Twilight of a Hybrid

by Ryan Johnson

  Geraldus and Teutates raised their eyebrows.

  “Not only will we are outnumbered but we are outmatched with weapons far superior to our own. I’m agreeing with you on magic, Teutates; it shouldn’t exist. As long the Pool of Shadows excites so does itself. I’ll try to find a way to counter against their weapon and armor, since I went into the Pool of Shadows myself.”

  Geraldus nodded his head. “Teutates and I were thinking of you giving some your power and give us a boost in armor and weapons, but you did bathe in the Pool of Shadows. There is a risk you could corrupt the people’s hearts.”

  “I’d never wanted to bathe in their; I was pulled in there. You were there, Geraldus. You saw what happened.”

  “You pushed Marina out of the way and you got pulled in. I remember everything. You did it because you love the Siren.” Geraldus looked at Marina who was trying to hide a small smile and a blushing face. “There is still love there.”

  “Enough!” said Teutates. “We have a battle to think about?”

  “We couldn’t agree more,” said Wasso and Monico.

  The twin sprinters came waltzing into the tent. Behind them, three more familiar faces came walking into the large tent. Kelda, Orinù, and Bjorg walked into the tent. And behind them Sora came strolling in. The leaders allying with each other have gathered in the tent to discuss the coming battle.

  Each leader who brought a single army under their command came together and the armies they brought was a single of allies uniting into one army, but there was no main leader at the head. Instead of a single leader, this was a war counsel to decide the best course of action to take.

  Valverno gave updates to every one of his short meeting with Uragiru and Belverda. He told them of the enemy’s armor and weapons were amplified by the Pool of Shadows. He told their weapons and armor may not be affect against the enemy’s stronger armor and weapons.

  Then Geraldus had mentioned he was a White Knight. Both he and Sora could rival against the Pool itself. Their White Knight power is a purified spiritual power that is descended from ancient magic power.

  “After all, my power is I’ve inherited from my ancestor, who was the first White Knight of Loyalty. Sora has been given hers back from the previous holder. And Strength is also to be here, but we’re short on Trust.

  “I’ve met the ghost of Trust, and he didn’t have a successor to hold his power. And since he hasn’t chosen a successor, I am going to assume his power has transferred to me. Now I must choose who to hold the power. And I’m thinking someone here should bear the new Knight. I’ll ask: who desires to bare the title White Knight of Trust?”

  The leaders remained silent.

  There were a few minutes of silent until Geraldus spoke out. “You’re a demigod, Valverno. That is up to decide. You’ll have to trust someone to be the new White Knight of Trust.”

  Valverno looked at the other people in the tent. He could always trust Marina, but she showed signs she couldn’t trust him. The three clan leaders and the twin sprinters he barely knew. Even though he did know small bits about them, he didn’t know much about their background or their personalities.

  But he did know the sprinters longer than the clan leaders. He knew it was a risk, but he was willing to trust the twins or at least one of them. “Wasso and Monico. You both traveled with me to the Northern Region, and you’ve both have left Uragiru behind. So I’ll name one of you the new White Knight of Trust… Monico.”

  Monico raised his head as Valverno raised his hand. A purple glow of a wolf-shaped head appeared above Valverno’s hand.

  “The wolf stands as an embodiment of Trust. The other sigils of the White Knights are as follow: the lion for Strength, the eagle for Loyalty, and the cheetah for Charity. And I can see these animals have been adapted for a few clans in the Northern Region.”

  The three clan leaders looked proudly as to the clans they belonged to. Their clan names came from animal symbols of the White Knights.

  “And if we’re here to discuss battle, here is what I’m going to do. I’m going to change the terrain of the battlefield. And if you see an opportunity to strike, make sure to communicate with others about seeing an open spot to strike. And, for the time being, someone can take control of this sword, as I am unworthy to wield it.”

  Without saying another word, Valverno unstrapped the Crystal Sword and placed it on the table. He proceeded to walk out of the tent, without hearing a word the people may have to say. Valverno had dropped the godly weapon without thinking about of who he could give it to.

  After walking out of the tent, he strolled to the front of the camp. Then he would proceed to watch over camp. He didn’t want the enemy army to ambush the united army that came together to rid Shimabellia of its tyrant and the witch.

  THE UPRISING BATTLE

  The night rolled on and there was no sign of any battle or sneak attacks on in the camp sight of the united army. Valverno had stayed awake all night, and he didn’t see any danger or any small squads sneaking in and trying to cause havoc in the encampment of the united army. He was walking within the camp and began to fly up into the air.

  As the sun rose over the eastern plains, a horn blew within the army’s camp. When the horn blew, the silent of the camp ceased and noises grew loud. Every soldier was up and buzzling. Very soldier got dressed in their armor garments and carried their weapons.

  The horses were saddled and were ready to ride in full force. The calvary took some time to saddle their horses and mount atop the charging animals.

  And instead of waiting for the army ready to march, Valverno went out of the barrier and flew in the direction of the enemy army. He flew across the open plains and he went at a slow and steady paste. The view of the army went to being small like ants and soared across the land to find and eliminate a few opponents.

  He soared in the air for several minutes before a large dark crowd of a black horizon drabbed across the plains: the enemy was advancing.

  Once he saw the army, he halted and rose to a higher altitude. The seventy thousand covered the plains around some tens of miles and the loud marching of seventy feet was never stopping. From the high distance, he saw dozens of catapults being pushed and pulled by the men alone. He couldn’t detect any Giants or Cyclopes with the army, so it was only composed of human soldiers.

  From that second, Valverno knew his allies were outmatched by numbers and weapons that would pulverize the united army. He was going have to many reckless things in order to win against this large army.

  And he would start by flying down and land in a random spot, where the central point of the invading army. The battle had begun when he landed upon several soldiers!

  After he landed on those soldiers, there was a sudden impact from the ground. He came crashing down like an asteroid falling from the stars. Valverno landed hard enough to make a large hole in the ground. He felt his feet sink into the ground if it was quicksand.

  “It’s the hybrid!” shouted a soldier.

  “Get him!” shouted another soldier.

  Valverno heard the soldiers reacting by his crash. Before the thousands could swarm on him, the demigod jumped and landed on another spot and quickly to another. He jumped to and fro to about fifteen more places, downing soldiers beneath his dragon feet with sharp claws.

  At every hole he jumped and impacted into the soil, he would place a small scale from his legs into the dirt. The scale was shivering a black tint. He would place a black scale at every hole. He made about seventeen holes and in those holes he would place a dragon scale and quickly bury it in the dirt.

  Each of the scale he thought would hold a dark power. Valverno could think if he could tear a small part of him from his body and place it into the ground he could bond his body to the ground like how roots from a tree cold grow deep into the ground.

  After he made his eighteenth hole and burying his eighteenth black dragon scale, he flew quickly as he didn’t want to get any more attention than what he had ne
eded. He downed at least fifty soldiers during his eighteen-hole making.

  He quickly flew to the front of the army, as quickly he got attention from half the army on the march. Now he stood at the front of attention of the entire army. He stood with a fierce face on the front and the army still slowly marching.

  Then the army drew to a halt. The soldiers stood still across the entire plains. Many hid behind black helmets and stared at the one enemy standing in front of them: one hybrid recklessly picking a fight with seventy thousand men. Their armor was black tinted like the dragon scales Valverno laid in the holes he planted into the ground. The men could easily have set an attack on the united army’s encampment.

  After staring at his enemies and his enemies staring at him, one large horse and a small Dragon three sizes bigger than the horse came trotting along from the army’s front. Valverno saw Belverda on the small Dragon and Uragiru on the black horse. Both leaders of the enemy army came forward, with a small squad of soldiers.

  Both leaders stopped as rest of the guards. Belverda and Uragiru stood on their animals and dared not come closer to their main enemy that ruined their plans of conquering the island.

  “It was foolish to come alone!” said Belverda.

  “Which is why I have the power of gods and demons,” said Valverno. He raised one leg and bent it forward.

  Then there was a sudden quake by one soft stomp Valverno had made. He crunched the claws of his feet into the ground. He felt the dirt was pitch dry and very unlikely to blossom beautiful flowers.

  Around him, the quake grew from what felt like a rockslide rolling downhill to a massive earthquake.

  “All catapults! Fire! Fire at will!” shouted Uragiru. The king retreated back to his army and Belverda slowly strode her Dragon away the hybrid as well.

  In a matter of seconds, hundreds of small puffs of cloud came from the surrounding plains. Catapults have launched rocks blazing on fire that aimed at Valverno.

  The demigod just stood where he stood. He kept his eyes on his enemies instead of the rocks covering the sun’s rising light in a great black cloud. Many of the rocks left behind a trail of smoke in the sky. Many rocks managed to hit the ground and failed to hit the demigod.

  Valverno had enough and flapped his wings. There was a strong air breeze powerful like a hurricane. Clouds faded from the eye’s view and the clear sky turned to a purple haze from the daily blue-orange color from the dawning sun.

  After suddenly changing the sky to a different color, Valverno took to the sky and just as the first few rocks came falling down inches from where he stood. He thought it was a good time to wipe out a fourth of the army. This would likely thin the odds losing of his army, and he would be able to take on Belverda and Uragiru with fewer obstacles.

  Valverno was flying in the air after dodging rocks being flown at him from catapults. His flying speed made it impossible for any archer firing their arrows or rock being heaved from the catapult. The demigod soared high above the army infantry as he blown down a black flame from his mouth and seeing about a hundred soldiers go off in a fiery blaze.

  His great flying made him rise high above the army to and fro as he unleashed a heavy amount of a black fire upon his enemies.

  Wave after wave, flying up and around, and circling above the army ranks, he was smoldering many slow moving soldiers beneath him. He was breathing down fire upon the soldiers like a real fire-breathing Dragon would do to a village.

  Valverno saw his black flames were erupting over the soldiers walking underneath him, but there was still large numbers spreading across the dark plains. He was going have to at least draw his attention to the catapults. Those machines throwing the rocks would likely thin the numbers of the united army.

  He quickly made with the greatest haste and casted down magic fireballs. All he sent down had blown the deadly machines away. He could see there were at least a hundred catapults. There were many spread out very widely. Valverno knew taking down many enemies wasn’t easy for him to take down, but he was for sure going to try.

  And he was going to start by destroying the catapults. Valverno enhanced his flying speed to fly faster and exhaled out his black flame upon both soldiers and several catapults. He was blowing out more fire than usual was. He stretched out for a mile long exhaling out his fire before stopping for a breath of air.

  The fire was spread for a long mile that divided several ranking soldiers. There were about seven catapults Valverno took out. The rest Valverno left burning and went to burn down the rest of the catapults.

  This one hybrid, which was doing lone-wolf attacks, was doing a big amount of damage to the enemy army and he couldn’t count how many soldiers he was burning down. Right now, he was focusing on taking down the catapults trying to throw rocks at him, but kept missing due to his speedy flight he was doing while circling over the enemy.

  For some long minutes Valverno had taken any catapult he saw throwing fiery rocks and him. And by the time he was done, he landed back at the army’s front.

  The front ranks of the soldiers kept marching forward and to Valverno. He didn’t see to what happen with the witch Belverda and King Uragiru. The leaders may have abandoned their army to save themselves or they had just found a place to hide upon the soldiers.

  “Now how about we all took a five-minute break, shall we?” asked Valverno to the soldiers, who still marched without giving a proper answer. “No? Alright then. Let’s change these plains around, shall I?”

  Valverno sank his feet to the ground and his legs unleashed a powerful smoke. As his legs began to smoke up, smoke in different parts of the army began to rise up, at the eighteen holes he made. The scales he buried were going up in smoke as his legs were doing. Valverno widened out his black wings and pointed his hand to the sky.

  There was a hard wind coming from the sky. Rain-like clouds began to swell the purple sky with a wondering yet dreadful look. The ground began to shake beneath the feet of many.

  The earth moved like a giant earthquake was going to rock down the entire island of Shimabellia. And, with a loud growl, Valverno vibrated from his mouth to the ground. Then mountains rose from the bottom and small hills waved like the ocean water waves on the shorelines.

  Crevasses and trenches erupted without a moment’s notice. A powerful earthquake began to shake beneath Valverno and the enemy army he was facing. The far and wide plains stretching out for hundreds of miles were turning into a small range of mountains and hills in a matter of seconds.

  From the eighteen holes he made, the dark scales melt into the earth and caused the earth to move around and made rocky hills and tall mountains rise so suddenly from the ground.

  Valverno knew this wasn’t a natural ability that his half divinity would give him; the power which he had processed would happen to come from the Pool of Shadows.

  After changing the terrain, Valverno and the army losing their balance from the landscape changing from a flat scape to a small range of several mountains stretching out a few miles long and a long valley of small hills had the odds tilted by a fighting on a different terrain than a flat land.

  Valverno’s great yet odd power could possibly create an earthquake to obliterate the entire island he and countless lives were living on. The power he has could possibly overdo Lusìvar, if he had come face-to-face with him once again.

  Valverno stood in front of the enemy army as Belverda came flying down with her Dragon. The witch held out a long staff and shot out a large beam of pure energy at him. Valverno covered himself with his smoking wings and the firing beam exploded at his wings.

  This didn’t do damage to him, but the explosion made him move backward while his feet was sank in the dirt, leaving a small trail of small trenches after being pushed back. Valverno widened his wings to see the army still marching and Belverda’s Dragon leading them.

  “Even with all the powers you may have, you still stand alone!” said Belverda.

  “I am never alone!” Valverno talked bac
k.

  Then strange echoes loud as an eagle’s cry came from the distant, newly created hills. The sounds of horns had been blown of a group of people were coming.

  Behind Valverno, a large heard of horses came galloping all around the hills; it was the calvary from the united army. The large number of horsemen came riding from out of nowhere and strode to meet the enemy.

  Then the calvary spread into two waves and made a V-shape formation. The horsemen strode their horses to the right and left sides of the enemy army.

  After the calvary spilt in half, soldiers without horses came charging from the splinting horsemen. At first they were sword-maidens from the Tigress Clan. Then running alongside the sword-maidens were men from Geraldus’s army. From behind the two different armies, the rest of the united army came running behind the calvary.

  Now both armies were charging forward.

  But the running soldiers stopped and several thousand archers took their positions to unleash a large volley of arrows at Belverda’s army, and Valverno could see Marina upon the archers. The arrows released had a silver tint to them when the archers released the arrows.

  Valverno could see those flying arrows had been enhanced by the influence of the White Knights.

  He saw the thousands of arrows falling upon the enemy soldiers that were charging to the demigod and the united army. Many soldiers fell before the enchanted arrows and another volley were sent out, and three more volleys of enhanced powered arrows were unleashed upon the soldiers easily falling from the falling arrows.

  After the volleys were done, the calvary made their move and charged in and would flank the enemy army from the left and ride sides. Their horses charged at the greatest speed with brightly silver tipped spears, which also had been enhanced by the White Knights.

  With his enhanced eyes, Valverno saw Wasso leading the calvary on the enemy’s left flank and his twin brother, Monico, leading the other calvary on the enemy’s right flank.

  And from the front, the united army’s infantry Geraldus and Sora led the charge, and both of them were in their White Knight uniforms. This lead to a strong army morale as two White Knights leading the battlefront.