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Chapter 62  A royal dispute

"Lies? I need no lies for you, \'Mother\'. Look at yourself! You don\'t fit in the door anymore! What\'s even the point of your power if you only eat, and eat, and eat? You will eat all the fish in the swamp and move onto humans, and this is just another reason we must kill you!"

"The point of my power, \'Daughter\'?" Queen growled back. "It\'s protecting the Nest from such as you!"

She stood up, becoming even taller, and walked closer to the light. Now Cael saw her ugly snout and her lizard eyes, sharp with predatory intelligence. They peered down at Cael, who was already mentally calculating what spells he would use first. But she didn\'t attack.

"Human… Are you a smart one? Then you should listen to me. Whatever reward the wench has promised, I can give more. My children, the treasures of humans that have perished in this swamp

—you will be rich! And if you think yourself a hero, human, then think again. My daughter is far from righteous, and so is her cause! She just wants my power for herself!"

Cael frowned. Everything in those words rang with the assurance Queen felt. He walked several steps to the side so he could turn and keep both Princess and Queen in his sight.

"Really?" he asked.

"Don\'t listen to her!" Princess interjected. "She\'s delusional. Her power is corrupt! Whatever her treasures are, they will become yours when we defeat her. All I want is to protect the Nest from her greed. When she dies, I would control the population of lesser dragons so they would never need to leave the swamp and provoke humans again!"

Queen turned to the Princess with a furious snarl.

"Yet it\'s you who goes and provokes them! Or do you think I wouldn\'t know whose fault half of those hunters are? You steal their cattle and kill whoever stands in the way, yet pretend that you are so righteous you GLOW!"

"It\'s only your fault, Mother! If you didn\'t eat so much, I wouldn\'t be driven to do this. I had to survive and not starve if I ever to defeat you and put a stop to all this!"

"You should\'ve left my swamp alone if you care so much, you wench! You are just envious of me. Just afraid that you are too weak to build and protect your own nest! And what if I eat? This is my right! The food is there, and with my strength, I declare it mine. Do you want to argue that with your own strength? As if! Coward, you can only hide and make others fight on your behalf!"

Cael rubbed the bridge of his nose. The roars made his ears hurt, and the unshakable faith of both dragons in their words brought pain to his head as well.

This was the first time he had this problem. Until now, his Sense Lies talent had never let him down! But this was its limit, Cael knew. It didn\'t sense the universal truth of the world—if such existed. It merely sensed whether the person THOUGHT they were lying.

\'Are all dragons so… bitchy?\' He scowled. With each minute of this confrontation, his opinion of both dragons descended another notch. And he wasn\'t very sympathetic to them to begin with.

He really only wanted to kill someone big for trophies and blood. If this was helping people, all the better. But now he had to pick a side that would help his people more.

Or at least the side HE liked more.

Neither was a simple choice.

On the other hand, this was what made it easier. If both options were equal in everything but size and power, Cael only had to judge based on that.

"Be quiet, both of you!" Cael shouted. "Queen, may I ask you something? Without being overheard." He threw a pointed look at Princess.

"Don\'t you dare, hunter!" the younger dragon hissed. "If you betray me, I will destroy you!"

Queen gave her a look of superiority and turned to Cael. "Surely, human, let\'s speak without this wretch\'s interference. She may stay and watch as the coward she is, not daring to strike, as she knows I\'m stronger than her any day."

Princess growled, but true to Queen\'s words, stayed still while Cael walked up to Queen. He stood next to her front paw, and her head towered above him, too far up to look at without craning his neck until it broke.

"Can you hear me from up here?" he asked in his quietest voice, pretty sure what the answer was.

"What?" Queen looked at him from above. "I can\'t hear you. Do you expect me to bow before you?"

"Yes! Be louder, so at least I can hear, too!" Princess growled from the sidelines, drowning out Cael\'s response, spoken in a whisper.

"Shut up, wretch! This is between me and the human!" Queen roared back. She twisted her neck to bring her head near Cael. It was almost as big as him. The next moment, she bared her teeth, each the size of a dagger, and recoiled from Cael.

"What\'s that?!"

Too late. The spell he whispered under his breath all that time was too close to completion.

"<I call upon the power of skies and the winds of a raging hurricane. Crescent blade of cutting winds, let your fury rend my enemies asunder!>"

Cael threw out his hands, letting the spell he painstakingly conjured come to life. Half of his mana went into it, but it was worth the effort. The third circle version of Wind Blade, Wind Scythe, was just the right size to cut Queen\'s head in half.

It flew towards it, and the spell\'s crescent-shaped blade hit Queen straight in the eye.

The scythe cut through the soft tissue of the eye, the scales and the muscle like through butter, halting only when it met the bone. The resulting impact pushed Queen\'s head back and sent green blood splattering around. She screeched in pain and stumbled back.

But then the scythe dissipated, and Queen still stood. A huge, wide gash went diagonally through her eye and bisected her mouth. Blood was pouring out of it in rivulets, but the wound, as grievous as it was, hadn\'t been enough. Queen was still alive.

Furious.

And way too close.