๐๐ณ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฆ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฃ๐ญ๐ข๐ค๐ฌ, ๐ฃ๐ญ๐ข๐ค๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ฏ๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต, ๐ด๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฅ๐ฏ๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต ๐ค๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ท๐ข๐ด๐ต ๐ฆ๐น๐ฑ๐ข๐ฏ๐ด๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ญ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ. ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ข๐ณ๐ณ๐ช๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ธ๐ข๐ณ, ๐ข ๐ธ๐ข๐ณ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ๐ด, ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ด๐ต ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ด๐ช๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ฉ๐ช๐ฎ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ณ๐ช๐ด๐ฆ. ๐๐ฆ๐ต ๐ณ๐ช๐ด๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ-๐ฉ๐ถ๐ฏ๐จ๐ณ๐บ. ๐๐ฏ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ข๐ด๐ฉ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ข๐ด๐ต.
~๐๐น๐ค๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฑ๐ต ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ก๐ช๐ณ๐ฐ ๐๐ฉ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ช๐ค๐ญ๐ฆ๐ด
---
It felt like months after the salamanders surrendered and began to serve Asher, and his army began to expand. Slowly but surely. First, it was the salamanders. Next, he conquered a pack of Molten Jackals. Then, a fire wyvern.
Asher was now outfitted in a suit of lesser wyvern scales, a dagger and short-sword made out of wyvern teeth and coated in their scales adorned his hips. The salamanders stood outside a makeshift tent of jackal-hide while the jackals were off hunting.
The wyvern, whom Asher named Khuxo (ku-sho), lay on the ground some few hundred feet away from the tent as Asher propped himself up against its side, staring aimlessly into the burning sky above.
'Is there something wrong, Master?' The wyvern cocked his headed curiously when Asher did not stir. He was sleeping. His body was tense, eyes wide open. Khuxo rested his head back on the ground, the heat from the molten rock deep underneath heating his skin comfortably.
Thinking back on the last month he had been with Asher, Khuxo realized that he was more free, and he felt...content.
For the first time in his solitary life, Khuxo was truly free and relished the freedom. He dreaded the thought of returning back to a life where he lived solely for the whims of a singular, all-powerful being. He would help Asher realize his dream and help him raise an army worthy of releasing his home from Kusio.
As a dragon's descendant, Khuxo had nothing but pride in his existence, but when Kusio began to rule over these lands, his pride had been shattered. Kusio was no dragon. She had no right to rule over him! She was a disgrace to his entire race! Khuxo's anger began to swell, and Asher stirred from his momentary slumber, his glossy eyes staring up at the wyvern from their dark blue veil.
"What's wrong, Khuxo? Do you sense somethingโฆ?" Khuxo shook his head.
'๐๐ช๐ด ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ต๐ข๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ, ๐๐ข๐ด๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ.' Asher nodded his head in acknowledgment before standing and stretching his aching legs.
'๐๐ข๐ด๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ,' one of the jackals said though it's link with Asher, '๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด! ๐๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ด๐ช๐ฅ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ณ๐ช๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ, ๐ฃ๐บ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ญ๐ถ๐ด๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ค๐ฌ๐ด!'
Asher glanced at Khuxo and the wyvern raised its large, magnificent body, extending a wing to let Asher climb on before taking flight toward the cluster of rocks beyond his side of the river. Upon arrival, Asher saw one of the jackals looking around the edge of the rocks before it spotted Khuxo. The jackal waited patiently for its master to land.
The jackal was joined by the other five jackals, and they began scouting the landing area in order to prevent an ambush. Once Asher landed, the first jackal began to brief him on the situation.
'๐๐ข๐ด๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ,' the jackal said with a tinge of uneasiness in its voice that had not been there before, '๐ธ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ข ๐ฉ๐ช๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ค๐ฌ๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ๐จ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ค๐ช๐ต๐บ, ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ถ๐จ๐ฉ ๐ช๐ต'๐ด ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ ๐ณ๐ถ๐ช๐ฏ๐ด ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ธ.'
Asher nodded his head and motioned for Khuxo to guard from above and relay any information back to him as he followed the jackals to the supposed hidden door. Upon arrival, one would definitely see the 'hidden door' as rather hidden. Asher could just barely make it's form out even when it was hanging wide openโฆ
The air wafting up from the darkened, shadowy stairs descending downward in a spiral was stale and cold. Colder than a grave. If Asher listened hard enough, he could've practically heard the screams of the dying.
With a glance at the jackals, Asher led the way down the stairs, weapons at the ready. Ever since the day the salamanders came to Asher, he had felt stronger, faster, and he even thought he could see and perceive time better than before, even if it was only a small margin.
The stairs beneath him cracked and flaked, ๐ด๐ฐ ๐ค๐ญ๐ฐ๐ด๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ค๐ณ๐ถ๐ฎ๐ฃ๐ญ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ, Asher thought with nothing more than a glance at his footing. He had worse footing in worse situations before. This was nothing to him. Upon reaching the bottom of the steps, Asher was already wishing he was back up on the surface with all the flowing lava and volcanoes.
A light breeze was ever-present in the ruined city, and it felt like it was below zero. Asher suppressed a shiver and forced himself to move forward. The ruined city stretched miles and miles underneath the fiery layer of earth above, and Asher was more than impressed. Not once had he heard about this secret city, and his inner curiousness was getting the best of him.
The jackals followed behind Asher as he moved forward into the bounds of the ruins, each trying to watch every direction at once. Their senses were tuned to the max. Asher ran his hand over a jagged piece of stone sticking out from piles of splintered beams and thatch.
Something about the stone and the intricate patterns on its surface seemed familiar, but it was like a singular ripple on the surface of the ocean. Asher let his fingers slide off the stone before turning toward the worn path ahead, jackals close at his heels.
- - -
No matter how hard Asher and his jackals searched, there was nothing to be found besides broken buildings and shriveled, half-decomposed corpses. Asher sat at a fire, poking the flames with a piece of splintered wood absently. He had ordered Khuxo to land and get some rest as he sent four of the six jackals to guard him, the other two stayed with him.
Suddenly, Asher tossed the piece of wood onto the fire and stood, drawing his weapons of wyvern teeth in the process. As he looked upon his weapons, he recalled the owner of the teeth. It was a wyvern that belonged to Khuxo's brood. His own child.
Asher remembered the poor thing's actions when he asked it to join him and Khuxo against Kusio, it's frenzied and fearful eyes blazing as it dove toward him. He also remembered the moment when Khuxo's maw snapped around the whelps throat, crushing it in a shower of blood and bones.
Asher knew that he wouldn't be able to use these weapons effectively, not like how Rato, a Chimera from Ziro, was able to use his weapons. Asher was beyond that man's skill. ๐๐ต๐ณ๐ข๐ฏ๐จ๐ฆ, Asher thought to himself, ๐ ๐ง๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ญ ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ต ๐ข๐ฏ๐จ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ต๐ฐ๐ธ๐ข๐ณ๐ฅ ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐๐ข๐ต๐ฐ. ๐๐ฆ๐ญ๐ญ, ๐ ๐จ๐ถ๐ฆ๐ด๐ด ๐ข ๐๐ฉ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ข ๐ช๐ด ๐ซ๐ถ๐ด๐ต ๐ข ๐๐ฉ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ข ๐ข๐ง๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ.
Asher settled into a wide stance and began trying to imitate the few moves he was able to see from Rato. When he realized that most of them were beyond his physical ability, he settled for the most simple one of them all. A straight stab.
He drilled this single move into his body over, and over, and over again, thinking that if he could only obtain complete control over his body for this one move, he could end fights in the blink of an eye. Remembering a certain quote helped Asher obtain the determination to repeatedly drill the move over and over again.
"I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times."
This lasted until the blazing sun above fell, and eventually rose once more, until Asher's body was soaked in sweat that made the unbearable wind even worse. The fire had died down, and Asher was now shivering against the wrath of the wind.
He couldn't even concentrate enough to speak to Khuxo or the jackals. Asher motioned to the two jackals with him and one scouted up ahead while the other guarded Asher. After a few minutes, a bark could be heard from the East. Asher followed.
This continued until Asher found himself at the bottom of the steps leading to the surface. The accumulated fatigue in his body slowly began to fade away, but he was still left with the mind-numbing chill of the breeze at his back.
As Asher began to slowly climb the steps, he began to reminisce about the time he first met the unlikely trio of Rato, Bjorn, and Kieran.
It was a rather uneventful day for Asher, whom had just gotten off of the evacuation flight from District 4, when he saw three boys. One had dark black hair and dark eyes, another was a sharp contrast, his hair bright gold and his eyes shone like they were pure emeralds, and the last boy was a head taller than the others with blue eyes and long brown hair tied back into a braid.
The boys immediately noticed Asher and realized that he was a refugee. Asher gave them no more than a glance at first, but it seemed that young Kieran was adamant on finding out the state of his home.
"Hey! You! What happened to District 4?" Asher barely registered the boy's words as he shuffled his feet forward, aimlessly. Kieran gently grabbed Asher's shoulder, but before he could react, Asher had spun and grabbed his side, directly under his ribcage.
Kieran grunted in discomfort, but continued with his question. "What happened to District 4? Please, I have to know what happened to my family..." Asher let go of Kieran before turning back and shaking the boy's hand off his shoulder.
"They're dead. Everyone's dead. We lost."
Asher's monotonous voice made Kieran bite his lip in frustration. In truth, Kieran wanted to ask someone else to see if they had a different answer, but with one look back at the rest of the refugees he knew what Asher said was true.
As the days went on, Asher saw more and more of the curious trio until, finally, he was put into the academy in Haven. It functioned like a regular school, however, towards the third year, the curriculum switches from general basics like math and science, to survival methods, and even training to undergo the Chimera transformation, however, the course was soon halted when the death-rate became too high.
Upon his arrival, Asher was immediately made the favorite target of a quite savage group. It wasn't until Bjorn, Kieran, and Rato stepped in that Asher was left alone, and ever sine then Asher was stuck with the trio, whether he liked it or not.
But then, everything changed when Megan arrived.
She was akin to a large ball of flame, engulfing everything in its path without worry. He aced every test in every class, was able to outmatch even Kieran in brain power, and Bjorn in manpower, but she always had one, singular weakness.
Asher.
No matter what happened, if she had to spar against Asher, or had to compete against him in anyway, shape, or form...she couldn't. No. She ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ๐ฏ'๐ต.
It was like she would purposely dodge into Asher's traps, feints, or even put herself into a position to fall behind him if she was against him, and no one knew why. Hell, the two of them barely even knew each other.
Asher himself was rather curious as to why she would always let him win, but he never thought to ask her. Then, they were assigned to the same Scavenge team.
It was like Megan knew all of Asher's thoughts, making the pair a perfect team, or so their teammates thought. In truth, Asher was more afraid than curious of the woman at that point.
She would always show up where he was, could read him like a book, and had no care for privacy or personal space.
Asher also knew about the powers she was keeping secret.
She could control monsters, which was known to very few Chimera, but she could also conjure white-hot flames, manipulate existing lightning, and also manipulate the earth around her. She had four affinitiesโฆ
That was what scared Asher the most. Why would someone like her show so much interest in him, an ordinary person with no family, nothing to live forโฆ?
Asher reached the top of the stairs and snapped out of his thoughts. That was when he heard a voice so familiar that it made his skin crawl.
"Ah, there you are. I've been looking for you, Warriorโฆ"