by Ryan Johnson
Sora turned one of her kukri knives into a long white made from pure, white energy while her second kukri knife grew six inches longer. She whipped her whip of pure energy at the two ghosts and saw them being blown away.
Seconds later, the Shadow Men disappeared and then reappeared after being blown away. Valverno and Sora quickly rescued their attacking movements. They fought all four ghosts at once, swinging and whipping their weapons of godlike power against the faded images of the Shadow Men’s weapons. Valverno used his wings and tail and attack with his swords simultaneously against any evil ghost coming around him.
Both he and Sora were fighting so close together their bodies had little room to maneuver, but both rolled under or hovered over each other when they were too close to trip each other’s footing and switch battling places.
They did this every three-to-six seconds: rolling, hovering, and dodging. They kept moving around and not stay in the same place twice. They moved from the ground, to climbing onto the altar, and to climbing to the top of one of the pillars.
Then it was back down to the ground, fighting and blowing metal against a humanlike fog so thick it could have been cut with a kitchen knife.
No matter how many blows they gave to the Shadow Men, they just kept coming back to try to slice-and-dice the half-siblings.
But Sora and Valverno past kept the Shadow Men at bay from trying to pierce any skin Valverno and Sora have on, as they spent so much time doing some hard combat training in the land of Pangaea.
Valverno and Sora stopped their fighting as they stood breathing heavily on the altar; the four ghosts surrounded them.
“Don’t try to get too energetic of this fight: they are testing our strength,” said Valverno.
“I already knew about that,” said Sora. “And at this point, they have an infinite power of magic. They could fight forever and not cease to be beaten. And yet they can hurt our skin. I don’t know what their plan is, but I wouldn’t want to go back into a crystal prison they placed me in, just as they found the cave we were supposed to be hibernating in and awake when Lusìvar was supposed to reappear.”
“So, you have remembered what happened?” said the Shadow Men. “What we tried to do but ended up failing? Of how we tried to kill you but somehow couldn’t so we ended up doing away with what we could and try to alter your memories and/or try to keep you imprisoned.”
“I was imprisoned there for a long time, until the power of the White Knight of Charity was placed back into me when the previous Charity died. Nether thanks or no thanks to you, the power of the White Knights is still thriving and my brother is back. You should have killed all of us when you had the chance of when the White Knights and my brother were trying to go into hibernation. But, of course, you couldn’t kill any us, could you?”
The Shadow Men slowly began to spin around the altar the half-siblings were standing on. Their weapons faded and strode back and forth, if they were trying to hypnotize their duo opponents.
“So we see you still have the memories intact and we tried to kill you. As you see, somehow we couldn’t kill the Demigod or the few White Knights, because of barriers the White Knights put in place. So, we decided to imprison you. Keep you from escaping and trying to help out your brother.
“We have hoped you would stay hidden in the cold, dank, underground chamber, but our master had other plans: he sent Belverda and Ralenskrit and try to find by any method to turn the Demigod to Shadow. Even without your full divinity that makes you half god, Valverno, you’re embryo form still had divine power that kept you from turning to our side. Too bad you choose the losing side.”
“Then I am glad your master sent those two servants to awake me from my slumber,” said Valverno. “Now I am awake, I will become the weapon he never thought of creating: killing him instead of becoming a weapon for him. And I know what happened to the Dragon, Ralenskrit; he is in stone form.”
“The foolish dragon! He had such regrets of working for our master, now he paid the price. Abandon as a hatchling, our master found him and trained him how to mind-control the dead. After many years of training, Ralenskrit tried to do it on you after your bottle exploded, but your willpower kept Ralenskrit from trying and somehow he had a change of heart when he saw you. The Dragon showed much promise to our master, now he dead Dragon.”
For the first time, Valverno had heard the past of Ralenskrit, never knowing the Dragon he thought to be his father was raised by Lusìvar. Valverno heard something about it that was familiar: abandoned. Valverno was abandoned by the two scientists he guessed who never find out the truth about his birthright.
Whatever Ralenskrit done in his lifetime Valverno couldn’t care about it; Ralenskrit was now in stone form. There was nothing Valverno could to undo what has been done. From what Valverno knew: Ralenskrit was consumed with great regret and took his own life in great shame. His vengeance lay upon the second and last scientist: Belverda.
“Now we would have to depart!”
The Shadow Men faded from view and their cloud forms left behind fading fogs that evaporated into the thin air. “Our work is has been put on delay, but it is of no concern; there are other small army units around Shimabellia to put into place. And we will start in the Western Region, and resume with smaller skirmishes and lone-wolf attacks in the Northern Region in some months.”
After the fogs faded, there was silence.
Valverno and Sora looked toward the village and saw many disastrous things all across the village and the battlefield, as what seemed creatures and humans lying dead everywhere.
A GREAT SHOCK
Valverno and Sora dashed to the battlefield and saw many bodies of human soldiers and evil creatures piled over each other. There were hundreds of corpses stretching over a short terrain. They saw human soldiers walking around the dead and looking to see what was dead or playing dead while walking upon the corpses.
They walked upon the dead lying on their feet. Never before have they experienced such a landfill of bloodshed wiped away in a single day. Instead of having joy or excitement on what seamlessly to be a victory, Valverno and Sora have spent some short hours going through the dead carcasses surrounding the outline of the village’s southern terrain.
They never felt so much dread from looking at so much death. They would have known what a few small numbers or by a dozen wasn’t too bad, but this was their first time seeing a landfill of lifeless bodies.
“Is this it? Is this really what we are trying to avoid of doing?” asked Sora.
“I don’t know now,” said Valverno. “I’d never wanted so much bloodshed being spelt near homes of the people who laid down their lives for their families. I was trying to avoid of have this kind of catastrophe from happening everywhere. Now, the families living in the village are going to be heart-broken by the lives they lost here. Did you lead these people to victory as I asked you to do?”
“Yes, and they responded well when I took over in your stead. I gave the exact orders on counterattacking against the witch’s army. I left when that man, Teutates, came charging in with a thousand or so horsemen and they attacked from two different sides.”
Valverno hummed to himself. He learned Teutates is the leader of the Lion Clan, believed to consist of brute fighters, and may also have calvary at his disposal. The Lion Clan could certainly help out a lot, seeing how the Lion Clan may have the biggest and strongest army the Northern Region has to offer.
“If you’re thinking of trying to win over the man’s loyalty and pledge his service to you, he isn’t going to do that. He is going to see you as an enemy and he won’t give up the army to you.”
“Which is why an alliance would be better than having a servant.”
“He won’t be allies with anybody who has magical power or ancient people like us from Pangaea; he only likes mankind and he will keep to the humans.”
Valverno looked around the battlefield. There were almost fifty horsemen out and about, and he couldn’t see where Teuta
tes was. He must be back in the village covering from wounds, talking with the other clan leaders, or he was among the dead.
“What are you going to do?” asked Sora.
“I don’t know,” Valverno answered placing the two swords back into one and sheathing the Crystal Sword onto his back. “I’m going have to improvise if anything goes wrong. For right now, let’s just bury the dead and I’ll think of what to do next.”
“Right behind with that,” said Sora. “And from the looks of things, it just may take all day to do. And make sure you know what you are going to do. I wouldn’t want to do any more fighting today. My White Knight power is weakened from the fight we had from the evil ghosts.”
“I’ll think of something that wouldn’t evolve fighting, sister. And right now, the only thought I have is the burying or burning the dead. We have lost a few hundred good soldiers just now, and we now going a bare minimum from the clans that have their loyalty in me. It’s going to take some time for me to coup, but I will manage to get through, if we aren’t attacked anytime soon.”
W
Many hours passed and the two siblings helped soldiers from the Eagle Clan, Cheetah Clan, and Tigress Clan pile the human corpses away from the creatures. Valverno dug dozens of giant holes away from the battlefield and have the bodies lie if they were sleeping. Then a Dragon or Valverno would light fire upon the dead, fearing the scent of the blood would spread and cause a disease that would affect any human living in the villagers.
Valverno would place a single hand on the ground and the ground would start sinking if it was quicksand to make the giant holes. He made about a hundred of them to burn the dead who fought to save their hometown.
As for the dead creatures, the Dragons pulled them away from the battlefield and piled them over other dead creatures and burned those dead bodies as well.
Any creature or human lying dead on the battlefield was burned by a great fire, burning away the rottenness the dead bodies could leave behind. And they had to do this because a rotten body could pass a disease by sitting out in the sun all day. By burning the dead, they burn away chances the disease that could affect any human.
As the shadowy day shifted to a late afternoon, all the dead caresses have been burned away. While the bodies were burning, the Centaurs took their time of recovering any scrap metal and placed those into large baskets tied around their horse backs.
Valverno stood atop a village building that just been completed a few days ago. From what some people told him about the building, it served as a watchtower to see any lurking dangers. He stood and he saw a perfect overview of the village and its grounds, to the battlefield, and the altar of worship.
The thoughts and the memories he witnessed were still sinking in into his brain: a large landfill of the dead was overwhelming. For the great commotion he was enduring, he was quite calm, as he was ready to expect to see a large battlefield taken sometime soon. But he did not expect to be this soon.
And the truth of how the evil creatures was just a real army, not just a small unit. Even with his power enhancements he gave to the three clans fighting alongside with him, there were still casualties and much more than he would have ever predicted.
Just as he was going over the thought processing of his first real battle that made his first battle with the Minotaur look like lion cubs fighting over a piece of meat, Valverno heard footsteps coming from a staircase behind him.
Teutates walked behind the hybrid and joined him of seeing the battlefield. Both people remained silent until Teutates was the first to ask, “First time seeing a battle?”
“My first battle was with a Minotaur,” answered Valverno. “Compared to today’s battle, the Minotaur was a spoiled child fighting over spilled milk. So, this would have been my first real battle in my life. And if you’re wondering what my current metal state is: I am not insane but overwhelmed.”
“Not all young people could have a stable mind and would have ran off in cowardice or gone insane.”
“I’m a hybrid from Pangaea after all; their brains were always stable. Unlike humans in this age, Pangaea had their own species living on the land. Elves. Celestia spirits. Humanlike demons. Fairies, which were back in the Second Generation, were big as humans. So many species lived peacefully on Pangaea and they weren’t even human. And their brains were always balanced and complete stable. Unlike today’s species, a dragon hatchling would have gone senile upon looking at this battle.
“For all of my life and Sora (my half-sister), we have been spent training in ancient times of how to survive. Back when Pangaea had already fell from glory and the two islands were saved by the Three Gods, I and four other people had to adapt to the new land, which we eventually did.
“And battles back then, there were only few lives taken or killed and there would be celebrations. We would have stopped a tribe by killing the leader or wiping away his memories to avoid hundreds of deaths. Or even killing someone claiming to be a follower of Lusìvar would cause for a celebration. And this battle is the first ever Sora and I have seen to have so much life taken.
“It is a shocker for my sister and me to have experience in this sort of thing. Sora and I have spent our lives training to end wars before they can start by killing a single person: a Shadow King claimant. They barely manage to get hold of a single army as humans were cavemen and Dragons were suddenly giant lizards.”
“And good riddance to those early days,” said a familiar voice.
Valverno saw Orinù, Bjorg, and Kelda walking up from the staircase to join Valverno and Teutates.
“The days of us living in caves are long,” said Bjorg. “And when we were being controlled by the Shadow King, the peoples of the Northern Region were still living in caves. Now, since he is gone, we are a free people.”
The other two clan leader nodded their heads in agreement.
“And what’s more than the Demigod Valverno to stand against the Evil One’s tyranny and he stood beside my men in battle.”
“As he did with my women!” said Kelda.
“And my scouts as well,” said Orinù.
“You all seem to like this… ancient spirit,” said Teutates.
“Yes,” said Kelda. “After all, he did fight against the Evil King in the form of a Dragon with five heads. Not to mention he was accompanied by a White Knight and he still is. Tell me, Valverno, how is it you’re winning the hearts of girls everywhere? Even my warriors want to be commandeered by you.” Kelda smiled as did Orinù and Bjorg.
“Do my godly powers have to win the hearts of girls everywhere?” asked Valverno.
“So that is the way it is?” asked Kelda. “You have to be a showoff to get girls by your side. Now you still have a White Knight, who turns out to be a half-sister. You are such one lucky specimen.”
“And I am already married to a Siren, and the gods blessed me with such a lovely creature,” said Valverno. “I don’t need any girls chasing after me. Marriage is first come, first serve. And Marina the Siren has already commandeered me.”
Kelda snipped her fingers, seeing how she wanted to have the hybrid to herself.
“Enough talk about winning hearts and showing off power,” said Bjorg. The fat clan leader of the Cheetah Clan walked to Valverno and shook his hand. “I thank you for fighting alongside my men.”
“And I am to you,” said Orinù. Orinù was the second clan leader to have shaken Valverno’s hand. “My men died for your cause. Whatever cause it maybe my clan will stand behind you. You have saved our village as you did with the Five-Headed Dragon.”
Valverno didn’t smile as all three clan leaders shook his hand and thanked him for fighting alongside their soldiers who stood alongside him on the battlefield. It seemed the clan leaders didn’t know Valverno took off after Belverda and left his sister to take charge. Should he tell him about Belverda being there or should he just say silent?
“Your clans are not the only one who partook in the battle,” said Teutates. “I have assem
bled the calvary of the Lion Clan and wiped the last remnants of monsters. Our horses were strong and our spears were sharper than everyone else. And I cut down more than any clan present.”
“Don’t forget how you even got the clan in the first place,” said Orinù. “I remember seeing you there when the demigod was here and battled against a giant beast. What did you do to help out? You were just like the rest of us clans: cowering in buildings and caves.”
Teutates gave Orinù a stern look and the clan leader gave a stern look back; both showed a great rivalry between the two clan leaders.
“Forget of who saved the day or who should take all credit,” interrupted Valverno. “Did none of you see what had happened today? We are at war! This small unit of monsters was just of a few dozen standing around the island of Shimabellia. But it wasn’t just a small unit; it was an army. If I hadn’t been here, there would have been a massacre instead of a battle. And there are many more elsewhere besides just the Northern Region.”
“How do you know that?” asked Teutates.
“Belverda was here leading the army against this village. I was trying to kill her and not this invasion. As I tried, I had to abandon my post and give the command to Sora.”
“You left your post of leadership?” asked Kelda.
“I gave Sora the leadership status. After all, she has been with me with longest than any human alive today. She has the most experience in leadership and how I handle different situations. After all, it was Belverda. Remember what I said about her? She experimented on me, and she tried to turn me into a weapon for Lusìvar to use as he would see fit.
“Seeing how I am not going to be turned into a personal sword for Lusìvar, he is going have to kill me than to convince me to join him.
“And back to what I was saying, I could have killed the witch, who was in command of this battle. But she had to cease her battle when I came into contact her. She retreated and left me with four cultists came: the Shadow Men. They were very skilled, and they are ghosts. They seem to be weak when I fought them but they were testing my strength.