The dragon’s weakest rider

5

“Well, it wasn’t that hard was it?” Caleb said, folding back the signed paper and putting it in his pocket and left with Leo.

Victor went to his room while Clara returned to her work. Only Neri stayed with Eryx, she stared at him with pity.

“You shouldn’t have signed it, Eryx,” she muttered.

Eryx smiled weakly, rubbing her cheeks. His younger sister cared so much about him than the others.

“Neri, thank you for standing up for me, but I had to do this. After all, now I can proudly say I have contributed to the growth of this family with the compensation money.”

Neri frowned at Eryx’s humorless joke. “This isn’t funny and this isn’t fair.”

Her voice dropped as well as her eyes and then in that moment, she took off one of her bracelets and wore it on his hand.

“For Goodluck,” she managed to smile, looking up at him as tears streamed down her face. “Promise me you will come back. Promise me you will stay alive.”

Eryx swallowed hard. There was no way he could promise such, he was a weakling, he might not even last a day but he also didn’t want to destroy his sister further.

So he lied.

“I promise.”

…

The next morning, Eryx stood alone staring at the Academy. The name Obsidian Spire Academy was boldly written on the gates.

At that moment, the gates slowly opened and the crowd excitedly went in. The elders were already seated at the altar, watching as each candidate stepped into the courtyard.

The courtyard gradually fell silent as one of the elders stepped forward, his white robes trailing behind him. His gaze swept across the gathered candidates.

“Welcome to the Rite of Binding!”

His voice echoed across the yard alongside the sound of the wild wind.

“For most of you, this moment has been a lifetime in the making due to your respective families. Years of preparation and sacrifice have led you here—”

“Look at that one,” a noble heir whispered sharply, pointing at Eryx with a gloved hand, a look of pure disgust on his face. “He looks like he crawled out of the garbage.”

“—But understand this clearly,” the Elder continued. “Efforts alone do not grant you worth in the eyes of a dragon. Today, the skies will open and they will come.”

He lifted up his hands to the sky as if to summon them.

“Maybe he’s here to clean the dragon’s dung,” a girl in a silk tunic giggled. “The Academy must be getting desperate to recruit if they just left beggars standing on the same ground with us. He’s ruining the smell of the atmosphere!”

“The dragons of Aetherion do not answer to the academy,” the elder’s voice rose, drowning down the murmurs. “Your bloodlines, your status, or your ambitions.”

“They choose…”

“And they reject…”

“I hope a dragon rejects him by eating him,” another boy muttered, intentionally stepping on Eryx’s frost-bitten foot. “Saves us the trouble of killing him by ourselves.”

Eryx kept his eyes on the elder as he spoke, he had heard worse words than this so he pretended not to notice the stares and jeers.

He was here to die and not to compete with them.

“When a dragon descends, it will seek the one it deems worthy. If it finds you lacking, it will pass you without hesitation,” the Elder warned, his voice turning cold. “And when the last dragon leaves this courtyard, so does your chance—”

“For those who are chosen, the bond will form immediately. You will feel it stretching within your very core, and to some, it will be painless, and to others, painful and energy-consuming. But remember, that connection is not only symbolic but final.”

His voice lowered slightly.

“Your life will be tied to your dragon. Its strength will shape yours, and its death will end you. So protect your dragon the same way it will protect you, but do not expect control today. You will not be able to command your dragons, nor will you be able to understand it or fully hear it yet—”

“That comes later. Those who are successfully bonded will be admitted into the academy, where your training begins. Through our instructors, you will learn how to stabilise your bonds, to communicate beyond instinct, and to draw upon your dragon’s strength and magic without destroying yourselves in the process—”

“You will be taught how to mount your dragon. How to move with it. How to fight alongside it. But understand this: bonding isn’t the end of your trial.”

His gaze swept across them one final time.

“It’s the beginning of it. Some of you will rise, while some will fail, and some of you will wish you had never been chosen at all.”

He stepped back.

“The Rite will now begin.”

Each candidate stepped forward when their names were being called. Then silence, followed by the flapping of powerful wings, which thundered in the courtyard.

A dragon—dragons, a whole flock of them in different colours.

Big, strong, magnificent.

One landed a few metres away from a boy who had been called on. His body trembled slightly due to fear as he looked up at the dragon, locking eyes with it. The dragon growled softly, and the bond was formed.

A silent nod came from the elders.

Then the next.

Followed by another.

Soon, most of the candidates were bonded to different breeds of dragons. The sky filled with hundreds of them. A wonderful sight to behold as their scales shimmered while they flew, totally blocking out the sunlight.

As time passed, there was only one candidate left without a dragon.

Eryx.

The elders stared at him with piercing eyes, filled with coldness and assessment.

“Hehe, which dragon would like to bond with someone like that?!” someone from the crowd burst into laughter.

“Exactly. If I were a dragon, I would incinerate him rather than bond with him.”

One of them stepped closer, shoving Eryx down with a shoulder and staring at him with malice. “You should be with the rest of the garbage where you belong!”

“Bow before you leave,” another voice added. “At least show some respect to those who were worthy.”

One of the elders stepped forward, face calm and void of emotion.

“That’s enough!” he said, and the bickering stopped.

He glanced at Eryx.

“The skies have spoken; no one chooses this blood,” he announced, the tempo of his voice rising. “Eryx Varyn… unchosen!”

Eryx straightened up his shoulders. He was rejected once more and worse, by the Academy!

“Yeah, boy. Get lost! You aren’t wanted here!”

Eryx swallowed hard, tears stinging his eyes. If he left, where would he go? His family won’t accept him! Just as he was leaving the stage, the ground suddenly shook.

The laughter died down instantly as cracks appeared on the ground.

Eryx stopped, and so did everyone.

The elders’ expressions broke, turning into that of worry and fear.