WIEDERGEBURT Act III: Chapter 40

The only sounds louder than the pounding of my heart that I could hear as I ran through the passage with Herleif was the dull thud of a dozen feet echoing along the cavern walls. We were being chased. I didn’t know how many pursuers we had. It sounded like there were hundreds of people chasing us, but that could have been thanks to the acoustics.

I could no longer tell where we were going. These tunnels had so many passages that divided and split into even more passages. Even though I was relatively confident in my memory, I couldn’t remember what path we took to get here.

“This way,” Herleif shouted as he took another turn. He seemed to know where he was going, so I followed him.

Yet as we traveled down the tunnel, several Sekbeists suddenly appeared from the side passages. They weren’t Grunts either. It looked like they were Elites.

“There they are! Kill the intruders!”

“Tch!”

I raced ahead of Herleif and pointed at the Sekbeists, releasing a massive explosion of lightning that struck several of them before they could respond. Since we were in a cavern, I didn’t want to create something too powerful to avoid accidentally causing the ceiling to collapse, but this attack was strong enough that several of the Sekbeists were paralysed. We didn’t have time to stop and kill each one, so I only killed the ones we ran past with the Dragon’s Tail Ruler.

Before we could get too far, however, several Sekbeists suddenly appeared from within our shadows. I grimaced as these Sekbeist attacked me with claw-like hands coated in darkness. Making liberal use of the Flash Step, I disappeared from view and traveled behind them, attacking swiftly by swinging my weapon. I felt some resistance, but it wasn’t long before I was cleaving through them. Blood splattered against the ground and my clothes. The metallic stench was horrifically thick.

Herleif was also battling ferociously as we moved, fire exploding from his hands in torrents as he slammed his fists into the faces of his foes, pulverizing them. He aimed to maximize the effectiveness of his kills by attacking the weak points like the head or heart. A strike to the chest blew a hole clean through one Sekbeist’s heart. Another strike caused a Sekibeist’s head to explode in a spray of fire and gore. While he didn’t have my maneuverability because he couldn’t use the Flash Step, his punches packed a lot of power.

We couldn’t stick around, though. Once we had finished killing off our enemies, we continued running.

“Do you know where we’re going?” I asked Herleif.

“Sort of…” Herleif grimaced. “I’ve got a small map in my head, but I’m not sure how accurate it is. I’ve been so busy fighting that I haven’t had time to figure out where we are.”

“Great…”

As we turned a corner, several people emerged from a lateral passage, but they weren’t Sekbeists this time. My eyes widened as the Dwoergs, Humans, Werefolk, and Lamia appeared and attacked us.

“Don’t kill them!” I shouted to Herleif. “They’re under the control of the Sekbeists right now! They’re doing this against their will!”

“I know that, but what do you want me to do?!” Herleif shouted back.

In response to his words, I stomped my foot on the ground and several hands made of darkness rose from the shadows of the people impeding us. These hands wound around them around their bodies. They bound these people so tightly they couldn’t move no matter how hard they struggled.

Herleif didn’t look surprised when I used the darkness element. He didn’t have time. We ran past the people without stopping because we knew there was nothing we could do for them right now. Even if we removed their collars, the Sekbeists would just place another one on them, and we couldn’t take them with us.

We kept running and eventually, after colliding into multiple ambushes and breaking through them, we burst out of the cave. There was no one else around, so it didn’t look like everybody knew about us yet. That would change soon. It was imperative that we leave now.

Now racing through the ravine, we did our best to keep our eyes peeled for signs of an ambush. I glanced at the walls, at the corners, at the boulders where someone could have been hiding. No one seemed to be around. Even so, I knew better than to just assume we were alone.

The hairs on the back of my neck suddenly stood on end. I sensed danger.

Acting quickly, I pushed Herleif forward just as a Sekbeist emerged from his shadow and tried to rip his back to shreds with powerful claws coated in wisps of darkness. The creature growled at me in anger as I swung the Dragon’s Tail Ruler, hoping to cleave the creature in half. Sadly, this one was quick on its feet and merged back into the shadows before I could kill it.

“Damn it. We don’t have time for this,” I cursed.

Several shouts and the sound of running feet came from behind us, telling me that we really did need to hurry. Not only did I hear shouts from behind us now, but I also heard shouts from in front of us, meaning we were probably surrounded. I swore again as Herleif stood up. We might be able to fight our way to the ravine’s entrance, but I had no idea how many Sekbeist we would have to go through.

“Herleif! I’m going to carry you piggyback!”

“What?”

“Get on!”

I knelt in front of the man, who did not seem at all pleased with my suggestion, but he also understood that now was no time to argue. He climbed onto my back. I stood up as I secured my hands around his legs and took a deep breath. The shouting and footsteps were getting louder. I could even see several Sekbeists running toward us alongside their enthralled slaves. Among them, my eyes landed on a woman with wings jutting from her back and a long tail swishing behind her.

Was that a dragon?

Knowing that I didn’t have time to ponder this, I channeled my Spiritual Power into my feet.

“Hold on tight!”

I didn’t give Herleif a chance to reply as I leapt into the air with the Flash Step, then used the Flash Step Version 2 to create a platform underneath me, allowing me to ascended even higher. Up, up, up. I continued traveling upward without pause. I had no idea how high I needed to go to reach the top of this ravine, nor how long it would take, but this was all I could do.

While I was focused on ascending the ravine, Herleif looked down.

“I don’t want to stop you from doing what you’re doing, but we’ve got company!”

“What?!”

His words caused me to also look down. I swore once again when I realized what he meant. The dragon woman I had seen was flying straight for us, massive wings flapping from her back as she increased the speed of her ascent. She was rapidly catching up.

I used the Jump Step to leap aside as she raced up, bypassing us so quickly she was just a blur. Her speed was incredible. There was no way I could keep up with that. Even as I marveled at her speed, however, I continued doing my best to reach the top of the ravine.

The dragon… or rather, the dragoness didn’t seem to have any intention of letting me go, and she quickly dove after me, swooping down and trying to split me open with her claws. Her speed was remarkable. The air howled around her as she nearly turned my face into bloody ribbons of flesh. Only my experience in combat kept me and Herleif from being killed right there.

My movements were stalled down. This woman was keeping me from moving higher. Grimacing as I realized I would need to do something, I traveled over to the ravine wall with liberal use of the Jump Step. Fortunately, while this woman’s attack power was incredible, she didn’t seem to have the ability to think well. She followed me without hesitation. I waited for the right moment, keeping a careful eye on her movements, then used the Jump Step once more to get out of her way.

A massive BOOM echoed all around us as the dragoness slammed her clawed hands into the ravine wall, causing dust and chunks of sediment to fly everywhere. A ripple past through the wall. It almost looked like the entire ravine wall was undulating, but that was just the shockwave traveling through it. Loud cracking sounds soon echoed from above us.

“The wall is collapsing!” Herleif shouted in shock.

“I know!” I shouted back.

I didn’t waste anymore time. Using the Jump step, I avoided all the falling debris I could, landed on one of the larger chunks, then used the regular Flash Step to move from boulder to boulder. The Flash Step was faster. By using it, I was able to climb far higher than I had before.

Once we made it past the debris, I began using the Jump Step again, creating platform after platform to ascend higher. Sweat had already broken out on my skin. My clothing was drenched. I was breathing raggedly now too. I had no idea how long I’d been traveling up, but I was consuming Spiritual Power way too quickly.

“Can you keep going?” asked Herleif.

“I don’t have much choice,” I replied.

The darkness surrounding us eventually receded as the sky became visible. I wasn’t sure how long we’d been down in that ravine, but the sky was dark and dotted with stars, and the twin moons were hovering in the sky above us.

I landed on the ground and set Herleif down, then fell to a knee as I took in several deep breaths. I quickly activated my storage ring and summoned several pills to help me recover, popping them into my mouth one by one, then chewing and swallowing. My Spiritual Power began recovering, though not as quickly as I would have liked, and I could feel my stamina being gradually restored as well. With a soft sigh, I stood up and looked at Herleif.

“We learned a lot on this expedition,” the old man said. “I had no idea there were so many Sekbeist located this far out. There is likely an entire army down there… which explains why we didn’t run into any Demon Beasts.”

“Me neither,” I said.

I still didn’t understand what was going on here, but I was beginning to get a clearer picture of what happened in my past. The Demon Beast Invasion had likely been caused by these Sekbeists. However, that still begged the question of why I never saw them in my previous life when I returned to Nevaria.

There must be something inside of Nevaria that they were after. I was certain of it. When we returned, I would have to ask Empress Hilda if she knew of anything the Sekbeists might want.

I was about to suggest to Herleif that we hurry up and leave, but before I could even open my mouth, something exploded from within the ravine. It was a loud sonic boom. As a powerful air current slammed into me, I turned my head and looked into the sky, where the dragoness I had been running from hovered, her massive scaled wings flapping to keep her aloft.

“Herleif,” I said softly. “I want you to begin running. Head for Nevaria.”

“And leave you here?” asked Herleif with a frown.

“Don’t worry. I have a lot of tricks up my sleeve. I’m pretty certain I can deal with this dragoness,. I’ll take care of her, then catch up.”

“I understand. I’ll leave this to you. Good luck.”

It was clear Herleif didn’t want to leave this to me from the reluctance on his face, but he understood that I would be better off fighting alone. He glanced back at the dragoness still in the sky, then took off toward the line of incredibly tall trees.

The dragoness seemed to recognize his attempt at retreat and flapped her wings to chase after him. I wouldn’t let that happen. I swung the Dragon’s Tail Ruler and unleashed a powerful explosion of condensed lightning and water, creating a crescent-shaped blade that flew through the air and forced the woman to stop. She turned her dull green eyes toward me.

“Your opponent isn’t that man,” I said to her.

The dragoness tilted her head for a moment as though she couldn’t understand my words, but then she flapped her wings and soared straight for me.

I responded by firing off several condensed beams of water and lightning. However, this woman proved incredibly nimble as she rolled through the sky, dodging my attacks with an impressive series of aerial maneuvers. She reached me almost before I knew what was happening. The only reason I was even able to dodge her was because her assault was so straightforward.

Appearing several meters away thanks to liberal use of the Flash Step, I was forced to cover my face as a massive explosion of dirt and debris flew exploded from where the dragoness had struck. If I’d stayed there, her attack might have actually killed me!

Before I could marvel at the dragoness’s destructive power, the woman in question burst from the cloud of expanding dust and charged right at me. She swung one of her clawed hands as I danced out of the way. I thought I had dodged her attack, but my eyes widened when a sudden pain struck my chest and I was blown back. Skidding along the ground, I used the earth element to keep myself from moving too far, then looked down.

Blood dripped from four massive claw marks on my chest. They were pretty deep. The blood was gushing down my body like a broken pipe flowing with water.

I channeled the water element through my body to heal the wound, then popped several pills in my mouth to recover my Spiritual Power. During that time, the dragoness charged at me again, and I watched carefully as the wind around her hands began swirling around her body. I see. So that was how she hit me even though I dodged. She was using the wind to extend her attack range.

Now that I knew what she was doing, I made sure to dodge by moving from side to side instead of going backwards. Several blades of wind flew from her hands. The earth was torn apart as the wind blades passed through the air. Four large trenches were dug out of the ground, slammed into one of the trees, and ripped straight through the massive trunk like it was made of paper.

No wonder this woman’s attack had damaged me so much. Her power was incredible!

I didn’t know how far away Herleif had managed to get, but I knew that fighting this woman out in the open was not advisable, so I quickly dashed into the treeline. The dragoness flapped her wings and followed me.

While I was careful while dodging through the trees, the dragoness was nowhere near as subtle or caring. I looked back when a loud crashing sound echoed behind me and grimaced when I realized the woman was plowing straight through the trees, blasting holes in the massive trunks as she chased after me. Several trees behind her fell down. The resounding boom as they struck the ground echoed out for kilometers.

She was on me before I realized it.

I used the Flash Step Version 2: Illusion Step to quickly dodge her attack. The dragoness’s clawed hands passed through my afterimage. The wind blades that erupted from her hands with every attack tore through the ground and one of the trees. Meanwhile, I appeared behind her and aimed a kick at her back.

Thanks to the alchemy pills I took, I was relatively confident in my strength. I didn’t even need to use the Second State of Spiritualism to destroy a wall with a single punch. My kick should have been enough to break someone’s spine or maybe even rip their body in half.

That didn’t happen here.

A dull thud echoed out as my foot struck the dragonesss’s lower back, and the woman went flying like I expected, but then she turned around in midair, slammed feet first into the trunk of a tree, and blasted off it, her speed even faster than before as she flew toward me.

“Damn it!”

I used the Illusion Step. The dragoness once more struck my afterimage as she crashed into the ground. However, I hadn’t moved very far, and the shockwave unleashed from her powerful attack slammed into me. I was sent stumbling backward. As I was trying to regain my balance, the dragoness appeared before me, her clawed left hand raised and ready to strike me down.

Out of desperation, I raised the Dragon’s Tail Ruler, holding the handle in one hand and pressing the sword half in the other. I angled the blade so the dragoness would hit the flat of the blade, then channeled my Spiritual Power through it, coating the weapon in a thick layer of lightning for added protection. This weapon was made from the alloy of an A-rank Demon Beast and covered in glowing Runes that made it sturdier than every known metal except Mithril, so it should have been enough to protect me.

Her hand slammed into the blade, and I suddenly realized blocking like this was a terrible idea. The ground beneath my feet cracked apart. Trenches spread out all around me as my knees buckled and groaned. It felt like my legs were about to snap like brittle twigs. Even my arms were shaking as I strained my muscles to keep this woman’s attack from hitting me.

I had forgotten about how strong dragons were.

Sparks flew from the blade and a terrible screeeeee! sound like someone grinding their nails against a rock punctured my ears, making my teeth clatter. Chirping mixed with the grinding noise. Several arcs of pale lightning lashed out around us, striking the ground and exploding. Some of them even struck the dragoness, but she didn’t even seem to notice, her eyes visible from behind the Dragon’s Tail Ruler and locked onto mine.

A loud cracking sound echoed around me, causing me to look at the Dragon’s Tail Ruler, which had a fracture running through it. So even with my Spiritual Power and Runes enhancing it, this dragoness was still able to break my weapon? I grimaced.

The power behind the dragoness’s attack suddenly grew weaker, and she jumped back, landing on the ground a meter or so away from me. Now that she wasn’t trying to kill me, I was able to kill a good look at her.

She wasn’t very tall. Actually, now that I was looking at her more closely and not trying to dodge her attacks, I realized she was kind of short, coming up to only about my solar plexus. Consistent with her small body was her smaller than average breasts. They were even smaller than Lin’s modest bosoms. I’d seen a few dragons in their human form, so I knew this was fairly consistent with their kind. Their dragon forms were huge, but their human forms were not.

Her hair was green, like mine, but while mine was a light green the color of tree leaves, hers was a vibrant green with a silver sheen. Of course, her long tresses were covered in dirt. It was clear she hadn’t washed it in a long time. Similarly, her pale skin, while containing no scars and appearing perfectly smooth, was covered in dirt and mud. Her threadbare clothes also looked like they would fall apart at the slightest provocation. They already had several tears in them, revealing her tight stomach and a good deal of leg.

Her body wasn’t just flesh, though. Glistening green scales covered several parts of her skin. I could see hints of scales around her legs, arms, shoulders, and some of her face. It looked like the scales were grafted into her body. She also had horns sticking from her head, parting her green hair as they curved backward into sharp points. The draconic wings on her back were at least a meter long and covered in the same green scales. Finally, I glanced at the meter long tail behind her, which ended in a spiked tip.

It was hard for me to judge her age because dragons tended to look younger than humans. She could have been a teenager, but she could have also been an adult. For all I knew, she might even be several hundred years old. The dragon race was one of the eternal races who never died unless they were killed.

“You can’t talk to me, can you?” I asked. The dragoness remained silent. “I thought not.”

The woman bent her legs like a predator getting ready to go on the attack, and I realized that my time for observation was up. I needed to think of something fast. If I didn’t, it was clear this dragoness might very well kill me.

As I prepared for her next attack, several symbols around her neck glowed brightly, revealing that she was wearing a collar. I narrowed my eyes. Those Runes must be the ones forcing her to obey the Sekbeists. Maybe if I removed that collar, she would stop attacking me. It was the only thing I could think of to stop her.

Once more, the dragoness launched herself off the ground, the earth beneath her feet exploding from the force. She was so fast her body was just a blur. However, this time, I had no intention of just letting myself receive her attacks.

Spiritual Power erupted from my body as I released my Spiritual Aura, then sucked it back in. A pale blue light turned into an overlay around my body. It only lasted for a second before it disappeared. Now strengthened by the Second State of Spiritualism, I unleashed a powerful punch coated in lightning and water just as the dragoness lashed out with her claws.

An explosion of energy erupted when my fist clashed against her fist. The backlash was so powerful that both of us were thrown backwards. I skidded along the ground as she flew into an uncontrolled spin through the air.

Wind was a powerful element that could be used in a myriad of ways. Tungsten had often used it to create powerful projections that induced blunt force trauma, but this dragoness used it to create cutting blades that could slice through rocks. Wind could also be used as a sonar, and while I wasn’t certain of this, I was positive the dragoness had been using the wind to increase her speed when she flew.

In the elemental diagram of strengths and weaknesses, wind was also strong against lightning. Generally, this would mean I would lose in a strength of elements, but I had layered my fist with lightning and water, which allowed me to withstand this dragoness’s ridiculously powerful attack.

Despite our clash destroying the ground and causing several trees to bend back as though they were being uprooted, the two of us didn’t hesitate to rush forward again. Her claws struck my fists. Our attacks created a series of small shockwaves that threatened to push us back once more, but we both used our elements to keep from moving. I had stuck myself to the ground using the earth element. Meanwhile, I was certain she was using the wind element to keep herself in place. Of course, this also meant our attacks were weaker since our elements were being manipulated in several different ways at the same time.

I gnashed my teeth together as pain erupted in my arms and legs. Even though I was doing my best to keep up, it was clear that this dragoness was physically stronger than me. My bones and muscles creaked, groaned, and snapped, but I used the water element to heal them.

The dragoness launched a claw at me, but I twisted away from her attack and raised my left forearm. When her claw struck my forearm, I shunted aside the pain erupting from my body and twisted my arm, drawing her hand down and catching it in my armpit. My opponent attacked with her other hand, but the same thing happened again. When both her hands were locked in my armpits, I reared my head back before whipping it forward.

CRACK!

Spots appeared before my eyes as I headbutted the dragoness. I blinked several times. I couldn’t lose focus here!

The dragoness’s head had snapped backward when I struck her, her spine arcing back as though gravity was affecting just her head. Her arms were still caught within my armpits. I didn’t hesitate to jerk her back up and slam my head into her again. Sparks shot everywhere as I unloaded a powerful explosion of lightning that traveled straight into the dragoness’s body. Blood poured down my forehead as the skin split like overripe fruit, but I quickly healed it and attacked once more.

I was certain this woman was dizzy now. Even though she was being controlled by that collar, it wasn’t like she didn’t feel pain.

Letting go of her hands, I watched as she fell onto her back, blinking as though she couldn’t figure out what was happening. My lightning was currently coursing through her muscles and nerves. She was temporarily paralysed.

Straddling her waist, I quickly reached out, wrapped my hand around the collar, and used the water element to create several blades that sliced clean through it. This collar was made of the same material the enslaved people had been mining, but I shattered it easily. As the shattered remnants fell to the ground, the dragoness’s eyes suddenly became clear, and for the first time since she attacked me, emotion appeared within those eyes. Shock. Befuddlement. She looked like she didn’t know what was happening. She gazed at me with clear confusion and even a little fear, but then, as if her body was suddenly struck by exhaustion, she closed her eyes and fell backwards, striking the ground with a soft thud.

I sighed, climbed off the dragoness, and sat down, using my arms to support me as I leaned back.

That fight had been more exhausting than any I’d been in for a long time. I think the last battle I’d fought that tired me out this much was when I battled the Giant Rock Golem. Every muscle in my body was crying out, telling me that I had pushed myself way too hard.

As I lay there, loud shouts suddenly echoed through the forest.

“I think they went this way!”

“We can’t let those humans escape!”

I recognized the deep and foreboding growl of Sekbeists. Realizing that the Sekbeists had caught up to me, I knew I couldn’t remain there.

I scooped the dragoness into my arms, holding her like she was a sleeping princess. She was pretty light—lighter than I thought she’d be. The only part of her that seemed to weigh a lot was the tail. Her wings had folded into themselves, which made her much easier to carry. As she lay cradled in my arms, her head lolled against my chest and her legs and tail swayed limply as I turned around and used the Flash Step to disappear.

Even though I was exhausted from battling the dragoness, I pushed my body further and harder to put some distance between my and my pursuers. I didn’t pay much attention to where I was going. Where I went didn’t matter right now so long as I could escape from the Sekbeists. I could figure out where to go once I was far enough away.

However, as the hours dragged on, I began slowing down. I was running out of Spiritual Power. It wasn’t long before I needed to stop and rest.

I glanced around at the monstrously large trees, checking to see if there were any Demon Beasts present. I even used Spiritual Perception to confirm that no Demon Beasts or Sekbeists were around.

Once I had confirmed there were no enemies, I popped another Spiritual Recovery Pill into my mouth, sighing as the healing liquid gushed down my throat and began filling me with Spiritual Power. It wasn’t good to take too many of these, but I didn’t have much of a choice.

With the dragoness still in my arms, I went up to the nearest tree and set her down. I summoned the Dragon’s Tail Ruler and looked at the crack running through it. After frowning at it for a full minute, I channeled lightning and water through the weapon and carefully used it to carve out a deep burrow within the tree trunk. This tree was quite big. Even after carving out a fairly large burrow, it looked like I hadn’t even gone halfway into it.

I stored the Dragon’s Tail Ruler in my storage ring, picked up the dragoness again, and brought her inside, setting her down before pulling out a large futon that I tucked her into. She didn’t respond at all to the jostling as I lifted her legs and tail to pull back the covers. I felt a little guilty as I realized she wasn’t wearing any underwear and her hairless mound was on full display, but I quickly set her back down and pulled the covers over her body.

Sitting back after finishing my task, I took just a moment to gaze at the dragoness. She was quite cute. Her lovely face had a youthful charm that made her seem young. I knew you couldn’t judge a dragon’s age by her appearance, but I would have put her at two years younger than myself. Her cheeks seemed fuller than most adult women. However, I also knew this was a dragon trait.

Finally tearing my gaze away from the girl, I took out ingredients, my pestle and mortar, and a large bowl from my storage ring. I needed to make a Demon Beast repellent. Only then would I be able to get some rest.