[Kara] Chapter 31: Wrath (Patreon)

Hayder followed the tracks towards where the rest of the survivors had gone as he rode on the back of his draken. He glanced back to see his fellow drakenriders and the rest of his company fall behind him. They disappeared from his vision as a thick layer of haze fell over the Ashfields for the night. Even still, for the second time today, he rushed ahead alone as fast as possible.

This time, it wasn’t because of any immediate threat. But instead, it was because of the potential of threat.

Tashia would have likely tried to find a small valley to set up camp for the night. And while that was the smart choice, it was dangerous. It could turn out for the worst— just like it had for Karwan’s group.

While Hayder didn’t know if Karwan himself had survived the attack of forminacs, thousands of them had been killed because they were unprepared for a battle. And while Tashia was going off the assumption that the monsters would back away because their attack force had been dealt with, it was very likely even more forminac soldiers would strike now.

At least, that was what Uzbug presumed. Considering this was her old hive that was attacking them, and she knew her former queen quite well, her prediction was likely going to be correct.

Most monsters would think twice about attacking after their numbers were slaughtered so easily. But Uzbug’s former queen was incredibly temperamental and didn’t make decisions based on logic. The fact that her soldiers were wiped out would have been taken as an affront, and she would try to get revenge.

So that was why Hayder rushed forward to warn the encampment.

However, it appeared they must have traveled further than he had thought, because even after riding for half an hour, he still couldn’t find the camp…

—--

Angel sat right outside of Kara’s tent as the sun fell over the horizon.

He was excited for her because he knew she was going to undergo her dragonsoul’s ascension to the next stage and become even stronger. But he couldn’t help but wonder if she was going to cause another massive scene like before. He recalled when she had reached the Second Stage back before they arrived in Alyona.

Kara had practically exploded into flames, destroying the rock cavern they had sought shelter in. And if the same thing happened again today, she’d attract the attention of a lot of passersby.

While Angel could keep anyone from entering the tent right now, he wouldn’t be able to stop them from staring if Kara burned down the tent and stood amidst an inferno of golden flames.

Perhaps he could erect a stone barrier…

His eyes flickered as he felt the ground shifting beneath him. Angel blinked and looked down, but that strange sensation went away.

He wondered what that could have been.

—--

And inside the tent, Kara sat silently as her eyes remained shut. Her dragonsoul blazed wildly within her as her mind focused only on her ascension. But even as she continued pouring the pool of mana within her to fuel the golden flames, she saw glimpses of a memory.

She saw visions from the past.

—--

Zarkoth saw the pillar of smoke covering the valley as his eyes went wide.

He was bigger now. Compared to his parents, he was still tiny, especially since he was barely a decade old. But as a Young Dragon, he was quite large for his age too. Or so he was told.

He was about twenty feet across, from his head to his tail. And while his wings were still relatively undeveloped to the rest of his body, they were still massive. Even if he couldn’t fly yet. But he knew he would be able to fly soon— as soon as he ascended to the Third Stage.

And he was close. That was why he had been out hunting on his own. And today, he was able to wipe out a whole pack of giant moose all on his own. He wanted to show his spoils to his parents. But what he saw made him drop the monster corpses to the ground.

He spread his wings wide and leapt off the mountainside, gliding straight down to the blanket of smoke and ash covering the sky. Even though he couldn’t fly with his wings, he could still glide, which helped him reach the base of the valley faster.

He saw a pile of burnt bodies littering the landscape. His eyes flickered as he recognized what they were.

“Humans?”

Zarkoth blinked a few times. It had to have been an entire army of them. While he didn’t know why they were here, he could make an educated guess based on what his parents had told him before. He landed by a pile of their corpses, before wading through a wall of crimson fire. The flames here were still fresh, so his parents had to be here.

“Mother, father—” he called out as he stepped through the crimson flames.

And Zarkoth paused at what he saw on the other side. His breathing quickened, before he took a trembling step forward. He couldn’t believe his eyes. But it was real.

“M-mother…?” he croaked.

No response came. His mother lay before him, impaled by a massive lance through her neck. A human clad in an ornate armor was lying on the ground next to her, his body bloodied and battered.

Zarkoth stared at the human, before looking at his mother. He tried to work his jaw. But nothing came out apart from shallow breaths. He was just in complete shock as to what had happened. He had only been gone for a few hours. He didn’t understand it.

“Why…?”

“Because this is what humans do,” a weak voice came in response.

Zarkoth recognized it immediately. He spun around with round eyes. “Father—”

And he almost breathed a sigh in relief as he saw the looming figure of the crimson dragon. But the pain of seeing his mother’s corpse still lingered. He ran up to his father with tears streaming down his scales.

“Why did they do this, father?” Zarkoth asked exasperatedly. “Why did they kill mother?”

His father didn’t give an immediate answer. Instead, he looked down towards the dead human. Zarkoth slowly followed that gaze.

“They call him Ethan the Dragonslayer,” Zarkoth’s father explained in a soft voice. “It is said that he slew five of our kin before. Even though it cost him his life, that makes seven of us who have fallen to his hands now.”

Zarkoth blinked. “Seven of you…?”

And his father collapsed to the ground. That was when he realized the state the crimson dragon was in. His father was covered in cuts throughout his body.

“F-father?” Zarkoth pleaded as he clutched onto his father’s body.

Zarkoth’s father continued speaking, lying there as he wheezed, “It is in the nature of humans to despise us. Because two gods cannot exist in a single world. One will always chase the other out.”

“Please don’t die father,” the Young Dragon said, “I don’t want to be alone. I don’t—”

And his father brought a clawed finger to his face, wiping away the tears. “Do not cry, my son. For as long as you live, dragonkind will live on.”

“Father…” Zarkoth was sobbing now. His tears fell uncontrollably. But he caught himself, forcing himself to listen to his father’s words.

“We shall take the skies again one day,” his father said. “I am sure of it.”

And Zarkoth watched as his father’s clawed hand dropped to the ground. His father’s eyes fluttered shut, before letting out a final breath.

“Seek out the drakes— the spawns of Xorn. They will give you refuge.”

—--

The vision didn’t end there. But even as Kara sat in her tent, seeing these memories through her mind, she couldn’t help but cry.

Perhaps it was because she felt what Zarkoth felt back then. Or maybe it was because it was so soon after the destruction of Alyona, she could empathize with what he was going through. Kara didn’t know for sure.

But she just watched as her dragonsoul grew.

—--

“Can I… talk to Kara?” Arjin asked as she came to a halt right outside of the dimly-lit tent.

Angel sat at the very front of the entrance flap, his arms crossed as he shook both of his heads. The former prostitute scratched her cheek.

“I take that as a no.”

The utlas bear nodded in response. And Arjin sighed as she drew back. She wanted to do some sparring with Kara after what happened today. While the former prostitute had been able to stop herself from freezing up against the forminac soldier, she was still not able to kill it on her own.

So even though she had overcome her fears, she was still too weak.

She strode through the encampment as the sun fully set over the horizon, and night began. Raising her silver dagger, she eyed it wistfully. Despite her best efforts today, she hadn’t been able to advance a tier.

She still only had a Tier 9 manacore. Which meant that she hadn’t pushed herself hard enough today.

Arjin eventually reached the edge of the encampment where her tent could be found. It was relatively empty here since most people were still eating their dinner. But even though she had set it up no more than half an hour ago, she saw movement coming from inside. Like someone was making a mess within, or stealing from her belongings.

Her brows knitted together as she peered in. “Hey, what are you—”

She opened her mouth, then paused when she saw the creature digging itself out of the ground. It had a pair of long antennae, and it had four arms, along with a bulky body like armor.

Arjin recognized it immediately.

It was a forminac soldier. It clicked its mandibles, and she stumbled back. Her mouth opened up as she was about to scream, but it leapt at her.

It would have crashed into her, but it got caught on the tent’s cloth, stumbling forward. Arjin caught herself as she gritted her teeth. Now was the time for her to redeem herself.

So she moved out of the way as it fell to the ground, bringing the tent down with it. She circled around the monster’s back as it tried to pick itself up and thrust down with her silver dagger.

“Fifth Core: Double Stab!”

The forminac soldier made a clicking sound in pain as it ripped off the tent from its body. It tried to pick itself up, but Arjin slashed at its legs. This time, she didn’t use her Ninth Core: Severing Slash to tear open its knees. Instead, she swung normally, simply making the monster reel.

It swung down at her with one of its massive arms as she leapt back.

Ever since she nearly got herself killed earlier today, she had been replaying her fight with the forminac soldier again and again and again in her head. So even though she was nervous, she felt like she knew what she needed to do to win.

The monster charged her way as she waited for it to draw closer. When it got within striking distance, she landed a quick strike to its neck, before stepping around it. It recoiled and crashed into an empty tent. When it picked itself up, it wiped the blood off its neck, before rushing at her again.

Even though it was strong and durable, it was relatively slow. Slower than her, at the very least. And she capitalized on that.

Arjin stayed out of range of the forminac soldier, striking only when it was close enough. And each time, she struck roughly around the same spot— the region around its neck. She didn’t have to strike precisely at the wound she had already inflicted. All she had to do was whittle down its carapace.

Until finally, she managed to reach the first vestige of its innerbody. The weak flesh underneath.

Now, Arjin charged at the forminac soldier as it stumbled back. It swung down its bulky arms at her, but she leapt into the air. She aimed for its neck as she shouted.

“Ninth Core: Severing Slash!”

The monster’s head went flying as she decapitated it in one swift motion. With that attack, a surge of strength washed over her so she could tear through even the forminac soldier’s carapace. But she hadn’t known whether it made her strong enough to cut cleanly through to the other side to deal a fatal blow.

That was why she had taken her time to methodically chip away at its so-called armor.

Arjin landed as she panted, feeling her manacore expand. Her manacore advanced to Tier 10 as she gained a new Manacore Ability.

Tenth Core of Lesser Strength.

She felt her fingers trembling as she glanced back at the dead monster. But even though she had just killed it, she didn’t want to puke. Her stomach didn’t turn and twist. All she wanted was to laugh.

“I did it…” she whispered as she straightened.

But her high of victory was short-lived as she heard a scream coming from a nearby tent. Arjin narrowed her eyes, before watching as a forminac soldier tore through the tent, dragging with it the corpse of a minotaur who had been sleeping.

Arjin’s eyes went wide, before she watched more and more tents collapse. One after another, forminac soldiers crawled out of the ground, and the screams of those who had gone to sleep echoed throughout the night as they were killed in their sleep.

“Oh no,” Arjin whispered.

A forminac soldier faced her, and she broke out into a sprint. She began shouting as she made her way through the encampment.

“Someone, please— raise the alarm!”

—--

Angel heard Arjin’s distant voice. But he could barely make out what she was saying. His ears twitched as he rose to his feet, seeing her shadowed figure run further into the camp. But as she shouted again, he felt a slight vibration run through the ground up ahead.

He watched as a pair of antennae poke out of the ground, followed by the head of a forminac soldier. It stared at Angel as he blinked.

It clicked its mandibles together, looking like it was about to lash out. And Angel just pointed at it with Zlo’tan’s staff, sending a large rock smashing it before it could fully climb up.

The monster’s head was crushed as it disappeared back down into the hole. The utlas bear snorted at the sight, before he sat back down. But before he could even relax, he felt the ground tremble even more.

His two heads snapped in different directions as he watched the ground break open all around him. And dozens of forminac soldiers began to pull themselves out of the earth and surround him. He rose to his feet as he glanced at them, before looking back towards the tent where Kara was ascending.

And he growled as he raised his staff, hearing the blaring sound of a horn in the distance, signaling the camp was being attacked.

—--

As the Captain of the Second Company, Tashia was given the task of leading the survivors ahead through the Ashfields as Hayder and a handful of companies stayed behind. When she had chosen this location to set up camp, she had thought that the relatively open flatlands was a strategic choice to prevent the forminac soldiers from ambushing them.

There were no hills for them to dig through, and as long as she stationed some guards to keep watch, any potential attack would be noticed from a mile away.

Well, maybe a few hundred feet away at least, considering the poor visibility from the haze.

But the chances of another forminac attack was quite low. After all, they had traveled a rather large distance, so they had to be far from whatever hive’s territory they had previously been intruding upon. And even if they were still within the borders of the hive, it was unlikely the forminacs would attack again, having lost so many soldiers from such a brief incursion.

Unfortunately for her, she hadn’t considered two possibilities: firstly, that the queen of the hive might not have been thinking logically; and secondly, that the forminacs might attack from underground.

So when she heard the encampment was under attack, it took her a while before she figured out where it was coming from. And the answer was—

Everywhere.

Tashia cursed as she swung down at a forminac soldier pulling itself out of the ground. It took a few slashes before she managed to hack off its head. And by the time she had finished it off, another monster was crawling out of the ground near her.

“Gather everyone at the center of the camp!” she yelled at a guard. She thought his name was Sora, or whatever— she wasn’t sure. “Storms above, we need to regroup! We can’t let ourselves be picked off one by one like this!”

The guard nodded and rushed to spread the word. Tashia swept her gaze over her surroundings, seeing as soldiers and civilians alike fled from the monsters. None of them had been prepared for this sudden attack.

Certainly, they considered the possibility of an attack, but they thought there would be more warning. So many of them had still been resting and eating before they were forced to run.

Tashia raised her head as she focused. She moved to cut down a few more forminac soldiers and rallied the remaining soldiers of the Second Company.

“We need to form a perimeter around the center of the camp,” she told them, after clearing the area. “Move!”

And they listened as she looked towards the wall of haze surrounding the encampment. She hoped Hayder and the rest of the companies would return soon. After all, with what was currently gathered here, they only had half the number of combatants they normally did.

—--

Once again, the survivors of Alyona were under attack. And once more, Olarg took this fact in with glee, even as he stomped in the head of a forminac soldier.

“I told you that sticking with these fools will serve us no benefit! And look! Here we are, once again, in danger because of your incompetence.”

Kurg gritted his teeth as he listened to the other orc. But he said nothing, simply watching from the side as he clenched a fist. He had mostly recovered from his injuries sustained from the nightmares. He could likely have joined the fighting too, to fend off the attack of monsters.

But he couldn’t. Because of all the other senior orcs that were gathered around him, agreeing with Olarg. And they were more vocal with their disapproval of Kurg now. After all, Olarg had been proven right once again.

There were juniors standing here too. And while many of them were Kurg’s friends, they didn’t dare speak a word. They kept their heads low, except for one.

Junior Rakgu frowned as he stared at a group of passing soldiers escorting a few dozen civilians towards the center of the encampment.

“Should we follow them?” he asked, glancing back at Kurg. “If we all stick together—”

“We’d be getting more of our bloody people killed,” Olarg harrumphed and cut off the junior.

Rakgu glared, but didn’t say another word. He just turned to the Elder of the Swordtooth Clan. And even though that was supposed to be Kurg, he didn’t feel like he could do anything.

So he lowered his head and closed his eyes.

And the Swordtooth Clan stuck with the other orc clans, protecting their own people. They offered no assistance to the encampment as more and more forminac soldiers dug themselves out of the ground and continued their assault.

—--

As the fighting raged on, and Angel continued holding off the dozens of forminacs surrounding the lone tent, Kara remained sitting in silence.

Her heart weeping, and her dragonsoul burning in anger.

—--

Zarkoth tightly clutched onto his father’s body, refusing to move. Even as the crimson flames surrounding him died down, and the sun began to set over the horizon, covering the dome overhead with the first hint of twilight.

He refused to move. He wept where he lay. He hoped his parents would return. That they would come back to life and reveal that it was all a lesson for him to learn from.

But there was no lesson here. There was nothing for him to learn.

All that clung onto his mind was a burning hatred for humankind.

After all, they were the ones who did this. Despite his parents having never done anything to aggravate them. An army of humans led by a dragonslayer came and slaughtered Zarkoth’s only family.

He would have remained by the corpses of his parents forever if he hadn’t heard the rustling of metallic boots. Looking up, he saw shadowed figures making their way towards him. He snarled as he recognized what they could have been.

More humans.

There were at least a hundred of them, and they were all clad in rather fancy armor. It was incomparable to the ornate armor that the dead dragonslayer had adorned, but it didn’t look like these were weak soldiers either.

One of the human soldiers stepped past a pile of burnt bodies as he narrowed his eyes.

“There is something there—” he started.

And Zarkoth unleashed his Dragon’s Breath, incinerating the human soldier before he could finish. The blast enveloped dozens more humans as they screamed. Not all of them were killed from the initial blast. Their armors protected some of them, and they scrambled away from his golden flames as they dropped and rolled on the ground.

He stepped forward as his body was lit ablaze. He watched as a few of the soldiers raised their arrows and aimed at him. But he leapt at them, tearing them apart. They were strong— stronger than some of the monsters he had faced up here in the Xor-In Mountains.

But Zarkoth didn’t care, even as their weapons pierced his scales. He chomped on a human as she screamed, before he felt a powerful ice spell strike his side. He reeled and turned to face a woman clad in a black armor standing there, behind all the other soldiers.

“Apprentice Hannah— you shouldn’t be here!” one of the soldiers exclaimed.

But she took a step forward as she raised a lance. “Are you the one who killed my master, monster?”

Zarkoth stared at her. He saw the disdain in her eyes— he heard her accusation. And he wanted to laugh.

You? he thought as his flames wisped off his mouth. You accuse me of being the monster?

Hannah conjured up another spell, creating a magic circle over her head. A spear of ice protruded from it as she spoke through gritted teeth.

“You must have snuck up on him while he was claiming the spoils of his victory. I will slay you, and I will succeed my master as a dragonslayer!”

The attack shot forward faster than Zarkoth could react. It dug through his side as he let out a pained roar. The other soldiers around Hannah took this as their opportunity to strike, surrounding him as he backed up.

Zarkoth could sense that power overflowing from Hannah. He knew she was stronger than him at his current state. Especially with all the other soldiers gathered here. They would outnumber him and overwhelm him at this rate.

But Zarkoth’s eyes flickered as he felt the power lying dormant in his dragonsoul. He knew he was on the verge of becoming stronger. He knew what needed to be done. So as the soldiers converged on him and Hannah created another spear of ice, he unleashed another Dragon’s Breath.

This time, he struck the soldiers right before him, engulfing himself and those surrounding him in a ball of golden flames. He could feel his own flames burning his scales as he heard the screams of the humans. And while he wasn’t able to kill them all with that attack, they were injured, lying before him.

So he could easily pick them off one after another.

“No!” Hannah shouted as she sent her ice spear at him.

Zarkoth ripped off the head of a human as he smiled. He felt the mana pouring into his dragonsoul. And he took in a deep breath.

“I have won.”

And the ice spear struck… nothing.

Hannah blinked a few times as the retinue of soldiers surrounding her glanced around the landscape hesitantly. Zarkoth hovered in the sky far above them, flapping his wings. He felt power surging through him. A strength he never had before, mixed with a rage that filled his heart.

And as he inhaled deeply, the air that poured into his lungs flickered, before overflowing with his magic. The inside of his mouth began to burn brightly.

Before one of the soldiers looked up and spotted Zarkoth as he hovered over them. He spun around and shouted as he grabbed the young woman clad in black armor and ran back.

“Run, Apprentice Hannah!”

And Zarkoth unleashed the golden flames onto the rest of the soldiers. It was not a single blast like his Dragon’s Breath that could only blow apart a group of monsters or humans. Instead, it was a wall of golden flames that poured down incessantly, razing everything to ash. Even as the humans screamed and their armor melted. He didn’t stop.

It was the power of his vengeance.

—--

And Kara’s eyes snapped open as her dragonsoul grew in size and intensity.

—--

Angel panted as he sent another volley of large rocks into the outpouring of forminac soldiers. There were too many of them. Even for him. He might have held the advantage with being able to strike them down before they could get to him. But their numbers came almost endlessly.

A ceaseless attack on the encampment. And perhaps Angel wouldn’t have struggled as much if he had others here to help him. Unfortunately, he watched as the survivors of Alyona gathered towards the center of the camp, far from him.

He could have joined them. The forminac soldiers were slower than he was. But he couldn’t leave Kara behind. So he continued taking down monster after monster with his earth magic.

He had to have killed maybe a hundred of them by now. But he was getting tired. And that was when he made his first mistake. Angel stumbled back as he tripped over a hole on the ground. He collapsed, blinking a few times as he didn’t even realize what had happened.

But the forminac soldiers took their opportunity to charge him. Dozens of them, all at once, surrounded him, and he covered himself with his rock armor. The monsters began to chip through his defenses as he braced himself, gritting his teeth.

And the tent behind Angel exploded as a blast of golden flames shot out in a wave.

The forminac soldiers were sent flying back as a figure shot into the sky. Angel looked up in awe, seeing a golden figure hover overhead. At first, he didn’t know what had happened. He couldn’t tell who it was. Maybe it was because he was tired. But as his gaze focused, even if he could barely see her face, he recognized her immediately.

It was Kara.

And she had ascended.

A pair of flaming wings protruded from her back, carrying her in the sky. She looked down at Angel who waved his arms back at her, before she swept her gaze over the camp. And when she saw the outpouring of forminac soldiers swarming all around her, she raised both her hands as they were wreathed in a small inferno, before she whispered.

“The Wrath of Dragonkind.”

And Kara unleashed a wave of golden flames into the first line of monsters, incinerating them in an instant.

—--

“Please, protect us!”

The group of dark elves cried as they pleaded with Kurg. He stood silently at the edge of the gathering of clans, but he didn’t say a word. And he didn’t let the dark elves pass either.

Olarg laughed and stepped forward, pointing at the group of dark elves. “Your weakness is why you will die. We have no reason to protect you. So you only have yourself to blame for your deaths. Unless…”

He looked towards the dark elf women with the group, even as dozen or so forminac soldiers barreled towards them from the haze.

“If you offer us your women,” Olarg said, eyeing the monsters that were getting closer. “We will offer your safety.

“Senior Olarg.” Kurg glared.

And the dark elf women gasped in shock. One of the dark elf men quickly agreed, but the other men began bickering with him alongside the women.

“Aren’t you going too far?” Kurg asked.

And Olarg shrugged. “If you think I am going too far, boy, then why don’t you make me stop?”

Kurg clenched a fist. Right at this moment, as the monsters drew closer, and the dark elf group began to seriously consider the offer, the Elder of the Swordtooth Clan wanted to punch Olarg in the face. But before anyone could make a decision, there was a sudden flash of golden light.

The group of dark elves paused, glancing back towards where the monsters had been. All that remained was a layer of golden flames and some ashes.

“W-what just happened?” one of the dark elf women asked.

And Kurg stared at the fading flames, knowing who was behind it.

—--

“Is that everyone?” Tashia asked as she watched a group of soldiers return with even more civilians.

A large gathering had now formed at the center of the encampment. Tens of thousands of people were tightly packed into a circle, surrounded by soldiers, keeping the hordes of forminac soldiers back. But Tashia wasn’t sure if that was everyone in the camp.

And the soldier averted his gaze, confirming her suspicions. “The orc clans refuse to move, and there are still many more stray groups of survivors towards the edges of the camp. We can’t gather them all here.”

Tashia gritted her teeth as she looked into the haze. And she saw the large figures of the forminac soldiers charging her way.

“Those cursed orcs…” She shook her head and raised her sword. “Let’s hope that, for the sake of the stragglers, these monsters are attracted to our large numbers.”

But perhaps she shouldn’t have been so optimistic. Because even as she cut down forminac soldier after forminac soldier, they didn’t stop coming. Hundreds of them poured out of the haze, heading for the center of the camp, just like she had hoped.

And the line of defense was spread too thin to properly hold against their numbers.

“Hayder… where are you…?” Tashia whispered as she cut down another forminac soldier.

She braced herself for another large group of the monsters began to make their approach. Some of her men dropped to their knees, overwhelmed with exhaustion, like they were unable to go on.

Tashia saw this as she pursed her lips. She wondered if this was the end of them— that after surviving the destruction of Alyona, they were now going to be overwhelmed by giant ants. But even though she was also exhausted, she forced herself to raise her sword, preparing for the onslaught of monsters.

However, as the forminac soldiers began to draw closer, emerging from the thick blanket of haze, she saw the way they were running, bumping into each other in a panic. And she squinted.

“Are they… running?”

And right as the question left her mouth, a wave of golden flames washed over the line of approaching forminac soldiers. It was like a large pillar of fire fell upon them, burning through their carapace as they dropped to the ground and writhed in pain. But the flames didn’t dissipate even after it engulfed them. Instead, it continued to pour out as it moved in a circle around the center of the encampment.

Tashia blinked and looked up. She saw the source of the golden flames coming from the sky. A winged creature soared overhead and unleashed this incessant stream of powerful fire, incinerating hundreds of forminac soldiers with each passing minute.

And as the winged creature made its second lap around the center of the encampment, Tashia’s eyes widened.

“Is that—” she started.

Before she blinked a few times. And the winged creature broke off, rapidly speeding up and giving chase to the monsters as they fled in a different direction.

Tashia finished her thought, “The human?”

—--

Draconic Wings.

God Step.

And The Wrath of Dragonkind.

Kara heard Zarkoth’s voice echoing in her head, telling her of her new abilities which she abused on the monsters that tried to interrupt her ascension. At this point, she had already killed over a thousand forminac soldiers, and she slew them in a much shorter time than it took earlier today.

She hadn’t even known they were attacking when she finished her ascension. But when she took to the skies with her Draconic Wings, she saw them swarming over the encampment. Not only that, but they were surrounding Angel, threatening to kill him.

And that pissed her off.

So she showed them The Wrath of Dragonkind, unleashing an incessant wave of golden flames that burned with nearly as much intensity as even her Dragon’s Breath. The blast of flames didn’t stop. Even as she flew around the encampment to wipe out the monsters.

And when they tried to flee, all she needed was a single God Step, to catch up to them. It wasn’t really a step, but rather, a burst of flames that propelled her forward so incredibly fast, she could barely even control where she went.

Kara continued to give chase to the monsters as they ran towards the edge of the encampment. Her outpouring of flames didn’t stop, burning every single one of them she saw. But as she followed them, they slowed in their movements, before they started disappearing from her view.

“Where are you going?” she asked as she began to descend.

And she realized that they were climbing back down into dozens of holes they had created to attack the camp from underneath. Hundreds of them disappeared with each passing minute, and she knew if she let them get away, they would come back again before the morning.

So Kara landed as an idea crossed her mind.

The outpouring of golden flames shot as she felt her dragonsoul dwindling in size. She knew she could cast The Wrath of Dragonkind again whenever she wanted. But it was exhausting to use constantly.

Even though she had only flown around for about ten minutes at this point, she felt her head growing dizzy, and she knew she was coming close to her limit. However, the fact that the forminac soldiers were fleeing proved to be beneficial to her.

She looked down one of the holes they dug as she smirked.

“If there are these many tunnels, that means they must be all connected together. So I just have to—”

Kara brought her hands together as she created a sphere of flames and held it up to her mouth. She breathed softly, unleashing a blast of magic that shot its way down quickly.

Dragon’s Breath.

“And…” She then pointed down into the hole with both her hands as they blazed brightly.

The Wrath of Dragonkind—

All at once, there was an eruption of golden flames that shot into the air, followed by a shockwave so powerful it dispersed the layer of haze covering the encampment.

—--

Hayder saw the encampment up ahead, and he saw the mess that it was in. There was fire burning across the many tents as corpses of both monsters and people littered the ground. He gritted his teeth. He was too late. But he could still make a difference.

Or so he thought.

As he tightened his grip on his draken’s reins, there was a sudden blast of golden flames that exploded into the sky. An eruption of fire that was so massive, it had to have risen to over a hundred feet in the air. A shockwave swept over the landscape right after, nearly knocking Hayder off his saddle.

He caught himself as he watched the golden flames dissipate, before he caught sight of the chunks of dead forminacs rain down around him. He narrowed his eyes at the winged figure floating above the camp. He could already tell who it was based on the color of the fire alone.

“Kara, huh?”

Hayder shook his head. It was just as he thought— he was too late. Except, not in the way he thought he would be.

“You never cease to surprise me…”

And he rode on into the encampment.

Author's Notes:

6.2k words. Thanks for reading :)

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