Chapter 832: Inhuman Intellect
Chapter 832: Inhuman Intellect
As the knights finished gathering the mountain of gold in a single safe house and locked it, they set camp and waited for Jeffry's order to bring it out. They knew this would be the payment of a gold drakaina, no one wanted to debate such a being on the pay being late.
"I hope nothing bad happens." One of the knights sighed as they sat around the fire. "I want to be at home."
"Don't worry; it'll end before we know it. Just be happy that we aren't drafted into the desert. The heat alone is hellish, and everyone thinks that's a suicide mission." Another growled, munching on the freshly grilled fish.
"Don't say that... what if someone reported you..." Suddenly, they started hearing a loud drumming come from the forest. BAM! BAM! BAM! Loud thuds resonated in their chests as the campfire flickered, its flames rising into the sky.
The drumming accelerated and a large shadow appeared from the forest. Half of the soldiers shat themselves as the massive red dragon glared at them, that was no drumming, but its heartbeats.
"I...smell...gold..." The red dragon growled as he approached them, it was the disguised Claug. The knights stood in terror and pulled their swords, "A red dragon! It's massive!" A woman cried.
Claug took a single step toward them like a prowling cat, her heartbeat growing louder and faster as the flame of their camp flashed bright red. "I'll take the gold later..." She stared at the woman who just spoke with a grin.
The woman started shaking and fell to her knees. "You've been courageous enough to call me out. Tickling my sweet spot..." She sniffed her with a growl. "I'll take you with me as well..."
"The gold..." A knight in the back growled, "Can you take it? Please leave her," He said.
Claug extended her tongue out and licked the woman from head to toe, lifting her up like a fly in a toad's long tongue.
"Save me..." the woman cried, her army cracked under the pressure of Claug's tongue. Claug then closed her mouth on the woman, entrapping her and muffling her screams and pleas. "I'll take her and the gold. Unless you can pay me for her a hundred gold coins so I can buy a more beautiful slave."
Claug approached the door and lifted her claws, about to smash the whole place.
"Please wait!" one of the knights cried, "We'll bring you the gold, please let us do that." Claug sat in place. "Server me, bugs."
The knights rushed inside to carry the gold out to her. They can either peacefully comply, or get all burned to death. This red dragon is taking the gold anyway, the best they can do is try to keep the safe house from being destroyed and save their own lives. Death here would be meaningless.
As the knights moved the gold out, they all agreed to gather their money together to pay for the woman's price, the knight who spoke for her was her fiancé. They were to be married the next month, they couldn't leave their college and get separated like this.
"This is all the gold in the house. The total worth is five hundred platinum coins." One of the knights showed the crates to Claug.
"Indeed, I don't smell any more gold inside. But, you're carrying something else." She sniffed him.
"We've gathered a hundred gold coins for you. Please release her." He put the bag of gold above the crates.
"A deal is a deal," she giggled and opened her mouth, spitting the unconscious woman on the ground. "I can just take your money and leave, but I'll tell you why I'll honor the deal with you bugs." She giggled and glared at the woman's fiancé.
"She smells of two more men other than you..." Claug giggled, "Unlike you, I don't like used goods." She grabbed the gold and flew away, leaving that bombshell as a parting gift.
When Claug returned to her lair, the girls and Tempo who were watching stared at her as she poured the five hundred platinum coins and hundred gold into a separate room. "Second part done, now for the third." She approached them with a smile.
"Are the kobolds taking good care of you?" Claug asked with a smile.
"They are..." Aella looked at her, "But what are you going to do next?"
"Just keep watching. I need to act quickly, so I'm leaving now." She opened her wings and flew out immediately.
Claug landed in the forest beside Jeffry's mansion and looked around with a grin, "Good, the trees are tall here." She shifted into a gold drakaina again and stood on her hind legs, using illusion magic to create an image of herself{True form}
"I'm indeed beautiful; you won't find such sparkling green scales anywhere else." She looked back, "Time to work." She started casting spells and flying everywhere, brawling with her illusion in what looked like a deadly battle.
The forest quaked and monsters started running away. Jeffry's mansion cracked from the quakes as fire rose from the ground and lightning fell from the sky. Everyone could see Claug clashing with the gold drakaina among the clouds; their roars sent terror into the people of the nearby cities and villages.
After a long battle that lasted almost an hour, the gold drakaina managed to get a clean slash on Claug's neck, severing her head and dropping her corpse behind the mountains, but not before losing an arm.
Jeffry cheered, "Yes! She got her!" He looked at the knights, "Is it ready?" He already knew that some random red dragon stole his money, that was painful, but it was not a problem, he could still gather another five hundred platinum coins if he sold his treasures and fired some knights. He can still make that money back and profit from Claug's hoard and body.
The gold drakaina landed in his courtyard, careful not to damage anything or drip her blood into the wells. "Don't worry; I won't even soil your ground. I'm only here for my pay."
"Of course! We have it right here, I've brought it the moment I saw your magnificent battle starts." Jeffry waved his hand as the knights dragged a cart full of gold. "I hope your injuries heal soon."
"Don't worry, I'll get better." The gold drakaina grabbed the carriage and left without damaging a single flow in his garden or leaving a droplet of blood.
"That was a hefty sum of money, I'm basically broke now...but let's hurry. We must get Claug's body fresh to sell it. The sooner the better."
He rushed on horseback to get Claug's corpse.
Claug landed back in her lair and dropped the second five hundred platinum coins, "Let's keep
going." She flew out immediately, leaving the girls baffled.
The moment Jeffry and his knights reached the place where Claug's corpse dropped they found nothing but a large crater and some blood. "Did someone take the corpse before us? Her head was severed, she can't be alive." He growled.
"It's almost nightfall and this place in the forest is extremely dangerous. We need to get back to the mansion and head to her lair tomorrow. We'll also send a search group to find the thieves." His knight commander said with a confident face. "Don't worry, we'll get her back." "You better do. We'll need that money." Jeffry growled as he returned to the mansion with his
men.
Claug who was watching them from afar giggled, flying to greet them.
Just half an hour after Jeffry got back to his house, Claug landed in his courtyard in her true form with a large thud. "Jeffry! You've sent a gold drakaina to kill me! What the fuck were you thinking, bug." Her roar shook the whole estate and shattered their windows.
The knights came out panicking as did Jeffry, half naked as he was just taking a bath with his
wife.
"Claug?! You're alive?" He cried.
"You really thought a gold drakaina could kill me you fool? To let you know, I've already
killed her." She reached with her claw in his house and pulled his naked wife out of the bath, dangling her in front of everyone by the legs.
"Fucking pay me twice what you paid her, or you're the whole family will witness something ugly as their last thing in life." Claug growled, violently shaking his wife. "Please put her down! I'll get you the money, five hundred platinum coins." He cried.
"Huh?" Claug growled and bit his wife's arm off, "I've said double. You've paid the gold drakaina five hundred."
The wife screamed her lungs off, but Claug couldn't care less. She's been spying on them for the past years and knew well that all of her problems with this stupid noble house came from Jeffry and his wife's schemes, so she's now showing them what a dragon can do. "I'll get you the money! Anything you ask for, just put her down, she'll die of blood loss." Jeffry was about to lose his mind, everything had escalated far beyond what he could handle. "Get the money now. I'm sitting here with her until you do, you better hurry up." As Claug growled Jeffry rushed out with his knights to take loans from other nobles, it was an emergency so he just gave them signed letters to ask for money in his place. After two hours, Jeffry managed to gather a thousand platinum coins from debts and presented them to Claug,
two full carts of gold.
"This is it, please let my wife go." He cried.
Claug nodded, "This gold solves you hiring a gold drakaina to kill me." She smiled, "Now..."
She glared at the wife, "You're the bitch who sold my lair's location in an auction after coming by it by pure lucks, I've even asked you not to, and paid you for it." She growled, biting her second arm off.
As his wife screamed her lungs off in agony, Jeffry's face twisted like it was drying out. "Wait!
I didn't hear anything about that?!" He was losing his hair.
"Your wife found my lair's location a decade ago. I've asked her not to disclose that information and paid her a hundred platinum coins, tried to be civilized." Claug lifted her tail up. "She sold that information and you know that. She'll now pay for it." She swung her massive tail and crushed Jeffry's barns and farmland, killing half of his guards and toppling several sections of his mansion.
In the wake of all the destruction, Claug wasn't stopping and she crushed his legs with a second hit before breathing on him with her draconic poison, crippling him for life.
As the surviving knight stared in terror, Claug flew with the money and wife away. Less than an hour later, she sold the wife for four hundred platinum coins to another noble family that wanted to use her as a political tool.
At this moment, Claug had made two thousand and four hundred platinum coins and a hundred gold coins, but she wasn't done yet. Her plan had only reached the halfway point.