Looking down at the arena, Arthur watched as the inmates took down all the onrushing guards, with those who surrendered spared and those who resisted killed.
Suddenly though, everyone felt a chill sweep the entire arena. Sensing something wrong, Arthur looked towards the sky only to grip his chains harder.
In the sky was a swirling sphere of light particles - [Savina Modi] subskill [Vengence].
The subskill [Vengence]: Courtesy of Death's favor. The user is allowed to return from the grave in search of vengeance. As long as the user kills whoever caused their demise, Death will enable them to return to the world of the living. One should note that Death loves his follower's, hence all [Vengence] wielders return with a boon to aid them in attaining their vengeance. Note: There is a time limit for the user to achieve their revenge.
Abruptly a burst of maniacal laughter started from the swirling sphere of light particles. "Ruthra, Ruthra, Ruthra. You must think you are so great killing and massacring my people, but you've simply spelled doom for yourself. AHAHAHA, but I must thank you tho, who would have thought that I would gain so much power from those deaths, AHAHAHA!"
Just as Dredrom's voice quieted, the sphere of light began to grow in size as a strong gale started to pick. The deceased body of Dreadrom started floating toward the sphere along with the dead guards'. While those bodies were floating toward the sphere, the earth of the arena began to break apart as pieces of bones rose up from within.
Ruthra frowned at this sight as he recalled that those with abilities related to death have a chance at acquiring the rare ability, vengeance. And judging by how much energy was swirling around, the boon Dredrom must have gotten should be strong.
Immediately, Arthur sent a message to the inmates to leave the area.
WHOOSH!
Soon the swirl of energy began to transform, elongating in six areas until the outline of a giant lizard took shape.
SNAP!
The bones and corpses that were floating in the air began fusing together, churning and tuning into unique shapes. Soon the grayish tint of a bone dragon's skeleton appeared all the while moving to enclose the giant lizard shaped swirl of energy.
BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!
Four dragon claws landed as a twenty-meter tall, forty-meter long massive undead dragon landed.
"Oh, for the love of biscuits!" Cursed Arthur. Wasting no time, he immediately dashed onto the outer wall of the execution arena, and with a leap, jumped down.
ROAR!
A swirl of green fire suddenly incinerated the entire arena into ash. For the citizens of Dredrom who were still scrambling to leave, well….
Scanning the surroundings, Dredrom noticed Ruthra's figure dashing towards the southern gates of the city. "Ohoho, do you really think you are going to be able to escape from me, Ruthra? Naive! Run as much as you can! No matter where you go, I will be able to find you."
Feeling a strange mark on the back of his right fist, Arthur took a quick glance, only to find the grey outline of a dragon skull. "Of course," sighed Arthur.
Pushing his speed to even greater heights, Ruthra dashed through the streets of the city towards the city's southern gate. Whereas Dredrom began to dash after him, crushing buildings in his wake. Something of note though is, some undead dragons can fly, but they typically have the anatomic capability of doing so. Typically by having thick membrane flesh in between their bone wings. However, in Dredrom's case, he came into being without that membrane, thus forcing him to chase after Ruthra on all fours.
Something else of note is that dragons are an aspect of one of the Primary Races in Pandora. And in Pandora, there are four Primary Races with every other race considered a sub-race, typically sharing an aspect with one of the Primary Races. As for the Primary Races, they include the
Draqins, a very interesting race, as they hold the ability to transform into massive dragons. In their dragon forms, they exhibited power significantly higher than they can in their humanoid forms. The only reason they even bother with their humanoid forms is for the ease of movement. Typically they looked human until they unleashed their dragon power. Once unleashed their power, scales would begin to appear, covering them like a suit of armor – Semi Dragon form. To top it off, no other Primary Race can compete with them in terms of physical strength. They pride themselves as a race of warriors who value strength above all, whether it be political, wealth, background, or brute force. The more power you have, the more respected you are.
In comparison, the Ascentyls or Ascendant Humans, hold the highest intellect. With their intellect, they quickly learn all forms of knowledge, mastering their abilities and physiques faster than those of the other Primary Races. Thus, enabling them to stand toe to toe with the other primary races by taking full advantage of their abilities to the limit and then some. Another unique trait of theirs is their mastery over runes. With it, they are able to develop ways to quantitively improve their strength and qualitatively improve their standard of living. Though they had no physical advantages unless you counted reproduction rate, they were a prime example of knowledge equates to power.
The Seraphim, the winged primary race of Pandora, on the other hand, held the greatest strength in energy capacity, use, and output. No primary race can compete with them in terms of pure power due to the fact that they were naturally born with a higher power capacity and had a much easier time passing through each individual cultivation stage. On top of that, they each also born with an avatar, which is a mirror image of themselves and acts as a physical manifestation of their power. The avatar is made of pure energy and provides a great aid in combat. Fighting one Seraphim is like fighting two at once, except that one of them throws a harder punch than their partner while taking even more.
Then there are the Aquarites, the sea folk of the Realm of Pandora, who hold the greatest strength in matter manipulation. They hold the ability to bend any form of matter to their will. This mainly aids them in constructing cities and fortresses capable of fending off any attack within hours. Even if they lost a city or fortress, another one would quickly be built, proving to be a massive headache for any invading forces. To make matters even more headache-inducing, most of their cities and fortresses were built on large bodies of water, and they are the primary race that excels in naval warfare. On top of that, they also share a deep bond with creatures of seas, allowing them to call on their aid in any emergencies. The Aquarites were a race you definitely wanted as an ally and not as an enemy.
As for where one will find the Primary Races, just a step into the Central Domain of Pandora, and one will find that everyone is a member of one of the Primary Races.
Regardless, with Dredrom now being turned into an undead dragon, if he can kill Ruthra, not only will his race be elevated to that of a Draqin, but he would also gain a permanent increase in his strength. And by the look of things, it would seem that he will soon achieve this.
WHOOOSH!
A jet of green flame bathed the surrounding area, turning the surrounding structure into ash.
Sensing how close those green flames were, Arthur's face fell. Nevertheless, He didn't slow down in the slightest and continuously made his way towards the city's gate.
Nearing the city gate, a giant shadow suddenly loomed over Arthur. "Told You! You can't escape from me. Now DIE!!" Roared Dredrom, as a spark of green flame, began rushing downward.
NEIGH!
Suddenly a streak of white flashed before Arthur's eyes. Reaching his hands out, grabbed onto it.
CLIPPITY-CLOP! CLIPPITY-CLOP! CLIP-CLOP!CLIP-CLOP!
The sound of hooves on cobblestone sounded as a streak of white dashed out of the city's gates.
Noticing the streak of white, Dredrom bellowed in rage. "RUTHRAAA!"
Wasting no time, he immediately climbed onto the city's walls and dashed after the man and horse duo.
On Arthur's side, he was gripping onto his companion's mane to stabilize himself on his back, all the while laughing at Dredrom's rage," what took you so long Spirit, I thought I was really going to die?"
Spirit rolled his red as he heard almost as if saying, 'and whose fault is that? Making me run all over the city searching for you.'
Nevertheless, as there were bigger problems to address, Spirit's red eyes glowed even redder as his speed increased further. The low-grassed land blitzed by making it seem as though they were running through a green tunnel.
Dredrom, on the hand, was chasing after them with all his might, all the while uprooting the plants and earth. Occasionally he would grab at the ground seizing up a chunk of earth to hurl at the duo.
BOOM!
A large boulder landed just behind Spirit, throwing bits of rocks and dirt into the air. Fed up with the constant bombardment of boulders, Arthur released his hold on Spirit's mane and flipped himself to face backward while swinging his body to the side. With a perfect viewing angle of the onrushing Dredrom, Arthur activated Ruthra's ability, elongating the chain wrapped around his right hand. Loosening it a bit, he launched it Dredrom and, with a bit of energy, caused it to wrap around Dredrom's right skeleton wing. Seeing it succeed, he grinned and loosed the chain of his hand and, with a powerful throw, launched it into the earth.
Just as Dredrom reached the duo's previous location, the sudden offset of force, caused Dredrom to fall to the side. And due to Dredrom's size, the fall had picked up a tremendous amount of dirt into the air, creating a massive dust cloud. However, due to the increase in distance between Arthur and the chain, he lost his power over it, causing it to return to a normal chain. Regardless, it served its purpose of slowing down Dredrom.
ROAR!
Infuriated, Dredrom's green eyes were burning with rage as he resumed his chase after picking himself up from a mess of grass, dirt, and rocks.
Just as Dredrom broke through the cloud of dust, he saw a flash of white as he found is long neck wrapped in a white chain.
With the same movement, Arthur threw the other end of the chain piercing deep into the ground. This time, rather than falling to the side, Dredrom was flipped into the air.
BOOM!
Landing heavily on his back, Dredrom was stunned for a bit before roaring angrily once more. If he didn't need to pause for a few moments to release a breath of fire, he would have long since erased Ruthra's existence. But due Spirit's speed, those few moments were just enough for the duo to escape from the breath's range. Nevertheless, every moment counted. Rolling over to the side and turning around, Dredrom began to madly chase after them. But suddenly, his eyes flashed with a hint of excitement.
Swinging his body back upright, Arthur did the same maneuver of slightly pushing his body up to turn in a one-eighty degree angle. Now facing forward, his eyes opened wide as saucers," Spirrriiittt!"
Before him was an oncoming large gorge, and if he remembered correctly, this gorge was known as Death's Smirk. It was known for being bottomless while having a width of over a few kilometers and being oldy shaped like a smile.
Behind him, Arthur could hear the laughter of Dredrom. "AHAHAHA, nowhere to run now, eh Ruthra. Now be a good boy and hand over your life!"
Despite hearing this, a sudden sense of calm washed over him. 'I would already be dead a dozen times over without his help.'
5 seconds…
' I've only had the chance to escape from Dredrom with his support.'
3 seconds…
'Let's have a little faith, shall we.'
1 second…
Just as this thought finished crossing Arthur's mind, he suddenly felt a sense of weightlessness followed by a rush of air.
Looking down, what greeted him was only endless darkness, Arthur gulped, but nevertheless still held on to Spirit's mane with a stable grip.
Watching them actually jump, Dredrom was filled with bliss. 'Now die!' He thought as he got closer to the gorge, all the while tightening his body to leap and swallow them whole.
But then something changed. A burst of white light suddenly enveloped Spirit as a pair of massive wings burst forth from his sides.
WHOOSH!
With a flap of his wings, Spirit blitzed to the other side of the gorge, landing with a resounding DOOSH!
Beyond surprised, Arthur's jaw hung freely as he stared at Spirit. "You have wings? How am I finding out this now?"
But the only response he received from Spirit was a snort.
At this moment, however, Arthur noticed something at the back of his right hand. A decreasing number. 'Huh!'
The decreasing number was at the center of the vengeance mark.
Twelve, eleven, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four
Three
Two
One
POOF! [Vengence] time limit achieved.
A sudden rush of air swept past the duo, followed by a BOOM. Much to their shock, the head of Dredrom had just landed behind them. But adding onto their surprise was that his green eyes were now dark and lifeless.
Suddenly a blue holographic screen appeared before Arthur.
- Congratulations. Trial Completed.12/12. -
[Tidbit: Savina Modi is Kannada for bewitching death. Kannada, also known as Kanarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by people of Karnataka in southwestern India.]