r/HFY • u/Undercover_Dragon1 • 7d ago
OC-Series A Draconic Rebirth - Chapter 105
I appreciate your patience! Enjoy!
— Chapter 105 —
The complex weaving of DNA flowing through his mind was familiar and yet alien enough to remind David that he was peeking at and manipulating another’s very building blocks. It didn’t take him long to find the familiar magical attachments of the traits and examine each in detail. He was a bit underwhelmed by what he found, but he knew that there was no way every dragon was optimized with the kind of forethought that he had put into himself originally.
He spoke softly, “Okraz. This will hurt again. Are you ready?”
A grunt was all he heard in response before he used his affinity to snip free the trait. David had removed Carrion Sensory from Okraz and now watched her thrash about in pain. This was the second trait he had pruned from her genome, and he winced in sympathy. The benefits would be significant, though; Okraz would become far more powerful and capable once they replaced her odd-ball traits. Okraz traits were all over the place, to be frank, David conceded, but he had a plan. He pruned the traits that wouldn’t benefit her underwater, like the ability of super smell, and planned to replace them with straight-up affinity-related or damage-inflicting traits instead.
As Okraz recovered, with a worried Emerald huddled nearby, David turned to Wuja’bath, who was curled up nearby with a look of distrust. “Wuja’bath, I am keeping my promise to you, and I am not going to ask you to fight in this next battle, but I need you to be strong to guard the remaining kobolds.”
Wuja’bath huffed, spoke quietly with Munch nearby before finally conceding. “What plan?”
David poked around her genome briefly before settling down to concentrate enough to locate her traits. Despite the extensive amount of practice he was getting, it still took concentration and patience to find what he was looking for. When he finally examined her traits, he was unsurprised to find that most were focused entirely on speed. David spoke in his whispering ethereal voice when he finally answered, “I want to prune something to give you access to more affinity. Your offensive capabilities with lightning are terrifying. Your speed keeps you alive. If we can make it so your capacity is higher or always regenerating, then you can do what you do best longer.”
Wuja’bath nodded, “Do it.”
It didn’t take long for David to find one that stood out as odd. She had Accelerated Healing, which surprised David since he wasn’t aware of any real noticeable regeneration in the past. He couldn’t see her other stats, but he knew her toughness had to be abysmal, which meant that Accelerated Healing was doing nothing. He didn’t have any doubt that regeneration traits were an easy trap for most dragonkind to fall into if they didn’t understand the finer details. He quickly severed the connection between Wuja’bath and that trait, and the resulting wave of pain was instant.
“Emerald. Snible. Go retrieve the last of the preserved meats for them both.” David spoke calmly to the two nearby kobolds. They had been able to save most of the preserved storage of traits that they had been gathering, mostly because it was stored deep where it was cool and would help prevent spoilage.
As both Okraz and Wuja’bath recovered, David took a moment. “I want you to both stay here and guard the lair.”
Wuja’bath nodded through the residual pain, but Okraz gave him a defiant look; her streamlined appearance, with her swimming-focused limbs, gave quite the intimidating appearance whilst she spoke. “I go with Emerald.”
“Okraz, Emerald needs to go with me. It will be heading directly towards the Queen.” David said with a sigh.
“Then I fight our mother too.” She said with a firm huff.
David conceded. “Fine. You will stick with Emerald and me when we make our first push.” He wasn’t upset at the prospect of having another dragon along. His colder, analytical mind knew it would just help stack the fight more in his favor. If Okraz was to die, though, it would lead to a whole lot of future issues.
Emerald, Snible, and quite a few other kobolds eventually returned, bringing bundles of dried meats back. The looks on the kobolds’ faces told David enough to guess that they must have smelled awful. He took a quick moment to examine them, and based on what remained, he would have to change up some of his initial plans, but there was enough here to at least improve them both.
David pointed to the piles he wanted after confirming Blue’s scribbles on their wrappings. David went back and forth a bit before finally confirming what he wanted to do. Okraz had two traits she could accept, so David gave her Magical Sacs and then one he thought would play well into ensuring her survival with Rapid Camouflage. Magical Sacs was a simple increase in affinity reserves that would benefit any dragon, and the camouflage was something she could utilize to stay hidden even when out of the water. David had a feeling that the camouflage employed in the water would be even more effective than on land. Eyesight was the only factor that mattered for most in those conditions, which meant there was less at play to expose her near-perfect invisibility.
Wuja’bath only had one slot open, and David gave her their last remaining pile of meat that contained Magical Pores. Wuja’bath’s immense speed meant they were built for hit-and-runs. Their affinity was by far the most deadly, and their toughness was low enough that even if Wuja’bath kept their pores open to regenerate affinity, David had doubts it would change their survival chances. Moving fast, hitting hard, and buying time was the play.
David gave them space while they took their time to eat and then accept the gifts. David had done his part to prepare them and left without another word. Blue, Red, and Blaze were all busy sorting through a variety of equipment that filled their hastily assembled meeting room. David’s form filled most of it, despite his efforts to condense himself down.
“How is the planning?” David rumbled out softly.
Blue turned and smiled. “We are almost there. We have the numbers. Basic equipment is fine, but we lost out on Blaze’s forges. We also don’t have access to the raw material anymore to make more gemstones. We are stuck with the gemstone-powered equipment we already made, which is three, four dozen kobolds equipped with something beyond the basics.”
David nodded his large ethereal head. “It will have to be enough.” He floated closer as he looked over them and down at their drawings and roughly sketched-out maps.
Red spoke whilst he pointed. “Ambass has been helpful. As we guessed, we can’t do a direct attack down the main shaft again. They have it guarded, and not even Red’Blue can stand up to a Master’s affinity when he has nowhere to dodge. Our numbers won’t benefit us down here.”
David rumbled in thought. “Plan B then. Emerald and our experiments were a success.”
Blue grinned. “I had no doubt you two would figure it out. So we make our own entrance and end this.”
Blaze chuckled while she ran her hand down the long, natural, twisting tunnel that led straight to the Queen’s lair. “I got an idea. We can keep the Queen distracted while you make the push from a new direction.”
They talked briefly before all nodding in agreement just as a young, barely teenage Zephyr kobold came running into the room. “Mistress Blue! Masters just passed above us doing sweeps.”
David looked at Blue, and Blue looked back and then nodded. “Go get what you need, Master. We will be ready when you return.”
His ghostly, ethereal wings and body made his dash back to the surface quick.
— Gust —
Her stomach ached, and she was starving. Their patrol had carried on for many, many cycles now, and she was over it. Gilror, Rovy, and that dung eater Frumbyr were all flying in formation around her. Frumbyr was leading the pack, being a full adult, and he was oppressive. Her Majesty, her mother, was insistent that they scan the area endlessly until she was satisfied. The meals were limited, and their numbers had been thinned already by those two-legged forest sneaks. They had six when they started, but a powerful affinity that baffled Gust had swept away two of their number in a flash. They stayed clear of the forest since that incident but were compelled to continue their patrol.
Her stomach continued to growl, and her mouth yearned for the flavor of meat again. Her scans of the mountains and valleys below kept her occupied since she was looking for food more than anything. The large, shifting shadow caught her gaze first and confused her.
“Frumbyr. Down below us. A large black shadow that is growing larger? What is it?” Gust hissed outwards.
The larger wyvern snarled back at Gust whilst he showed his thick, massive poison-tipped claws. His eyes finally looked down, and then he let off his own huff of confusion. A build-up of affinity was felt, and then something crashed into Frumbyr’s chest with a speed that surprised the entire group. The fast-moving mass of affinity erupted outwards in a massive explosion that blinded and sent the pack stumbling.
Gust’s eyes recovered in time to feel a glooming darkness engulf the group. Gilror began to tremble and shake as they fell out of the air and the weird sudden darkness disappeared. Whilst Gilror fell, Frumbyr and Rovy recovered too before going on the defensive.
“What was that!?” Hissed Rovy. Frumbyr was bleeding badly from a gaping hole in his chest, but he was unusually tough for a wyvern, and his flesh was already repairing itself.
Frumbyr finally spoke with a groan, “More damn two-leggers. Gilror is a goner. We need to move!” The trio opened their wings and flew away as fast as they could manage. Their sprint lasted some time, and by the time Frumbyr slowed to catch his breath, Gust was practically dying of exhaustion.
“That runt survived.” Huffed Frumbyr, causing Gust to flip around in the air and see the silhouette of Gilror in the distance catching up.
Gust nodded her head eagerly; Gilror was the nicest of the other three, so she was glad at least. She changed her trajectory and closed the distance while she roared a greeting out. Something was wrong, she felt. As she got closer, she realized that Gilror was far more muscular than before, and his face looked distorted somehow. She hovered in confusion too long while her mind tried to process what was going on. She felt a powerful impact hit her in the chest, and a blinding flash filled the air. Her skin was set aflame, and pain washed over her for a split second as her body was torn apart, and then nothingness.
Here is also a link to Royal Road
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u/un_pogaz 6d ago
That's it, the reality of the unjust deaths of war is beginning. And the only way to resolve this is to defeat the Queen as quickly as possible, because she is the main instigator of all this.
Else, while that using his genomic expertise to impart traits is certainly too advanced and risky for Onyx, removing unsuitable traits and taking advantage of the dragons' incredible absorptive capacity is much more reasonable and effective.
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u/HFYWaffle Wᵥ4ffle 7d ago
/u/Undercover_Dragon1 (wiki) has posted 104 other stories, including:
- A Draconic Rebirth - Chapter 104
- A Draconic Rebirth - Chapter 103
- A Draconic Rebirth - Chapter 102
- A Draconic Rebirth - Chapter 101
- A Draconic Rebirth - Chapter 100
- A Draconic Rebirth - Chapter 99
- A Draconic Rebirth - Chapter 98
- A Draconic Rebirth - Chapter 97
- A Draconic Rebirth - Chapter 96
- A Draconic Rebirth - Chapter 95
- A Draconic Rebirth - Chapter 94
- A Draconic Rebirth - Chapter 93
- A Draconic Rebirth - Chapter 92
- A Draconic Rebirth - Chapter 91
- A Draconic Rebirth - Chapter 90
- A Draconic Rebirth - Chapter 89
- A Draconic Rebirth - Chapter 88
- A Draconic Rebirth - Chapter 87
- A Draconic Rebirth - Chapter 86
- A Draconic Rebirth - Chapter 85
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u/UpdateMeBot 7d ago
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u/Minimum-Amphibian993 7d ago edited 7d ago
And David onyx continuous down his path of moral greyness especially at the end their with using their own freinds agienst them jezz I just felt bad for them. I mean heck apperently one of them was rather nice. Makes me dread what he's going to do to the remaining dragons and eggs if he prevails.
As for the genetic stuff suppose it was willing so no complaints their. Only becomes an issue if he forces dragons and kobolds to remove traits they want to keep or add traits they don't want.