A blood contract was something rare to happen. It was hard to subjugate beasts. They preferred to die over becoming a human’s pet. Arthur being a dragon made the difference in that situation.

The beast used its claws to draw a circle with strange patterns and painted it using its blood.

“Come, we need your blood now, then do an oath, and that’s it.”

Arthur walked toward the circle and cut his arm using his draconic claws. Blood dripped directly at the mysterious symbol, which started to shine afterward.

Arthur looked at the beast with his fierce draconic eyes.

“If you’re trying to trick me, you’re dead. I’ll recover my powers and destroy this fucking world so no one like you can survive. Did you understand?”

“I do, I do. Calm down, my dragon lord. I wouldn’t do something this stupid.”

“Now, I’ll do the oath, don’t say anything.”

The beast had one last part before everything was over, the oath.

“Here and now, I acknowledge this mighty dragon as my master,”

“I’ll obey everything he says,”

“And I’ll die painfully if I ever betray him or help others to do so,”

“This blood contract only ends when both parties die.”

“Done, that’s it.”

“Just this? How do I know it worked?”

Now that the contract ended, Arthur and his beast could talk mentally, and that’s what the beast did.

“What’s up, my MD. We can talk telepathically now.”

.

“Whoa, that’s cool. But what is up with the MD thing?”

“Boss, MD stands for Mighty Dragon. Awesome, right?”

The beast puffed out the chest, waiting for Arthur to acknowledge his nickname creation skills.

“Yeah, I liked it. Anyway, we need to come up with a name for you,”

“Any ideas?”

“I don’t know, lord. You should be the one giving me a name.”

“Hm, let me see.”

Arthur scanned the beast, and the first thing that came to his mind after seeing its blue fur was Sully.

“Your name will be Sully. Did you like it?”

“Sully? Hmm. I’ve never heard anything like it, but it sounds cool. What does it mean?”

“It means you’re the strongest beast that has blue fur.”

“That’s right, baby.”

Sully started to fly all over the cave after getting a name, like a baby. While Sully was doing that, Arthur looked around for more things inside the cave.

The strange plants caught his attention, and he decided to ask his beastly companion.

“Hey, Sully. Do you know what these plants are?”

“Nop, I’ve never seen them before. I remember the crazy mage took care of those, so I guess they are valuable. Who knows.”

Arthur returned from where he came from and looked for a bag in the middle of the mage’s belongings. It had one. It was a magical one with a spacial-magic engraving on it.

“This is rare and expensive. I’m glad I found it here.”

After finding what he was looking for, Arthur returned to where the mysterious plants were. He cut them using his claws and stored them inside his spacial bag.

Arthur got up after getting the plants, and he could feel his body weaker. The Draconic Transformation ended right after, and a message appeared in front of his eyes.

[Weakened State]

[-25 All Stats]

[Duration 2 Days]

“Damn, -25 stats is harsh. At least it only lasts two days. There’s yet time before the next reunion from that demonic cult, so everything should be fine. And I have Sully now. He can kill all of them for me if there’s no other way.”

Arthur sat for some time to recover and waited for Sully to stop doing what he was doing.

“I’m sorry, lord. I got too hyped about being able to move freely.”

“It’s okay, but we need to move now.”

“Hey, boss. Do you want to see the other skill I can do after the blood contract?”

“Sure, show me.”

Sully was a gigantic beast, but suddenly, he turned into a smaller version of his that could fit inside Arthur’s pockets.

“This will help us a lot. But doesn’t it mean you can come with me whatever I go?”

“It does, yeah. Why?”

“Nothing, hehe.” Arthur scratched the back of his head with one thought in mind.

“I’ll not have a moment of peace…”

~~~~

There wasn’t much inside that cave, so Arthur left after getting his plants. That cave was not giving a good feeling, especially for Sully. They left the cave, looking for somewhere else to stay.

On their way, Arthur told Sully about what happened and how he ended up on that island.

“They killed you, which only ignited your bloodline. Then you discovered you were a fucking dragon, woke up after who knows how long, and is now on this island?”

“Yeah, that’s right. Oh, you forgot about the demonic cult, which has branches all over the world, and it is trying to end it.”

“Yeah, about these fuckers. When can we kill them?”

“Next week. I’ll infiltrate inside the meeting, and we will kill everyone.”

“Lovely!”

After walking for some time, they finally found a cave to stay hidden for the time being. Arthur checked, and it was empty. It was not a big cave, but it could fit both of them perfectly.

Arthur was tired after everything, so he sat on the ground and asked Sully to bring food for them.

“Hunt something for us to eat, please.”

“I’ll be right back, lord.”

There wasn’t much for Arthur to do, so he decided to take a nap. His body was tired and weakened after the Draconic Transformation.

Arthur lost everything when he fell on the sea, so there weren’t any books he could read to pass the time.

Arthur was alone, and thinking to himself, Arthur realized how hard it would be to find Jane and the others. They could be anywhere. It was even more difficult to find them here, amid so many islands than on the mainland.

He slowly entered a deep sleep, dreaming about the moment he would find his friends.

~~~~

Something was hitting Arthur on the leg gently. He was in a deep sleep, and it took him some time to finally awake.

“Damn, I thought you died. You sleep like a rock.”

“Sully? What happened?”

“I went to get us some food? Did you hit your head, lord?”

“Oh, right.”

Arthur was in that moment where one couldn’t realize what is real and what is a dream. It took him a few seconds to return to reality, and he was happy to have Sully get food for both of them.

“Thank’s for the food. Just wait here. I’ll build us a campfire to cook it.”

“Okay, okay!” Sully jumped in joy. He never ate cooked food. Beasts usually ate it raw but had always been curious to taste cooked food. It smelled better, so he knew it was better.

Arthur returned with a few logs and stones. He built a circle of stones, tossed the logs in the middle of it, and asked Sully to lit it up using his thunder magic.

A small bolt of lightning stroked the wood, and it lit perfectly. Arthur tossed some moss as well to keep it going.

The meat Sully brought was from a medium-sized beast that looked like an alligator. Arthur couldn’t cut it without his claws or his weapons, so he had to ask Sully again.

He cut the meat into smaller pieces for Arthur to cook using a stick. Arthur pierced the branches through the meat and started to cook. It took them about one hour to cook everything, but it was worth it.

“This is so good. Why do I always eat uncooked meat? Maybe that’s the difference between us, lowly beasts, and you, my lord.”

“You see. You’re following me for less than a day and already learned something. I’m awesome, amazing, badass, breath-taking, right?”

“Agreed, lord”

“You can stop with this lord thing. Just call me Arthur.”

“Arthur? That’s not a dragonlike name.”

“Yeah, I tend to keep my dragon name hidden, but it is Placidusax if you want to know.”

“P-Placidusax?”

“Wait, do you know it?”

Arthur was surprised to see that Sully knew about his name. He did not know yet how he ended up being a dragon. Maybe he lost his memories?

“Who doesn’t know it? Placidusax is known to be the strongest dragon. He ruled both the Dream Realm and this world.”

“And what happened to him?”

“No one knows. Truth be told, no one knows what happened to the dragons. The story that goes around is that humans hunted all dragons and killed them. But Arthur, I’m a beast, so I know there was no way humans could win against the dragons. Zero, none, null.”

“That’s, strange to say the least.”

“Don’t worry, Arthur. We will find out more about this. And as you’re Placidusax, maybe your memories will come back eventually? Who knows.”

As they were eating and chatting, something happened.

Arthur heard something running inside his cave, coming from the entrance.