I Received System to Become Dragonborn-Chapter 870: Sliver Of Fear

The moment Orzhal-Kur emerged from the temple, a suffocating pressure swept through the forest like a tidal wave. The temperature rose sharply, only to plummet just as suddenly over and over in erratic pulses. Every adventurer hidden beneath the underbrush felt it immediately.

Hund gritted his teeth, fingers tightening around his sword hilt.

"What is this…?" he growled, his eyes darting to the witches in their group. He wasn't gifted with Magic sensitivity, but this wasn't something subtle. The pressure felt like a hand trying to crush his chest.

And if even he and the others could feel it like this… then what about the witches?

Their eyes all snapped toward Selene, Esther, Annette, and Yara.

The sight made their blood run cold. All four women were trembling. Their faces pale and twisted in pain. Their chests rose and fell in gasping breaths as if the weight in the air was crushing the Magic out of them.

"Shit," Varn hissed, his voice low but sharp with fear. He reached out and held Yara, her body hot to the touch and stiff like coiled wire. "Yara, hey, stay with me."

Kaela instinctively caught Selene before she could collapse entirely. Hund moved to support Esther, while Jan reached for Annette, his expression calm but his heartbeat thundering in his ears.

"What do we do?" Kaela asked, her voice bordering panic.

"I don't know," Jan muttered. He kept his voice even, but there was no certainty in it. "I don't even know what this is."

The pressure intensified. Whether it was physical, Magical, or a distortion of their minds, they couldn't tell anymore. It pressed into them from every direction and making their skins crawl and thoughts blur.

Then a sound sliced through the thick air. It was a soft but powerful whoosh like a wind given weight.

"Hide," Jan hissed, low and urgent.

No one questioned him. They all dropped lower, flattening themselves against the earth, pulling branches and leaves over their bodies.

Some smeared dirt across their skin to blur their outlines.

And then they saw something streaking overhead that wrapped in writhing green vines and trailing orange fire. It flew like a spirit of destruction, vaguely humanoid but wreathed in unnatural power.

They couldn't see it clearly but every instinct screamed one thing, that presence was the source of the pressure. That thing was what had just awakened.

When it finally passed overhead the pressure eased even though just slightly and enough for them to breathe again.

They lay still, gasping softly, each of them trying to calm their thundering hearts and quiet their racing thoughts. No one spoke for a while.

"Goddamnit," Varn muttered at last, his voice filled with bitter despair. "I don't think I'm getting out of this alive. I never should've taken this job."

No one responded. They all understood the feeling.

Darel remained quiet, his face shadowed. He'd led his team here under orders to kill Jan and Mark's party. Now most of his comrades were dead, slaughtered by things none of them had prepared for. And worse, he, Yara, and Varn now owed their survival to the very people they'd meant to kill.

That shame burned deeper than any wound.

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Above the trees, Orzhal-Kur soared effortlessly. Her body wrapped in flame and vine. Her eyes that glowing in a molten mix of green and orange scanned the landscape. It didn't take long to find them.

She saw the fire, the earth pillars. The storm of raw elemental power in the distance, those were her marks.

She licked her lips and smiling with cruel anticipation.

"So… Dragonborns," she murmured.

She could feel them in her soul. Their kind had faced her world's wrath before and lost.

"We've killed your kind before," she muttered to herself, voice heavy with mocking venom. "Yet here you are again. Bold, foolish, but brave little things."

She tilted forward, fire flaring at her back as she accelerated toward the battlefield.

"Very well then," she growled, her voice echoing with rising fury. "Let me return the favor. Now, accept your fate."

Orzhal-Kur's fire blazed brighter, licking the sky as her speed doubled. Her gaze locked onto the thick column of smoke rising from the scorched battlefield below. That's where she would strike first.

She angled down and ready to tear through anything in her path.

But just as she neared the target, something launched upward from the mist-shrouded forest. It was a blur of red and black, rocketing toward her with terrifying force.

"What—?" she hissed, turning her eyes too late.

The impact hit her like a meteor. The creature, no, the man, slammed into her midair and tackling her violently.

The collision sent both of them spiraling upward, punching through layers of mist and cloud as the sky itself seemed to reel from their power.

Erend gritted his teeth. His arms locked around her as they flew higher and higher. Once above the cloudline he finally caught a full view of her. Flames wreathing her limbs, green vines twisting around her like armor, and those eyes were glowing a sickening mix of molten green and orange.

"What the fuck are you?" Erend growled.

Orzhal-Kur grinned in response, utterly unfazed. Her vines snapped forward with explosive speed and wrapping around his torso and arms.

With a violent pull she wrenched herself free and flung him backward. Then she opened her mouth and spat a stream of fire straight at him.

The blaze struck Erend head-on.

He crossed his arms to shield himself but even through them, he felt a real pressure. It was heavy and ancient Magic.

"Shit. This one's pretty strong," he thought, biting back a groan. His arms smoked and he could feel the Magic power in his veins reacting.

With a snarl, Erend threw his own fire back. A torrent of crimson flame surged from his palms, colliding with Orzhal-Kur's orange blaze.

The sky between them turned into a furnace, fire and fire clashing in a shockwave that ripped through the mist below and cleared the forest in a wide radius. fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com

Trees bent from the heatwave. The oppressive fog parted violently, revealing the blackened earth beneath.

In that instant, Orzhal-Kur laughed.

"Hahahaha! You're stronger than your kind used to be," she sneered.

Erend's heart skipped.

"What? She knows about Dragonborns?"

His mind raced. Her words weren't vague. That tone wasn't just knowledge but experience. She'd fought a Dragonborn before. And worse, she'd won.

The thought chilled him more than the fire could burn.

Still locked in the sky, Erend pushed harder. He surged forward, gathering his power, and then released it in an instant.

With a pulse of Magic he dissipated the surrounding firestorm and spread his Dragon wings wide. With a single mighty flap, he shot toward her.

But Orzhal-Kur only smiled wider.

Her vines erupted like vipers from her back, hundreds of them cracking through the air like whips. They lashed at him from all sides.

Erend was forced to halt and raised his arms to block as the vines slammed into him. They coiled around his limbs, torso, wings, even his neck.

And for the first time since awakening as a Dragonborn, Erend felt a sliver of fear.

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