Nothing, there was nothing behind Alan, the moment he saw this, his face cooled over, his expression hardened.
Then immediately jumped out of the water, before conjuring a ball of white flames beneath his feet.
Whoosh
The water surface underneath him stiffened, forming a sheet of crystal ice supporting his feet.
"What is it?" Lucian asked, stopping in the water, he glanced in the direction Alan was glaring at, but couldn't see nor sense anything.
But Alan didn't respond, using the ice he was standing on he lunged forward, throwing a swift right punch.
Thud
And his fist collided with the empty space stopping completely, the impact however, jolted Alan's entire arm down to his bones, it felt as if he struck a giant stone boulder but at the same time, there was a strange metallic sensation he felt on his knuckles.
Alan narrowed his eyes, ignoring the stinging pain he felt upon his fists, he pulled his arm back again, but this time he infused his hand with hot, burning violet flames.
"Wait!" Julia called out just before Alan attacked again, trying to stop him, but it was too late.
BANG
A loud impact tore through the air, the wave of violet flames surged forward and around the empty air, vaguely making out a figure, but still Alan couldn't tell what it was.
As he was preparing another attack, he heard a sound.
"Grrr..." A low, deep guttural growl, the snarl was a sound Alan had never heard before, no beast ever produced such primal noise.
And the issue was, the growl didn't come from in front of him, it was way above his head.
"Fuck..." Alan cursed, from the first exchange of blows he already realised he wasn't a match
In a blink of an eye, without even processing what happened Alan was grabbed, his entire body was being pressed by something he couldn't see... But it felt like he was being snatched by giant metallic claws.
"LUCIAN!" Alan was entirely rendered helpless against whatever he was facing, and immediately called for Lucian.
Psssst
And Lucian didn't delay, right after his call a wave of frost struck the invisible beast, spreading a smoke-screen of thick icy mist.
Lucian appeared right beside Alan, raising his icy scythe high above his head, then brought it down.
Clang
But the scythe bounced off, Lucian's calm face cracked as his eyes widened, he too realised he had no hope of winning.
He didn't even get to move, just like Alan, his body was grabbed by an unseen forced, gripping around his body.
Now Alan and Lucian awkwardly floated in the air above the water, with their arms tightly pressed against their own body,
"Oi Lucian." Alan hovered above the river surface.
"Yes." Lucian replied, giving a sideway glance towards Alan.
"What do we do."
"No clue."
Well, they didn't need to think because they started rising levitating higher above the ground, until they suddenly burst through the air, traversing at rapid speed directly into the sky above.
"Fuck..." Alan cursed again, as he helplessly soared through the air, he tightly clenched his jaws waiting for the inevitable attack he would face.
...But it never came, instead his flight across the wind slowed down to a much more gentle breeze, slowly Alan opened his closed eyelids.
"Whoah." He gasped, the air was thin and cold as he stared into the horizon, he was suspended high within the clouds, surrounded by the endless expanse of orange lit sunset sky.
He turned his attention downwards, the entire royal castle was just below him, surrounded by the spread of the five districts, the view was simply astonishing, for a moment Alan even forgot of his situation.
And when he did remember, he was much calmer than before, having recalled something Iris mentioned not too long ago.
"Are you Sparky?" Alan asked the supposed invisible beast, Iris clearly mentioned earlier Sparky had the ability to become invisible.
"Kyuuu." What came back was the same primal noise, but it no longer sounded threatening, instead it was happy, as if delighted to be recognised.
"I see." Alan had a somewhat apologetic face. "Sorry for hitting you like that."
"Huff" But the beast scoffed, and suddenly Alan and Lucian came to an abrupt halt in the air.
"Oh…" Alan's face crumbled. "You weren't trying to show us a nice view, were you?"
"Kekeke." The beast offered a mocking laugh, the next moment the force holding Alan and Lucian vanished.
Whoosh
"FUUCCC—" Alan screamed at the top of his lungs as both him and Lucian rapidly plummeted all the way back to the ground.
Harsh wind brushed against his face as the two of them fell, the castle coming closer and closer within their vision, until finally, they spotted the very same river they were at just moments ago.
SPLASH
The water erupted in a massive explosion when Alan and Lucian hit the water surface.
Bubbles formed and very soon Lucian popped out, carrying Alan on his shoulders.
"Hoo…" Alan took a sharp breath, calming his nerves down.
"I told you to stop!" Before he even gathered himself, he was already getting scolded by Julia.
Lifting his head from Lucian's shoulders, he saw Julia and Iris already standing by the river, water entirely soaked their clothes, clinging to their body in a rather suggestive manner.
But Alan didn't even have time to pay attention to that, as he was suddenly hit with another odd sense of déjà vu.
Julia was leaning over with her hands placed on her waist, with a large pout on her face, something his mother did every time she scolded him.
"I'm sorry…" Alan lowered his head to apologise, as if on instinct.
"Hmph." Julia sharply turned her away. "Reflect on yourself!"
"Yes ma'am…" Alan pouted, before climbing out of the river and dropping on his two knees.
"Uhh…" Lucian, and Alden who was watching from a distance wanted to say it wasn't his mother, but held back, both of Alan and Julia's interaction was far too natural.
As Julia was staring down at the kneeling Alan with stern eyes, an unnatural wave of wind swirled on the ground next to Alan and Julia.
Alan realised it was Sparky, Julia's so-called pet.
"What kind of pet are you two even raising." Alan managed to ask while still kneeling, he couldn't relate Sparky with any of the beasts he previously fought, its skin was like stone and metal, it could fly high into the sky, turn invisible on will and completely remove its presence.
None of those details matched anything he knew.
Julia's face lit up instantly with a bright grin. "You want to know?"
"Well, yes." Alan nodded.
"Sparky!" Julia turned to the space the beast was at. "Show yourself!"
"Gruff." Sparky grunted for a moment, then the mana within the empty space shifted, swirling in on itself.
Slowly the figure became clear, first thing he saw the legs, four long reptilian legs digging into the ground with its claws.
The beast's body was covered in rough, metallic cerulean scales, the colour was extremely pure, two long wings spread out from its back, just behind its long neck.
Alan didn't even need anyone to tell him what creature he was looking at, he would've recognised it even if he was still Leon.
"A dragon…?" Alan's eyes widened in recognition, shock filling every bit of his body. "You're raising a dragon?!"
"Yup!" Julia's expression was still smug, puffing her chest out with pride.
"And you fucking named it Sparky?!" Alan didn't even seem surprised by the fact it was a dragon, he was more horrified she named a dragon Sparky.
"What's wrong with the name?" Julia tilted her head.
"Huff?" Even sparky was confused.
"This is a dragon!" Alan yelled, pointing at Sparky. "They are majestic, strong and greatest race on the planet!"
"Huff!" Sparky puffed its chest out, showing his satisfaction with Alan.
"And you named it Sparky?!"
"Umm…"
Five hundred years ago, during the war with the Abyss, the Southern continent was the first to fall.
Southern continent at the time was the strongest continent in the world, ruled by dragons.
The continent mostly consisted of countless mountains that reached high into the sky, despite the limited number of dragons that existed, their sheer size and strength allowed them to rule the continent.
But even the strongest falls, the Abyssal creatures and demons were too much for them to handle, in the end, the absolute majority of the dragon species were massacred.
However, they didn't completely become extinct, in the last moments, four dragons escaped into the other continents with life-threatening injuries, causing them to fall into a deep slumber in unknown areas to recover.
In the current era, only one of the four dragons awakened, unfortunately it was still unable to move as it wished due to the injuries it suffered before, therefore currently residing in the Western continent.
Wait… Western continent? If the only active dragon was in the Western continent… then who the hell is he looking at right now.
Snapping out of his thoughts he scanned Sparky, it was true that it was a dragon, but it was too small for one, about the size of a small house, but dragons were known to be as big as mountains.
"Where did you even find this guy?" Alan finally asked.
"Hmm." Iris hummed. "About six months ago, I went hunting with my father to the mountains and fell into a cave."
"Uh-huh."
"And found a shiny blue egg, so I thought Juli would like it and brought it back for her."
"You fucking moron." Alan stared in disbelief. "You do realise the mother is probably bloodthirsty looking for her child?!"
"Is that so." Iris calmly nodded. "I'll handle it when the time comes."
"God damn it, I'm surrounded by retards." Alan rubbed his forehead.
"There's nothing we can do now anyway." Iris shrugged.
"Alright, know what, fair point." Alan looked away and remembered something, Julia clearly mentioned, no one in the castle knew about Sparky, he turned back to see Alden and Arlo.
Sure enough, both of their jaws hung open, with their mouths to the ground, unable to even form words.
"Checks out." Alan nodded to himself, then curiously observed Sparky. "So you got the dragon egg six months ago, when did it hatch."
"Three months ago!" Julia excitedly informed Alan. "He is three months old!"
"So it's a he…" Alan silently noted to himself, the dragon's gender was a male.
"Still to be this big at just three months…" Alan mumbled, Sparky was towering over Alan, while still considered an infant. "Not to mention his strength."
Sparky was strong, extremely so, to the point Alan and Lucian couldn't do anything unless they were hell-bent on killing him.
"Why'd you even name him Sparky though?" Alan raised a brow, he couldn't see how Sparky even had anything to do with dragons.
"Guff" It wasn't Julia that answered, instead Sparky himself made a small grunt and opened his jaws.
Crackle
Blue tendrils of electricity rapidly gathered, forming a ball of lighting in his mouth, before propelling it.
Psst
The ground it struck charred the dirt, reducing the space to nothing.
"He's a thunder dragon, huh?" Alan was amazed.
Dragons, just like all other races had their own mana core progression, their power and ability directly relates with the elemental family they would be born into, somewhat similar to human's Affinities.
And the one before him right now was of the thunder family.
Five hundred years ago, the four dragons who escaped the Southern continent were the Rock dragon, ice dragon, sky dragon and lastly the thunder dragon.
"So the thunder dragon has risen…" Alan judged, the only known active dragon was the rock dragon, if he found an infant dragon with the element of thunder it could only mean one thing.
'But why wasn't there any signs of it…' Alan wondered to himself, even leaving behind ones child as a dragon was unusual, their race has low reproduction, and so when they lay an egg it becomes their most precious thing, protecting it with their life.
'Something happened to the thunder dragon.' Alan concluded, all the evidence he had so far pointed to such, but he couldn't confirm nor do anything about it.