“Well, you’re not my dad!” Oskar yelled back at him. Erik laughed behind him, but cut it short.
The Drakon didn’t react at all. It was clear to see now that Oskar had been a fool for rushing in. He’d let himself get a little too confident with his new power, and he’d could have gotten himself killed for it.
Standing, he steadied his breath and seriously considered his opponent, looking over the info from his PUB’s scan which confirmed the high threat. It sarcastically flashed twice more.
I know, I know. That was stupid. This guy feels like he could be a full rank above me in almost every way. Maybe we shift focus on injuring him enough to escape.
The Drakon was tall, broad, and moved like someone who practiced doing it well- and without wasting energy if his low effort dodge was any indication. Oskar drew nearer much more cautiously this time, and he felt Erik and the Kobolds move around behind him to get into a better position.
“How did you find us and what do you want?” Oskar asked.
The Drakon exhaled a bored breath and shrugged, “This one does not know or care what Valla wants with you, and does not care how they are finding you,” he said, waving his spear hand vaguely in the direction of the dead attackers.
“This one found you while chasing that foolish overgrown cat, Bastet. She was finally tiring enough to take down. Another week?” He shrugged. “But, Valla insisted you were connected to her and that you were dangerous. Turns out she was right on one account. She told this one the best way to pull that kitten out of hiding was you and wanted this one to kill you as a favor.”
Grinning, he pointed at Oskar with his spear, and just the motion sent a wave of intent that gave Oskar pause.
What the hell was that?!
// I don’t know. Maybe he has an intimidation ability or something? //
The Drakon continued, his eyes flashing with unknown power, “Krellum ignored her, though. She does not control this one. Yet in tracking Bastet, this one finds you instead.” The Drakon, his sinister eyes locked on Oskar’s through his massive Goggles, sniffed the air.
“It is safe to assume, then, that the cat is already dead, and she has given her meager power to you? For what purpose? You have no control, and so every pathetic use of her power leaves behind signs that one such as me find simple to follow. This one could find you from half a world away, despite only having access to a small amount of her power,” his voice graveled.
“A portion of her power? What is he talking about? I’m so confused right now.”
// I imagine Bastet’s power will continue to help you as you grow. I imagine your stats have bottlenecked your potential as you suspected. She couldn’t have just made you whatever rank she was in her prime, or you probably would have exploded. Either way, confused or not, I assume you’re aware this guy could paste you, right? You need to escape. His power level is ove… //
Nien! Don’t you dare!
// You know what… I like you. That was pretty clever. Carry on. And by carry on, I mean you need to get the hell out of here.
Gambit Created
Run. Seriously, get out. He’s at least Rank C.
Difficulty: Hard
Reward: Not being broken into a million pieces and losing the Wayspring Magic to this thief. //
Oskar tried one last question, “Who are you?”
“This one is Krellum, the Great Dragon. This one…” His head tilted, confused. “This one said as much, more than once.” He scrunched his face in exasperation. “Are you stupid?”
Krellum sighed shook his dead dismissively. “Regardless, Krellum is bored with speaking to insects.”
Ok, so he’s talking in third person. This guy gets high off his own farts. If I’m being honest, though, he’s still kind of hurting my feelings. It’s like he’s not being mean, he really thinks these things.
// Man… I wish I could fart. //
What is wrong with you? Is that all you got from that?
The Drakon interrupted his conversation with the PUB by moving forward lazily. With a gesture and familiar power Oskar noticed this time, the sand under him shifted to throw him off balance. Oskar fought for control and, after some resistance, stabilized the sand beneath him using his own Talau, reinforced by his Rakiyu.
For the first time, the Drakon showed an emotion other than bored disappointment. “You can use both Sora and Talau? You fight with them like a flailing hatchling, but that is unusual, at least. I suppose if you had time to grow, you might be a threat after all one day. Unfortunately, Krellum is here for you right now.”
“Listen, Krellum. Oskar the Great Druid has a lot going on right now, so if you could just leave, that would be super.”
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
// Ha! Gotteem! Also, it seemed he didn’t sense your use of Rakiyu. Interesting. //
Krellum didn’t like that. He rushed forward and shield bashed Oskar, who had enough sense to pull in his Resonating Ward tight to his body to blunt some of the impact, and also saw the tale tell shimmer of Erik’s shield envelop him.
It still wasn’t quite enough.
Oskar’s arm crunched into his ribs, which unfortunately crunched as well. Oskar immediately knew the only reason he’d survived- even through Erik’s timely shield- was because his head had been above the top of the shield when it struck him. The whiplash was brutal as he soared through the air.
Flung through the air as he was, Oskar couldn’t get his bearings well enough to soften his landing through positioning or Sora.
He crashed into the sand and rolled with a sharp spike of pain, mostly in his broken arm and ribs. Spinning, he turned the last of his momentum to spin upright and hopped a few steps to catch his balance.
Poor, sweet Penny was about to make a terrible, deadly mistake. She was sneaking up behind Krellum, who’d paused his advance on Oskar and the party, obviously waiting on her.
Not knowing what else to do, he threw wind and sand at the Drakon, using both Sora and Talau, but the distance and hardiness of the massive creature rendered the attack nearly useless. Luckily, it was enough of a distraction that Oskar could send a desperate mental command to his companion. To his relief, Penny sent back a petulant response, but thankfully backed off.
Oskar was as least as durable as Touwon with the body increase, and he’d almost died from a swipe he’d been expecting.
“We gotta get out of here, group,” Oskar said.
He heard Fox whisper “That is a truth,” off to his left.
Krellum answered with a laugh, “What makes you think this one will allow that, foolish human?”
At that, Krellum darted forward even faster than Oskar had expected. Using Talau, Oskar pulled on the sand under Krellum instead of pushing it, off balancing the Drakon long enough to get between him and the rest of the group. Oskar brought his own spear up to block the thrust from the barbed spear in Krellum’s right claw, but at the last second, Oskar shifted aside and dodged instead.
Krellum was over-committed to the strike, expecting and hoping to bowl the human over again, but “That One” recovered quickly and pulled back his clawed hand, aiming the barbed spear at Erik instead, ignoring Oskar completely.
Desperate to throw off Krellum’s aim, Oskar closed the distance again and thrust his spear forward as the Drakon drew back, using the top of his broken forearm to stabilize the strike. The spear struck Krellum’s scales, and barely caught for a moment before sliding along the them harmlessly.
Oh… I’m screwed.
He should have known it was a trap. Despite the cockiness, this guy was a pro, and Oskar never should have gotten that close.
Especially with a broken arm.
Unsure if the Drakon had reinforced his scales or if he just wasn’t strong enough to hurt the Drakon, he felt helpless as the Drakon shot forward, scooped him up in a bear hug and began squeezing.
Oskar could feel the others rushing to the rescue, but he also knew the Drakon had their measure. Out of his periphery, he saw Fox shimmer out of vision and, against his pleading, Penny was closing in again.
Channeling Sora, and Talau, and fought to keep them in his body, circulating as they stabilized while he tried to ignore the pain, and wasted no time using Willful Infusion to reinforce them with Rakiyu. Bastet’s gifts were incredible, but the Drakon had been right. He didn’t know what he was doing and wielded his magic like a toddler with a hammer. So, he swung.
Krellum’s eyes went wide when he realized that not only could Oskar use Rakiyu, but he could channel it at the same time as Sora and Talau. The crushing grip loosened as soon as Talau snapped between them, but the real proverbial hammer hit as Oskar unleashed everything he had- and used some of his precious air to let out another primal yell just in case it was part of what triggered the pulse with that last Glider.
There was a moment where Oskar almost lost consciousness, and he could feel that terrifying pressure in the back of his skull, and the fear cleared his mind. Inches away, the fiery Drakon eyes went glassy, and both combatants dropped to the sand.
Desperately scrambled back up to standing, Oskar fought off the vertigo and pressure... as well as the unwanted attention from the broken, hellish “wrong ones.”
Oskar also forced himself to ignore the instinctual fear sinking into his belly that telling him to run for his life before the predator- laying flat on the sand before him- could recover and kill them all. He instead pulled all the Sora he could muster to him and launched himself straight upward, barely waiting for the magic to stabilize.
We can’t run. He’s a true hunter. He’ll never stop.
The magic seemed to respond to what he wanted more than anything else. Krellum said he could find him halfway across the world. He could move faster than the group, and with at least a C Rank body, the Drakon needed even less rest than the Kobolds. So… he needed to die.
Sora carried him higher and higher, temporarily free of the brutal temperature and constant dangers of the world below. Rakiyu stabilized the swirl of Sora, and the world quieted, giving Oskar a vague sense of solace in the sky's tranquility. But the adrenaline coursing through his veins was in control.
He went higher than ever before, so high up that tiny, foreign stars beyond the atmosphere were becoming visible and he felt Sora reinforced by the purity of being present in its true Domain when he finally allowed himself to slow. He rolled and bulleted downward, his spear cutting the wind before him. Sora was spooling around him impossibly fast, and he felt himself gaining speed.
There was a moment of worry as Oskar, despite his speed, imagined the spear still somehow glancing off the scales because of some unknown ability or a bad angle.
You know what doesn’t need to be precise, though? A maul.
He saw the distant dot of Krellum staggering to his feet far below and was look around for Oskar, now rocketing toward him, concealed in his Resonating Ward.
As he closed the last hundred meters, Oskar turned in the air, his boots downward as the spear shifted into the maul.
He didn’t need the guidance of his PUB to show him the proper form for this.
Ignoring the pain in his forearm, he reinforced it with Talau and hoped the healing he’d received from his Ward aura would allow him to hold on to the weapon as he lifted the weapon overhead with both hands.
Like splitting wood, but from 800 floors… and with a hammer.
If the Drakon had looked up instead of around or maybe if he hadn’t just woke up from a fresh concussion, he might have been able to avoid the strike. But as it was, Krellum didn’t even tense up as the maul completely obliterated him from above.
Sand, scales, bone, and blood exploded outward. Oskar had timed the Momentum Transfer perfectly, and the damage was too much for any C Rank in existence to take standing still. The impact left Oskar standing in a deep crater of scaled remains, covered in viscera, and panting heavily.
// He’s gonna feel that in the morning. //
Seriously, you need a reboot or something.
Fresh blood was running down his face from his slowly healing injuries, and Oskar almost fell to his knees, saved only by leaning on the maul that was sitting in the wet sand. Desperately, he held on to the Resonating Ward.