I Guess I'm a Dragon Now (Part 1)

Aerial Training

Even though he was still in the desert, the smoke was heavy in the air as Ergen scouted ahead of the Demon King's army. The sky was dark with the substance, and even from miles away, Ergen could see the glow on the horizon from what must have been a massive fire of some kind. However, even though he could tolerate the smoke, the air felt almost as if it was on fire itself as the heat from the fire combined with the reflective surface of the desert below him.

"The heat is almost unbearable." Sera stated the obvious from Ergen's neck, making him regret that he'd ever agreed to wear his new armor in the first place as the detestable gnomes had built a saddle into it without his consent. However, after he'd thought about it for a while, it made sense seeing as Emric would most likely be riding on the other avatar. And Ergen was hoping that Sera's new equipment would extend their enchantments to him, which could possibly save his life.

As his eyes started to hurt because of the smoke in the air, Ergen flew lower in an attempt to avoid it, only to catch his first glimpses of the inferno beyond the desert. Asal had mentioned that they had redirected Emric's army through a forest so that the elves could hamper them with their nature magic. However, it now appeared the Emric hadn't appreciated the tactics much as it seemed that the entire forest was being burned to make way for the Hero King's army. Almost all of the tall trees that made up the forest were now nothing more than towers of fire with most of the underbrush having been turned into still smoldering ash. In one section of the forest, a massive white cloud rose along with the smoke, and both Ergen and Sera instantly recognized it as steam as Emric's mages cooled down the nearby fire with water magic so that the environmental conditions didn't affect their army.

"They're closer than our scouts reported that they would be... Let's go back. We need to inform our generals." Sera commanded,and Ergen suddenly wondered if he'd somehow joined her troop before he followed orders and turned around, thankful at least to be heading out of the smoke. And it wasn't long before they found the Demon King's army, which was currently stopped as the soldiers attempted to wait out the midday heat. And without even circling over their heads like he normally did, Ergen immediately landed at the command tent which held Asal and all of his generals before Sera climbed off of his neck to deliver her report. Though, while she was becoming more used to flying, she still didn't seem to be quite adept at it yet as she stumbled towards her destination.

While Sera reported to Asal, Ergen headed for his own tent, which was a large canopy that had been constructed specifically in order for him to keep cool. And while the hot air still bothered him somewhat, Ergen couldn't be more thankful for the shade as he laid down in the cooled-off sand and immediately started sleeping to wait out the middle of the day.

With his nap seeming to end almost as soon as it had began, Ergen lazily opened his eyes at the person attempting to kick him awake so that the soldiers could clean up the canopy. It was time to move again, and while he had complaints about how he was treated, he couldn't really complain to much as he was still mooching off of these people. His time spent in the desert this time was much more preferable than his other visits as he now had a large supply of water thanks to the the army's water reserves. They also gave him some food, though it was less than what he'd received while inside of Asal's city.

"Hey, get up! We're moving!" Ergen slowly turned his head until he could see the commander right as she nudged his leg with her boot again. And while Ergen didn't appreciate being woken up in such a manner, he also couldn't help but think that the woman was a giant idiot. Like seriously, who kicks a sleeping dragon?!

Getting up and purposefully stretching his leg out to knock Sera down, Ergen felt content with himself as the woman hit the sand before he shook himself, getting rid of any of his own sand that might have stuck to his scales while he'd been sleeping. And after casually walking out from underneath the canopy, Ergen sat in the open area outside while looking at the would-be hero, wishing to himself that he could smile at her expense as she glared at him. However, she eventually had to move as well as the nearby soldiers that had been waiting to tear down the canopy started there work.

"We're going to have to work together if we want to survive the upcoming battle." Said with a sigh after walking close to Ergen again. "Whether we want to or not, we're going to have to learn how to fight together. Because if we don't, we're not going to stand a chance against Emric."

Yawning widely, Ergen slightly shook himself again while trying to fully wake up.

"Listen, not only is Emric's mount going to using magic that's capable of wiping out entire cites, but Emric himself is a sword mage as well. They'll both be able to use magic to attack us, and if we don't figure out how to counter it then we're done for." Sera explained, obviously irritated at Ergen's grogginess. However, he already understood everything that she was saying. He didn't know how powerful Chae was by herself, but it would be even worse if she had a mage on her back casting spells at him...

"If you understand, then let's go and practice working together." Sera stated. "We don't have long before the first battle, and I'm still getting nauseous while flying, so I need to adapt."

Figuring that she was right, Ergen finally bent down so that Sera could climb onto his neck again, and it wasn't long before the two were up in the air and Ergen started practicing his aerial maneuvers. Thankfully the saddle was designed in a way that it locked Sera's feet into place, otherwise she would have most likely already fallen off the first time that Ergen spun in the air. However, seeing as she was managing to stay conscious, he proceeded to fly as if he were fighting an aerial opponent. Or at least he thought that he was as he'd never fought one before, and surprisingly Sera lasted through an hour of this before they had to start flying to catch back up to their army. And on their way, Ergen made sure to form his ice armor around several times so that she could get used to it, knowing that it could possibly save both of their lives in the future.

While they had distanced themselves from the Demon King's army while training, Ergen hadn't thought that they had been gone long enough for anything major to happen. However, when they finally approached their allied forces, both he and Sera were surprised to see that the army was lined up in their formations while several of their supply wagons in the center of their battle lines burned. What he'd at first through were birds in the distance actually turned out to be at least a hundred large creatures with riders on their backs, though they were a small drop in a bucket of water as Ergen eventually saw Emric's army almost a mile away in the desert.

"H-how did they move so quickly?! They shouldn't have been able to get out of the forest until tomorrow morning at the earliest!" Sera asked in shock. But no matter what her thoughts currently were, there was only one thing that was completely obvious to Ergen. And that was that they were about to begin their first battle of the war.