Dragonblood Ascension

"What am I?"

Two minutes into the fight, Leon could already sense that the undead were being controlled by some sort of sorcery. He had imagined where they were coming from and how they keep increasing in number. He knows that the undead had been exterminated a long time ago and it didn’t make any sense that they are suddenly back.

He stopped fighting and lowered his sword. At the same time, an undead lunged toward him and without thinking, he drove his fist through its chest with enough force to shatter it to bones.

The undead all stopped, as if surprised. Even Leon froze. He couldn’t believe he had such strength.

The undead became violent and they all came at him at once. Leon simply raised his hand and crimson fire exploded from his palm.

BOOM!

The creatures disintegrated at once and not one was spared.

“That’s what I am talking about,” Valtherion laughed excitedly in his head.

Leon stared at the flames surrounding his hand and he was left speechless. His entire body pulsed with overwhelming energy and his senses had sharpened to an unnatural level. He could hear whisperings of sorcery from dozens of meters away and he could even hear their heartbeat. He doesn’t know if it was a good thing to be excited for, but deep down, he wanted to squeal out loud and show everyone what he was capable of. He wanted to show them he is not that worthless, mana-less boy again.

“Focus!” Valtherion scolded him.

He immediately returned to his senses and his ears twitched at the voices of the sorcerers.

“Let’s kill him,” one of them said.

Immediately, Leon looked above him and saw balls of fire descending on him. He dodged them faster than they fell and managed to get away. He looked back when he heard the explosion and his chest heaved up and down. He didn’t know how he quickly managed to get away from the fire, but one thing he knows is that he suddenly felt the world around him slow down.

He heard chantings and he got furious. He looked around and his eyes burned in crimson as his view became clearer. He saw the sorcerers in a distance all covered in black hoods and holding a staff. Once they banged the staff on the ground, dark spikes came out of the ground and was directed toward him.

Crimson fire burst beneath his feet and his steps were like fire as he moved towards them. He stepped sideways just before the spikes would hit him and the sorcerer’s eyes widen. In no time, Leon appeared in front of them and before they could react, he held the face of one and fire burst out of his hand.

The sorcerer screamed and tried chanting again, but Leon slammed him against the ground and he moved to another one. He shot crimson flames and it engulfed the sorcerer who ran around, trying to put out the fire.

One of the sorcerers managed to sneak up behind him and he pulled out a dagger. He covered it in his blood and stabbed Leon with it, thinking he had succeeded in using his dark magic against him.

Leon looked down at his arm which was swift to stop the knife and he saw something that looked like a metal which was quick to disappear. He turned to the sorcerer and in a swift movement, he pulled his sword and pushed it into him, killing him at the spot.

The last sorcerer saw everything Leon did and stepped back I fear, but Leon was not ready to let him go.

“Who sent you?” he demanded coldly, eyes flaring with crimson. “You destroyed my city and killed a number of civilians with mere dark magic. How dare you?”

“You are a sovereign,” the sorcerer said and gasped. “That can’t be possible. No one has managed to awaken the dragonblood in years.”

“That’s not the question I asked!” Leon yelled at him. “I asked who sent you.”

The sorcerer shook his head and tried to make a run for it, but Leon made a clean strike across his neck before he took two steps and the sorcerer fell with a thud.

Leon’s eyes returned to normal and when he saw what he had done, he threw the sword and fell to his knees. He looked down at his hands and tears blurred his vision. He had just killed people and he didn’t even feel any bit of remorse. Instead, anger and pain was what rose within him.

“Do you regret it?” Valtherion asked.

“STOP TALKING!” Leon shouted and held his head tightly, as if that would make him go away. “AARGHH!” he yelled and stomped his fist hard on the ground.

He slowly blinked and lifted his hand from the ground. There, he saw the deep hole he had made and smoke stirred out from it.

“What am I?” he asked, not sure of what he had become.

“You are on your way to becoming the first flame dragonblood after years of extinction.”

“Flame dragonblood?” Leon repeated. “But that doesn’t make any sense. How can I just suddenly become something so…” He couldn’t even complete his sentence the moment he realized he was about to look down on himself again.

That’s right, he thought. Everyone probably looks at him like that. Even he himself has viewed himself as worthless countless times. And now that he has something none of the nobles can even boast of, not even the Mage Houses, he doesn’t feel like he’s worthy of it.

Screams echoed off in the distance and he turned his head toward it. There, he could see the enormous creatures still terrorizing them. He suddenly threw his head to the side and coughed out blood as his body shook violently along.

For some reason, he could feel pain seeping through his insides and all around his body. His body glowed faintly of crimson marks and he felt like he could collapse anytime soon.

“What is happening to me?” he asked.

“Your body is still adjusting to the powers. It feels foreign to your body,” Valtherion answered and became silent before asking him, “Do you still want to reject it? But remember, once you do, all your earlier pains will come back to you. You will either get paralyzed for the rest of your life or even die in a few days.”

Leon scoffed and shook his head. “Then why bother asking me? Do you think I want to die or be paralyzed forever?”

“Hmm, I didn’t think so too. But there’s another thing you need to know.”

“What is it?” Leon asked, already fearing what it could be.

“The moment they discover what you are, they’ll try to kill you just like they did to the others. Are you prepared for that?”

Leon couldn’t believe what he was hearing. How can anyone be prepared for death? And why would they possibly want to kill him because he had just awakened the dragon bloodline? Even though Valtherion has helped him, he can’t trust him completely.

“My people are not like that,” he said, defending them and his eyes were fixed on the abyssal monsters. “They won’t kill the one who saves them from damnation.”

Valtherion went completely silent after that and Leon took the hood of one of the sorcerers before using it to cover himself. His body was still hurting from the awakening and he was barely standing, but he took in all the pain and head toward where the others were.

He paused when he got to one of the rooftops and he moved his eyes around. He could see the Royal Knight Mages trying everything they could, using their mana and everything possible. It doesn’t matter how many times they strike the creature. It only keeps regenerating itself.

“I’ll rather die helping than spend the rest of my life paralyzed or running away,” he told himself, and with that, he jumped down the roof and landed on top of the creature.

Everyone paused for a brief second and some even yelled at him;

“What are you doing?”

“Are you trying to get yourself killed?”

“Someone should get him out of there!”

But Leon could not be bothered with their cries. They’ve spent hours fighting off a skeletal monster that wouldn’t die when they should have gotten rid of it from the root. But then, it was obvious that no one was brave enough to get this close to it and get rid of it completely. He was even more surprised to see Commander Gareth standing afar off and watching as everything unfolds. It’s as if he deliberately left them to deal with the chaos.

He pulled his blade and crimson fire erupted across it before he ran down the monster’s spine and descended his sword on an opening he saw. It was the weak spot. The monster let out a loud roar that shook the entire buildings around the place and it collapsed with a thud. He didn’t give it any chance to regenerate before he slashed at it, making pieces of its bones and scattering it around.

The other monster charged at him and used its tail to hit him. Leon went stumbling several feet backwards but he clung to its tail and pressed his palms hard on it, sending crimson fire all around its body. He let out a yell as he forced every inch of himself.

The knights, soldiers and civilians all stared in shock as the monster was suddenly engulfed in flames and it trashed hard, knocking over anything that was in its way. They watched as fire engulfed the person in hood and were surprised that he wasn’t backing away. Before they knew it, the monster they had been trying to get rid of for hours scattered to pieces right in front of them in less than few minutes.

Everyone gasped in surprise and even the mages were astonished at how someone could manage to take on two abyss creatures at the same time so effortlessly.

Now that Leon had gotten rid of the monsters terrorizing his city, he could almost hear the silence and his body gave away immediately. He collapsed to the ground and the last thing he saw before darkness took over completely was Commander Gareth standing above him with a grim expression on his face.