Struggle
Xisitana awoke from her slumber, and the fierce hunger churning in her belly brought a flash of anger and hatred to her gaunt draconic face.
Because she had failed to eat enough eggshells, her slumber had been far from a success-her body had grown from four feet to only six, and her muscles were shriveled and atrophied. She was nothing but skin and bones.
A true dragon's neck and tail together accounted for more than half its total length, and in this state, she looked especially small and scrawny.
"Despicable Sol, I'll make you pay! I swear I will!"
After crawling out of the dark corner, Xisitana saw no sign of their dragon mother, and naturally there was no food prepared in advance.
Too hungry to hold out any longer, she could only scrape some gravel off the ground and stuff it into her mouth.
A true dragon's stomach could digest almost any substance in the world, and she could draw a little nourishment and energy even from these inorganic materials.
She had wanted to settle accounts with Sol immediately, but on second thought, she feared she was no match for him in her current state.
So she changed direction and crawled toward where her younger brother Kalpu was sleeping.
"Looks like you didn't learn a thing from last time, showing your faces in front of me again!"
Mental power essence fragment +1. Mental power essence fragment +1.
The tiny pale-blue text flashed across Sol's vision, and he finally understood where the balance of 0.17 had come from.
He hadn't expected his siblings to be useful for this too. He would have to give them a proper "welcome."
Dragging his body, now over seven feet long, up from the ground, Sol shook off the dust that had accumulated during his half-month slumber and arched his spine slightly like a cat.
His pale-gold eyes swept over the two hatchlings, and their scales bristled at once. But instead of backing down, they both charged him.
A true dragon's powerful physique left Sol with no trace of stiffness after lying still for so long. Digging all four limbs into the ground, he spun around and lashed out with his tail.
The tail, unusually long and slender compared to his body, whipped through the air, tracing a pale-red arc before striking Xisitana, who was in the lead, hard across the head.
The tremendous force of the whiplash effect produced a crisp smack on impact. Fine red scales burst apart, and blood seeped out.
The intense pain and dizziness brought Xisitana's charge to a halt.
Seeing this, Kalpu immediately rushed past his older sister, leaped high into the air and pounced on Sol.
With the force of his charge and his own weight behind him, he managed to knock Sol to the ground. But the next second, a dragon claw clamped tightly around his throat, preventing him from biting, and Sol rolled over and pinned him beneath him.
By then, Xisitana had recovered. She too leaped high and landed on Sol's back, clawing wildly at him with claws that had already begun to look formidable. She opened her jaws and bit at the back of his neck.
The searing pain drew a furious roar from Sol. He shook his body hard and flared the wings on his back, throwing Xisitana off.
He then seized the chance to strike Kalpu's head again and again with both claws. In moments, he had torn Kalpu's skin and flesh open, leaving him completely unable to resist.
By the time Xisitana regrouped and prepared to charge again, Sol already had one foot planted on Kalpu's head and was glaring viciously at her.
"You're next, you sneak-attacking reptile!"
The fight ended in a complete victory for Sol.
That was the benefit of seizing the initiative. As the saying went, one step ahead meant every step ahead. Getting more food early on meant growing faster and stronger.
A stronger body, in turn, could win more food in later struggles, creating a virtuous cycle.
If he could have helped it, Sol wouldn't have treated his siblings this way, but the struggle for survival was just that cruel.
He still remembered that, when he was human and a child, his grandmother had kept a female cat. One day, the cat gave birth to a litter of kittens.
There were many kittens in the litter, and their mother clearly didn't have enough milk, so they fought desperately for it.
Two of them failed to get any milk at first. A few days later, they were noticeably smaller and thinner than the others, and not long afterward, they died of malnutrition.
Those were only ordinary animals. Among red dragons, who were vicious and cruel by nature, the struggle for survival would only be fiercer.
If Sol didn't suppress the other two red dragon hatchlings, they would turn around and bully him instead. There was no other possibility.
Watching his younger siblings limp away in sorry shape, Sol bared his teeth in a mocking smile. Then he turned his flexible neck and began licking his wounds.
Though all three of them were torn and bleeding, a true dragon's powerful recovery meant there was no need to worry about infection or the like. Their wounds would heal before long.
Once he had cleaned himself up for the most part, he summoned the enormous wheel in his mind again. The balance beside mental power essence had risen from 0.17 to 0.5, all thanks to the anger of the other two red dragon hatchlings during the fight.
"Looks like I can make a lowest-tier draw in another two days. I hope I get something good then."
The darkvision dragons possessed from birth allowed him to see clearly even in the dim cave.
He could tell that the place had been converted from a natural limestone cave. The walls were covered in scorch and melting marks, while the rear section was blocked off by a huge boulder-could that be their dragon mother's treasure vault?
At the thought, Sol felt his heart leap, and a surge of greed began to grow wildly.
But the reason of his human soul soon suppressed the restlessness in his bloodline. He instinctively moved away from the boulder and focused his attention on the front half of the cave.
After making a rough circuit, Sol gained a basic understanding of his current situation and couldn't help feeling a little disappointed.
There were few signs of fine carving anywhere in the cave, no so-called subordinates, and none of the unusual features that resulted from a red dragon dwelling somewhere for years and saturating it with magic.
All the signs suggested that this was merely a cave their dragon mother had picked at random to lay her eggs.
On reflection, that made sense. From his earlier observations, she seemed to be only a little over seventeen meters long, merely the average length of a young adult red dragon.
Red dragons of that age had only just gained the strength to establish a fixed territory and subdue a small number of subordinates. How could they possibly command a great force?
That was bad news for Sol, and his mood couldn't help growing somewhat heavier.
The five-colored evil dragons never put much effort into raising their offspring. A powerful one might have its subordinates look after them a little, but if it had no subordinates at all...
For several days afterward, Sol and the other two hatchlings saw no sign of their dragon mother.
Fierce hunger burned in their bellies like fire, but they didn't dare leave the cave at will, so they could only fill their stomachs with rocks.
It was not until nearly a week later that the sound of beating wings came from outside the cave again. A fiery-red figure swooped in, bringing with it a strong smell of blood.