MARKED BY DRACONIC OVERLORD

Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Hospitalized

The battle began in earnest as Kael tore through them, his movements fluid, almost weightless. A single punch obliterated a cluster of goblins on contact; every strike of his claws cut down another orc.

Bare-handed, he tore limbs from bodies and crushed skulls as he fought. This wasn't a battle anymore, it was a massacre, carried out by one person.

Blood soaked the ground beneath the growing pile of corpses, gore scattered across what remained of the street.

Kael caught a struggling goblin by the head and crushed it like a grape. The battlefield was a ruin of blood and shattered pavement, destruction everywhere.

He turned back toward Elisa, who stood frozen, still processing the scale of what she'd just witnessed. When his gaze met hers, a chill ran through her entire body, the person looking back at her didn't feel like her brother anymore.

He started walking toward her, and fear gripped her as she watched him approach, his eyes flat and cold, utterly devoid of emotion.

Ba-bump.

Her heart lurched with every step he took, a single thought looping through her mind.

Will he even recognize me? Or will he just...

Five meters from reaching her, Kael stopped mid-stride. Before she could wonder why, his eyes rolled back and he collapsed forward.

THUD.

He hit the ground just a few feet from her, his long black hair shrinking back to its normal length, the draconic scales on his arms and face dissolving like dust in the wind, his claws returning to ordinary fingers.

Elisa stared at her unconscious brother, still trying to process everything that had just happened.

"Damn... guess I burned through everything I had left. I'm about to pass out too," she muttered, and collapsed beside him just as Charles the Sword King arrived on the scene.

"That golden and red pillar of light came from here and that oppressive aura too" Charles stopped mid-sentence, stunned by what he found.

"What the hell actually happened here?" he said, staring at the carnage before him, the corpses of countless orcs and goblins, the sheer scale of destruction.

His gaze swept the area before landing on the three unconscious figures on the ground. What struck him most was that none of them appeared injured.

"How did they survive all this?" he wondered aloud, given how lethal red rifts were known to be. Looking at the dead orcs and goblins surrounding them, a thought crossed his mind.

Did someone save them? But that golden light meant an awakening happened here, I can't make sense of this. Still puzzled, his focus shifted to Kael, unconscious beside Elisa, and his eyes went wide.

"WHAT!! HOW CAN THIS BE?!"

Charles froze on the spot. Looking past the surface, he could see the aura radiating off Kael's body, suffocating, dense with pressure.

This aura, I'm not mistaken. It's the exact same one I felt earlier. Looking closer, he realized with a start that this was the boy Bradon had begged him to save, the one who'd awakened the weakest possible talent.

It's him. But how? Wait! if this aura is coming from him, then that pillar of light was his too? The realization hit him all at once.

It can't be. But how else do you explain it? Unless the crystal read him wrong, no, that's not possible either. There's only one explanation left. He re-awakened.

"Looks like you've defied fate, kid," Charles said, a faint smile crossing his face as he took in the destruction surrounding the corpses of orcs and goblins littering every direction.

"Vic's going to want to hear about this. Might be exactly what he needs to get back on track." He moved forward, checking Kael's pulse. Stable. Stronger than it should be.

---

Three days later. Black Ridge City General Hospital. Room 204.

"No! I deserve to be punished for this. Because of me, you went through hell. I'm so sorry," Elisa said through tears.

Kael pulled her closer, wrapping his arms around her.

"You don’t deserve any punishment. None of this was your fault. What’s done is done, there’s no use dwelling on it. Protecting you is my job, no matter what it takes. I’ll cross mountains, oceans, fire, hell, whatever it takes," he said, and Elisa's crying paused as surprise washed over her face.

She looked up, meeting his gaze, and found nothing but warmth and love looking back at her.

"No matter what happens, I'll always protect you," Kael said with a smile.

"Kael..." Her eyes welled up again.

"Come on, Eli, it's okay," he said gently, though she kept crying anyway.

"Just let her get it out. She'll be fine soon enough," the woman standing beside them said.

She looked to be in her late thirties, her long black hair falling to her waist, her light purple eyes striking and full of quiet charm. Her face was oval, her nose small and delicate, her lips soft and full. She carried herself with a mature, graceful presence.

But there was a paleness to her, her skin, usually radiant, looked drained and tired.

"Mom," Kael said, emotion thick in his voice.

"I'm so grateful you pulled through, after everything you went through to save Elisa. I'm just glad you're alive," she said, sitting on the edge of the bed with a soft smile.

"When I saw the state you were in three days ago, I was terrified. You were in a coma for three days, and I thought I was going to lose you. I was so scared. But here you are," she said, tears sliding silently down her face.

He pulled away from Elisa and moved to his mother's side, gently wiping the tears from her cheeks.

"Mom, don't cry. As long as I have you both to protect, not even death is taking me anywhere. I'll defy fate before I let that happen," he said with a smile, though a flicker of sadness crossed his eyes as he took in her pale face.

"You really are your father's son," she said, running her fingers through his hair, seeing traces of a man whose resemblance to Kael was unmistakable.

"Oh, I almost forgot. You've had a friend visiting every day while you were out," Elisa said suddenly.

"A friend?" Kael blinked, then realized there was only one person it could be, given everything that had happened at the ceremony.

"Bradon," he said, just as the door opened and Bradon walked in.

"Speak of the devil," Kael said with a grin.

Bradon's eyes went wide at the sight of him sitting up, looking healthy, shock giving way instantly to relief and joy.

"Bro, you're finally awake!" Bradon shouted, rushing toward him.

What none of them could explain was how any of it had been possible, how something like this had answered him at the exact edge of death, almost as if it had been waiting all along for that very moment.

Inside Kael, deep in his mana core, a pair of golden draconic eyes opened.

Heh. So you finally woke up, Draconic Overlord.