Chapter 4: The Payoff

The gator’s body unsheathed into four segments, revealing razor-sharp blades within each segment, allowing it’s body to elongate, forming a circle around Jayden.

“Fuck! How could I have forgotten I’m fighting a mana beast, not a regular Gator?” Jayden whispered, biting his lips.

The gamble of injecting the Gator before it obliterated him was clearly a loss.

’I see why the government made beast taming illegal, it’s too dangerous. At least, dying in the hands of this Gator is much honourable than in the hands of those plagues, but still, I don’t wanna die. I haven’t enjoyed life to its fullest.’

Jayden thought, his heart pounding within his chest as he watched the gator’s once hidden blade reach for his skin, hopelessly waiting for his own death.

Then another sound drew his attention. A loud cracking resonated from the egg.

Jayden turned to realise the egg was glowing brightly with two contradicting colours.

’Is it hatching? Could it be reacting to the mana concentration? Something, please happen like in the movies!’

The egg cracked open, bright light spilling from within, forcing Jayden to divert his gaze, but with the last bit of hope he had, he poured mana out of his fingertips.

It was like everything was happening too slowly.

Whoosh…

The egg exploded from the top, concentrated mana howling like a bullet of air from within, and only the sound of footsteps followed.

“Come on! Come on! Come on!” Jayden clenched his teeth, feeling the blades’ gaze on his skin.

As for what had hatched from the egg, it could be anything but certainly not a dragon. The only dragons in this world were recreated from the flesh of other dead dragons, but that wasn’t much of Jayden’s thought. It was all about how to survive when he was already this cornered.

Jayden felt a soft touch on his hand, just before mana fused with mana. It was like adding another soul to one body and increasing its strength.

His body began coursing with power, like hot, flowing liquids within his veins, and slowly but surely, he could feel a core form within him.

Outwardly, an explosion of golden aura shot out of Jayden like a chaotic wind, enough to push the gator away and slam it into a nearby wall.

“F-for the second time I didn’t die!” Jayden whispered as he opened his eyes, looking at the aura that shrouded his skin like it wasn’t his own.

His eyes turned to see the gator, but what he saw shook him to the core.

Jayden took a step backwards, rubbing his eyes with his hand. “Was the air always blue?” His face frowned in confusion.

“Sigh… that’s because there’s mana in the air,” a sly voice answered.

“Who’s there?” Jayden scanned around as he positioned himself in a cautious stance, heart drumming within his chest.

“Don’t tell me you’re such an idiot to not know a voice coming from your own head.”

“Hmm..” Jayden hummed as he realised, ’it’s literally sounding in my head.’

“My beast can talk?”

“Yes I can, what did you think? I’m some gigantic chicken trapped in an egg?”

“Yes. Well, no. I thought you were just a stone at first, but when the egg started showing light, I concluded the stone was programmed with glowing effects.”

“Uh-huh, I wouldn’t take that from no damn human.”

“Then what are you? An animal?” Jayden giggled a bit.

“Don’t get on my nerves, kid. I’m the strongest dragon in two worlds.”

Jayden paused for a moment, the words first appeared like a joke, but the fact that the beast could talk was an attribute he could not deny, even when it was too good to be true.

“T-Then prove it,” Jayden stammered, a cool shiver running down his spine.

The dragon, or so the voice called itself, hissed, but then Jayden could feel it, knowledge flowing into his mind like a dam breaking open. And within this knowledge there was evidence. He fell to one knee, holding his temple in pain.

“Apart from my knowledge I just shared with you, the fact that you can see mana at such a low rank was only made possible by my draconic enhanced sight.”

Jayden was speechless. It was all coming together for one piece in his mind, the piece he still couldn’t believe.

’Does this mean my English script didn’t go to waste, the humiliation wasn’t for nothing, nor did being chased by rats go in vain? Does this mean my hard work really paid but only took time?’

Jayden was drowning in his thoughts.

“No. The only real meaning is that you need to get strong and let’s kick your father’s ass, my butt still hurts from him smacking me to the ground.”

“So I really got a dragon?” Jayden whispered, excitement bubbling within his skin and tears forming at the corner of his eyes. “What should I call you? What elements do you use? What—”

“Can you save your questions for later and focus on us not dying?”

“Huuu?” Jayden exhaled, just before he noticed the gator lunging at him from his blind spot.

Jayden immediately sidestepped to create distance, but he ended up flying far back and falling to the ground.

“Damn, I forgot dragons give a 50% strength boost at their lowest level.”

“Mine isn’t a 50 per cent boost,” the voice protested in his mind. “What do you think? I’m some science project made in the laboratory? Be grateful, for I have granted you a 100% increase in strength at D ranking tier 3.”

“Wow, so you think I can punch this thing to death?” Jayden muttered in excitement.

“Yes, but not after it slices you in half,” the dragon purred in his mind.

Jayden took a look at the environment again, the blue air, he could see the bonding patterns within the earth crystals, how thin lines met at the centre from different parts of the crystal, same for the blue water crystals flanking the river, but what caught his eye…

“Perfect,” he picked up three sticks from the floor, just as long as he needed.

“Going too close to that beast is dangerous,” the dragon warned ahead. He could hear Jayden’s thoughts like its own.

“Don’t worry. I’ve got this!” Jayden took deep breaths and steadied himself, then charged at the gator.

He stopped mid-charge, shocked at the speed at which he ran.

“Okay,” he smiled. “Let’s try this again,” he said, then began taking slow steps, gaining control of his own feet, and then turned it into a sprint.

Just meters from the gator, it lunged at him, fast this time, but Jayden was faster. He sped past the gator’s maw then, with calculated precision, dropped the sticks, one into each of that gator’s segments, which forced it to be left open.

But before Jayden could smile for victory,

“Watch out, kid!”

Jayden gritted his teeth, the gator’s tail was flying right at him.

With dragon-enhanced strength, he caught the tail and threw it above his head while skidding low and dodging the gator, leaving it to crash to the ground with a loud boom.

“Jeez. That was luck,” Jayden wiped off sweat from his temple.

Now the gator’s fore and hind limbs were far apart, making it impossible for it to move. The beast let out a painful growl, crying in its defeat.

Then something caught Jayden’s eyes just as he exhaled a deep breath of relief.

A hole in the wall where the Gator had crashed into minutes ago.

Jayden rushed to the hole, he could see light on the other side of the wall, but when he got there, what he saw was a shock to both him and the nation.

“The MAGEO has a hidden facility!”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep