Set Me Free

Chapter 2. Untapped Power

"Underestimate me; that'll be fun."

---I-AM-A-LINE---

Pretending to be a good little prison bitch was not his strong suit by any means, but he was doing his utmost to stay quiet. However, he wasn't just sitting pretty. From the timing of the guards' paces and even down to the rhythm of their breathing, he was in tune with it all. Luckily for him, when they changed his guard from those fools, they assigned him the disinterested type; the two he had now were as predictable as they come and almost rhythmic.

It's like they were trying to make this easy for him, and to his pleasure, they couldn't seem to care less about his presence, let alone the noise he was making as he worked away at the cracked stone holding his chains.

While his escape would be relatively simple, it would require some forethought and as much restraint as he could muster.

Ideally, he needed to clear the dungeon level before the main force hit him; he didn't like the chance of getting overwhelmed in such a small space. So that meant he couldn't go all out from the start; his abilities were nothing if not...flashy. Something that he usually found great joy in was now a hindrance. Sure, he was more than capable of stealth, but he was going to need to make some noise to get out of his cell. The chains were easy enough to handle with brute strength, but the bars were built to hold a dragon, so it wasn't going to be easy.

His best option was obviously to get a hold of the keys and knock out both guards before they could sound the alarm; his timing would need to be perfect. If he spent more time, he could undoubtedly work on a backup plan or even another strategy, but it had been two days and he had only been given the bare minimum in food and water; he didn't intend to wait until they sapped away his strength to try something.

Bakugou glanced over at his 'roommate' before scoffing, the thought passing as quickly as it had come. It was stupid. For a moment, he thought about freeing the beast; however, that came with many risks. There was no way he could escape the lower level without being noticed if he did, and if there was even a way to get out of there.

He had spent the last few days examining the scarlet beast before him in all its glory; there was no questioning its beauty, and he was convinced the stories didn't do it justice. Yet as magnificent as it was, it angered him that it was nothing like the tales; perhaps it had been broken. At the thought, Bakugou felt another wave of fury, but not for the same reason he had a moment before.

Dragons had always been a symbol of power; all over the world, they were hailed as the ultimate form of pure power and prestige. Some even worshipped them as something close to gods, while others bowed to them as protectors. Though not endangered, they were rare and seldom chose to live among other species.

This was not the first time he had seen a dragon, and though he was much younger, he remembered it as if it were yesterday. He could still taste the smoke and feel the sting in his nose, his eyes never forgetting the majestic form as it streaked across the sky, and neither did his flesh forget the heat that prickled across his skin. The world's mightiest protector, hailed all over as the symbol of peace even after fifteen years since his disappearance, was a household name; naught a village nor house saw without his character; the sign of the great All-Might. There was no comparing him to that coiled-up lizard over there.

His first thought when he saw it was that he wanted to unleash that underlying spark he saw within. He had always had a gift for judging the potential of others and was usually able to read between the lines; this felt no different. Be it a beast or one of his own, he always seemed to see things that others tended to overlook. Could he do it? After all, dragons were pure masses of instinct and natural battle prowess, but if they didn't have the drive or determination, they were useless; those weren't things you could teach them. No matter how good he was.

"Oi," he said, waiting a few seconds before kicking a stone at its hide. "I know you can hear me; stop pretending you can't, you shy lizard." For a few moments, nothing happened before it lifted its tail from its position near the head, exposing its eyes to him once again.

"Do you understand me or not!? I don't know; do something; talk; breathe fire. I don't care at this point, but fucking do something, useless reptile." He couldn't help it; he was just irritable by nature. Another endlessly long pause before its tail moved again, plopping onto his lap snugly before closing its eyes again.

"What the shit? Hey, get this thing off me. Tch damn it!" The blonde squirmed but found it hard to move. Despite his struggling, the whip-like limb didn't budge an inch, and neither could he. To make things worse, the beast didn't even flinch at his indignant yells or thrashing, not even cracking an eye in his direction again, and he got the feeling that it wouldn't for the rest of the night.

Seeing no other option, he decided to save his strength for the moment and examined the dragon's tail as best he could in what little light he had. Smooth, oval-shaped scales ran in a consistent pattern from the tip upward, overlaying every row with the next. Though he couldn't tell from afar, up close he could see that not all were the same shade of red; different shades were tinted slightly in certain places, though all shades of scarlet. They were so vibrant, and he could almost have sworn that they were alive from the way they shone in the light of the torches.

Though, despite what the guard had said, there were no signs of mistreatment, nor did it seem from where he was that any scales had been forcibly removed. Perhaps they were waiting for it to get bigger first; it wasn't exactly massive by dragon standards, but he would guess it would stand at around three meters tall.

Upon closer inspection, he was beginning to think that it couldn't be much older than he was. He squinted to count the scales and estimate the distance between them; if he remembered the method correctly, it was roughly between fifteen and twenty-four years of age—practically a baby in dragon years. He wasn't quite sure about the gender; he would have to have a closer look around the pattern of its neck for that one.

Looking at the damage done to the floor, he realized that, while small, its power was no joke, and that was just the power of its tail.

Though their scales looked fragile, he knew they were better: fireproof, harder than any metal, impenetrable, and lightweight. The ultimate set of armour fit for the world's deadliest warriors He recalled what the guard mentioned: they were harvesting its scales. He wasn't surprised, of course; armour or weapons reinforced with dragon scales were priceless and highly exotic. The price of a single set of armour could feed a large village for twenty years, and that wasn't an exaggeration.

Considering that dragons have three layers of scales and were known to regenerate their scales every few weeks, it was a living gold mine. Bakugou knew they were quite deep underground, but even so, wasn't this too little security for such a valuable asset? Well, no matter; that was all the better for him in the long run, but it was ticking him off that they were so arrogant.

Fantastic now, he was even more pissed off that he had been captured by these idiots; heck, they wouldn't have even captured him in the first place if it wasn't for that rat of a traitor, and he was going to tear as many of them to shreds as he could while he made his escape. He also swore that if he saw Monoma again, he was going to drop a mountain on that snake.

Sighing in frustration Bakugou tried to shift the limb again, but to no avail.

Well, this was just fucking great.

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