by Aaron Oster
All that attack did was throw the dragon off by about a foot, and while his attack did miss Aika, shearing a nearby house in half, Roy’s attack did absolutely nothing to the oversized monster.
He let out a low groan as Aika, not at all deterred, lunged for him again, trying to take one of the creature’s eyes out. This time, he wasn’t quick enough to stop the raking claws that flashed out to meet her. There was a screeching sound as they raked over her Armorer technique, failing to penetrate completely but having more than enough force to send her through a dozen houses in quick succession.
This monster’s body was powered by Chakra, so any attack it threw would be more than Aika could handle. Even a regular blow like the one it had just thrown could be devastating. The dragon turned on him, mouth cracking wide and green fire kindling there.
“It really is fascinating,” Geon said, as Roy stared down the growing inferno. “Who could have known that wind could create friction so hot that it would turn into liquid fire when joined with Chakra?”
He sounded far too fascinated with the technique that could burn them to ash.
Roy lunged, leaping into the air and stepping down hard, tossing himself skyward. Unlike his regular Movement technique, the Speed Strike allowed him to essentially walk on air as long as he kicked hard enough.
Green fire blazed behind him as he rose, but Roy had a plan, one that he was sure would force the dragon to cut off its attack. He kicked again and again, launching himself farther and farther up. The fire followed, licking at his heels, but as Roy reached a height of around fifty feet, he finally found the attack’s range.
The tail end of the fire flickered at his heels but didn’t touch him. From his vantage point, he could see the dragon glaring up at him, his slitted eyes narrowed in annoyance. He could also see Aika pulling herself from the wreckage of a house, her robes torn and tattered and her left side matted in blood.
Her Full-body technique had been deactivated, but that didn’t stop her from going after the dragon, despite her injuries. Thankfully, Roy had climbed to the point where it had a choice. It could either ignore him or follow him up.
With a massive whoosh, the dragon spread his wings wide, the pinioned ends shearing through a couple of buildings and showing Roy that they were just as strong as the rest of the dragon’s body.
He roared, bringing his wings down as he leaped. The powerful gust of air knocked Aika back as she tried to close with him, sending her tumbling end over end and slamming through yet another house. Roy was sure she’d be fine, and even if she wasn’t, there was little he could do now to check.
The dragon was much faster in the air than Roy had realized, its wings blazing green, a pair of whirling, miniature twisters forming beneath them in a sort of Movement technique Roy had never seen before. A single flap of its wings covered half the distance between them, and the next had the dragon barreling toward him, mouth gaping wide and fire blooming in his chest.
Roy kicked to the side, twisting out of the way of the spray of green flames. The dragon’s tail came lancing around, and Roy was forced to deactivate his Full-body technique and enforce himself with Chakra as the blade slammed into him.
Roy ground his teeth together as the blade bit into his crossed forearms, blood welling up from the cuts. It was the force of the attack that really caused the damage. His body slammed into the ground so fast that he didn’t even have time to blink. His eyes went wide as he smashed through a house, somehow ending up almost ten feet down into the solid earth.
He felt his back strain under the force of the impact, and several of his muscles tore. He felt a rib fracture as his body rebounded, rising a full two feet before he hit the ground again, wheezing for air.
A shadow loomed overhead, the dragon appearing in a flash and diving down at him. A dozen green spheres appeared in the air around it, and in an instant, Roy knew what it was. With a groan, he shot to his feet, his Speed Strike forming around him again. A couple of swift kicks saw him free of the crater, but the dragon’s attack came lancing from the sky just as he made it to the surface.
Roy kicked right and left as they streaked down, trailing green light in their wake. The first impacted just feet away with a loud whoosh. Emerald fire spiraled out in a wave, the sphere expanding over ten times in size in under a second before fading.
Roy felt his throat go dry as he kicked and kicked again, trying to avoid the rain of death coming from above. He wove between the exploding spheres, landing, rolling, then leaping into the air again, trying to stay ahead of them. One after the next, they went off, blowing miniature craters in the ground and turning everything in their vicinity to ash.
He leaped up and to the side, avoiding a final sphere that came straight for him. He avoided being hit, but the force of its expansion threw him off course and right into the path of the dragon. His mouth opened wide, and Roy could do nothing more than cross his arms as a torrent of fire blasted from his throat.
“If you die, I’m going to be very upset,” Geon said, as Roy felt his Armorer technique, strengthened by his Full-body technique, give way in an instant.
Searing pain flashed across his body as it was engulfed in flames. In an instant, Roy switched to Chakra, trying to force it from all his pores to keep the burning flames at bay. He hit the ground hard, the stream of fire turning the stone to slag and keeping him pinned.
Roy could feel his skin blistering and burning as his own Chakra tried to resist the force, heat, and cutting winds. Had he had an actual technique, things might have gone differently, but as it was, the dragon outranked, outclassed, and outstripped him in every way possible.
“Roy, you’d better not die,” Geon said again. “I still haven’t gotten my revenge against the Sovereign of Cloying Darkness. If you don’t kill him, I’ll haunt you from the grave.”
With a scream, Roy kicked out, blasting raw Chakra from the bottom of his foot and throwing himself clear of the deluge. He felt blistered and raw, his body steaming as the rain fell painfully on his skin.
Not having time to do much, Roy slammed a fist into the ground, ripping a chunk of earth up and putting it between him and the flying monster. Sure enough, the blast of emerald flames came a second later, flowing around the piece of earth and beginning to melt through it.
Casting desperately around for some way of defeating the monster, Roy’s eyes alighted on a gleaming coin, one that had fallen from his robes as he’d been scrambling out of the monster’s way. It was the weapon given to him by Azure after his defeat of the golem in the Trial of Beginnings.
His finger closed around it, and immediately, a forged ax made of Chakra formed in his hand. It was solid, golden, and contained more than a little ornamentation. He’d only ever used the weapon with lesser energy types before, so he was genuinely curious what it could do with Chakra.
In an instant, Roy spun on his back, lashing out with both feet and sending the chunk of earth skyward at the still fire-breathing monster. He sprang to his feet, then, gathering up as much force as he could muster, Roy leaped after it, the ground blasting away from him in a rush as he ejected Power Chakra from the bottom of his feet.
He could feel his reserves slowly slipping away. Chakra was far more efficient than Qi, burning at only a fifth of the rate. However, as he wasn’t actually using any techniques, there was a good deal of waste. The ax also demanded quite the toll, consuming Chakra at an alarming rate.
Still, he was confident he would be able to inflict at least some damage before he ran out. The stone shattered before him, the dragon fire finally punching through, and as it faded, the dragon found itself facing the blade of a golden ax.
It whirled, reacting so quickly that Roy feared he might miss, but a swift slash had the ax connecting with the tip of the dragon’s wing. With a muffled boom, the blade ripped through the invisible Armorer technique the Beast apparently had going the entire time and sheared off the tip of one of the pinions.
With a roar, the dragon plummeted from the air, its b
alance momentarily disrupted. Having no other quick way down, Roy turned in the air and kicked downward, sending a blast of Chakra from his feet. He slammed into the dragon with the force equal to a boulder after it had fallen over a thousand feet.
In Buryoku, falling objects would continuously speed up as they neared the ground. There might have been a theoretical top speed, as something falling from space would hit harder than something from the top of a mountain, but whatever that top speed was, it was as of yet unknown. Regardless, the ground buckled as Roy and the dragon slammed into it, the force of the impact utterly destroying what was left of the village, the shockwave ripping up nearby trees by their roots and extending out well over a hundred feet in all directions.
Roy staggered to his feet atop the dragon, more shocked that the creature was mostly unharmed than anything else. A clawed foot shot up, and Roy swung at it with the ax, the two clanging off one another as he deflected. Hurt as Roy was, he was driven back, and when the dragon’s tail flicked out, he wasn’t quick enough to dodge.
His body once again turned into a weapon of mass destruction. Roy was sent careening through the forest, tearing a trench with his back and face. His halt came when he slammed into his eighth tree, his arm all but torn from its socket.
Remarkably, he landed on his feet, his body bloodied, broken, and bruised. He breathed hard, the Chakra still running through him being the only thing that had held him together. He watched through blurred vision as the dragon climbed from the crater, and although Roy hadn’t noticed it initially, it seemed his earlier attack had done something.
One of its wings was crumpled at its side, the Beast clearly aggravated that it was now unable to take to the skies. Roy felt himself grinning, even as Geon called him an idiot for not dodging quickly enough.
Roy felt the smile slip from his lips as he caught a flash of white from behind the monster’s left shoulder. Aika appeared, her face matted with blood and clutching her staff in a white-knuckled grip.
He wanted to yell at her to get off, that she didn’t stand a chance. If he had been unable to do serious damage, then there was no way she was going to be able to do anything.
Roy took a step forward, pulling the ax back and preparing to throw. He had no practice keeping the construct going with Chakra, but this was his only hope to damage the dragon enough for Aika to get away. The Beast seemed to have eyes only for him, the red orbs narrowed in rage and its mouth opening once more to unleash fiery destruction.
He prepared to throw the ax as Aika braced herself, preparing for a last-ditch effort against the monster. Then, to his shock, she looked up and met his eyes. They blazed with fury and unsuppressed rage, but there was something else there too. Exhaustion and resignation.
Roy stared into her eyes as she extended a hand, palm up. She curled her fingers several times, then pointed down at the dragon. It took him a moment to understand what she wanted, but when he finally did, he released the ax — he had no choice, as only one of his arms was still functioning — reaching into his robes and removing the black stone.
Then, he began to run right at the massive dragon. The Beast unleashed a burning green blast, one far larger than any Roy had seen so far. He leaped as the fire washed over the landscape, hurling the black stone to Aika with all his might.
He landed right back in the middle of the green fire, tucking his head and bringing his good arm up to cover his face. The last of his Chakra flowed up into his body, trying to fight off the technique as it washed over him.
The technique died as the last of his Chakra faded. Roy rolled onto his back, his body steaming as he breathed hard. He could feel the burns, bone-deep and aching horribly. Through blurred vision, he saw a flash of movement as Aika leaned down, her body swinging before the startled dragon.
Its mouth was still open wide from its last attack, giving her the perfect target to aim for. The black stone glittered momentarily, reflecting Aika’s own Light Qi. Then, it sailed neatly down the dragon’s throat.
Roy stayed conscious for only a moment more after that. Then, blackness closed in, and the world went dark.
24
Pain was the first sensation that returned as Roy came back to the waking world. His entire body, every single nerve ending, felt as though it were on fire.
“Don’t try to move.”
Aika’s voice sounded distant, although he suspected she was quite close.
“Your burns are pretty bad, the worst I’ve ever seen, actually.”
Roy could hear the tension in her voice, the barely hidden fear mixed with the anger that was still quite present.
“I managed to get a Restoration Pill down your throat, but you’re going to have to do the work if you want to recover. Raise the index finger on your right hand if you understand.”
Though it took a bit of effort, Roy uncurled his fist enough to extend the finger.
“Good,” Aika said, some of the tension having left her voice. “Your shoulder still needs to be set, but I didn’t want to risk touching it until your skin is a little more intact.”
Roy had no idea how he looked right now, but he had a feeling that it wasn’t pretty. He’d managed to weather the onslaught of a mid-Dan Gold-Belt and had somehow not died! That in and of itself was a miracle. He had no idea how he’d managed it but knew that luck had played at least some part in his miraculous survival.
“I need to take care of my own wounds,” Aika said. “I’ve lost a lot of blood. I’ll be nearby, though. If you need anything, just call for me.”
Roy let out a low grunt in response, but the movement aggravated the injuries in his chest and lungs, and the burning intensified. He felt Aika as she moved away, but Roy was already concentrating inward to where the Pill sat floating in his stomach, the healing compound growing less and less potent by the second.
“You know,” Geon said as Roy began pulling the Pill towards his Core. “If you weren’t so pathetically weak, you could have won that fight.”
“And if the rain stopped, I wouldn’t be wet,” Roy replied, not having any patience for Geon’s normal insults — not that he really ever had any.
“Well, obviously,” the Core replied, in a tone that clearly said Roy was an idiot. “Rain makes things wet. I am a Core, which means my mind is protected by a strong shell of energy. Your squishy brain must have been pretty badly damaged in that fight…Do you understand anything I’m saying?”
He asked that last part with exaggerated slowness, as though he were speaking to an idiot.
“No, I don’t understand,” Roy replied, then promptly cut off his connection to the Core and concentrated instead on cycling the Pill.
There were several parts of his body that he couldn’t even feel, which told him the damage must have been pretty severe. The Pill floated up to the center of his Core, and Roy began to cycle, moving unrefined Essence through his damaged body and the Pill’s restorative properties along with it.
He honestly had no idea how many of them they had left, but he had to assume there weren’t many. They’d gone through a lot of them in the Dungeon and even more before that. The Pill he had now was quite potent, as he began to feel sensation returning to his forearms, which had taken the worst of the fire.
They tingled and itched as feeling returned, and the itching soon turned into horrific, agonizing pain. He let out a low groan, clenching his teeth as he continued cycling the Pill. He had no idea for how long he lay there, working to heal the burns and close up the cuts. By the time the Pill’s effectiveness wore off, he still wasn’t completely back to himself, but he had gotten enough functionality back to open his eyes and sit up.
He winced as he did, his shoulder flaring in pain along with his ribs. He gingerly felt at it, seeing a bulge where it had been dislocated. His eyes flicked over to Aika, who was sitting only five feet away. Her eyes were closed, her body tense and jaw set. She was covered in blood, her robes soaked completely through. The puddle around her told him that she had indeed lost a
lot of blood.
There was a clear trail leading from him to where she now sat, and when he looked down, he could see another, smaller puddle.
She had been closer to death than he’d realized.
It was only after that thought crossed his mind that Roy looked down at himself. The robes on his upper body had been mostly burned away, leaving him bare-chested. The pants had been burned well past his knees, but thankfully, he’d curled in enough to keep them from being completely destroyed.
The burns were still easy to see, covering his skin in dark blotches. Roy prodded at one experimentally and winced. He would need another Pill to finish healing all the damage he’d sustained. He just hoped they had enough. That fight with the dragon…
Roy’s thoughts came to a screaming halt as he remembered who they’d been fighting. He quickly turned in the direction of the dragon, wondering what he’d see. The creature lay on its side with its eyes shut tight. Its body didn’t twitch, although black smoke roiled and oozed around it.
The Beast had shrunk by at least half, or so Roy thought. It was hard to judge sizes, especially when he’d been fighting for his life against this monstrosity.
His eyes flicked up to the sky next. It was gray and overcast, so telling time by the sun's position was going to be impossible. When the fight had begun, it had been around midday, which meant he’d only be able to tell the time when it started becoming dark, at least darker than it was now anyway.
“Aika,” Roy called, his voice croaking out painfully.
He thought he’d have to call to her a few more times, but her eyes snapped open the moment he spoke.
A look of such relief showed on her face then that he knew she wasn’t angry with him. He’d been worried, as she’d grown more distant the closer they got to facing Doragon, but as she rose and hurried over, he could tell that their burgeoning relationship hadn’t been destroyed.
“How are you feeling?” she asked, crouching next to him and examining his wounds.