The mole crashed down on the ground. The force of the mole’s slam sent sand flying in a huge cloud. As the cloud cleared, the mole pushed itself back on its feet. It turned its attention to Felice and charged at her. Felice had gained enough distance to give her the chance to dodge the mole. She quickly leaped to the side of the charging mole.

  As Felice’s feet landed on the ground, she looked to the spot where Franz was crushed. To her shock, there was no indication of Franz at the spot. His body was not there. There was not even an indication that it somehow got buried in the sand.

  Felice tried to understand what happened. She swore that she watched her captain get crushed by the mole. Then the air next to her started to distort. It seemed to twist in on itself and distorted the surrounding details.

  The twisting in the air snapped back into focus. As it did, black and purple energy came from the spot of the twisting. The energy started to mold and took the shape of a man. The black and purple started to fade and show details of a man underneath it. As the last of the energy faded, Felice realized who the man underneath it was. Franz had emerged.

  Franz patted his chest and face. It was as if he were trying to understand the situation. “Uh, any idea what happened there?”

  “Maybe, but let’s worry about that after we are done,” Felice said as she readied another vial.

  Franz cocked an eyebrow at Felice’s response. He was sort of shocked that Felice might know what happened. But if anyone would know, it would be her. She spent so much time researching various topics. He shrugged off the thought, though. He would have plenty of time to discuss after they dealt with the mole.

  Franz turned to aim his pistol at the mole and saw Elio already charging it once more. Elio was already pretty durable, and his armor helped with that. While he took a pretty hard hit to the ground, he was used to being smacked around. This time, Elio charged the beast head-on. His boosters shot behind him at full force. The blue energy fired not only from his back but from the open plates in his arms as well. His movement was fast and strong as he brought the axe of his halberd into the armor protecting the mole’s head.

  The halberd slammed into the mole’s armor and started to dig into it. The armor was tough and stopped the axe from going much further. Elio was not going to let that stop him. His boosters ignited with even more force and pushed the axe head deeper into the armor. In response, the mole planted its feet firmly into the ground.

  As the mole and Elio had a back-and-forth, Felice did not hesitate to attack. She quickly threw a vial at one of the mole’s hind legs, careful to make sure Elio avoided the splash zone. Green liquid exploded across the mole’s leg and ate away at its armor. Orange blasts burned into the leg of the mole immediately after the liquid exploded. Franz started shooting blast after blast at the leg. As the blasts burned against the mole’s legs, its stance started to weaken.

  Elio immediately noticed the weakening of the mole’s stance and sent more power to his boosters for one final push. The mole could no longer push back against Elio, and his halberd was able to break through the mole’s armor. It embedded itself deep into the mole. A pained squeak was released from the beast before its body slumped to the ground.

  Elio pulled the halberd out of the mole and returned it to his back. He turned to the rest of the group. “That was a lot of fun. Do you have enough room in your storage for it, Captain?”

  Franz sighed deeply before he responded. “Not sure if I would call it fun. I think I have room for it, but why?”

  “I figured Tal could take a look at it. We might be able to use its armor and eat its meat,” Elio responded.

  “What do you think?” Franz asked Felice.

  “For once, Elio might be right. The armor was pretty tough. We could use it for ourselves or sell it,” Felice said. “Not sure about the meat, but it might be edible.”

  “Fine, I’ll put it in my storage,” Franz sighed as he holstered his weapons.

  Franz then pointed his arm at the mole. Blue light came from his arm and enveloped the mole. Because of the size of the mole, it took a moment for it to be completely stored. After it was successfully stored, Franz walked over to Lutz and scratched the top of the dragon’s head.

  “Sorry if that was scary. I hope you are okay,” Franz said as he moved his hand to scratch underneath the dragon’s chin.

  Lutz let out a cheerful chirp and nodded in recognition of Franz’s words. While there were no words exchanged, Franz could feel that Lutz felt fine. It was almost as if Franz could feel Lutz’s emotions.

  Franz turned his attention to Felice after making sure Lutz was okay. “So, what do you think happened earlier?”

  “I have heard that dragons can provide the person they bond with magical abilities. These abilities can grow stronger with time and training,” Felice explained. “I’m pretty sure you involuntarily activated one to escape.”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Behind Franz’s helmet, his eyes widened in shock and excitement. “Oh, that sounds like it could be handy.”

  “Ugh, I want magic powers,” Elio groaned. “I bet they would make me an even better fighter.”

  “You’re already a good fighter,” Franz pointed out. “Not to mention, you are already way stronger than me.”

  “Yeah, but I could be even better,” Elio said. “I’m gonna have to find myself a dragon.”

  “That’s just what we need. Another dragon to make the Imperium think we are more of a threat,” Felice sighed.

  “Well, they would definitely have a hard time with us if we had two,” Elio said confidently.

  “That’s certainly a way to look at it,” Felice rolled her eyes beneath her helmet. “Anyways, let’s get back to the ship. Did you use up all your energy supply in that fight, Elio?”

  “Nah, I should have enough to get back to the ship,” Elio nodded.

  ***

  The ride back to the ship went very smoothly. While Franz and Felice were relieved, Elio was disappointed that he did not get another fight. As the group arrived at the ship, they deactivated their boards. Lutz hung on to Franz by wrapping his arms around his neck. As the board deactivated, the dragon released his arms and fell to the ground lightly.

  “This is our home,” Franz said to Lutz as he walked towards the ramp. “So, this is your home now, too.”

  “Home,” Lutz repeated in a cheerful tone as he walked right behind Franz.

  As the group entered the ship, they pressed a button on their collars. The helmets surrounding their heads slid downward and phased away. The group walked through the main ship corridor to the deck. Tal and Kelsa sat near the ship’s controls. They had brought out an extra table and were playing a game of cards.

  Kelsa placed her cards on the table as she noticed the group. “Well? How was the haul?”

  “It went pretty well. We got a bunch of photon crystals. Those and some monster that Elio insisted we salvage filled our storage,” Franz explained while purposely omitting Lutz. “We could actually go back and get some more.”

  “Why don’t you guys do a drop off and then go get more?” Kelsa suggested. “We could definitely use the credits.”

  “Well, we found something else too,” Franz responded as he motioned for Lutz to step forward. Lutz peeked his head forward from behind Franz’s legs. “We found this little guy.”

  Tal did not pay much attention until Lutz stepped forward. As he saw the dragon enter the corner of his eyes, he quickly spun his chair to look at Lutz. His eyes widened with excitement, and he kicked against the ground to send the wheels of his chair racing towards Lutz. The chair skidded to a halt as it reached the dragon.

  “Is this what I think it is?” Tal said as he leaned from his chair to get a closer look. “I never thought I would get the chance to dissect a dragon.”

  “You aren’t dissecting him,” Franz said as he rolled his eyes. “He’s part of our crew now.”

  “Darn, that’s a lot less fun,” Tal sighed as he kicked his chair away from Lutz.

  “What do you mean he’s part of our crew?” Kelsa asked. “That is going to put a huge target on our backs.”

  “We can’t leave the little guy,” Franz said. “He’s just a baby.”

  “And our captain went and bonded it,” Felice added with some annoyance.

  “Okay, that too,” Franz shrugged. “Even if that was not the case, we couldn’t just leave a baby like that.”

  “Sometimes you’re too soft, Captain,” Kelsa sighed. “But if this is what you’ve decided, then we’ll go with it. How are we gonna handle the Imperium, though?”

  “That’s something we need to discuss,” Felice said. “There are areas they don’t patrol, but that heavily restricts us. Also, that means we have to completely avoid raiding and can only go treasure hunting.”

  “Not to mention, someone could report us even if we dock in one of those areas,” Kelsa added. “I’m sure even a wanted criminal could use a dragon as a nice bargaining chip.”

  “You guys are thinking about this too much,” Tal sighed. “We definitely will have to be careful about letting the dragon out of the ship when we dock. But we just need to upgrade our cloaking systems to stop the dragon detection on Imperium ships. The only problem is the cost.”

  “We can do that? I figured their systems were too advanced. Also, not sure who would be selling dragon-specific cloaking systems,” Franz said.

  “It’s not a dragon-specific system,” Tal explained. “Currently, we use a cloaking system that makes us difficult to detect unless someone is actively searching. A dragon will always show up on their detection systems. So, we need to upgrade to a full cloaking system. It will make us completely undetectable.”

  “What’s the cost of something like this?” Kelsa asked.

  “Well, obviously, we have to go through a black market, and that will increase the price,” Tal said. “It would probably take all the photon crystals we have in storage. So, we should probably go try to get more. That way, we can afford ship repairs and supplies.”

  “Ooh, that means we’ll stay here a little longer?” Elio’s eyes lit up. “Maybe I can get some more fights in.”

  Franz rubbed his temples in slight annoyance. “That’s not our goal, Elio. Don’t forget we need to conserve what little remains of our power. So, gathering photon crystals comes first.”

  “Fine,” Elio said before he folded his arms and grew quiet.

  “Well, now that’s decided, what’s the name of the new member of our crew?” Kelsa asked.

  Lutz determined the rest of the crew was safe and moved in front of Franz. In a cheerful tone, he replied to Kelsa. “Lutz!”

  “Welcome to the crew, Lutz!” Kelsa replied with an uncharacteristic smile. “My name is Kelsa, I’m the pilot around here. This lazy guy is Tal. He’s our engineer. You’ve already met Felice, Elio, and Franz. Felice is our navigator. Elio is our muscle. And Franz is our esteemed captain. I hope you enjoy your time with us.”

  “Friends!” Lutz nodded his head enthusiastically.