Chapter 6: Man And Beast (PT 1)

We are currently all sitting in front of our cave's entrance. The sun is high up in the sky and there isn't a cloud in sight. Luckily, Leah has agreed to use her ice magic to cool the air around us. This way we can enjoy the weather without feeling like your skin is on fire.

Damien: Noon is almost upon us, we should get going as soon as possible. We can't afford to keep traveling once the sun sets, and we have a long walk ahead.

Rachel: Oh no! I just remembered, I dropped my bag of herbs while I was being chased by goblins.

Damien: Don't worry, I doubt anyone would have stolen it, so it'll be where you left it. Come,I'll help you look for it

I get up to follow them, but Leah grabs me by the sleeve.

Leah: Wait! There's something that's been bothering me since morning

She looks really tense. It seems like she's struggling to get the words out of her mouth.

Leah: Were you... We're you really smitten with me since you first saw me?

Of all the things I would have expected her to say to me right now, this was the least of them.

JÒN: Of course not. Damien was just joking earlier. Don't worry about it.

Leah: I was hoping that were the case

JÒN: What's gotten into you all of a sudden? This isn't like you.

Leah looks away, takes a deep breath and exhales before she continues.

Leah: When those three mages attacked us earlier, it made me realize something. You and Rachel are the only people I've ever met that didn't treat me like some kind of monster. Even if people don't always say it openly like those three mages did, there's a look in their eyes that always gives them away. It's the same with Damien. Despite what you've said, I don't think he truly believes I'm not a Cortana. It's only a matter of time before I'll have to fight him, just like I've had to fight everyone else.

I guess she's starting to see through my lie already. I was hoping I could convince her not to lose trust in Damien, but it seems she never fully trusted him before.

Leah: But you and Rachel... you're different. When I talk to  you, I see neither fear nor disgust in your eyes. You speak to me normally as you would speak to any other person. I don't know why you do it or what's wrong with you, but... thank you... for making me feel part of a group for the first time in my life.

Just then Damien returns with Rachel.

Damien: Hey, there you are! We've found the bag, we're good to go.

When he gets closer, he looks at me and Leah suddenly

Damien: I'm sorry, did we interrupt anything?

JÒN (sarcastically): Yeah, Leah was just about to confess her love for me

Leah makes a long sword of ice in her hand, as she presses its tip lightly against my throat.

Leah: Say that again, I dare you!

JÒN: See now your acting more like yourself!

Jokes aside, Damien's right, the sooner we leave here the better, let's get going

Leah's takes her sword out of my face and makes it vanish while Damien and I  do one last check in our cave to make sure we aren't forgetting anything.

Before leaving, I make sure I carry all my spoils from this mornings fight; crossbow from the crossbow men, knife from Tzotzil henchmen and the treasure I took from the somewhat duke.

We join back with Rachel as we set on our long journey ahead.

Shortly after we begin our trip, Damien notices that I strapped my crossbow to the back of my bag pack.

Damien: Jòn, why aren't you putting your crossbow inside your bag, like you did everything else?

JÒN: Well, because it's already full with all my other stuff

Damien: Full? Wait a minute, you're telling me that the bag you're carrying with you is a completely regular one?

JÒN: Yeah, enchanted bag packs are hard enough to come by this days if you're not a mage.

Damien: You realize you could have just asked me to enchant it for you. It'll literally takes a minute. Here give me that.

Damien grabs my bag and enters am enchanting trance. His eyes become green and the bag starts to glow. Enchanted bags are by far better than normal ones, as they have infinite space, and people can't see what's inside of them. So one can only steal your stuff if he knows what he's looking for.

Once he's done enchanting my bag pack, he hands it back to me.

We spent the next few hours traveling south, taking the most direct route to Rachel's hometown

What we've seen so far has been rather disappointing. Maybe my expectations were too high, but I've always thought that the fabled continent of Avalon would be filled with all sorts of natural wonders and magical creatures. All I've seen today are you everyday trees, lakes and rivers. At least it's been long since we were last attacked, so that's an achievement.

Leah had opened up a bit since her last discussion with me. When we first met she looked very tensed as if she was expecting us to kill her the moment she lets her guard down. Now she seems calmer and she allows herself to smile a little  often, even if it's slightly, especially when she's talking with Rachel.

We haven't stopped recently except when we want to pick fruits from trees and fill our bottles with water from a river. During one of these our breaks, Rachel approached me in private to ask about the discussion I had with Leah this morning.

Rachel: Jòn, I've been wanting to ask. Did we actually interrupt an important discussion between you and Leah this morning? Leah has always dodged the question anytime I brought it up. I'd feel terrible if you guys didn't get to confess your feelings to one another, because of Damien and me.

JÒN: Don't worry, that wasn't what our discussion was about

Rachel: Oh! If you say so. Come on, we should help the others with picking fruits. We'll need all the food we can get for our journey.

Rachel and I join the others, and once we are all done gathering provisions, we depart once more.   As we travel, we start talking about various things: Damien's adventures, our various lives, the reason we all came here. Damien was of course the one who talked the most, while Leah was quiet for most of the time and didn't say anything about her past and reason for being here.

Rachel starts telling us more about herself, and how she uses her knowledge on herbs to help people. She tells us how she lives alone with her brother and sister who are nine and eight years respectively, and how she has been receiving financial support from her ex-husband since her father died.

Damien: You were married?

Rachel: Yes, for a few years. It didn't really work out in the end. We've both moved on with our lives. Ever since my father died, I've had to take care of siblings by myself. I guess my main focus the past year has been work and family.

Leah: But, what about your mother?

Rachel: She died long ago, when she gave birth to my little sister.

Leah: Oh... I'm so sorry

Rachel (smiles): There's no need, you didn't know

Damien: So, how did you all handle the death of your priest? You said he was the only person who could create food with magic, so I'm guessing that you guys had something like a backup plan Incase of a situation like this.

Rachel: Yes, many people started to learn agriculture but most of the fertile lands are owned by lords. And people who plant away from the town run a great risk of being attacked by monsters.

JÒN: Why are monsters attacking your area

Rachel: It's not just our area, they've been attacking the whole continent. I'm not sure, but I think it all started when we lost contact with the animal kingdom. After the first animal hunts started, the animal leader, the Golden vixen has ordered all animals never to speak in our language. The monsters must have found out about this and taken advantage of the situation.

As Rachel talks, I hear three beeps coming from my wrist

Rachel: What's that?

Damien: It's a toy, you know those magical devices that simulates a pet in order to teach little children how to behave? Those beeps you heard are Jòn's pets getting hungry

Rachel: Oh, I love those toys

Leah: Ignore Damien. He's just messing around. What Jòn has there is a stat booster. He's using it to draw magical energy from the air, which he then uses to increase his physical abilities.

Rachel: Wow! I didn't think such a thing was possible, so that device is basically turning you into a mage?

JÒN (to himself): I never thought of it this way before. It's true that some mages use their magic to increase their abilities in a similar way this device does. Does that make me one of them?

JÒN: I suppose... But it's only temporary. The device will run out of energy once I'm no longer surrounded by powerful mages to extract from.

I then use my acquired points to increase my toughness and combat technique stats.

Rachel: Wait, so if your stat device extracts magical energy from other mages, does that mean it's also taking from Damien and Leah?

JÒN: Most energy it's taking  is barely enough to inconvenience them. But most of the energy it's getting is from the powerful spells they've been casting around us since the tournament began, and that energy would have vanished into thin air. So you can say that I'm recycling it rather than just taking. Because I think that--

I get interrupted by a very loud roar that erupts around us.

Rachel (terrified): What was that?

A second, louder roar now booms through the air, as I can feel the hair stand on my hands and legs.

JÒN (to himself):  I have never heard this sound before in my life. I have no idea what beast might be causing it. What is this feeling I'm getting all of a sudden? Why do I feel like running in any direction, away from here as fast as possible?

Shortly after the second roar ended, a very powerful wind started to blow towards us. I can almost feel it trying to lift me in the air. The trees are barely holding up and it seems as though they would uproot at any moment.

As some of the trees start to fall, a monstrous figure makes its appearance high above us. It's at least fifty foot tall, with very tough looking black scales, covering it's entire body, and wings the size of ships with claws that look as sharp as blade. But its overall appearance is not much different from that of an overgrown lizard.

JÒN (to himself): A dragon. They really exist. Is this all happening because of my disappointment of not seeing any magical creature? If that's the case, then I take it back. I take it all back, just, please let this all be a dream.

Damien: Get down!!!

The dragon gets closer and then lands a few dozen feet ahead of us, making the whole ground shake around us.

Rachel (shaking): No... This can't be happening. This can't be happening.

The dragon looks all around us, as if it were trying to find something, and then speaks loudly in the common tongue.

Dragon: Where is he?!

Seeing that none of us replies. He asks again, this time detailed.

Dragon: The stillborn! Where is he?! You reek of his stench. Where are you hiding him.

JÒN: Why are you looking for him?

Dragon: You dare question me??? I should rip off your head for your insolence, you little wretch.

JÒN: Uh, I was only curious, I didn't mean any disrespect. We don't know where he went, he never told us.

Dragon: Then you are useless to me. I should've known that I'll be wasting my time trying to communicate with the likes of you. If only that stillborn would have minded his own business after returning to the continent. Instead of writing that useless message in the sky. But he had the nerve to involve dragon hunters in all of this.

JÒN (confused): Wait, we're not dragon hunters. Please, if you could just let us explain--

Dragon: Silence, mongrel! I've watched your pathetic human race crawl their way through life ever since they stopped walking on four legs. I could have killed or enslaved you all at any point in your meaningless existence, if it weren't beneath me. But now your kind dares to rise against me. Your remains will serve as my gift for Theo, to welcome him back to my realm.

The dragon soars to the sky, as it shouts to us

Dragon: Pray to your gods, humans! They're the only ones that can save you from my wrath.

Damien: Quick, Everyone get behind me!

Damien raises his shield and a semi transparent barrier starts to  form around us. Leah doubles up our protection by also making a dome of thick ice to surround us.

The dragon who has now flown to a sufficiently high altitude, unleashes upon us rains of flames. As the flames collide with our barriers, we start to feel the air heating up all around us. Leah's ice has already melted away, and all that's standing between us and the rows of fire is Damien's magical barrier.

Rachel is now sitting on the ground, with a terrified look in her eyes, hugging her legs and shaking violently.

Leah: Rachel! Snap out of it! We'll need to be ready to get outta here as soon as Damien's shield falls. Do you hear me?

The dragon flames suddenly stops. As I look up, I see that the dragon is now diving towards us. Leah tries to make another ice barrier between us and the dragon, but it breaks through it in a second, and then hits Damien's magical barrier, shattering it in an instant. The dragon then grabs Damien in one of it's claws and soars back into the sky. We hear Damien scream as the giant reptile tries to crush him.

Leah sends several hundred sharp ice blades towards the dragon, but they simply bounce off his armoured scale.

JÒN: Leah! Can you make a slide right under Damien?

Leah: I think so

She quickly builds an ice slide that starts below him and ends on the ground next to us. Once he sees the slide, Damien stabs his sword into the dragon's claw, as it screams in pain and drops him right on the slide.

Just as Damien lands, the dragon uses its fire again, this time aiming directly at Leah. She makes a large thick shield of ice in order to provide her cover. As the flames and the ice clash, I can see that Leah is making a great effort to keep the fire back.

Damien quickly rushes to her position and provides her extra cover before her ice melts away. Unfortunately, the fight has weakened him as well, as he isn't able to hold the barrier much longer. His barrier breaks, and his shield drops to the ground. The explosion of air generated sends Rachel flying, and she hits her head on a rock. She is now lying unconscious.

JÒN (to himself): Think, Jòn, think. What can you do to change things? There has to be something. There has to be a way to use everything you know to your advantage. There has to be a way. Think.

Dragon (shouts triumphantly): It's over, humans. Your era is at an end. I am going to exterminate every single one of you, until all that remains of your race is a forgotten memory. And I'll save Theo for last.

JÒN (to himself): It's no use. My stat device is worthless here. Even if I had all my stats maxed, I wouldn't still stand a chance. This was all over before it began.

As the dragon's flames pour down on us, I close my eyes awaiting my inevitable doom. After a few seconds of keeping my eyes closed, I realize that I'm still alive. I open my eyes and find out that the dragon's flames have stopped in midair, a few inches before reaching us, as if they were frozen. But that's not all, I see that everything else is frozen. Damien, Leah and Rachel are all standing completely still, and I can't even feel the wind anymore. 

Man: Seriously now! How could I have let him win after saying a line like that?

I quickly turn around and see who is standing behind me!!!

>>>End Of Chapter 6<<<