Chronicles Of Sen Krendrath

Chapter 8

“Are we there yet?” Sen asked for the hundredth time, as they flew over yet another stinking human village.

“Nope, sorry,” manling Kyle replied, his eyes set on the map he struggled to keep pace with the wind. “Ogron was last seen near Haudemer, and this is Pointin.”

“How do you know?” Sen lambasted his minion guide. They had flown all the way across the land, almost reaching the western sea; yet missed the target. “All of your dirty villages look the same!”

“Oh, Your Majesty, I believe the next one will be the right one.”

“And how so?”

“Because of the fires, Your Majesty.”

Indeed, a column of fire rose from the west, on the coast. Sen squinted, noticing a small city under assault by a large group of manlings.

Sen approached the city and circled it from above to take a good view of it and the nearby beaches. It was larger than the villages they had visited, with stone houses and a wooden extension leading into the sea itself; a port welcomed a dozen floating buildings the manlings called ships. Quite a few of the inhabitants hastily tried to board them.

A large group of manlings, around eighty, attacked the city from the north, axemen slaughtering people like pigs while bowmen set the roofs of nearby buildings on fire. Dozens of corpses littered the stony ground, while defenders used carts as improved barricades to slow down the invaders’ progress.

A monstrous, fifteen-foot tall cyclops led the manling attackers, swinging a large two-handed axe which cut soldiers in half with each blow. Arrows and spears bounced off his thick green skin, as he tossed carts away with every step.

Incensed at them not stopping to marvel at his arrival, Sen let out a mighty roar from above, and it did the trick. Everyone looked up at him, freezing at his crimson majesty, their faces draining of colors.

“A dragon!” one of the defenders shouted on the ground. “Ogron has a dragon!”

“Ogron? Aha, finally!” Sen chuckled. “Minion, on whom do I land?”

“The attackers, Your Majesty.”

Sen descended in the streets below, the manlings fleeing at his sight; but not fast enough. His landing blew away nearby houses and crushed half a dozen latecomers.

Only the cyclops hadn’t run, glaring at his men with its single eye. “Cowards! Dragons aren’t scary!” he shouted at them.

“Of course not, they are amazing,” Sen replied, releasing his minion on the ground. The defenders cowered behind the barricades, unsure how to take this turn of events. “Which of you is Ogron the Ogre?”

The cyclops struck the ground with his axe, pulverizing stones and making the street tremble. “I am!”

Sen looked at the cyclops, then burst out laughing, the one-eyed meat responding with a glare. “No seriously, which of you is Ogron?”

“Your Majesty, this is Ogron,” the minion said.

“Minion, this is a cyclops, not an ogre. Ogres have two eyes.”

“Yeah, I know, but that’s Ogron the Ogre anyway. I’ve seen his poster.”

“You goddamn righ’,” the one-eyed ogre said with rising frustration. “Ain’t no other Ogron! I traveled to this country to figh’ and make war for Gardemagne! I bled dry, and instead of gold, the king gave me a dirt poor farm! Ogron ain’t no farmer, he is a warrior! Ogron will not stop until—”

Sen zoned out at that point, too confused by the eye paradox. All he could notice were isolated blabbering, “Ogron, Ogron, Ogron, pirate! Blah blah, flee the country! Ogrongron, knights!”

“—and that is why Ogron will sail these boats!”

“Minion, if he is a cyclops and not an ogre, why is he called Ogron the Ogre?” Sen ignored the one-eyed ogre. “It doesn’t make sense!”

“Ogron is called Ogron the ogre because...” the cyclops said with a low growl, swinging his axe with impatience and showing his bloodied teeth. “Ogron eats people.”

“You too?” Sen looked at the cyclops with a new, fresh gaze. He was just fat enough around the angles, with plenty of meat…

The cyclops let out a roar, raising his axe to swing it at Sen. “You die—”

Chomp!

Sen took a bit out of the giant’s upper torso, swallowing a third of the corpse in one go. He sprayed blood all over his mouth, too ravenous to care. Everyone looked at Sen as he digested the cyclops’ eye and head, the manlings having all turned pale for some reason.

“Minhion, shyclopsh tashte like shalty pihg!” Sen chewed on the giant’s flesh, finding the taste too sweet to stop with one bite. “Sho good! I wansh more!”

“What about some human bandit snack to go with the taste?” Manling Kyle suggested, pointing a finger at the cyclops’ pale followers.

They looked a bit too sick now, but Sen approached his muzzle to smell them closer; at least one of the archers had soiled himself, so the dragon made a face. The bandits panicked at his approach, running away from him screaming.

Sen wondered if he should pursue them, then decided he would rather eat the rest of the cyclops than run. He absentmindedly grabbed a large chunk of a house’s stone wall, and tossed it at the fleeing manlings, crushing many of them like insects. The others sped up even faster after that, and Sen returned to his meal.

He ate the rest of the one-eyed ogre with two more bites and let out a belch.

You gained a level in [Noble]! You earned the Class Perk: [Snobbery]!

+1 STR, +1 VIT, +1 CHA, +1 LCK!

[Snobbery]: your attacks inflict five percent more damage on non-noble targets, and you receive five percent less damage from non-noble assaillants.

“Minion, I leveled up!”

“Sweet, how many stat points did you win?”

“Four, minion,” Sen replied proudly, before realizing he had no idea what that meant. “Minion, where do stat points go?”

“You can check your class and stats by saying ‘Menu’ out loud.”

“Really?”

“Your Majesty didn’t notice?”

…

“Of course I noticed,” Sen spared the minion’s feelings. “I always noticed. I was just testing your knowledge. And you have passed.”

“Truly an honor,” the minion replied with gratitude.

“Menu!” Sen said, the word making him hungrier than the ogre. A series of words appeared out of nowhere in front of him.

Sen Krendrath

Level: 3 (Noble 3)

Type: Dragon

Party: V&V

Health Points 5,315

Special Points 1,290

Strength 95

Vitality 88

Skill 11

Agility 39

Intelligence 9

Charisma 71

Luck 39

Personal Perks Class Perks

Dragonfire Breath Old Money

Fire Immunity Snobbery

Red Dragon Lifeforce

Dragon Arrogance

Dragonscale

Super Senses

Virgin Princess Radar

Lesser Poison Resistance

V&V? Double Sen!

A heavy silence had fallen on the area, and Sen realized the manlings defenders looked at him with open eyes.

“Minion, the ambiance feels too heavy,” the dragon said. “Sing my praise to cheer it up.”

Manling Kyle immediately raised a fist. “Sen, best dragon!” He turned to the silent manlings behind the barricades, raising his other hand to encourage them, “Sen, best dragon!”

“Sen, best dragon!” a urine-smelling man said. Eventually, the other manlings joined in.

“Sen, best dragon!” “Sen, best dragon!” “Sen, best dragon!”

Much better. “Thank you, thank you, I deserved it,” Sen said, licking the blood on his lips. “I, Sen, am an adventurer coming to rescue you! See the plate? See the lead plate? Now bring me your cattle!”

They fed him only a cow and two pigs, which disappointed Sen slightly, but he was too full from the cyclops to complain.

Sen had made his nest on the beach next to the city, resting on the warm sand as he digested his meal. Even if he had saved the city, he noticed quite a few ships leaving it regardless, fleeing as far away from him as possible. The dragon ignored them and toyed with this ‘menu’ power.

“Menu,” he said, the words appearing, before saying it again. “Menu.” The words disappeared. He did again, finding the process strangely addictive.

After five minutes of playing, Sen noticed the minion returning with two other manlings, one female—not a princess—and the other male. The former was an adult with large mammaries, long blonde hair and that strange clothing the manlings called a dress; the other was an old, frail male with a grey beard and a hat, but otherwise perfectly plain.

Sen still had trouble telling one monkey from another. They all looked the same at first glance.

“Your Majesty,” minion Kyle said. “This is the mayor of Haudemer, and its innkeeper, Miss Lynette, and the village’s Class Scholar, Henry Bright. I briefed them on your career choice.”

“Your Majesty Sen, on behalf of Haudemer,” the female manling said, bowing deeply, “As thanks for saving the city, allow me to grant you the city’s highest honors, the keys to—”

“Where is my money?” Sen cut her off.

“Already covered, Your Majesty,” Kyle replied, while the female remained speechless from the blunt rebuke. “The local guildhall reported your deed to the Duchess, who will send men at arms to deliver the reward soon.”

The mayor coughed. “Please allow me to offer you free lodging at my inn for a week, free of charge. It would be a pleasure to have you around.”

“Is there a lava bath?” Sen asked.