Arc 5: The Heart Within
Road to a Hero:
Three chances in another world
Chapter 21. Explosive Dragon
Edward and Julius jump off of Dema, landing on the ground of the ballroom. The area is damaged and burned, and the room above them doesn't even exist anymore. And the reason for this is standing and smiling right in front of them. Arthur Williams, the red dragon and the user of the black flame is a man who came from nowhere and became a man who is known everywhere. A knight who was once the right-hand man of the Valatrositce king. He is now hurt, exhausted, and wearing pajama bottoms while fighting some people he would have been able to trash if he didn’t treat them like a joke.
Arthur: “THAT DRAGON’S PISSIN’ ME OFF! EVERY SINGLE TIME DAMMIT! The mansion, the castle, and right now…Ugh, whatever.”
Edward walks in front of Julius to show he wants to lead in the fight, so Julius walks to his side.
Arthur: “Let’s hope this is more interesting.”
Arthur heats his body, becoming so hot that he cauterizes all of his wounds. He groans in pain, tightens his jaw, and completely closes all of his once-open wounds. Arthur shakes his head, then spits out a bit of blood.
Arthur: “COME ON!”
Arthur holds out his hands, and focuses concentrated flames around his fingers, making small balls of plasma. Edward and Julius rush to attack Arthur, so Arthur shoots out the plasma. Though they’re able to dodge them, they still explode on impact, blowing up spots in the room as well as swelling up dust. Edward jumps up, swinging his large sword down on Arthur. Arthur moves back, dodging the swing, and attempts to counter by blasting flames from his fists. Julius moves right in front of Edward and spins his rapier in a circle, creating a funnel for the flames to go around them. Arthur gets a confused look on his face, a look that then turns to disbelief, then finally to anger. Julius smirks, coming to the same conclusion that Arthur had. After all the damage Arthur had taken on top of the amount of mana he’s used, Arthur’s flames have gotten weaker. So for him to have similar attack power he would have to put even more mana onto it.
Edward runs past Julius so he can continue to lead the attack. Edward swings his sword over and over, so Arthur dodges over and over. Edward feels something clawing at the back of his mind, a very familiar feeling. The warrior’s spirit is a want to keep going, which can overpower normal decision-making. But for some reason, at least to Edward, this feels much worse. Because unlike with the warrior's spirit, he can almost hear it. Edward’s injured body aches, it cries out to stop, but he keeps swinging. The farthest he has ever pushed himself was when he battled Moro, which was just a few weeks ago, and on a much more personal scale. But right now he thinks that he’s falling, that for some reason he won’t be able to acquire the same feat he once held. Arthur shoots flames out of his feet, blasting above Edward. He creates a hand-sized ball of plasma that pulses and begs to be released. Arthur is about to shoot it off but he’s hit by Dema, who flies directly into him. Arthur accidentally blasts the attack off, missing but still hitting near the duo. Arthur then burns Demas' wing, forcing her down. He attempts to kill the earth-bound dragon, but thankfully Julius saves her by attacking with a flurry of quick strikes, making him back down.
Arthur catches Julius’ blade and stares directly into his eyes. Arthur stands up, so Julius leads Arthur away from Dema. And behind both of them, Edward panics. He falls to his knees, struggling to breathe.
Edward: “I can’t…I can’t…”
Edward punches the ground, falling into a pit of disappear. Moro’s left a massive hole in Edward, a hole that Edward hadn’t even felt until now. Edward seeps into something different, a feeling unknown to him. He has felt loss, sadness, and a hell of a lot of anger, but this is something else. Every single time he’s had to do something, he’s had a point to. Oh, his parents died? He trains to kill the killer. He isn't strong enough to? He trains until he is. But no, if Arthur dies he’ll have nothing. Across the room, Julius and Arthur continue to look at each other across the room.
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Arthur: “I still never got you. I’ve met messed up people, I’ve met strong people, hell I’ve met people hundreds of years old! And yet I’ve never met somebody like you. You have nothing in your eyes, you lead yourself with the fact you’re unreadable…hell, you even told me your outfit colors mean interconnectivity between the countries, so you can’t even tell who or what you’re in line with."
Julius: “I am an open book because what I want is so obvious.”
Arthur tightens his grip on Julius’ blade, forcing the sharp metal into his hand.
Arthur: “Then what the hell is it if I’m so dumb? You wanna be king? You wanna be a god or do you just wanna sit alone in a cabin in the woods?”
Julius: “I want to be many things, things that all lead to one path. A road that leads to a connected world. The Sect of Anarchy is trying to do the same, and knowing where they come from, it is honorable to see how much they have accomplished. But I know that I can do better, be better. I will use whoever and whatever I need to get there as well."
Arthur: “So what? You’re some evil friendless goon?”
Julius: “I may not have many friends, but I do have one.”
Julius turns his head to look at Edward, widening his eyes. His right eye twinges, red, sore, and overused since it’s the eye needed to operate his weapon of Alfheim. But still, he stares longingly at him.
Julius: “If anything, I see Edward as a friend, or at least somebody who I can respect.”
Due to Edward being wrapped within himself, he can’t hear anything Julius says, except for the last bit. Edward’s vision returns to him, letting Julius’ words push him to keep going. Arthur uses the first opening Julius has mistakenly allowed to get a clean hit on him. Punching him directly in the face and chopping Julius’ thin blade in half. Whilst the broken blade is in the air Arthur punches the broken blade into Julius’ side, stabbing right into him. Julius pushes through the pain, extending his foot back, winds his arm back, and performs the dragon's fist, hitting Arthur in the side, and crushing a rib or two. Arthur shouts in pain, using a flaming kick to smack Julius away. Edward sees all of this and is enraged by it. He charges, dragging his sword behind him. No words are said, only grunts and screams.
Edward: “ARTHUR!!!”
A pulse of mana is felt in the air, though it’s not from Arthur or Edward. But it seems to summon Dema, causing her to fly away. This distracts Arthur, letting Edward get right up to him. Edward bit down and swung his sword to hit Arthur’s side. Arthur realizes this right at the last moment. He blasts a concentrated flame right at Edward, blasting them both back. Arthur recovers quickly, blasting the finger plasma shots once more. They hit all around Edward, but Edward’s able to move just out of the way, though one gets through, hitting his helmet, breaking the hinges, and causing the helmet to fall apart. Edward still charges right through it, fully enveloped in the warrior’s spirit. “KILL HIM” Is heard over and over in a deep yet raspy voice in Edward’s mind. BAM! Dema bursts back into the room, with Peter back on top of her, and Gray holding the reins, flying Dema. Peter aims his makeshift grenade launcher right at Arthur.
Arthur: “DAMMIT AGAIN!... WAIT IS THAT YOU GRAY!? FINALLY!”
Gray: “DANG, GOT A CRUSH ON ME THAT MUCH!?”
Peter shoots an explosive, but the reload time is slow so he doesn't mess up the inner workings of the gadget, which is made even worse by Arthur's fireballs that are being thrown at them on top of Gray’s shotty flying. Arthur shoots out a quick and powerful dime-sized ball of plasma, hitting Demas's already injured wing. The explosion knocks Gray and Peter off of Dema, so Arthur attempts to hit one of them with a quick ball of fire. He sees Peter holding something so he chooses to attack him. Peter is barely able to throw his satchel of explosives before he's hit with the fireball. Even though the fireball isn't that powerful, Peter is still a kid, so with all the stress, fear, and quick burst of intense pain knocks him unconscious. Gray extends his cloak so he can catch him, but he lands just like Dema, harshly. Gray watches Edward explode with power. He activates the dragon's spirit, boosting his strength tenfold. But not only that because the satchel of explosives lands right above his head, letting Edward stretch out his sword to swing it down on Arthur.
Arthur preemptively charged up a palm-sized ball of plasma to clash with Edward. Edward swings his sword down with all his might, forcing the explosives down, which ignite when they're even near the powerful plasma. Dema quickly moves to cover Gray and Peter from the blast, protecting them. Edward's sword, Arthur's plasma, and Peter's explosives all connect, creating a blinding explosion that consumes the area around the two. Gray's vision comes back to him so he can see Arthur still standing but with horrible burn marks all over his body. He looks over to Edward, watching as his burnt body falls to the ground, finally out of the fight. Arthur turns to Gray, forming a giant grin on his face.
Arthur: “You the last one?”
Gray: “Yep, you don’t seem to be in very good shape.”
Arthur: “Don’t need to be in my prime to kill your skinny ass.”
Gray: "MY ASS IS NOT SKINNY! It's firm and plump I'll have you know!"
END OF Chapter twenty-one