Setting off the chain of tiny events that sent the bullet spiraling forward.The recoil was significant, but the design of the fiberglass stock mitigat...d some of the impact.Matt put down his Swarovski binoculars and smiled, “Chest.”“It’s only a hundred yards.”“Chest.”We took turns, moving backwards in tandem as the sun passed overhead and was now in our eyes. I checked each distance on my range finder; my data card told me the appropriate elevation changes. Which I made with the dial on top of. He looked so impeccably professional standing behind the pulpit and exuded the same calm he always had. I marvelled at how he managed it. Basking in the serenity he projected, I could almost forget that he hadn’t called me, almost forget that I spent the night fearing my heart was about to be broken again. The first half of the Service flew by. Nate’s voice never wavered as he moved us all skilfully through the sequence of worship we knew so well. There was comfort there in the unchanged. Her bright eyes, once aquamarine and then violet as panic suffused through her, were wild with fear. “It’s too late,” Corina whispered as she stopped pacing before the window. Her back was to Alina as she gazed in horrified wonder at the castle and the carriage that waited. “He comes.” She turned back to Alina and added grimly, “For you.” Alina swallowed but her throat was dry and she nearly choked on the air she breathed. “Who is he? What can he possibly want of me?” But Corina wasn’t. A mastery of economics, logistics, politics, and other things needed to run a functional power.Charisma to bend the will of entire nations and the sheer presence of a monarch that others would describe as divine.Essence of the Dragon RiderYou become a dragon rider, an individual that has somehow made a mighty dragon bend to your will.Recieve a dragon with a design and abilities up to you. It is at the very least somewhat intelligent, powerful enough to destroy sturdy medieval castles in short.