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OLIVER ROCCO
Our son was special.
I know that sounds arrogant, but it was the truth. It didn’t just stem from the fact that he was part druid, although that was a major factor to consider, but what truly made him special had more to do with his own character than the circumstances of his birth.
At first, I questioned my own abilities, would I really be able to raise a child with druid blood running through his veins? After all, druids were rather reclusive by nature and if it weren't for the rather fervent circumstances I found myself in a while back, I wouldn’t have come across his mother.
When I saw our son for the first time, those creeping doubts in my mind only started growing stronger. He had jet black hair, deep red eyes and shared almost no resemblance with either of us, so I thought it was the first sign that we were destined to grow apart as time passed but, to my surprise, nothing of the sort ended up coming to pass.
Liam was honestly a bit of an oddity.
He rarely ever cried and the only times he did was when he got too hungry, a quick five minutes on his mother’s bosom was really all it took for him to settle down. On top of that he wasn’t very afraid of the dark for some reason, well to be clear, he wasn’t very afraid of anything at all.
As much as I’m embarrassed to say this, there were times when I deliberately tried to test the limits of his apathy by telling him spooky stories or turning off the Aether crystals in his room, but none of that ever got much of a reaction from him.
That much was fine, but what really started to concern us was the fact that he hardly ever smiled. At first, we thought it was because he wasn’t really interacting with the kids his age, but there were very few of them in Zale to begin with.
Julia was far more distraught over that small fact, but I simply thought it was something he would eventually grow out of. Its not like he never smiled though, on the rare occasions where he did, it was almost always under the condition that he was skimming through the books in the living room whilst lying flat on his stomach, smiling at some vague passage of text about monsters and deities.
Whenever that happened, Julia would jump for joy, she enjoyed seeing it so much that she would often sit in the living room knitting away whilst also keeping her eyes locked on him like a hawk. Just in case he felt like putting one of those innocent expressions on his face.
At the time I couldn’t have guessed that he was somehow learning to read all on his own, but when I found out that he could actually read, it didn’t surprise me all that much. Somewhere in my head, I heard a distant voice say, “Of course he can read.”
That was just the start of it, after that the boy would go on to pop more surprises than I could even count. First, he awakened as a dualist with the lightning and fire attributes of all things, two of the most powerful elements a mage could ever wield. That alone would have been enough, but what truly surprised me was the amount of mana Liam had as a fledgling mage, it was almost enough to rival my own reserves.
I’m sure that absurd mana of his had something to do with his druid heritage, but with time he was certain to surpass me in both talent and skill. Even while we were training, in just a meager two weeks he managed to grasp the fundamentals of reinforcement and manifestation of his attributes.
He wasn't necessarily good at everything though, there were times when he struggled, but the big difference here was the fact that he simply just refused to give up. Every time he failed at something, he would hack away at it to no end, almost to the point where he was entirely drained.
Still, thanks to those two weeks we spent training together, I was able to observe my son’s true character from up close and the conclusion I ultimately came to was that....I was wrong. The truth is that, despite appearances, Liam and I weren’t all that different. The two of us held the same tenacity and interest when it came to magic, but not only that, he also seemed to have a budding interest in seeing how far he could take his own spells. Of course, I’m fully committed to reeling him in and showing him the ropes but that’s pretty much all he needed, in due time the boy was certain to figure out the majority of it himself.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
I wanted to watch over him, to see every step of his growth no matter how small it was. I’m sure Julia wanted the same, she wouldn’t ever object to something like that.
That’s why I’m going to put a stop to all of this right now, for the sake of all the people here, as well as for my family.
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I’d incinerated several of Owen’s cloned bodies for the umpteenth time now, but no matter how many times I did that more of them would continue to spawn regardless, though the total number of clones never seemed to surpass six for some reason.
I was growing tired of this, I wanted to take him alive if possible, but this was just getting ridiculous. Just as I was getting ready to set the entire forest ablaze, all six of Owen’s clones abruptly shattered like glass before fading into the wind.
“Damn it what now?”
I frantically spun my body, carefully scanning my eerie surroundings but despite my fervent efforts, I couldn’t sense anything out of place. Whatever Owen just did must have been a desperate move, even if he was still at level one, I doubt he’d just keel over and die like that, something was going on here.
Coating my body in a surge of wind, I hastily propelled myself through the spooky jungle. Owen was definitely working with the other members of Brunhilde, so if I could just catch one of them....
After thinking that, I found myself hastily rummaging through the maze of trees and underbrush in a desperate attempt to find my foe. It had been well over fifteen minutes and yet nothing of note was coming into view. This place was just way too big for me to get a good grip on anything all on my own.
Tch.....Should I head back to town?
As soon as that thought crossed my mind, the sign I’d been so desperately hoping for finally decided to show itself. A rumbling explosion tore through a spot in the forest a short distance ahead of me and only moments later, a familiar screeching sound would reach my ears.
“KRIIIIEEEEK!!”
That was the only clue I needed, only one monster around here could ever stir up that much pressure with nothing but a simple roar. “There you are!” I shouted in anticipation. “It’s been a while....Basilisk.”
On command my body shot towards the source of the commotion, with my wind guided trajectory I narrowly shot past the trembling trees that were now quivering in the wake of the tyrant's appearance.
The Basilisk was steadily rearing its injured head, climbing higher and higher into the air as if it was about to strike at something but, who exactly was it aiming at? I was still a few seconds away from confronting the beast so just what – Before my stimulated thought process could run amok in my head, my own two eyes would betray the answer to that question.
His back was turned to me, but I could tell. There was no mistaking that prominent sheen of jet-black hair. It was Liam, his shirt ripped from the waist up, covered in a multitude of cuts, bruises, and gashes. And in his hands... was Vreena’s lifeless body.
My heart ached just seeing my son like that, I couldn’t bear it. Just what exactly happened here?
A myriad of thoughts were once again swirling in my mind but at this point, I’d completely lost interest in the monster looming over my son, the only thing I wanted to do was vanquish it from this world.
My blood boiled with rage, so much so that I didn’t even need to form a clear image of the spell I was about to fire off. Compressing the winds surrounding my body had brought me to a gentle halt, as soon as that was done, I added a compact sphere of smoldering flames into the mix before firing off the scorching blast at my target.
It was a direct hit, and though I had obliterated the monster I’d been so desperately searching for in one shot, I didn’t feel any sense of accomplishment. I wasn’t in the right frame of mind right now, that much was obvious from the shoddy attack I threw out, it had even gone so far as to set the surrounding trees on fire.
The moment the Basilisk’s body came tumbling down, Liam slowly turned around to face me. Blood was splattered all over the front half of his body and it was riddled with even more cuts and bruises, but what truly surprised me was the expression on his face. It looked strained, and uncertain, like he was grappling with a maelstrom of emotions that neither of us could quite decipher.
He looked like a soldier who'd just finished waging a war all by himself... or at least that was what I thought at first. However, one detail disproved that assumption. A single tear rolled down his right cheek, overflowing from his right eye.
For the first time in two years, my son was crying.