Cthulhu Gonfalon

The day was getting darker and darker.

Ray had gone far with that dragon; but one could still hear the roaring of the dragon and the cursing of Ray from time to time when they listened carefully. Judging from the sounds, they could tell that Ray was determined to tame this damn dragon.

Ranke and the others were still awake. For one thing, they believed that it was a common sense that one needed to rest for a while after dinner, and could only go to sleep when the food had almost been digested. For another, not far from the tent, there was a huge and terrifying ape. They were too afraid to sleep.

“Things can’t go on like this,” Steele murmured. “They are under too much pressure. I need to help them to release some pressure.”

“You are right, but how?” Sui Xiong asked. “Telling a joke? Or shall we sing a song, or dance?”

Steele smiled mysteriously and said, “I have a better idea.”

Sui Xiong was confused and felt something was not right. Then he instantly warned Steele, “Don’t do something indecent! Like holding a naked party… I won’t allow it!”

“You are underestimating me! I have more than one way to help someone release pressure!” Steele could not help but laugh. “You’ll see.”

Then she walked toward the huge ape, who was carefully watching the immediate surroundings, and gently touched its breast. She said to the ape in a very soothing way, “Hey, strong man; are you interested in doing something relaxing?”

The huge ape was confused, and had no idea what she meant.

An ape was a clever species among all the other beasts, although being purgatorial or ferocious didn’t help increase its intelligence; rather, this process could make it dumb. But after all, this ape was the leader of a herd, so it was almost as clever as a kid and could understand some simple lingua franca. But it could never understand Steele’s flirty words.

So it stared at Steele and had no idea what she was going to do.

Strangely, though Steele was much smaller than the ape and didn’t look strong at all, the ape was very mild in front of her, even milder than when standing in front of Ray.

Its instinct told it that this woman was much a superior being to it, and it needed to obey her.

But when Steele began to touch its genital area, it started to react.

After all, a monster had also got its pride…

Hearing the noises outside, Madame Teague, Liv and young Nice, who were resting in the tent, and Ranke, who was resting in the carriage, all woke up and came to see what was going on.

Then they saw that Steele was covered in fire, and immediately became a small flying pink pig with a pair of wings on its back.

Ah?!

It was hard to describe how the four were feeling at this moment; well, at least young Nice’s feelings could be described. She was amazed, and happily ran to the pig and gently poked it, and said, “It’s real!”

The small pig made a pink bubble which hit Nice’s face and burst.

Madame Teague was worried and walked forward, trying to stop her. But she was relieved when she saw the small pig happily lying in Nice’s arms. It seemed that this pig neither wanted to attack Nice, nor did it intend to run away.

“Where did this pig come from?” Liv asked curiously. “I think I saw Miss Steele just now. Where is she?”

Only the huge ape knew where Steele was; but though it understood Liv’s words, it could not speak.

A while later, Sui Xiong sighed and showed himself in front of them.

“The pig is Steele. She was having some dirty thoughts earlier, and became a pig.”

While his explanation didn’t convince everyone at present, Liv and Ranke were staring at him alertly, and had no idea where this green flying jellyfish came from.

The innocent Nice didn’t think too much. She reached out her hand and caught one of Sui Xiong’s tentacles, and pulled him over.

“Ah?! Hey, young lady, what are you doing?”

Before he finished his sentence, he had already been hugged by Nice. Nice was very happy, holding a pink pig in one hand and a green jellyfish on the other.

“Steele, you did this on purpose?” Sui Xiong finally knew what was going on, and shouted at her telepathically. “How dare you trick me!”

“Calm down. I just want to cheer up a young kid,” Steele laughed. “You also agree that we should help them to release some pressure, right?”

“But I didn’t mean we should help do so by pretending to be pets!” Sui Xiong was shouting aloud. “I am a God! I am not a kid’s pet!”

“It’s fine. I am a human, and I don’t mind; but you are just a jellyfish! Why you are making such a fuss?”

Sui Xiong was extremely angry, but he could not find any words to argue with her. One could be invincible as long as he became shameless. Even a God could be speechless when facing a extremely shameless person like Steele.

He meant to run away, but he didn’t want to do so when he saw young Nice’s happy face. This poor girl. Her father died when she was so young. She used to live a rich life, but now she lives poorly. Now she has to drift from place to place and live the life of an adventurer…

At last, Sui Xiong sighed and decided to be a temporary pet.

When the sky in the east began to lighten, Ray came back riding the copper crown dragon. He finally managed to tame this dragon, and turned it into his mount. Meanwhile, Nice walked out of the tent yawning. In one hand, there was a small pink pig, and in her other was a green jellyfish.

Seeing this, Ray was stunned for a long while. Then he burst into laughter.

Later, everyone all was packed and began to proceed.

There were three horses moving in the front. behind them was a carriage pulled by two horses.

This time, only Liv was riding on the horse.

At first Liv was not used to controlling three horses all together and riding in a flurry, but soon she managed to find a way to control them. These war-horses had already received very good training and were easy to control. As long as she was riding a horse in the front, the other two would follow behind closely.

She was proceeding in a casual way and looking around from time to time. In the distance, Ray was riding the copper crown dragon and showing off. Although this dragon was also called the two-footed flying dragon, it was not good at flying at all. It could only fly for a short time when it needed to hunt, or in battle. Usually it walked. The dragon Ray was riding was no exception, and since it was much stronger than a common two-footed flying dragon, its skills in flying were even worse. Actually, it was not flying at all, but jumping and gliding.

Ray was not satisfied about this, so as he was proceeding, he was also training it to fly. He knew that he would get into a big fight when he arrived at Cloud Pagoda City, and he would also need to fight with the enemy in the air. So he believed that if his mount couldn’t be as agile as an eagle in the sky, it should at least be able to fly steadily.

So Ray greatly increased the training, which made the dragon feel very miserable. But after a period of tough training, its skill in flying greatly improved, and it was able to fly in the air continually. If a flying competition were to be held among the two-foot flying dragons, it would be a very promising candidate for the gold medal.

The night watcher—the huge ape—had been behaving itself all the while. During the day, it followed closely behind the team. At night, he carefully watched the immediate surroundings, so everyone could have a sound sleep. As time went by, even Ranke began to trust it, and Madame Teague would prepare the same meal as everyone else for it during the day.

When the ape held a wooden bowl and ate, it looked very much like a man!

It took around nineteen days for them to reach to Cloud Pagoda City from Golden Pagoda City.

It was a long and dangerous journey. They met many monsters, at least ten, that were as strong as the huge ape. They had even met an especially cruel monster: a huge gray dragon. Judging from its smooth skin, it was still very young, but its imposing manner already terrified everyone. Before it even landed, both the war-horses and the two horses pulling the carriage fell to the ground due to extreme terror. Madame Teague, Liv, and Ranke were very nervous, and pulled out their swords or opened their bows.

The huge ape meant to run away, but it didn’t. It broke a thick branch off a tree and held it in its hand. Its feet were shaking heavily; obviously it was not the one to count on when they really got into a fight with this gray dragon.

Ray jumped off the copper crown dragon, which had already lied down on its stomach to show its admiration to the superior species. He didn’t pull out his sword; instead he stood still, with an intense gaze, and stared at the dragon.

The two were in a stalemate for a long time, and neither of them made any moves. At last, the gray huge dragon sneered, turned around, and flew away.

Even after this incident, everyone was afraid whenever they recalled it. They had a new understanding of Ray’s ability. He was a strong man who didn’t even need to pull out his sword, and could scare away a huge dragon simply with his imposing manner!

After the dragon left, Madame Teague asked Ray if he would be Liv’s teacher. Ray accepted. Ranke also wanted to learn from him; thus, Ray gained two students.