A Passed pain

What was Argen witnessing? He saw his master with him. His heart sank as he witnessed his trauma.

Vein tucked Argen for the night as he walked over to the screams of the villagers. He saw a man in golden armour in the rain. This man was over seven feet in stature matching him in build. The Golden man Sprouted wings and roared towards the heavens calling forth stormy clouds as several strikes of lightning seemingly charged him. He understood the strangers body language. He was looking for something Vein thought to himself. In the next moment he saw the stranger wield the lightning burning every single villager that was in from of Vein to cinders. Whatever he was looking for Vein needed to stop him. He held his Maul in confidence as he approached the Golden Figure.

 "You! What is it you are looking for? Killing everyone in your path with no remorse." Vein covered the malice in his voice as he pointed the axe at the stranger." Killing innocents. Is unforgivable."

The man clad in gold was currently holding a poor man on his head, and with the size of his hand, it seemed like he was holding a toddler with his hand covering the entire head. He shifted his gaze towards the source of the voice. His expression remained stoic yet his eyes carried an aloof presence within them, he couldn't care less who that weakling was to oppose him but he also couldn't let it just do as it pleases. He wasn't here to just go and step on ants, he was here because he caught a scent of something… something he had been looking for a long time. But just when he was about to call down the might of thunder and lightning upon the man, his nose twitched.

"So you're with it..."

A deep yet powerful voice was heard from his mouth. He turned towards him and raised the man in front of him. Adding a little more force into his grip, the unfortunate man's head exploded, blood and brain matter splattering everywhere as his body fell on the ground like a puppet with its strings suddenly cut off. It was a terrifying sight but the golden man gave no attention to it and merely licked the blood and remains on his hand.

"Not bad for an appetizer."

This time, he finally faced Vein truly. Lightning and thunder roared once more from the clouds and at that moment, the golden man's body flashed brightly. With the speed of lightning, he charged towards the man, leaving burn marks in his wake and swung his left claw that was now clad in golden lightning down aiming for his head the moment he arrived in front of him. The voltage it carried was enough to incinerate a normal person and the weight it had could shatter a large rock into pieces. Even though he had met him the first time and deemed him to be a weakling, he had felt that he was different from other weaklings. This was an instinct he had honed for hundreds of years already to the point of being able to evaluate a person's capabilities with ease.

"If you truly wish for me to stop, tell me where the half-ling boy is."

Vein's face turned into a scowl as he understood what he had meant. 

This man was looking for Argen, Vein thought to himself as he gritted his teeth casting Haste as he made a charge towards the stranger. The earth shook as he saw the being had blocked his swing. Monstrous was the only thing he could think before dodging a blast of lightning. 

He saw the man spread his wings seemingly flaunting his power. This was no ordinary foe he understood that much.

"What business do you have with my son? You are in no way his uncle when you kill with no remorse." Vein steadied himself as he casted Hardening and fused Quake with his limbs ready to counter if the stranger attacked him in a melee.

"Hoh…" This weakling- no, this man exceeded his expectations, he was better than he thought he was. It was rare for him to find such existences like him, but that was it. Being able to withstand one of his attacks was impressive enough and since this man was close with the half-ling he was looking for, he has some time to play with him.

"There goes my chance to practice my acting skills as an uncle." He playfully said as he spread his wings once more and flapped them down, raising himself from the ground. Lightning began to crackle around him as they gathered on each side of his wings near the tip. The gathered lightning and mana formed into two balls of golden lightning, the terrifying magical energy within it was already unstable enough releasing bolts of lightning everywhere causing destruction. These two balls of lightning were unstable enough to cause destruction and could explode at any moment, yet the golden man remained calm and arrogant.

"He has something I want. I only wish to retrieve it and will return him to you in… pieces that is."

Upon finishing his sentence, he swung his wings that carried the two balls of lightning to the middle, fusing them and released a powerful beam of lightning towards Vein.

Vein slammed the flat of his maul on the earth creating a wall of mud covering his form from the blast. 

The Gold clad stranger grinned as he fired another blast of lightning hitting Vein square on the chest as the strike had no effect on him. This man is interesting, the stranger thought to himself as he unsheathed the giant slab of metal he called a greatsword widening his stance as the tip of the weapon faced Vein.

"You're name, mortal?" He asked.

"Vein Utlus."

"Retenus Ywach." 

The two began to trade blows as Retenus formed a wild grin seeing as his attacks merely scratched his opponents body. This man is no push-over. Pushing Vein's weapon aside as he had kicked the man away raising his greatsword towards the heavens letting lightning strike it as it began to imbue the slab of metal with the power of thunder. With a single flap of his wings he swung his sword towards Vein which replied kindly with parrying the attack and striking his armor with the flat side of his Maul denting it.

"You bastard!" Retenus roared as he shot multiple bolts of lightning from the tips of his wings all parried by the Titanium Giant Maul. Vein stomped the earth creating a magnitude four earthquake making Retenus wobble a bit. That one bit was all Vein needed casting Haste to close the distance in mere seconds and severing off one of the Monster's arms as it retaliated with multiple shots of lightning towards his aggressor then proceeding to grab Vein's head as Retenus opened his wings to float a bit with a single flap he had grinded the Goliath of a man across the village square to the outskirts of town as he threw the axe-man towards a boulder.

Vein knew he had broken a rib or two if the crunch was evidence aside from the fractured rock. His Hardening held up a good fight against his opponent. Retenus was floating above him charging another of his bolts above. The gold clad being sneered at him as the lightning struck him. Two hundred million volts ran through him as it singed and burned through his vest, burning his skin, singed his hair as his life flashed before his eyes. 

Memories of his childhood, his mother, his comrades that fell, the people that he cared for dying in front of his eyes, and a young man he had taken in. A young man who he had spent his twenty years caring for and training him still in his magic discipline as his mother did for him. He saw the tears the young man had when he was first taken in. This lonely child who had no one before he came into his life. Something snapped within Vein as a primal roar of defiance filled the air. As he heard his mother's words to him.

"If you feel weak remember the reasons you fight…"

Vein gritted his teeth as he stood up, his heart beating hard as his body screamed for him to stop every muscle he had wailing at him, begging him to give up. "AAAAAAAAH"

"Whenever you are hopelessly beaten…"

Vein roared as the electric blue runes on his body turned blood red. His skin was ripping and repairing itself as a huge flow of mana covered his body seemingly giving a red aura around him. He began to cry tears of blood as he scowled at the golden clad bastard. Vein jumped up and severed Retenus' right arm and slammed his head against the Golden bastard sending him to the mud.

"Remember why you fight, what you fight for, who you want to protect..."

Vein roared as his body was engulfed by a red dome of his mana shooting upward towards the heavens. He watched as his opponent absorbed seventy lightning strikes and his greatsword oozed with red mist as Retenus glared at him. Vein knew his current as much as he is the literal form of mana will not last long as the drawbacks will certainly kill him. 

"You have given me happiness, given me joy and gave me reason to live. Remember these words, my son. You are my legacy."

As Retenus fired his attack Cein took the attack to the stomach making the attack miss it's intended target as it went through him and blew up the forest behind him destroying his own right leg in the process as the blood, muscles, flesh were a splat of viscera. He used Haste eliminating his remaining leg and throwing the maul aside as he shot himself forward with Titania speeding him up as he flew to his target. Gathering mana into his left fist he threw a bone crushing hook then focusing all of his mana into his right arm as Haste, Hardening, and Quake gathered to his fist.

"Farewell, Argen."

The Earth shook at the Punch shot his opponent to the Ground as his mana burned through and cremate the foe as it impacted to the ground a Magnitude seven Earthquake made its presence known as a fifty foot in radius whirlwind engulfed both of them. Vein fell backwards as the sense of pain returned to him.

"Mother, we shall see each other soon."

__

"Vein!" Argen yelled as he pushed through the pain that bit his legs desperately running to his master's side."No,No no no non no!"

Vein's body was beyond repair, Legs gone, arms bent in an unnatural angle, and a large hole in his stomach. 

He was bleeding out. 

His master gave him a meek smile. 

NO! Argen refused to lose him, he refused it. He gave himself a long gash that ran from his palm to his forearm and poured his blood onto the hole. His master told him that dragon blood was special since it healed wounds he would trust his words; He grabbed his forearm squeezing it as he pushed it down to his wrist repeating the action several times to have his warmth drip into the hole until his master gripped his bleeding palm. 

"No.." Vein told him as he held the smile."I'm sorry. I'm sorry I couldn't finish your training. I'm sorry for being a sad excuse of a master." 

"Save Your breath. I can fix this please.." 

"You have to go on. And live your life, train and become stronger than I ever was."

 "I CAN'T." Argen's voice cracked."I CAN'T BE STRONG. I'M WEAK, I CAN'T SAVE ANYONE. I'M NOTHING! NOTHING BUT A MONSTER AND A FAILURE."

 "Take... My Axe.. my bag and… gold.... you will need it."

 "NO, No."

 "Just listen to me son!" Argen's eyes stung. 

"Listen to me. Ye who have no family name. Ye, whose dragon blood runs as pure as any Take my family name.... for you are the son I wished I had. You gave me happiness, you gave me joy, you gave me a reason to fight. You are my son... my legacy." With Vein's final breath the rain started to pour hard as Argen was bawling his eyes out. He had lost a master. He had lost a father.

"Again."

Hilda woke up from Argen's sobs and carefully pulled him into her bosom to calm him with her heartbeat. The male Half-dragon embraced her tightly sobbing ever quietly.

"Thank you." Argen whispered as Hilda held him through the night.