by Eric Vall
Predation: Activated
Skill: Precognition
The words vanished in the blink of an eye, but then a series of glowing lines appeared to burst from the spirit as they crisscrossed my vision.
“What the fuck?” I muttered.
“They’re possible paths I could take to try to escape,” Rana said with an eyeroll. “You’d think if you were going to steal my power, you would at least know what it is.”
“Now I see how you fought so well in our battle,” I replied as my eyes began to focus on the lines. “It’s like a map of your next actions. Oh, and before you think about knocking the cage over, I just activated my stone magic to hold it in place.”
Rana crossed her arms over her chest and plopped down to the ground with a pout, and I walked over to my sword spirit and guided her out of Rana’s earshot.
“You assimilated her power?” Miraya asked with a surprised look on her face. “But she didn’t die.”
“I know,” I replied and ran my fingers through my shaggy hair. “I wonder if the difference is a spirit versus a physical being.”
“Or because she surrendered?” the spirit suggested. “This is all very strange. I’ve never seen it in all my years as the spirit of the sword.”
“It is definitely weird,” I agreed, “but it looks like a long day ahead of me.”
“Why?” Miraya asked.
“Because I have to do this two more times,” I grumbled.
“Wait,” the spirit said as she turned toward me and put a hand on my chest. “You mean…”
“Yeah.” I nodded. “Go get the Eternal Flame from the princess and bring it here. I’m going to tame all three of these spirits. Then I will grow even stronger.”
Miraya stared at me with a solemn expression for a moment before she dipped her head and disappeared.
It was time for round two.
Chapter 3
I paced the beach of my spiritual sea as I waited for Miraya to return. She was probably explaining what had happened to Alyona, and I’d love to have heard that conversation.
“Oh, no big deal,” I imagined Miraya saying, “he’s just fighting the spirits of the relics inside his head, so he can assimilate their powers. Don’t even worry about it.”
I snorted at the thought, but then my lips pursed and frowned as I pictured Alyona’s amethyst eyes darkened with worry.
Typically, when I entered my spiritual sea, I was in a meditative state, and I wondered if my physical body was just standing in the middle of the cavern while I duked it out in here. It probably freaked them all out when I was brought here by the Sundex, and I wished I could reassure my friends.
I was stuck in here for now, though, and I glanced over my shoulder at the golden spirit who continued to pout and avoid my gaze. She clearly wasn’t used to losing fights, but she’d never been in a battle with me.
Some more time passed as I began pacing again, and I was starting to wonder if Miraya got lost when she appeared on the sand in a flash of light. Then the spirit held up the glass case in her hand, and the Eternal Flame flickered as it leaned toward me. The fire pressed up against the glass, and it looked like molten lava as it crawled up the side to reach for me.
“I don’t like this,” Miraya murmured as she set the case down onto the sand. “And the princess didn’t like it either.”
“Did you tell her I already beat the Sundex?” I asked.
“Of course,” the spirit replied and bit her lip. “We just worry about you, that’s all.”
“I know,” I said gently as I walked toward the white-haired woman and lifted her chin to my face. “I’ll be fine. I always am.”
“Do you know the power this one holds?” Miraya wondered and gestured to the Eternal Flame.
“Nope.” I shrugged my shoulders. “I’ll figure it out, though, and then it’ll be mine. Besides, I already have the advantage of his sister’s power.”
“You are a fool if you think you’ve mastered my precognition already,” Rana muttered from her cage. “It takes years to understand how it works.”
“Well, lucky for me, I catch on pretty quick,” I chuckled. “I figured out how to see your escape plan, didn’t I?”
Rana huffed and crossed her arms back over her chest.
“I suppose she continues to underestimate you,” Miraya scoffed. “They’re even older than I am, yet they continue to be blinded by their perceived wisdom instead of understanding the truth that sits before them. I would never be so stupid as to expect that I would win a battle with a creature I knew nothing about.”
“I’ve met many a dragon in my day,” the Sundex spirit spat out. “None were able to wield so many kinds of magic or cultivate their spiritual sea. It’s not my fault this one is so… strange.”
“Strange seems to work out for me,” I deadpanned.
“You have no idea what you’re doing, stupid dragon,” Rana seethed. “I’m the youngest of the Triad spirits. You have no chance to defeat either of my brothers.”
“I’ve defeated countless creatures,” I shot back. “And that was in the outside world. Now, you’re all in my world, and soon you’ll all be mine.”
I grinned at the spirit’s surprised expression, and as I stared into Rana’s eyes, I yanked open the cover from the Flame’s glass case. There was a brief moment of stillness, and then the Eternal Flame poured out like water from a glass and began to form into the mold of a man. Within seconds, he stood well over six feet tall, and his long slender limbs extended and contracted as he stretched and yawned. He wore the same battle armor as his sister, though his was mostly orange with black trim, and his bright red hair was cropped short and stuck out in all directions like he’d rubbed his head against a balloon. He rubbed his hands through his wild hair, and then he looked down at me with eyes so dark they looked black.
“It’s about time you let me out,” the spirit hissed.
“Enjoy it while it lasts,” I chuckled as I gestured to Rana.
His dark gaze followed my finger, and he took in a sharp breath as he rushed toward the cage.
“Rana, dear sister,” he groaned. “What has happened to you?”
I turned to Miraya and rolled my eyes at their little family reunion. They would have a full house again soon enough.
“The dragon bested me in battle, my brother,” Rana said with a furrowed brow. “Now, you must avenge my loss!”
“How did he win?” her brother gasped. “We are always victorious!”
Gods, I thought I was a little cocky… okay… I was really cocky, but these two put me to shame.
“Never mind that now, Mollo!” The Sundex spirit waved a dismissive hand. “You must use your power. He will never be able to win.”
Mollo turned back to face me, and his dark eyes lit up with a fiery rage. Then he bellowed, splayed out his fingers, and shot dozens of sparks out of his hands and toward me.
“Oh, you aren’t going to like those,” Miraya murmured with a frown.
“Why?” I asked. “What are they?”
“Well, you didn’t care at all for the water sprites,” she replied as the buzzing creatures got closer. “And these are fire sprites.”
As the tiny beasts drew nearer, I could just make out the red and orange wings that fluttered behind the fairy bodies. The fire sprites were the same small size as their watery relatives, but their skin was red from head to toe. They wore no clothing, but they each carried some sort of weapon. Some carried spears the size of toothpicks, while others brandished swords that looked like they belonged in a sandwich.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” I muttered. “I’m not dealing with these little bastards.”
So, I conjured a fire dagger in my hand and launched it through the swarm of fire sprites at Mollo. The spirit staggered backward as the blade plunged into the meat of his shoulder, and then he laughed.
I raised an eyebrow as he pulled out the dagger, and his skin healed almost simultaneously.
“D
amn,” I breathed as my eyes widened in awe. “That was way faster than I can heal.”
“It must be his power,” Miraya groaned. “That’s why Rana said you’ll never beat him. He heals himself automatically.”
“Sounds like a power I need to have,” I growled as I refocused my attention on the horde of fire sprites buzzing toward me.
I opened my maw and released a powerful spray of flames, but the fire sprites pushed through as if there was nothing there.
Well, duh. They were fire sprites. Next idea.
The sprites seemed a little smarter than the golems I’d recently fought, so I couldn’t use mimicry here, and earthquakes, lightning, and echolocation were basically useless in this fight. So, I began to shoot webs out of my hands, but as soon as the silky threads touched the fire sprites’ skin, the sticky bindings melted away from the heat.
“Okay, new plan,” I grumbled before I released a cloud of the yellow-green petrification magic and sent it toward the swarm.
The fire sprites breathed it in, and the first few dropped to the ground and laid still in the sand. The ones behind them seemed to realize what had happened, though, and they spat a yellow liquid from their mouths. Their spit reacted with my petrification cloud, and my magic suddenly rushed back toward Miraya and me.
“Shit!” I gasped as I threw up my fire shield to block the magical smoke from reaching us. “That was close… Miraya?”
I turned to see the spirit had taken a few steps back to avoid the petrification magic that backfired on us.
“You okay?” I asked as I reached a hand out to her.
“I’m fine,” Miraya replied as she watched the last of the petrification cloud dissipate against my fiery shield. “That was close, though.”
“Okay, no more petrification,” I declared as I lifted the Sword of Hatra. “These little bastards are going down the old-fashioned way.”
As the tiny creatures buzzed closer, they spat out more of the yellow droplets onto my hands, and pinpricks of hot pain shot through my arms.
“Fuck!” I cursed as I lost my grip on my sword.
“Ahh, not used to the poison of a fire sprite, I see,” Mollo chuckled as he watched from his position near the cage. “Their saliva can be used to create a number of magical effects. In this case, I’ve told them to choose paralysis poison. I don’t want them to kill you. I’d rather do it myself.”
As he spoke, I could feel the poison begin to seep into my veins, and I struggled to remain standing.
“Don’t give in, Lord Evan!” Miraya cried out and placed a delicate yet firm hand on my shoulder. “You can fight him! You’ve been doing it for a week!”
“Yessss,” the Flame spirit hissed and narrowed his dark eyes at me. “You’ve been fighting me for a week, and now you’re tired, dragon. So very tired.”
I felt my eyelids beginning to droop as I fell to my knees.
“No need to fight it now,” Mollo continued in a hypnotic tone. “Just lay down right there, and it will all be over soon.”
“No!” Miraya screamed, and she opened her arms wide and clapped them together in front of her.
Suddenly, a beam of white light burst from her palms and burned a hole through the swarm of fire sprites.
The little creatures began to screech and hiss like cockroaches, and they hesitated to continue toward me.
“Ohhh, tsk, tsk,” Mollo scoffed as he cocked his head at Miraya. “You would break the rules for the dragon. Why?”
Rules? What rules?
I sleepily turned my head to the sword spirit as she replied.
“He has a greater destiny than you could imagine,” Miraya sneered. “My decision will not be questioned. And even if it is, Lord Evan is worth any of the punishments they could give me.”
“Ha!” my opponent cackled. “No one is worth their punishment.”
“What… is he talking about?” I slurred. “Miraya, what’s going on? Who’s… going to punish you?”
“Just use your healing magic,” she whispered to me. “I’ll keep talking.”
“Okay,” I mumbled as I clenched my fist and sent a wave of my healing power out from my core. Then I willed it to flow through my veins and push the fire sprites’ poison out of my system.
“You have no idea what this dragon is capable of,” Miraya continued to taunt the Flame spirit. “In the outside world, he could tear you apart in seconds with his claws.”
“And he can’t do any of that here?” Mollo sneered.
I could feel the healing magic pump through my body, and I slowly regained feeling in my limbs. Finally, I was able to stand and face the fire sprites again.
“I can do even more here,” I growled as I whipped my sword around my head and sliced a dozen fire sprites in half.
The rest of the swarm gasped as their comrades’ bodies fell to the ground in pieces, and then they buzzed and hissed as they retreated closer to Mollo.
“What do you think I’m going to do?” the Flame spirit laughed at his minions. “Get him!”
The tiny creatures’ eyebrows furrowed with determination, and then they made another beeline for me.
This time, I knew to keep them further away from me, and I pulled up another wall of sand right in front of the horde. I heard little thuds as several of the fire sprites crashed into the sand wall, but the rest pulled up abruptly and continued screeching like tiny annoying banshees.
“How can I take Mollo out if he heals so fast?” I grumbled.
“It doesn’t even matter if you can’t get rid of the fire sprites,” Miraya replied as she pointed above the wall.
Several of the sprites had flown high enough to peer over the top, and now they pointed me out to the rest of the swarm. The ones that had crashed into the wall had begun to dig their way out, and a handful of tiny red heads poked out of the sand in front of us.
“Fair enough,” I agreed as I lifted the Sword of Hatra and swung it parallel with the sand wall.
The blade lopped off the heads of the sprites who had dug through, and the ones watching above me chattered with fury.
“Get him!”
“He beheaded them all!”
“The dragon must pay!”
Within seconds, the rest of the horde had fluttered above the wall and then zoomed down toward me. I took a few more swings with the sword, but it was hard to hit more than a couple of the sprites while avoiding their poisonous spit.
“Well, I know they can’t heal like he can,” I thought out loud as I stepped back from the wall. “But I need to damage the rest of them somehow.”
So, while I came up with a plan, I created another fire shield and spread it like a bubble over Miraya and me. We stood underneath the fiery umbrella, and the fire sprites banged into the sides with rage. Unlike most of my enemies, they weren’t burned by the fire, but they couldn’t get through the shield, either.
“You know fire well,” Miraya pointed out. “What do you think would hurt creatures made from fire?”
“Ahhhh,” I exhaled, and a grin spread across my face. “I just have to put them out.”
“What?” The spirit frowned in confusion as I took a step closer to my spiritual sea.
The water lapped up to my hand as though answering my call, and I pushed a giant wave into the air. The rolling water stood nearly twenty feet tall, much higher than the sand wall, and it towered over the swarm of fire sprites.
As the shadow crossed over their faces, the little beasts looked up at the water and screamed as I released the wave. The water crashed down on top of them, and I heard a loud sizzle as it extinguished each of the fire sprites.
“No!” Mollo bellowed. “You ignorant fool! You’ve killed them!”
“Well, they tried to paralyze me, so did you think we’d go have a picnic together?” I shrugged. “You shouldn’t have sent them after me if you didn’t want them to die, dumbass.”
“A dragon shouldn’t even have water magic!” the spirit spat out. “It’s absurd!”
“That may be true,” Mollo murmured as he narrowed his dark eyes at me, “but you won’t be able to slay these beasts.”
With that, a circle of sand began to bulge and grow until a hill had formed on the beach between us. It rose higher until it was a few feet taller than me, and I stared at the sand hill for a moment.
“This is your big plan?” I smirked. “I can climb a hill, Mollo.”
“It isn’t a hill,” he growled. “It’s a volcano.”
Suddenly, the top burst open as the volcano erupted, and lava poured down the sides onto the beach. I started to bring more water up from my spiritual sea, but then Miraya held out her arm to stop me.
“This isn’t all,” she murmured.
“What do you--” I started to ask when the lava began to rise from the beach and take shape.
Two forms rose from the lava and took shape into huge creatures that towered over us. They stood at least ten feet tall, and the lava hardened around their large bodies to form a rock-solid black exterior. Lava still bubbled inside the rocky skin, and I could see it through the cracks of the stones. Then the beasts opened bright red eyes that stared at us with blatant rage. They gnashed large, sharp teeth, and long black canines dangled over their bottom lips and dripped with saliva.
“What are those?” I asked as I eyed the beasts.
“Lava goblins,” Miraya replied with a touch of awe in her voice. “I haven’t seen any in decades.”
“I thought goblins were little annoying shits,” I snickered.
“Normally,” my spirit-sword breathed, “but lava ones are like giant versions.”
“Well, the rocks will keep their internal lava protected from my water,” I mused. “We need to figure out something else.”
As I spoke, one of the lava goblins roared and then took off toward us. The gigantic beast moved slowly, but every step he took rattled the ground like a small earthquake.
I watched as the golden line of his path took shape in front of me, but there was only one line instead of several like I’d seen with Rana.