Chapter 19
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"You?!"
Draylen instinctively jumped backwards whilst raising his arms in a defensive stance. The old man reacted faster though as he already had his lance at the ready by the time Draylen had jumped back.
In front of them, stood an extremely battered tall woman with seductive curves in all the right places. Her clothing was ripped and her face was covered in dust and dirt. She had a single gatling crossbow by her side, the other had presumably been torn off by something, as the pipe which restocked ammunition had been ripped apart and was dangling down her back.
The tall woman was also equally as shocked, not expecting the group to catch up so quickly. She hurriedly pulled out a scroll from her rear pocket and quickly imbued mana into it. A yellow glow shined brightly from the parchment, causing Draylen to squint.
"She's summoning her familiar, hurry, stop her!" Arboria yelled.
The old man nodded and shot forward like an arrow from a loosed bow, his lance in front aiming directly at the woman's abdomen. Unfortunately, he hadn't reacted quick enough. The lance struck into the large feathered body but instead of penetrating through, it got stuck on the surface like a splinter.
-Craaaaww!!!
Two avian heads with several jutting out serrated teeth appeared from the flash of light, before both pecking downwards. The old man pushed off of his lance and managed to avoid the attack by a hair's breadth.
The Fallen let out a sigh of relief before turning and running away.
Arboria held back the urge to chase her and instead began summoning giant roots out of the ground. Each one was large yet incomparably sharp, even with the layers of dirt on their surfaces.
"Attack!" She shouted, waving her arms.
The ground trembled as the ten roots twisted and twirled their ways through the earth, before binding around different parts of the giant bird's body. It shrieked wildly and in an unbirdly manner, randomly swiping out with it's claws and beaks, but to no avail. The roots were too thick, and any of the scratches which the bird managed to make regenerated in an instant.
Arboria quickly turned to Draylen and the old man.
"Quickly, pursue her! Although it may not look like it, this spell uses a lot of mana and will run out soon!" She barked urgently.
"Got it."
The grandfather and grandson duo ran as fast as possible after the Fallen woman, out of the trial exit chambers and into another tunnel. By now, Draylen had recalled Barong, who was simply too weak to participate in any of the battles, whilst he had Charcoal in familiar armament form.
The old man had dispelled his armaments, leaving only his armour. This was because it was very heavy and not suitable for chases or long distance running.
'Luckily, I chose the lighter style of armour.' Draylen thought.
Soon, they reached the end of the crystal tunnel and found themselves in a large area with a waterfall. The Fallen woman was nowhere to be seen and instead there was lush greenery and a dragon statue. It was unlike any Draylen had seen before, with a long serpentine body, looking almost like a magnified snake with more majesty.
'Could this perhaps be a true dragon?'
He shook his head quickly, clearing his mind of useless thoughts. Draylen quickly unsheathed his wrist blades, which slid menacingly out of the gauntlets. He then looked toward the old man.
"I'm guessing there should be a hidden room here. Wait a moment whilst I cast a spell." The old man instructed.
Draylen nodded, before wondering what kind of magic the old man would use.
'Perhaps I could learn something.'
The old man then activated a spell circle that was on his hip, pressing it tightly and infusing it with bright white mana. His finger tips glowed brightly, before a wave of dim white light began to pulse outwards and dissipated after a metre or so.
"Bounty of the Light Goddess." He murmured gently.
As soon as he said the words, the dim waves that were produced from his spell circle increased in brightness, before condensing and flying into the old man's finger tips. He then pointed his glowing hand towards the waterfall.
"Go!"
-Shooom!
The light left his fingers immediately and made an erratic zigzagging path across the area before shooting into the waterfall. It left behind a glowing trail which resembled fireflies in the dark night. The old man began to run along the path before turning to Draylen.
"Hurry along this trail, we mustn't allow that Fallen scum to steal Gaia's earthen pearl. Let us make haste."
Draylen nodded his head resolutely before running after the old man. The trail continued through the waterfall and the old man charged through without blinking an eye. Draylen had no choice but to follow through the cascade of water but luckily, his helmet stopped his face from being drenched by water.
As soon as he passed through the curtain of water, he quickly wiped away the droplets and residue on his purple visor and ran after the old man who had already split the distance between them both. By the time he managed to catch up, his breath was ragged and his throat was dry.
Just as he was about to complain, he felt the ground beneath him shift.
-Twang!
An arrow bolt came from nowhere and grazed past Draylen's arm. He took a step back, but felt the ground beneath his left foot shift again, just like before, and the sound of several arrows came from the darkness ahead.
'Crap!'
Draylen quickly jumped back, but realised he was going to get hit. He squeezed his eyes shut and put his gauntlets in front of himself, protecting his heart and his groin, the two most important places apart from his already protected head.
However, the old man stepped in in the nick of time and swatted the arrows aside like they were insects, before pulling Draylen up.
"Boy, if you trigger a trap just ignore it and keep going, I'll make sure you don't die." He reassured.
"Thanks."
They once again set off through the dim tunnel, occasionally setting of traps here and there but nothing which was too much for the old man to handle. After the monotonous journey, they made it to a pair of large double doors.
'A dragon could definitely fit through here.' Draylen thought, ogling at it.
One of the doors had been pushed open. The old man summoned his familiar armaments and then patted Draylen on the shoulder.
"On the count of three, we rush in. I'll go first and knock that mongrel out, you go and grab the earthen pearl, before we get out of here" He whispered.
Draylen nodded slightly, before crouching down to a running position.
"Three."
"Two."
"One."
"Go!"
The old man kicked the doors apart before rushing headfirst into the room, with Draylen following close behind. As the doors came fully apart, a bright light filled the dark tunnel which they left behind and in front, was a large room which seemed to have been made for giants. Or in this case, dragons.
There was a throne in the centre of the room, which was made out of several different branches and trunks, with flowers and leaves sprouting over the top like decoration. The top of the throne had an empty ball-sized socket, which was extremely obvious as it stood out from the throne itself.
The old man, who had just psyched himself up stood their dumbstruck.
"How is that woman so quick? Don't tell me she managed to open a portal in that amount of time?!" He muttered with a frustrated expression.
He then jogged over to the throne which sat in the middle of the empty room and inspected it closely.
"Damn it!" He stomped the floor, creating a small crater in the translucent crystal.
Draylen also felt quite annoyed. Although he didn't really care much about the pearl, since he didn't think that it affected him, he was angry at the fact that he had been dragged into this battle between Arboria and the Fallen.
If he was going to make waves within the summoner community, then what better than to foil the Fallen's plans? At the age of 5, no less. Unfortunately, it seemed that it wouldn't happen.
Just as Draylen was thinking about what to do next, he saw movement in the corner of his eyes. He turned his head to see what it was, but saw nothing. However, a few seconds later, a faint shadow could be seen creeping by the wall, stealthily making it's way towards the exit.
Draylen held back his grin, whilst also thanking the tomb's designers for putting a single light source above the throne in the centre of the room, otherwise who knows if he would have managed to notice the Fallen escaping?
He hurriedly concentrated on activating his 'Shadow Veil', closing his eyes for a moment. As soon as he opened them, his entire body was shrouded in black fog. Then, he shot towards the shadow on the wall at full speed, merely attempting to collide with the Fallen.
"Ah!" A feminine shriek sounded out, along with Draylen feeling impact against his shoulder.
Without any delay, he immediately thrust his wrist blades forward.
-Squelch
He felt the blades making contact and hurriedly withdrew from his Shadow Veil.
-Clink
Draylen heard the sound of an object hitting the floor and a strange clear pearl materialised out of nowhere. Disregarding how it suddenly appeared, he hastily scooped it up with both hands and held it to his chest, just in case the woman tried to snatch it back.
However, after a few moments, the Fallen made no attempts to recover the artifact, thus Draylen exhaled before jogging over to the old man, who had noticed what happened. He handed the pearl to the old man, who then held it close to his face and stared at it in fascination. A green essence bobbed up and down on invisible waves, like a raft on a calm ocean.
"Good job. But we need to dispatch that woman." He snarled fiercely.
It was sure that if the woman really survived, than they would have a deep grudge. They disliked her for being a Fallen and also attempting to steal the artifact, whilst she hated them back for interrupting her mission.
There was a pool of blood trickling down the wall and they could see a shadow laboriously making it's way towards the exit. It was clutching it's stomach whilst limping, showing that Draylen's previous attack really hit home.
The old man walked over calmly but had a frosty expression on his face.
"This is for all of the trouble you bastards have caused."
His lance plunged downwards and as he pulled it out, the shadow on the wall slumped onto the floor like a collapsing rag doll. After a few seconds, a body slowly began to materialise, revealing the Fallen woman's ruined body.
Draylen couldn't help but feel a tinge of helplessness. Even though he hadn't done much at the beginning, he was inevitably dragged into the Fallen's plot. Although it was a good chance to become famous, he felt that he would have liked more freedom to choose what for.
Now he was the common enemy of all Fallen yet he was a tier 4 Neophyte whilst they were mostly tier 6. Whilst he was sure he could defeat them 1 on 1 with the element of surprise, he wasn't sure about 2, or 3, or even 4.
'Thankfully, I have the old man to protect me.'
Just as he was about to walk out of the room, the light which was illuminating the room behind him turned into an earthly green. The mana density, which was already very high once more rocketed up to levels which he hadn't heard of before.
A feeling of extreme curiosity filled up the young boy, who turned and walked back into the room without hesitation. The old man was also very interested and followed Draylen in. As they stood in front of the throne, the earthen pearl in the old man's hands floated out and socketed itself into the hole at the top of the throne.
As soon as it fully integrated with the wooden throne, the green light intensified.
An overwhelming pressure forced both people to kneel down.
The presence of a higher bloodline caused their familiars, which weren't even present or were in armament form to tremble in reverence.
Before them
Appeared
A massive green dragon.
-----
CONTINUATION OF THE AUTHOR'S NOTE.
Hey, what I'm about to write is a bit lengthy, so it won't fit in the note. Not related to the plot, but regards this novel's future in the next couple months.
In about 4-5 weeks time, I'm having an operation on both my knees, which will put me into a wheelchair for a few months short of a year.
It'll definitely effect my release schedule in the long run, but not in the short term.
After the surgery, I'll be recovering from the operation and won't be able to write, my body will devote itself to self-repair and thus I'll be extremely fatigued for several weeks.
BUT
Don't worry.
I'll make it up to you guys, somehow.
I'm not dropping this novel either, it's the culmination of my childhood fantasies after all! (Not that way damn it!)
Please report us if you find any errors so we can fix it asap!
"You?!"
Draylen instinctively jumped backwards whilst raising his arms in a defensive stance. The old man reacted faster though as he already had his lance at the ready by the time Draylen had jumped back.
In front of them, stood an extremely battered tall woman with seductive curves in all the right places. Her clothing was ripped and her face was covered in dust and dirt. She had a single gatling crossbow by her side, the other had presumably been torn off by something, as the pipe which restocked ammunition had been ripped apart and was dangling down her back.
The tall woman was also equally as shocked, not expecting the group to catch up so quickly. She hurriedly pulled out a scroll from her rear pocket and quickly imbued mana into it. A yellow glow shined brightly from the parchment, causing Draylen to squint.
"She's summoning her familiar, hurry, stop her!" Arboria yelled.
The old man nodded and shot forward like an arrow from a loosed bow, his lance in front aiming directly at the woman's abdomen. Unfortunately, he hadn't reacted quick enough. The lance struck into the large feathered body but instead of penetrating through, it got stuck on the surface like a splinter.
-Craaaaww!!!
Two avian heads with several jutting out serrated teeth appeared from the flash of light, before both pecking downwards. The old man pushed off of his lance and managed to avoid the attack by a hair's breadth.
The Fallen let out a sigh of relief before turning and running away.
Arboria held back the urge to chase her and instead began summoning giant roots out of the ground. Each one was large yet incomparably sharp, even with the layers of dirt on their surfaces.
"Attack!" She shouted, waving her arms.
The ground trembled as the ten roots twisted and twirled their ways through the earth, before binding around different parts of the giant bird's body. It shrieked wildly and in an unbirdly manner, randomly swiping out with it's claws and beaks, but to no avail. The roots were too thick, and any of the scratches which the bird managed to make regenerated in an instant.
Arboria quickly turned to Draylen and the old man.
"Quickly, pursue her! Although it may not look like it, this spell uses a lot of mana and will run out soon!" She barked urgently.
"Got it."
The grandfather and grandson duo ran as fast as possible after the Fallen woman, out of the trial exit chambers and into another tunnel. By now, Draylen had recalled Barong, who was simply too weak to participate in any of the battles, whilst he had Charcoal in familiar armament form.
The old man had dispelled his armaments, leaving only his armour. This was because it was very heavy and not suitable for chases or long distance running.
'Luckily, I chose the lighter style of armour.' Draylen thought.
Soon, they reached the end of the crystal tunnel and found themselves in a large area with a waterfall. The Fallen woman was nowhere to be seen and instead there was lush greenery and a dragon statue. It was unlike any Draylen had seen before, with a long serpentine body, looking almost like a magnified snake with more majesty.
'Could this perhaps be a true dragon?'
He shook his head quickly, clearing his mind of useless thoughts. Draylen quickly unsheathed his wrist blades, which slid menacingly out of the gauntlets. He then looked toward the old man.
"I'm guessing there should be a hidden room here. Wait a moment whilst I cast a spell." The old man instructed.
Draylen nodded, before wondering what kind of magic the old man would use.
'Perhaps I could learn something.'
The old man then activated a spell circle that was on his hip, pressing it tightly and infusing it with bright white mana. His finger tips glowed brightly, before a wave of dim white light began to pulse outwards and dissipated after a metre or so.
"Bounty of the Light Goddess." He murmured gently.
As soon as he said the words, the dim waves that were produced from his spell circle increased in brightness, before condensing and flying into the old man's finger tips. He then pointed his glowing hand towards the waterfall.
"Go!"
-Shooom!
The light left his fingers immediately and made an erratic zigzagging path across the area before shooting into the waterfall. It left behind a glowing trail which resembled fireflies in the dark night. The old man began to run along the path before turning to Draylen.
"Hurry along this trail, we mustn't allow that Fallen scum to steal Gaia's earthen pearl. Let us make haste."
Draylen nodded his head resolutely before running after the old man. The trail continued through the waterfall and the old man charged through without blinking an eye. Draylen had no choice but to follow through the cascade of water but luckily, his helmet stopped his face from being drenched by water.
As soon as he passed through the curtain of water, he quickly wiped away the droplets and residue on his purple visor and ran after the old man who had already split the distance between them both. By the time he managed to catch up, his breath was ragged and his throat was dry.
Just as he was about to complain, he felt the ground beneath him shift.
-Twang!
An arrow bolt came from nowhere and grazed past Draylen's arm. He took a step back, but felt the ground beneath his left foot shift again, just like before, and the sound of several arrows came from the darkness ahead.
'Crap!'
Draylen quickly jumped back, but realised he was going to get hit. He squeezed his eyes shut and put his gauntlets in front of himself, protecting his heart and his groin, the two most important places apart from his already protected head.
However, the old man stepped in in the nick of time and swatted the arrows aside like they were insects, before pulling Draylen up.
"Boy, if you trigger a trap just ignore it and keep going, I'll make sure you don't die." He reassured.
"Thanks."
They once again set off through the dim tunnel, occasionally setting of traps here and there but nothing which was too much for the old man to handle. After the monotonous journey, they made it to a pair of large double doors.
'A dragon could definitely fit through here.' Draylen thought, ogling at it.
One of the doors had been pushed open. The old man summoned his familiar armaments and then patted Draylen on the shoulder.
"On the count of three, we rush in. I'll go first and knock that mongrel out, you go and grab the earthen pearl, before we get out of here" He whispered.
Draylen nodded slightly, before crouching down to a running position.
"Three."
"Two."
"One."
"Go!"
The old man kicked the doors apart before rushing headfirst into the room, with Draylen following close behind. As the doors came fully apart, a bright light filled the dark tunnel which they left behind and in front, was a large room which seemed to have been made for giants. Or in this case, dragons.
There was a throne in the centre of the room, which was made out of several different branches and trunks, with flowers and leaves sprouting over the top like decoration. The top of the throne had an empty ball-sized socket, which was extremely obvious as it stood out from the throne itself.
The old man, who had just psyched himself up stood their dumbstruck.
"How is that woman so quick? Don't tell me she managed to open a portal in that amount of time?!" He muttered with a frustrated expression.
He then jogged over to the throne which sat in the middle of the empty room and inspected it closely.
"Damn it!" He stomped the floor, creating a small crater in the translucent crystal.
Draylen also felt quite annoyed. Although he didn't really care much about the pearl, since he didn't think that it affected him, he was angry at the fact that he had been dragged into this battle between Arboria and the Fallen.
If he was going to make waves within the summoner community, then what better than to foil the Fallen's plans? At the age of 5, no less. Unfortunately, it seemed that it wouldn't happen.
Just as Draylen was thinking about what to do next, he saw movement in the corner of his eyes. He turned his head to see what it was, but saw nothing. However, a few seconds later, a faint shadow could be seen creeping by the wall, stealthily making it's way towards the exit.
Draylen held back his grin, whilst also thanking the tomb's designers for putting a single light source above the throne in the centre of the room, otherwise who knows if he would have managed to notice the Fallen escaping?
He hurriedly concentrated on activating his 'Shadow Veil', closing his eyes for a moment. As soon as he opened them, his entire body was shrouded in black fog. Then, he shot towards the shadow on the wall at full speed, merely attempting to collide with the Fallen.
"Ah!" A feminine shriek sounded out, along with Draylen feeling impact against his shoulder.
Without any delay, he immediately thrust his wrist blades forward.
-Squelch
He felt the blades making contact and hurriedly withdrew from his Shadow Veil.
-Clink
Draylen heard the sound of an object hitting the floor and a strange clear pearl materialised out of nowhere. Disregarding how it suddenly appeared, he hastily scooped it up with both hands and held it to his chest, just in case the woman tried to snatch it back.
However, after a few moments, the Fallen made no attempts to recover the artifact, thus Draylen exhaled before jogging over to the old man, who had noticed what happened. He handed the pearl to the old man, who then held it close to his face and stared at it in fascination. A green essence bobbed up and down on invisible waves, like a raft on a calm ocean.
"Good job. But we need to dispatch that woman." He snarled fiercely.
It was sure that if the woman really survived, than they would have a deep grudge. They disliked her for being a Fallen and also attempting to steal the artifact, whilst she hated them back for interrupting her mission.
There was a pool of blood trickling down the wall and they could see a shadow laboriously making it's way towards the exit. It was clutching it's stomach whilst limping, showing that Draylen's previous attack really hit home.
The old man walked over calmly but had a frosty expression on his face.
"This is for all of the trouble you bastards have caused."
His lance plunged downwards and as he pulled it out, the shadow on the wall slumped onto the floor like a collapsing rag doll. After a few seconds, a body slowly began to materialise, revealing the Fallen woman's ruined body.
Draylen couldn't help but feel a tinge of helplessness. Even though he hadn't done much at the beginning, he was inevitably dragged into the Fallen's plot. Although it was a good chance to become famous, he felt that he would have liked more freedom to choose what for.
Now he was the common enemy of all Fallen yet he was a tier 4 Neophyte whilst they were mostly tier 6. Whilst he was sure he could defeat them 1 on 1 with the element of surprise, he wasn't sure about 2, or 3, or even 4.
'Thankfully, I have the old man to protect me.'
Just as he was about to walk out of the room, the light which was illuminating the room behind him turned into an earthly green. The mana density, which was already very high once more rocketed up to levels which he hadn't heard of before.
A feeling of extreme curiosity filled up the young boy, who turned and walked back into the room without hesitation. The old man was also very interested and followed Draylen in. As they stood in front of the throne, the earthen pearl in the old man's hands floated out and socketed itself into the hole at the top of the throne.
As soon as it fully integrated with the wooden throne, the green light intensified.
An overwhelming pressure forced both people to kneel down.
The presence of a higher bloodline caused their familiars, which weren't even present or were in armament form to tremble in reverence.
Before them
Appeared
A massive green dragon.
-----
CONTINUATION OF THE AUTHOR'S NOTE.
Hey, what I'm about to write is a bit lengthy, so it won't fit in the note. Not related to the plot, but regards this novel's future in the next couple months.
In about 4-5 weeks time, I'm having an operation on both my knees, which will put me into a wheelchair for a few months short of a year.
It'll definitely effect my release schedule in the long run, but not in the short term.
After the surgery, I'll be recovering from the operation and won't be able to write, my body will devote itself to self-repair and thus I'll be extremely fatigued for several weeks.
BUT
Don't worry.
I'll make it up to you guys, somehow.
I'm not dropping this novel either, it's the culmination of my childhood fantasies after all! (Not that way damn it!)
"You?!"Draylen instinctively jumped backwards whilst raising his arms in a defensive stance. The old man reacted faster though as he already had his lance at the ready by the time Draylen had jumped back.In front of them, stood an extremely battered tall woman with seductive curves in all the right places. Her clothing was ripped and her face was covered in dust and dirt. She had a single gatling crossbow by her side, the other had presumably been torn off by something, as the pipe which restocked ammunition had been ripped apart and was dangling down her back.The tall woman was also equally as shocked, not expecting the group to catch up so quickly. She hurriedly pulled out a scroll from her rear pocket and quickly imbued mana into it. A yellow glow shined brightly from the parchment, causing Draylen to squint."She's summoning her familiar, hurry, stop her!" Arboria yelled.The old man nodded and shot forward like an arrow from a loosed bow, his lance in front aiming directly at the woman's abdomen. Unfortunately, he hadn't reacted quick enough. The lance struck into the large feathered body but instead of penetrating through, it got stuck on the surface like a splinter.-Craaaaww!!!Two avian heads with several jutting out serrated teeth appeared from the flash of light, before both pecking downwards. The old man pushed off of his lance and managed to avoid the attack by a hair's breadth.The Fallen let out a sigh of relief before turning and running away.Arboria held back the urge to chase her and instead began summoning giant roots out of the ground. Each one was large yet incomparably sharp, even with the layers of dirt on their surfaces."Attack!" She shouted, waving her arms.The ground trembled as the ten roots twisted and twirled their ways through the earth, before binding around different parts of the giant bird's body. It shrieked wildly and in an unbirdly manner, randomly swiping out with it's claws and beaks, but to no avail. The roots were too thick, and any of the scratches which the bird managed to make regenerated in an instant.Arboria quickly turned to Draylen and the old man."Quickly, pursue her! Although it may not look like it, this spell uses a lot of mana and will run out soon!" She barked urgently."Got it."The grandfather and grandson duo ran as fast as possible after the Fallen woman, out of the trial exit chambers and into another tunnel. By now, Draylen had recalled Barong, who was simply too weak to participate in any of the battles, whilst he had Charcoal in familiar armament form.The old man had dispelled his armaments, leaving only his armour. This was because it was very heavy and not suitable for chases or long distance running.'Luckily, I chose the lighter style of armour.' Draylen thought.Soon, they reached the end of the crystal tunnel and found themselves in a large area with a waterfall. The Fallen woman was nowhere to be seen and instead there was lush greenery and a dragon statue. It was unlike any Draylen had seen before, with a long serpentine body, looking almost like a magnified snake with more majesty.'Could this perhaps be a true dragon?'He shook his head quickly, clearing his mind of useless thoughts. Draylen quickly unsheathed his wrist blades, which slid menacingly out of the gauntlets. He then looked toward the old man."I'm guessing there should be a hidden room here. Wait a moment whilst I cast a spell." The old man instructed.Draylen nodded, before wondering what kind of magic the old man would use.'Perhaps I could learn something.'The old man then activated a spell circle that was on his hip, pressing it tightly and infusing it with bright white mana. His finger tips glowed brightly, before a wave of dim white light began to pulse outwards and dissipated after a metre or so."Bounty of the Light Goddess." He murmured gently.As soon as he said the words, the dim waves that were produced from his spell circle increased in brightness, before condensing and flying into the old man's finger tips. He then pointed his glowing hand towards the waterfall."Go!"-Shooom!The light left his fingers immediately and made an erratic zigzagging path across the area before shooting into the waterfall. It left behind a glowing trail which resembled fireflies in the dark night. The old man began to run along the path before turning to Draylen."Hurry along this trail, we mustn't allow that Fallen scum to steal Gaia's earthen pearl. Let us make haste."Draylen nodded his head resolutely before running after the old man. The trail continued through the waterfall and the old man charged through without blinking an eye. Draylen had no choice but to follow through the cascade of water but luckily, his helmet stopped his face from being drenched by water.As soon as he passed through the curtain of water, he quickly wiped away the droplets and residue on his purple visor and ran after the old man who had already split the distance between them both. By the time he managed to catch up, his breath was ragged and his throat was dry.Just as he was about to complain, he felt the ground beneath him shift.-Twang!An arrow bolt came from nowhere and grazed past Draylen's arm. He took a step back, but felt the ground beneath his left foot shift again, just like before, and the sound of several arrows came from the darkness ahead.'Crap!'Draylen quickly jumped back, but realised he was going to get hit. He squeezed his eyes shut and put his gauntlets in front of himself, protecting his heart and his groin, the two most important places apart from his already protected head.However, the old man stepped in in the nick of time and swatted the arrows aside like they were insects, before pulling Draylen up."Boy, if you trigger a trap just ignore it and keep going, I'll make sure you don't die." He reassured."Thanks."They once again set off through the dim tunnel, occasionally setting of traps here and there but nothing which was too much for the old man to handle. After the monotonous journey, they made it to a pair of large double doors.'A dragon could definitely fit through here.' Draylen thought, ogling at it.One of the doors had been pushed open. The old man summoned his familiar armaments and then patted Draylen on the shoulder."On the count of three, we rush in. I'll go first and knock that mongrel out, you go and grab the earthen pearl, before we get out of here" He whispered.Draylen nodded slightly, before crouching down to a running position."Three.""Two.""One.""Go!"The old man kicked the doors apart before rushing headfirst into the room, with Draylen following close behind. As the doors came fully apart, a bright light filled the dark tunnel which they left behind and in front, was a large room which seemed to have been made for giants. Or in this case, dragons.There was a throne in the centre of the room, which was made out of several different branches and trunks, with flowers and leaves sprouting over the top like decoration. The top of the throne had an empty ball-sized socket, which was extremely obvious as it stood out from the throne itself.The old man, who had just psyched himself up stood their dumbstruck."How is that woman so quick? Don't tell me she managed to open a portal in that amount of time?!" He muttered with a frustrated expression.He then jogged over to the throne which sat in the middle of the empty room and inspected it closely."Damn it!" He stomped the floor, creating a small crater in the translucent crystal.Draylen also felt quite annoyed. Although he didn't really care much about the pearl, since he didn't think that it affected him, he was angry at the fact that he had been dragged into this battle between Arboria and the Fallen.If he was going to make waves within the summoner community, then what better than to foil the Fallen's plans? At the age of 5, no less. Unfortunately, it seemed that it wouldn't happen.Just as Draylen was thinking about what to do next, he saw movement in the corner of his eyes. He turned his head to see what it was, but saw nothing. However, a few seconds later, a faint shadow could be seen creeping by the wall, stealthily making it's way towards the exit.Draylen held back his grin, whilst also thanking the tomb's designers for putting a single light source above the throne in the centre of the room, otherwise who knows if he would have managed to notice the Fallen escaping?He hurriedly concentrated on activating his 'Shadow Veil', closing his eyes for a moment. As soon as he opened them, his entire body was shrouded in black fog. Then, he shot towards the shadow on the wall at full speed, merely attempting to collide with the Fallen."Ah!" A feminine shriek sounded out, along with Draylen feeling impact against his shoulder.Without any delay, he immediately thrust his wrist blades forward.-SquelchHe felt the blades making contact and hurriedly withdrew from his Shadow Veil.-ClinkDraylen heard the sound of an object hitting the floor and a strange clear pearl materialised out of nowhere. Disregarding how it suddenly appeared, he hastily scooped it up with both hands and held it to his chest, just in case the woman tried to snatch it back.However, after a few moments, the Fallen made no attempts to recover the artifact, thus Draylen exhaled before jogging over to the old man, who had noticed what happened. He handed the pearl to the old man, who then held it close to his face and stared at it in fascination. A green essence bobbed up and down on invisible waves, like a raft on a calm ocean."Good job. But we need to dispatch that woman." He snarled fiercely.It was sure that if the woman really survived, than they would have a deep grudge. They disliked her for being a Fallen and also attempting to steal the artifact, whilst she hated them back for interrupting her mission.There was a pool of blood trickling down the wall and they could see a shadow laboriously making it's way towards the exit. It was clutching it's stomach whilst limping, showing that Draylen's previous attack really hit home.The old man walked over calmly but had a frosty expression on his face."This is for all of the trouble you bastards have caused."His lance plunged downwards and as he pulled it out, the shadow on the wall slumped onto the floor like a collapsing rag doll. After a few seconds, a body slowly began to materialise, revealing the Fallen woman's ruined body.Draylen couldn't help but feel a tinge of helplessness. Even though he hadn't done much at the beginning, he was inevitably dragged into the Fallen's plot. Although it was a good chance to become famous, he felt that he would have liked more freedom to choose what for.Now he was the common enemy of all Fallen yet he was a tier 4 Neophyte whilst they were mostly tier 6. Whilst he was sure he could defeat them 1 on 1 with the element of surprise, he wasn't sure about 2, or 3, or even 4.'Thankfully, I have the old man to protect me.'Just as he was about to walk out of the room, the light which was illuminating the room behind him turned into an earthly green. The mana density, which was already very high once more rocketed up to levels which he hadn't heard of before.A feeling of extreme curiosity filled up the young boy, who turned and walked back into the room without hesitation. The old man was also very interested and followed Draylen in. As they stood in front of the throne, the earthen pearl in the old man's hands floated out and socketed itself into the hole at the top of the throne.As soon as it fully integrated with the wooden throne, the green light intensified.An overwhelming pressure forced both people to kneel down.The presence of a higher bloodline caused their familiars, which weren't even present or were in armament form to tremble in reverence.Before themAppearedA massive green dragon.-----CONTINUATION OF THE AUTHOR'S NOTE.Hey, what I'm about to write is a bit lengthy, so it won't fit in the note. Not related to the plot, but regards this novel's future in the next couple months.In about 4-5 weeks time, I'm having an operation on both my knees, which will put me into a wheelchair for a few months short of a year.It'll definitely effect my release schedule in the long run, but not in the short term.After the surgery, I'll be recovering from the operation and won't be able to write, my body will devote itself to self-repair and thus I'll be extremely fatigued for several weeks.BUTDon't worry.I'll make it up to you guys, somehow.I'm not dropping this novel either, it's the culmination of my childhood fantasies after all! Not that way damn it!
