command. This might only be capture the flag, but it’s meant to simulate real wartime, so I’ll treat it as such. I doubt he is treating it the same. He doesn't seem to take anything seriously unless there are serious stakes in it. Pride is not something he takes as aaserious stake. Screwing with me, however, is. Now that I think about it, maybe he is going to take this seriously.

  “Snowstorm.” I turn and see Bertram, the leader of this side.

  “what is it?” I ask him, turning back to watch the battlefield. I feel like something is off.

  “Are you ready? We will need you to protect the flag in case Ysolda sends your brother.” I nod, then open my jaws and begin to spew ice. I firm wall after wall of glittering blue, the hard ice forming a defence. Wall after wall of ice sprouts from the ground all across our side of the battlefield. Mages and archers alike gather behind the walls to unleash barrages on the opponents. However, the red team doesn't seem worried. Tentatively we send troops towards the opponents to fight. They get closer, and as they do they get attacked by spells and arrows. However, it's not too much.

  Emboldened, we send more teams. Eventually, half our group is charging their side. Yet they barely put up a defence.

  “What are they doing?” I mutter, frowning towards where out teammates are. Wait. Their forms are… flickering.

  “Oh.” I suddenly realize what they are doing. No, what Abhor was doing.

  “What is it?” Bertram frowns at me, seeming confused.

  “We just lost a lot of troops.” and that is when the illusions fade. Holes are everywhere on the battlefield, and over 70% of the blue team's troops are gone. Just moments before they looked like they were moving as usual. Managing to make the illusionary versions of people like that of which seamlessly slide in place of them as they fall into the holes is crazy.

  “Charge!” I whip my head back up. There are holes on the red team's side, but less. Where is Abhor dammit?! Every damned person on red team is charging the blue team. The holes are filled over as they charge. Wait, the flag is unguarded- no. No, that flag can not be unguarded. Abhor must be there, invisible. That's what I would do. So what can we do now? What?

  “Snowstorm, got any ideas?” Bertram asks, stepping up beside me.

  “Shoot for the flag and hope Abhor was dumb enough not to be there. If that doesn't work we have no chance.” As I say that, red troops are knocking out blue team mages and archers. All the blue team soldiers are in the holes save for a few. Holes that are deep, closed over, and filled with water... water.

  “Bertram, you said you're a water mage, right?”