(Theme: The Weight of Unwritten Histories)
800 kilograms. The number burned into Kaito's mind as he stormed uphill through the Obsidian Wastes. Jagged cliffs tore at the blood-red sky. Each step THUD-CRUNCHED volcanic gravel, the gravity suit's servos howling like tortured beasts. Sweat carved burning rivers down the lightning scar on his back. No shortcuts. No mercy. Just survive.
BZZZT—KRRRK! The suit flickered crimson. Failure.
He smashed face-first into the ground — CRACK! Blood and bile sprayed from his clenched teeth. Gravel tore at his skin."Why... won't... it... stop?"
A boot hammered his ribs. Akari loomed over him, horns casting prison-bar shadows across his face."You call this training?" Her voice was ice over broken glass. "Newborn dragons die cleaner."
"The suit... it's—"
"Not weight." Her heel crushed down on his hand. CRUNCH."Force. Your soft flesh folds. Like paper."
Memory hit her like a wave crashing through a shattered dam. The fragmented pieces of her past surged together—blinding, raw. A younger Akari strapped to a steel slab. Needles pumped liquid fire into her neck. Scientists' goggles mirrored her silent scream."Survive this, and you'll be strong."
Present tore back through her as her claws gripped Kaito's collar, dragging him toward a fissure that breathed heat like a forge's mouth. A mountain stirred — obsidian scales grinding, veins of molten metal pulsing beneath.
"Twenty-four metric tons." Her words froze the sweat on his neck. "Scales shatter diamonds. Kill it —" she hurled him forward "— or fertilize its nest."
Kaito's dragonsteel blade SCREECHED across the beast's hide, a spark in the dark."The gap — half a centimeter — NOW!"
The tail came like a meteor.
WHAM! Basalt disintegrated. His ribs snapped like brittle sticks. Blood misted the air.
"Missed by a breath."
Night bled into the camp. Lantern light flickered over books smudged with ash and blood. Kaito's fingers traced equations. Planetary Physics and Anomalies. Gravity shifts. Inertial lies. Rations falling slow. Soldiers leaping like gods. Two-thirds Earth pull.
The suit didn't add weight. It multiplied force.
He turned pages — Dragon Engineering Field Manual. Diagrams of bone lattice harder than diamond. Scales that bent plasma. Molten blood fueling fire. Not myth — engineered biology. Weapons with hearts.
His pencil snapped between his fingers. He scrawled fevered notes: strike angles, tail whip timing, wing joint failures. Break what they trust. Where they trust it most.
Dawn. The whetstone cracked against his chest, ice-cold.
"Sharpen to ten microns," Akari said. Her horns caught the bloodlight of the rising sun. "Maybe then you'll scratch their claws."
Kaito spat blood onto black stone. "I'll carve out its heart."
She dropped frost-salve on his notes, as if by accident. A scrap folded tight: For burns. Don't die.
The next twenty-one days bled together. Day seven — three strikes, black bile eaten through stone. Day fourteen — blade edge at twelve microns, obsidian surrendered. Day twenty-one — sixteen thousand Newtons of force shattered monoliths.
Sparks lit the night as Kaito welded a grip extension. Torque = distance × force. The dagger thrummed in his hand like a starving predator.
The final test — a single motion.
SHINK! The blade split the black stone clean, precise, murderous.
Akari grunted. Maybe approval. Maybe disappointment. "Not entirely useless."
Beyond the trees, purple eyes burned like dying stars. Watching. Waiting.
The sky split open. Aurora tore wide. Wings swallowed the stars. The roar came — GROOOOWL — deep enough to shake bone.
Akari threw him a dragon core. Cold. Heavy. Thrumming with death."Half a year. Next — Infernal Dragon." She vanished into the ash. "Pray your physics beats hellfire."
The core scorched his palm. He saw himself in its black glass — one human eye, one gold-slit predator's pupil.
He pocketed the salve. A ghost of a smile cracked his lips.
The watcher leaned closer, unseen, unseen but seeing everything.
ORION'S Comment: "Oho~! Someone's very interested in our lab rat. Is it admiration... or lunch-break anticipation?"
THE SKY BLEED.
Aurora ripped open. Wings blotted stars—the Blood Dragon Emperor's silhouette dwarfing mountains. GRROOOOWWL... The roar liquefied marrow.
Akari tossed a dragon core. Cold. Thrumming. Deadly. "Half a year." Her eyes held blizzards. "Next target: Infernal Dragon." She vanished into swirling ash. "Pray your physics beats hellfire."
Kaito gripped the core. Energy SCORCHED his palm. In its obsidian reflection—one human eye. One pupil slit vertical and burning gold. No more resets. No more luck. Kill or be unmade.
He pocketed her salve. A ghost-smile touched his lips—first in a lifetime.
The shadowy figure leaned forward—purple eyes narrowing to daggers.
ORION'S NOTE: "Science vs. scales—Round 2 begins! Will our lamb bite back? Stay hungry, readers!"