Dragonlord

Ep 148. I’m Sure We’ll Meet Again. (2)

Ep 148. I’m Sure We’ll Meet Again. (2)

“Hf…hff…!”

With pained, rapid breaths, Urgus tossed his shattered battleaxe. His foot haphazardly trampled over the fallen warriors as he rushed to pluck out a usable weapon from their hands.

Yanking out a hunting spear from a corpse’s grip, he immediately plunged it towards Peska, burying the tip between the fellow warrior’s eyes.

A sharp screech struck Urgus’ eardrums as his friend threw their skewered head backwards, wreathing in pain.

Blood oozed out of the warrior’s forehead, and for a moment, Peska seemed to falter in his steps. But the frantic shaking soon came to a cease, their unfocused eyes once again sharpening onto  Urgus and Light – as if they could suddenly no longer register the pain.

Gritting his teeth, Urgus discarded his spear and leapt forward, gripping his friend by their chin and arm to slam them down onto the ground. As the chief struggled with all his might to keep his enraged warrior pinned down, he screamed towards the half at his back.

“Now!”

At Urgus’ calling, Light bit down on her lips, reluctantly holding her hands out forward.

In the following second, two pads of stone jutted out from the ground on each side of Peska’s head. The stones then collapsed together, crushing their head in between.

The warrior’s body soon fell limp.

And, as expected, a parworm shot out of the crushed remains of Peska’s head.

Urgus swiped the ground as he had before, attempting to kill the insect before it could claim any additional victims. It certainly wasn’t the first, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last.

But just as the chief warrior struck the ground, a sudden headache interrupted his precision, making his hand rake nothing but dirt.

The worm immediately sped away from the chief warrior, rapidly traversing through the snow – until it would eventually find a new corpse. The worm soon crawled into another warrior’s open mouth.

Soon, the fallen warrior would seemingly rise from the dead with newfound strength, uncaring for their ruptured abdomen that had killed them once before.

“…This is ridiculous.”

Urgus watched with sullen eyes as yet another warrior fell prey to a parworm’s control.

Grimacing, the chief warrior reluctantly threw himself back into battle.

Normally, parworms would take refuge within the bodies of animals: bears and wolves and the like were most common. Compared to such wild predators, a human body offered little in terms of raw strength.

But right now, there were no animals to serve as host.

Aside from Chell’s inhabitants, only a horde of monsters remained – none that could serve as the parasite’s vessel. Hence, they were crawling into whatever bodies they could find.

“Haah!”

Following his battlecry, Urgus once again drove his fist into the risen warrior’s head. Their face was soon demolished into flesh and bone as the chief warrior’s fingers dug beyond their skin, crushing the worm that was controlling them from inside.

But despite having freed another fellow warrior from the parasite’s control, Urgus had no mind to celebrate his success.

Just when the monster horde and the storm of spirits seemed to be dwindling, they were now faced with their own fallen allies turning against them. And while the risen warriors were lesser than a yeti in terms of pure prowess, having to kill them was just as difficult, if not significantly worse.

It certainly didn’t help that their battle necessitated crushing the heads of their fallen allies, where parworms would often reside in.

And, for some strange reason…

“HMPH!”

Another warrior abruptly landed in front of Light, swinging his massive axe down onto the snow. His weapon crushed the ground with a shaking thud, splattering dirt and snow inches away from the half girl.

At first, Light felt a wave of panic, mistaking him for yet another parasite’s host. But while his leather attire was ridden with blood, she couldn’t see any mortal wounds; unlike the lifeless, unfocused eyes parworm hosts tended to have, a pair of golden eyes were glowing with life beneath his bone helm.

And, soon enough, she could see the parworm caught beneath the warrior’s massive blade. The monster screeched in pain as its body dissipated to nothing.

“…Um…thank you…”

Light shuddered for a few moments, thanking the warrior that had just saved her.

But instead of leaving her side, the warrior turned to scan their surroundings.

Numerous hosts and worms alike were slowly making their way towards Light. For some reason, the half was growing more and more popular for these parasitic monsters.

The warrior then turned back towards Light, the eyes beneath his bone helm carefully scanning her from head to toe.

“…Hm. Outsider. What have you done?”

“N, nothing! Believe me, I wish I knew!”

“Hm…”

Following the warrior’s entrance, a group of additional warriors followed suit, paving the way through monsters and fallen warriors alike. They soon joined with Light and their leading warrior, scanning the area around Chell.

“Orkaan! What is happening?! This mist, the monster horde…and the worms, their hosts are…”

“Our brothers and sisters.”

“…”

The warriors looked to their leader with a somber gaze. Despite paving their way through several already, none seemed happy about cutting down their own.

On the contrary, Orkaan showed no visible expression beneath his helm. He simply let out another grunt.

“I know little of this laughing mist, but it seems to be dissipating. You lot help Urgus and focus on the monsters. I will deal with the worms.”

“By yourself? There’s at least several dozens of them. How could-”

“This outsider here seems to attract worms.”

Orkaan casually lifted Light in one hand, making her dangle beneath his grip like some newly caught game.

“Huh? W, wait, put me down!”

And although she protested with her mouth, Light was too tired to even try to wriggle out.

Ignoring the half girl’s pleas, Orkaan then looked towards his fellow warriors, pointing at the red dragon in the distance.

“For some reason, the strange fire-breathing lizard there seems to be fighting the horde as well. We’ll use her.”

“Hey, that’s my sister you’re talking about!”

“…?”

For a brief second, Orkaan looked at Light with an incredulous expression.

In all fairness, the claim was indeed ridiculous to the Asardan. As far as he knew, one was just a stray half, the other a giant winged lizard.

But as another scream rang throughout the vicinity, Orkaan’s mind snapped back to task.

“Does the lizard understand our tongue?”

“…Yeah?”

“And she’s sided with us?”

“…Uh, yeah?”

“Good.”

With a single unified nod, Orkaan’s group of warriors split into several smaller groups to fend off the remains of the monster horde. Orkaan himself turned around, speeding out of Chell’s broken walls and paving the way forward through men and monster alike.

On one hand, he held Light with an iron grip; with the other, he continued to swing his trusted battleaxe.

And behind him were dozens of enraged Asardans that were chasing Light.

“We make for the fire-breathing lizard.”

✧   ✧   ✧

Some time later…

“…”

When Serenis turned her gaze, she could feel her head growing at least twice as heavy than before from all her headaches – not from all the burns Aymeia had just inflicted, but from the sight she was now beholding.

Felicir was nowhere to be found.

The storm of dead that were about Chell had all but disappeared. The Reaper presumably consumed them all, or at the very least, reared them back into his possession.

And in his place, a bird-shaped mound of snow was standing on top of the unconscious steel dragon. It stared at Serenis with the same eerie-blue eyes as Felicir, and despite its lack of a visible mouth, Serenis could swear it was smirking.

After all, its lack of mouth certainly didn’t stop it from talking in his voice.

“Hmph. I suppose it really was a mistake to think you and your son equals. I’ve heard there were large gaps in strength between the lords, but I’d expected lords of the same tribe to be at least somewhat comparable…”

“…”

“But you hardly seem harmed. A graze here and there at best.”

Although the Reaper was severely understating the damage Aymeia had done, Serenis made no effort to point out such details.

Instead, she let another long sigh skyward before meeting the familiar’s eerie gaze.

“…Fleeing again?”

“I’d prefer you call it a strategic retreat.”

“…”

“Worry not, dragonlord. It won’t be long until our next meeting. I will await your arrival at the temple.”

“Temple?”

The familiar bobbed its bird-like head at the frowning dragonlord. Despite Serenis’ evident need for clarification, it merely tilted its head, facing the fallen girl behind the standing dragon.

“Aymeia knows the rest of the way.”

Following suit, the mound of snow simply melted away, disappearing without any further explanation.

Serenis contorted her expression as the Reaper’s familiar was exhausted of its life. The welling urge to take flight and give chase was almost overwhelming, but one glance at Raizel soon snuffed her of such desires.

She hurriedly rushed to the youngling’s side, giving a light shake to the unconscious dragon.

“Raizel…are you alright?”

It didn’t take long for Serenis to realize that something was amiss.

‘…Why is she so light?’

Even considering that Raizel was in her reduced form, the steel dragon’s body felt far too light in the dragonlord’s hands. Serenis’ frown only deepened as she audibly gulped, steeling her hold over the youngling lying on her side.

Gently, Serenis turned the youngling to lay them down properly, making their back touch the ground.

Only then did she realize just how much of Raizel’s body had melted away.