"You better not have hurt my daughter or I swear...I will rip the skin off your shiny egg-shaped head and feed you to the dogs!"
The angry voice of Ashen thundered in the air as he entered the room with bloodied sword in hand.
"Father!", Evaline cried out; her voice almost cracking as she felt an overwhelming sense of relief wash over her.
Only then realizing that she was actually scared more than she actually thought she was.
"Wait up Feiwu! You are going too fast!"
Evaline suddenly hears the voice of an unfamiliar woman.
Appearing right behind her father while short of breath, was a young woman wearing a black cheongsam dress, holding a ji-a chinese halberd, on one of her hands and a black fan on the other.
"At least...try to remember that you have companions following after you! Stupid Feiwu!"
The woman seemed to be strangely friendly with Ashen, causing Evaline to suspect that something fishy was going on between them.
"Shut up! In the first place, who told you to follow me all the way up here?!", Ashen snapped, "I remember telling you numbskulls to jump out the terrace from the previous floor! Why in the hell are you following me bringing along those useless pieces of talking meat with you?!", he then pointed at the emerging figures of his companions;
A man in black lamellar armor carrying two seemingly unconscious people on his shoulder and a young lady wearing plate armor and holding a very large tower shield while dragging along the only person Evaline recognized, the Saint of Lothargien, Rosseweisse.
"You cannot just simply ask us to jump from 600 meters in the air and expect us to land like superheroes 11 seconds later. Not all of us are as absurd as you.", the young woman in black reproved her father in a sulking tone.
"You idiot! There's a reason why magic exists! You, of all people, should have no problem managing such a jump!", however, her father had a retort of his own.
"You dare ignore me! Insolent worm!"
The angry voice of the dragon, Ferrious, cut in-between them and with a roar, the dragon let loose a stream of flames towards them. Forcing them to scatter.
"The Crestbearer! Ferrious! Focus on that one-armed man! He must be killed right here and now!", says the bald augur who was cowering right under the angry wyvern.
Following the augur's suggestion, Ferrious' eyes turned towards Ashen who was now charging towards the wyvern.
"You fool! Burn to ashes!"
The wyvern let loose another stream of flames. This time, Evaline could feel the heat from within her cage which easily told her that that attack was much stronger than the one it used on the onset of the battle.
'Father!'
She thought so anxiously.
If there was one thing that separated her father from the rest of the current generation of humans, it was the fact that he cannot use any form of magic; whether it be a buffing spell or an attack spell. When looked at with the scanning device invented way back during the mid-stages of the End-of-the-Century War called 'Mana Eye', it would reveal that her father, despite his strength and skill, has no potential for magic nor a drop of mana-the natural energy present in the environment and within living mortal creatures-within his body.
As an added fact to worry about, he seems to be non-resistant to magic itself.
Thus, with his lack of magical ability, there was no way her father would be able to shield himself from a direct flame attack of a wyvern.
At least-
"LIKE HELL I'LL TURN TO ASH!"
-that's what everyone thought...
With a defiant roar, Ashen miraculously splits the stream of flames with a downward swing of his sword which shocks everyone present in the room. Even Evaline herself.
"Impossible!"
Ferrious was taken aback. Its scaly neck reeling back as it stared at Ashen in disbelief.
"Too early to be surprised you overgrown lizard!", Ashen declares while quickly ensheathing his sword and then taking out what looks like a white card from the sleeve of his coat, "Don't think that without magic, I can't beat the shit out of you if I wanted to!", declaring so, he then throws it down by his feet and says, "Weißes Schwert der Morgensonne, dein König ruft dich an..."
The white card started shining brightly causing everyone to squint there eyes.
A moment later, some kind of handle emerged from the card which Ashen unhesitatingly grabbed and pulled up. After a brief amount of time, the bright light faded revealing the object that Ashen had in his hand.
"What is that?!"
"Eh? I thought he could not use magic?"
"That's the first time I'm seeing that..."
"Me too."
The reactions of everyone in the room varied, however, there was one reaction that somehow explained whatever it was that Ashen had somehow summoned from the card;
"You-! That sword-! Are you human?! There is no way that sword should be in the hands of a mere mortal such as yourself!"
Ferrious, the wyvern, had its eyes wide open in utter disbelief, "No. That is just a ruse! There is no way that sword is here.", convincing itself so, Ferrious stomped its feet and slapped its tail on the floor, "You shall pay for mocking me with your illusion human!"
"Ferrious?"
"There is no point holding my strength back against a disgusting fake like you!", Ferrious spreads its wings and then the sound of something rumbling echoed from within its huge body and not a second later, it flew up a few meters off the floor. It's large wings created vicious gales that blew out all the candles in the room and threatened to sweep everyone off their feet.
"Father!" Evaline cried out worriedly.
It was obvious from the wyvern's actions that it was about to unleash an attack that was much stronger than the last and without the lights from the candles, she could not see anything in the room.
But then, she sees blue light shimmer in the dark. It took her a few moments to recognize that it was coming from within the dragon's body as the sound of an organic buzz rumbled in the air as the blue light continued to spread throughout the dragon's body. Illuminating the room in a dim blue light.
"Lady Kyrie, shield the Saint! Brother Heng! Run back downstairs right this instant!"
Suddenly, the young woman in black shouted a command, "I shall free that child in the cage!", she then declares as she proceeds to run towards Evaline.
"Not a chance! Obice!"
The bald augur suddenly interferes by casting a spell that created a transparent shining magical barrier that prevented the young woman from proceeding further.
"Annoying priest! Fěnsuì!", the young woman irritably responds with a spell of her own.
In an instant, the magical barrier-along with the metal bars of Evaline's cage, shatters into pieces.
"Tch! Terra Mataris!", in response, the bald augur raises his hand and creates spears made of stone then launches it towards the young woman who sees the attack and grimaces.
"Dàfēng shāi!", the young woman shouts and immediately, the gales that had raged around the room swirled to form a howling barrier of vicious wind around the young woman that destroyed the stone spear upon contact.
"Mind coming with me now young lady? I cannot hold this spell for too long.", the young woman then calls out to Evaline who was just staring at her dumbfounded by what she just saw.
It was the first time she ever seen such magic.
Hearing the young woman's call, Evaline snaps out of her stupor and quickly stands up then runs towards the young woman.
"Not a chance! Illam Terra parens, exaudi orationem meam...", the bald augur quickly chants another spell, "Et molares eius fortissimum beast-", but then before he could continue, a small dagger found its way into his neck, causing blood to spray out like a fountain.
"?!"
Evaline and the young woman twitched in shock as they looked on at the bloodied collapsing body of the bald augur as it colored a part of the floor.
"Ah crap! I missed! Why is it so hard to hit the shoulder?!", the voice of Ashen suddenly complained, "Oi you brat!", he called out in annoyance, "What the hell are you staring around for? Go and get my daughter out of here!", he demanded.
Evaline looked at the figure of her father who remained standing and without injury, and felt relieved.
'Right. Father is the strongest Knight in the world. There is no way he would lose to an overgrown lizard.'
She says so in her heart as she wished her father good luck.
"Feiwu! What about you?!", the young woman asked.
Ashen sighed exasperatedly, "You're a century too early to worry about me you useless brat! Now get going before I change my mind and hit you with my attack as well!", he snapped.
The young woman obviously looked reluctant to leave Ashen behind giving Evaline more reasons to be suspicious of her relationship with Ashen. However, hearing the tone of his voice as he snapped, Evaline knew that they shouldn't be dilly-dallying.
"I apologize. But my revered father is right. We must leave now!"
She grabs the young woman's hand and proceeds to lead her towards the destroyed wall her father previously came in from.
"I will not let you escape!", the wyvern's angry roar echoed and without looking back, Evaline hears the howl of the gales growing more intense and its strength even greater.
"Yeah. Like I'll let you stop her!", in response, she hears her father respond with a challenge of his own and the sound of something cracking was heard before the sound of something metallic clashing together.
"Ugh...if only he trusted me more!", the young woman grimaced as she followed Evaline towards their exit.
"What about my revered father trusting you more?", Evaline asked.
However, the young woman kept silent and continued to run up until they reached the wall wherein the young woman proceeded to leave. Evaline took that as an opportunity to look back at her father who was now facing off with the dragon with only an arm and his strength with him.
"Father, Möge der Sieg mit dir sein!"
She whispers and then proceeds to leave as well.
The sight of her father angrily taunting the dragon being etched in her mind as she sighed.
*****
As soon as Evaline and Daiyu had left the room...
"You annoying insect!", the wyvern roared angrily before sending a stream of flame towards Ashen who easily cut it apart with his sword.
"Same goes for you, you shitty lizard! Flying lizards like you really are annoying to fight. Your flames aren't really as strong as a legitimate wyvern but well, flames are flames, and they still burn.", Ashen grumbled while taking care not to get hit by the residual flames.
'The flames its been spewing at me are hot enough to cause my other sword to bend slightly upon contact. If this thing was a legit wyvern, my other sword would have melted upon contact.', he recalls the reason why he switched weapons earlier, 'I can use 'this' sword to cut them apart with no problem even if I have yet to call out its name. But I'm worried about that energy the flying lizard keeps storing in itself. From what I can tell, it's one heck of an explosive attack if released. At least, in theory...and cutting that apart would be a pain in the ass to accomplish.'
As he had just pointed out, the wyvern had been storing some form of energy within its body since it began hovering in the air. Going by his own twisted kind of logic, it was pretty obvious that it was preparing for an attack that means to obliterate Ashen completely.
'Well, I can run away but...'
He looks around him. The room was quite wide given that it was able to accommodate a full-grown wyvern and still have space for it to hover about, a section of its walls had a hole which Ashen had created in his rush to his daughter's aid, no windows, nor a large opening where the dragon could have entered.
'Did it perhaps turn into a human first then entered from a lower floor? Seems plausible. But then again, the only exit I can use to dodge that attack is a more than a couple dozen feet behind me. Considering it's earlier attacks, I bet I wouldn't even reach the exit in time before the attack lands so running is not a good idea...'
He discards the idea of running away. He then looks at the white sword in his hand.
"Looks like the only option left is to take it head-on huh? Man...I don't like this one bit..."
He grumbled so with a sigh of resignation.
"Grr! You troublesome worm! Burn to ashes already!", complained the wyvern as it spewed yet another stream of flames at Ashen.
This time, he evaded by jumping to the side.
Following after him, the furious wyvern swerved its head to trail him with its fiery breath. Its eyes, bloodshot as it tried to earnestly roast Ashen alive.
'You and your long scaly neck!'
Ashen grumbled as he continued to move sideways in an effort to avoid getting burned. He circled the dragon a couple more times before finally, the flames stopped and the dragon cocked back its head.
It took Ashen a moment to realize that it was already ready to unleash its stored up energy.
*Dwooooooom*
Went the rumbling from within the dragon's glowing body. Reminding Ashen of a certain fictional beast from a monster movie he watched long ago and from that memory, he recalled that when a monster from lore makes such an ominous sound;
"Oh damn-"
It was certain to be attacking with a force equal to a small nuclear blast.
When the dragon opened its maw, Ashen only saw a flash of blue light and then-
*BOOM!*
-an explosion followed.
*****
Dragons.
Mythical beasts known by mankind since ancient times.
Worshipped sometimes as gods and feared as omens of destructions.
Renowned not only for their legendary power and unworldly strength, they are also known to be wise and cunning and are able to influence the world just by existing.
With such a legendary reputation, it is not a surprise that Ferrious-a wyvern; a kind of dragon-would have pride befitting of its kind.
Though a wyvern is often portrayed to be a lesser version of the more famous Welsh Dragon, it does not mean that they are any less dangerous.
Ferrious itself was responsible in the destruction of numerous cities and kingdoms long ago. Hence its confidence that it could defeat anyone other than the one the current humanity calls 'Brynhildr'.
'I was unchallenged when we started this scuffle. Though in all honesty, I was surprised that my second-in-command was slain by the Brynhildr right after I had a run in with the Einherjar, but there was no real challenge in that particular fight of mine.'
It looked around; all the walls of the room were now missing and only clouds of dust billowed nearby.
It seems like its earlier attack had pretty much sheared off the top of the tower that was said to have been made with the mythical Greek metal, Adamantite.
"Hrrm...I stored the greatest amount of energy I could in such a short time expecting that the mortal would be able to survive to some extent, but lo and behold...the fight was short-lived. As expect from the humans of this era; weak, undisciplined, and pathetic."
It mumbled wearily. Though it was annoyed by its mortal adversary earlier, it expected the mortal to put up more of a fight than it expected. Afterall, he did reach the top of the tower without being sensed by Ferrious at all.
"With the augur dead, I have no idea what should I do.", it looks at the distance, "Maybe I should pay a visit to the castle. I hear the Brynhildr is there so I might find the challenge I seek the-"
"Where do you think you're going, you stupid lizard?"
Before it could finish speaking, a taunting voice echoed as the dust clouds began swirling away and dispersed in the sky.
"Impossible! That strike was enough to even burn to ashes an entire fortified keep!", Ferrious reflexively jerked its head back to look at the wreckage it had wrought and could not believe its draconic eyes at it gazed wide-eyed at the figure of the mortal whom it had dismissed as dead, standing tall and cracking his neck as steam oozed out from his flesh and tattered clothing.
"A~h. Should've opted to wear practical combat armor instead of these ceremonial ones.", the mortal said callously. Seemingly unhurt from Ferrious' attack, "Anywho...to answer your surprise flying lizard, unfortunately for you, if you want to burn my flesh, you need enough fire power to 'obliterate' an entire fortified keep not just 'burn' it. Well...if your attack was on the level of a wyvern then I would have some serious burns right about now..."
Ferrious could not believe the sight it was seeing. Not only does the mortal appear unhurt, he also mocked the very existence of Ferrious by calling it 'something less than a wyvern'.
That caused Ferrious to be enraged and decide to use everything in its power to make this particular mortal regret his words.
"You dare mock me-!"
Not a moment later, Ferrious let loose streams of blue flames-the strongest it could do-at the mortal who then simply started darting about the tower top with almost no effort compared to before.
"Oh yeah.", the mortal suddenly spoke up while jumping over a fallen column, "Though she tried hard not to show it to me, I saw a slight bruise on my daughter's cheek."
Ferrious' eyes widened slightly in recognition of the mortal's words.
"That egg-headed baldy couldn't possibly have hit her with such force considering how scrawny he looked like to me and if she was brought into a cage of enchanted steel, then there is no way the other beasts here did not know that left unchecked, she could've overpowered them all with brute force. So that leaves only one possibly left."
Somehow, the mortal's words gave off a sense of ominous foreboding within the depths of Ferrious' mind and when the mortal stopped in his tracks and directed his gaze at Ferrious, it felt a pressure unlike any other overwhelm its sense of danger for the first time in such a long time.
"For hurting my beloved daughter-wake up, Excalibur!"
*SHIIIIIIIING!*
As soon as the mortal had declared, a burst of white light surged from within the raised sword, causing Ferrious to slightly retreat.
"I may not bear the same radiance as the former wielder of this sword, but I assure you-", the white light fades and then the mortal takes a stance that Ferrious did not recognize, "-without even using magic, with only the sharpness of this awakened blade; I will avenge my daughter's tears!"
Ferrious' dragon eyes then zeroed in on the sword in the mortal's hand and sure enough, though there was a white light that had surged from within it, it carried no trace of mana or any supernatural energy.
'If that is so, then all I need is to keep my distance and burn that mortal to ashes from afa-'
*SWOOSH!*
Before its thoughts could finish, the sound of howling wind passes by its ear.
'Wha-!'
Ferrious glanced to its behind and finds its left wing wounded.
"Damned flying lizard! I really hate hitting flying targets!"
And with that exasperated complaint, the battle enters its final stage.