64 The travelling girl VI

"I need to make a name for myself" the girl inside the black armor mumbled as she continued to distance herself from the vampire kingdom with Lian Garen right behind her.

The two of them were in the middle of an open grassy terrain and were slowly approaching what appeared to be a deep forest with trees so high they could reach for the clouds.

The red-haired dragon in human form began to nod while holding his chin, "Agreed. I'm getting really tired of just calling you 'child, girl, kid, and annoying mouthy spoiled brat' all the time... A name would help a lot!"

"I'm not talking about that kind of name moron!" she groaned while flicking his forehead, "I mean I need to gain reputation!"

"Ah... I see..."

"That stupid vampire brat kicked me out from his stupid vampire kingdom because I'm basically a nobody! If I want him to pay attention to what I have to say I need to convince him I'm someone worth listening to! I need to become some sort of big deal... Somehow!"

"A bigger deal than being a dragon killer it seems... Vampires can truly be a rather arrogant race! They should worship you as a goddess for simply managing to lay a finger on one of my kin. Truly they are a perfect example of the embodiment of arrogance..."

The girl tilted her head while gazing at him, "I think you of all people have NO right to ever talk about someone's arrogance..."

"You keep saying that. I'm starting to feel you just don't want to hear me talk altogether..."

"That would also be acceptable to be honest."

Lian glared at her and rolled his eyes as they kept going their way.

Before they realized it, the two of them were right outside of the forest of unmeasurable heights.

Each of the trees had no branches in their trunks, making them seem more like a series of brown-colored pillars. Parts of their roots were so big that made the entire ground appear to be covered in some sort of upper layer of wood in the shape of tentacles. An intense thick mist also loomed over the air making it impossible to see where the forest ended.

"Lily, where are we?" the girl asked while thinking if they should advance through these woods or simply circle around it.

"It seems we have reached a part of the dragon empire's territory" Lian mumbled while analyzing the scenery in front of him.

"Oh! Are we close to your home?"

"Hardly... The dragon empire is a floating island hovering high above the clouds sustained by a special combination of magic and technology that my people acquired possession of over the years!"

"Floating island??"

"Yes! A really big one. Big enough to sustain an entire empire's population."

"Okay... I'm gonna admit that's kinda cool... But... Why does it have to be floating?"

"Why? You're not gonna ask how we managed to make it float?"

The girl simply shrugged, "I'm a damn talking empty armor and you can turn yourself into a giant red-scaled winged Anaconda rip-off... You kinda stop asking questions about these things after a while..."

"I see... Well, if you must know, it's mostly for the safety of our young ones. The members of the dragon race can't access their second forms before a certain series of requirements are met, thus, to keep them away from harm, our land is separated from the rest of the world in order to stop any of the other factions from trying to harm them while they are defenseless" he explained.

"That sounds like so much effort just to keep your kids away from strangers... Can't you guys just try to get along or something? You wouldn't need to lift your whole country into the sky just to avoid your enemies if you didn't have enemies!"

Lian glared at her again, "Do all nations get along well in your world?"

"... ... ... Okay, fair point..." She admitted, "So anyway if that's the case, why is a forest from your race all the way down here?"

"One of the spoils from a previous faction game!" he commented while puffing his chest out with pride, "This forest used to belong to the crawler faction, but after they were defeated on the game from sixty years ago, it has since become property of the dragons to use in any way they want."

"Crawler faction...? You mean you guys stole someone else's territory?"

"We CLAIMED someone else's territory! It is our right as the winners of the game. Don't you think it's better for something to be in the possession of those that deserve it more?"

"Deserve...?" the girl mumbled. Suddenly a memory of her time before coming into this world started to flash before her eyes.

She started to recall memories of the boy that lead her and her friend to fall from the bridge and into their deaths, all because he claimed to be entitled to someone's affection.

"Who exactly decided that you deserved this forest more than others?"

Lian raised an eyebrow upon seeing her sudden shift in tone, "The dragons are the superior race! In our hands, we can make anything reach its true potential! Why not share our greatness with the rest of the world by letting it fall under our control?"

A couple of shadows began to listen to the sound of their voices and started to move through the woods.

"Letting it fall? You think you're doing a favor to them by taking something that isn't yours?"

"Of course we are! Why do you think we have survived the faction game all these years? Dragons are simply built better! We are stronger, smarter, and overall superior to any other race!"

"Just because you're stronger doesn't mean you're better than others!"

The shadows started to slowly approach their position as the two continued to lose themselves in their discussion.

"Foolish child! Strenght is everything! Power is everything! Why do you think you failed at entering the vampire kingdom? Because you didn't show them your true power! You simply ran away like a coward and wasted everyone's time!"

"That's not true! I saved their lives and respected their wishes! I'm being thoughtful!"

"Thoughtful?? So if they simply decided that they all want to die you are going to let them do it in order to respect their wishes?? Those with power need to make decisions for those that don't have power! It's what a king does! It's what an emperor does! It's what every ruler is meant to do! They are meant to lead the people into what's best for them!"

"You don't know what's best for them! You don't know anything about them!"

Lian just sighed and began to scratch his hair, "Why are we even having this discussion? What does that have to do with anything??"

"Because it's people like YOU that made me be where I am today!!" she claimed while stomping her way towards him while raising her index, "Absolute morons that think they are entitled to something just because they think they're better than others!"

The red-haired dragon rolled his eyes and then proceeded to enlarge them once he realized the large shadow towering above the black knight.

"Child..." Lian whispered.

The girl ignored him and started to go on a rant, "Have you ever considered that this poor forest might not want to belong to you? That it might be happier with these crawlers guys? Or maybe it doesn't want to belong to anyone? Maybe it just wants to be its own forest! Have you considered that you trying to take possession of it might actually do more harm to it than good??"

"Child!" Lian whispered again, this time a little louder.

She began to walk back and forth while waving her arms, "I mean, seriously! Are you so drunk on your own ego that you honestly convinced yourself that you simply are entitled to anything you want? Does the sky belong to you as well? The sun? The moon? Should the whole planet be included in your property just because you are, quote-on-quote, superior to the other races? Can't you see how arrogant you sound right now?"

"CHILD!!!" Lian finally shouted.

"WHAT!!??"

"You're going to be eaten!" he explained while pointing up.

"I'm what now?"

She finally looked up and witnessed rows of teeth right above her head and dripping saliva on top of her helmet.

"This conversation is not over!" she shouted at her traveling partner right before being devoured whole by a massive white beast.

Lian gave a few steps backwards and took a moment to stare at the creature in its entirety.

Its size was about as big as a truck. The body was composed of a mix between a spider and an alligator. The lower half belonged to an arachnid but in the place where the head should be, instead, there was the face of a lizard with white scales and eight orange eyes.

The creature continued to chew on the girl as more beings of the same type started to step away from the mist and come closer.

Lian began to count and realized that a group of about twenty of these things had revealed themselves.

He was about to turn into his dragon form in order to engage in battle but stopped once he heard the sound of something being sliced, followed by the cry of agony from the creature that ate the girl.

Upon a closer look, he could see the tip of the claymore sticking out from the monster's skull and before he knew it, the entire blade was being swung down over its body, completely slashing it in two pieces.

"Aaaarghhh!! That was disgusting!!!" the girl cried as she jumped out of the eight-legged being's remains and landed on the grass while covered in blood and guts.

This might have been the first time she was glad she couldn't feel anything as she really didn't want to imagine what it would be like to go through that situation in her real body.

"What was that!??" she shouted while desperately trying to rid herself of the insides of the creature.

"It's a crawler! I told you we were in their territory!"

The girl gazed at their surroundings and noticed the small army of spider-lizard monsters that had formed as well as the number of shadows that kept approaching in the distance.

In a matter of seconds, the two were completely surrounded by what appeared to be sixty or more white eight-legged creatures with lizard heads.

"You don't think they might just forgive us for killing one of their brothers, do you?" she asked while picking up her sword and assuming a fighting stance.

The whole forest then started to scream at her while revealing the same rows of teeth inside each of their massive jaws.

"Yeah, figures..."