"Wah~~~!" The dragon girl cried out loudly, big tears streaming down her chubby face and quickly freezing into gem-like droplets in the snow. Her face was flushed red from crying, while the children laughed boisterously at having made her cry, entirely unaware of what they had done and the consequences about to unfold.
If there were an old hunter present, he would recognize that with dragon tears falling, the ancient dragon was likely to leave the area. They would need to track it immediately and prepare hardened potions and defensive gear. Otherwise, when it returned, it would be in a frenzied state, entering the third phase of its rage, marking the most intense part of their hunting preparation.
However, these rowdy children lacked any such experience. To them, bullying a girl and making her cry was a display of masculinity. Additionally, causing a noble girl to weep served as a way to assert their pride as poor individuals from the lower district. This was their means of resistance, and they might not even understand what their forebears had fought for or its deeper significance. They simply accepted the notion that all nobles from the upper district were bad, using their simplistic notions of good and evil to justify that the wicked deserved to be punished.
It's difficult to categorize this behavior as right or wrong. For them, the complexities of the adult world were beyond their comprehension. Their world was a simplified version of black-and-white morality, which, in turn, led them to believe that they had done nothing wrong and saw no fault in their actions.
Following her instincts, Huihui crouched down with her hands over her head to defend against the barrage of thrown objects. In her dragon form, she would have appeared as a terrifying creature, screeching and using her wings to shield her body. However, in her human form, she only seemed to invite more bullying. Unfortunately, this was just an instinctual response from a bewildered Huihui—she hadn't yet figured out how to fight back. But once she did...
Well, there was no need to wait for her to respond: what do rowdy kids do in a fight when their target curls up and covers their head? The answer is: they kick! And if they can't kick, they simply jump on top to hit! For Huihui, facing kicks was one thing, but being jumped on or having her hair and collar grabbed elicited a very clear response...
"Yip~!" The child behind her felt a pressure in their chest, darkness enveloped them, and then they knew nothing. Typically, a dragon's tail lacks significant strength and isn't used as a weapon, but Huihui was different. "Localized deformation: Tail Strike!" A thick, crystalline spiked dragon tail swung out. Even a serious flying dragon would find that the result of such a blow would be the child smashing into the city wall at high speed, instantly losing consciousness.
"Woof woof~!" Accompanied by a throaty growl reminiscent of a threatened dog, Huihui's body began to swell larger, her sharp blue-scaled claws slamming down on the nearby children. "Rawr!~" A shrill howl, akin to a steam whistle, erupted from her throat as terrifying gusts of air surged from her wings and chest, billowing forth from her dragon throat. The naughty kids facing the dragon's roar froze in place. Even the semi-transparent saliva dripping on their faces didn't elicit a reaction. Huihui didn't eat people, but that didn't stop her from biting them!
"Clang!" The dragon's teeth collided with the blade of a large sword, sending sparks flying. The knight, clad in armor, struggled to hold the sword steady. "Get back, don't stay here!" "Whoosh!" "Bang!" The meddlesome knight barely dodged the claw strike just in time to release the child from under her paw but didn't escape the swinging blade of her wing, leaving a terrible gash on his armor.
More Ishgard knights rushed in. The response to the appearance of a dragon in the inner city was swift; it had to be. Previously, there had been reports of heretics transforming into dragons under certain circumstances, prompting Ishgard to strengthen its patrols and defensive mechanisms. If any heretic attempted an attack in such a form, they would be immediately surrounded by a multitude of Ishgard knights.
"...." The medic pressed down on the chest of the child who had been flung away, channeling life energy to heal him. However, a few seconds later, he silently shook his head at the knights. Despite appearing unharmed on the surface, the child struck by Huihui's nearly full-force blow had his ribs virtually exploded inward from the back, and his organs were a complete mess. Even with the advanced magical healing techniques available here, there was no saving him from such injuries—unless a White Mage wielding "forbidden white magic" arrived, capable of using the highest level of sanctity and resurrection magic to save a life.
(PS: In FF14, White Mages are not your typical common profession; they are part of the legacy of the Seer. The white magic they use is different from the illusions cast by illusionists; it involves drawing upon the life force of nature to heal and purify. During the Fifth Astral Era, it was used to combat extreme cold, ultimately leading to even more severe consequences. Thus, they wield forbidden magic; surprising, isn't it? In FF14, forbidden magic is white magic rather than black magic. The power to truly resurrect the dead is considered forbidden in any world.)
"Rawr!" Huihui let out a slightly aggrieved cry, but the knights of Ishgard couldn't understand the language of dragons. Even the local dragon clan couldn't comprehend Huihui's "dragon language." However, this didn't stop the Ishgardian knights from interpreting the roar as a prelude to an attack, and they immediately took up defensive stances. The machinists of Ishgard also set up their dragon cannons, and with a loud "Bang!" the sudden opening of a protective barrier intercepted the cannon fire. "Sanctuary!" "Divine Blessing!" The recovery and further enhancement of the protective shield blocked subsequent attacks.
"Iron Wall!" Knight Ruger raised his shield in front of the giant dragon. Beside him stood the light-headed warrior wielding a battle axe backwards. "What's going on?" The dragon lady, confused and accompanied by a little fairy, applied buffs to her teammates. "I don't know, but it seems Huihui's transformation is being mistaken for a dragon infiltrator, right?" The black mage, now switched to the astrologian class, had just used a swift protective spell to shield Huihui from harm.
"Are you heretical accomplices?" "Heretics? Huihui is a blue mage, not a heretic!" The white mage gently patted Huihui's bowed head. "Alright, Huihui, be good~ Just lift this state for now." Blue light feathers radiated from the dragon's body, quickly transforming into a blue crystalline form. Soon after, Huihui appeared in the form of a young dragon girl, with traces of unshed tears at the corners of her eyes. "They... attacked... Huihui~" Her clothes were smeared with filthy stains of excrement and mud, clearly indicating that those mischievous kids had struck first. Unfortunately, Huihui was not a defenseless little girl; their reckless aggression led to their downfall, even resulting in casualties.
"The soul has not yet returned to the mother crystal; there's still hope. But in the future..." The white mage took out a shimmering staff, beginning to condense ambient aether into a nearly tangible crystal to place within the bodies. The white mage's resurrection spell was conditional; if a soul or life had completely returned to the mother crystal, revival was impossible. Conversely, if there remained a trace of life, revival could be achieved.
However, the cost would be the consumption of a large amount of aether, which served as the material carrier of consciousness information. The immediate consequence would be a shortening of lifespan; the physical body would wither and weaken within a short time. Only entities like the Warriors of Light, possessing transcendent power and capable of drawing strength from the mother crystal, would avoid permanent weakness. Even then, they would need to maintain that state for a considerable duration.
"What is going on? What happened?" As one of the four prominent households of Ishgard, Oreshvar had the authority to ask the knights to lower their hostility for the time being. "Huihui is a blue mage, someone who can use the forms and powers of monsters," the white mage briefly explained the situation. During the resurrection process, she had sensed certain information contained within the elemental spirit or aether, allowing her to trace back part of the truth. "Can I take a look at the crystal?" Oreshvar pondered for a moment before speaking. "No!" Huihui responded defensively, wary of him, as he belonged to the same race as those who had attacked her. The goodwill from their previous interactions had completely vanished.
"Huihui, the crystal~" the dragon lady crouched down and gently reassured her. "Here you go~" Huihui had a higher trust level in the dragon lady, who often fed her, and without hesitation, she handed over the crystal. As a non-human, her likes and dislikes were stark and straightforward.
"This is an unfamiliar crystal. Hmm, but it is indeed a soul crystal for class inheritance," Oreshvar said, though he found it difficult to determine if it belonged to a blue mage. However, that didn't prevent him from discerning that the crystal indicated Huihui was not a heretic or a dragon infiltrator. The crystal was a gift from Hydaelyn and a crystallization of the legacy of past jobholders. Theoretically, the cult of the wicked dragons should not possess such a thing, and most humans wouldn't have access to it either. "Let me handle this matter."
With the backing of one of the prominent households, the incident in the poor district was resolved, and later, some Ishgard knights recognized Huihui. Indeed, the sight of Wulfen dismantling a dragon and roasting its flesh in the streets of Ishgard left a lasting impression. Under these circumstances, the knights also accepted the idea that Huihui was a rare practitioner capable of mimicking the forms of other monsters. After all, those heretics who worshiped dragons wouldn't dare use dragon corpses as food.
Before the Church could propose further judgment and arbitration, Huihui transformed into dragon form once more for her routine hunting. To be precise, although the taste of wyvern meat was unusual, Huihui thought that the strange and varied new types of wyverns appearing due to the recent attacks might offer different flavors of meat. So, she transformed into her dragon form and burst through the doors, almost getting shot down by Ishgard's dragon cannons, leading to a delightful time of hunting as a dark blue dragon...
It was as if a dolphin had charged into a school of salmon. "Puff!" A panicked wyvern was caught mid-flight, chewed on briefly, and then disdainfully spat out by Huihui. Her indiscriminate hunting completely disrupted the entire formation of the dragon pack. A number of frantic wyverns or dragonbirds were shot down by dragon knights, or torn to pieces by Huihui, which effectively relieved Ishgard from danger and validated Oreshvar's assurance. However, the increasingly feral Pope did not see it that way.
"Well done!" When Huihui finally found a reasonably good piece of meat amidst the throngs of dragons—perhaps belonging to a minor boss—the Ishgard knights welcomed her warmly, which startled her. She thought they might attack her again and quickly shielded her head and tail with her wings, curling up. "Hey! Catch this!" An Ishgard knight tossed up a large wooden barrel, which Huihui caught in confusion. Her dragon teeth pierced through the wood, releasing a trickle of sweet and sour liquid.
"Let's have a taste~" Huihui showed a satisfied expression (Ishgard knight goodwill +1; current value: need to come up with a way to kill them 0/100 → for now, spare one life 99/100). Her rough tongue licked the hole in the barrel repeatedly, and in just a couple of moments, a large barrel of high-quality wine was consumed. "Huihui wants more~" She looked at the knights with her teary amber eyes. "Hey, you can hold your liquor; here, have another barrel!" Another large barrel of wine was tossed up for Huihui to catch.
After drinking most of the wine and devouring the unfortunate minor boss dragon, Huihui happily flapped her tail and took off, albeit a bit wobbly. Yes, it seemed she might have indulged a little... and gotten a bit tipsy~ (Ishgard knight goodwill: don't mind the unedibles, garbage 50/100; hunter goodwill: need to come up with a way to kill them 50/100).
On the Coral Plateau, "Roar!" The panicking Wind Torrent Dragon frantically darted through the Winged Flora Dragons, trying to escape. A high-speed object zipped over its head. Huihui, feeling slightly excited, swooped down to scatter the Flora Dragons and pinned the unfortunate Wind Torrent Dragon down. The scales on the dragon's jaw and its ears turned a bright red, radiating heat. Huihui eagerly nuzzled against the Wind Torrent Dragon, as the dragon's surface secreted large amounts of highly volatile substances, creating a refreshing frost that felt cool and comfortable for the slightly drunk Huihui. After serving as a cool mat, the Wind Torrent Dragon would also act as a little snack for her.
So, when the hunters finally climbed to the summit of the Coral Plateau, what they found was a ground littered with Wind Torrent Dragon remains and a giant dragon curled up tightly, fast asleep and snug. Then they took out... a windpipe and fastened it to Huihui's back.