"As much as I understand your position, you have to understand ours. We need these lands so we have access to a supply of fire flowers that can be harvested safely!" The tall representative defended his point.
"We can't compromise on this terrain. We already conceded..."
BOOM!
The ground shook, taking the entire structure of the council room with it. If not for the sound, this would surely be labeled as an earthquake, and the earth manipulator would be rushing to counter the vibrations. But the sound didn't lie, and everyone around the mixers knew what this characteristic noise represented, including the tamer delegation.
The meeting had been going on for almost two exhaustive hours of discussions, concessions, and demands, and they knew it was just the beginning. They had reached a sensitive topic about the best ground to collect the fire flowers, necessary for making fire easily in the region, and neither side was willing to step back.
Dalton was already tired of this nonsense. He knew that the losing side would just ignore parts of the agreement if it suited them, and this was all about having the higher moral ground. He had been searching for a reason to declare a lunch break for some time to have some peace of mind, and the explosion gave him the excuse he needed.
"Sirs, what do you think? We should take a brief pause for lunch now while I check what is happening. I believe the trip here may have been a bit harsh, so take some time and enjoy our local food to renew your energy." Dalton suggested, leaving little room for discussion.
"I agree. Let's take a quick pause. The journey here was indeed a bit tiresome," the representative agreed.
Dalton excused himself and left, walking at a speed that could be considered almost running. He gave Jason some vague instructions, trusting the man's ability to deal with the representatives, and took to the sky the moment he stepped outside.
He was full of expectations. How big must the blast radius be to make the whole village tremble like that? His guess was something around a hundred to two hundred meters, based on a lifetime of exploding things.
If his prediction was right, Tomas would be a game-changer. A hundred meters charging so little and on his first attempt? This was way stronger than his nightmare. To get to the hundred-meter radius without hurting himself, he needed years and years dedicated solely to that, but Tomas, on the other hand, started already at that same point.
Going higher and higher to get a better view of where his son and wife had gone, Dalton flew into the sky. After a few seconds of ascending at a moderate pace, he finally saw a gigantic crater of approximately a hundred-meter radius, completely cleared of anything. No trees, no animals, no life, just a few small dots next to the center on the burnt ground. Three larger and two smaller, but none of them moving.
Proud of Tomas' accomplishment but worried about the number of creatures, he dove as fast as he could. In the brief moment it took for him to reach them, his mind froze full of questions.
"This isn't right."
"Were they attacked?"
"I hope they are okay."
"They are not moving."
"Artemis should be fine even being low on energy."
"I hope little Tomas is okay…"
In the short second between being close enough to see the aftermath and reaching the ground, Dalton's mind stopped processing what he was seeing.
Three dead armored leopards. Three dead ADULT armored leopards. This was a challenge even for Artemis with the amount of energy she had this morning.
The closer one had its neck turned a hundred and eighty degrees; the next had its neck bent in a very ugly way, making a V shape; and the last had a deep, clean hole in its eye socket. Very Artemis-like kills.
Close to the first leopard, his son Tomas was crying. His head lowered between his legs, he was being hugged by his arms, sobbing as if his life wasn't worth living. The kid was naked due to his power, and Dalton hadn't given him this tip as a prank, but it wasn't funny right now.
At last, there was a body.
Unconsciously, his mind avoided it as much as it could, but there was no way around it. He wished it was another person; he prayed for it to be anyone else but the tailor made leopard leather armor didn't give him this possibility. Artemis' armor.
It was unfair.
They still had a whole life ahead of them. Of course, they had done some extremely dangerous and stupid things when they were younger, but now they were supposed to live a safe and laid-back life as a happy family. They had already passed the most dangerous part of their lives, battling death beasts, destroying other clans, and much more… So why? How could this happen now?
He couldn't understand.
All his plans for the future shattered. His hope for a bright future was gone. The happy ending he had achieved wasn't so happy anymore, not without her.
He hugged what was left of her with a gentleness he had never shown before. Tears started rolling, and he didn't want to think about it anymore because he knew it would hurt him even worse. He obviously recognized the damage her skin had suffered, since he had caused it in other people many times during his life. He knew how she died and who had done it. He wished he didn't.
Like Tomas, he cried. He shouldn't have let her test powers she wasn't suited to defend for. 'It's my fault too,' he thought. The thought that 'they both had wronged her' consumed his mind, and guilt, sadness, and a lot of other negative thoughts took control of Dalton, stealing his reasoning away.
In this moment of sorrow and despair, his subconscious let it all go. It was all their fault, and they should pay. With Artemis in his arms, he went all out.
The world burned, trees disintegrated, snow disappeared, stones melted, and the ground turned black. As if a god had decided this area wasn't worth existing, it ceased to exist. In a few kilometers around Dalton, all life ceased, except in one place, between his arms. With finesse and control, he made sure that Artemis' body wasn't even a degree higher, while the whole world around them turned into hell.
###
Tomas didn't notice when his father arrived, but he was there. Words tried to leave his mouth, but in the end, they transformed into more crying. He wanted to say he was sorry. He wanted to say it was his fault. He hadn't been fast enough to learn how to use his dream, and he didn't have enough control to make it stop. In the end, he just hadn't been good enough.
The weight he held in his heart was just too much for a twelve-year-old kid, and he couldn't bear it. He remembered the kid at their bestowment ceremony who burned to death his whole family and realized he was just like him, cursed. Who would be the next victim? His friends? His teachers? Lucien? He didn't want to hurt anyone close to him anymore. This power… it shouldn't be used anymore because nothing good would come out of it.
He was decid…
BOOOOOM!
His train of thought was interrupted, as was the world around him.
A blast different from everything he had seen before. His tears ceased to exist, and in a flash, he was ejected by the pressure wave.
The light blinded him, the sound deafened him, and he was left with only his other senses. For the first time since the beginning of his training, he felt it burn. Not the usual heat, but extremely hot. His brown hair instantly carbonized, and his skin too started showing dangerous burn signs.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Before the pain made him open his mouth to scream, he hit something. The impact knocked the air out of his lungs, making him inhale desperately. Wrong choice. As a consequence, his throat and lungs started burning painfully too.
He was hit a few more times after that, like he was in a blender with soil and trees. Blind and deaf, the poor kid could only protect his head and hope for a miracle. His dreams were strong, and if anybody in the clan could survive that, it was him.
###
BOOOOOM
The sound came first.
CRASHHH
Along with the pressure wave that took down some of the more fragile structures in the clan.
TRRRRRRR
And after, the tremors took down more of the weaker structures.
"Saulo, find Dalton quickly!" Jason ordered, getting battle-ready. At the table, none of the mixer members freaked out. Being hard and tested veteran warriors, the top members of their clan prepared themselves for what was to come. Saulo instantly disappeared, and Jason, the second in command, started shouting orders.
"Duke, with Sarah! Earth boy, secure the structures and rescue anyone buried! You two, with me! The rest of you, secure the perimeter, go!" He shouted.
"And you both stay here until we solve this!" He ordered the other clan representatives, who fearfully complied.
A couple of seconds later, Saulo returned, appearing in the middle of the room with a worried look on his face. "It's bad, Jason. We need Sarah!" the teleporter said, materializing himself alongside Sarah and Duke.
In a flash, he was gone with them, before Jason could say anything.
They arrived in a desolate land. No living things could be seen for kilometers apart from Dalton.
Their leader was hurt. Burns covered his body except for his chest and face. Ugly patches of skin were falling from his back, completely burned, but they could all see this wasn't the main cause of his suffering.
Before Dalton's old friends could ask anything, he quickly gave his orders. "Duke, Tomas is out there, find him." He said.
Then he turned to the healer and gave another order, "He should be alive but very hurt. Please, Sarah, save him. Go with Duke."
Then he nodded to Saulo, indicating that he was supposed to assist in their search.
In a matter of seconds, Duke's appearance transformed, taking on what could only be called an aberrant form. Energy flowed to his face, his physiology drastically changing. His nose stretched and gained a canine-like appearance. His ears elongated, detecting the smallest sounds like heartbeat vibrations. His eyes turned yellow, gaining a vertical pupil.
But he didn't stop there. After a series of 'crack' sounds, another pair of eyes appeared near his ears, and then one on his forehead. Each pair had a different structure, allowing him to see different light spectra, like infrared. The one on his forehead kept changing, shifting between diverse models.
Heat, life, energy, smell, sound, vibrations, and much more. Duke transformed into the perfect tracker in seconds.
Around him, nobody was worried. They had witnessed Duke's transformation before. Time was of the essence, and Duke was already searching for signals as he transformed. After nearly three seconds, he had a direction.
"Saulo, one and a half kilometers in that direction," the hunter pointed.
Without delay, the teleporter acted, taking Sarah and Duke with his hands. He nodded back at Dalton, leaving him with Artemis, and departed.
Right after materializing, Duke already had a new direction.
"Two hundred and twenty meters in that direction," he signaled.
Saulo followed his orders, transporting them there. Arriving at the charred ground, likely from trees closer to the explosion's epicenter.
With one sniff, Duke started running, his hands transforming into giant mole paws optimized for digging. A few meters further, he began digging, already calling for Sarah.
"Quick, Sarah, the kid's breathing is weakening!" He yelled, while retrieving the boy from a hole in the charcoal and soil.
The boy was unconscious. His naked body was covered in burn marks, his hair gone, but the worst was the state of his bones. Many fractures on his arms and legs, along with broken ribs. Thankfully, the kid's dreams were the closest to a ‘good match up’ to Dalton's, or else there would be nothing left to tell the tale.
"Saulo, to my house, quickly!" Sarah ordered.
The teleporter instantly complied, taking only her and the boy, since Duke chose to stay.
For the kid to survive, she needed as many living beings as possible within her nightmare's range. Her house, positioned exactly in the middle of the village, served this purpose.
Right after arriving she started working fast.
The green mist once again expanded. The magical mist grew in size, covering the whole clan and linking with every living creature in the range, taking a small contribution from everyone to save the life of one. The green strings of energy started dancing in the sky, joining together in a beautiful translucent river above the peoples head, slithering all in the same direction.
Setting the boy on the ground, she controlled her nightmare once again, sharing the pain and burden of her patient. She felt it all, her arms and legs screaming, her skin and lungs burning. But her pain was overshadowed by the pity she felt for the kid. No one as young as him should have to suffer like this.
And, as always, she endured.
The ball of dark green light formed above Tomas and strings of concentrated power started penetrating his skin simultaneously. First, his lungs and throat reverted to normal, as if the explosion never happened. Then, his bones, one by one, started snapping back into place. Ribs, torso bones, arms, legs – his spine remained intact despite the ordeal.
Finally, she healed his skin. All the dead parts fell away, replaced by new cells growing in their place. Her work was done.
Exhausted, she lay on the floor of her house. It hurt, not as much as with Lucien, but it was never easy. Her work was over, and she was glad she could save another life. Yet, despite the relief of saving the boy in time, she couldn't help but worry. Some kinds of damage even she couldn't heal, and she feared for what Dalton and his kids would go through.
After the tension left her body, a couple of shy tears started falling from Sarah's eyes. Artemis was her friend too, after all. She knew Dalton her whole life, as they were both born in the mixers clan and were of similar age. They grew up as friends, and when Artemis joined the clan, she couldn't help but grow very close to her. Her free spirit and cheerful personality captivated everyone, making it inevitable for people to like her.
Like Sarah, many others in the clan felt the same way towards her, and her loss would be deeply felt. It was just too early for her to leave them.
###
Duke had chosen to stay for a reason.
During his search for Tomas, he had noticed some other things that needed to be investigated. Perhaps he could find something to explain this situation and bring closure for Dalton – or perhaps make everything even more complex.
After Saulo had left with the others, he began his transformation again. Since the teleporter wouldn't be coming back for him, he would have to run for a bit, but that didn't trouble him much. As his arms returned to their normal state, he started to adapt his legs.
His muscles grew larger and stronger to keep up with his changing bones, which never ceased transforming. Another joint appeared in the middle of his shin, bending backward like those of a cheetah, maximizing his movements. Claws grew on his toes to prevent slipping.
As his transformation finished, Duke began running at a relaxed pace (for him) in the opposite direction of the clan. His senses provided more feedback the closer he got to whatever had caught his attention, and his suspicions gained more credibility.
He passed by the armored leopard's carcasses, but this wasn’t what caught his attention. His goal was further away from the blast, but he took notice on the way of the three leopards together. It was very unusual and despite spending a couple of decades on this forest he never saw anything like this.
He kept running, getting closer and closer from the mess on the border of the blast area. The razed ground went for a hundred more meters and then some broken and burning trees could be seen. But the fire didn’t bother Duke, since this was a very cold region with snow on the ground. Forest fires would never happen.
The hunter walked a bit more and bent down, looking for something his nose noticed. He scanned the ground using his astonishing amount of sensory organs and finally found something, but still not what had caught his attention.
From all that distance he was before, he hadn’t noticed it, but when he got closer, his sense of smell noticed something different. He lowered his hand and grabbed a very small piece of charred meat, hidden among all that charcoal from the carbonized trees. He smelled and analyzed it, trying to identify what it was from. In the end he knew that there was only one way to be sure, and in one bite it was gone. ‘Interesting’, he thought, receiving information from what he had consumed.
Resuming his primary search, he followed the scent he had detected earlier. It wasn't far from the piece of meat, and with a few steps, he arrived at his destination.
"Fuck..."
Duke knew what his findings meant, and he didn't like it at all.
"Later, I'll talk to him. But not now," he assured himself. Dalton wasn't ready for what he had to say. At least, not yet. 'It's best to search more and gather some proof before approaching him,' he decided.
His skin transformed again. Small scales covered his body, including his head, causing his hair to fall. His arms grew longer and thinner, sporting long claws on his fingers. His legs also slimmed down, retaining the extra joint. His body temperature neared the ambient, and his heartbeat became undetectable. His nose transformed into a sensory organ-only, and his skin took on the role of his 'breathing.'
But even before his transformation was complete, his skin rapidly changed color, and without a trace, he vanished. No smell, no heat, no noise – nothing remained.
He departed as if he had never existed.