The river stretched black and sluggish under the late light, its surface still carrying faint traces of the green mist that had poisoned it for so long. Eva stood at the bank with her arms folded, ears angled back as she watched the current.

"This is the Black River," she said. "It comes down from that mountain." She pointed to the distant peak that cut the sky like a broken tooth. "Mountain of Judgment. Every major river in these lands starts there. Some of them reach your human tribes. Some reach the barbarians. The only ones I know that never touch it are the dragons and the Nyx. Dragons have their pact with Goddess Pyra, so they get magma instead. Nyx... they take what they take from the dark."

Neo’s eyes widened. He looked from the mountain to the water and back again.

"So the source was up there," he said. "I already pulled it. If the mountain keeps pushing clean water, this should clear on its own. We just wait."

Eva nodded. The logic was sound. Then the next thought hit her and her ears flattened.

"Should we really go to the dragon tribe?"

She did not want to. She was a bunny girl who had stolen their dragon heart. Dragons killed for less. Yet she had already decided to follow him, and the decision sat heavy in her chest.

She remembered the last time the dragons had marched on the bunny lands. They had been close enough to smell the smoke from their forges. Then they had stopped. Turned around. Left.

"How did you make them stop?" she asked.

Neo rubbed the back of his neck. Sweat prickled along his hairline. He could not tell her the truth—that he had fucked their queen until she agreed to pull her forces back.

He cleared his throat. "Goddess Pyra’s blessing. That was enough."

Eva tilted her head. One eyebrow rose. "Really?"

"Really."

She studied him for a long second. She had lived next to dragons long enough to know their nature. Selfish. Hot-headed. Brutal. Convincing them usually took blood or years. Still, she chose to trust him.

"All right," she said.

Neo turned toward the distant ridge where the dragon holds sat. "Let’s go."

Eva hesitated. "Why? They’re still enemies."

"I already met their queen. She said I can visit whenever I want. You’re with me, so you’re under my protection. If any of them touch you, I fight the whole tribe."

Her cheeks flushed hard. No one had ever said anything like that to her—especially not about standing against the strongest force in the forest. Pride and something warmer tangled in her chest. She nodded once and fell into step beside him.

They moved through the trees in silence. After a while Neo stopped and stared at the ground. A single set of massive footprints cut through the undergrowth, deep and deliberate. The rest of the titan tracks followed it in neat lines.

"Not chaotic," he muttered. "Organized. Someone’s leading them."

That made everything worse. A leader meant coordination. Coordination meant the swarm could think.

By the time they reached the dragon settlement the damage was already loud. Roofs cracked. Stone walls split. Roughly ten titans tore through the outer rings of houses. Nine of them stood around twenty meters. The tenth—the one with the long beard and scars layered across every muscle—stood closer to forty. Green light burned in its eyes. It raised a stone axe the size of a tree and roared.

Neo cursed under his breath. "We leave the big one for last. Kill the nine first. Combined hits on the leader after."

He looked at Eva. "I need those veins of yours, favorite bunny girl."

Her face went hot. She nodded and dropped to one knee, hands already glowing with the thin green threads she could weave from the ground.

Neo charged the nearest titan. Eva’s veins shot up, wrapped its ankles, and yanked. The giant toppled forward. Neo was already in position. His nuclear reactor technique lit along his arms and drove straight into the titan’s skull as it hit the dirt. Bone and green mist exploded outward. One down.

The second and third fell the same way—veins, fall, reactor strike. Then the remaining titans changed. They watched. They adjusted. They stopped charging blind. The eighth one even tried to step around the veins instead of through them. Neo’s strikes took longer. His breathing grew harsher.

The ninth titan suddenly pivoted and sprinted straight at Eva. It had figured out the source of the vines.

Neo intercepted, shoulder-checking the giant’s knee hard enough to stagger it, but he could not finish the kill alone. The titan’s weight and reach were too much while he also kept Eva clear.

A sharp female voice cut across the chaos.

"Don’t worry. I’ll protect your friend."

Neo exhaled in relief and spun back into the fight.

Eva turned. The dragon queen stood a short distance away—red horns, red-scaled armor, presence like a forge. The queen’s gaze stayed on the battlefield, but she answered Eva’s unspoken question without looking.

"He gave me his blessing."

Eva went still. Blessings were not things people simply handed out.

The queen turned to the dragon warriors forming ranks behind her and raised her voice.

"Anyone who travels with this man—pointing at Neo—is under my protection. Even if they come from an enemy tribe. Attack his people and you attack me."

The dragons’ hearts hammered. Their monarch had never spoken that way about an outsider. They nodded as one. No one argued.

Neo finished the ninth titan with a cleaner reactor strike, Eva’s veins locking its legs at the perfect moment. He turned, searching for the bearded leader—

—and the air left his lungs in a single brutal impact.

The forty-meter titan had circled behind the wreckage. Its axe caught Neo square in the chest and hurled him through an entire row of houses. Wood and stone exploded. Neo hit the ground coughing blood. His jaw hung wrong. Vision tunneled. He had seconds.

He forced the system open, dragged healing potions from inventory, and drank until the bones reset and the bleeding stopped. Fury followed the pain like a second heartbeat.

He sprinted back.

Morningstar technique detonated against the titan’s leg. Bone and meat erupted in a wet spray. The giant staggered. Neo used its own bulk against it—climbing the scarred back, staying in the blind spots the titan could not reach with its arms. He hammered nuclear reactor strikes into the base of the skull again and again until the head finally split and the body collapsed.

Neo’s legs gave out. He fell forward.

Arms caught him—warm, scaled, strong. The queen lowered them both to the ground. Neo forced himself upright.

"Don’t touch Eva."

"We saw her arrive with you," the queen said. "No one raised a weapon."

Neo nodded. A system window flashed.

Quest complete: Eliminate the green mist source.

Rewards deposited in inventory.

He looked around at the broken houses, the scattered dragons, the queen’s face.

"You all right?"

She sighed. "They destroyed half the outer ring. Rebuilding will take a long time."

"I’m chief of a human tribe," Neo said. "We can trade resources. Tools. Labor. Whatever you need."

Her eyes lit. War preparations had drained their stores. She had expected to restock after crushing the bunny tribe. Then Neo had made her pull back. Now the shelves were thin. Carrying favors with him had been the right call after all.

She grinned.

Neo stepped closer, slid a hand over the heavy curve of her scaled ass, and squeezed.

"You looked like a damn sexy dragon queen out there. I want to give you the antidote again. Prepare a room. We’ll make the pact."

He kept his hand where it was.

"I’ll send tribesmen to help with the rebuild and share what we know about better housing. Yours look a little primitive. Probably hasn’t been updated in a hundred years."

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