Asa felt the overwhelming might of the demons, as well as the pressure they exerted, when she knelt in their presence.


    She felt herself hyperventte, and her heart kept pounding at an abnormal rate. Frankly, her current predicament was taking its toll on her, and she felt very weary. Her enemies—the Supervisors and her evil uncle—were in sight, yet she was powerless to do anything about it.


    She was weak.


    ''Oh Hero…" Asa remembered Sam''s face.


    She recalled his soothing words, his reassuring smile, his perfect n.


    Unfortunately, since he left, everything hade crashing down. They had fought enemies they were ill prepared for, and their luck seemed to be getting worse.


    ''At this rate, how will I help my people? How would she escape this peril?'' Asa had so many questions, and no answers.


    What about Adu, Heshu, and Hogun? Would theye to rescue her?


    They had been ordered to protect her, but what if they found a way around it? They allowed her to get captured, after all.


    ''This is so frustrating.'' Asa thought tiredly to herself.


    The Hero''s ns were in shambles due to their ipetence. Still, she had to consider the omniscience of the Hero. She was puzzled as to whether he suspected this was going to happen—as well as the implications if he did.


    ''Hero.. I don''t… I don''t know what to do anymore.'' Asa thought to herself as she watched a certain demon approach her.


    She had crimson hair, and her sharp teeth frightened Asa. She had this terrible look in her eyes which Asa could only trante as a lust for violence.


    Sweat covered her skin and she squirmed in terror. Something about thedy demon—whatever her intentions—felt extremely dangerous.


    ''Hero, please save me!''


    **************


    >VWOOOOOSSSSHHHHH<


    ''Wooohooooooo!'' I felt on top of the world as I glided in the air on my dragon golem.


    Well, I wasn''t really gliding, as Lucy was with me and all, but hey, at least this time I had some personal space. We had separate spaces on the dragon''s very luxurious seats, and I enjoyed mine well.


    The coolness of the night breeze made my body tingle with delight. I could see Lucy enjoying herself too—though she tried her best to appear all serious. It made her look all the more cute.


    ''I''m happy I took her with me. Everything is so quiet and peaceful up here.'' I initially wanted to strike up a conversation with her since we were all alone, but I decided against it.


    Sometimes, it was simply worth it to spend one''s time in silence, with a beautiful girl, on the back of a flying mecha-dragon. Yep! Totally worth it!


    I mean, take my word for it.


    After enjoying the very pleasant dragon ride, I finally decided to take things more seriously.


    "Hmm?" I squinted my eyes in a bid to observe a fairly distant area using my binocrs.


    Lucy had one too—I needed an extra pair of eyes to spot things I missed.


    ''I also enchanted them with a Rune. Considering it''s pretty dark here, and I can''t see very far away, it''s better this way.''


    Actually, Lucy had been keeping up her scouting and surveince while I was messing around, but that wasn''t really important. I saw the map, and I knew what area the dragon nest was.


    Well, that was what I thought.


    "Sam, I can spot a nest. It''s a few kilometers from this point."


    Yeah, I noticed it too.


    ''How is that possible, though? I mean… well…''


    It was possible that this was a new dragon nest—unknown to the ones who designed this map.


    ''Isn''t this a good thing, though? I mean, it''s closer and stuff!'' This new turn of events could be a good thing.


    If we could use this as a shortcut andplete our mission earlier than intended, wouldn''t I be praised for being OP? Hehehe, that was right!


    Anything to improve my image among the Elves!


    The Dragon Nest was in sight—it had the appearance of arge crater, with sharp rock spikes serving as a surrounding fence. It also had high Magical density around it, and for a canopy, it had a Magic field.


    This Dragon Nest was practically a fortress. It was definitely the real deal.


    ''I don''t see any dragons because of the force-field, but considering its rtivelyrge size, maybe a dozen dragons live here? Could be more, though.''


    Dragons came in different shapes and sizes, after all.


    ''Umu, it seems we''ll have to take ount of that and make use of stealth to approach and steal the eggs we need.''


    A nest this size had to have some eggs, right? Come on!


    "Sam, I spot other living entities there." Lucy spoke suddenly, snapping me out of my contemtive thoughts.


    ''O-oh, for real? How did I miss that?'' I buried my eyes into my binocrs in order to spot what Lucy was talking about.


    And would you look at that, she was right! What a keen observer this girl was!


    I missed the whole thing because I was too focused on the nest and not on the surrounding area. However, now that I took a good look around the crater—to the southwest area specifically—I spotted a rtivelyrge group of sentient beings.


    I couldn''t make out their details due to the distance, but they seemed humanoid—well, roughly so.


    I wasn''tpletely sure, though.


    "It seems we''ll have to descend lower toprehend the identities of these entities." I said to Lucy.


    From what I observed, it seemed like they were spying on the dragon nest. It was hard to tell, but the group was divided into two.


    One part of the group seemed to be a few hundred miles away, in a ce I figured was their camp. The location had a couple of tents, so I couldn''t have been wrong. There were more members in the camp, and only a few dozen were close to the nest.


    ''Do they want to attack the Dragon Nest? It seems like it.'' From what I observed, I could say it was most definite.


    There was one problem with that, though.


    ''I want to attack the Nest too!'' Well, not really. I simply wanted to steal from it.


    If these guys waged war against the dragons, it would be difficult to y my stealth game and safely take my grand prize.


    ''I thought I''d just go all ninja-like and steal the eggs while the dragons were sleeping. I don''t want to be running around on a battlefield.''


    There was the option to simply wait the fight out, but what if—in the process of fighting—the eggs got damaged.


    What would I do then?


    Or what if these guys won the war? Who was to say they would be willing to spare a few eggs for a random stranger? There was a very slim chance that such would ur.


    If the dragons won, they would be more vignt than ever. I could very well kiss my eggs goodbye.


    In light of these possibilities—all of which were uncertain—the wise course of action would be to find out more information and see how to use said info to my advantage.


    ''I know so little at this point''


    *


    *


    *


    Lucy and I waited atop our dragon until the dozen or so spies finally left for their camp.


    And yes, I finally got to know the identity of our mystery creatures.


    ''Dragonkin'' A mysterious smile formed on my face.


    They were abination of dragona and humans—quite simr to my appearance when I used Draconic Transformation.


    Their scaly, reptilian bodies covered a good portion of their back and arms. They had scales on their necks and the sides of their faces. Dragon horns also grew out of the two ends of their foreheads, and a tail danced behind them.


    They wore clothes, of course, considering they had human-like characteristics, but their attires could barely be seen as appropriate.


    The males wore a thin, flimsy cloth that only covered a portion of their lower parts—their chests were wide open. So also was a good portion of their legs.


    As for thedies, they also wore a flimsy cloth that covered their quite busty chests, as well as longer clothing to cover their lower parts. This was pretty much what you''d expect from a backwater savage race, but for some reason I couldn''t stop staring at how seductive the clothing looked on the females there.


    Of course, this was all recon.


    Oh yeah, the reason we could see everyone like this was because we flew a bit lower and decided to use my mecha dragon''s stealth mode. Ah, I meant dragon golem.


    ''Nero is quite useful. Hehehe!'' I grinned to myself, watching as the spies returned to base with my binocrs.


    It was advantageous that we got to know the identity of the third party. Unfortunately, that didn''t solve my dilemma.


    ''I don''t know what they''re up to. They spoke in hushed tones, and I couldn''t hear shit from this height even if I tried.''


    All in all, their motives were a mystery.


    Welp, not for long!


    "Prepare yourself, Lucy." I smiled at my fellow warrior, who—for some reason—kept ncing at and touching her chest.


    Surely, it had nothing to do with thedies beneath us.


    "Prepare yourself." I said in a calm, authoritative tone.


    Yeah, that''s right! I was nning on making contact with this group. It was the best means to discern their intentions and make a n topensate for whatever their deal was.


    This move was risky, as Dragonkins didn''t really have a really good impression of humans. However, I had to do what I had to do.


    ''Alright, Sam! Let''s do this!''


    "They had better not stand in our way, for their sake."