18 The Dragon-Slayer
Lilacoris was wearing her fully-enchanted spellsword armor, slashes and torn pieces were a testament to the might power yielded by her enemy, her left hand was raised and glowing white as she was casting the strongest light spell she knew. On her right hand, a sword so beautiful that put most treasures from the royal treasury to shame was in flames.
Behind her, two of her companions were severely injured, a trail of dirt and blood made it clear that they managed to drag their bodies from afar to reach each other's hand, their expressions as they locked eyes sent a clear message: not even death will take us apart.
In front of Lilacoris, one of the strongest dragons to have ever made a nest on the Yelling Mountain Range, Benir, The Black Death. A 30-meter tall black dragon, his wings spread wide open, absorbing all the light and color from the place. Benir had his mouth wide open, charging his most potent attack to face Lilacoris' head-on, it never thought that a measly human would ever be able to contend with him. His whole demeanor gave the impression he was enjoying it, maybe even laughing. Pride goes before the fall after all.
Silent tears rolled down her face, but she was still smiling. Her hand moved on its own accord and gently touched her companion's drawing. As the memories surfaced, the smile receded. The tears were no longer full of nostalgy and love, but hate.
On that fateful day fifteen years ago, she lost those she loved the most.
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They did not travel to hunt a dragon. It was supposed to be just another job about reducing the number of monsters close to the roads. How would they know that Benir was feeling bored that day?
First, it was her partner in combat, and life, they had just married. He died while trying to tie Benir down for long enough for his companions to run. The Black Death ate him whole in one bite and laughed loud enough for the three others to hear him.
The woman was her sister. She cast hasting spells on Lila and the man, followed by a potent wind spell that sent them flying away from the monster. She tried casting the same spell on herself to push herself away. The Black Death was faster and did not let her take another step; he impaled Lila's sister with his claw and threw her body in their direction. He laughed loudly once more.
The last man was her childhood friend and brother in law. He snapped after his wife was hurt and rushed to attack Benir head-on with his combat daggers. With a swing of his claws, Benir cut off both of his legs; the attack was too fast for him to dodge. The more the men screamed, the louder Benir laughed.
Lila felt despair and anger fight for the control of her body. The latter won.
She burned her mana and pushed her core to the limit; the enchantments on her armor glowed by being overcharged while her sword resonated with her feelings, enveloping itself in flames.
She rushed to Banir so fast that sound explosions woke the whole forest. Each time her feet touched the ground, it would push against it with so much strength that made the entire area shake, speeding her even more.
Her sword touched his chest faster than he could react, spilling blood all over her. It was not the end though; cuts were appearing all over the dragon's body. He eventually hit her, sending her tumbling for a hundred meters, only to jump back to her feet and resume her suicidal rush.
Minutes passed, the dragon felt fear for the first time in two centuries. The couple were still breathing and painfully dragged themselves toward each other to share one last smile, to say one final goodbye.
Benir saw it, and so did Lila. The Black Death spread its wings and charged his strongest attack, drawing so much mana from the area that the colors around him became dull. Lila made a final stand; she brought what was left of her mana to charge a beam of light, her strongest spell, finally breaking her already damaged mana core.
The couple knew she would not make it; they exchanged a knowing and affectionate last look. Lila raised her left palm to release her spell at the exact same time Banir released his breath of death.
A fraction of a second before the two powerful spells met each other; two new mana cores entered her body. Lila's sister and childhood friend had used a spell called |A Will of Love| to give their mana cores to her.
Two beams, one as black as the deepest abyss, the other as white as fresh snow, collided. The resulting explosion was so loud and so big that villages many kilometers away saw it a minute before being hit by the blast wave.
Lila opened her eyes and saw the dragon with a massive hole in his chest. By her right, a vast crater, the beam missed her by just a couple of meters.
They won!
She turned to look at her family, and they were smiling at her, but their souls had already left this world.
Benir laughed weakly. He had but few seconds before passing away.
"In the end." He said. "I won."
His lifeless body collapsed at the same time Lila felt her will to live shatter and passed out.
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Riwall opened his eyes at the same time Lila did. Both had fallen into a trance and relieved her memories of that day. He felt something on his cheek and touched it, he was crying. He felt Lila's pain throughout the event, and his chest was hurting so much. It was the first time in this life that he was griefing; the death of Lila's family felt so real to him. Confused, he looked at his master.
She was sitting on the ground, hugging her knees and crying her heart out. The pain in his chest spiked, he moved closer to her and gave her a strong and tender hug. The mighty warrior who faced The Black Death and won, died that day. The woman in front of Riwall was just a grieving woman.
They stayed in the same position for more than 1 hour. Lila eventually stopped sobbing, and both of them silently went to sit on chairs facing each other.
None of them wanted to break the silence, but when it was about to get awkward, Riwall did it.
"I'm sorry, so, so sorry. I did not mean for this to happen. I just wanted to draw the warrior of the story Edward told me. And then I decided to try putting some mana into it and I just..." He was already crying again.
"Stop! Just stop for a second!" She almost shouted, even she was having a hard time making sense of things.
Lila reached for one of her pockets and took a small gemstone from it. She poured some mana into it. The stone briefly shone, before becoming dull again.
After two minutes, someone bashed on the door with so much strength that almost broke the lock and the hinges. Lila calmly walked to it and opened, revealing the haggard figures of Edward and Hector.
Both of them entered the room in high alert, Edward had his daggers drawn, and Hector's hands were glowing dangerously.
"Calm down you two, we need to talk, it's urgent."
"You sent a distress call over a talk?!? Are you mad? Do you know how..." Edward snapped at her, but when he saw her face, he knew something serious had happened.
Hector had already dispelled his spells and was on his way to lock the door.
They settled on the room with the picture Riwall draw. Both Hector and Edward gasped at his work. It was too beautiful for something drawn using some quill pens and half a dozen inks of different colors.
Lila pointed to it and said.
"Touch and pour your mana into it."
They did as she commanded. Just like Riwall and Lila before, both fell down to the floor. Their expressions reflected the rollercoaster of emotions of her battle. The whole thing took almost two hours; they relieved the unabridged version of the battle after all.
When it ended, both of them cried silently. Hector was someone who had lived for over one hundred years, but he had never felt as much pain as by relieving her memories. Edward had an empty look, tears rolled down his face, and he made no effort to stop them; he was still processing the event.
"So, it's like that, huh." Hector mysteriously commented.
"What do you mean 'like that'?" Riwall had to ask.
"Lila had lost her memories from that day." Edward commented but was still acting strangely.
"I have been trying to know how my family died for the last fifteen years. Do you know what's like to wake up one day and learn that everyone you loved has died? And that for some reason you are a hero?" Her eyes got red as if she was going to start crying again, but she managed to hold it.
"I always felt that there was something wrong about me having two mana cores where I used to have one. People always said it was a blessing from the gods, that I got it to face the dragon. These two cores always made me feel comfortable, but I never knew why." She looked fondly at her abdomen. The cores were probably there.
"You gave the one thing I desired the most since that day. You gave me closure. I will be forever in your debt." She bowed deeply to him, and when she got up, she was smiling.
"But you called us here for another reason, right?" Hector kept replaying the battle inside his head and finally noticed an anomaly.
Edward still had the same empty look on his face.
{Something is wrong with him.}
"Riwall, Lila's lover, his name was Lukas Farsteel, he was Edward's and Eleanor's older brother. But Edward is not reacting this way because he saw his brother's death. Try replaying his death in your head." Hector was trying, but failing, to hide his shaking hands as he told Riwall what to do.
Riwall got confused, but Friday talked before him.
[I was waiting for this emotional stuff to blow over before showing it to you. Close your eyes.]
He did as commanded and found himself watching the events unfold through Lila's eyes again.
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They were walking around the area, killing some mutant plants and a few other weak monsters. There was a lot of banter between them, and they were very relaxed, nothing in this area was strong enough to hurt them.
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{So far nothing suspicious Friday, care to fast forward a little?}
[Just pay attention to Lukas' body language.]
The first time he was in the memory, he had no control over his emotions. For the whole thing, he felt as if he and Lila were one and the same; her feelings and thoughts made him unable to watch things unfold objectively.
After Friday's observation, Riwall noticed how Lukas was always brooding; he barely interacted with everyone or reacted when Lila kissed him. He was the oldest of them, being 32-year-old while Lila was the youngest, a 20-year-old at the time.
As they chatted while walking over the road, Lukas increased his pace and widened his distance to the group. Soon, Benir showed up. Lukas shouted for them to run and Lila hesitated long enough to see Benir's mouth snapping shut after Lukas' body was entirely inside of it.
Friday noticed that her host failed to see what happened; she replayed the scene in slow motion.
Lukas shouts for them to run; Lila hesitates and keeps looking; Benir's mouth descends upon Lukas; he closes his mouth; Benir laughs and then looks at her. Riwall finally noticed the anomaly.
{Wait, what the hell?}
[Took you long enough. It was an illusion, and you can see some signs of it. First Luka's feet are not inside Benir's mouth when he snaps it such, and they should have been amputated, yet, it does not happen. For him to eat Lukas in one go, he would have eaten part of the ground below Lukas too.] She played this part again and zoomed at this moment.
[Second, when Benir laughs again, he slight opens his mouth. No blood, no armor scrap, nothing. Lukas was wearing an enchanted heavy armor.] Again, she zoomed at the right time.
[Third, while he is laughing and Lila was completely shocked and focused on him, look at the far right of her view.] A shadow, barely noticeable, moves from one tree to the other.
[Fourth, Lila's sister's second spell failed at the last second, someone interrupted the casting.] A zoomed view of her hand showed the spell leaving her palm, only for it to scatter and Benir's claw to impale her.
[Fifth, her childhood friend's failed to dodge a blatant attack, he is a harasser, dodging is what he can do better. Look closely at his feet.] Benir attacked in a very wide arc, the man bent his legs to jump, but his feet did not leave the ground, the claw amputated his legs, but they took a second more than they should before falling.
[Sixth, during their frenetic fight at close range, his eyes keep darting in some random directions, as if searching for something at times or monitoring someone.] She replayed some key scenes, and it was all true.
[Seventh, his beam attack was not diverted because of a stroke of luck. He missed on purpose.] The scene repeated in slow motion, Benir slightly turned his head to the side, changing his attack's trajectory on purpose.
[Eigth, look at his eyes.]
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"In the end."
His eyes were not looking at Lila anymore. He was looking at something or someone that was behind her and to her left side.
"I won."
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[Nineth and last reason, before he said his last words, Lila rotates clockwise to look at the damage Benir's attack did] The scene repeats itself, and Riwall notices some drips of blood a few meters away from her, right at the edge of the crater.
[Lukas, or an accomplice, knew that Benir would not kill Lila, someone needed to survive to tell the tale of his demise after all. Not only the safest spot was close to her, but he also knew Benir would have to redirect his attack or risk killing her. By hiding behind Lila, this person could move in to finish her sister and friend should they somehow survive. Benir noticed it and managed to injure this person, who then moved to her left side and probably escaped the scene by going in that direction.]
{But why would Benir betray them right at that time?}
[He had been betraying them since the start, all his actions exposed Lukas somehow. He could have killed Lila's sister and friend in one attack, but he did not. The other person even had to intervene. Otherwise, both of them would have survived. Think about it, what caused Lila's sister to be impaled? What made Lila's friend fail to dodge? He always positioned himself in ways that made some clue show up in Lila's field of vision.]
{But why let yourself die in the end?}
[How else would you escape a life oath?]
