I take one last look at Junior's near-frozen head, then I teleport out of the way while I release my time spell. As I appear to the side of the incoming teeth, its maw snaps shut where I just was.
CRACK!
Without waiting for it to notice my disappearing act, I bring my arm back and punch directly into the side of Junior's face as hard as I can. At the same time, I fix a forcefield against the side of its face. After all, my relatively tiny fist is liable to pierce Junior through otherwise – better to make it a very blunt trauma, distributing the force across its entire face.
BOOM!
My fist connects, the sheer tyranny of it shocking me to my core. Compressed air blasts back against me, and I hear a sickening crack as every scale along the whole side of Junior's massive head is fractured against its face. Immediately after, the dragon's neck whips from the intensity of the blow with a sickening snap, sending its head away with such speed that the rest of its body is dragged along.
The result...the dragon is sent slightly airborne, sailing almost a hundred meters before rag-dolling across the ground, tearing up farmland as it goes. I blink, watching the result of the blow in stunned silence.
Holy shit. That was...terrifying, actually. I don't even have my physical enhancement maxed out. It's at like, 10%? Less? Have I always been this strong, physically? When I fought Nina, she was much stronger than Junior, but I can still tell that I wasn't capable of generating even a fraction of that much force with my punches back then. Did our Bond really boost me that much?
RAAAWWRRRR!
I'm snapped from my thoughts by the sound of a particularly strangled roar from Junior, this one clearly filled with pain, instead of its anger from before. In the distance, I can see it struggling to stand. However, that's all good news to me – it means I didn't kill it.
I sneak a glance at the rabbit-kin down below, happily noting their stunned gazes locked onto me. I suppose this is the perfect time to reinforce how grateful they should be, and earn some brownie points to boot.
First, I face towards Junior, staring off into the distance after him as I yell.
"I told you that the rabbit-kin were under our protection! Your injuries are the price of attacking them!" (Mizuki)
Gods this is cringe, but...it's for a good cause.
I turn to face the rabbit-kin below, maintaining a stoic expression, and I slowly start flying down towards them. I stop about ten meters above them, close enough so that we can see one another. I study them, taking in their expressions that are equal parts fearful, surprised, and...what I needed most...hopeful.
I suppress a smirk, then focus on my next magic trick. I think back to the sound of the rabbit-kin man scream 'predators' that very first time, hoping that the language blessing I received from Azazel is user friendly. Then, I will my voice to carry my words in that same language.
"Hello, friends! Are you all okay down there? Are any of you injured and in need of healing? {in rabbit-tongue}" (Mizuki)
Immediately, I can sense that my words are not in Common, and I breathe an internal sigh of relief. I've experienced the translational understanding half of Azazel's blessing before, for both written and spoken languages other than Common. However, I've never tried willing myself to speak or write in one of those languages. Common always seemed to be the default output of my words, unless no Azuran counterpart for the concept existed, in which case I speak English subconsciously.
Now, though, I know that it works smoothly in the other direction, as long as I focus on a reference sample of that language and will myself to communicate through it.
Down below, the rabbit-kin seem to hear my words and begin whispering among themselves fervently, their speech so fast and their voices so low that I can't make anything out. After a few seconds, they suddenly become quiet, returning their gazes to me. Among them, an early 40s-looking rabbit-kin man steps forward hesitantly, his wary eyes locked onto me.
"V-V-Visitor, th-thank you for saving us. Th-those of us s-still alive are okay now. Our i-injuries w-were small enough for us to h-heal ourselves. We ap-p-poligize for our reaction to you b-before. May we a-ask how you kn-know our language...p-please? {in rabbit-tongue}"
Ahh...yes, that's more like it.
I smile warmly at the man and nod.
"You're welcome! I'm glad to hear that none of you are terribly injured, and I'm sorry that I couldn't get to your friend in time. The dragon's successful breach of your...err, burrow, caught us off guard. As for any other questions, perhaps we could all sit down and discuss these things after I have finished dealing with the dragon. We actually came here to discuss something important for the future safety of the rabbit-kin. {in rabbit-tongue}" (Mizuki)
The man briefly turns to face the other rabbit-kin, and another round of speed whispering ensues. Then, he returns his gaze to me, still as fearful as ever, and nods.
"O-Of course, E-Esteemed Visitor. We'll await your r-return. {in rabbit-tongue}"
I nod at him, then turn my attention to the dragon out in the distance. It's now managed to climb to its feet, and is looking towards me. I'm not sure what it's feeling, but I can tell that the urge to push its luck with more aggression isn't on the list.
I promptly teleport in front of the dragon. Seeing me appear, its reaction is rather...unexpected. Junior falls to its side, and a guttural sound akin to whimpering leaks from its throat. I raise my eyebrows.
Is it...submitting? If so, I definitely feel a little bad for Junior now. Still, I can't leave it sitting around here, free to eat the rabbit-kin. I've got no reliable way to communicate with it either. Which leaves...relocation, I guess?
I sigh. I guess my wife and I need to have that awkward conversation now.
[Hey...Nina. I need to relocate my dear step-child away from here, so...any way you can join me for a bit? I need you to see if you can identify the father...make Junior his problem.] (Mizuki)
I sense curiosity from Nina.
[Oh no...you're not going to fly into a jealous rage and beat him silly, are you? That would be just...terrible to see.] (Nina)
She says that, but why does she feel...excited?
[No, Nina...I'm going to do no such thing. I admit that I'm a little...upset, that you lied to me, but we can talk about that later. I should resolve this little situation first – Zara needs my help.] (Mizuki)
Indeed, I'm underselling things a little bit there, but I learned the hard way on Earth that you should be careful what you say when you're upset. Especially with relationships that matter to you. That kind of impulsive discussion turned my first girlfriend into my first ex-girlfriend.
That said, Nina did lie to me. That's the main part that bothers me, not the subject matter of the lies themselves.
Would I have been upset if Nina told me up front that she had sexual partners before me? Rationally speaking, even if it bothered me a little bit, I would have gotten over it – I still will. After all, while I'm not sure exactly how old my wife is, I know that even if she only had one partner per millennia, that could still be triple digits. It's just the nature of living that long, I guess.
Similarly, it would have been harder to accept her already being a mother back then, but...the same logic applies. I can't say for sure if I'd have been quite as accepting offhand, but I'd like to think so. I mean, it doesn't seem like there's any responsibility left associated with her kid or kids at this point in time. In fact, it's weird she seems so detached from Junior, given how she talked about us having children. Although, I guess Junior isn't exactly smart enough to have a relationship with.
That thought causes me to freeze, blinking in confusion.
Wait...why is Junior so lacking, intellectually? And exactly what species would the father have to be? Elder Dragon x Elder Dragon = Elder Dragon, and Elder Dragon x Human = Dragonid, which are both highly intelligent offspring. What exactly would produce something with the intelligence of a chimp, which seems to be where Junior sits? It'd have to be something even less intelligent than Junior, right?
Even my manga-riddled degenerate brain knows that there's no way that happened...I still feel like I know Nina well enough to say that. Which means...I'm missing something. As I consider the issue, remembering Nina's cavalier attitude over the past hour, a suspicion takes root in my mind. My expression warps angrily.
I'm going to murder that dragon...
[Nina, wait...how exactly are minor dragons born?] (Mizuki)
I sense a flicker of surprise and disappointment from Nina, but it's quickly suppressed. She responds coquettishly.
[What, you really can't guess? I'll give you a hint...the process is veryyy fun.] (Nina)
I purse my lips, my suspicion only gaining more traction.
[Nice try, I'm not assuming shit...] (Mizuki)
There's a rush of annoyance and amusement from her, but I can feel the sarcasm in her subsequent words.
[Are you sure? It was so much more fun when you were leaping to conclusions and stewing in your jealousy. Fufufufu...just what kinds of slanderous things were you thinking about your lovely wife?] (Nina)
My eye twitches. She's got me dead to rights about the jumping to conclusions...that only makes it more annoying, though.
[There isn't a father...is there...] (Mizuki)
I sense...smugness.
[Oops! Did I not mention that?] (Nina)
I take a deep breath, rubbing my temples soothingly.
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
After Nina had a good laugh at my expense about the whole 'philandering mother' misunderstanding, she did actually take the time to answer my questions. Apparently, minor dragons do come from Elder Dragons, but it's not via sexual reproduction. In fact, the minor dragons don't even have a gender or reproductive means, and the Elder Dragons consider them closer to pets than children.
They're 'born' when an Elder Dragon mixes some of their shed scales and their source element in a ritual to produce an egg, then nurtures it with their magic. The minor dragons aren't as smart as humans, but they inherit their parent's abilities, have relatively impressive magic power levels, and live about a dozen millennia.
Apparently, they can also use a rudimentary form of thought communication that expresses emotions, mental images, and other basic concepts. Junior was probably using it on me before, but I think that Azazel's anti-mental attack blessing might have been blocking it. After all, Nina is the only one who has communicated with me telepathically since I received that blessing, and I imagine that our Bond acts as a sort of VIP access to my mind.
Anyway, after I actively tried communicating with Junior how Nina described, I was able to have a very dull conversation with it. First, I surmised that Junior was only hunting the rabbit-kin as a last resort, because it was slowly starving. Appropriate dragon food in this area is apparently scarce. Second, it seems that Junior could sense my Bond with Nina after I knocked it around – that's why it submitted to me.
After knowing all that, I 'told' Junior that I was sending it to a new home with more food, then healed its face as best I could and teleported it to Nina's old nest. I also tried to share a warning and mental image of the Greater Spirits with it, hoping to convey the concept of 'very dangerous friend'. I'm not sure if Junior got the message, but I did what I could.
Now, I've collected Zara from her safety box, and we're waiting around outside one of the rabbit-kin's trapdoors. The rabbit-kin man I talked with earlier is standing with us nervously, while the rest of the rabbit-kin I saved returned to their underground settlement to inform their people about what has transpired.
They're supposed to send back a group of additional rabbit-kin representatives to talk with us. If anything in that conversation requires them making decisions for the rabbit-kin, they'll then apparently take a massive vote and get back to us.
Soon, hopefully, we'll have our first diplomatic talks underway.