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At my statement, and in Dragon Tongue no less, the grunting sounds resounded through the hall. This sound was the wyrms' equivalent of gasping, be it the kind in astonishment, or in the puritans' case, it was the pearl-clutching kind of gasping.
A moment after they were done gasping came the outbursts of [Impossible!], [Cannot be!], [Some kind of trick!], and [Blesphemy!]. I was not sure about that last one. I did not know dragons to be religious.
This outburst was only quelled when dragon king Brakkh'zhaarn slammed his hand down on his dais with a resounding boom, while shouting [SLIENCE!]. After throwing a mean look at a few wyrms who were still raving, Brakkh'zhaarn turned his attention to me.
[I highly doubt that Sgaer'khathz Vruul'draggashk would call you all the way here just to perform an elaborate trick. But just to confirm that your words are your own and not some form of recording, we will converse in Dragon Tounge.]
He started simple by asking me my name, then asking me what color the sky was, or the color of the different wyrms in attendance, then he stepped it up a notch by testing my grammar before throwing the hard tests at me.
It started off with repeating after him some rhymes and tongue twisters, most of which were taught to me when learning Dragon Tongue, and I got through it with minimal errors. After nodding his head, he started performing more and more complex tongue twisters that I had never done, and had an uncomfortable amount of tongue rolls and throat gurgles.
By the time I was done repeating what Brakkh'zhaarn said word for word, or at least tried to, I was already mentally casting a healing spell on my throat to prevent the oncoming feeling of a sore throat.
[I knew it!] One of the other puritan dragons piped up, [He can't speak like a true dragon, much less a wyrm.]
Brakkh'zhaarn ignored that dragon, and just as the noise of the crowd started picking up, with the flick of his tail, which I can only assume is the human equivalent of raising one's finger to silence someone, the gathered wyrms quieted down.
[Luke of House Ironcrest. How long has it been since you started learning Dragon Tongue?] Brakkh'zhaarn asked.
[A few months, Your Majesty.] I replied.
This caused a muffled commotion as wyrms started whispering to each other. I even caught one of the dragons whispering to another, [Unbelievable, my son is twelve already, but his vocabulary still consists of more growls and roars and actual words. Sure, I can understand what he says, but he should be talking more than growling by now.]
[Impressive for one so young, much less one who was not even supposed to be able to even speak our language.] Brakkh'zhaarn said. [Now, you said you would demonstrate Dragon Tongue magic. Proceed with your demonstration.]
At his say so, all talking ceased as I saw each and every wyrm lean forward. The only sound I could hear was the bellowing sounds of their breathing.
On the way here, Professor Sageira had told me to think up a demonstration to impress the elders of my skill in Dragon Tongue magic. So in my free time, I had been playing with miniature elements, trying to battle each other, which reminded me of a cartoon I loved in my previous life as a young boy who wielded the four elements.
I had already tried and coriagraphed the fight in my head. I planned to summon the four elements and shape them into humanoid form and make them fight each other. When I first attempted this, it took a whole lot of mental power to move all four humanoid figures, and even then, they moved as if they had brain damage.
It took me a while before I found a solution to my issue. I vividly remembered the fight scene from the cartoon, so when I attempted to overlay one of the humanoid elements with the character from my memory, I found that the mental power I had to use was negligible. All I had to do was unironically lie to myself to trick my mind that the cartoon characters and the humanoid elemental figures before me were one and the same.
After that, moving all four humanoid elements was just a matter of manipulating and regulating my mana and will to fuel the magic.
I started by calling upon the elements separately.
[Water] I said, and reality twisted to produce a basketball-sized ball of water that splashed down on the ground, but quickly gathered itself to rise as a man-sized humanoid shape, and as it moved its hands in fluid motions, six balls of water materialized from the surrounding to orbit around it.
Next, I called upon the [Earth], and once again, reality twisted to my will, but from underground. A hand made from the very stone of the mountain broke from the floor's surface and pulled half its torso up, before it got its other arm free to support its escape from the ground. Once the humanoid figure made of rock had fully extracted itself from the ground, it took a low and stable fighting stance.
I then called upon [Fire] and reality twisted. From the sconces and brazier surrounding the room, a stream of fire was pulled from each fire source to form a ball of flame. That ball of flame started spinning, and while it was spinning, streaks of different color flames ran through it in random patterns. The spinning got faster and faster until it seemed to reach a critical point and exploded in mid-air to reveal a humanoid figure of fire that gently floated down to the ground and took a more dynamic fighting stance.
Lastly, I called upon [Air]. I felt reality twist, but for a few seconds, nothing happened. Just as I thought I screwed up, I saw the flames of the sconces and brazier flicker more than usual before I felt it. Slowly but surely, over the next ten seconds, the wind picked up and circled the hall before coalescing into a humanoid form that floated a few inches off the ground with its hand loosely spread out by its sides, as if it were feeling the winds keeping it afloat. The only way we could see this air element was because of the little dust and small debris there was in the hall was gathered and swirling around in its body.
At my display, there were already grunts of approval. At least I hoped they were grunts of approval.
Now it was time to replay one of my favorite fight scenes.