[Ogre camp]
As Darganth slowly descended to land before the mutated ogre, the crowd that had already made space for the latter backed away even further. This gave him room to practically shrug off the human transformation with which he landed, his form shifting to that of an ogre with a roll of his shoulder. On his back, a pair of draconic wings remained unfurled, keeping him from being completely overshadowed by the towering figure of the draconic ogre before him.
Once he stood like this, he crossed his arms and waited, keeping his eyes narrowed on the draconic ogre. Under his gaze, the latter didn't dare move, the confidence with which it had brought a stop to the tribe's fighting squashed under the anger Darganth's expression radiated.
It then took a few seconds until the arrival he was waiting for. Landing without any grace by simply falling from above with an audible crash, Yldra finished moving from the tent they were staying at and arrived next to Darganth. Behind her, Alicia, Jennia, and Serania followed suit, with them too alerted by the commotion of the tribe's brawl.
As they approached, Darganth could already hear the low growl his sister let out at a distance. Grinning slightly when it reached his ears, he waited with glee until both she and Yldra joined him in his open hatred for the draconic ogre. Though in Alicia's case, he was rather sure it was more instinctual than anything else. This was in contrast to the latter, who had recognized the ogre's evolution just like him.
Once all of them arrived next to him, Darganth finally spoke to the ogre, "For your sake, I'd better hear a very good explanation for how you achieved that evolution."
With his words, Darganth let loose his draconic mana, causing an illusory manifestation of his true form to appear behind him. Towering above the ogre before him by an even larger amount than the latter does over his transformed form, it sent the crowd into a frenzied stumble as they backed off even further.
But instead of answering, the ogre opposite of him looked up and met Scalladras' eyes, passing him a silent request through the brief moment where their gaze met. Though in turn, he only received a mocking chuckle as Scalladras ignored the request with a shrug.
Not having particularly much patience for the ogre, Darganth raised a hand and summoned a spear into it. Getting the ogre's attention back by flaring his mana and causing dark green flames to flicker to life along its blade, he then raised the spear so that its tip pointed at the ogre.
"I'll repeat myself only this once. Give me a good reason why I shouldn't kill you for dragonslaying, or you won't live past the next minute." Darganth asked again, his words filled with rage. Few things are as personal an attack on him as the death of his fellow dragons. So to see someone openly display the boon the act got them wasn't something he'd leave alone.
Especially because in this case, it indicated a coordinated hunt.
Every death of a dragon was something he grieved. It might be somewhat hypocritical of him, considering his lack of care for the lives of the vast majority of people from other species, but they were his kin, and that made them important to him in a way only select individuals of other species were. But whereas he'd just feel sadness for most such dragons and not go out of his way to avenge them, he has no intention to even let the act of hunting a dragon for the materials one can harvest from their corpse go unpunished.
This wasn't even particularly out of any sort of practicality to raise their low population or keep it from falling even further. The danger even the least of his kin presents means that the associated danger is already high enough to counteract the enormous potential for fortune such a hunt brings, that even the threat of his anger barely had any effect on those who were willing to take this risk. Furthermore, it wasn't as if he had ever before even considered the possibility that an emboldened dragon-slayer might one day be a threat to himself, so there wasn't any tangible benefit to his stance.
Rather, it was mainly out of pride, with a bit of retribution mixed into it. Dragons were one of those species that could reasonably be considered to be the apex of all creatures. But that also meant that killing a dragon could be exceedingly rewarding, both in terms of prestige and through the materials that could be harvested from its body.
That was why Darganth drew the line at which he typically avenged a dragon at those instances where the offender killed the dragon not for what the latter did as an individual, but for the value its corpse offered. That was especially the case for instances where it was an organized effort by a large group that brought down the dragon in question.
The structured nature of this made it even worse in the eyes of dragonkind as it meant the power harvested from the corpse wouldn't go to someone who earned it on their own. That didn't mean that Darganth, or dragons in general, had anything against cooperation, nor that they liked it when a dragon was slain in single combat. This just meant that they differentiated between someone worthy benefiting from their death and someone who isn't worth doing the same, with the two deeds having a different severity in their eyes.
In contrast, dragons who died as a result of their own actions didn't get avenged with such fervor, neither by Darganth nor by dragonkind in general. Similarly, dragons who died clashing against an equal foe were honored by typically only avenged by friends and relatives. Though the latter case could also be viewed less favorably if the foe initiated the fight with the intent to slay the dragon to harvest materials from its body. As such, it often depends on the dragon judging the situation, their personality and how they interpret it, whether or not the death of a dragon will be avenged.
Part of the reason for these reactions was because the status as a dragon slayer had once upon a time been a great status symbol among many groups, with at times universe-wide hunts for his kin happening across Vunreon. The arrogance of many of these dragonslayers to then portray themselves as equals to dragons was what truly enraged Darganth.
And among ogres, this status symbol and boon came in the form of a specific evolution, one clearly present in the individual before him. Sometimes called dragon-ogres, though Darganth himself hated the name due to its similarities to that of dragon-hydras and the accompanying implications of equating these ogres to lesser dragons, ogres that have first contributed to the death of a dragon and then eaten enough of its heart will almost always undergo one of the most potent single evolutions their kind can go through.
With the results of one such evolution before him, Darganth's anger was thus predictable, if not even somewhat understandable, to everybody present who knew of this background. Though in the situation, this was only a few of his group and Scalladras, so it wasn't exactly a neutral group either.
Having realized by now that Scalladras won't intervene on his behalf, the dragon-ogre hesitated a moment. This, in turn, caused the surrounding ogres to sense weakness. Having seen him practically defer to Scalladras mere moments prior, some already guessed that the latter held some importance. As such, his disinterest toward the dragon-ogre's fate further emboldened them to act on that weakness.
As such, it took only a few moments before the first ogre stepped out of the circle that had formed, flaring his mana in a challenge toward his more draconic kin. Stunned by the audacity of this, the latter's reaction was slightly delayed. But when it came, it did so in full force.
With only the brief and barely audible scratching of his claws digging into the soil as a warning, the dragon-ogre catapulted himself forward. Dashing toward his challenger with a single shallow leap, he crossed his arm before his chest in a gesture of mocking disregard and instead struck out with one of his front legs.
But instead of feeling his claws cut into the ogre before him, the dragon-ogre was met with a sudden pain in his leg. Already having considered the exchange a foregone conclusion, this came as a shock to him, briefly stunning him as his gaze slowly trailed downward.
"You're dealing with me right now." Darganth said, spear raised with one hand while the other held back the other ogre.
Pulling his claw away from the spear tip that had pierced into it, the dragon-ogre stepped back with shock visible on his face. Briefly alternating between hesitancy and anger, his expression then settled on the former moments later.
Reining in his mana, the ogre's attitude calmed noticeably. De-escalating the situation further by stepping back, he left himself completely open to attacks as he answered Darganth, "Do it if you must. I won't even fight back. Wouldn't want to go against the chief by injuring our allies."
Still holding his spear at the ready, Darganth mustered the ogre in stunned silence. Never would he have expected an ogre of all beings to relent without a fight, at least not without overwhelming odds. And as much as he wished he could claim that he had that, the truth was that he had prepared to immediately return to his true form just so that he had a chance.
That isn't to say that he wasn't confident in winning. Throughout the millennia, he had dealt with many ogres who committed the sin of dragonslaying, so he was very familiar with the powers gained from the resulting evolution and had multiple proven methods to make dealing with them easier.
Besides, he wouldn't be alone. Not just had he not told Yldra to stay out of the fight, he doubted she'd do so even if he did. The hate he had for dragon-ogres was practically universal among dragons, so he didn't believe she had the restraint to stay idle if a fight broke out.
Though now that it didn't, she looked just as confused as Darganth did. Briefly meeting her eyes as he let his gaze wander in thought, they held a silent conversation, followed by Darganth lowering his spear with a sigh.
"There would be no satisfaction in that. That doesn't mean I'll let you off the hook, but I'll come to an agreement with your chief once we're done with the plans for the next few days." Darganth said with a slight disappointment in his voice. Along with these words, his dragon's fear also receded, easing the tension that had built up.
His reasons for this change in attitude went beyond what he stated to the dragon-ogre, though the latter's acceptance of death and the lack of impact retribution would have in such a situation was certainly a part of it. But if it weren't for the more practical aspects of it, this wouldn't have stopped Darganth.
His thoughts on these were mainly twofold. Firstly, there was the undeniable usefulness of the dragon-ogre as well as the tribe as a whole. While the latter relationship might not be fully lost if he were to follow through with killing the ogre, it would undoubtedly be strained, not to mention the fact that the dragon-ogre was likely one of, if not the strongest fighter after the chief.
The second reason was that he wasn't pressed for time punishing the dragon-ogre, nor was it necessarily needed that Darganth take care of it personally. Mortality among ogres was always high due to their borderline reckless aggressiveness, so there was a good chance the insult that the existence of a dragon-ogre was to all of dragonkind would be erased without his intervention.
Though even if he survives, Darganth could still pick up where he left off. While the chief was unlikely to agree with the dragon-ogres' death, there were other ways to send the same message. And thanks to his relationship with Cehlya, Darganth wasn't limited to enacting retribution while the ogre still lived, so he'd still get his full retribution even if he'd be forced to show some mercy out of consideration for the tribe.
With the mark of a dragonslayer already on his soul, the dragon-ogre wouldn't find peace in death. It might not be at his own hand, but Darganth trusted Cehlya and her subordinates to enact punishment in his stead, so such an outcome was still to his satisfaction.
For these reasons, Darganth was willing to take a step back for now. Doing so literally, he walked back toward Yldra and the rest of their group.
"You good?" Allaire asked as he did, noticing the slight reluctance in his decision.
"I can live with it." Darganth said, glancing to where he had already sensed the ogre chief a few seconds earlier.
Following his gaze, the others still caught the ogre's shoulders slumping in relief at this development. Soon noticing Darganth's gaze, the ogre gave him a brief nod of thanks before making his way toward the still unruly crowd of his kin.
"Maybe we should get out of here for the moment, it looks like he wants to announce your plans for an excursion." Jennia said upon seeing this.
"Good idea."
As Darganth said that, the crowd already started to scuttle toward the chief. Moving into the opposite direction without much hurry, he thus soon stepped past the edges of the crowd, with Alicia following soon after as the last of their group and exiting the masses just as the chief's words threw the tribe into a frenzy.
"-And tomorrow, we'll rise even higher!"
Ending his speech with this shout, excitement fell over the crowd, the previous turmoil and clashes completely forgotten.
Briefly glancing behind him as a unified war-cry rang out from the ogres, Darganth soon turned toward their tent, "It might still be early in the day, but we'll also better start preparing to set out later. And I still haven't eaten breakfast."
With these words, he shifted his transformation into a smaller, more human-like form so that he no longer towered above the rest of his group. Following that, he let the others walk ahead while turning toward the nearest storage room of the tribe. There, he picked out a few of the ogre-sized portions that were conserved from previous hunts before teleporting back to their tent and joining the others in finally getting a proper start to the day.