Chapter 258 Riding a Dragon
He is not a qualified dragon rider.
He was slightly afraid of heights, and his limbs' reactions couldn't keep up with his brain. The cold and fierce air currents would take away his breath and vision. After he became exhausted, his arms would begin to become weak and powerless. If the other person hadn't been holding his waist all the time, with his chest warmly wrapping him, he would have fallen directly off the dragon's back.
This dome, which covers all living creatures on the continent of Ambrose, still appears a transparent, clear, gentle, and false blue under the Rayleigh scattering effect.
But the dragon was ascending, attempting to escape the crushing pull of gravity. The extreme weightlessness even gave Nova a strange, hazy hallucination. Perhaps once his soul escaped the surging atmosphere, shaped by logic dating back billions of years, he would step into an eternal, unchanging, hideous darkness, far away from all petty, base, and glorious moments… Perhaps even the gods were within them at that moment, leaning over them, gloomily and resentfully peering in, trying to check whether they were following their predetermined fate—and the only thing that could be considered "real" was the heartbeat and body temperature of the other person behind them.
The savior created a circle of wind wall around the two of them, and now the professor could finally open his eyes.
—The sea. Trillions of liters, or perhaps even trillions of times more, of deep blue water were undulating beneath them, cascading into countless wrinkles.
Windrunners are the fastest dragons in the world. They can even move freely through thick clouds filled with thunder, and even lightning cannot catch up with them.
But now, under the dragon rider's command, the dragon flew more steadily, gradually lowering its altitude. The sea reflected countless shattered suns and the white, spindle-shaped shadows of the dragon riders as they flew past. The professor even caught a glimpse of strange shadows beneath the water, perhaps swaying algae or schools of fish. It seemed as if he could just bend down and touch the surface.
Azuka reluctantly tightened his grip on him. The dark-haired young man, who had huddled in his arms, his face buried in his chest to shield him from the wind, clutching his arm tightly, his nose wrinkled with anxiety, as if he were his only refuge, his only nest he could fully rely on—now boldly, half his body hanging out of the air, his sleeves carelessly rolled up, and the rest of his arm dunked into the depths of the sea.
"I feel the ocean current." Those smoky gray eyes sparkled with joy, almost making him hold his breath. "Very obvious temperature difference, very... lively water."
The blond god didn't realize that his eyes were almost obsessed - it had been a long time since he had expressed such sincere and pure joy.
Along the way, he had sculpted himself with such rigor, rationality, and ruthlessness, until he had created before the world a statue filled with mad faith, conspiracy, and ultimate greatness. Yet, the statue gently and honestly opened its chest and abdomen only to him, revealing the incomparably cold, lustrous, yet immensely broad and penetrating soul beneath the perfect yet sinister stone shell.
His nemesis, once destined for death, now leaned forward relying solely on the strength of his arms, his black hair disheveled, revealing a childlike joy at the varying temperatures of the seawater flowing through his fingertips.
"Are you happy?"
The professor responded casually, feeling a surge of energy and blood, and a dizziness rising in his head. He finally, reluctantly, withdrew his arm and stood up. Humans are, after all, adept at self-deception. Even the sound of air rushing past one's ear at high speed can create a blissful illusion called "freedom."
It wasn't until someone grabbed his arm and slowly rolled up his sleeve, soaked by the splashing seawater, above his elbow that Nova came to his senses and finally realized that the other party seemed to have asked something.
"Happy, thank you." He answered obediently, completely unaware that at this moment he was just like a child in an amusement park, looking up to answer his parents' questions.
"You don't have to thank me." Azuka kissed her lover's cheek helplessly. This weird and cute little insistence was really...
"No, I thank you very seriously." The smoky gray eyes suddenly looked at him seriously and solemnly.
"In my last days, lying in bed, unable to do anything, I thought that after I died, my body would turn into dust and gas, into atoms smaller than everything else."
Even though he later became unable to even think, he still looked calm, his tone lacking the necessary fluctuations, as if he were stating an eternal truth: "So one day I will fly, leave that decaying, imprisoned body, leave humanity, leave my home planet, and experience billions of sweet years in the universe. Then, I will be reshaped by the laws of nature into a stone engulfed by magma on a brand new planet, or bubbling acid in an ancient ocean..."
"So this is a fait accompli. One day I will be able to fly, but you helped me complete the process in advance." The arm around his waist seemed to tighten a little. The black-haired young man blinked and hesitated for a moment. He reached out and stroked the man's golden hair swaying in the wind, and leaned the back of his head on his shoulder. "I am very grateful. You are the creator of this miracle."
He hesitated for a moment, then added, "To use the terminology used in this world, you are my... 'savior'?"
Azra flapped her wings intermittently, bored. The dragon's current speed was no different from an old woman's stroll. She wanted to play a game of high-altitude lightning chase with her master. But her master wouldn't allow her to fly too fast, lest the fragile black-haired human overwhelm her.
The human voice on its back seemed to have disappeared for a while, and the dragon couldn't help but turn its head to take a look - wait, Ezra thought hesitantly, are they biting off the lower half of each other's faces?
The dark-haired man was clearly at a disadvantage. His chin was pinched and he was pressed into his arms, exposing his fragile neck. His Adam's apple slid up and down helplessly and rapidly as he swallowed. He seemed to want to resist, to struggle. His fingers clutched the other man's blond hair, and his voice was interspersed with tiny whimpers, like pleading for mercy. The sound was so soft and light that even the cries of a newly hatched dragon were louder than his.
Well, they separated briefly, and the dragon continued to watch the fun with great interest. Aside from a slight flush, the black-haired human's face was still smooth and intact, not torn into a bloody mess. It looked like it must be a unique human grooming technique, such as using saliva and tongue to lick the skin until it was sticky, red, and swollen...
Wait, why did the master never lick its fur? Azra suddenly felt angry. Every time the dragon tried to comb a human's hair with its tongue, it was ruthlessly rejected. Yet now, it licked a human's fur with such obsessive greed, so irresistible, as if it were licking the largest, brightest, most beautiful jewel in its collection over and over again. Even if it was a partner, even if it was a partner...
Well, Azra thought bitterly, a companion always holds a special place, and a dragon understands that.
"Ugh—that's enough!" The professor, somewhat overwhelmed, pushed the other man's face away. He caught a glimpse of the dragon, which, while flying, naturally turned its head and openly observed the two of them, its green eyes gleaming with curiosity. Fortunately, this was the boundless ocean; there was no chance of him crashing into something while watching the excitement.
"Okay, let's kiss each other when we get back." The other person chuckled nonchalantly and kissed the side of his face gently.
Seeing people glaring at him, a certain malicious dragon rider took advantage of the fact that the dragon couldn't understand the Common Language and comforted his lover with a smile: "It's okay, Azra can't understand these. It's still a little dragon and has never entered the estrus period."
...Little Dragon. Nova couldn't help but twitch his lips. This guy is already big enough.
"Really? A dragon's lifespan is very long," someone explained seriously. "When I first picked it up, it seemed smaller than it is now—but not by much."
Finding the dragon was pure serendipity. After a massive storm, Azuka, having recently awakened in the Asaqi Valley, discovered a wounded Windrunner on a shifting gravel beach. Still in the process of molting, it had been struck by lightning, rendering it incapacitated. Left alone, it would have starved to death on the barren shore—the Windrunner's former self had long since been reduced to bones, buried beneath the rocks, only to be discovered years later.
Nova raised an eyebrow. "You saved it, and then became its dragon rider?"
It sounds like a fairy tale.
"The first half was correct," Azuka said calmly. "Once it had barely recovered its strength, it tried to eat me—and then I broke two of its wings and half of its bones."
Nova: “…”
Well, that's the law of the jungle.
Azra, who didn't understand the common language, suddenly felt a chill all over his body. He couldn't help sneezing and looked around suspiciously.
The professor questioned, "So, if we want to tame a dragon without resorting to unorthodox methods, we must rely on force?"
"Not necessarily. Adult dragons are incredibly proud and cunning creatures. They'd most likely choose death over submission, or even look for an opportunity to kill their master," Azuka explained. "Dragon cubs are slightly better, but it depends on individual differences—that's why there have only been so many dragon riders throughout history. Strength, luck, and patience are all essential."
You should know that the legendary god of origin, Ambrose, had to put in a lot of effort to tame the dragon ancestor, Lamodora.
He was lucky. The little dragon he met was a bit silly, seemingly forced from its nest long ago. It regarded him as the eldest of its brood and bore no grudges. Even after being beaten to the ground, whimpering with its paws covering its nose, it sadly and greedily accepted the plump prey he offered it, enjoying his patient and meticulous care. After its wounds healed, it would still try to fight back again—only to be beaten again and completely docile.
As for the White Nightmare without a Dragon Rider...
Azuka lowered his eyes and gently touched Ezra's neck. "Unfortunately, White Nightmare has completely lost its mind. In the end, I can only... kill it."
The author has something to say:
Rayleigh scattering effect: Rayleigh scattering is an elastic scattering phenomenon that occurs when the particle size is much smaller than the wavelength of the incident light. The scattering intensity is inversely proportional to the fourth power of the wavelength, which explains natural phenomena such as the blue sky and the red sunset.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
