Last Egg: Reincarnated as a Dragon in a Game-Novel

390  The Rotten Apples, part 1/2

POV Prof:

The entire island was fully packed. Their spacesuits almost scraped against each other as everyone huddled together under pressure emitted by the ever-present glowing eyes that watched them without respite.

The professor sat on a nearby rock in his silver spacesuit, watching with disgust a bickering duo further away.

An unusually tall soldier in the bulkier version of the black military armor gripped towed threateningly above a shorter one but in an exquisitely decorated, red spacesuit with badges pinned to his chest plate.

"Back off, sir chancellor. It is obvious the military should take the lead in this situation!"

"That is not even important right now. I am telling you to take your men and prepare. Maybe we can escape if we get some distraction." The chancellor's red visor menacingly looked on the crow of his huddled compatriots.

The professor clenched his fist as he felt disgusted at their so-called leaders, 'As always the military wants to just control everything while politicians want to hide behind the people they should be serving. They still argue and fight for power even in this situation...'

However, he could do nothing as he was just an academic. They listened to him only when they needed him.

'Didn't they see what that big one could do? If it wanted we would be already dead. These beings are intelligent and I doubt they even have any need to eat us.'

Originally he thought he would be eaten, but when his people were rescued, he saw a new glimmer of hope, 'To assume they want to eat us just because of their predatory looks... Maybe we should instead think of them as an intelligent race extending a helping hand.'

Suddenly the air rippled in the distance, and a flash of golden light temporarily pushed back the orange glow of the magma. The ground trembled, and the stone rearranged, constructing a bridge through the lava.

Immediately everyone tensed, and the soldiers raised their glowing plasma rifles as multiple small, bipedal, and humanoid-looking beings marched down the newly built bridge, unfazed by the heat radiating from the lava and the gun pointed at them.

'Such a diverse species. Their shapes, their sizes. They vary so much.' He wasn't sure if it was by natural evolution or some clever bioengineering, but he was sure it was for a reason, 'It is like creating specific subspecies for different tasks.'

His eyes glittered under his helmet as he kept learning more and more about the cryptic alien culture.

'The big ones in the smoke and that one we met on the planet are most likely some warrior or military caste.'

He carefully glanced toward the group of bipedal, reptilian-looking beings in their archaic-styled, highly ornamental black armor marching down the newly formed bridge.

He could hardly contain his curiosity as what he saw was simply incredible.

'These ones are much smaller, but they still look strong' he could see their every move carry a strength that could probably bend metal with their bare hands, 'Maybe menial workers? Their bodies look nimble enough yet still looking physically strong.'

Finally, he stopped at the last variant.

It looked squishy and weak in comparison. Its clothes lacked any visible defensive properties. Instead, they were woven from a soft-looking fabric that revealed much of its smooth-looking and pale skin.

Long, purely white strings grew from its head. It lacked the scales and the metallic or stone exoskeletons shared by the rest.

He would even think it was an entirely different species if it wasn't for its reverse-slitted eyes and horns shared with the other variants.

'Truly interesting. This variant looks physically weak. So is it maybe some kind of a leading caste? Or maybe some thinking variant...'

A blaring of his sensors brought him from his thoughts as all his thermometers beeped like broken.

'What is this? Its temperature is constantly shifting between blazing hot and freezing cold!' He stood up and slowly walked forwards, ignoring the gazes and guns aiming from behind him.

"Where are you going Veren?"

"Stop, it might be dangerous!"

"Don't be stupid. It is obvious they want to talk." He couldn't let the useless politicians or aggressive military speak for their entire race.

POV Vesuvius:

As if a night had come, the pitch black clouds covered the sky. The lightning bolts kept striking and occasionally lighting it up. The heavy rain, ash, and snow fell upon the city as if the apocalypse was coming.

The powerful shockwaves swept through the darkness again and again and sent waves through the rain as the two beings in the sky collided with their weapons without any respite.

The lightning struck again, and the dragon appeared above the city.

Instantly silence fell upon the entire battlefield.

The kobold armies advancing under cover of large blue-glowing mana shields and the defenders manning giant magitech canons on the city walls stopped all of their movement.

The strong smell of despair and fear mixed with relief and worship was perpetrated through the war-scarred city.

'Hahaha, so this how mortals act. I was merciful and I let them live their lives and this how they repaid me?' The dragon wasn't even that angry about the players that attacked the city as he felt like it was only a matter of time, whereas his heart almost burst with outrage as he spotted his own citizens manning the city's defenses.

"Traitors!" The voice boomed above the city, accompanied by thunders of the storm. No one dared to even flinch under the terrifying aura that made the rain stop midfall.

The castle in the center was in shambles, with the two fighters in the sky looking at the dragon in surprise.

'How? How could you change so much?' Vesuvius immediately recognized one of his close minions only to be confused at his greater size, the three pairs of wings, and the powerful aura that made the air swirl.

Instantly the dragon's domain moved, and energy shifted through the air.

"Burn!" His words infused with mana resonated with his domain as both of the powers perfectly connected and amplified each other. Then as if it was a god's command, all the soldiers on the walls and streets blazed into the fire.

The flickering orange light of the human torches briefly lit up the city before they turned into ash just in the blink of an eye.

It was so fast no one could even react between the start and the end.

"Treacherous immortals! The ground shall be your prison!" The ground rumbled, and the words once again resonated with the dragon's domain. All the players in the city sunk into the soil as if turned into water, leaving only a few in the sky.

"This the power of dragons and everyone who dares to move against me shall not escape my wrath!" His rage didn't weaken even a bit as he felt like this was the one last and final straw.

'Hahaha, this is what happens when one tries to rule leniently. They bite me into the finger the first moment they can. Maybe the rule of fear is the path.' The dragon remembered his mad minion and the police state she tried to create.

'Maybe she was right in the end. Guards, I need more guards! I need spies everywhere.'

He even saw it back on the earth. He saw how humans acted when too free. Nothing would be enough for them. They would always want more. In some matters, they were even greedier than dragons.

'Am I really going to fall so deep into this dark path?' The dragon's eyes moved around the city one last time, his heart calming at the shivering people hiding in their houses, 'No, to punish all due to the mistakes of a few would just be counterproductive.'

His anger slightly fizzled out as he realized that most of the citizens didn't join the rebels, 'How many of these I killed even joined of their own volition? The rotten fruit that infested my basket...'

His mind moved quickly and scanned through all the possibilities until his eyes flashed brilliantly as