Srsli
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78: Impossible Cut.
🕑 Added 2025-09-12 17:36:00 +0000 UTCLooking around, I observed Jen as she attempted several more times to cut into the tail. I even went so far as to try myself, but laughably, I couldnât so much as leave an impression on the skinâlet alone cut it.
In fact, I was fairly sure that if I continued, Iâd end up breaking the knife rather than cutting anything.
âI donât really want to lose the scales, but I also donât want to anger the dragon,â Jen said, looking a bit worried.
âItâll be hard to cook with them on. I remember Crisplet checked the drake scales, and the only way the fire got around it was by being larger than the scale itself. If this protects the meat the same way, the only place itâll cook is the endâwhere itâs ripped and where the teeth marks are,â I said.
This was certainly an unexpected problem I hadnât seen coming.
âJust a moment, Iâll get Hari. Heâll surely be able to cut itâeven if not cleanly,â Jen said, before heading to the entrance to fetch Hari, who was just outside the door.
A moment later, Hari was in the room with his sword out, trying to cut the tail. He tried several methods. First, he attempted to get under a scale and cut, but like Jen, he couldnât pierce the leathery skin underneath. He then tried to push the tip of his sword in with as much force as he could muster...
And nothing.
We worked out that we could cut into the flesh from the ripped end, but it would be a pain to do. Liane and Milo both gave it a try as well, and Liane actually managed to leave a faint scratch using her penetrating ability.
But still, nothing worked.
After about an hour of testing various methodsâand still not wanting to sacrifice the scalesâtwo adventurer groups showed up. They were greeted by Milo at the outer walls.
Something I noticed while Iâd been inside: there were no entrances to the inner structure. The archway weâd come through with our horses earlier was now completely gone, replaced with a solid stone wall.
After they explained who they were, Milo created an entryway where Hari was waiting on the other side.
âGreetings. I thank you for coming so promptly,â Hari began, as nine people came into the inner circle, the stone walls closing behind them.
âHello, pleasure to be here. My nameâs Sarah,â said a tall, well-built woman, dismounting from what I wanted to call a horseâthough it clearly wasnât. The creature was reptilian, with scales instead of fur, and a much leaner frame. It looked fierce.
âThis is my partyâthe Summerâs Breath,â she said, gesturing behind her. The others bowed politely. Their group appeared to be made up of two archers, a mage who looked to be a healer based on her robes, Sarah herself with a shield and sword like Hari, and finally a gaunt-looking man who gave off a similar vibe to how Liane used to when I first met her.
All of them rode the same scaled, sleek-looking beasts.
The second party dismounted just behind them. A short man with a large two-handed axe slung over his back approached and shook Hariâs hand.
âHello, young lad. Nameâs Greg. This here is my partyâthe Stone Front,â he said, nodding back at his team, which looked to be made up of two mages, a swordsman of some kind, and himself.
âI hope youâve all been given a brief on why youâre here, and what the goal is?â Hari asked. Sarah nodded silently, but Greg spoke up.
âWe got a little bit of information, but if Iâm honest with you, I donât really understand why weâre hereâor why youâve got a little fortress in the middle of the plains, either,â Greg said.
âTo put it bluntly,â Hari replied, maintaining a professional tone, âa dragon made a request of my support to cook a meal. It provided the meat. If that dragon doesnât get its meal, thereâs no telling what might happen to anyone in the vicinity.â
âRight⊠a request from a dragon. That no one heard. Except for the boy,â Greg said, clearly sceptical.
Surprisingly, it was Sarah who spoke up.
âYou must not have been there when the cat showed up inside the Guild Hallâin front of everyoneâand took the boy to the dragon.â
âYes, yes, I heard the taleâŠâ Greg beganâonly to be cut off as one of Sarahâs party members spoke up.
âIt was no tall tale,â said the woman, who had yet to be introduced. âI have an advanced danger sense, and that cat screamed absolute danger like Iâve never experienced before. And then the dragon⊠when it appeared, we couldnât even move.â
âYet a supportâwhoâs of no real powerâcould not only withstand the pressure, but also have a conversation with it? Enough to take a dinner request?â Greg snorted, clearly unconvinced.
A couple of chuckles rippled through his party as he said it, none of them hiding how unimpressed they were with this assignment.
Greg wasnât done. âSo, what did it request? A fancy cake? Maybe a nice Buvul stew?â He laughed at his own joke.
âIt requested the tail of the Storm Dragon who used to reside in the mountain,â Liane replied, her tone cold enough to cut stone.
âNonsenseâŠâ Greg started again.
âGo inside. Have a look,â Liane said, each word dripping with venom.
Greg didnât back downâeither assuming she was bluffing or just exaggerating. He walked into the structure, took one look around, and stopped in his tracks.
âThat... that could be any creatureâs tail. How do you know itâs from a dragon?â he said, trying to sound composed.
Liane appeared beside him, practically whispering in his ear. âAlright, big man. Try to cut it.â
Gregâs face turned red. I couldnât tell whether it was because of the jab at his height or the implication that heâd be too weak to make a dent. Either way, he stormed up to the tail, drew his axe, and swung it down with a loud grunt.
It bounced off. Predictably.
Though to be fair, it didnât seem like heâd put his full strength behind it.
The rest of the group had now filtered inside to watch.
Greg scowled and squared up for another swing. His axe began to glow red, and with a shout, he brought it down againâhard.
This time, something happened. But not what any of us expected.
The axe cracked.
Greg stared in disbelief, looking from the damaged weapon to the unscathed tail.
âThis⊠this canât be,â he muttered.
âWell, little man,â Liane said coolly, âyou satisfied itâs a dragon tail yet?â
âMaybe your swordsman there wants to give it a go.â She looked pointedly at the swordsman, who immediately shrank back behind one of the mages.
Honestly, Liane was terrifying when she was like thisâand I was incredibly glad she was on our side.
Greg appeared at least somewhat humbled. Sarah and her party didnât say anything; they simply stared at the scene wide-eyed before Sarah quietly asked Milo,
âWhere can we store our Drakhalâs?â
Milo nodded and slipped outside to help with the stabling. One of Gregâs party followed, likely to store their own horses.
Greg remained where he was, still staring at the tail in front of him. It was almost comicalâit towered over him. To be fair, it was taller than me, too.
Liane broke the silence, turning to the swordsman.
âI will askâif you think you can cut it, please try. We havenât made a mark on it yet. Just⊠preferably donât break all your weapons.â
She gave a look over her shoulder. The swordsman simply shook his head.
âWhat are we going to do?â I asked.
âI have an idea,â Liane said. âBut no oneâs going to like it.â
Hari perked up. âLetâs hear it. I really donât want to go back to town to find a butcher who might not even be able to touch the damn thing.â
âWe know the cat helped take this down. You can even see the cuts in the tailâs underside,â Liane said, pointing. âSo maybe⊠Trev cooks some drake as a bribe, brings Lily here, and asks her to slice it in half for us?â
Greg looked at her as if sheâd lost her mind. âWhoâs Lily? And why would she be eating drake? You canât eat drake.â
âThe shadow cat,â Liane said flatly.
Greg blinked. âThe catâs got a bloody name? Who names a goddamn shadow catâŠâ
He mumbled to himself, clearly not coping well.
With a sighâand no better ideasâI approached the tail and stored it away. Greg yelped in fright and stared at me.
He really was a bit jumpy.
âYou might want to step back a little,â I said, as he backed awayâhis eyes never leaving the spot where the tail used to be.
A moment later, I pulled the drake out of storage. It was slightly larger than the tail and took up most of the room.
âTha⊠Thatâsââ Greg didnât get to finish his sentence before Hari cut in.
âEveryone else, come back outside. Letâs discuss watch and guard duties, you as well Greg, enough entertainment.â he called, getting everyoneâs attentionâand pulling their stares away from the giant, headless drake now resting where the tail had been.
Greg followed the others out, though his eyes never left the drake. His mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water. Liane stayed inside with Jen and me, examining the massive creature.
âThis one we should be fine to cut, right? What size piece do we need?â Jen asked, looking over at me.
âI was thinking two large steaks,â I said. âThat way, if the tailâs not ready, Iâve got a backup. It wonât be perfect, but itâs got to be better than nothing, right?â
âHmm. I think if Lily doesnât show tonight, we try to find someone in town who can cut the tail,â Jen replied. âYouâll have to stay out here though, Trev.â
I just nodded. âLetâs go with two big steaks from the same area the Monster Knacker already started at?â
Jen got to work, and I sat down next to Micca, who had been quietly observing the entire thing.
âThat thingâs huge. I know you mentioned you had it, but I never realised just how big it actually was,â she said, staring at the drake.
âWhatâs crazy is every scale is worth a gold or two,â I said with a laugh.
Her eyes widened. âThatâs ridiculous.â
It took Jen about half an hour to cut two very large steaks from the drake. Satisfied with her work, sheâd also removed several of the scales. Since they no longer counted as part of the creature, I couldnât store themâso she tucked them away in her own storage.
Once sheâd climbed down from the creature, I stored it again, leaving the two steaks out.
I decided to mix things up a little. Since this was just for the catâand no one else should be touching itâI wanted to see if I could scrape off a little bit of the salt crystal that nearly fried my mana channels and use it on the steaks. I added some garlic grass, onions, and a mix of two dried herbs just to give it some regeneration.
I had minor success with the Pyrrhosite crystal, scraping it with the back of my knife. It was harder than expected, but a small amount came off onto both steaks. Hopefully, that would be enough?
On one of them, I would also use the spider essence I made yesterdayâI felt like Lily would appreciate the stealth bonuses that came with it.
I went to Crisplet, but immediatelyâdespite my minor fire resistanceâwas blasted back out of the oven by the heat. It was far too hot to enter right now. Crisplet had done an amazing job.
Thinking of a solution, I remembered the rolls I had in storageâthey both had fire immunity as one of their buffs. After taking a couple of bites, I slowly approached the oven again. This time, it just felt like a soft, warm breeze.
I gave Crisplet some more Treant wood before placing both steaks on the stone floor. They sizzled the moment my hand left them.
I really needed to ask Milo how fire immunity actually worked, because it was such a bizarre sensationâstanding inside a giant oven and not being affected. But more importantly, how were my clothes not being affected by it?
By the time the steaks were nearly finished, the earlier drama and disbelief seemed to have settledâfor now. Several people from all three parties were sitting inside the building, relaxing during their off-watch. The room was filled with the smell of roasted meat.
I really hoped this would workâand that Lily would show up.
Because if not, I honestly had no idea how weâd get the meat out of that tail without digging it out bit by bit.
Comments
Jonathan Robichaux
I really hope Hari gets some drake scale armor with a dragon scale shield
T J Ward
Will be a couple of hours late on the next chapter but it's coming soon! đž
T J Ward
He's not used it yet! just that he intends to use it :D Oh i see i messed it up! fixing it! Edit: Its fixed! thanks for the catch :D
Astra
How could he use the spider essence before he infused the steak? Iâm assuming he has to cook food before he can infuse it too?
Metafy
Here! Kitty Kitty Kitty come get your din din by the way can you cut this dragon tail hehehe.
Hammy
This.
Caiban
Hmmm some kind of vengance maybe but for that he was to calm Or its some stuff he needs of a dragon for an elixier or similar, but i guess he would gave acted different here too So i guess its either an evolution for his class or for one of his abilities? So far i go with class because he was as if something that will never happen suddenly happened
Caiban
I need more chapterssss ^^
T J Ward
Now! - I will say Greg has a particular reason he does not want to believe the tales, or so he thinks; this will be explored over the next couple of chapters :D
