Mage Adam

Chapter 157: Breaking the Shell

"Hold on, both of you! Right now, we need to figure out which horrible, wicked bug took the lives of the mother dragons and then this egg."

Bam.

A fierce snowstorm struck the face of the frost dragon, who was attempting to calm things down. His patience snapped, "Seriously? You two are acting like complete idiots!"

When dragons try to sort out their disagreements, it is not what people would call friendly. Things escalated between the two, and even the magic from their dragon language started to affect everyone nearby. All the frost dragons at the place leaped into action, holding down the two quarreling dragons. But, they took extra care to make sure that the last dragon egg didn't get cracked.

The fight between these massive beasts was like something out of a movie. A whole mountain peak, with its cave, was flattened. When they were done letting off steam, the dragons, with breaths so powerful they could whip up a snowstorm, circled around Okov.

The first dragon, wounded but still going strong, got back up, ignoring the white liquid seeping from his cuts. He said passionately, "We need to find who did this, take them down, and then take down anyone related to them. Then, get rid of their whole group. Our honor is on the line here. What we've lost needs to be made right -- we're talking a big payback!"

Angeles picked herself up, pointing her dragon claw at Okov and the egg, stating, "Out of all the eggs in the Neltharion mountains, only this one's left unbroken. That's suspicious, right? Maybe we should just break it."

Okov's voice thundered with fury, and he swiftly covered the egg in a shield of ice, hiding it within his wings. His silver eyes blazed with anger: "Angeles, you're playing with fire!"

The Frost Dragons worked to soothe Okov and then turned to Angeles, "Remember, we're dragons. Even our babies are among the mightiest and most majestic beings out there. No one should mess with a dragon egg."

All the dragons nodded, sure of their top-tier status in the world. As they grow, they gain incredible powers. Their young ones are tougher than any other creature's. And if something unwanted got inside a dragon egg? The baby dragon would just get rid of it.

But the idea that an uber-powerful being could sneak into a dragon egg? They hadn't even thought about it. After all, with so many frost dragons around, no sneaky creature could possibly fool them all.

---

The frost dragons departed the Neltharion mountains, flying to different corners of the world. Even though they were super angry about what happened, they're sort of lazy by nature. So, any search or revenge would probably happen close to home. Trouble was brewing. While dragons have this awesome power to shape the world, they'd likely not go all out.

Okov wasn't too different from his kin. As he journeyed back, he'd often stop. If someone irritated him, they'd be history. And if he spotted treasures he liked, he'd just say they belonged to some "bad guy" and snag them for himself. And so, taking his sweet time, he made his way back to his cave atop the Makalu mountains.

"Master Okov, welcome home." At the cave entrance, captives Okov had snatched up all dropped to their knees in respect. A female creature crept up, filling him in on everything that happened in his territory while he was gone.

Okov brought out the ice-covered egg. A light press of his claw, and the ice broke away. As he half-listened to her updates, he felt torn. He had taken the egg on a whim, but male dragons like him weren't usually the caretakers of young ones. Plus, he didn't really know how to hatch a dragon egg. It wasn't in his genes.

The more he thought about it, the more annoyed he got. With a huff, he sent all the captives flying out of the cave. Alone, he settled down, staring at the hovering dragon egg and wondering, "Now what?" He playfully acted like he was going to squish the egg, murmuring, "Should I just break it?"

The idea began to take over his thoughts. But just in time, he snapped back, "Hold on, that's not smart. There aren't many female dragons left these days. If I want to find a partner again, I'd have to wait for the young ones to grow up. This egg could be my only shot at having a kid for a long, long time."

With that, he called out, "Lina!"

Lina, one of his captives, hurried over, still a bit shaken from being blown away earlier. "Yes, Master Okov? What can I do?"

With a flick of his claw, Okov gently tossed the egg, which was about half Lina's size, to her. Lina caught it, looking pretty confused.

"You need to hatch this egg, no matter what. If you pull it off, I'll set you and your people free. But if you mess up, well... it won't end well for any of you."

---

The Reincarnation spell was still doing its thing. It felt more like a hide-and-seek spell now.

Inside the egg, Adam tried to lay low. He didn't dare to peek outside and just watched as over a hundred dragon spirits battled each other until only ten were left standing.

This brutal showdown was dragons in a nutshell. They were all desperate for a spot to call their own and would go all out, attacking and chomping down on anyone weaker.

Time seemed to fly. Without any way to tell time, all Adam could do was count the seconds. By his count, since the Reincarnation spell had started working, five whole years had gone by.

The number of dragon souls still in the running kept decreasing, but those that were left were growing mightier by the second. Adam pondered, if he just sat back and let the strongest soul win, maybe one seriously amazing dragon would come to be.

However, Adam had no intention of letting that happen.

---

Inside her chamber, Lina stared in a daze at the dragon egg bobbing around in a tub of boiling water. Without even thinking, her hand kept feeding fire-powered energy stones to the magic furnace.

It had been five years. At first, Okov would always ask about the egg and if it was ready to hatch. But then he went into a deep sleep around the third year and seemed to forget all about it. Lina guessed the egg had slipped his mind, but she never eased up on her mission. Her worry only grew. She knew if Okov woke up and remembered the egg, and it hadn't hatched yet, it'd be game over for her and her people.

She had no illusions about dragons being anything but ruthless.

Throughout the years, Lina had tried just about everything to get the egg to hatch, even blood rituals. But the egg didn't seem to care. And then it hit her. Normal bird eggs need warmth to break open, right? So why not try boiling the dragon egg?

"Come on, little one," she whispered, her eyes fixed on the egg. "Please hatch soon."

Crack.

Lina's eyes practically popped out of her head.

Crack.

Tears of joy poured down her face, her hand muffling a sob of relief. The egg was finally breaking open!