“Are you fucking kidding me?!” Jerome roared. What the fuck just happened? Never in his wildest dreams did he imagine his spear would be taken from him.
Two people screamed after him from behind, their voices sounded miles away before dying down. He heard others cry out for their captured brethren around him. Jerome quickly stretched his hand in the direction his spear was snatched as they landed on the ground. Light bloomed in the distance and an unholy roar resounded throughout the dark forest.
The ground around them quacked from the roar. Birds flocked into the air all around them. They had to shield their eyes to keep them from being hurt.
No, these aren’t birds, Jerome thought.
“These are blood demon bats, Jerome, we need to find safety,” Csala said from beside him. The bats tried to reach her but a shield of psychic energy was up around her. Jerome’s winter coat already put a shield around him.
He felt a spike of sword force and saw a shield go up around the Feis a few feet away. However, that wouldn’t last. The Feis may have protection now but it was being eaten away rapidly by the darkness in the air. He saw the shield glow and dim several times before it sputtered out.
He looked at the Itakars who were huddled together, trying to protect themselves. The bats tore through their already tattered leather armor. They were missing one person now. And it was his fault for thinking he could get them all to the Waters of Irithiya without casualties.
Selene was looking over at him with pleading eyes that he almost regretted bringing them here. No. Jerome clenched his jaw. He would get them to the Waters of Irithiya.
He summoned his psychic energy and pushed it outward like a dome, blasting the bats away. But the bats were resilient. They flew back even though their numbers had been reduced greatly. He blasted them a second time, clearing the air and they turned around again…just as the spear arrived, glowing like the sun.
All the bats were incinerated at once in the air, and some dropped to the floor dead. Others disintegrated in the air. The darkness quickly turned to day as color returned to the world. This Light was brighter than the first beam Jerome produced before, so it meant he was burning more energy than usual.
Jerome threw the spear in the air and roared, “Follow the spear! I’ll wait for no one!”
He picked up Csala, Ms. Tara, and Selene before unfurling his wings and shooting into the air.
~~~
Ajax
The darkness was closing in on them faster than it did before and he couldn’t help but worry they wouldn’t make it to this place Jerome was leading them to. Fei Lin had said they usually waited until the Alignment before entering the forest but did that mean they didn’t face all of this? Ajax couldn’t help but find that impossible.
One of his teammates tripped and almost fell. Ajax blinked… out of existence. The next moment he was holding someone a few feet ahead of his previous position.
“Zatirah’s fangs! How did you do that?!” Fei Lin shouted.
“Princess!” Lang cautioned her.
“I was just asking a question,” she snapped as she ran beside him. “If he can help get us out of here that would go a long way.”
“I can’t help you,” Ajax said coldly. “I can only go short distances.”
He actually could do only five jumps a day with his artifact which had now been reduced to three. Five jumps weren’t much but they could save his life when necessary, and the lives of some of his teammates, so he wasn’t concerned for himself.
“Look, the Light’s paralyzing them and it doesn’t seem to be going out soon,” Bram said with a laugh.
“Do you have any idea how much Light Force is being burned to keep us alive right now?” Ajax asked him. Somehow, he seemed to be the only one who had changed after their clash with the unbound.
“He’s right, Bram,” Trudhorn said. “That’s why we mustn’t waste the advantage he has given us.” Trudhorn dashed forward leaving them all in the dark.
Ajax cursed and increased his speed too. Everyone started running faster to try to beat the other. They knew at the back of their minds that this wasn’t just a competition to see who could run the fastest, but one to push themselves so they wouldn’t waste the advantage Jerome had given them.
All of a sudden, Jerome appeared out of nowhere and picked up Fei Lin and Nia.
“Drop me righ—” Fei Lin began to say but was cut off by a warning growl from Lang. From the look of things, their Matriarch must have put her daughter’s overall well-being in Lang’s hands. Whatever he said was final and Fei Lin could do nothing about it as long as it concerned her safety. A wise move.
Jerome said nothing. He just dashed ahead of them, flying on his blood-red wings. Wait. Ajax observed the wings again in the light of the beaming spear above them. He sighed. They were rapidly losing color. The darkness was degrading the living steel the wings were made of. Still, what he wouldn’t give to have an artifact like that. Jerome had it easy. He was able to fly without using his essence so he did not need to worry about his essence being swallowed up by the darkness. As it was right now, they were already losing essence just by being here.
Ajax looked at the disappearing form of the Sprout with relief in his heart though. Relief he couldn’t understand why he was feeling. Fei Lin had wanted to protest when Jerome picked her up, but one look from Lang shut her up. Ajax already knew his sister would be saved by Jerome no matter what. Jerome had a good connection with her like they were siblings and for that, he was grateful.
But besides that, he had felt great relief when Jerome came back for the little Fei princess to fly her to safety. Was this the love he still felt for the girl that shamed him a few years ago?
He sighed again. He had closed up his heart ever since then and had never welcomed anyone in. But now he wasn’t so sure. Maybe seeing her again was forming cracks in the armor around his heart.
A black-colored viper dove for him from the side, and Ajax quickly materialized his sword, skewering it before it reached him. He looked around, realizing he was on the very edge of the Light around the group. He quickly moved inward.
Ajax sighed, ashamed that he was thinking such thoughts at a time like this. He rushed forward with the rest of the group as they ran after Jerome. The spear burned bright above them, scaring away the denizens of the forest. Various sounds could be heard coming from the animals as the Light made them uncomfortable as it passed by. They rushed away from it, deeper into the darkness making way for their group.
Another roar sounded behind them and many of them stumbled as the earth quaked again. A tree was hurled at the spear to stop it in its path but the spear pierced through the trunk and the tree burst into a million pieces, many of which disintegrated in the air.
The darkness behind them grew and solidified again. It began chasing them like a storm. Everyone behind cried out and dashed forward when they saw this. It got closer and closer but wasn’t able to come too close because of the light.
“Come on, faster!” Lang roared.
Tendrils of darkness stretched out like fingers from the dark storm behind them. These fingers were so dense with the darkness that it began siphoning their vitality from a distance. But the presence of the Light also caused the tendrils to begin wasting away the moment they entered its illumination.
One by one they crumbled to nothing but the last one. The biggest and thickest of the tendrils was about to grab a Sprout at the back of their group when Jerome flew out from the shadows again and attacked it with a spear. Another spear.
Light and darkness clashed and an explosion rocked the forest. The Sprouts were thrown far away by the force of the explosion. Fortunately for them, the light of the spear protected them, shining light to illuminate the area where they fell which was even closer to their destination.
“Is that another spear?” someone asked, pain evident in their voice. The spear they had been following hovered a few feet above them, pointing North. They popped bones back into place. Grunts resounded among them before they started to get up.
“Who cares, just run?” Ajax said. They all took off.
~~~
Jerome groaned awake as his head bumped into something hard. His eyes fluttered open and a splitting headache rocked his brain. He quickly cycled to calm the pain in his head. Jerome blinked rapidly to clear his eyes. The near darkness that greeted him didn’t surprise him.
“This is what I get for being a hero,” he muttered to himself.
He was being dragged on the ground. But by what, he did not know. He couldn’t feel his body, talk more move his limbs. Did this thing paralyze him? How was that even possible without him knowing about it? Well, he was dealing with a creature that wielded darkness after all. There wasn’t much he knew about such creatures.
Stolen novel; please report.
He was slowly raised into the air after a while and hung on a tree upside down. His assailant left him swinging from side to side without interacting with him. Soon it came into view, hanging from the same tree and facing him. Jerome was lost for words. He looked at the creature looking back at him with so much intelligence in its eyes, not knowing what to say.
A dragon.
A freaking huge black dragon that could probably squish him between its fingertips. That was an exaggeration but it didn’t stop his mind from picturing it. The dragon was so huge that its whole body was using the tree as a backrest — and the tree was huge. It positioned its reptilian body upside down so it could look Jerome in the eyes. Its scales were ebony and glittered in the dark. Jerome had a feeling it could command that part of its body and go into stealth mode. With the glitters on, it would be seen from a mile away — like a group of stars, clustered around each other in the night.
The dragon made no sound. It just waited, looking at him with amusement. And the look was every bit as predatory as the dragon. Its eyes, which Jerome thought would be slitted irises and a yellow sclera were actually almost rounded pupils, like ovals inside beautifully patterned and rounded golden irises and white sclera.
Well, it was dark and the dragon needed more light in its eyes, so it had to expand its irises for more light in this dark environment. Or maybe its eyes produced its light. Seeing as it was golden and all. Jerome’s gaze roved over the reptile’s body. The dragon was sleek and looked feminine. Like a beautiful work of art. Though he couldn’t see every part of it.
He realized moments later that he could see color. The dragon’s irises were golden. But this creature was a lot more intimidating than any other he had come across — with the exception of the Argonaut. Its presence ‘demanded’ to be obeyed. With wings tucked in and staying as still as a tranquil lake, it looked like it was going to kill him instantly if he made any move.
Jerome pushed down his fear. He was sure he would have felt his bones creaking from the weight of its presence if he was standing on his legs. As it was, he couldn’t even feel his limbs. Even now, he was finding it hard to breathe as the darkness around seemed to push in on him, causing him a lot of discomfort. Or was that the dragoness’ aura?
He gathered his courage and tried to communicate with the dragoness. He had understood a Storm-Winged Eagle in anger, he bet he could communicate with a dragoness too.
He cleared his throat before saying, “What do you want?”
And the dragoness did something that would forever be imprinted in his mind. Something Rihal had warned him about the Sunfire Wolf during Pilgrims’ Keep.
It spoke.
“I want you to be a hero again… ‘hero’,” it said in a mocking voice. Its voice was feminine. And sultry. With an almost British lilt to it. Or was that just him thinking it sounded British? It was like listening to an older Csala. One with a different accent.
Jerome’s jaw dropped as he stared wide-eyed at the talking black dragoness. He blinked rapidly thinking maybe he saw…or heard wrong. The dragoness’ mouth had moved.
“You can talk?” Jerome asked as something else dawned on him. “You’re a Sage Realm magical beast.”
“Sage Realm,” the dragoness said with a light chuckle, its voice mocking as if what he said was beneath her… it? Whatever.
“We dragons don’t use the same system of advancement as you humans,” it said, moving closer so its large eye could peer closely at him.
The eye was almost big enough to contain him whole — in a fetal position. Jerome shivered and tried to lean away. The dragoness purred and the air vibrated around him, reminding him he was in the presence of an apex predator.
“Hmm. Dinner awaits, hero,” it mocked him. The dragoness turned to leave, and the tree groaned from its weight. No, trees. It was resting on at least two trees.
“Wait. Don’t touch them—”
“How dare you!” she roared, and the darkness around Jerome tightened its grip on him.
Pain flooded his muscles as he was constricted, squeezed like a pimple. Jerome held his breath and tried to calm his heartbeat. Menace poured off the dragon like a flood as her presence nearly crushed him in her grip. She could have killed him, but she stayed her hand and talked to him, he thought. Jerome figured the dragoness wanted something.
“Whatever it is you want, I’ll do my best to give it to you. Just let them go,” he said.
“You do NOT tell me what to do!” she roared in his face.
Jerome saw teeth like blades, the likes of which he had never seen before. All it would take was just one bite… and he’d become minced meat. They were surprisingly white and impressively serrated, with millions of tiny jagged edges around each tooth that would rend his flesh to pieces if she ever took a bite out of him. Yet the dragoness was doing nothing to harm him. Why?
Jerome looked her straight in the eye. He stimulated his voice with his psychic energy to amplify it. “And you’re NOT doing anything to me. So I know you want something!”
His voice was almost as loud as hers. Almost. And carried the intensity of his intent — which was like a candle in front of a storm.
The dragoness tilted her head at him. She moved around him to observe him from every angle before stopping in front of him again. The branch that held him up shook as it moved .There was a wicked grin on her lips this time around that showcased those sharp teeth.
“You might live to regret those words… Xerae fir Ilyrrah,” she said, and Jerome almost lost his train of thought. His heart began pounding hard in his ribs.
“How do you know that?!” he asked in shock.
The darkness relaxed its grip on him and Jerome fell, gravity pulling him toward the forest floor. He had no idea the size of the tree he was hanging from but having been let down, the fall was a long way down. He cycled to heal the paralysis in his limbs and slow his descent before touching the ground.
The beat of the dragoness’ wings resounded in the air as he landed, and it joined him on the forest floor.
“You’re…huge!” he exclaimed, taking in the sheer size of her. It was like looking at a small mountain.
“And you’re tiny,” she mocked.
Jerome scowled at her, taking several steps backward. He had no power or weapon to defeat such a creature up close. Even Charybdis may not be as effective against something so powerful. He could sense the weight of her presence now and she was a lot more powerful than Muna.
But the novelty of seeing a dragon for the first time was wearing off. His calm was returning and the nanites helped to slow down his raging heart and adrenaline, yet kept his mind sharp. He gathered his wits about himself.
“Let my friends go and we can discuss,” he said, donning his armor. Even at that, he could still feel the strain of her presence on his mind and body.
“Ooh, don’t be in such a hurry to leave.”
She moved.
One second she was a few paces away from him, the next she was curled around him, lying on her belly, and staring down at him from above.
Jerome stumbled, shocked. How the hell did something so big move so fast? The dragoness took the opportunity to pin him down with a massive claw, a claw that was easily almost twice his width.
“Get off me!” he screamed. The dragoness was cold to the touch and was siphoning essence from him so fast he sensed he’d collapse from the drain in less than half a minute.
“Don’t be whiny, little chosen,” the dragoness chided, taking her claw off of him. “I wanted a taste is all.”
Jerome scrambled away from her, trembling. He exhaled a shaky breath to expel the nerves. Then scowled at the dragoness. He could see she wanted him to fear her, so much so that he would feel powerless around her. A very sound tactic to use to get whatever you want from someone unwilling to give it. But he was smarter than that. And he wouldn’t let fear rule him.
“You know, your feminine-sounding voice had the opposite effect on the environment than I expected from a dragon,” he said.
“Hmm. And what is this effect you were expecting,” that sultry voice said.
Jerome shrugged. “You’re not as imposing as you look. I expected a rumble and a shaking of the ground and trees when you spoke and moved. You know…more.”
The dragoness’ tail slapped him into the earth then curled around him and flung him into the very tree he was hanging on moments ago. Jerome groaned.
“You’ve got a big mouth on you, haven’t you?”
“Huh. And where did you learn to use contractions in your sentences?” he said as he forced himself out of the crack in the tree. If the dragoness was thinking of using fear to control him, she was in for a surprise.
“Do you plan to annoy me forever, because I have forever? Your friends on the other hand… don’t.”
Change of strategy. A good one too. “Very well,” he said, walking up to the dragoness. Playtime was over. It was time to make a deal. “Release my friends and we can talk.”
She bristled at his tone. “No, we make a deal first and I release your friends. They don’t have a lot of time, you know?”
“Touch a single hair on their head, or a single strand of essence in their cores and the deal’s off,” he said.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Too late.”
“What did you do?”
The dragon’s tail slapped him into the ground again. How the fuck does it reach him without him sensing it.
“I find I do not like your tongue, Chosen of Ilyrrah.”
Jerome raised his head out of the dirt in anger. “My name is Jerome. And will you stop doing that?!”
She slapped him into the earth again before he could lift his body out of the dirt. Thankfully, his armor covered his whole body, face included, or else he would have eaten enough dirt already.
“It is a beautiful feeling, is it not?” the dragoness said, looking almost human.
“What?” Was this dragoness nuts? What the fuck was it… she talking about. But her eyes showed an emotion Jerome never knew he could witness in other creatures.
Longing.
“The feeling of having a name, stupid,” the dragoness said.
Jerome scowled at her. Did she think him someone to be bullied without any clapback? It seemed its… her ego was a little too big for her size. Well, let’s fix that, Jerome thought. It was a bit of a struggle trying to refer to the dragoness as a ‘she’ in his mind but he wanted to make the effort.
“You’re stupid,” he said and the dragoness stilled. That predatory glint was back in her eyes as she stared unblinkingly at him.
The creature’s gaze was a trap. An endless void you could fall into if you were not careful. Her tail came at Jerome again but he dodged, sensing the incoming danger. It still caught him though. The next moment he found himself dangling in front of the dragoness’ face — mere inches away.
“What. Did. You. Call. Me?” she squeezed him with her tail as she spoke every syllable. Jerome groaned in pain. He was hanging upside down and all the blood in his body went south — to his head.
“You want a name, don’t you? I can give you a name,” Jerome strained to talk. “But if you keep disrespecting me, you get to be called ‘stupid’.”
The dragoness hissed in anger. She released a very powerful psychic wave threatening to break the natural barrier in his mind. What happened next made no sense to him at all.
Jerome heard some distant sounds like the song of a baleen whale. He blacked out soon after.