The smell of smoke, blood, and death filled the air. It was stomach-turning. I saw a man in chainmail armor come running towards me. I let out a warcry and charged in. I could feel it, the anger pulsating. I grinned, the air around me lit up as fire came erupting out of me. I roared, whether it was the thrill of battle or the exhilarating rush of power, it felt great.
I punched the man in armor, the flames liquefying his armor. A hole had been made, my chance was now. I pulled my fist back and threw it forward into the hole. As my hand touched him I let forth a burst of flames, causing him to burn inside his armor, cooking him inside a metal pot.
I looked at my surroundings, dead men lie everywhere. The splotches of paint on some of the men's armors, while others had faultless pictures of a Titan Dragon. This was the beginning of the war between the Xinada Kingdom and the Dura Empire. The battle that was fought almost 80 years ago. I closed my eyes and traveled farther back into the subconscious of Glamos.
The sounds of birds tweeting, creatures scampering beneath the thundering hooves of horses, and the sound of men singing a hearty toon. "Oh, why we'll settle this wild forest, Oh why we'll create a big kingdom! Oh, why we'll make a big business." Even though the song made no sense I just kept singing along. I felt happy, joyous and so very glad.
I chuckled "Loyset, Ancel and Artus. Although we may be in dangerous and unfounded territory, you guys always manage to make the mood lighten up. I thank you, for both being there for me in tough times, and being there for me when I needed shield brothers, and to that, I toast." I pulled a bottle of wheelbarrow ale. "Let us drink!"
We settle down, as the night's gown has been thrown over us. I felt a pang of needing someone to protect and my arms grow into long spindly pieces of wood. Loycet says "Ya, always manage to scare me, with that there power of yours. How does one even manage to do that?" "Just cut the wood off." The shine of a metal axe slings in the air and a burning feeling covers my entire body.
The untamed wilderness of Audera, the place where I currently live. It was tamed maybe 700 years ago. I close my eyes yet again.
I look around, the terrain is bleak, a volcano looms threateningly in the distance, the ground has cracks in it, and the air is dry. I hear something off in the distance. The roar of a great beast thunders, I roar back. My voice is distorted, my powers feel free as if I don't have any limits on them. I think of all the powers I have discovered, I manage to shift between each one I know of, without the hassle of needing to feel any emotion. Air rushes towards me, the sound of a bird flapping is stuck inside my ear, I look up.
A wyvern hovers there, with every flap of its wings air comes rushing towards me. "Elemental, why have you come to my domain?" I say nothing "Do you wish to fight? You will lose, for NO ONE CAN DEFEAT ME, KERSOG CHAMPION OF THE DRAGON RACE." I shift to my earth element, I stomp my foot and a chunk of ground and rock comes up. I punch it and it bends and covers my arms, giving me hard, heavy fists. I hear the inhale of Kersog's breath, then he exhales unleashing a torrent of fire and sound.
I put my hands up to defend, some of the layers of my fists tear away. The flames stop, giving me enough time to launch near him. I raise my fist and smash it into his snout, rocks go flying everywhere and he looked stunned. But by the time I was already near the ground he flies beside me and slams into me, sending me soaring in the other direction. I plummet to the ground with a thud, I stand up. Barely any damage to me, however, the ground below reveals a crater.
"Elemental, you surprise me. I did not expect to have any qualms about defeating you, but perhaps you might prove to be an obstacle to me. I shall finish this." Kersog says. I do not feel any fear about his comment, nor do I feel anything else. Just a dull feeling of missing something, Missing emotion. I look at Kersog, he tears at his skin. Cutting skin and scales off of himself.
I look at him quizzically. When he's finished, I can see that he somehow got bigger. His eyes were ablaze with a streak of ever-changing flames. If he wants to pull out his ace card then I should increase my power up a notch. He wants to fight with fire, then I'll fight fire with fire. I switch to a flame elemental, but I remember the combo I did in Ramshorn. I forcibly change half of my body into a coal color. My body manages to interpret that into a combination.
Kersog looks at me with slight dismay "So you can blend your powers, how fancy, it does not mean anything in the end. I will be the last beast standing." I could hear a slight falter in his voice. "Listen kersog, we both know who will still be breathing after this battle. Give up your Jade Heart." I said.
Kersog looked surprised "Elemental, how do you know about the Jade Heart?" I didn't have time to waste. "Give me, the Jade Heart." I raised my palms at him, threateningly. He laughed dryly. "You are a funny one, elemental. I wish to know your name, so that I may know the name of the elemental I struck down." I unleash a tornado of fire, The air around it flies up with it adding extra force to the flame. My flame is countered by an even bigger burst of flame by Kersog.
I pour every ounce of energy I can muster into my flame. It eventually wins the battle between the two flames. Kersog looks off in the distance, then nods his head as if he was told something. "Right," he mutters. "You are a powerful one, I'll admit to that. But, we must continue this battle another time. Something is happening, And I must see what. For this elemental, it is more important than this fight." Kersog says before he vanishes. I stand there, annoyed that our fight has been delayed.
The ground begins to rumble. The rumbling is too strong, and I fall back. I hear voices, both far and near. Whispers, saying something incomprehensible. The wind accelerated, Dust and small pebbles started swirling around me.
I looked up, there was a fissure in the sky. It slowly got bigger, it got big enough for me to see through it. A bright light shone through, and the voices around me faded away, except one. I could hear it now, I tried to listen for a voice. Before I could hear what it said, the earth shook violently, and through the fissure, I could see a figure.
"Damn it Glamos, You're heavy." says a familiar voice, I sigh Its Alexis. I open my eyes, half of my body is on a carriage the other half is dangling off the edge. Alexis just stops pushing me up inside the carriage and let's go.
"Owww." I groan. "Glamos, get up, get on the carriage, and sit down. We have to go to Winterveil. There's a man there that goes by the name of ben, and rumor is he's an elemental. Although he could just be using normal magic if he is an elemental you can ask him for assistance in getting an ingredient for your staging." I jump up onto the carriage and sit on the bench.
"So what you're saying is, you just want to visit this dude to lower the amount of work you have to do?" I say staring at her. "Uhhhh. I can't think of anything. Yea you're right. It's soo much work trying to find those gems."
I sigh, the horses neigh in front of us. The driver doesn't seem interested in our conversation but is annoyed about the time we're taking getting ready to go. "Y'all best 'urry up 'cuz I am not gonna be wasting my time waiting for you." The driver says in a Duran accent.
Alexis gets on board, I look around until I remember something. "Where's Alice?" I ask. "She's not coming with us, she's gonna try to find any survivors in the rubble that once was Ramshorn, the thing is, I doubt anyone survived that attack. The only reason we survived was because of Jace…" She sighs. "Jace led them away, posing as a distraction for us to run, he didn't even survive a minute."
Ragnar, you bastard. I Will find and kill you one day. I thought to myself. Crack. The sound of a whip rings through the air, the carriage starts to move, and the way to Winterveil begins. About halfway there, I reach into my pocket and my hand brushes against a piece of paper. I pull it out and it's a card. Oh right, I forgot about that thing.
If you wish for me to sing a song for you, see me at The Broken Shield, located in Winterveil. I read off the card. Perhaps I can meet this bard. I wouldn't mind listening to a song. Alexis looks over at me and lunges to grab the card. She manages to snatch the card. Her eyes were slightly open. She looks at me and says "Where did you get this card?" "Remember that guy we met on the way to Ramshorn? He dropped this." She stares at it skeptically.
She then proceeds to hand it back to me. I look up ahead at the path, forest dominates this area. There was smoke rising in the distance, although it was only a small bit of smoke, possibly just emitting off a campfire I still wanted to check. I order the driver to stop. Alexis says "What? What are you doing? Winterveil is still an hour away, why are we stopping here?"
I motion towards the small bit of smoke, "Oh I see, you want to stop and see if it's a bandit group or something that could threaten us." "Uh, yea sure, that's why I want to investigate it," I say. The driver slows the horses down a bit, both I and Alexis jump off. We crouch under the low hanging branches and make our way towards the origin of the smoke.
We can hear laughter a bit away, so we start to slow down even more. We stop behind a big tree, around 30 ft away from where they are. "He, I hear that a big caravan is supposed to come through here. Maybe we could ask them for some money." All of them laugh. Alexis looks at me and starts doing weird hand signs. I nod my head pretending to understand, then she runs towards where the bandits are.
I stay standing behind the tree, not sure what just happened. I can hear the people start to move, and the clink of a steel sword. Great, I think. I also run out and stop beside Alexis. 3 men are standing up each of them with a weapon in their hand. "What are you doin here?" Says one of the men.
Alexis says with a grin "You bandits just never learn." all of them look surprised. "Bandits? Sorry ma'am but we ain't no bandits. We just vagabonds." says the smallest, and possibly the youngest of the 3 men.
"Oh, uh," Alexis mutters. "It's alright, most people around here think we are bandits because of the way we talk and the way we look." Alexis looks at them, "Then why you saying, oh maybe we could ask for some coins. That does seem slightly suspicious, and second, why do you guys even have weapons then? You're vagabonds how can you afford that. Also wh-"
The men get up, "Calm down we said that because the caravan is supposed to be a charity kind of thing so that we could get a few coins, and these aren't' even real weapons." He says as he swings at a tree. The blade just flies off the handle. "Oh, uhhh" Alexis stammers. I sigh, "Well sorry for interrupting, Alexis apologizes"
She glared at me. "Apologize for what? You're the one that wanted to come to check it out." "Don't you blame this on me, I just wanted to see what it was, I wasn't the one who just rushed out." She looks at me. "Shut. The. Fu-" Behind her one of the men leaped, There was no time to say anything.
I grab a big chunk of dirt and lob it at the man. It hits him in the eye, Alexis smiles. "See told you," she says shrewdly. I glare at her. Another man runs towards her, Alexis mutters something under her breath and then her phantom wolf appears.
The man slows down, eyes widening. The wolf leaps at him, tearing a chunk of his arm off. Blood sprays from the wound, some of it splatters on my face.
I cough, "Uh, that is kind of brut-" Some of it lands in my mouth. I gag. "That is Dis-" I gag again. "I have never seen that much amount of blood." I almost gag yet again, but stop. The two vagabonds just stand there.
They drop their weapons and dropdown. "Please don't hurt us." Alexis points a finger at them, they jerk up. The wolf dematerialized. A purple mist appears around them, One of them jumps up and tries to run, he barely manages to walk 2 steps before collapsing. "Oh I know what that is, it's that uh sleep poison."
Alexis looks at me with the What did you just say face. "Uh, Sleeping poison? It is sleeping gas, you buffoon." I sigh, no use trying to say anything. It was common or Alexis to insult me. "So, what do we do with the bodies?" I say to Alexis. She looks blankly at me. "Oh… Yea." I walk over and start dragging one. "No, don't that's gonna cost extra to carry extra people."
I sigh. I drop the body. Alexis starts walking back to the carriage. I run to catch up to her. We get on the carriage, and the driver starts driving. A few minutes later we can see the outline of a kingdom.
The castle's tower looms above the walls. We jump off, city guards approach us. "Halt, What is your reason to be here." Alexis is about to answer but then a figure begins to walk through them.
He stops in front of them, He wears a blue coat fitted with helmets around him. He wears goggles, and below it all, I can see "So you're the person I saw on my venture outside of WinterVeil." I look at him quizzically. "My name is Ben, what is yours?" I hold out my hand.
"The name is Glamos, and this is Alexis." His eyes are slightly closed. He whispers "So you're the elemental I've been hearing about." My eyes widen, so does Alexis's eyes. "How do you know." she hisses. "Well, elementals naturally know about other elemental beings in the world."
Alexis looks at me, nodding.
"The rumors are true then," I say. Ben shakes his head. "I'm an elemental, but an artificial one." We are both confused. Looks like Alexis doesn't know everything. Ben turns back to the guards. "They are guests of mine, They can enter." "Follow him" I hear from out of nowhere. Got it, I respond.