Chapter 22 - Fallen Hero

Book 2 – Chapter 22

A massive explosion shook the air, as a body fell to the earth. The Emerald Drake crashed into the earth, shaking the ground, and crushing several beast warriors and a shade or two beneath it. Flames crashed against its body, badly burning the Drakes wings. The Emerald Drake screamed in protest, agony replacing its earlier satisfaction in killing. A mighty earthen glow covered the Emerald Drake, rippling the air.

Principal Warren descended like a fiery god from the abyss, dark red flames licking up his arms. He launched several palm attacks at the Emerald Dragon below him, flaming meteors cutting through the air. The Emerald Dragon raised a glowing brown earthen wall, repelling the meteor like balls of flame, at the cost of its destruction.

The Principal was undeterred, and shot three separate blazing lances toward the powerful being. Abruptly, from the side, a large Ruby Dragon intercepted one of the Flame Lances. One of the two watching Ruby Dragons had decided to join the fray. Principal Warren responded by sweeping his leg forward into a colossal kick, smashing against the great red scaled Drake.

However, while he was distracted by the Ruby Dragon, the Emerald Drake had taken the opportunity to launch an attack of its own, a powerful blade of earth splitting the air, causing a loud screeching sound. Principal Warren desperately raised his arms to ward the blow, but didn’t have enough time to fully block it.

“SWIIIIIIFFFSHHH!”

Principal Warren landed on the ground, dodging to the side, his flame body flickering, but still holding strong.

His right arm landed behind him, creating a small burning crater in the ground.

Warren threw himself at the burnt but still living Emerald Drake, intending to at least kill one of his enemies, when a dark flash stabbed down into his back, appearing from the ground.

A Shade Commander rose up from the ground, giving off waves of darkness and power, as if he was the night itself reincarnated. A black gold aura surrounded the shade.

Principal Warren stared down at his chest, were a shadowy dagger had pierced through. He felt his core flicker once, twice, and then finally, went out. The Aura surrounding him slowly faded, his flame body disappearing.

Principal Warren fell to his knees, crying out in rage as death overtook him. His body slowly collapsed, settling down on the earth. Fire crackled around him, causing the air to fill with the smell of smoke.

The Shade Commander quickly left, the earth swallowing him. The Emerald Drake roared piteously, retreating to the back of the army to heal its grievous burns. The two remaining Ruby Drakes turned their attention to the various warriors still fighting, renewing their attack. Legion fought valiantly, but slowly, bit by bit, was losing. Already, only a third of their forces remained alive. The majority of the beast warriors, however, had died, with only a few stragglers left alive. About half of the shades had fallen, the rest continued their assault on the defending humans.

The southeastern wall was in complete shambles. Huge tracts of it had been turned to rubble, through the strength of each army’s attacks. Several large gaps had been completely crushed, by the huge 13-meter Gem Drakes. Of the surviving portions of the wall, there were two key defensive bubbles left. The southern guardhouse still stood, with a large contingent of silver warriors battling below it against various shades. A large Space Dragon was battling a humanoid figured clothed in red in the sky above the defenders.

West of this lay a large portion of wall that had yet to be destroyed, where 2 separate black gold commanders defended against the Dragons continued assault.

“Your majesty!” cried one of the Silver warriors, “Warren has fallen! The Emerald Dragon has retreated as well! However, our forces are too small, we cannot hold out much longer.”

“WE MUST!” yelled the King, launching another energy attack at the fiery Ruby Drake flying above them. The Ruby Drake was still shrugging off the attacks of the Core Burned Silver warriors attacking it. Until these warriors were all dead, it would not be able to advance. Perhaps 200 Silver Core warriors were left alive, burning their cores as they attacked.

The King called for his favored Commander, only to remember his death earlier in the battle. His heart filled with grief, looking at his soldiers die. The King noticed the surviving students backing up his warriors in driving off the remaining shades. He called out to one of his few living aides,

“Evacuate the city. We were foolish, and overestimated our strength while underestimating our enemy. Make those disciples retreat as well. One day, they can return and get revenge for us.” The king said, solemnly.

The other Black Gold commander, Duke Tel DeMonge, a wise and kindly looking old man, who also was the leader of the DeMonge family nodded, and said,

“You are correct your majesty. You should never underestimate your enemies.”

“CLANG-SQUIIIIIICCK”

The King felt a wrenching pain in his chest, and looked down to see a massive wound, leaking blood, with an odd green mist coming out of it. A large dagger had pierced through to his chest, from his back. The king turned in amazement, feeling his life quickly slip away.

“You-Duke DeMonge, wh-why?!” The king sputtered, attempting to activate his Aura and burn his Core to at least get revenge. However, when he tried to use the energy in his veins, he found that it had been corrupted, and he no longer could access it. The green mist oozing off of his body swirled stronger.

“You traitor!” he gasped quietly, quickly losing the strength to speak. His eyes glared daggers at the elderly looking commander.

“You have my condolences, your majesty. It is clear that this fight is a lost cause. I, for one, am not willing to see my family wiped out my your foolish mistakes. Evacuating the entire city would be a death sentence. Evacuating just our family, while the rest of you stay behind to slow the enemy, however..” The kindly looking old man flicked his dagger twice, forever silencing the King of Morn. He took one last look around, and quickly left the wall, towards the DeMonge family halls. The King's head slipped to the ground, lifeless.

Without the support of the two Black Gold commanders, the Silver and Golden warriors rapidly fell to the great Drakes, while the shades went on a rampage. The remaining students, however, managed to escape, thanks to the aide informing them of the Kings order.

Wrath, after suffering several minor injuries, had nearly finished killing the Space Dragon. Thanks to his surprise attack, Wrath had managed to badly damage the Space Dragon in the beginning of their battle, resulting in a huge loss for the Space Drake. With two partially melted lungs, and magma flowing in its veins, the Drake had rapidly lost power. Wrath remained in his humanoid transformation, slowly whittling the drake down with his powerful fire energy.

The Space Dragon had huge, burning holes in both of its wings, and a massive burn had destroyed its right arm. Its flesh gave off smoke, and every agonizing breath it took caused flames to reignite inside of it. It glared at Wrath hatefully. Wrath glared back, enjoying its pain.

As the two stared at each other, in the distance, a man covered in a bright silver aura was rapidly racing towards the wall, moving at an unnatural speed, like time was slowed for him. Moments later, Instructor Lem crashed into the guardhouse roof, grabbing Feng, and reaching for Dale, who was still in his black Titanform, but not reacting to anything. Instructor Lem hesitated for a moment, before picking him up. However, as he was about to flee the scene, a massive ball of fire smashed into the ground near him. He dodged backwards, staring at the point of origin.

Wrath had launched a powerful ball of magma at the Space Drake, to occupy it. He then turned around, and threw a small fireball to the side of the human holding his prey, and his target. He stared at the human for a moment, trying to figure out how to kill him without killing the target.

“Ssssett the Fire Lorddd down, and I willll let you go.” Wrath said, his eyes glinting in the afternoon light. Fire crackled around him, as the city wall began to burn. The Space Drake was still dealing with the huge chunk of magma that Wrath threw at it.

At this exact moment, Dale regressed out of his Titanform, and regained control of his body. His memories flooded back into him, and he realized with happiness that Feng wasn’t dead. However, he saw how Myra had wretchedly died, and a great wrath rose in him. While he might not really have been friends with her, no one deserved to die such a cruel death. As well, Dale noted that the red robed man wanted Feng, which he could not allow.

However, though he had regained control over his body, he couldn’t move yet, his fatigue and tiredness reaching new levels. Instructor Lem looked at the two boys with a sad gleam in his eye, and then set them down.

The red robed figure stepped forward, its baleful overwhelming aura pushing out, bringing despair and pain in its wake. Instructor Lems Silver Aura flowered out, covering him from head to toe. Wrath stopped, and then stared at the Instructor.

“Youu think you can fiiighttt meee? A puny brattt barely passsst the Silver stageee?” Wraths eyes glimmered, annoyed at the weak human before it. He had suppressed his rage while the target was near this weak human, but his irritation began to get the best of him. A deep fire crackled inside of him.

Instructor Lem straightened. Dale watched as the Instructors body seemed to meld with the world, becoming a perfect focus of time and balance.

A blinding light shattered the air, tears in space suddenly ripping through as an enormous flow of power rushed into Instructor Lem. The air itself was torn asunder, as the flows of time intercepted and interweaved with each other. Suddenly, one of the thousands of flows that appeared struck out at Dale.

Dale found himself face to face with Instructor Lem. Silence reigned, as everything else in the world stood still. Time did not move. Dale looked at his teacher, wonder in his eyes. His Instructor smiled back, a sad smile appearing on his face.

“I have linked our Soul Time, and froze it so I could talk to you one last time.” Lem said, looking at Dale, “This will be the last time we speak, oh disciple of mine.” The world quivered for a moment, before returning to its immobile state.

Dale stared at him, tears forming in his eyes, “Am-am I going to die, master? Are you dying? I don’t understand master. I can’t move, why do these things happen. We have done nothing wrong, Instructor. Why do they want Feng?” Dale tried to stay strong, putting on a brave front, but inside he was a terrifed child, scared to lose those he loved.

Instructor Lem shook his head, “I wish I had time to talk to you more. Dale, you are correct. You and Feng have done nothing wrong. The two of you deserve so much better. It’s not fair, this world, Dale. The strong taking advantage of the weak. It is a cruel place.” He sighed, looking grim, “You must promise me, Dale, the moment this break in time ends, you will grab Feng and escape. I will hold off that transformed Dragon as long as I can, but I won’t last forever.”

Dale nearly collapsed. He knew he could barely move, how was he supposed to grab Feng and flee?! Yet he refused to give up, refused to simply sit and die, and said, “Yessir. Your disciple hears you, Instructor.” He bowed.

Instructor Lem nodded, and the two looked at each other, as time fell apart, and the real world rushed back.

The red robed man yelled out, “DO NOT RESIST HUMAN. YOU ARE NOTHING TO ME. MOVE ASIDE, NOW!” What remained of the guardhouse shook, causing several stones to tumble. One of the Ruby dragons joined Wrath, flying above him, preparing to attack the Space Dragon.

Instructor Lem stood in the epicenter of the whirling streams of time, the stripe of white in his hair suddenly spreading, dyeing his hair white. All of a sudden, the small streams disappeared. No trace of them, or any power could be seen. Instructors Lem’s Silver aura rose to a purity level so powerful and full, it was overwhelming to look at. Dale watched on in awe, as the Instructor stood up, emanating power. He stood between Dale and Feng like a great castle wall, defending its inhabitants.

As he stood, time seemed to stand still for a brief moment, and then he yelled out, with a voice that shook the heavens themselves, causing ripples in time, tearing the very fabric of existence,

I AM LORD NORTHENK BORIAS LEM, CAPTAIN OF THE 17th BRIGADE OF FALLEN TIME.

The air around Instructor Lem rippled violently, and he slammed his arms out to the side, creating a massive wall of energy.

YOUUU

SHALLL

NOT

PASS

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