Civilization

A sharp spear, dancing in front of me, piercing the air and penetrating the wind. Bloodshot eyes curved into half-moons with a grin reaching the edges of the eyes. Hair flowing in the wind as a red glow pulse out of his body. He is enjoying every second of it.

I grit my teeth as I narrowly dodge each thrust and strike. At the start of the fight, I had the upper hand, pressuring Kingston with each of my attacks and drawing blood where I could, but each time I dealt damage to him, he got stronger. I cut him, he gets faster. I slam the body of my trident into him, he gets faster.

Not only that, each time his attacks land on me, it's like he gets a burst of power. A brief moment of increased speed and strength. Using that moment, his attacks become relentless. I thought being in such a chaotic state, he wouldn't be able to fight effectively. At most, random attacks but looking at how it is now, it looks like he is in total control. Each strike aimed for my head or my heart, and I was helpless in front of him.

My trident clashes with his spear. The sound of stones scraping against each other echoes in my ears. With each exchange, I step back bit by bit, forced to be on the defensive. Sylvia had already run further away, leaving just me and Kingston fighting below the giant pulsating black egg.

The dinosaur that was originally floating above us slowly turned into a watery black egg. I couldn't see inside it, and it looked like it absorbs all the surrounding light. I'm worried about what was inside it as much as I was worried about Kingston in front of me.

"How FUN! I LOVE IT!" - Kingston

Kingston stops his barrage of attacks and places a hand over his left eye. Tilting his head up and laughing hysterically. It was the first words he said that weren't 'Kill'.

"Can you understand me, Kingston?" - Luke

"AH, HOW I LOVE THIS! BLOOD, FIGHTING, IT'S AMAZING! AHAHAHA!" - Kingston

The glowing red aura pulsates outwards faster and faster, as it slowly condenses around Kingston's body like armor.

"KINGSTON! CAN YOU HEAR ME?" - Luke

"Ahhhhhh, I want to KILL everything. I want the blood to rain all over me." - Kingston

I call out to him, but it seems like he is lost in his own world. The red aura solidifies around Kingston, forming a ruby skull-like face with two burgundy twisting horns on top of his head. His body gets wrapped in scarlet skin and his spear extends to twice its size, dyed in blood-red.

"BLOOD AND DEATH!" - Kingston

A deep, booming voice escapes his mouth. So different from his voice before, as if he became a different person. A red glint shines in his eyes as he swings his spear to the side, getting into a running position.

I didn't have any confidence in fighting Kingston. He emanates the same feeling as the Blood Ogre and the Dragon I saw when Oscar died. My heart feels like it is slowly being crushed by the pressure.

My breathing quickens, and the sweat on my hands makes my weapon slip, making me grip it tighter. Cracks on the red ground below him start to form as he applies more pressure to his feet. Even an idiot can tell that he was about to launch himself at me, but maybe only an idiot can escape from this pressure. The pressure that makes one's feet standstill and one's body run cold.

"CHARGE! CLEAVE!" - Kingston
Kingston disappears from his location, reappearing as a red bolt on my right as he swings his spear faster than my eyes could follow. Instinctively, I let the butt of my trident fall back, hitting Kingston's spear but it wasn't enough to stop it, only divert the brunt of the attack. Despite that, I still get launched far.

My body flies through the air, scraping the ground as I land. The armor that old man Hus prepared for me, broken on the side by Kingston's attack, only the interlaced inside part remains on my right side.

Without letting me have time to breathe, Kingston reappears in front of me pointing the spear at my body and stabbing forward. The cold red eyes look at me as if I was just prey, ready to be killed at a moment's notice.

The straightforward attack was easily dodged in the nick of time, and I had a chance to retaliate as Kingston's spear penetrates the ground too easily. I insert my mana into my trident, following old man Hus's instructions, and see the small red orb near the point of my trident glow brightly.

p Still, on the ground, I push my trident forward close to Kingston's body but with how slow my attack was he grabs it mid-thrust. I smile to myself as the red orb glows brighter.

"Take this!" - Luke

A small explosion sets off right in the middle of Kingston's body. Warm red blood splashes all over me as Kingston screeches at the pain. The bright flash of light made me close my eyes and I roll out of the situation grabbing my trident as I do.

I open my eyes and let them slowly adjust to the light. Kingston was crouched over, holding his spear with his right hand. Knowing that the attack might not be enough to kill Kingston, I insert my mana into my trident again, making the orb glow brighter. Gripping my trident tightly, I thrust at Kingston's head.

Another explosion and this time a direct hit to his head. I backed off after the attack but it wasn't enough. The red armor around Kingston's body was broken and I had destroyed a horn however, it didn't mean I had killed Kingston.

He picks himself up, revealing the hole in his armor at the front slowly repairing itself as a red aura envelopes the area. The half-shattered helmet and horn slowly repair itself as well as his cold dead red eyes stare at me.

That's when I knew, I couldn't kill him.

My heart sinks.

My confidence drops.

I thought I had gotten stronger since I had finished the ikanda training but I guess it was all in my head.

"Kill." - Kingston

A low deep voice as the armor repairs over his face and chest. Returning back to the demon-like appearance. As Kingston steps forward to finish me off, a loud crack is heard above us. Ignoring me, Kingston looks up and puts up his guard. His body trembling as he looks at the giant black egg floating in the sky.

What kind of danger is inside that thing to make even Kingston tremble? Or is he trembling from excitement?

I take this opportunity to walk backward in the direction Sylvia had escaped. I quickly glance over, checking to see if Sylvia was still okay, and I see her head peek over a large rock. She waves her hand above her head and a smile forms on my face. I'm glad she is fine.

Cracks starts to appear more and move around the egg and my chance to escape was slowly disappearing. Risking it all, I decided to just run towards Sylvia. I take one last look at Kingston's demonic appearance and run off but before I could even get halfway towards Sylvia the egg bursts open, sending a wave of energy in all directions.

It sends me flying forward and the moment I could move my limbs, I turn around and look upwards to see a small humanoid figure floating in the sky. Large brown scaly wings wrap around its body and with a single roar, it spreads its wings out creating a wind so great, I fly into the rock Sylvia was hiding behind. I also notice Kingston creating two trails of dirt in the ground as he endures the roar.

With the wings spread out, I can finally look at the floating monster. Its body is similar to a male human's but instead of skin, its body is covered in brownish-red scales. A pair of yellow eyes look down upon us as flames softly escape its mouth. Its claws were sharper than my trident, and it had a long tail swinging behind it.



"It seems Kronos wasn't wrong about my evolution, although I am not satisfied with my appearance." - ???

Despite its mouth barely moving, I could clearly hear the words coming from the monster. I gulp down my saliva as I stare at the monster.

Not too far from me, Kingston screams out, leaping up into the air and thrusting his spear at the flying monster.

"Pathetic impersonation of a demon." - ???

The monster knocks the spear away with its hand and turns slightly to the side, allowing his tail to slam into Kingston's body launching him to the ground.

"Yes, and might I say pathetic impersonation of a dragon." - ???

Appearing behind the monster was a floating man in tight black pants and a white button-up shirt, pushing up his black-rimmed glasses. His black wings softly flap behind him as the black horns on his head slightly shine black.

"Who are you?" - ???

The monster attacks the flying person with its tail.

"Serving under Lord Horde, a true dragon, Casper. You are nothing but an experiment for the mad scientist." - Casper

"Hrmp, it matters not. I am a chimera that evolved into a dragon. Kronos will be pleased" - ???

"That is assuming you make it back." - Casper

Black lightning shoots out from Casper's horns striking the monster square in the chest and forcing him to crash into the mountainside. Casper looks down at the ground as if he was looking for something.

"I thought I saw a few humans there?" - Casper

After making a small comment he flies off towards the monster's location but did he not see me or Sylvia?

"Good thing I got here in time. I guess even a dragon can't see through this skill." - Ian

Standing next to me with his arm in a sling and not a bit of armor on him the man I look up to.

"Ian…" - Luke

"Yo Luke, I see that you somehow made it here." - Ian