by Ryan Johnson
Valverno shook his head so he could resign his sight on Sora, whom was okay and running to him. By the sight of the Sora being okay was worth taking the blow of the swinging tail and making his the day better.
Sora came running to Valverno who was barely standing on his curved, hind legs. “Valverno! Brother, are you alright?” Sora slipped close to Valverno and flung her arms around him. She tried to help Valverno to keep balance on his feet, but his heavy weight put pressure on her feet, which made it difficult for her to stand alone.
Both Valverno and Sora were kneeling on the ground. Sora was in perfect shape to fight, but her demigod brother was in half-shape to fight.
“Valverno, can you hear me?” asked Sora.
“Yes,” answered Valverno. “My mortal body has been weakened by the shield I created, but it ended up backfiring on me instead of protecting me.”
“You could have died in one swing of the Leviathan.”
“But it was worth saving a little girl from a monstrous creature like a giant Titan. After all, sister, I am the elder sibling of this golden family, and it is the duty of the elder sibling to look after the younger ones and the fishy wife who I call family.” Valverno stood back on his feet; his waved his wings in circles and a great power flowing through those things channeled into his human body. His arm muscles grew half an inch longer; his strength increased thanks to the armor gauntlet he found in the cave in the Northern Region attached to his right arm, which also stretched over his shoulders, and taking over his left arm.
Sora smiled of Valverno regaining his former strength back. “You’re really are weak when it comes to facing the enemy and saving the people you love.”
“Our morale is more important than a gold coin, for a gold coin could always be replaced by another gold coin but people can’t be replaced. We get one chance. One shot. One life. After the one chance is over, there can be no refunds.”
Valverno moved away from Sora and looked at the Leviathan. The Titan swung its arm instead of the tail toward Valverno. The humanlike hand made into a fist if it was about to squash a small bug like a flightless housefly, and it aimed at Sora and Valverno; two birds with one stone was about to happen.
Valverno leaned down and folded his wings thinly and curled his tail over his head. The pointy end of his tail turned sharp and poisonous like a scorpion’s tail.
“Valverno, what are you doing?” asked Sora.
Before Valverno could answer an immediate answer, his curved legs made him jump from the ground, leaving behind a small hole from a hard push his legs made. He unfolded his wings wide open and his tail pointing at the falling Titan’s hand. Valverno growled loudly as he curved his body sideways and have the claws of his dragon feet also pointing at the Titan’s big hand.
In a splitting second, Valverno landed on the palm of the hand and stung his tail deep into the skin of the hand. Then Valverno sank the claws of his feet into the skin after he tail stung the hand of the left arm.
The Leviathan gave a small yelp of pain of a small bee sting it had endured for what seemed forever since it felt pain but not something small as a housefly. The Leviathan moved his hand closer to its eyes to see what small insect had stung its hand.
Valverno saw the head of the Leviathan coming up close and shared a growling expression. “Titan! You should have died when the First Generation of the Living Life ended,” said Valverno, looking into the eyes of the Leviathan. “I am Valverno, son of the Crystal Dragon and Demigod of the Second Generation of Living Life.”
The Leviathan grunted at the word “demigod”, which meant the Titan knew who was at first sight. “Valverno, you forfeited your life long ago.” The Leviathan crunched eight fingers together to crush the demigod in the palm of its hand.
Valverno felt the eight fingers crawling over him like an octopus wrapping its eight legs around its prey. Crouching under the Titan’s fingers, Valverno managed to use the curved ends of his wings to detach the Crystal Sword and wrapped his tail by the hilt and part of the blade, pushing it into the Titan’s palm.
The Leviathan growled and pulled his fingers away from Valverno, who then took the sword into his hands and spin-slash the blue blade on the eight tentacle-like fingers.
Valverno seized this chance to dig the blade into the Titan’s wrist and run around the Titan’s hands, with the blade cut deep into the Titan’s flesh.
In a full complete circle, Valverno ripped through his big enemy’s wrist and used his tail to finish off the cut-edge hand from the Titan’s left arm. Valverno saw the hand falling from his view and disappear over the cliffs, knowing a part of the Titan fell into the Pool of Shadows.
The Titan growled in a swelling pain it was feeling from its arm. It never had thought a creature the size of a housefly would have be able to easily rip off one of its hands. Yet, no blood drooled from its torn wrist.
Valverno lowered his eyebrows that of a great expression of anger. “And I have been reborn into a second lifetime, Titan.” Valverno jumped off the Leviathan’s torn arm and used his wide wings to glide around the Titan’s wavering body. The air coming from the Titan’s body made it easier for Valverno stay in the air and making him glide toward the one item he was looking for and could see it with his hybrid eyes: the leg armor.
However, it was more of a foot than a full leg, a sabaton armor. This was a specific type of armor forged and made for the foot of a living being. This sabaton was in perfect form for it to be placed on a dragon’s foot: Valverno’s foot.
Valverno was within a small range to get what belongs on his dragon foot and the one holding a part of his true powers of his half-god form. His body twisted and turned around the swirling tail of the Leviathan, so he would be able to maneuver and avoid being wrapped around the Leviathan’s tail.
Valverno landed on the ground with his feet digging into the ground, impacting a large hole within a four feet diameter of the hybrid. Valverno was at the base of the staircase leading up to the sabaton armor surrounded by a circle of ruined pillars and displayed on a small stone table.
If he could get trot up the staircase and latch the armor onto his foot, Valverno would have the next third of his power restored and his memories restored of he once was ten thousand years ago. And it all could happen in the next hundred or so steps if he was fast enough to reclaim what rightfully belongs to him.
The thought was barely enough for him to bare, he couldn’t stop thinking of the potential power restored to him within a couple of seconds he had to dash. With the armor ahead and the Titan behind him, Valverno dashed up the staircase without giving a look behind him to see what the Titan could be doing to prevent the demigod in restoring a third of his power in his body and also increase his speed for his feet and hopefully his wings.
Halfway up, Valverno stopped suddenly and saw the Leviathan using its other hand to try to grab the hybrid before he could get to the item the Leviathan was guarding. He was prepared to do another cutting-off trick, until Geraldus pounced at the hand, digging his spear into the side of the hand.
“Geraldus?” Valverno was shocked to see Geraldus jumping out of nowhere and suddenly beginning a fight against a Titan a small human couldn’t do. “Is he what I think he is?”
Unexpectedly to Valverno, Geraldus had rushed into the fight without trying to draw attention from the Titan. So while Sora and Valverno kept the Titan busy toying with the small flies, Geraldus ran over the bridge and through the fog. But Geraldus himself was wearing something different than his: he was wearing a white robe and had blue striped feathered wings.
Sora landed beside Valverno and saw Geraldus in a new uniform, resembling an angel-like being. She only see him as a mortal primitive being only who knows how to fight with a long, heavy stick. Now she a shocking look on her face that she never expected to see the man as a magical knight in brightly lit armor. “Is he… a White Knight?” she asked.
“I have no idea,” admitted Valverno.
Geraldus pulled out his s
pear from the Titan’s hand and landed toward Sora and Valverno. Geraldus was also wearing a long white cape imprinted with a cross-swords emblem.
“Are you what I think you are?” asked Sora. “Are you a White Knight?”
“I am,” answered Geraldus. “I am the current White Knight of Loyalty, Sora; half-sister of Valverno. I am descended of the original White Knight of Loyalty: Herus. My ancestors have been waiting for you to return, my master Valverno.” Geraldus bowed his head lowly before standing up again. “I am eager to serve you as Herus had.”
“Wh-why didn’t you tell me you were a White Knight?” asked Valverno.
“You needed to discover who you were,” said Geraldus. “When the witch brought you to my house, it was then known you were the demigod my ancestors have been waiting for.”
Sora looked confused by Geraldus’s announcement of him being a White Knight. “The power of a White Knight can only be passed to an offspring or reverted back to its original carrier.
“I’ve known Herus almost my entire life. And he was there when he, I and the other two White Knights were trying to go into hibernation. How did he transfer his power to you?”
Before Geraldus could state an answer, he turned toward the Titan and swung his spear toward the Leviathan’s eye. The spear soared past the arms, up against the long neck, and into the eye socket.
The Leviathan screeched loudly and the pain it just endured, the first painful experience in many thousands and thousands of years, made it ground itself away from the group.
Geraldus turned back to see Sora and Valverno blankly staring at him. “Which you prefer: an immediate answer or going and getting the armor you’re here for?” asked Geraldus.
Valverno’s blank face was replaced with a stern expression. “The armor!” Valverno looked up and saw the armor still glowing but brighter than it was from a distance. He narrowed his eyebrows and ran straight up.
Valverno left had an incredible speed and managed to get to the top of the staircase. There he saw the sabaton armor lying on the small table, sparkling and glowing like the sun reflecting its light like a diamond. Valverno grabbed it with his hands and latched it onto his right, dragon leg.
Suddenly there was a burst of light energy channeling through Valverno’s foot. He could feel the effect running through both legs, even his wings were feeling the power coming through a single armor he attached to his foot.
The armor, like the one that attached to his right arm, sank into his skin and the scales on his leg begin to shine like the armor. The dragon scales on the legs reflected light like a furbished silver armor reflecting a torch’s flaring light. The claws grew out an inch longer than a much sharpened pointy end that would cut open a pig for slaughter.
After several seconds of an exploding wind-like energy bursting from his leg, there was silence and Valverno could feel something he never felt before; he felt more alive and had also had a strange sensation of feeling old. He felt a thousand years older.
Sora and Geraldus ran up the stairs to see if Valverno was alright. From what they saw, they saw only a bright, glowing light flashing in their eyes for a few seconds before disappearing. They didn’t know what has happen to the demigod for the short time the light has been there. “Brother, are you alright?” asked Sora, getting up to the top platform.
Valverno breathed softly and turned around, which made Sora gasp as soon as she saw his face. His face was shown to be more adult like of a beastly caveman and his skin looked rougher if his human skin was mistuned with dragon scales. His chin was more of a pointed like a hairy beard was consumed by his facial skin. His eyes still remained the same colors before.
“Valverno, how do you feel?” asked Geraldus, who showed no surprise look.
“I feel like an old man now,” answered Valverno. “It seems when I reconnected the armor with my leg, three thousand more years have awakened. Among the ten thousand years I’ve been asleep, six thousand have awakened in me, and two-thirds of my power have been also been reawakened.”
The growling of the Titan had got the attention of Sora, Geraldus, and Valverno. The Leviathan’s growl was more furious than ever; its hand was torn and its eye scorned. Despite the damage the Leviathan had taken from a few small insects, the Leviathan got back to its legs, ready for a second round of the little terminates causing the Leviathan much disarray.
The ancient monster has not only gotten the group’s attention but Valverno’s attention. Valverno flapped his wings and easily soared into the air and amazed he can fly once again. Proud to be flying again in the air and with a great power of speed, Valverno flew directly for the large Titan’s chest.
At an incredible speed and a powerful punching impact, Valverno went against the Titan, which was a thousand times bigger than he was, and directed a powerful blow with his hands.
A bright light ignited as soon Valverno touched the Leviathan. Valverno’s wings had conjoined with his hands in the brightening event. Valverno, with this new speed he was feeling in his wings, hurled the Leviathan backwards. With the first armor attached to his arms that gives him strength and the second armor attached to his leg that gives him speed, Valverno tipped the Leviathan in the opposite direction the Leviathan was facing.
The Leviathan was caught unaware that the demigod had his power dramatically increased; the Leviathan never imagined it would have been pushed down by a small insects. The power swelling within the demigod was greater than the Leviathan itself; the Leviathan found itself being nudged toward the rugged cliffs by the demigod.
With the strength he was channeling, Valverno pushed the Leviathan toward the cliffs and where the Pool of Shadows lies beneath. Valverno was internally going to push the Leviathan over the cliffs and to certain doom where it will be trapped in the Pool of Shadows. “You’ll no longer be a part of this world nor the next,” growled Valverno. “You’ve chosen you’re fate long ago. Now, be eternally imprisoned in the Pool of Shadows.”
Then Valverno stopped and whipped his tail at the Leviathan, making it fall onto its back and roll toward the cliffs.
The Leviathan fell over the cliffs, but its arms and a leg managed to grab the ledges with two-thirds of its body hanging for its life. Its eyes glared at the demigod, not ready to give up the fight over life and death.
Valverno puffed and drew out the sword and ripped it into the two different twin swords. He proceeded to fly toward the dangling Titan while performing a tornado-like spin attack aiming toward its arm, with the swords stretched outward. Valverno plunged into the Titan’s left shoulder, with his two sharp blades tearing through the Titan’s flesh.
The arm fell off and toward the Pool of Shadows splashing a small portion of the black liquid in the air. The Leviathan barely slipped after having its entire arm torn from its shoulder.
After that, Valverno swung around to the other arm, which still had a hand attached. Instead of cutting or tearing, Valverno gave a big breath of a crispy, cold, icy wind; snowflakes small like dust particles froze over the Leviathan’s remaining arm and the entire ground surrounding the hanging Leviathan.
Like a fire-breathing Dragon, Valverno soared across the ground where the Leviathan had a chance to climb up and made a frozen, slippery ground.
The Leviathan found itself nowhere to grab and continued to slip backwards. The ice created by a small demigod was too slippery for the Titan to grab and lost his grip over the edges. However, its tail whipped over its head and slashed into the ice and the ground, preventing from falling. The Leviathan had its chin just over the edges and its last eye not blinded trying to look for Valverno, but he seemed to have disappeared. However, it saw a bright flash.
The last thing the Leviathan ever looked was Valverno blinding its last eye with a blade. It felt pain everywhere, losing its grip, falling over the cliffs, and splashing into the Pool of Shadows.
Valverno witnessed from above the King of the Titans disappearing into the Pool of Shadows, sending out huge splashes of the black li
quid from the Titan’s splashing impact. “The King of the Titans is no more!” he exclaimed. He snapped the two swords back together like a puzzle set. He flew over to rejoin with Marina and Flarefur, who were still on the other side of the ridge.
Soon after seeing shocking looks on their faces, Valverno saw Geraldus and Sora rejoining them from the other side.
Marina and Flarefur witnessed another surprise: Geraldus was a White Knight. Geraldus saw the Siren and the Griffin looking complete shocked to see another part of an ancient legend right beneath their noses.
Valverno strolled up to Geraldus. “Why didn’t you tell me you were a White Knight yet descended from one?”
Geraldus signed. “I’d never thought I would unleash this ancient power in this day of this Generation… Valverno. The power has been sleeping for thousands of years, waiting for you to return. I’d never thought of you awakening in my lifetime.”
“Yet I am awake and you didn’t awaken your power when I woke up.”
“You were a child and children don’t have their true powers awaken until they reach of certain age. Just as Sora mentioned earlier, you were time warped backward into an embryo. You aged backwards, going from older to younger.”
Valverno shook his head in disbelief and walked away from Geraldus, the man who raised him baby. Valverno couldn’t believe the fact he was raised by a White Knight for all Valverno’s life. He came to a halt before exhaling an angry sign and turned around.
“Let’s continue this talk someplace else. Now let’s head on out he...” Valverno saw a large whip-like subsistence of black water emerging from the cliffs. And whipped toward Marina.
“Lookout!” Valverno flew and pushed Marina out of the way. The whip of black liquid grabbed onto the hybrid’s leg. Valverno was pulled over the cliff with a massive weight to it. The whip was so heavy it made Valverno from his standing balance and pulled him over the cliffs.
“Vaeludar!” Marina called after getting up from being pushed by her husband.