Black goop gathered in a section of the cave beneath where Ruby and the group once were.The cave was lit up by glow worms that stuck to the roof and floor of the cave. As the goop gathered, it rose before falling once again, leaving Soki and the two men he attacked alone in that part of the cave.Soki held the men's faces in his hands, refusing to let go no matter what. The tattoos on his body glowed faintly and started shifting and turning round his body.One of the men in his grasp slammed his hand into the floor. Immediately Soki saw himself flying in the air with both men still on the floor."Wind burst!" The man said as he got up off the floor and ran to his comrade beside him. Picking him up the two got off the floor."Hey," the wind alchemist said, "we have to be careful with him... Can you stand?" He asked his comrade. The other man rubbed his throat before looking at the wind alchemist, "yeah... Who the hell is he?" He asked as he looked at his comrade.Soki landed on the f
Christopher waited quietly and watched Lee. His guard was up, he wasn't going to let whatever Lee was about to say bother him."So, what's your name kid? If we're rivals we'll have to know each other's names," smiled Lee.Christopher raised his hands, "I don't know what you're planning, but you're not getting any info out of me," said Christopher.Lee stroked his chin, "well that's a problem. How am I supposed to hell out your name in anger now?" Asked Lee as he paced up and down.There was still quite a distance between Christopher and Lee, and Christopher made sure to keep an eye on Lee and keep it that way.He wasn't planning on making any mishaps. He would look for a small window when Lee's guard was down, and then take him out.He hadn't been training with Soki for no reason. Still, he was the weakest amongst his group. Ruby and Damian had made leaps and bounds in improvements compared to him.He knew getting careless could cost him his life. He wasn't planning on dying, he stil
Black goop spat up Damian and his opponent. Damian fell out on his butt, quickly getting to his feet.His opponent was still bound by his flames, rolling on the floor. Damian locked his eyes on his opponent."Shit!" His opponent saw the look in his eyes. It wasn't a normal one. He was facing an opponent ready to kill."Yosh!" He flexed his muscles and powered his way through the flames, extinguishing them.His opponent launched himself off of the floor and landed on his feet. His black hair ran down in one braid down his face, covering most of his features, save for a single eye."I'm sorry kid, there's a death king that I need to deal with! Those men don't stand a chance..." Said the braided man, "... I barely stand a chance. Our only chance is to awaken that dragon to kill him," he thought to himself."How long?" Asked Damian. "What?" The man was confused, "how long have you been with the ORA?" Asked Damian, his face holding an unsettling intensity.The man broke a smirk, then he sc
A child, no older than ten sat in the corner of a dark room. His eyes dark, his heart darker. His dark scraggly hair sat right on his head.He swayed back and forth murmuring something to himself. It was a nursery rhyme. It was humpty Dumpty.He didn't like that one in particular very much. He'd thought it a tragedy how Dumpty would fall from the wall and shatter into so many pieces that even all the king's horses couldn't piece him back together.He was singing it only because it was the only one his mother had taught him. Not just that, he sang it because it distracted him.It distracted him from the bad sounds. From the sounds of his mother getting beaten in the other room.He rocked back and forth and tried singing louder. But his voice was too sore. He was already exhausted and his fresh bruises from his own beating still hurt.It was his fault that his mother was getting beaten in the first place. If only she'd kept quiet and let his dad beat him like he did every other night.B
Ruby stood face to face with it. It's dangling eye, it's rotting flesh, it's scaly skin. Despite looking dead it still looked fearsome, perhaps even more so now that it moved in the state it was.Some parts of its bone were visible. By logic, it shouldn't be moving. Even if it did it should've been falling apart. Technically it was.But now she was frozen in fear. Standing in front of the giant flying lizard monster in front of her. She faced an undead dragon.The beast was on fire. Perhaps it was able to light itself on fire; perhaps it was trying to breathe fire, but its current state caused the fire to leak outside its body.As to which it actually was, Ruby couldn't tell. To her knowledge dragons had fireproof bodies. They breathed fire, but as to whether their bodies could light on fire she didn't know. In fact, up until now, the concept of a dragon felt like a fever dream.Maybe she was just seeing things. The dragon swayed its head and turned to face her.It's head was massiv
The info dump was quick and direct. It needed to be, there was no point in talking if they'd die before much was spoken about.The plan they came up with was simple in concept but hard in practice. The dragon could sense the flow of mana and could vaguely predict their moves.The fact that Ruby was able to land an attack on it that it panicked and used its weight to try and crush was proof that it wasn't completely proxy to the exact spells they were able to do.But regardless, it could tell when they wanted to do, something. But now that meant that they were walking on eggshells.The things they could do were quite limited. The dragon turned around and whipped its tail against the ground. Ruby was seated on the floor behind a rock, her back facing the dragon.Meanwhile, Damian and Christopher were standing beside her on either side of the rock facing the dragon. Damian's arm was still in terrible shape, and while Christopher had his fair share of injuries, he was in by far the best
Lee was sprinting at full speed straight out of the cave. "That dragon... Even Soki shouldn't be able to handle that all by himself," he thought as he ran.Leaving the entrance he used sand and carried himself straight to the top of the depression. He looked down at the cave.Cracks has formed all-over the ceiling for it. He sat there patiently covered by a few leaves and shrubs."I'll wait here till the dragon kills them, and then..." He pulled out a small amulet from his pocket, "... I'll use this to control the beast crystal we put inside of it." It would be a shame that his rival would most likely die—and with such great potential too. But, it wasn't something he hadn't gotten used to.Suddenly he felt another huge tremor ring through the entire cave—reaching him all the way at the top."That must be Soki... He can't beat that thing," he thought to himself. Not too long after the ceiling began collapsing on itself.A smile sat on Lee's face. He could tell that the fight was over,
"Damn it!!!" Soki yelled as he quickly rushed to the floor, taking four rocks and tossing each one into four distinct alchemy return circles."AHHHHH!!!!" shouted Ruby at the top of her lungs, "Where'd he go!!!" Asked Damian as he looked around him."He could still be in the area!" Said Christopher. "No!" Yelled Soki, "he ran away to avoid battle. He knew that if he tried to attack any of you I'd kill him," said Soki as sweat ran down his face.He stood up from the floor. "I'm sorry Ruby," he said as he turned to her. "I should've attacked him the instant he showed up," he added.He placed a hand on his face, "I wanted to gather some info on him first. I'm terribly sorry for causing you pain while I could bring you closure Ruby," said Soki.Ruby stomped her foot on the ground as hard as she could, "I'll kill him myself Soki! You didn't cause anything!!" She said.Damian and Christopher lowered their guards a little, "so where is he now?" Asked Christopher. "I don't know, but it's clea