CHAPTER 4
A RADICAL TRANSFORMATION
William Hunter’s hands turned into claws, his teeth became jagged as they bulged from his face, and his skin began growing green and black scales all over.
Hikaru gasped. “He’s—”
The half man roared like a wild beast, his voice echoing throughout densely packed forest. Kamari and the others immediately took off, sprinting through deep woods frantically. Hikaru ran as fast as his legs could carry while pulling Amber’s hand to make sure that she kept up. He quickly glanced behind his shoulder to see if the hunter started gaining ground, and that’s when he noticed Kamari no longer trailing behind them. Instantly stopping, he turned around and saw Kamari through narrow trees with his stained katana in hand, ready to challenge the hunter.
Hikaru glanced at Amber. “Stay right here.” He took off instantly, racing toward Kamari. Looking up from a closer range, Hikaru saw that the hunter now stood as a thirty foot tall dragon, then he back peddled a few steps after sighting this monster up close. The hunter massively towered overhead, with red eyes, a long tail, and huge wings bulging from his back.
“Hikaru!” Kamari shouted over intense roars. “Get away from here!”
You can’t fight this thing… run!” Hikaru screamed.
“I told you to get out of here!” Kamari yelled more aggressively. “I can beat him.”
Hikaru hesitated, then snapped back to his senses and raced behind a tree awaiting, hoping that Kamari formulated some type of brilliant plan.
“So you actually think you can defeat me,” William Hunter said, his monstrous voice vibrating through Kamari’s spine. The beast’s giant wings stretched out, knocking over tree limbs, and its long muscular neck leaned forward as its red eyes glared at Kamari with only a few feet of distance separating them. “Stupid kid, you should have kept running!” the dragon spat.
“There’s no need,” Kamari said arrogantly, wiping saliva from his cheek. “Come to think of it, I won’t even need this sword.”
He threw his weapon down, snapped his fingers, and made vast bundles of vegetation behind himself vanish.
“Little boy, I’ll chew and devour you for breakfast,” the hunter growled, baring his sharp jagged fangs as drool slid down his long snout. “Are you afraid?”
“No,” Kamari replied. “More like getting bored.”
“Well I believe I have something more entertaining inside my mouth for you.”
Grabbing his dropped sword, Kamari plunged the weapon into the dragon’s lower gums near its teeth: releasing the hilt, he rushed to make space between himself and William’s beastly frame. The giant reptilian effortlessly picked Kamari’s katana from his mouth, using its black tongue to pluck the blade out. After running several feet away from William Hunter, Kamari caused plant life that he’d tampered with earlier to reappear tightly knit like a thick wall between himself and the large dragon. While using uprooted flora to buy time, he focused his power, and radiant blue flames appeared all around open forest, forming into structures.
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Hikaru watched in absolute disbelief from behind a tree as every flame took human shape, and transformed into blue Kamari like figures. Hundreds of Kamari copies appeared on forest grounds, all standing beside one another, making four long lines, each posing in front of their originator. Hikaru got a hot sense of danger from this strange phenomena, uncomfortably feeling heatwaves that every figure generated. The transformed hunter raised upon his hind legs, making himself even taller and intimidating, as its long neck stretched above thickets of knotted shrubs and trees. The beast opened its mouth wide like a snake, and exhaled extreme amounts of fire toward Kamari and his copies. Hikaru gasped, watching this powerful inferno burn through the green wall, engulfing an entire defensive line of bright figures. The huge dragon dropped down on all fours, causing the ground to tremble with a huge thump, roaring viciously while its long tail whipped against surface land.
“Now you see that you’re no match for me,” William Hunter roared.
As he continued grunting and gloating, tiny blue explosions erupted from vigorously orange fire, then took over forest floors where a wild inferno once burned. Blue flames coursed around rapidly toward the dragon. As more replicas exploded, William Hunter became set ablaze by blue fire; roars sounded throughout as this large beast toppled down chaotically to the ground with a large boom. Hikaru browsed around for Kamari, and through this inferno, he saw a figure immersed by a glow of intense light; as fire began to dissipate, there remained nothing left but scorched dirt, and the motionless large body of a dragon, lying on battered soil with Kamari standing in front of it unaffected. Hikaru raced out from hiding until reaching the glow, and when Kamari faced him, all whiteness of his eyes were flared up in a golden sparkle. He powered down, and his eyes returned to their normal shade. At a loss for words, Hikaru pulled himself together, taking in a large breath of surprisingly smokeless air, but before he could speak, the dragon let out a painful deep sigh.
“I refuse letting myself lose to a punk kid.” The dragon whipped its tail at Kamari, striking him on the abdomen with a force that flung his body across earthy terrain.
“No, no, no!” Hikaru yelled, not thinking about their enemy as he rushed in to aid. “Kamari, get up!” he shouted, falling to the ground on one knee. Kamari coughed up droplets of blood from his mouth— then— reality began again to take over Hikaru’s mind, painstakingly forcing him to realize that no one’s invincible, not even a person who’d become slayer of a dragon.
“This is all my fault,” Hikaru said, his eyes watering up with tears. He placed his hand on Kamari’s shoulder invain, clueless on how he could possibly help.
William’s tail raked slowly across ravaged dirt, and the beast let out a weak roar of laughter. “You brats better get tougher if you expect to survive… Believe me, I did you a favor… Novices are usually first off to die in this game, but I never expected to find a beginner as talented as your little buddy of course, and it’s unimaginable to think what his skills would have been like if given time to grow… There can only be one master of the storm, and you two brats could never have defeated Kamari. His death should be your celebration, so start cheering me as I pass… away.”
William Hunter faded through a dark passage that inhaled the beast wholly through solid ground. Hikaru looked down on his best friend while elevating his head in both arms. Kamari spat up more blood, and Hikaru could not help but tearfully sob, understanding that he would truly lose his only friend. As he held him, Kamari’s limp body also faded away, slowly slipping through Hikaru’s arms into a dark void that appeared on the soil. After a short moment of Hikaru grieving, Amber approached behind him, clutching his arm while he wiped his face, and gathered himself to stand.
“We must find a way out,” he mumbled sorrowfully. Hikaru raised his arm and imagined a portal back to New York City. The passage opened into a large oval revealing the city, then, he and Amber stepped inside.