First Demonic Dragon

Finally, two figures stepped out of the smoke and revealed their identities to the weary examinees.

One, a young man with medium length black hair, was giving off a frightening atmosphere despite his ethereally beautiful face.

Like his father, Straga prioritized physical dominance and martial ability over weapons and magic in combat.

His clothes reflected that mindset; being a pair of white dougi pants tied with his own golden belt and a black sleeveless shirt.

His knuckles and wrists were wrapped heavily in bandages, and each one had draconic characters written in sharpie.

If one looked closely enough, it was easy to see that it was the same characters written over and over again to form a phrase.

'It is I who am the gunner of god. When I roar the earth trembles.'

At his side; his sister was dressed in much more formal battle attire.

Shining silver and bronze armor in the form of gauntlets, a chest plate, cuisses,and pauldrons adorned her body.

Brown tights interwoven with gold came up to her thighs while still leaving a bit of her flesh exposed.

She carried two items in her hands; being a longsword and shield.

The sword was on the thinner, more traditional side; with the inner material being made of bright red metal and the outer edge being traced with silver.

Her circular shield was mortifyingly horrific; bearing the visage of a familiar multi-eyed dragon.

Her long hair billowed behind her back in every direction from the strong winds and rain; painting a majestic picture.

She flexed her back muscles and two huge leathery wings almost six feet in length erupted from her body.

With a single flap of her wings, she started floating upward into the sky like a great phoenix.

"We are all well aware that you cannot die, so forgive us for sparing you no pleasantries today. Spjót!"

Thrudd raised her shield high overhead and a large bolt of lightning fell from the sky.

It struck her shield with the force of a car bomb striking a plastic cup, but the metal, and Thrudd, held firm underneath the powerful strike.

There was an odd hum and an unknown roar that came from somewhere in the area.

Thrudd brought her shield down from over her head and revealed it's horrific face once again.

Only this time, the circular mass of metal no longer looked alive, it really seemed to be alive.

With it's four eyes glowing a horrific red; it let out another great roar, but this time it wasn't something purely sonic.

With the bellowing from within it's metal; a concentrated mass of red energy formed just at the cusp of it's mouth.

Thrudd aimed the living shield at the ground where the examinees stood and gave it a single mental command.

At her discretion; red spears of volatile energy rained down on the test takers en masse.

Thrudd's yellow eyes made careful observations at that moment, and time seemed to slow down for the young goddess as she took in their reactions.

She remembered her father's criteria for grading this exercise perfectly, because they had come up with it together with her aunt before the test even started.

Those who were unable to avoid attacks and were 'killed' would fail.

Conversely, those who were nearby and did not attempt to help or defend those who were about to die, despite having an opportunity to do so, would also fail.

While that may have seemed harsh, they both considered it necessary.

The Euphrates are supposed to act as one under Kanami.

They are supposed to share a bond like that of family; and prioritize the lives of not only themselves, but each other to ensure that they suffer no losses.

Not again.

If these recruits couldn't see the merit in saving someone even though there appeared to be no benefit to doing so; they were not ready to be his elites.

Individual capability was appreciated, but that was not the true prize here.

After all, combat prowess can be cultivated, but it is almost impossible to teach selfish people to care about others.

As the spears rained down from the sky; roughly ten percent of the assembled soldiers were under fire from the attack.

Half of those numbers died before they even knew what was happening, and thus failed.

A quarter of them, who were already weakened, were saved by someone else.

And the final quarter managed to defend themselves from the attack all on their own.

A second bolt of lightning struck Thrudd; this one hitting her full on.

Beneath her first pair of wings; a new pair made from red lighting formed.

She tightened her grip on the sword within her hand and dive bombed the dragons on the ground at near-light speed.

While his sister engaged in flashier practices; Straga wasted magic power on things like that.

His muscles were already warmed up thirty minutes beforehand; so he simply began to bounce up and down like he was in the middle of the ring.

In front of him; there were a few examinees who drew weapons, charged their magic, and even a couple who entered their larger more scaly forms.

However, they took far too long to get ready in front of one of the strongest of Abaddon's children.

"Too slow."

The ground underneath Straga's feet split open as he lunged forward; going after the examinees with nothing but his fists.

Raising his arms and getting into his preferred southpaw stance; Straga appeared in front of the first applicant and struck him on the jaw before his eyes even picked up the movement.

While a normal right hand would have just put someone to sleep; Straga's strikes blew the man's entire head apart into a bloody mist.

Before the man's body even started to hit the ground; Straga was on to the next opponent.

'Fail.'

He next came across a woman, and since hitting a girl in the face made Straga feel a bit too much like Chris Brown; he closed his eyes, said a quick apology, and landed a devastating liver shot.

While usually non-lethal, Straga liquified every organ in her torso with the perfectly controlled force of his punch and dropped her in a single strike.

'Fail… I am soooo sorry, lady!'

This pattern of his continued with him moving as nothing more than a blur and leaving a mass of bodies in his wake.

Even against the larger opponents; Straga felt no pressure.

He struck a large dragon on the leg and the entire thing ruptured and the great beast started to fall over when it lost it's balance.

Once it's head neared the ground; Straga threw a somewhat awkward punch above his head and blew apart the entire skull of the dragon with the same amount of effort it would have taken him to mow the lawn.

As chunks of scales and brain matter fell from the sky, Straga shook his head distastefully.

'It's like you learned nothing over the last two months. Being bigger than me will not make you better than me, and you are far too tired to use your natural body efficiently… Double fail.'

It took him three minutes and forty-two seconds to rip through a crowd of sixty dragons.

He was kind of disappointed in himself if he was honest.

'Dad probably could have done it in two…'

Melancholy hadn't cut Straga's spatial awareness at all, mind you.

When a large star seemingly fell upon him from out of the sky; he simply enlarged his tail and smacked it aside, causing a large crater to form to the right of him.

A familiar scent wafted into his nose and his heart prematurely sped up.

Turning around slowly; he found Monica standing side-by-side with Adeline.

He ignored the purple haired beauty like she wasn't even there and remained star-struck (no pun intended) by the beauty of his fiery first love.

"H-Hey…"

A smile threatened to crack on Monica's lips.

"Hey."

"Y-You look good… though that's nothing new…"

"I haven't bathed in two weeks and my face is caked in dirt?"

"A diamond covered in dirt is still a diamond.." Straga looked embarrassed by the words coming out of his mouth but he was powerless to stop them nonetheless.

Monica blushed and looked at the ground.

Adeline looked back and forth between the two in bewilderment.

'What the fuck is going on right now…?'

"S-Should you really be saying stuff like that in this setting..?" Monica asked in embarrassment.

"Haha! Probably not…!" Straga scratched his cheek bashfully.

A man tried to attack him from behind with a spear and he sidestepped it with ease.

He grabbed the weapon and snapped it in half before stabbing the man in the head with the broken half; all without taking his eyes off of his beloved.

"I've been watching you the whole time like I promised…" he continued.

"O-Oh yeah..?"

"Yeah…"

'Seriously, what the hell is this?!' Adeline cried internally.

Straga suddenly looked unbearably sad.

"Truthfully… I need to apologize to you. I was upset with my father for allowing you to do this after watching you face danger and get hurt... I almost broke in here to save you myself."

Adeline told herself that she was going to sit tight and listen, as she was also beginning to find this situation interesting despite it's obvious absurdity.

Lowering his head, Straga continued his apology.

"I thought you needed to be protected, and if you weren't then something awful was certainly going to happen… but dad helped me see that loving someone doesn't necessarily mean that you protect them from all harm. It also means allowing them the space needed to grow as an individual."

"Straga, you…" Monica shifted her feet awkwardly; completely unprepared for this kind of emotional assault.

'Awwwwwwww…!' Adeline was kind of glad that she was getting to witness such a scene.

The young prince's face was almost beet red, but not from blood.

Nevertheless, he kept spilling out everything that he had kept bottled up for all of these weeks.

"I admit… I'm an imperfect guy. I have a lot to learn about… everything pretty much. That includes loving someone and even being a husband."

A large barrage of magical attacks fell on Straga from behind, but a shield of magical power formed to protect and rebound the attack like a bird off a window.

"But as a man who claims to love you… I do know that I will never hold you back again, and I will always keep cheering you on. Even if I am to be the obstacle you have to climb."

With a smile, Straga raised his fists again, and for the first time since Monica left home, he looked truly happy.

"I do hope that you can best me. Because there is nothing that would make me happier than seeing you get everything you've worked so hard for."