Below it, were the CFR agents with the Ragore Dragon and a slumped Dog. The dragon snorted, drifting closer to the spot.

"Guys, the sensor detected a fluctuation from that dog"s soul." Aeneas muttered, looking up as the shadow grew even larger, approaching.

"That would explain the presence of this dragon." Ronke sniffed.

"I already told you. That dog got a soul bound too." Denre snorted, his dragon letting out a low guttural growl.

"Ah! And I thought you grakons were smart. Beasts can"t have soul bounds." Aeneas mocked.

"Then explain t-..."

"Enough! We"ll figure that part later. We need to take down this dragon. Black Rage Dragons are a threat to everything." Ronke said, stepping forward.

Aeneas blinked, unable to believe his ears.

"No, Ronke. The dragon is not our mission. We don"t have sufficient firepower to subdue a Black Rage Dragon."

"The dragon extermination protocols gives us full rights to subdue them regardless of the initial circ.u.mstances. If you do not wish to engage, I understand, see to our charge. Denre..." Ronke said, leaning with her hands weaving frantically, towards the lowering dragon.

"I know what to do. Dragon boy, AHOY!" Denre bellowed.

He crouched for a second, mustering momentum before launching powerful upwards into the air. The Ragore dragon growled louder, swiping its wings to the ground to boost it up into the air.

After speaking upwards, he reached his maximum height and began falling, bellowing as he fell.

Just then, the skull forehead of the Ragore dragon came into view below him. Quickly, Denre adjusted his body, putting a leg forward. As his leg touched down, he rolled over on to a crouch, his hand gripping a horn.

"I"ve been CURSED." An aggrieved cry from Ronke rent the air.

"W-what? How?" Denre stammered.

In the CFR operations at taking and subduing dragons, since the inception of Familiars, things had taken a drastic change.

For each successive encounter, a familiar stayed as support often times, delivering the critical hits while the brute force vanguards merely drew aggression. This method worked severally and since then Familiars were regularly incorporated into squad teams.

But for the black Rage Dragon to already hate curse their support captain.

The dragon was that knowledgeable?

What did they have at hand now? An energy essence bleeding captain?

"Don"t worry! I still have enough to deal with the dragon. Keep him occupied." Ronke encouraged, noting the frown on Denre"s face as his Ragore Dragon drew closer to the bigger Black Rage Dragon.

...

Meanwhile, Bayo lay still on the ground. He had fully recovered but moving away wasn"t in his best option. Not especially when he was being watched by the black leather armored drakon.

Initially, when he panicked and began to defy reality, Bayo had felt a weight of something that he hadn"t felt vanish completely.

The sensation of losing weight that you never thought you had. And now, deep within his soul was an empty stirring that demanded to be filled.

"I do not understand. This is impossible." Yasmin complained.

"What?"

"The Dragon beast, your soul drew it here." Yasmin replied, its voice clearly confused.

"Seriously?" Bayo asked. Even though he was trying to force his unique soul into acting but he hadn"t actually expected much.

At least, not something as big as the black dragon.

Infact, the ghoul like dragon was merely a speck before the black dragon.

"Yes, seriously! Your soul was able to some how consume your last absorption energy to pull this feat. It should have been impossible."

Bayo felt like gloating but he held himself back. Gloating has only made him run from pillar to post.

"Yasmin, scan that dragon. Just give me the basics."

"Acknowledged."

—————-

Black Rage Dragon. - Rare Type

Soul Stage: ...

Energy: 980 599/...

Ability: Hate Curse, Energy subtraction, Undying Black Flames.

A rare type vengeful Dragon breed, this creature has immense affinity with the Law of Wrath, principle of rage. Using the principle of rage, its ability, Hate Curse, allows it Curse someone, draining 10% of the person"s energy continuously until the dragon is dead. It energy subtraction allows it extend an aura that depletes 20% of the energy of any foe within a 20 meter range. It"s Undying Black Flames cannot be quenched until it has completely incinerated its victim

————-

"Whoa... that"s over powered. No wonder it took my last free absorption. Phew! But once there"s life, there"s hope." Bayo cheered himself.

"BOY, I smash into this dragon and you support me from back OK?" Denre bellowed as he shot through the air with two arms that bulged with tense muscles X"ed at his head, covering his spear dive.

Just then, the familiar wash of recognition swept up through Bayo"s head faintly. He exhaled, becoming wary of his environs.

An Ascender was around?

He rose from the ground, earning a hard gaze from Aeneas who slowly folded his fist together, his blue forehead jewel giving out faint blue hue.

"Chill out, dragon man. I don"t want an Ascender coming at me, unawares."

At his peripheral vision, a black beam of energy shot out from the distance behind Aeneas. Bayo swirled, trailing the beam as it travelled upwards.

The beam tore on, zooming past the diving Grakon towards the snout of the Black Rage Dragon. It collided noiselessly with the black Rage Dragon,sparks of energy shooting everywhere.

For a minute, everywhere stilled. Bayo huffed, in antic.i.p.ation of what was going to happen next. Aeneas left watching him, engrossed at the clash. Ronke was not left out herself. She stood, a concentration of energy at her fists dissipating into nothingness as she stared, clearly confused.

Zzippppppp....

The beam hummed as the contact part of it enlarged, coating the length of the dragon in one second.

Then Zzzzzzzipppppppp....

The Dragon grimaced, as it body contorted, squeezing and becoming closer and smaller till it became a speck of black suspended in the air under the power of black beam.

Zzzzzzzzzzzipppppppp....

The beam retracted, moving at an even faster pace than before, into thick vegetation.

The air stilled as the forest sounds quieted completely, every creature in proximity stunned.

What was it that could make an entire Black Rage Dragon disappear from sight?

"G-guys... Guys, I"m cured. The curse is gone." Ronke yelped, jumping up in joy.

"Y-you sure? The curse only goes when the dragon dies, remember?" Aeneas replied while Denre merely grunted as the Ragore dragon sniffed him on the ground.

Of all of them he had it rough. After compressing his muscles for a bulk smash, his target completely vanished making him headb.u.t.t into the ground.

"The discovery today is really perplexing. I don"t think we should allow this just go down like that." Aeneas said.

Frowning, he squinted at the dog lying slumped out on the ground.

"I thought I saw you up seconds ago, No? I must be running mad then." He whispered, shrugging.

"Whatever could make that disappear is even a bigger threat than we could imagine. We must find it and contain it." Ronke said, running past Aeneas.

"What about the Dog?" Aeneas called. "Are we just leaving it here?"

"It"s knocked out, right? We"ll come back for it later." Denre replied, his dragon vanis.h.i.+ng from sight.

With those words, Aeneas followed, the two of them flanking Ronke as they ran at impossible speeds towards the thicker bush, leaving the dog behind.

"Yasmin, is it what I think? That an Ascender just..." Bayo asked, rising up. If for anything, he sure didn"t want to meet that Ascender.

At least not in his weakened state.

"Yes, an Ascender just absorbed the dragon.. And because of the proximity range, I am unable to confirm what number." Yasmin confirmed.

The dragon that made those people panic, just absorbed in seconds.

Oh, how are the mighty fallen!

With these thoughts, Bayo trudged along, keeping eyes open for just anything to munch on. He was going to follow but not because of the Ascender but because he wanted to see what really he was up against.