For that split moment there was a breakout of chaos amongst the legionnaires. Braddicus was beneath a dark form that made a mockery of anything I had ever seen before in my life, the other four could only scream in terror while Rudicus paled viisibly. Everybody scrambled away, it was all about keeping yourself alive and hang the others mentality.

The creature that had the armored Braddicus beneath one foot turned slowly to look at us as we moved, it had landed with a hind leg on the soldier as though it was unintended. The height was easily over twenty feet while the length was a long forty feet, discounting the serpentine tail that swung out from behind that added on another ten feet at least.

The body had scales which were a dark coloring, one that almost shimmered and changed while I watched it move. The muscles were obvious, it was a thick and powerful creature that with a single look from one reptilian eye sent a cold chill through my body. The neck of the monster was not altogether long, while the head had ear and nose holes along with a large gaping mouth lined with fangs the size of broadswords.

"Sundrake!" Rudicus bellowed out, while he loudly clanged one gauntlet against his chest armor. The soldiers nearby responded as though this was all they needed to recuperate, the thin and light looking Nala darted furthest away from the sundrake.

A hand touched my shoulder, I had fallen to the ground in my haste to escape without even realizing it. Jesson offered me a hand while in his other he gripped his sword, though his eyes never left the sundrake. To my left and a fair bit off Alex had already brandished his axe, though he looked with obvious fear at the gargantuan opponent.

"You know the drill, get to work!" Rudicus barked at the soldiers, while I was in the midst of standing up.

The Legion was not known for being impressive for no reason, the soldiers quickly fell into their normally handled tasks with Bell stepping up closest to the sundrake. The beast turned, the audible crack of metal breaking beneath the hind leg never even phased it. Instead it started forward at a slow pace, it had all the time in the world to devour us.

Two arrows hit it in the middle of the head, the gap between their striking so close it seemed impossible to have been fired by a single person. While the sundrake flinched from the minor tickle the crazed Bell leapt forward with a loud laugh, then started to punch at the right foreleg of the beast. A few moments later Alex shocked me by moving in after her, swinging his axe at the left foreleg with full intention to cleave all the way through it.

The axe was not strong enough to do such a feat, nor was the user capable enough for him to even entertain the thought. Still the blade dug in far, blood gushed from the new wound and the sundrake stepped back quickly from the pain that shot through the legs. While it recoiled Jesson sheathed his sword and pulled out his bow, then joined Nala in firing arrows at the head.

There was a reason they did not shoot for the eyes of the sundrake, and that was made obvious when one arrow struck into it and bounced clear off. The sundrake's eyes were covered with a protective layer, given that it would have gone blind in the desert it originated from otherwise. Rudicus stepped forward, sword in one hand and a small shield strapped to his left forearm, though he made no move to join the fray yet.

Beneath the dark figure of the lizard a figure could be seen as it rolled away. The armor that adorned the person had fallen away in chunks, and one of the arms flopped about in a way that screamed out it was obviously broken. However Braddicus had no care about that, being stepped on again by the sundrake most likely would've killed him.

While the others worked away at hurting the monster, I darted forward in the direction of our injured companion. Rudicus made no move to stop nor join me, so I felt there would be no problems with my chosen task. When I reached Braddicus who had managed to roll perhaps twelve feet from his starting point it was impossible not to gasp, his arm was clearly broken and the rest of his body was cut from chunks of metal which had gouged into him.

"Don't move!" I told him while I reached down and picked him up, an act that caused him to widen his eyes in shock.

"Liliana!" Rudicus yelled out in warning, though it was a tad too late.

The giant tail of the beast twirled and smashed down onto me from above, the injured body in my arms flew away accidentally. The other legionnaires could only grimace, Nala in the back even looked as white as a sheet. The powerful blow that had crushed down onto me left a visible dent in the ground, while I had been smashed into a laying position.

While the attack against me distracted the legionnaires the sundrake roared and leapt forward, it had dealt with the annoyance to the side and now wanted to feast. With a wide open mouth it lunged onto Bell and bit into her, lifting her up in the giant jaw while she screamed out in surprise. Alex backed away as that happened, and then threw his axe up at the head in hopes of doing something.

It was a futile gesture as the axe buried into the side of the sundrake's jaw, and promptly drew only a small amount of blood. More arrows rained down on the drake but it was impossible to hit it anywhere close to the mouth, neither Nala nor Jesson wished to harm the still living Bell. The creature started to shake it's head, as though to try and quiet Bell by breaking her body like a crocodile.

Rudicus stepped in then, or rather he charged in at a speed that was quite impressive. His blade was short and yet he still managed to nearly chop off the bruised right foreleg which Bell had tenderized. The weapon bit in deep, then ripped out and he chopped again with both hands around the handle of his sword. The shield he had worn before was left to the wayside, ignored as it would prove useless against this foe.

The sundrake bellowed in pain and threw Bell, her tall body flew in an arc which dropped her into the roof of one of the houses. The force of her landing was enough that she punctured straight through the wood, and disappeared into the darkened interior. The drake lifted up the left foreleg and swung a paw at Rudicus who could only pause in his hacking to try and ward off the attack.

He was sent sprawling onto the ground, and Jesson started to walk forward while he redrew his sword. "Don't!" Rudicus yelled at him, one hand lifted up to try and stop the soldier from approaching closer. He knew the score, the sundrake was a monster normally fought with a dozen or more soldiers. "Take Nala and withdraw to the nearest town!"

Jesson was about to do that when he paused, his eyes tracked upward to the sky and looked at the descending figure above the sundrake. It's hard to not fault him for looking so shocked while I hurtled down from above, the last they knew of I had been smashed into the ground while wearing no armor. None had noticed me stand up, none had seen the red glint in my eye as I catapulted myself up into the air.

The two rings on my wrist clinked loudly while the wind tore past my face, I grinned as I descended at the sundrake. The right hand lifted up and the fingers spread, then a snap came. A second later there was a massive broadsword in my right hand, one that I gripped with my left even as the blood in my body pumped like mad.

The world about me slowed down to a crawl, the shocked look on Jesson's face as he stared up at me was all too easy to see. The injured Rudicus as he struggled valiantly back up to his feet, he had yet to notice my presence. Nala who still fired arrows into the behemoth even though it was like spitting on him. Braddicus as he tried hard to get back up, but couldn't due to the injuries he had sustained.

Then the world clicked back to normal, my blade crashed into the head of the sundrake and sheared off a large chunk of the left side. The monster recoiled instantly from the pain, confusion driving it to scream out in horror. When my feet touched the earth there was only the slightest of pauses, then my muscles bunched and I burst toward the nearby foreleg.

The broadsword swung out and cut through it with such ease it was almost scary, the creature fell down as it lost the support of the leg. The other legionnaires could only gape while I leapt straight at the exposed eye of the sundrake and drove the massive sword home. Blood erupted everywhere while my body turned as crimson as my eye, and a moment later I ripped free with a backward leap off of the heavily injured face of the drake.

By the time I landed the monster had already died, the loud groan it made while the life escaped from it almost sad to hear. The once fresh and happy looking grass within Oakvale had forever been stained by a red blemish which continued to worsen by the second. While my back straightened and I began to study the legionnaires, the feel of wet blood as it slid down my body made me feel disgusted.

Rudicus snapped the awed legionnaires back to normal, he stomped over toward me with the left arm held by his right. He was obviously injured, a bit of blood trickled from a gash on his forehead, but he managed to look calm. He may not have been Sciroco but he had made strong strides in gaining that impassiveness which had earned the high general his nickname. "Nala!" Rudicus barked out at her, before he pointed at the house Bell fell into. "Check on her status immediately!"

"Alex, take that monster and drag it out of here. If you need to cut down the gateway to do so I don't care, use the horses to pull it," Rudicus told our chef. His gaze turned toward Braddicus, before he sighed. "Jesson check on Brad, keep him stable until Nala can check on him."

With a snap of a finger I sent the Shatterblade back into the dormant mode, two metal rings on my wrist. One was a pure silver whilst the other was a crimson equal to the sliver of red in my left eye. "What do you need me to do?" I asked, while I saluted toward him.

"There are some water barrels in town, get one and wash yourself off. We don't need you stinking like guts and blood," Rudicus told me, then he started to walk toward the largest house in town. "We aren't camping outside tonight, we're going indoors and taking our chances."

♪ ♫ ♬ ♫ ♪

A few hours later we had gathered in the mayors house, and it was at that point I took stock of what our greatest loss was. It was a large one, in truth I wanted to go out and kill another sundrake simply due to the fact that it had happened in the first place. The hat Maria had made for me was gone, lost in the midst of the fighting.

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Braddicus had laughed hard, then groaned in pain, when he heard of the loss of the hat. "Better the hat than your limbs!" he had told me, though his own arm looked so bad it might be in danger of being lost.

Bell had for the most part avoided death by sheer luck, the teeth that had gripped her ended up with a gap between them large enough to merely wedge her in place. While she had cuts along the sides of her bodies, and her armor was a bit tangled and damaged, she was for the most part okay. The concussion was the greatest danger she faced, though Nala felt given a few days and Bell would be back to normal.

Alex had barely taken any injury during the whole incident, though he had taken back his axe. The act of dragging the sundrake out of town required him to damage the main gate a little, then he tired the horses out in order to take the carcass far enough from town to not be afraid of burning it. At the moment he was in the midst of creating an easy soup to eat, one that even Braddicus could enjoy given his injuries.

Braddicus was the most worrying one out of all of us, he had a clearly broken arm along with the complete loss of his legionnaire armor. For the Legion losing that armor was like being crippled, and to be crippled on top of that would have a strong psychological impact. The injuries to the rest of his body were mostly caused by the armor shattering apart and cutting him, though it seemed likely he had a few bruised if not broken ribs.

Rudicus and Jesson were in the midst of a discussion with Nala, all three of them had managed to avoid major injuries. Rudicus was the worst out of them all though his arm had not been broken. While they talked I in turn looked in the mirror within the dining area of the mayors house.

The clothes I now wore were borrowed from Nala, and she favored tighter clothes than I. Thankfully it didn't make anything revealing, but it meant that if I wanted my full range of motions the inevitable ripping of the cloth would happen. My hair was no longer in a ponytail but loose against my back, still wet from the thorough rinsing I had undergone.

In regard to being struck by the tail it had barely hurt me, a side effect thanks to Taryn and his soul integrating with mine. My body was far more durable than the ordinary person, and even though I had developed a gash on my head plus a few bruised bones they were almost all healed. It made me wonder what would happen if someone cut off Taryn's arm or leg, would he regrow it or even be able to simply reattach it?

Rudicus walked over to me, he was in the middle of flexing his injured arm as though to be sure it could still function. "I can see why Sciroco offered to have you come along, I didn't think you could do that," Rudicus commented toward me.

"Most people don't," I told him, while calmly sipping from the bowl that Alex had given to me. The soup was warm and well flavored, from what I could tell it was chicken. "What are we going to do now?"

"What do you mean, we're going home aren't we?" Nala asked from across the room, she looked up from reapplying bandages to Braddicus with a quizzical look.

"No, we still haven't solved the mystery yet," Rudicus told her. "There's no way a sundrake could take all these people so easily, so quietly. It would've torn through walls and murdered people, making a mess everywhere."

The legionnaires had for a moment looked happy, they heard the words from Nala and all thought the same way. Then along came the bad news and every single one of them almost collapsed emotionally, though none would admit it. "Might want to send for some reinforcements," I commented to Rudicus.

"In the morning I'll write up something," Rudicus told us before he sighed. "Speaking of which, all of you need to get some sleep. Nala, Jesson and I will rotate for night watch. Nobody goes outside, nobody opens the door! If anyone tries, stop them by any means."

The soup was finished off in short order, then I placed the bowl down gently. "Thanks for the meal," I said to Alex, who could only look at me with an unhappy face. He had grown even more disgruntled toward me after the sundrake fight.

"I'll leave the door unlocked for you Nala, though if anyone else comes in I'll chop their head off," I stated in an even tone of voice. Without looking back I turned from the group of legionnaires and walked up the stairs to the second floor. Nala and I had opted to acquire a room for ourselves, while the men would rest on the first floor.

It was with minimal effort that when I fell upon the bed sleep took me. My eyes had already grown heavy from the antics of the day, and a full belly on helped push me along. In the distance I could hear the light sound of birds, while the sun outside settled and cast night like a veil across the sky.

♪ ♫ ♬ ♫ ♪

While I laid there my arms wrapped around the warm body next to me, I sighed happily while snuggled up against him without a care. The smell was familiar and comforting, and it made my sleep all the more peaceful while I laid there with eyes closed. If anything it was what I most needed after being bathed in blood and fighting a monster, a fact that was obvious to him based on what he asked.

"Rough day today?" Taryn inquired, while he laid there in bed next to me. He did not have his eyes closed but instead stared at the ceiling. One arm was wrapped around me while the other tucked under his head like a pillow.

"A sundrake attacked us, I thought everyone was going to die for a second," I told him while I tried to burrow in deeper against his side. It was as though I felt the mere presence next to me would chase away all the bad feelings of the day. "I had to show my power to them, although I really wanted to keep it a secret until Alise taught me full control."

"But you saved them, didn't you?" his voice asked, a comforting tone.

"Yet now they'll report what happened to others, and then the Legion will probably want me to join them full time," I told him. How hard was it to not cringe at the thought of the Legion hounding me for help for the rest of my life?

"Do you really hate them that you'd turn away their ask for help?" Taryn inquired, he rested his lips against my head with the slightest bit of a kiss. "You know that you can't say no to helping them, they're a family to you aren't they?"

"Not all of them though," I muttered. "But if Rocky wants my help I think I'll always say yes."

For a while there was silence between us, while I rested comfortably against his body. He didn't make any movements to grope nor touch me anywhere, but simply held me with a single arm and continued to relax on the bed. My body had begun to feel all the more energized with his mere presence, the absence of him in my life had left a hole that was hard to properly gauge until that moment.

"A sundrake though? Where do they usually live?" Taryn asked of me out of nowhere.

"The desert...it's in the far north-east in the empire," I told him. Knowing something he didn't made me smile, as though a victory was won.

"That doesn't remind you of something though?"

My eyes snapped open, and then I lifted half-up out of the bed and looked at Taryn. He was right, the sundrake being there made no sense. Sundrakes never were found anywhere close to the south-west side of the empire. Animals being that far from their natural habitat were such a rarity.

Taryn smiled at me, then swung out of bed and slowly walked over to the window which looked outside. He stood framed in the moonlight, before he opened up his hand and offered it toward me. "Come," he said, then nodded his head at the window.

Without hesitation I slipped out of the bed and walked to him, taking his hand while he pulled me in close. Together we stared at the window, and at the world outside. At the horizon, the light clouds and the bright moon that nestled amongst it all. At something far off in the distance.

"What is she the goddess of again?" Taryn murmured in my ear.

♪ ♫ ♬ ♫ ♪

When my eyes snapped open I nearly exploded out of the bed, which caused Nala to scream out in fright. She watched in near horror as I ran to the window and looked out it, then recoiled as I rushed past the beds and nearly broke down the door. My feet were nearly the sound of thunder as I ran down the stairs of the house, so loud in fact that all the sleeping legionnaires stirred awake in confusion.

Rudicus had chosen to sleep in a comfortable looking chair near the fireplace, his sword rested on a table near the chair. Jesson was the one on duty, and when I almost fell down the stairs he looked at me and reached for his sword, the actions he saw made him worried I had become bewitched.

"Don't worry!" I told him, hand up to caution him while walking to Rudicus. "Rudicus! Wake up!"

General Rudicus had already started to stir thanks to my noisy approach, and when I called out to him his eyes fully opened and he reached for his sword instinctively. The hand paused when he saw me standing there, he saw the almost wild look in my eyes and he squinted. "What's the matter?"

"It's better to show you," I told him while walking toward the window, before turning and motioning to him.

Rudicus stood up, though he glanced at Jesson and made a slight nod. Most likely he had told the soldier to kill me if I did something completely out of character. He walked over in his armor to the window and peered out at the moonlit night, and frowned. "What of it? It's a nice night."

"There," I said, while I pointed toward a distant object on the horizon.

Against the bright night there was a single thing that stood out as odd, a cluster of darkness that seemed almost to move. After staring at it for a few seconds it was possible to make out exactly what it was, a wriggling mass of darkness being only what it seemed like. In truth it was crows, so many crows that it created a black spot in the sky.

"They're coming."