Reborn as a DRAGON

I was standing on top of my grandfather's head as I scanned the area below. We had long since left the place of the giant black temple and went in the opposite direction of the Dragon road. The land below was a mixture green of plains and mountains, it continued that way until we reached another forest with trees as tall as my father.

'That's a giant forest,' I inwardly mumbled. The younglings were all standing on the back of the adults as they glanced about in curiosity. It seemed like it was their first time coming to this place as well. That made me a bit relieved seeing as I was not the only one.

Grandfather and the adults did not have any intentions of slowing, instead, they continued their flight as we quickly reached the giant forest's boundaries, a large rocky cliff that led straight to the ocean.

As soon as the sea came into view, the salty smell assaulted my nose. I stared at the view ahead, a deep resonating blue color below to one above in the sky, from water to sunlit air, the briny aroma made me feel all the more at home. It felt as if the sea air had the ability to whisk my soul into a different place, one within its gentle yet strong embrace.

I didn't ask any more questions about the upcoming trial, when I did grandfather had told me to be patient and that I'll know when we get there. 'Is this the place of the last trial? If so I don't want to rush into things, but I definitely hold an overwhelming advantage,' I inwardly mumbled, Allat was also a water dragonness so she should be feeling the same way, Ember on the other hand is completely out of his element.

All of the adults made their way to the edge of the cliff, where we were all asked to step down and line up. The adults stood facing us with the giant trees behind their backs, while we stood by the edge of the cliff with the ocean behind us. The sound of the waves crashing against the rocks below was almost soothing for me, I really liked it here.

Grandfather was the one to speak on behalf of the adult, "It's time for your final trial! With this, the only thing you will have left is your Rite of passage before you can be considered as full-blown Dragons!" I could feel my blood pumping in excitement, various thoughts, and guesses ran through my mind as I tried to think of what the trial could be.

The other younglings were no better, I could feel their raging emotions, they were all ready to go. Ember seemed to avoid my stare, however, while Allat on the other hand kept shooting me flirtatious gazes. I shook my head and brought my attention back to my grandfather.

He silently stared at us for a while before finally speaking, "Your next trial is to eliminate a few targets," He said with a serious expression on his face. 'Targets, here?' I wondered, yet since It did not seem like he had finished talking, I refrained from saying anything and waited patiently for him to continue.

"The targets of this trial are an inferior race called 'the humans', every year a few of them with a death wish will attempt to locate our land, this time it's your duty to eliminate them," Said grandfather, bloodlust flashing through his eyes.

I gulped as I felt my heart skip a beat, humans, this would be my first meeting with them after my reincarnation. 'To kill humans,' A very small voice at the back of my head protested that it was wrong, yet one glance at grandfather's expectant gaze as he looked at me was enough to throw whatever hesitation I had out of the window.

I was no longer a human, 'My name is Aether, and I'm a proud dragon!' I told myself as I steeled my resolution. The humans were nothing but invaders, they brought this upon themselves. Ember and the rest of the younglings had excited expressions on their faces.

"The impudent humans are attempting to reach our land by what they call boats. Listen carefully young ones, although extremely weak, the humans are cunning so don't let your guard down. Their real objective is you little ones," He said which only served to confuse me.

He must have seen that since he continued to explain. "Our land is surrounded by the King's mana, no matter what they do none of the other inferior races can set a foot on it, or even find it for that matter, the only thing they can do is move about uselessly in circles, that's when we send our people to take care of them. Sending one of the adults will be overkill, which means you younglings get to take care of it," He said.

'Ah, that makes sense,' I mumbled in understanding, none of the adults are willing to lower their pride and deal with what they consider as an inferior race so that job is thrown at us. 'But he said something along the lines of their true objective being us?'

Thinking about that, and from grandfather's explanation, I came to a conclusion of sorts. 'Basically, the humans can never reach our land probably can't even see it, but since they loiter somewhere around it, we got to take care of them. Now my guess would be that this is not the first time younglings like us have been sent on this trial, some may have lost to the humans, which could possibly explain them coming back. I'm not quite sure of the value our bodies hold to them, but I'm willing to bet it's quite high, so that's why grandfather looked so serious when he told us to be careful,'

"That should be all little ones, your targets are somewhere out there," He said while motioning to the vast sea behind us with his head before continuing. "You will be considered to have passed the trial if you manage to sink a boat and deal with the humans on board, no need to worry about how to prove it, we will know," He said with a terrifying grin.

"Now then, I wish you good luck, and be careful!" He added in a solemn tone, a hint of worry passing through his eyes as he watched us go. Ember was all fired up, he was the first to leave. Allat followed right after him then Linyss, I shot my grandfather one last glance to which he nodded silently.

With that, I turned to the edge of the cliff and jumped. The feeling of weightlessness overtook me as the wind howled by my ears, my heart began to beat loudly in my chest in excitement. I was going on a hunt, and the prey was humans.

'Shit, I need to calm down I'm too excited for this,' I inwardly mumbled. I didn't fly at a very high altitude, quite the opposite, the ocean was at an arm's reach away from me. I was tempted to take a dip yet refrained from doing so, at least for now.

'Now then, I guess I should first find them, luckily I know just the trick for that!' I grinned, 'This is going to be fun!'