Chereads / Drako the Demonic Elf Lord / Chapter 4 - Sprint

Chapter 4 - Sprint

I looked across the fiery plain wondering as I watched ash rain down from the sky reaching for the black ground. I wondered about my current prowess and how much I have improved. I knew my power before my death and wondered just how strong I have truly become. Elves are immortals so we have eternity to train and become proficient in any form of combat we would so choose. I was a vigorous martial artist training in every form in existence, even secret arts taught to select warriors by the angels of heaven during the great battle between Heaven and Hell. I was trained by the greatest warriors in each form and never stopped training until a few decades ago when I finally earned the title of the Grand Master Martial Artist of the Known World. To reach this Title I had to defeat all of the Masters of each martial art I have ever learned all at the same time. I had reached the master's level in every form of martial arts known to the world a couple of centuries ago and was famous for my teaching in many of them. I approached the queen requesting there to be a new title made for my achievement seeing as I was the only one to have done such a task. She came up with the new title and set the standards for the title's requirements. I felt confident in defeating any of my past teachers though not necessarily at the same time. So I continued to train and even constructed my own complex version of every martial art combining the best of each one to create my own martial art that I would then use to defeat all of the Masters of the world. It took about 135 years to create and perfect my martial art which I named the Draconian Kenpo. It was the most difficult task I have ever challenged myself to do. The thousands of martial arts, and millions of moves. And on top of it all, there were hundreds of variants of the same moves in each martial art. So I tested each one carefully combining the movements I found most effective in each martial art to create a new one. After about 112 years I had the perfect version of all the martial arts I have ever learned. But making the perfect combination wasn't good enough for me. I had to perfect the Art itself. I spent countless hours, days, weeks, months, and years trying different stances, styles, grips and so much more before finally finishing it. I trained myself in my martial art until I could perform each movement perfectly without ever having to even think about it. I moved like water flowing easily from form to form, perfectly executing each move as though it were a dance that no individual could stop. At that point, I finally decided it was time. I notified the Queen and she sent out the summoning to each of my past teachers and made the event a public spectacle for the entire Elf kingdom. Thousands of men showed up to fight against me alongside three women. The women in the group were some of the greatest warriors in the kingdom. One fought with a bow staff, another with a set of Chakrams, and the other used a bladed whip. It was the upset of a lifetime when I won and was presented with the title. These memories are some of my fondest though I now realize that they are probably part of why the queen had come to the conclusion that she did. My life was never really more than a constant battle for more power and it made sense that one day I might just decide to go after the thrown. Though I understood her reasoning, I still couldn't justify the queen's actions. I needed to blow off some steam and figure out my new limits. So I decided to go at a full sprint out away from the kingdom and find as many lesser demons as possible and see just how much I can handle. I didn't even need to fly so I ran as fast as I could. I saw the people that were burning on my path towards the kingdom of Hell. I could see the pain on their faces much clearer while running than when I was flying. I moved past them and reached the place where I met the lesser demon in a matter of minutes. with how fast I could run now I could only imagine how fast I could fly now. Hours of flying had turned into mere minutes of running. I could imagine being able to fly the same distance in a matter of seconds. I kept running for a couple of hours before all of a sudden I found myself flying backward through the sky. I deployed my wings and caught myself before slowing to a stop and landing. I looked around before slowly walking forward. After walking about 2-3 hundred meters the flames became so dense that they appeared to be solid. The harder I pushed forward the higher and denser the flames grew until the flames finally pushed me back. I flew again through the air and caught myself. I turned and ran along the wall of fire and ran upon a group of demons standing in an area where the flames didn't burn with as much intensity. I saw hundreds of demons of all shapes and sizes. They all fought to break the wall but they never made any progress. Some of the demons on the side looked over at me and asked if I was just going to stand there or help. I didn't really understand why they were behaving in such an odd way. The demons in the area explained that they had formed a pact. They would all work together to escape Hell, if one was to make it out they would work to help the others out. They would all face enemies together and reap the benefits of a large group. I didn't want to join a group, let alone one of the demons. So I decided to take advantage of this pact and make myself an enemy of the group. I flew in like a bolt of lightning with a sword summoned in each hand before they could even notice the attack 16 of them were dead and the place lit up in a flare of blazing energy that flew towards me I sped up slicing through everything I could until there were only two left one being as fast as I am and the other one turned ethereal as my blades flew through it. I quickly began slashing and lunging at the fast one eventually catching its throat. Its energy flew towards me making me even faster. I was able to swing fast enough to cut the other one before it could ever use its powers to escape my attacks. The battle ended with a chop to the Demon's head and the blazing energy flying to me. I evaluated my new powers. it appeared that most of the demons had abilities relating to strength, speed, and the ability to turn ethereal. Though I did gain another ability and it allowed me to somewhat control the flames. It wasn't by much, but it was enough to make summoning creatures made of flames easy.