The Dragon Within

by SlyOkami

A surge began, blue electricity rushing down Erik’s tail and travelling through his body before separating, then running down his arms and legs.

  Reaching his claws.

  Reaching his feet.

  Close, the venomous darkness loomed over him and all too close.

  “Draconic School; Drako; Thundering Light!”

  When Erik suddenly disappeared.

  “Finally, I can let loose…” Erik hissed, his voice being warped by how fast he was moving. Like a bolt of lightning, he surged all around Delirio’s cloud of darkness. “It took a while, but I think I’m used to it now. Don’t you think so too, teacher? Flames are easy to control, but compared to lightning…Hah, when was the last time I got to feel this? When I fought Azruxan I believe? How long ago that feels!” Erik exclaimed in amusement, excitement filling him as the familiar electricity rushed through his body.

  Delirio glanced about as he lay hidden, but Erik was almost too fast even for his draconic senses to keep up. So small, yet powered by a Dragon’s magic. He moved like an erratic fly, too small, too fast to keep up with.

  Nothing more than a streak of blue trailing before Delirio’s eyes, a trail of light imbued with the power of fire. Unlike the golden flames of before, which were the opposite, flames being imbued with the power of light.

  Erik was no longer going for that kind of raw and easily bent fire-power, instead…

  His grandmother’s element, the Light. His grandfather’s element, the Flame. Not one imbued into the other, but fully combined, they created his core element.

  They created the blue lightning that surged through his body, uncontrollable, rampant like a storm.

  The storms that Erik…Erikathyr was named after.

  And just like thunder, ”I feel…Hah-What is this feeling? I have full access to my mana again but…My body…How is it sustaining it all?” his voice echoed out as he mused out loud.

  And while he moved, Erik sent strikes of lightning bursting out from his fingertips. Assaulting the cloud, as the rage of thunder from each strike sounded off mere seconds after. One, tens, dozens, hundreds of strikes barraged Delirio, the electricity fading as it collided with his black fog but the darkness itself was also dissipating with the attack’s blast on collision.

  Forcing the Black Dragon out of the defensive.

  Claws slashed out of the darkness, descending upon Erik’s path, forcing him to evade. Under and over, Erik passed by barely, dodging a second and a third lunge before suddenly stopping as a massive tail crashed down into his path.

  He watched it rise back, quickly and viciously coming back down upon him right after, tendrils of black fog swirling about it as it fell.

  Erik pushed himself back, avoiding being smashed by a mere millisecond, then coming to a sliding stop as he watched the tail slither back into the clouds.

  Immediately he dashed aside as the fog burst outward from all over his left, taking the shape of the massive black jaws that were opening around him. Set on crushing him within his fangs, Delirio’s front claws slammed down on either side of Erik, stopping him from evading towards those directions.

  As he beat his wings, sending the fog over and around, and closing off all other escape paths. Now with a poisonous cloud blocking his back and the sky, two claws ready to shred him on either side, and a quickly approaching Dragon’s maw ahead.

  Erik was surrounding, for a mere moment, he was.

  As he waved his arms back, golden flames raging about his claws and trailing fire along with his movement. Palms open and facing the fog behind him, he quickly chanted. “Draconic School; Drako; Flame Blast!”

  Flames exploded out of his palms, blasting back and into the fog, clashing with the darkness and pushing the cloud away slightly.

  But it did not give in, the darkness did not give Erik an opening.

  As Delirio’s jaws began to enclose around him, time seeming to slow for both their senses.

  Yet, it was not over, as Erik opened his wings wide.

  As the flames behind him still exploded, blast after blast like a chain reaction. The magic was colliding with a barrier, and therefore had nowhere else to go, but back towards its caster.

  A single explosion was all it took to suddenly blast Erik forwards, and towards Delirio’s maw.

  His speed being doubled by the blast’s force, alongside the lightning which imbued his body.

  Too fast for even Delirio to notice, not until it was too late.

  As Erik soared out of his horizontally enclosing jaws, and towards the fog that still lingered around Delirio’s head.

  He had no time to chant, no time to speak or move.

  Instead he focused, Erik focused on bending the flames that trailed behind him.

  Forcing them into tendrils of light, and sending them ahead of himself

  Without needing to chant, as the mana was still imbued with his previously stated will.

  Erik simply reactivated that same spell, the will to explode within.

  But having removed the element of flame from the mana, what he gained was a bright flash of sudden light.

  Exploding directly over Delirio’s lagging left eye, half-blinding the Dragon as the light dispersed the thin layer of fog in Erik’s way. Allowing him to soar out of the entrapment, and come to hover over Delirio’s wide open back.

  “You taught me much, teacher. But compared to your teachings, the rage of war taught me…so much more!” Erik exclaimed, grinning as he aimed his palms back once more, “Draconic School; Drako; Lightning Strike!” chanting a different spell.

  As a dark grey cloud formed around him.

  Electricity surging through it, before suddenly raging all around.

  As Erik burst through the cloud’s bottom, engulfed in tendrils and tongues of blue lightning, rushing down towards Delirio.

  The Black Dragon turned, raising its head and turning to see with its other eye.

  Barely making it in time, to see Erik’s electrified body colliding with his back, as the young Dragon chanted all the while.

  “Imbue Flame!”

  Erik quickly shouted the simple spell, as flames trickled out of his horn tips, before the blue lightning that surrounded him suddenly turned a deep crimson.

  Keeping the aspect of light, while at the same time heightening the attribute of flame and heat within the sparking energy.

  As his feet and claws landed first, stomping down upon the Black Dragon’s plated back, the collision itself sending rippling shudders across it.

  Then Erik unleashed his spell, sending a trail of crimson lightning back up towards the still growing cloud. At the same time sending several strikes into Delirio’s body, causing the Dragon some fury as he felt the energy penetrate his armour, although not go much deeper.

  “It’s over.” Erik said, his voice thundering among the roar of his attacks.

  As the clouds above which Delirio now noticed, began surging crimson.

  “Draconic School; Drako; Custom Cast; Lightning Rod.” Erik chanted, causing hundreds of crimson lightning strikesto suddenly surge out of the clouds above and zap into his body.

  Erik endured the self-inflicted attacks, collecting that energy his spell produced, and like a rod, he passed the excess down into Delirio.

  The energy causing Erik’s wing netting to turn a bright red.

  His horns too, the gold fading to a dark crimson.

  And his blue eyes, suddenly flooding with blood red colour.

  Delirio could only watch, as the electricity surging through his body numbed his movement, paralyzing him entirely.

  The Black Dragon could only listen to Erik chuckling coldly, as he began his next chant undisturbed.

  “The roar that defies thunder, the breath that mocks lightning. Fear my element, be blinded by my light and incinerated by my power!” Erik exclaimed in chant, as the strikes of lightning from above became a steady stream of flowing electricity.

  Causing him to glow a bloody crimson, and his body to tense up from the e
nergy which flowed through him.

  As he spoke the chant’s ending.

  “Draconic School; Drako; Erikathyr!”

  Causing all that energy to suddenly flow and concentrate on his tail, horns and wing tips.

  The energy condensed as it flowed into each, intensifying in power but becoming increasingly harder to bend with his mind’s will.

  Yet it continued to concentrate further, imbued with his chant the mana now had its own will to follow.

  It condensed and condensed, as his entire body shuddered, shaking under the pressure he was creating.

  Until he felt it, a stinging pain telling him that if he condensed it further, the energy would rip him apart from the inside out.

  “Farewell, teacher.” Erik hissed, looking up to meet Delirio’s wide violet eye, with his own blood-red gaze. “Custom School; Chain Cast; Draconic Reaction!” Erik chanted once again, and the crimson energy at his horn, tail and wing tips, began to surge inwards.

  Rushing down his horns, running down his tail, through his wings and colliding within his body.

  Erik willed the clashing energies further, flowing the magic into his hands, and then out of his palms which rested on Delirio’s back.

  The condensed energy met with the paralytic electricity which already rushed into Delirio, destabilizing, and suddenly going out of Erik’s control

  Keeping the direction it was being flowed towards, the crimson lightning surged downwards, passing through the Dragon’s armour like electricity rushing through metal. Its heat incinerating anything and everything that couldn’t withstand it.

  It arched wide as it left Erik’s palms as well, re-expanding, freed from his will. Filling Delirio’s insides once past his armour.

  Electrocuting…Searing…The Dragon’s insides.

  His flesh, his blood, his organs…All but his scales and bones which resisted the heat and electricity.

  But everything else…was turned to ash.

  And the Black Dragon collapsed, falling limp as his body deflated like a balloon losing gas. Sections of armour falling inside, and about, lost from the flesh it was once connected to. Its wings too, now dried up, they shrivelled into a bony mess.

  Leaving Delirio as nothing more than a husk full of ash and smoke.

  …

  A sound then reverberating throughout the water enclosed lair,

  Like the thunder that comes after a lightning strike.

  A roar…

  It was Erikathyr’s victorious roar.

  …

  The pure-blooded Black Dragon, was dead.

  And standing above their remains, was the half White and half Red…Dragon.

  The apex among them.

  Ch 47 - We laugh, We cry

  Druvia

  Druvian Capital, City Hall.

  Alan pushed through the crowd as thousands gathered within the capital’s largest building, not quite as tall as the castle but many times wider. The massive hall had no walls, an open-air building so that those who did not fit inside could stand outside and listen still.

  Large pillars held up the ceiling, both made of marble and highly decorated with artful carvings.

  But what mostly gained one’s attention was the stage at the centre, surrounded by royal guard as they also made a path through the crowd. The stage itself was five meters higher than the ground, several more in width and made of opaque crystals that formed the kingdom’s flag on every face of it. Other than the top where the colours swirled into chaos and the front where, made out of the same crystals, was a staircase of plain white.

  This was because nobody wanted to step on the flag, even the King who now walked up those same steps. Then stopping at the top, Sol turned to face his people.

  Seeing the distress in their gazes as they looked up to him.

  Alan couldn’t blame them, the news was indeed dire. Listening in on the King’s words himself as he found his way through the crowd, looking for a distinct individual among them who he could clearly sense.

  “Almost a month ago,” Sol began to speak, his voice being magically enhanced to reach beyond the crowd and into the streets themselves. “Orcs who came from Dumatra made land on our continent’s southern region, beyond the border and within the Lost World. Over the course of weeks, more and more came. The army and the adventurer’s guild has tried to make contact with the Horde but…All messengers, and scouts, were lost. My advisors believe they were killed, and I am left with no other explanation but to believe them.

  The Orcin numbers keep rising, and have reached dangerous levels while their camp might as well be called a city.

  Obviously, these Orcs have not come for peace, and they do wish for our lands. My generals expect clashes throughout the border to begin soon, but Fort Balgor is far from fully repaired. The healing of our lands has taken a great amount of time and resources as well, I will not lie to you, the border has gone undermanned. Our defences lack, our numbers even more so.

  I wished that it would have never come to this, but we are left with no choice.

  To protect our lands, to defend our homes and families from the Orcin threat that has reached us from a far land. The Army will begin conscription. Each family is required to draft at least one man or woman above the age of sixteen. They will be trained, they will be taught not just how to fight but how to survive the battlefield.” Sol solemnly explained, as the murmuring among the crowd rose.

  “I understand how you might feel, times have been harsh on us all, and they will get worse. But I promise you I will do everything in my power to protect you. As will the guards, as will the army, as will the adventurers and mercenaries who stand with Druvia!” Sol then exclaimed, regaining the crowd’s attention. “These are our lands, this is our home. And if we wish to keep it, then we must fight. This is why I did not limit the amount to one per family, even if your sibling or son joins you are also welcome.”

  As the King spoke, Alan froze in his steps.

  Finding himself staring at her back.

  Her form was different, but the cooling chill that filled him as their eyes met was unmistakable. Her eyes, bluer than any ocean he had ever seen. Her hair, more beautiful than the purest crystal. They reminded him of her true form.

  As Alan gazed at Findri’s humanoid shape, he was reminded of the mighty Dragon he used to serve.

  She gazed back, just as speechless as he was. As they both searched for the words to speak, but none came to either.

  “Well, look who decided to show up.” Kai mused in annoyance as he stepped in between them, his cold eyes meeting Alan’s.

  “Ah…Kai…” Alan managed to say with a choked voice, as he felt every drop of blood in his system freeze.

  “Father.” Kai said with clear disdain in his tone, as other adventurers nearby gathered with their guildmaster.

  “I’d heard she joined you…I was surprised. You wouldn’t believe what I just came back from.” Alan awkwardly said.

  “Oh you mean the diplomatic disaster that is occurring on Sinroz? We’re well aware of the Destroyer’s current exploits, but as you can hear, we have other issues.” Kai’s assistant said snidely, a young human woman with long ginger hair and green eyes.

  “Elena…Daughter in law…How’re my gran-kids?…” Alan asked, even more awkwardly than before. He looked younger than the both of them.

  “Better when you’re not around.” Elena said, her voice seeming like a snarl to Alan as she stepped to him. “Really will you ever learn how to keep yourself? Look at your clothes! Unkept doesn’t have the legs to stand on for what you wear and how! Oh and don’t even get me started on that bird’s nest of a head of yours!” Elena began, as usual, pointing out every little thing with how Alan kept himself before then comparing it to her husband. The adventurer’s guildmaster, Kai.

  And as usual, Alan zoned her voice out, ignoring her never-ending rant entirely as he met his son’s glare.

  Eyes that never seemed to change, eyes that filled Alan with regret, a
s they gazed at him with nothing more or less…than hate. Eyes that reminded Alan, just how unwanted he was in this country he twice saved.

  But as Alan pondered over leaving, a chuckle caught everyone’s attention. Cold and petite, Findri’s laugh matched her appearance perfectly. Noble, yet chilling to hear. “You never cease to amaze me, Alandru, by just how easily you manage to annoy your own people. Simply through being present, nonetheless.” She said, stepping through the adventurers to face him.

  “My Chosen.” She spoke in draconic, “I’ve been expecting you.”

  Alan nodded, “I would’ve come earlier, but that fool’s issues kept me busy.”

  She smiled, as her gaze seemed to look elsewhere. “Then he hasn’t changed either…” Findri returned to speaking common.

  “He has. If it wasn’t for the sense, and his tail, you probably wouldn’t recognize him.” Alan said, dreading her eyes, as he knew exactly of what she was feeling. As his own eyes were lost in time, as he found himself reminiscing about the past.

  “I apologize if this bothers you,” Findri then said, gesturing at the guild around her. “Grim stopped conversing with me not too long ago. My powers are limited by my current form, there isn’t much I can do. I was lost, confused and alone. I had no one to turn to until they found me.” She explained, as her lips suddenly began to tremble.

  As Findri, suddenly began to tear up.

  Causing everyone else around her to feel awkward.

  “She’s crying again…” Elena whispered to Kai as he looked away too, still unused to the strange Dragon.

  “What do you expect me to do?…” Kai whispered back.

  Alan sighed, as he approached her. “You haven’t changed one bit either.” He said, placing his right palm over her head and pulling her into his shoulder. (“Cold as a mountaintop on the outside, but warm and conflicted within.”) He thought to himself.

  “I-I’m sorry…T-This human form is making it harder to-t-to remain calm!” Findri apologized as she dug her face into his shoulder, a waterfall gushing out of her eyes and drenching his shirt.

  “I don’t think that’s the problem my Lady…” Alan mused, long having resigned himself on trying to fix this fault in her personality.