Chapter 9

Rebirth of the Legends

I sent out a massive killing intent out towards everyone around me filled with hostility.

“B-b-be careful!" A soldier stuttered in fear, holding his sword in front of him, shuddering violently. “She’s going to kill you if you don’t pay attention!”

Soldiers halted immediately from his words. They waited in fear for me to attack, because of their instincts telling them instead to run away. The thought of fighting a dragon terrified them. 

A brave soldier moved forward, running towards me, screaming at the top of his lungs. He slashed towards me with everything he got in hysteria. I twisted my body and evaded his attack. I was able to see his movements a lot more slowly than before, my dragon eyes were able to see things differently than in my human body. This was the reason why I could decimate hundreds of soldiers without being harmed. 

The bravery of the spurred the others forward as another sprung towards my back. I turned, swinging my tail as it hit the soldier squarely in the chest. He flew backward into the other soldiers as they toppled over. Another, I swiped with my claws shredding them pieces. It was a perfect one-hit kill.

All it took was a split moment for another to angrily come storming at me with swords drawn. The soldier bares his teeth and rushes towards me with his sword held up high. I read the soldier’s movement calmly, matching him with each beat of his step. My left claw clashed against his sword in a flash while my other hand came around in a circle and crushed him.

The high adrenaline pumped through my system, exciting me in a bloody frenzy. I was so immersed in the battle around me that I didn’t hear the sudden shout not too far away. 

“Come forth, Ignis!” A young mage had cast a spell over his head and aimed it at me. 

The fireball came hurtling down as it hit me squarely in the back, causing me to slightly falter forward. No harm was caused by the only agitation. Smoke surrounded me, blinding me temporarily, covering my body.

At first, the soldiers cheered out in glee when the fireball hit me on the back. Wind picked up, clearing the smoke that surrounded me. Voices died down as they saw how I was still standing. 

“An abomination.” A soldier gulped in fear. He stumbled backward as I stared down at them evilly. “That should’ve burned it to ashes!”

My head twirled towards the Magician that hit me in the back. My lips became a thin line when I saw more and more magicians appearing in the fight. I knew then that the third General here was bringing reinforcements. 

“Barrier!” The Magician hurriedly called out in fear, when he saw me rushing towards him. I lowered my head and bulldozed my way through. My claws slashed downwards in one swipe, cutting him in half. Blood spurted everywhere as I continually decimated the Magician’s like a headless chicken.

When I was done, I turned my gaze towards the surrounding soldiers, they froze in fear at how easily I was cutting through them like butter. Inhaling deeply, my stomach started to rumble from the fire brewing in my stomach. I  blew out a torrent of flames, catching everyone in the vicinity. People screamed in pain as they burned to death, eventually only leaving a sizeable scorching mark on the ground as the horrible smell of burning flesh lingered in the air. 

I huffed, trying to clear my sinus from the nasty smell. Killing so many people was something that I never expected to happen so quickly in my life. In actuality, the first kill wasn’t brutal when I saw them as some kind of monsters trying to harm my people instead of humans.

“Kill her!” The soldier cried out in a frenzy.

“Don’t let her spew out another fire, breath!”

“Honor for our fallen brethren!” They rallied to their cry.

The soldiers rushed forward with their spears, shield, and swords. They viciously slashed in the hopes of harming. I tail lashed on, slamming into their body, then followed up with a fire breath. Even though I had spat out fire all around me, more soldiers were quickly replaced. At this rate, I knew that I would get completely overwhelmed. 

“Get back!” I barked, coughing up a gust of fireball that exploded on the ground on impact. This threw back a bunch of soldiers away from me as they wallowed on the ground in pain. I willed my wings to sprout out from my back. Skin began to break, allowing the freshly made wings to emerge. 

I shuddered in pain. 

“A Devil’s messenger.” Someone whispered in shock when they saw my full white wingspan. My feathery scales glistened underneath the sunlight, giving it an angelic feeling.  

“Devil’s messenger?” A smile slipped out of my mouth, freezing everyone around me. “If that’s what you want, then so I shall be.” With a strong pump of my wings, I shot upwards into the sky, blasting everyone backward.

Concentrating all my energy into my mouth, I felt the cold air circulating around me. Ice shards started to form into daggers, floating beside me facing downwards. 

I breathed in a deep breath and shot all the energy that I had accumulated downwards. Ice shards pelted downwards like hail upon the enemy, piercing their body and killing them. Even my ice breath froze everything that it touched, creating a nice ice field.

Hundreds of human statues littered the ground, creating a beautiful scenery of ice sculptures. Swooping down, I used my claws to render my prey into human noodles, but all of a sudden, I felt a sharp pain as something pierced my wings. 

I faltered in the air and fell crashing down. Groaning, I turned my head to my back and noticed a hole created by a javelin was present. Sharp pain erupted outwards when I shook my wings lightly. I knew that my dragon wings were the only thing that easily got damaged. 

Willing magic around the gaping hole, I activated my flesh to slowly close. 

“Die!” A sharp husky voice cried out. General Gravion had come forth with a sword in hand and swooped down to cut off my neck. 

My hands quickly reached upwards, stopping the blade before it reached my neck. I pushed upwards, slowly getting up to my feet effortlessly. 

“What the hell are you?!”

“Me? In your opinion, an Abomination, of course.” My tongue slithered outwards like a snake. “General of the human race. Do you want to test how far your kind can last under my power?”

General Gravion pulled back his sword before he could get squashed and sharply turned his body around to cut my sides. I pulled back, just in time, as the tip of the sword grazed my chest. My blood was boiling in excitement; every time I changed my body into a dragon form, my instincts were pleased with the hunt. The humanity left in me was slowly being pushed towards the back of my mind, and instead, the Dragon me was emerging quickly taking over.

All the fear I had of changing into my dragon form was washed away in an instant. It was hard to hold back the urge to go back into my human form. How I missed the feeling of flying and even rolling around in the comfort of my dragon skin. The sheer power that I had was delicious.

I couldn’t help but feel stupid that I had such “human” like thoughts and worries. My face started to change into my dragon form. Long white neck wiped around and smashed into General Gravion’s body, flinging him across the open area and onto a tree. Two elegant horns grew out of my head, and hair like fur ran down my back. I became larger and larger into my proper form. Compared to the Black Dragon of legends, I was the complete opposite and instead gave off a holy and etheric feel. 

“Human of the Dragon Kingdom. You have picked the wrong time to invade my land. You have come to steal and harm my people for your own greed!” My voice was musical but vicious, fear etched into every soldier that saw what I was before them. They knew that the Black Dragon legend and what they could do, and before them, the legend was coming into reality. 

Even the citizens on the wall saw me and gasped in wonder and fear. They held in their breath, wondering what I would do next. 

“A dragon!” An enemy soldier cried out in hysteria. Formation between the enemy was starting to break down into chaos. 

“Run! We’re going to be eaten!”

“Gah!”

“Someone save me!”

My tail whipped around, causing a large group of soldiers to be flung back into the trees. Ice erupted out of my mouth, freezing everything in sight. 

Relief filled my people’s hearts when they saw that I was on their side as I devastated the enemy before me. They were filled with vigor and pushed forward in pushing the enemy back. 

General Gravion was able to get back on his feet, but this time he didn’t attack. Instead, he called out towards his army. “Don’t be afraid! We are from the long line of the past Heroes that slew countless dragons! Stand with me, and we shall bring down another one in the great name of our Dragon Kingdom!”

The enemy started to refocus from General Gravion’s words. I couldn’t help but gaze in admiration; he was a natural-born leader that guided his army with an iron fist and motivated them to push forth an oncoming danger. He was a threat to my people, and he was on the top of my list to kill. 

I ran forward, bulldozing through the soldiers who blocked my path. My teeth snapped and spat out ice magic from my mouth, eventually coming face-to-face with General Gravion before me. 

“Dragon! I will kill you here today!” General Gravion shouted he pointed his sword towards me. I smelled no fear in his body, but excitement at the thought of slaying a legend. I couldn’t help but be excited at the challenge in front of me.

“I welcome you to try.” A gust of powerful ice magic spat forth, freezing his soldiers in a blink of an eye. 

General Gravion dodged the beam of ice and rushed forward. He ducked under my large head and raised his sword above his head. His sword struck my scales, but it broke in half upon impact. 

I shifted my weight to my right arm and legs, while my left hand snaked in and grabbed General Gravion. Crushing him, I brought him up to my eye level. He struggled hard, trying to get out of my grasp, but my grip became tighter as his armor started to break apart.

“Truly a disappointment,” I haughtily replied. “but no matter.” I opened my mouth and blew out a beam of ice, freezing General Gravion in a matter of moments. Letting him go, he fell onto the ground, shattering into a million pieces. 

The enemy gasped in shock when their general was easily destroyed effortlessly. 

Raven and Crow that were fighting among their enemy pulled apart, and flew towards me. Their powers radiate outwards with a burning passion for killing as both of them entered my vicinity. I swung my tail slamming Crow perfectly into the ground, while I completely missed Raven. She swerved out of my claws and shot black energy balls that inflicted multiple hits into my chest. 

The power behind the Raven’s hit was mighty. Even though it was only half the amount of power that I remembered the Black Gryphon’s, it still left a stinging feeling that shot up my whole chest. I lost my balance, and Raven pounced onto me ruthlessly pounding away into my sides. 

I willed in my magical power all around me, encasing myself with ice. Raven’s hand broke apart the ice armor, but at the same time, bloodied her hands black and blue. She annoyingly darted around my body like a hummingbird, while I tried to swat at her midair.

The downside of having a large body was that my speed wasn’t as fast as either Raven or Crow. I noticed that the smaller I am, the quicker my speed and agility were, while the bigger I was, the slower my speed had gotten, but the more powerful my attacks were.

With that being the case, I started to shrink down a couple of sizes, but I was still considered colossal. The speed of my hands increased, allowing me to catch up to Raven’s flight. I backhand her across the face, and she flew a reasonable distance away, crashing down onto the ground.

I felt refreshed for smacking at her once. These two siblings gave me a headache when they attacked me, and this was my revenge upon the two. 

Crow shot forward and smashed into my back, making me stumble. I fell forward, but at the same time, I countered with a tail smash. Once again, Crow went flying in the complete opposite direction to where Raven went flying. 

My eyes scanned the battlefield and searched for other threats. Then I caught what I was looking for, the two Generals were both here, directing their group and the chaotic soldiers. They were able to take control of their people during the fight between the siblings and me. 

Their speed became faster and faster until even the speed that I could fight with them was lacking. I needed to become smaller to even be able to match with their speed, but the power behind my attacks will drop, making it a dilemma. Stuck between power or speed, I had to give one or the other up. Right now, I could not control both, making this fight a bit difficult. Slowly I was overwhelmed. 

The siblings that I had to worry about, but the annoying flies that seem to be buzzing around my legs were not only the siblings that I had to worry about. I stomped around, trying to get them away from me, but the soldiers seemed to persist with their swords, poking me until it got really annoying. I breathed out another breath of ice beam as they froze underneath my belly. My tail whipped around, breaking them into pieces. 

More enemies scrambled forward to replace the ones that were lost. They scurried underneath my feet, trying to cut the tendons in my legs, hoping that I would tumble down for them to scale all over me like ants. I didn’t let them and made sure to shake them off as much as possible, so they didn’t get the upper hand. 

Ropes were thrown around my leg, hoping that I would trip and fall, but luckily those ropes did nothing to stop me. I just completely ignored them and kept on walking, causing mayhem everywhere I stepped. 

The soldier continually persisted in running around under my belly. They were hoping to do some kind of damage, while the siblings were flying around my head. Getting really annoying fast. 

Suddenly, I heard a loud explosion.

Boom!

I whipped my head towards the right as smoke started to appear from the Forgotten Forest's further back. Screams and yells could be heard, rushing towards my direction. I strained to see who it was, but Crow shot a black energy ball into my eyes.

Damn that bird! I cursed so violently in my head that I coughed up ice breath onto the whole floor, freezing over a handful of soldiers. My eyes were stinging from the painful black energy ball that he cast, I couldn’t see very well from the injured eye. It was half shut and slightly red, with tears spilling out from the side. 

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Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

Explosions continually went off, causing devastation in the ranks of the enemy soldiers. Not too far away, on top of a hill, there stood a very familiar figure. 

“I’m back!” Phil stated gleefully. He was holding up the Legendary Sword Laurel, placed on his shoulder. He kicked up quite a fuss from the rear of the enemy group by killing one of the two generals left alive. 

The enemy knew instantly that they were surrounded. Hundreds of Divine entered into the fight alongside thousands of other Beast-kin that came roaring from the side in excitement. Enemy soldiers were tossed up like salads as they bulldozed their way through. 

“Nya~” A black cat dashed through a group of soldiers, flying around like a missile. His light sword cut through in multiple strikes, cutting down the enemies as he passed by. “This is top easy, nya~.”

Large numbers of other Beast-kin followed pursuit. They weren’t as fast as the black cat, but they were powerful enough to cause quite a problem. The black cat paved through the enemy, allowing the beast-kin to spread out and sweep up the remaining stragglers. Pushing through the middle, they made their way towards me. 

“Wah!” The black cat stopped in fright when he saw me towering over thousands of dead soldiers under my bloodied white feet. “It’s a dragon, nya!”

The others were shocked at the destruction that I had caused. It was a bloody horror scene as blood covered my white scales.

“The dragon is on our side!” Phil yelled, breaking the shocked expression. They knew instantly which side I was on and continued to push through.

“Fight alongside the white dragon, nya!” The black cat commanded, pointing towards me. 

I thought the black cat had a funny accent and wondered why Seth didn’t have the nya sound whenever he talked, but just thinking about it didn’t fit his image. I snorted at the strange thought of Seth saying “nya” at the end of every sentence. Instead, I quickly brushed it aside and focused back to reality. 

“Where the hell did these worms come from!” Raven was furious at the reinforcement. “They brought our immortal enemies with them!”She spat. 

“Careful, sister! There might be a hero among them!” Crow cried out. 

Where? I searched the surrounding beast-kin, hoping to find the supposed “Hero” that they were talking about, but I found nothing. Was the Legendary Claw Pulse even going to resonate at all to one of them? The sword right now would be a great help to slice up those annoying birds that floated over my head. 

But so far, nothing called me to anyone of the Beast-kin. I only saw the flashing blade of Phil, who was mercilessly cutting down his foe. Truly, he was more vicious than me as blood sprayed all around him. One couldn’t help but shudder when they looked upon Phil’s brutality. 

Compared to me, I was more merciful in killing them as quickly and painlessly as possible, but Phil…..the best thing to describe it was that the Demon Lord in his blood was spilling out of his body and completely reeling its ugly head. 

His sword skills were superb, his blood lust over the extreme, and his magic outclassed me. One could say the magic of different colors just simply appeared at his fingertips with a snap of his finger. 

“Chain of Lightning!” 

An electric pulse was sent outwards from his finger and into the nearest enemy. The electricity bounced around towards its next prey, slithering from one’s body and jumping into another. Each and every one of them were electrocuted. Phil sprung forward, cutting off their arms and legs. Leaving them to slowly bleed on the ground to die. 

Just looking at that made me want to vomit; even in this dragon form, the human in me started to crop back up. This uneven balance of dragon and human was becoming a bit difficult to control this large body that I stumbled. 

An opening was seen by Raven, she sprung forward, her hands were clouded with black magic. Her claws punched through my shoulder, cutting through my thick scales. I felt a shocking pain from that one attack, and for a split second, I went unconscious. Then the pain jolted me back awake, and I swung my neck towards her. With a snap of my jaws, I grabbed her wings, peeling her away from my shoulder to where I shredded her wings. 

I threw her with all my might into the sky, following after I shot out three ice shards from my mouth. Crow flew in front of Raven, blocking the first and the second, while the third impaled him in his leg, leaving him injured. He faltered and grabbed his sister.

“Sister! Are you okay?” Crow asked his sister, who was severely injured. 

“I’m fine.” She hissed, and she grabbed his shoulder. Suddenly they momentarily froze, their eyes glazed over. Something about them seems entranced.

“We should leave.” Crow was the first one to awaken. “We already had done enough.”

“I won’t go until she dies.”  Raven vehemently replied.

Crow sighed. “Didn’t you hear father’s call?”

Raven froze. 

“You did, didn’t you? We need to leave now. With your injury, we won’t be able to hold them back any longer. They have reinforcements.” 

“Fine.” Raven was immensely displeased at suddenly leaving the battlefield.

Even I, who was decimating hundreds of soldiers on the ground with an injured shoulder, was surprised by the two suddenly leaving in the middle of the battlefield. I had no time to stop them and had to focus on pushing back the soldiers with my teeth, claws, and tail. Blowing rains of fire down upon my prey as hundreds perished under my breath. 

Pushing off the ground, a heavy updraft of wind lifted my wings as I went up into the air. Soldiers tumbled from sudden from the torrent of winds, and they cowered at the might of my dragon form. 

Phil ran over and jumped up onto my back, scaling up onto my head, where he proudly stood on top as if it was his place. His hand glowed heavily with dark magic as magical sigils formed all around him. Each magical sigil burst out thousands of rays of dark magic that shot towards the enemy before us. Simultaneously, I blew out an ice flame. 

Causing huge amounts of damage all around us, many people died. Quickly, the battle's tide was shifting more and more in our favor, pushing back the enemies out of the Forgotten Forest. 

Even the black cat eradicated the third general without my knowledge, causing the enemies around us to run away in fright. The enemies had no one to lead them anymore and gave up fighting as they streamed out from the Forgotten Forest in a hurry. Relief spilled over their body as smiles erupted on the citizen’s faces.

“We won!” Everyone shouted out in joy, pointing their weapons up into the air in excitement.

I proudly stood up straight with Phil on top of my head as we watched them leave.  I let out a sigh of relief, but then I realized that the trouble has only just started. With a pump of my wings, I flew upwards into the air and flew towards the castle. Staying here any longer will bring unnecessary trouble, so instead of staying, I ran away.

My human mentality had taken over three-fourth of my mind now, making it that much more embarrassing and scary of what people would say. I flew, letting the cold air hit my face and lift me up in the sky. Phil had to drop down and hold onto my horns, not get knocked off from my head. 

I enjoyed the light breeze until I landed on top of the balcony of the castle. Phil jumped off, and I shifted form quickly shuffling towards my room filled with gold.  

I wasn’t looking forward to the days to come.

#####

Three days have passed since the war with the Dragon Kingdom. We have lost over four thousand citizens, but it was quickly filled up with the Beast-kin and the Divine that seem to occupy our city. They just didn’t want to go and were quite fascinated by city life.

Apparently, Coco and Phil had collaborated with one another and brought in a glorious throne into the new grand hall that even I don’t know where it came from. This castle seriously has a mind of its own, where new rooms just keep popping out of nowhere. I don’t know where they got the throne from, but now there is a throne sitting majestically inside the grand hall. What’s worse is that Coco and Phil forced me to sit on it, while Phil was standing next to me with the Legendary Sword Laurel next to his hips dangerously reminding me not to run away.

I’m no queen material, and I don’t want to be sitting here in front of thousands of people from three different species. What was worse was Coco made me wear these extravagant clothes that reminded me of a peacock. I wanted to hide in the library away from all these staring eyes, but Phil’s cold gaze watched me like a hawk, so I couldn’t escape.

Instead, I could hear his voice ringing in my ears, stating that this happened because of my negligence, so I had to deal with the consequences. My lips twitched from that memory as his words continued to ring in my head, making my smile cramp up. Yep, I wanted to run away right now. 

“Grand Magician Berry. Nya~” A black cat stepped forward and gave me a graceful bow. 

I couldn’t help but want to stroke his black fur, he looked so cute when he said that Nya part. I had to hold myself back because Phil was glaring at me. 

“You are?” I spoke as elegantly as possible. 

“I am General Bastion of the Beast-kin and come here as an ambassador from our clan. Nya.”

“Thank you for your help, General Bastion. For your reward, what can I give you and your soldiers?”

“Well...We have come here to form an alliance between two kingdoms as well as we heard that you know the information of the Legendary Claw Pulse.” 

That was their true motive for coming here. The information on Pulse, the information of its location, wasn’t a big deal, but that wasn’t the problem. With a flick of my hand, I called out the Legendary Claw Pulse in front of me. The large, elegant claw was a mix between a tiger’s claw and a mechanical weapon embedded itself into the ground, creating a large hole with a crash. Sticking upright was a claw gauntlet. 

“T-the legendary Claw Pulse.” General Bastion gasped. The other Beast-kin that was present was also held in their breath in shock.

This was the first time I didn’t hear the nya~ at the end of his sentence. To me, that was more shocking than the legendary weapons itself. I wanted to ask him why he said nya in the first place. 

“You can try to awaken her if you want, but you can’t take the weapon with you.” 

“What? Why? This is our Beast-kin inheritance, Nya~.”

I gave him a cold smile. “I didn’t say that I won’t lend it to the True Hero of the Beast-kin clan, but that is only if one of your kind can awaken her. Just like Hero Phil here, who was accepted by Laurel, no one can truly touch the weapons for a long period before they get devoured by the weapon itself. This city is the only safe place for this weapon to be safely handled without it going berserk. The moment you take this weapon outside the city walls, the wielder will die.” 

The word die, resounded throughout the whole hall, making everyone shiver. They all knew about the fickle nature of the Legendary Weapons and its temperament. Anyone who was not the True Hero couldn’t touch the claw without getting devoured by it and go mentally insane. 

“How are you able to touch the Legendary Claw Pulse?”

I laughed. “I am the Great Magician Berry. Do you think such knowledge on how to handle a legendary weapon would not be in my extensive knowledge that I have held?” I bluffed my way out as best as I could. 

They all felt dumbstruck in what I had said and started to accept my words as truth. 

“So, what do you want us to do, nya?”

“What do you think?”

“I don’t know, nya.” General gave out a loud sigh of defeat, unable to figure out what exactly he should do.

“You can bring your people into the city to test if anyone of you is qualified to be the Hero of your kind.”

General Bastion's ears perked, and he looked up in excitement. 

“But, on a few conditions.” 

“What would that be nya?”

“Your people must follow the rule of this city. First, anyone who applies gets accepted into the Academy can not leave this city and must live here for the rest of their lives. Second, this castle is my home. No one can enter and exit this castle without my permission, but since the Legendary Claw Pulse will be here in the main hall, only the people given a band at the entrance of this castle are allowed in. Once in, one can not roam around my castle to sightsee. Honestly, you won’t be even able to enter the rooms or other parts of the castle anyway, so it’s not a big deal. Finally, all species in this city are equals. They are no slaves or any of that sort of thing here.”

“I understand, nya.”

“Good.” I gave a small sigh of relief, worried that they would say no, but it all worked out fine. Truthfully, I would want to spread my knowledge worldwide, but right now, with the Black Gryphon loose, it’s better to keep such experience as a leverage. “You may try to see if the Weapon chooses you.” I waved my hand in front of me. 

General Bastion was silent. “It’s not going to swallow me, right? Nya.” He uncomfortably walked forward. 

“No. It shouldn’t. Safety measures have been put in place, but you have at least a five-minute window of opportunity to touch it. After that….. you’ll start losing strength and then your mind, so I suggest you back away when that happens.” 

“Can the other try as well? Nya.”

“Sure. There's no stopping anyone from trying.” 

General Bastion walked forward with nervousness and enthusiasm. He reached over, trying to pick up the weapon, but failed. Each time, he tried he wasn’t able to pick up the legendary weapon and gave up as soon as he realized that he couldn’t make it budge. 

Other Beast-kin came forward, and it was quickly becoming one of those legendary King Authur predicaments, where countless of Beast-kin did not succeed in budging the weapon until finally the last Beast-kin to come forward was a young child with deer horns and hooves. She was wearing all white that matched with her white hair. Don was next to her, unable to get away from her grasp with other similar deer people in black clothes followed behind them. 

I glanced towards Phil for an answer, but all he gave me was a shrug. He was chuckling hard behind his hand, trying not to burst out loud.

“Don? Who?” I spoke out, curious at the child next to him.

“Well, that is-”

“I’m his wife!” The child spoke out, suddenly catching me off guard. 

“W-what?! No, I’m not!” Don vehemently denied it. “She’s just a kid that won’t let go!” He tugged hard, but the girl didn’t let go.

“Hmph! That’s not what you will be saying in a couple of years!”

I choke up, completely stunned. When did Don get himself a wife? No wait, is this even legally allowed?

“My name is Ginger. I am the future mother of the Beast-kin Hero, and he is the father.” Kylee proudly states, puffing out her nonexistence chest. 

I stare dumbfoundedly at what I just heard. What the heck did you get yourself into, Don?

 Don gave me pleading eyes, telling me to save him. Instead, I gave him a silent prayer.

“My lady! How can you allow a human to be your partner!” One of the deer people cried out in an outburst. 

“Be quiet! I can choose whoever I want.”

“But, that would mix the blood of a foreigner!”

“Who cares. Do you want the Hero to be born or not?!”

“How does that have to do with this human? That’s not possible.” 

“Hmph. Are you going against the words of the seer?”

“Absolutely not.” He bowed. 

“Then be quiet.” Ginger frowned and turned her head away from them. 

Yep, this is starting to become a comedic show for everyone to see. I seriously pray for your soul Don. Rest in peace for the marriage life to come.

“Hey! Don’t give me that look! I know what you’re thinking, and I don’t appreciate it!” Don shouted, glaring at me.

I threw my hands up guilty but smugly smiled at him, knowing that full well that I was glad that I wasn’t in his shoes right now. “So, you’re the mother of the future Hero.” I coughed back a snicker.

“Yes! And I can prove it to you.” Ginger finally let go and walked up towards the Legendary Claw Pulse. She put her hands on top gauntlets. With all her strength, the gauntlet budget and lifted only an inch off the ground, before she collapsed, completely winded. “Wee~” She brushed back her hand on her forehead, wiping away the sweat. 

“My lady!” Every Beast-kin was shocked when they saw what just transpired before them. 

A large smile appeared on the lips of Ginger. “See, I told you I can prove myself, and my future husband can too.”

I glanced towards Don, he shook his head furiously, telling me not to call him forward. For some reason, I felt impish and wanted to see if what Ginger said was true.

"Preposterous. A human can't lift up the Legendary Claw Pulse." The deer man arrogantly snorted at Don. "He's not worth the trouble nor the time for this."

"He's not just a human! He's my husband!" Ginger was getting angry at her followers.

I smirked towards Don. "It doesn't hurt to try right, Don?"

"I hate you, Berry," Don mumbled under his breath, and I caught his words.

"Go on." I shooed him forward.

Don sighed and shuffled his way towards the Legendary weapon. He gave a displeasure look and reached down onto Pulse, but at that moment, something unexpected happened before everyone's eyes. All of a sudden, Pulse melted into liquid form and split itself into two. Half of it wrapped itself around Don's right hand, becoming a part of him. While the other half crawled over towards Ginger and slinked around her left arm.

Everyone was startled at what just had transpired. What Ginger said came true. Even I, who was just joking around, was speechless. Honestly, I pray for his soul for the days to come.

"It's not possible." The words of the deer man cut through the silence, making everyone wake up in complete disbelief. "How is it that a non-beastkin holds the weapon…?"

"I can explain it." Ginger sheepishly replied. Everyone turned their gaze towards her, waiting for what she had to say. "We slept together and became husband and wife."

"What?!" I shrieked. Holy crap! Did he go somewhere really dark and dangerous?!

"We didn't do anything like that, Berry! For crying out loud! She's sixteen!"

“That’s even worse!” A freakin legal loli! I never thought I would see one in real life, but here she is.

“And you! Stop making it sound so wrong!” Don roared. His face was getting bright red from the stare that everyone was giving.

“Teehee, but I did sneak into your bed and slept next to you.” 

“!”

You are done for my friend. I gave him the most pitiful gaze I could muster. Yep, you've been tricked.

“I placed my ring onto your finger and vice versa.” Ginger sheepishly grinned. “That makes us husband and wife, allowing you to hold half the power of the Legendary Claw Pulse until our child is born.” 

Don turned completely pale. I swear, I thought I saw his soul fly away from his body.

“Well then,” I coughed. “Congratulations, Don. You are officially married. I think. So with that being said, I’ll send you guys a wedding gift later. With that, let us go get ready to celebrate for our victory that we all got ready to prepare.”

Just as quickly as everyone heard the word to celebrate, they all cheered in excitement. They all started to stream out of the hall, and the only one left was Phil and Don, who gently patted Don’s back, while Ginger gazed down at him worriedly. I looked at the depressed figure of Don and sighed. He is now a part hero, or should I say the father of the future Hero? I don’t know, but the future is becoming stranger as I think about it.

#####

In an underground cave's darkness, an ugly female orc with protruding eyes breathed heavily in a sharp breath. Her large stomach that was filled with life moved around her belly strangely. 

“Hah. Hah. Hah.” A female orc groans in pain. She was in labor since yesterday and had fallen into a semi-unconscious state. Every time the baby moved, she cried out in horrible moans of pain. Her vision became cloudy, even though in the darkness Orcs are known for being able to see in the darkness, it was difficult to see clearly around her. 

She felt a powerful but strange energy coming towards her slowly. “Who’s there…” With a gasp, she tried to sound harsh, but her sharp pain struck her body. “Show yourself.”

“So, my body is here.” A male’s voice spoke with a glee.

The Orc tried her best to clear her sight, but all she could see was a darker shadow than black itself. “W-who?”

“Ah-rah? You’re barely clinging alive.” The voice frowned at the mother orc that was suffering from the pain. “Mother of my body. Would you make a deal with me?”

“What...huff..would that be?”

“I can save your child’s body in exchange for allowing my soul to reside in it. You see, you and your child will die here today in the next couple of hours.” 

“Is that ...huff...true?”

“You should know better than I that your body can only hold on for much longer. The baby in your stomach will die the moment you breathe your last breath.”

“Then save him!” She demanded towards the shadow, knowing full well that whatever it was before her was not a benevolent being. All she cared about was that her child survived.

The shadow chuckled. “Oh, mother of my body, I'll grant you your wish.” The shadow’s hand dug into her stomach, causing her to scream endlessly in pain. A powerful surge of dark energy invaded into her stomach, and the shadow disappeared slowly. 

Hours went by, and the pain continued to persist until finally, the baby was pushed out with every ounce of breath that she could muster. 

“Sleep mother and let your son deal vengeance upon your kind. For the Titan has come back for revenge, and this time I am not leaving this world.” The shadow’s voice whispered in her ears. “For I am Rei, the Lightning Titan.” 

The female Orc could not utter a single word. All she felt before dying was joy, happiness, love, fear, and sadness for her child that were born into this wretched world. 

A sharp cry escapes the baby’s mouth, howling its first breath of life. On that day, all the Orc tribes woke up in horrible fear, for they had felt their doom encroaching upon them. They knew that something sinister and evil had awakened, even the shrine inside their shaman tent broke into a million pieces. 

An elderly Orc Shaman with a long beard and a hunched back woke up at the start. His eyes became wide when he saw the broken pieces of the crystal shrine. His old creaky bones were sprung forward towards the shrine in desperation, and he picked up the crystals in his hand. Sniffing the content with his nose, he closed his eyes partially. His pupils rolled backward, showing white. 

Not a moment passed when he blinked back awake with horror on his face. “It can’t be.”  He stuttered, getting up on his old legs, stumbling forward in partial hysteria. “This is not possible!”

The Orc Shaman accidentally pushed a vase off the cabinet, causing it to fall down and crash. He stumbled out, yelling at the top of his lungs. “Quickly! Get the Head Chieftain now!”

Suddenly, the Orc village was thrown into a frenzy, while Orc’s ran back and forth. A huge Orc with bulging muscles came running over towards the Orc Shaman with worry creased on his face. 

“What’s wrong, elder? Why have you caused such a commotion?”

“We have a serious problem. The Titan’s shrine has broken.” Even though the Orc Shaman’s words were not loud, everyone around him heard every word that came out of his mouth. They froze in disbelief at what they just heard. 

“That’s not possible. This is the thousand-year reign of the Black Gryphon. How can the Titan be born today? Are you sure you’re not going senile?”

With a sharp tap of his hand, the Orc Shaman punched the Chieftain in the face. “Do not discredit the Titan Crystal. For thousands of generations, the Titan’s crystal has always shown us the Titan's coming, but today something dark has set off this cycle. We must quickly send our people to search for the Legendary Gauntlet Asphalt!”

“Are you sure you're an elder?” The Chieftain held in his breath as he rubbed his cheeks where the Orc Shaman had him. 

“You fool, for once, listen to what I have to say. This is no hocus pocus joke that I’m spouting right now. If we don’t move our species will become extinct!”

“I understand.” The Chieftain nodded. “Quickly send our fastest runners to the other village and tell them that the Titan has been resurrected!”

“Yes!” The Orc cried out in unison. 

The Orc shaman rubbed his chin, worriedly looking around towards his people. He knew that this was only just the prelude to the horrors that were to come, and he feared for what could possibly happen in the future. 

To be continued.