Chapter 44: Stay hidden in his embrace

Draven strode hurriedly back towards the bed, he then remarked, "Point of correction, we are doomed. Hurry, they are headed this way, we have to leave."

Rhea raised an eyebrow, "We? Aren’t they here for you? Haven’t I warned you to leave before the shadow stalkers detect your aura?"

"Yes, we. Right now I have a mortal body with the scent of a dragon, but if they catch me and kill me, you will perish along with me. So technically, we have to leave together to avoid either of us from being caught." He said those words without the slightest bit of panic.

"What in heavens name have I gotten myself into. You are such a bad seed!" Rhea exclaimed as she quickly got out of bed. "Before you plan to enter the capital, you should find something to conceal the dragon scent in your body. That will prevent you from being detected next time," Rhea advised. She didn’t waste any more time and swiftly jumped out of the window. "The birds were flying away frantically, indicating that there were many shadow stalkers heading this way. So I will leave first to avoid getting you into trouble. You go left, and I’ll go right." Rhea remarked as she took the right path.

However, Draven didn’t take the left path she pointed at and instead followed behind her. It was already midnight as the pair hurried to get out of the forest. But when Rhea noticed the cursed dragon was following behind her, she glanced sideways,

"I said you should go the other way, dragon, not this way."

Draven acted like he didn’t hear her, he walked side by side with her. Rhea increased her pace, but when they reached a certain pond around the remote house, Draven stopped and grabbed her wrist. Rhea was suddenly pulled back, but before she could collide with his chest, she controlled herself from falling forward.

"What the...!"

Before she could snap at him, Draven spoke firmly, "They are getting closer, we can’t get far by foot. Water can cover up scent, let’s stay under this pond until they leave."

Rhea glared at him, then bellowed irritatedly, "Are you insane? You can go under the pond while I go my own way. The shadow stalkers were able to detect your scent from far away, so what made you think water can stop them from tracking you?" She raised a brow, then scoffed,

"Weren’t you taught in your realm not to be a burden to others? Although, I may be married to you by mistake, but that doesn’t make us a couple."

Draven looked off into the distant trees, then he turned around and asked Rhea, "Do you know how to put the core in your body into good use? Like giving your lungs air underwater?"

Rhea automatically responded with a look of surprise forgetting the fact that she was about to walk away from the dragon, "Can I really do that with the core?"

"Yes, you can do more than that with the core’s power. And you have to use that right now because we’re going underwater."

Rhea frowned and also looked off into the distance, "Are you serious? Are the shadow stalkers coming that fast, but it doesn’t looks like they are coming this way right now. How do you know they are still heading here?" She questioned.

"Close your eyes and try to connect with the core." He instructed seriously, ignoring her question.

"Can you not selectively ignore what I’m saying?"

"No, you talk rubbish. Hold your breath and the core will protect your lungs." After saying those words, he didn’t waste anymore time, nor explain anything further, before swiftly wrapping his arm around her waist to pull her body closer to his. In a blink of an eye, he pulled her along with him under the water.

The spot they fell in just happened to be deep, with sizable rocks submerged beneath the water. Within the area, there existed some cavity rocks. In order to prevent detection from above, Draven positioned himself securely amidst the rocks underwater.

When looking into the pond from above late at night, the water only reflected the pale moonlight, making the shore look pitch-black. However, looking from underwater, everything was clear and bright_the moon and stars, aside from the ripples distorting the image, were clear to see.

Draven grabbed Rhea’s body and imprisoned her in his arms, her head was tightly pressed against his solid chest, it was a protective stance, but he actually didn’t have protection in mind. Draven was only worried that if he didn’t hold her this way, she would restlessly move around and disturb the still water.

Rhea, who didn’t know how to swim and loathed water didn’t try to push away even though she knew he wasn’t holding her to protect her, however, his hold was imprisoning her limbs far too tight for her not to try to move.

She wanted to move her arm a bit to make him loosen up his hold. Nonetheless, in that moment, an enormous long shadowy figure approached the shore. From within the water, Rhea could clearly see it’s boney head and glimmering red eyes.

Rhea’s heart skipped a bit at the terrifying sight of the creature. As the shadow stalker looked down into the pond with its red eyes, Rhea thought it would soon catch sight of them and immediately prepared to use her spikes on the creature.

However, it was as if Draven knew what she was about to do, he hugged her body even tighter and slightly spun around so he could block her line of sight from the creature above.

Even without him speaking, Rhea understood what he meant. He was telling her to stay still. But how could she stay still when there was a shadow stalker above them? Draven was just a human now, one strick from that creature could kill him, and that would also cause her death as well.

Rhea glanced up and noticed the creature was still gazing into the water, she considered her options, but in the end she decided to trust in Draven instead of her instinct. She withdrew the spikes from her finger tips and did as Draven wanted her to do. She wrapped her arms around his narrowed waist and hid within the large rocks.

The elongated, shadowy creature moved its skeletal head closer to the water. If it were to submerge its head in the water, it would easily detect their presence. Nonetheless, as soon as its head made contact with the water, it swiftly retracted and sneezed, as if it disliked touching water. The creature promptly moved away.

In close proximity to the creature, there were additional shadowy beings. They too traversed past the pond, one after the other. After some time, the surroundings fell into complete silence. It appeared that the creatures had moved on.

Rhea internally sighed in relief, but then suddenly she felt the urge to breathe. However, the core’s powers seemed to really help in such a situation.

Draven remind in the same position even after the creatures left. He could tell the red eyed shadow stalker was the leader of the rest, evidenced by the others following closely behind it. It was evident that the sender of these creatures was one of the leaders of the fire controllers. At present, Draven lacked any abilities to defend against them; he didn’t possess even the slightest hint of magic. Engaging in a fight with them could potentially result in their demise.

Rhea, who had just discovered how helpful this dragon core was in her body was overjoyed. However, seeing that the shore looked clear, she nudged against Draven’s chest with her head, hunting for him to release her so they could get out of the water. But he didn’t move.

Before Rhea could try to move again, the water suddenly darkened. This time it wasn’t just one shadow stalker, but a dozen of them hoovering around the pond.

The dense darkness shocked Rhea to the extent she almost opened her mouth in surprise.

Did the entire fire clan send their pets to go in search of the dragon scent?! This dragon sure had a strong scent!

For a few moment, Rhea was quite grateful that she could use the core’s powers to stay underwater for long, otherwise, who knew what would happen to her if she broke the surface of the water to breath. She would have been scared to death with these long shadowy figure hoovering around. These creatures would kill anyone who stood in the way of their mission to catch their prey, and she was no less than a hindrance to their mission to catch the dragon.

If they were to attack this dragon, she couldn’t simply stand and do nothing when she’d feel his pain when he got hurt. The best thing to do was to stay out of sight.

Rhea subconsciously withdrew into Draven’s embrace so that he could hug her tighter to keep herself from moving. She tightened her arms around his waist and pressed her head hard against his chest as she closed her eyes.

Draven glanced down at the girl in his arms who was holding tightly to him as if she would attach her body to his. His lips slightly twitched, but he made no noticable movement, and held her in his embrace under the water.

The creatures by the shoreline scoured the vicinity for a while, yet upon finding no one, they emitted strange, loud sounds as if exchanging messages, before they began to walk away one by one. They headed back into the woods. It wasn’t long before most of the creatures left the area leaving behind just one shadow stalker, who appeared to peer into the water, as if searching beyond the darkness.

The creature stood directly above the hiding spot of the couple submerged in water. It scanned its surroundings, as if attempting to detect the scent of the dragon. The couple in the water observed the creature intently.

Rhea instinctively gripped Draven tighter. After what felt like an eternity, the creature eventually retreated. However, in that very moment, Rhea accidentally lost her footing on the large rock they were standing on, resulting in a stream of bubbles rising towards the surface.

Draven hurriedly grabbed her waist to balance her back on the rock, but it was already too late to stop the bubbles heading towards the surface.

The bubbles made a faint popping sounds when they reached the water surface. The night was extremely quiet, almost no one would hear the the faint pop. However, the shadow stalker’s ear twitched. It looked at the popping bubbles on the water and narrowed it eyes.

Instead of following behind the rest, it started to walk back over the pond. It got closer with each step.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read