Heir of Lightening

Chapter 5. Will of Fire.

"Heal the boy and take him away" Tharros shouted commands at some of the men, they were still too stunned to speak but Kirin dragged himself up, staggered for a moment with blood dripping from his nose.

"I'm good sir", he forced himself to say, but Tharros had already left, locked in battle with the thing that was once Greg but wasn't him anymore. Kirin struggled to get himself to his feet, he wondered why nobody had come to his aide.

'Do they really not care about me that much', he thought to himself as he dug up an elixir from his bag, finishing the entire potion in one go. After a few subtle moments, he got back to himself, his wounds were healed.

He turned around feeling refreshed only to see the reason why no one had come to him, the other ten men were surrounded. By men with blackened eyes, they seemed like normal men, except, they were exactly like Greg.

Kirin immediately drew his saber, falling into Blood stance which he had mastered for years on end, this was his first real experience with things that weren't human, looking around him he took in as much detail as he could. 

To Kirin's left, a warrior fell as spikes of blood shot through his skull, the sudden death of his comrade gave him pause, unsure of what to do or who to help, he looked out searching for Seth.

Seth was locked in battle with one of them, he fought viscously, using the fire element to burn off the blood spikes that were shot towards him. Kirin watched his friend with intrigue, he knew Seth was skilled but not to this extent, Seth dodged and weaver past the attacks sent at him, doubling over and switching from one element to another seamlessly.

But, before Kirin could take a step, Tharros crashed into the ground before him, there was a gaping sword wound at his thigh, and blood dripping from his lips.

"T... Tharros?" Kirin stuttered.

Kirin couldn't believe it, Tharros had fallen? He looked back to see where Tharros had been engaged in battle, and he noticed that the thing that was once Greg had lost an arm, a leg, an eye with multiple injuries on its body, yet it stood as if immune to pain.

There was nothing in the books which he had read, about things like this, he ran towards Tharros, rummaging through his bag and giving him an elixir, Tharros took it immediately from his hand and then clutched Kirin's shirt tightly.

"Protect me for three minutes, just three minutes boy. You can do it!" he said then popped the cork of the elixir, drank it. Then sat up straight and began meditating, Kirin was stumped.

'Does he expect me to hold that thing off, for three Damn minutes? The fuck does he mean, he knows I can do it?', Kirin's legs shook slightly, his breathing turned heavy.

He looked around after he heard a sound, swinging his saber wildly in the air.

Kirin couldn't see the other warriors, they were either dead or had retreated to the outskirts of the forest. It was just him and Tharros stranded here, and the things that had fought the other warriors slowly approached him.

Their steps were light, they made no marks on the snow as they moved toward him, to make matters even worse, the one that had fought Tharros had somehow healed itself and it was coming toward him.

Kirin looked at the body of Greg as he approached, his eyes filled with tears knowing that his death was eminent, he swung his saber in a wide arc.

"Stay away" he screamed.

"Get away from me!" he shouted, tears streaming down his face, they paid no attention, they walked towards them, not all together but one by one, and at that moment, he understood the essence of life. 

That people live to survive, to strive and to evade death. But yet, Death is inevitable and thus it is feared.

Kirin knew he couldn't just sit here and do nothing, he had to protect Tharros, he was his only chance of surviving, of living.

He felt at his core, drawing energy from within, blue aura surrounded him with sparks of lightning flowing, he extended the lightning reaching across him, covering every part of his body whole.

Extending his aura even further, he pushed it into his weapon. Metals are very conductive for lightning, as a conductor that wasn't his body, he held the blade horizontally, placing his left finger on the side of his saber while he held the saber firmly with his right hand.

Using the conductivity of the sword, he forcefully passed the lightning from his right hand to the weapon and the receiving it from his left hand, he repeated this motion tremendously fast, so fast that he aura sharpened, became much more visible, deadly and lethal. 

When he had felt he could rotate his energy no more, the creatures were already less than a better away from him. With an aura sharpened to its fullest, filling him with an uncontrollable amount of lightning that sought for an escape, he did the only thing he could.

He swung.

Fast as lightning, he sliced off both legs of the closest creature to him and watched as it fell to the ground, he looked around as the others were slowly approaching.

The creatures seemed sentient as they regarded him in his new form, he looked down at himself and at his saber, the blood that remained on his weapon, it seemed to wiggle around a bit but was burned in mere seconds.

The creature he had just cut down screamed as it shot a blood spike toward Kirin, with lightning reflexes he dodged the attack, bringing down his saber, slashing it's neck clean.

The blood that poured out was thick and black, it moved as if searching for a new source of life, Kirin pointed his saber of the creature and blasted it with as much lightning as he could muster. 

The body of the creature crumbled to dust.

Kirin breathed heavily, he had never expended so much energy in his life, he had used almost half his energy and he had killed only one? 

He looked back at Tharros as he meditated, unsure of how much time had passed.

Kirin swung his sword to his shoulder, the saber felt heavy in his hands but he didn't mind. It was his weapon. He dashed towards the creatures but they were ready, they all shot blood spikes at him. He evaded as many as he could but not all. 

One blood spike stabbed his left hip, stunting his movement, the black blood wriggled about between his flesh but evaporated as soon as it had made contact, however the damage was done. Kirin stumbled.

The fresh wound slowed him down, but not enough, he managed to slice off the head of the one that attacked him, but two more showed up from behind him, one shot a blood claw at Kirin while the other shot a spike from the opposite side.

Then a third creature blocked the escape path before him, just like that he was attacked from three angles, at such close distance, their attacks couldn't miss and thus Kirin's body was lacerated with grievous wounds, the black blood tried to drain his life force but was always burnt away. 

He understood that the creatures could manipulate the black blood however they wished, but they just lacked the intelligence to make any fatal attacks. The tendons in his right leg were slashed, making him fall to the ground, and the black blood burned as quickly as it had cut his skin, but his blood flowed. All over his body, blood leaked from numerous wounds.

Kirin fell to one knee unable to do anything, at this point he couldn't be bothered about Tharros anymore, the man had probably left him to escape, and he wouldn't blame him either, Kirin would have done the same if he were in a similar situation.

His aura slowly diminished, he was very low on soul energy and couldn't keep his form for long, he looked at his saber as he heard thunder rolling in the sky, the aura from his blade completely vanished and so did the aura surrounding his body.

The creatures surrounding him had doubled, making cackling sounds of laughter, their faces joyful with glee after seeing Kirin completely weakened. He was now vulnerable to their attacks.

"I did my best," Kirin said to himself, there was nothing else he could do. He felt drained, tired and exhausted, but most of all, if he died now, he wouldn't regret his death.

He held down the urge to scream for help, to scream for protection, sitting bloodied and teary, he wanted to cry, to express himself once more while being eaten by creatures of Chaos itself.

He looked up to the skies and saw the sky rumble, a drop of rain fell to his face and he smiled a little. The creatures all moved together, jumping on Kirin, to rip him apart.

"Father, would you be proud?" He whispered softly as he met go of his saber. Then Kirin's skin prickled slightly, he felt a surge of lightning shoot into the skies.

Suddenly, a huge bolt of lightning, bigger than anything Kirin had ever seen struck where he sat and the creatures along with him. Its range and power were so wide and destructive that it covered at least a twenty-meter radius, melting the rocks surrounding it, incinerating everything else.

"Haarr, are you still alive boy?" Tharros threw his head back in laughter as he watched Kirin, stunned on the ground with the dead and withering bodies of the creatures that surrounded him.