- The Dragon Slayer

Lia stared hard against Arnold's gaze, his spear moving back and forth with his arm - slowly so as to not set her on edge, but she had enough of that already. His face was calm and his emotions expressionless to be read off his look. His eyes never left Lia, despite the distance between the two of them, he was silently gauging the time it would take him to reach her.

Still though, Lia tried desperately, ever so desperately, to play this off, to turn his attention to the surrounding city being lit up in a blaze of fire and smoke.

"Arnold, stop with the games. People are dying and we can save them! So get off your high horse and help me!"

Arnold was unmoving to her pleas, not a shred of change in his look as she took in a deep breath, the iron filled air suffocating his lungs with the smell of war.

A smell he knew well enough to feel at home.

"Did you think I would not know?"

Calmly he spoke like they had all the time in the world, as if the world around them itself was not burning everywhere they looked, its inhabitants dying at the hands of horrendous monsters.

"Did you think you could hide him from me?"

His words were laced with all the accusations he could throw at her, all the hate and all the contempt he had put aside just to come to this final moment. The moment he might reveal it all.

"Arnold, take a breath. Clearly you're not thinking straight since the environment around us forbids it at the moment. Please, help me save these people and then we can talk this out."

"What, like civilized people?"

He chuckled to himself, his chest rising and falling with each chuckle, the sound of which placed Lia on the edge of fear and hostility.

"Oh, Lia of Endless. There's nothing civilized about me. I've seen men die, women slaughtered, children sold as slaves and killed all the same. I've seen what this world has to offer for people like me, but you don't seem to be affected by that."

He gestured towards her with his spear, a smile painting his face with a threatening yet bemusing look.

"After all, not all of us have an 'oh so mighty protector' to guard us."

"What…what are you talking about - have you gone mad? This city is burning and you have the gall to accuse me of not being stone hearted enough?"

Arnold stopped smiling, his spear dropping to his side as she looked over the piles of corpses, both monster and human. He could see the red blood then poured into the street gutters, the bits of rubble from the buildings that had been torn to shreds and the monsters who had done it somewhere far off into the distance striking their fury against another house.

"The gall? Well, I would say you have more of that than I, wouldn't you agree?"

"I...I don't know what your talking about-"

"My son."

The two words were like battering rams against Lia's head, her impenetrable expression of anger and stone heart crumbed apart as she took one retreating step back out of fear. But it was enough for Arnold to get a sense of superiority over her and thus continued.

"Did you really think you could hide him from me? I trained that boy since he could barely walk, brought him up in a world filled with blood and gore and death. I taught him violence, I made him say his own name - and yet you thought you could hide him from me?"

Lia could find no words to say, only finding the courage to continue the stare she had been giving Arnold since the beginning, but now his face was filled with a smile strung tightly on his face as he made slow yet dominating footsteps towards her.

"The archer, Lukali. I've known now for some time and man can I tell you how entertaining it was for you to waltz around as if you knew everything in the world."

He was only one step away from the fountain now, the only thing that separated the both of them. Its waters were dyed with a warmer red than the blood that poured all around them, yet Arnold cared little for it.

"…Sorry to disappoint."

He raises his spear above his head and in the same quick motion before Lia could react, the steel had come crashing down, slicing through the fountains thick stone, sending rubble and dust flying through the air as she raised a hand to cover her face.

Cold water splashed over her face and yet Lia felt glued to the spot, unable to move at all. Instead, she only slowly looked up to find two eyes staring at her through the dust cloud. Two eyes that screamed fear.

"I'm not that foolish, girl."

The moment the dust cloud settled and Lia saw the spear still resting beside Arnold, she gripped her sword and raised its point towards Arnold in some attempt at defending herself. If she couldn't move, then she would do what was necessary to insure she stayed alive in that spot.

But Arnold only gave the sword a feeble glance, tipping the point away from his neck with his spear.

"Do you really think you can stop me now?"

The spear reflected Lia's fear, her frown set yet no confidence remained behind it. She knew she was going to end up in a battle against Arnold, that much she couldn't deny. He knew about Lukali, and it was only fair to assume he knew about her as well.

The magic, the skills, the abilities. She had to assume that he knew it all, so she frantically searched her mind for something. A plan, a spell, a skill - anything.

Sadly though, this was all a feeble attempt at victory.

'I have two skills I can use here, [Flames] and [Drifting Winds], plus a spell. But I can only cast that once and I don't know…'

She eyed Arnold once more, gauging his strength and power by the way he held himself.

'...I don't know if it will be enough.'

Before LI could even react or have time to think further on any plans she might have had, Arnodl came to the conclusion that he should test Lia's capabilities before he fought her, to see if it was worth his effort or power.

In one quick motion he swiped his spear across the air, but was surprised to find Lia moving faster than any human should have been, turning her sword over so that the spear rammed into it defending her side, rather than into her rib cage.

'Hm…Impressive.'

He remarked silently, but was surprised to find Lia's hand reaching towards him in the same attack, a small spark carrying itself on the palm of her hand. Before he knew it, Arnold's head was engulfed in flames as Lia pushed against the ground to distance herself from him.

'That should hold him off for a little while. I'm certain I did even a small amount of damage to…'

"Not bad girly. You're using your summoning powers aren't you."

The voice cut the air and the smoke surrounding Arnold's head dissipated, revealing the man to be unharmed by the fire, a trait that caused Lia's eyes to widen with surprise.

"You're not the only one with magic though…"

He raised his spear so that the head of the weapon was just in front of his face, closing his eyes as he took in a deep breath. Lia's mind was already racing, considering attacking him or thinking more clearly on what he had just said.

'What did he…wait - sh*t!'

Arnold's eyes opened wide to reveal the two slit pupils of a dragon's gaze, a gaze that Lia was all too familiar with.

He was a summoner.

Her father had a dragon as his summons and it was the mightiest creature she had seen in her life, next to Cain - but even then she couldn't compare the two. She had never seen them fight. If Arnold's turned out to be acting like that, she feared that this entire city may get destroyed even if they cleared out all the monsters.

"Dragon slayer isn't a name I covet, but is one I earned. I've slayed many creatures and men alike in my lifetime, but a dragon was something else. I was only a boy when I earned this friend as my summons and together the very next year we took one on."

Arnold raised his fist, clenching it with his emotions and passion, placing all his opes into his next words.

"No one has been able to last long against me since then. I hope that for your sake, you will."

Lia didn't argue, she had no choice in the end after all, it wasn't like Arnold was going to take no for an answer. Tightening her grip on the sword, she leaned back on her right leg to steady herself, Evegallion resting just at her chest height.

She was going to die, and yet, despite knowing this, she was ready for the fight. She took a deep breath, letting the anger leave her like a challenge snow storm was passing through, freezing the fire over.

There was no point in calling a summons, she knew she would have neither the time nor the chance as Arnold raised his spear over his left shoulder, prepared for the attack just as she was.

She had no hope to rely on, only her own.

'If I am to die, then let it be so. I'll at least leave you something to remember me by, Arnold!'

One step,one step was all that was needed to close the distance between them in a heartbeat, Arnold's spear cutting through the air like an arrow traveling at the speed of light as it flashed across Lia's vision, small bits of lighting passing over the wood and steel.

She ducked just in time for the air behind her to split in half, the ground cracking at the force of the blow as the spear raked across the ground.

It was powerful, it was strong. The attack would have killed her hand she knew it but then, something odd happened.

Just as Arnold raised his spear above his head for another attack, a small glint of lightning passed behind him in the distance. Lia barely caught it in time to catch a glance at the figure rushing through the streets and around the block, the stone beneath his feet cracked and split apart from his speed.

'...Kal?'

It all happened in a moment but in that small span of time when Arnold brought his spear down, Kal had thrown himself towards Lia, twisting his torso around just in time to slice his twin daggers through Arnold's side. The cut was deep, deep enough that Arnold winced in pain and retreated a few steps back, his attack dying before it could ever begin.

The moment time caught back up to Lia and she was finally able to understand what had happened, Kal was before her, his arms outstretched on either side of her. It was not a battle stance, but one that was ready to act as a living shield for her if he needed to.

"Now who's this?"

Arnold shied his hand through the dust that spread through the air, one hand holding his spear steady in his hand, the other holding his bleeding side. He wasn't in pain, or at least he didn't show it, but his face was now pulling into a frown.

His eyes turned to Lia behind Kal, where both their eyes eventually fell towards Lia's rune circle, its symbols and etched markings morphing into that of a cloaked figure. The symbol of Kal the Mirage.

"...your summons?"

Arnold took a step back, regaining his firm and confident stand against Lia, his head turning ever so slightly over his shoulder towards a distant side of the square.

"I thought you said it was a wizard?"

Lia followed his gaze, her eyes passing over the dead, the blood, the rubble and the dust until finally, finally, she laid her eyes on one figure in the distance. A figure that made LIa's stomach twist as her eyes widened in surprise.

'No…please no…'

Abigail, who wore around her neck the very same necklace Lia had giving to her.

Her eyes were turned to the ground and Lia could feel a sickening feeling come over her as she began to realize the weight of what she saw. It clicked for her. The puzzle was now complete.

Why would a summoner, who's very summons was a Class 4 Beast - an animal with no magic whatsoever, need a magical necklace that boosted spells? Why would she of all people need that, unless…

'...she was after me.'

Lia had thought it was strange that Arnold had made it to Kokono from the Outpost in nearly a day since the Fire Drakes arrived. A day? It had taken her party - even without the debtors - at least three just to make it here. There was just no way he could make that journey that quickly.

'Unless he was already here.'

He had been watching them - Arnold had known the whole time since Ken returned to him with news of his brothers' deaths. He had been watching them since they had entered Kokono.

The news of their success in Neverdark and at the Outpost, his knowledge of her fighting habits and skills. Spells, powers, her summoning ability that she made sure no one but the Fire Drakes saw.

He had been watching her this whole time, playing her like a chess piece, learning everything there was to know about her. He must have known about the monster and the person who caused this, but he let it happen just to learn her weaknesses, to cause the chaos he needed to flee and kill her without a trace.

Abigail had been sent to that shop to find her, to become friends with her and to learn from her so that she could…

"...you used me."

Abigail could raise her head, Lia's words causing the girl to flinch as if someone had just raised a hand against her. Lia wanted to scream at her, yell at her and call her names, tell her that either her face was to the floor or her head would be rolling on it!

She was angry, she was in pain, she was exhausted and once again she had been betrayed!

All Lia could feel was a numbness in her heart as Abigail spoke, her eyes turning from the floor directly to Android, her face strewn with an impossible sadness that blanketed her.

'Look at me…'

"I thought it was, I swear."

'Look at me.'

"Her summons used lighting magic on the giant Salamander, its what killed it."

'Look at me!'

As if feeling the daggers Lia was baring into her flesh, Abigail turned her head to the floor in silence, mumbling to herself words of an apologetic nature that made Lia want to spit in her face.

Arnold looked between the two of them, a small and slight smile on his face.

"Well, it looks like you were wrong. No matter. I will let her live since I've gotten what I wanted."

He turned his back to Kal and Lia, walking way down the street, his spear hanging over his shoulder.

"Wait…"

Lia's empty and wide eyes watched him leave, the weight of everything holding her in place. There were too many questions, too many thoughts, too many people and too many things rushing through her mind at once.

"...what do you mean you have…what you came for?"

Arnold stopped, Abigail closed behind him as he turned to look over his shoulder, his empty and cold dragon eyes staring back at her.

His next words were like the hammer that shattered her soul.

"My son is mine now."

Without waiting for a reply from the unmoving Lia, he continued walking forward followed by Abigail who gave Lia a small and slight glance of sorrow.

Her voice came to her then like a rising flame, the candle gone now - it was no more. Replacing it was a forest fire that raged against the woods, burning everything in its path!

"Wait…stop…wh-what do you…no…no Arnold…."

Then, the fire was released on the world.

"ARNOLD!!!"

Kal held on to her, gripping her arms in his hands as she struggled to get past him. His grip was kind and compassionate, he didn't want to hurt her, but it was filled with authority.

He would not let her go.

"GET BACK HERE!!"

Her screams were heard to the farthest reaches of the plains, echoing over the burning city, through the ears of men like Lance, women like Becka, soldiers like Arnolds, lords like the Master.

But it was through his ears in the distance that her screams found root.

It was through him, her screams were heard.

"...There will be fire tonight."

It was guaranteed.