Summer Blues

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Sitting in bed, Kali looked at me attentively, waiting for my story.

I'd given him a bunch of stories before it was time for him to sleep when he began learning how to speak, but now I'd run out of books.

I was fairly certain I could just rehash a past story or even just not give a story, as he'd quite literally never shown any signs of disappointment before, but that didn't feel right with me. With how engrossed he was with every story, I felt like I was morally obligated to give him one.

"Ahhhh, so- it was quite a long time ago."

A long time ago, when I was sixteen, I'd begun travelling the world, or well, part of it.

I couldn't keep living at an orphanage, actually- no. I could've, but I simply refused to do so.

But yeah, I basically just wandered.

l eventually ended up somewhere really deep in the west continent. This was where I ended up as an adventurer.

There, it was mainly just filled with mages, so I was treated... sorta differently?

Normal people saw me as nearly the same as mages whereas mages typically had some sort of contempt towards me.

Still I was having an amazing time. The money! The glory! The battles! The food!

It was here I'd meet Dice's sister.

I'd chosen a mission where I was tasked to face a giant red wyvern. Something similar to a smaller dragon, but they didn't have four... legs? Are they called legs? Or is it two arms and two legs? Honestly I can't remember.

Anyways yeah, I was tasked with killing one. Big, red, two legs, two wings, smaller than a dragon.

Now, more than one person at a time can take a mission, because it'd be odd if there was a giant monster running around and only one person was allowed to kill it.

Anyways, there was definitely quite a number of people after it. Dice's sister being one of them.

Fighting a wyvern was no one man task, but both me and Melissa were planning to kill it alone.

Of course, I didn't know her at the time. This was just the background behind our first meeting.

Walking through the woods towards the supposed den of the wyvern, I was pretty surprised to find a wasteland in the middle of a forest. There were no more trees in front of me. Merely a wasteland filled with desiccated corpses.

In front of me stood a smiling wyvern. I remember it like it was yesterday.

Covered in red scales, and absolutely massive, the lizard's eyes glanced over. It's presence overbearing and strong. "Ahhhhh. A human? Of course, you're not a normal one. Another mage sent to challenge me? Hmmm. No, you're different. A bit… tougher? No that's not the perfect word…"

I'd known that moment I'd probably made a mistake.

"Stronger? No, they aren't much more powerful… ah! I know now… Chewier."

But mistakes were always pretty normal, so I got ready to fight it.

Unleashing a huge burst of fire towards me, I ran through it, leaping through the air and throwing myself at it. Taking a deep breath, puffing out it's chest, it sent another release of fire, but far more concentrated in power.

Using both legs, I tried to land a drop kick on it, but at the last moment it tilted it's head and dodged.

"Never mind! You are stronger!"

Raising it's spear like tail, it stabbed at me. Punching it out the way, I attacked the wyvern once more.

Running towards me, it opened it's jaws trying to swallow me, grabbing it's lower and upper jaw, I managed to avoid being bitten.

Gathering heat, I pushed the dragon backwards with a huge release of energy.

Running once more at the dragon, it smirked at my attempt, slamming me into a tree with it's tail.

Ripping the tree out the ground, I used it as a shield, albeit, not a very long lasting one.

Reaching the wyvern, I threw the left over bits at it. Dodging it, the wyvern yelled at me, "YOU REALLY THINK IT'D BE THAT EASY?"

Swinging it's tail at me again, I held on this time. Digging my feet into the ground, I pulled the lizard towards me.

This time, it shot out a tiny ball of fire at me. Reaching me, it erupted in a giant explosion of flames.

"You're still standing? Honestly that's pretty impressive."

Gathering heat into my arms, I pulled as hard as I could. Being so strong, it didn't expect to be immediately dragged towards me.

With one more pull of heat, I release my punch, striking it straight in the gut.

Sent flying, the wyvern steadied itself using it's wings.

Similar to dragons, wyvern are pretty prideful creatures.

With it's ego rising through the roof after that punch, it transformed.

With tornado of flames, it was now in a semi human form.

With it's face holding a single scale, it seemed to be wearing a sort of armor, which I believed were the rest of it's scales.

It's strength was basically the same, but I think it took a human form purely out of pride, perhaps a show of superiority.

I'd been waiting, wondering if I should even try using this. A small target did make it slightly easier to use.

"Domain! Dao of Yang! Stream of Forceful Destruction!"

I activated my domain! Covering the wasteland in puddles, I was filled with adrenaline. My heart beat furiously as I was filled with excitement.

I did not expect to actually manage it.

Closing my fists, the puddles began gathering near him, all right before my domain disappeared.

Well, my plan failed spectacularly and my heart dropped.

Taking a breath, I sighed. Hardening my body with qi, I began building up energy for a killer attack.

Noticing this, he blinked towards me with incredible speed.

Falling into my trap, I clocked him in the head, but I found the strike to be insufficient as they returned their own attack.

Taking this punch, I could see that this wyvern's hand to hand ability was lacking.

Kicking him in the chin, I threw a side kick into his face.

I could see, that in terms of pure physical strength, I was much stronger.

They were much weaker than I originally thought. Diverting and blocking, I landed a few more hits on him.

All before he began smiling once more. I was being played like a chump.

"You're really amusing. You know?"

"Yeah." Building up qi, I could really feel my blood.

It was leaking everywhere.

Opening his mouth, I could see a ball of flames forming.

Planning to unleash everything at once, I gestured for them to come at me.

All until they got shot in the head, by a ball of dense mana that was fired at it.

"Yo. You alright?" That was when I met Melissa.

"Yeah."

"Hmmm. Is this really a wyvern?"

"Yeah."

"Alright, 50/50 split?"

"Sure why not. I don't think I'll be able to get the win in a timely matter."

"Alright."

With it's smile growing larger, the humanoid wyvern unleashed a wave of pressure.

And that's how I met Melissa.

"How'd you beat the wyvern?"

"Well, me and Melissa weakened it, then I got it in a chokehold, when it transformed again to try and get out, it's neck was crushed between my arms."

Looking at Kali completely sucked into my story, I felt at that moment that I'd probably should've changed a few details of the story, since it wasn't very child friendly.

"Were your arms okay?"

"No, I sorta fractured them."

"Wow June. How many fights have you been in?"

"I didn't count."

"Why not?"

"Because the truly strong don't need to, that and I'm lazy."

"Huh, that's pretty cool."

"Yeah but not counting your fights is only a characteristic of being strong, it doesn't actually mean you're strong or weak if you do count."

"Alright."

"I'm telling this to you, because you'll count your fights either way, and I'm sure you'll be strong one day too."

"Okay."

Squeezing his cheeks, I scowled, "YOU'RE LISTENING RIGHT?"

"Yes."

"WHAT DID I JUST TELL YOU!?"

"You don't need to count fights if you're truly strong, but counting fights doesn't mean you're weak."

"Okay yeah that works."