Battle in the Oakwood Strath (3)

With the loss of Vincent for the bandits and the sudden addition of a young dragon for the army, the favour of the battle shifted drastically towards the Bristol coalition. The Mammoth Bandits suffered greatly as morale dropped like a stone at the leader's death, then like a boulder after the remaining vice leaders fell at the hands of the high-level adventurers and soldiers. Wave after wave of Firebolts, Ice Spikes, Earth Spikes, and such crushed the collapsing bandit horde, along with the powerful support of Austin's Lightning spells. As all of this came from the front, stronger spells dropped from above as Arcturus's innate draconic prowess revealed itself for the first time. As this happened, Luca took the time to look through the rewards he'd received from his successful kill.

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Option 1: Additional Affinity

Option 2: Attribute Upgrade

Option 3: Special Ability

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"Hmm, I could use any of these three. System, show me what I can get with Options 2 and 3."

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Option 2

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Health: Increase of 100hp to maximum total.

Mana: Increase of 100mp to maximum total.

HP Recovery: Increase to 5hp per second.

MP Recovery: Increase to 10mp per second.

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Option 3

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First Awakening: Awakens the user's bloodline to the starting point. Abilities are granted at random.

Spell Proficiency: Lowers spell cost and casting time by 1mp per 20 casts.

Instant Cast (Limited): Can cast spells up to one level above the user instantly, 5 times per day.

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"Bloody hell, this is brutal... I really need all of what these 3 have... ugh, this is irritating..." Luca was back to having a serious debate over a decision, constantly making grumbling noises and sighs. This bothered Arcturus, who asked what was wrong. "I'm trying to pick something that will help me a lot... Should I get a new affinity, increase my health or mana, or choose a unique ability... One of the abilities is awakening my bloodline somewhat."

(Your bloodline? You have a bloodline..? I felt something odd about your scent, big brother. Humans all have distinct scents, but yours doesn't have that one-of-a-kind feeling that humans do. You definitely are human, I can smell that much, but whatever I can't smell is clearly not human. If it's your bloodline, then it makes sense that I can't smell it; I'm not strong enough to smell unawakened bloodlines. What bloodline is it?) Arcturus gave his thoughts to his partner, giving the boy insights into what the dragon could sense. The dragon continued to rain death upon the bandits, not forgetting to give off an intimidating roar now and again.

"I know that I'm half-dragon, but I don't know what kind of dragon. Any ability I awaken will be helpful to me, but I don't know what it will be."

This caused the dragon's concentration on the battle to waver, almost making him whip his head towards Luca. After a Stream spell collapsed on him, he recollected himself and returned to his earlier attacks, (Dragon!? Big brother is a dragonkin?)

"There are some things we need to talk about later to explain this, but yes, I am half-dragon. That's why my status said 'Human+' back at the Mages Guild. Normally, it shows the full race, but since I have a bloodline that isn't awakened, it only showed 'Human+'. Once I awaken it, it will show my real race, which will be 'Dragonborn', as any hybrid children of dragons are named regardless of their other parentage. Still, Dragonborns are super rare, rarer than dragons alone. A new Dragonborn hasn't been recorded for at least 300 years either."

(Hmm...) Arcturus's immaturity, while still prevalent, was much less apparent while he was being serious. He wasn't completely a child like his age since dragons all have higher intelligence than most mortal creatures from the very beginning. (The only way to know what kind of dragon it'd be is to awaken it, right? Besides, if you awaken it, you can completely forget about choosing to upgrade your health or mana, because you'll automatically do that if you access your dragon heritage. What about the other abilities?) After Luca briefly summarized the options, Arcturus continued, (Spell Proficiency is indeed important, but that can be done by you over time. It just takes practice, at least according to the ancestral knowledge I have.) All dragons had access to the collective wisdom of their race's predecessors, giving them an edge in numerous things, the least of which involving magic. (As for the Instant Cast, that can be attributed to Spell Proficiency at its height, so all you would need to do is train. An extra affinity is awesome, too, but you forget that dragons have inherent affinities as well.)

"True... In the end, the best choice is to awaken my bloodline, right?"

(Awakening a bloodline isn't something that can be done by training, either, so awakening it early can help develop it faster. Plus, a pair of dragonkin together is extremely powerful.) The latter statement was Arc's natural childish nature popping up, as he really wanted to be able to fly with his big brother someday.

Luca sighed and picked [First Awakening], "Alright, here we go... Reed, I recommend you move behind Arc. His natural aura will protect you from what is about to happen to me."

Reed had only heard the last few words Luca had spoken, as most of it was telepathic. Upon hearing that he should relocate, he said, "What is about to happen to you..?"

"You'll see in a minute, but you don't want to be close to me." He then grunted loudly as he felt his body heating up rapidly, his veins quickly becoming bright and vivid to the naked eye to look like magma. "Move, now!" As soon as the scout had blanched and quickly ducked for cover, Luca screamed as several minor veins burst open, along with causing a huge surge of visible magical power through the area like a shockwave. If not for his relocation behind Arcturus, Reed would have been struck head-on and taken a lot of damage from both the high density and from hitting a tree or two in his path. Arcturus's dragon aura was immune to it, as this burst contained dragon aura within it, thus saving Reed from its wrath.

Nearly uncountable kinds of sensations rippled through the boy's body, but the pain was barely present compared to his previous body alteration experience. The pain he did feel came from his limbs and his back as bulges began to appear. With a powerful draconic roar, Luca's bloodline fully awakened as a pair of almost glassy wings, a good 5 meters in span, erupted from his spine, along with similarly-coloured wing-like fins appearing from the inside angles of his limbs like a glider suit, though his legs did not connect. At the same time, his skin shimmered and became akin to scales in strength but retained its natural stretch and smooth texture. Two dark fang-like tattoos formed under his eyes as a 2m tail sprang from his tailbone, glassy in colouration akin to the other draconic aspects.

When Luca's aura condensed and returned to a more normal state, though now with a less powerful dragon aura compared to Arcturus, he appeared to be like a child version of the humanoid appearances dragons could take upon reaching adulthood.