On a stormy night, torrential drops of water fell from the sky with occasional roars of thunder as if the wrath of Neptune rained down upon the kingdom. The entire forest had turned into a murky marsh, and the fauna took shelter in caves in fear of being struck by the occasional lightning and thunder.
Suddenly, a loud cracking sound reverberated through the rain and thunder. Multiple trees fell over with a cascading effect as violent lightning tore through the sky and struck the falling trees, setting them on fire. A slouching humanoid silhouette turned visible from within the burning trees; it had one lopsided arm that dragged along the ground with each step taken. The flames seemed to attract another lightning to an adjacent tree and further illuminated the creature’s hideous visage. Its grayed skin looked especially horrific, with shadows circling around its profile and a misty darkness coagulating within its torn-apart chest.
Opposite the monster stood a blonde man wearing simple leather armor and a silver longsword in one hand. The monster roared at him before charging as the man dug his feet into the muddy ground and held his sword with both hands. He intercepted the lopsided arm that the monster swung at him with his sword and ducked under the subsequent bite of the monster, running his sword along the length of its arm. Following a pained roar from the monster, he immediately slashed his sword at its back, leaving a deep gash in its wake. The monster roared in pain and jumped away, eying the man with vigilance and hate.
“These guys are always such trouble,” he mumbled, noticing the misty darkness in the monster’s chest rushing toward its arm and back, rapidly healing the wounds he’d inflicted on it.
With a thought from the man, a faint glow appeared along the spine of his sword, illuminating the intricate hilt that no common artisan in the kingdom could have made.
“Time to end this,” he said, approaching the monster as it grew slightly fearful in the face of the man’s power.
The dangerous feeling emitted by the man made the monster apprehensive, and it responded with an aggravated shriek. The darkness solidified around it into armor as it attacked with its lopsided arm once again. This time, already expecting the movement, the man dodged its arm and thrust his sword down, chopping it off completely. The wound sizzled, burning painfully as the golden energy from the sword attacked the monster’s body. It roared in agony, and the unyielding darkness started acting immediately, suppressing the effects of that energy as the amputated arm thrashed around.
The man didn’t waste any time allowing the monster to heal and stepped behind it, slicing it through its spine as the darkness moved even more hastily, making the arm float in the air as it attempted to reattach to the monster.
“Let’s see …” The man stabbed his sword through its back at a specific spot. “Third … seventh … twelfth … fifth …” He continued stabbing the monster in specific spots, making the darkness recede with each subsequent stab. By the twelfth stab through the monster’s back, the darkness had completely disappeared as the monster slumped powerlessly back down to the ground.
Just as the tension left the man’s shoulders and a sigh escaped from his lips, an arrow tore through the rain, directly aiming for his heart.
He barely stepped to the side, letting the arrow graze his left shoulder as he turned around.
“I should have expected this ...” he mumbled. “Such a downtrodden place has nowhere near the corruption to lead to the birth of a vrykor.”
He quickly turned around, only for another arrow to shoot him, still aiming for his heart. He calmly raised and swung his sword to parry the arrow, letting it stab the ground beside him instead.
“Who are you?” He called out, only to receive another arrow that he deflected effortlessly with his sword. “Last warning.” His tone took a deeper turn as the gold energy in his sword intensified, forming a layer over the entire sword that made veins of energy appear on the surface, surging through it as if seeking escape.
“Impressive.” The footsteps of a man clearly sounded out through the blaring rain and thunder. “To have such achievements in the practice of aura when you are barely in your late twenties. The School of Viritra certainly lives up to its name.”
“Bold of you to assume that,” he laughed in response.
“I am well aware of the mutations inflicted on those who join these … schools, especially Vritra,” the assailant seemed a little amused. “But I’m not assuming, my dear Leo.”
Lightning struck a nearby tree, illuminating the newcomer’s silhouette. The moment Leo noticed his face, he took a sharp breath.
“Rizevim …”
“At your service, sir,” Rizevim bowed with an arm extended outwards and the other tucked in front of his waist. “Unfortunately, your time as a wandering vagrant is now over. I require the seal.”
“Do you think you scare me, Rizevim?” Leo spat out. “Last I remember, you were still looking for a way to break your aura out of its cocoon.”
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“It has been over a decade since your departure, sir,” Rizevim said, drawing his sword as it immediately started glowing golden, with veins all over, similar to Leo’s sword. “I may not have your talent, sir, but I’m not that useless.” His respectful address sounded anything but as the man’s sword cracked apart with a sound louder than that of the thunder that accompanied the rain all around them, turning completely gold. “Surrender, please.”
“It seems that there’s no way out for me.” Leo smiled with a wild glint in his eyes as he drew a dagger from his belt with his wounded arm and threw it at Rizevim, who calmly dodged it.
Before he was able to taunt Leo, a pained grunt from behind him made him pause.
“I’m not that kid from before, Rizevim,” Leo said. “It was foolish of you to bring an uninitiated to this battle. And a woman at that. It’s as if you are delivering her to my hands.”
“Yes, who doesn’t know of the licentious nature of Xander the Hallowed,” he responded with an ironic laugh. “She is irrelevant.”
“Really? I could’ve sworn I saw your expression change when she grunted. I used aura, you know? She could be bleeding to death at this very moment. Are you sure that you want to focus on me?”
“As I said, irrelevant,” Rizevim said, raising his golden sword as Leo quickly grabbed a small vial from his pouch and emptied its contents onto his sword. “As long as you can hand me the seal, I will let you live.”
“This is my last bottle. I’ll have to make a trip across the entire kingdom to restock after this,” Leo said to himself as his expression curled into a pained grimace. Suddenly, the energy surging through his sword turned from gold to red, giving rise to an oppressive feeling.
“It seems that you plan to fight me to the death for that irrelevant seal,” Rizevim said.
“Maybe it has sentimental value,” Leo said, laughing to himself.
“I’ll just have to snatch it from your corpse then.”
Rizevim took up a battle stance as his gold sword illuminated the surroundings with its bright light. It was a direct contrast to the bloody veins all over Leo’s sword, with a gloomy feeling that would send shivers down a normal person’s spine.
“I do want to ask, why are you here?” Leo asked. “Why now, specifically?”
“It’s simple, really, my dear child,” Rizevim chuckled. “It’s because —“
Before completing his words, Rizevim’s figure shot through the rain, reaching Leo without delay to slash his sword at him. His move was already anticipated, and Leo’s sword was already raised in a position to parry the attack before Rizevim reached him. The subsequent clash of their swords resulted in a shockwave that momentarily blasted away the rain around them and carved chunks of wood out of the trees.
Rizevim’s expression showed his sheer disbelief at how Leo was able to parry his attack — the sheer force behind it enough to slice through a metal beam, but he didn’t let it affect his movements as he rapidly slashed at Leo again, this time a horizontal slash that Leo was forced to duck under.
“Let’s see how long you can rely on borrowed power,” Rizevim snarled with a sense of frustration, releasing a flurry of quick blows at Leo, forcing him on the defensive as their battle decimated the nearby trees by the mere shockwaves released by their clashes. Suddenly, Rizevim kicked Leo’s side, forcing him to step back before grabbing a dagger from his belt and throwing it at him. Leo sidestepped the implement, only to be met with Rizevim’s sword. While he was able to use his sword to barely deflect the attack, the tip of Rizevim’s sword grazed his arm. He hissed in pain as Rizevim capitalized on the opportunity and moved forward once more.
Leo’s eyes grew colder as he grunted loudly. His sword abruptly glowed red, giving the illusion that the veiny red glow had broken through and covered the entire sword. Suddenly, the parry that Rizevim expected to end in an advantage for him pushed him back instead. Leo didn’t give him any time to recover and slashed his sword at his arm, forcing Rizevim to step back to keep his arm attached to his shoulder. Still, the traitor was left with a nasty gash on the shoulder of his dominant arm because of Leo’s abrupt outburst.
“Step down, Rizevim,” Leo said, his emotions unreadable from his voice. “I’ll let you go. For old times’ sake. Take your ward and retreat.”
“Heh …” Rizevim sneered, holding his shoulder that was still dripping blood. “I can’t do that, Leo.”
“Why so?” He asked. “What prompted this? After more than a decade at that?”
“There are forces at play here that are beyond your comprehension, boy,” Rizevim grunted as he seemed to bite something within his mouth. A pained grunt escaped his lips as his wound rapidly healed, though the healing didn’t seem to be free of side effects by looking at his expression.
“You know, Rizevim … Ever since I was little, I’ve hated it when people treat me like a kid.” Leo’s words had an undertone of bubbling fury. Just as Rizevim raised his sword, Leo was upon him, slashing at him. Rizevim’s parry failed, a clear indicator of his weakened state. His sword slid along the flat part of Leo’s sword, throwing him off balance. Leo gained the upper ground with ease as his sword slashed Rizevim’s hand, forcing him to drop his sword and cutting off three of his fingers.
“Ahh …” Rizevim hissed, immediately stepping back and pulling out another dagger from his belt, holding it in his non-dominant hand.
“One last chance. Tell me why,” Leo said. “You may yet live. If you are thinking of outlasting the effects of my drake, then you’re out of luck. You know what I am, what kind of battles I fight, and the endurance required to win such battles.”
“It’s no wonder that the number of draconic schools in the world has halved since the last century,” Rizevim spoke while in pain. “You truly are all freaks. Come! I will not surrender, LEO!” Rizevim charged at Leo with his dagger in hand. It glowed a similar gold as his sword as he reached Leo and blocked the casual strike.
“You truly have a death wish, don’t you?”
“I don’t have a choice.” For the first time since Rizevim appeared, there was a sense of defeat in his words. He got close to Leo and tried to stab him after deflecting his sword strike.
“Fine then,” Leo responded casually as if Rizevim hadn’t just broken through his defenses and gotten close enough to stab his heart. “I’ll grant your wish.”
The intense glow of Leo’s sword illuminated half of Rizevim’s body as he moved at an inhuman speed, stabbing Rizevim before the man could even take another step.
“Still not going to tell me?” Leo asked as Rizevim fell to the ground.
“You’ve … truly grown up, boy,” he spoke while coughing blood. “But it’s better that you don’t know. I hope … I hope that you can come home once.”
“I’d rather not,” he said before stepping away. “I have other things to deal with.”
“One other thing.” Rizevim stopped Leo. “I hope you can take her … My daughter, Zerath. Take her to a town. Just leave her with a healer. Don’t let her die in this dreary place … please …”
“I’m not doing that …” Leo responded by shaking his head. “Goodbye, Rizevim.”