Chapter 12 - Leon Draxas Di Adrausier

Skyle’s sudden warning just when he had dropped his guard had caught Leon completely by surprise, but all those instances of blindly following Skyle’s directions while on the run showed their effect here. Leon instantly obeyed the instructions without even pausing to think about why, and not a second too soon either.

Leon blindly leapt back from the tent flap, and his feet caught on something in the dark, causing him to fall to the floor in a sprawl. To his horror, even as he was falling, he saw the flash of steel arcing through the air just above his head. The vicious slash easily pierced through the flimsy cloth of the tent and drew a deadly circle a scant inch above his eyes, and it might have sliced his head cleanly off if he hadn’t leapt back the instant that he had. Even then, perhaps the blow would have still wounded him if he hadn’t fallen to the ground.

Still, it was too early to be relieved as he saw the shadow of a huge man holding a torch aloft. The soldier’s countenance was deadly, and looked nothing like the lazy, discontent soldier he had impersonated earlier to put Leon’s guard down. He looked down to see Leon’s figure drawing back, and narrowed his eyes as he hesitated for a moment.

“Little rat, you have good reflexes, and even better luck. However, the order was to catch the small one, so I think you have just drawn the short stick. Stand still and I’ll let you have a quick death,” The man coldly stated, drawing back his sword for another blow, though he still didn’t step inside the tent. Instead, he flicked a quick glance to his back, to where Skyle’s voice had come from, and turned his profile so he could enter the tent sideways.

If it had been any other boy, this cold threat would have been enough to sap the courage from their limbs. However, not so with Leon Draxas Di Adrausier, fire summoner of the third adept stage. Born into a spectacularly wealthy and powerful family, he had been further hailed as a genius elemental summoner from infancy. He had nothing but the best instructors and plentiful resources. He was used to looking down upon the world, and every person around him would beg for the privilege of bending before his will.

This was inevitable. After all, even without taking his background into consideration, his talent alone was simply astounding. Most common people would spend their entire lives as elemental warriors of the initiate rank, perhaps reaching the 7th or 8th rank if they were particularly dedicated. Elemental warriors could summon the Spirit Sight and channel the energy of the elements into their own bodies, but that was it. At most, they would become famous warriors or generals. Elemental mages, in the other hand, could learn numerous spells which fueled many of the core needs of Aerian society. Even in the field of battle, the worth of an elemental mage was easily ten or twenty times that of a warrior. Even a mere initiate rank mage would be guaranteed a good living for their entire lives. However, most mages would advance to the adept level, a level which was difficult yet still relatively common. With enough dedication and some luck, talented warriors and mages might even achieve the master rank towards the end of their lives.

As for elemental summoners, they were simply legendary individuals over whom entire kingdoms would hungrily vie in order to entice into their ranks. No matter whether they were adepts or even just initiates, they would still be part of the elite among the elite in Aeria.

As for Leon Draxas Di Audrasier, he had been first begun to train in the elemental arts at 4. At 6 years old, he had already broken through the mid-initiate ranks. At 8, he had reached the peak Initiate rank, rank 9. At 9 years of age, he had shocked the entire continent by breaking into the adept rank, becoming one of the youngest adepts in recorded history. At 13, he was a fire elemental summoner adept of the 3rd rank, and there was no kingdom where the name of Leon Draxas was not a synonym for excellence and genius.

As the soldier’s threat rang loudly in Leon’s ears, his earlier surprise quickly melted before the overwhelming surge of fire in his blood. It drummed loudly in his ears as he lifted his gaze to meet his opponent's, all the while his fingers clutched the handle he had found while groping in the dark in a white-knuckled grip. Leon’s entire body shook, but it would be impossible to mistake this emotion with fear. Instead, anyone who looked into those eyes burning red would know they were the wounded pride of a fierce warrior.

The soldier facing Leon seemed somewhat taken aback by Leon’s reaction, and he was startled to find that he had just taken half a step back when faced off against this young boy’s intense, murderous gaze.

However, the soldier was an experienced one, and he quickly disciplined his thoughts, focusing his attention on Leon.

Of course, Skyle would not miss such an opportunity. His leg was broken and he could hardly move, certainly not with any kind of alacrity. However, his arms were still relatively healthy, and though they were still a boy’s spindly arms, they had been strengthened constantly by heavy farm work, and trained ceaselessly in the art of the bow and arrow.

Though Skyle did not have a bow at the moment, his eye-hand coordination was peerlessly sharp, and he did arm himself with a couple nearby rocks while he hid from the guard’s presence behind the crates.

Skyle had also been breathlessly examining the aura of the soldier as he approached. To his delight, Skyle had found that if he focused, he could deepen his awareness of elemental auras in a particular direction. His heightened perception was even able to pierce through solid objects, offering Skyle advanced warning well before his eyes could spot any incoming guards. It was thanks to this benefit of his True Sight that Skyle had been able to direct their escape, narrowly avoiding countless disastrous encounters.

Of course, this came with the added cost of severely taxing Skyle’s strength. Not only his physical energy, but also his mental energy seemed to be vanishing at an alarming rate as he kept exerting his True Sight. Though he had become more practiced in activating it, Skyle was afraid that he would not be able to turn it back on at will, and thus couldn’t help but move while keeping the True Sight on the whole time.

By the time he had faltered, Skyle had truly been near collapsing from sheer exhaustion. However, this still didn’t prevent Skyle from vigilantly spotting this new guard approaching their position by himself. In the incoming guard’s aura, deep flecks of brown-streaked yellow and a vicious shade of red were interwoven as they twisted randomly every which way even as the guard briefly scanned the area with his eyes. The yellow and red had slowly begun to die down, and Skyle had begun to relax his fingers from around the stones he held while hoping that the guard would move on. However, at the last instant and right before the guard had turned around, he had stopped abruptly and begun to examine something on the ground, all the while not producing a single sound.

Then a massive wave of that vicious red current had overwhelmed his aura, all the while flowing in a single direction: the tent that was Leon’s hiding place!

Without wasting a single moment, Skyle had cried out his warning.

“Leon, get back!”

After that, Skyle had been constantly waiting for an opportunity to assist Leon. Before, the guard had seemed to guard against this by keeping a side profile and thus keeping both Leon and the place where Skyle’s voice had come from within his vision. However, the sudden surge of bloodlust from Leon had distracted the guard, and Skyle immediately stepped out of his hiding spot while leaning forward in an overhand throw with all the strength in his body.

The fist-sized rock streaked through the air and struck the back of the soldier’s unprotected head, violently whipping it forward and stumbling the guard for half a step. However, there was no blood and Skyle knew without a doubt that this soldier must be at least an adept warrior with a strengthened physique.

Still, Leon didn’t miss his chance either and he let out a vicious snarl as he lifted a hammer and swung it against the stunned guard’s forehead. The hammer was a small, crude instrument likely used to strike the pins of the tent into place. Still, the heavy metal head struck the unprotected head of the guard with a sickening thud, and this time blood flew in the air as Leon’s own element strengthened arms bulged with the power of the blow.

The soldier faltered back a couple steps, and there was disbelief and denial in his eyes when he stared at Leon as the boy spun his body around with the momentum of the first blow and swung his hammer in a wide arc with both hands clutching the handle. The air rang out with a howling sound as the hammer was propelled in a terrifyingly swift arc, ending in a bone-crushing impact that rang out with a loud, sickening crash of wet timber being viciously snapped. Blood fountained into the air as the guard was violently flung backward into the air from the impact. He landed in a lifeless pile of flesh, his skull viciously caved in with half the cranium missing.

Skyle stared at the scene of destruction before his eyes, alternating between the blood-splattered countenance of Leon standing with both feet spread wide and gripping the hammer like an avenging god, and the pitiful aftermath of the soldier who had mere moments before been an experienced, confident man of war, but was now reduced to a broken pile of bleeding flesh and crushed bones.

Swallowing loudly, Skyle then glanced at the rock in his hand and flicked it over his shoulder with a helpless shrug of his head.

“That was kind of impressive,” Skyle breathed out, flicking his head towards the dead soldier. “Your arm alright?”

Leon was still breathing heavily, his eyes storming with bloodlust, and he only flicked a passing glance at his bleeding arm before shaking his head.

“It’ll be fine,” Leon growled. "I was just so angry.”

“Well, that ought to send a clear message for those who want to capture us again,” Skyle noted.

Leon shook his head.

“No, not that. Just, just this. Me, hiding in a tent, my heart pounding in my chest and hoping that the big bad man will leave, wondering if I will die in the next moment or not.”

Skyle cocked his head to the side and asked with a puzzled expression, “That’s only normal. No one wants to die, especially at our age.”

Leon shook his head again.

“You know the words that were ringing in my head, over and over?”

Skyle raised an eyebrow.

“Not like this!”

Leon lifted his angry gaze to meet Skyle’s, and simply lifted his chin. After a moment, Skyle nodded minutely.

“I will die, but not like this,” Skyle agreed quietly, looking down to his hands. They had clenched into fists without him realizing it, and they were shaking.

“Not like an animal, like a scared dog. If I die, I will be the dragon, and my last breath will be such a fierce fire, it will forever burn in the nightmares of my foes!” Leon stated passionately, that familiar fire burning hotly in his eyes.

Skyle sighed, then nodded his agreement.

“Fine, then I don’t need this anymore,” he mumbled, dropping the rest of the stones he had collected.

Leon tilted his head to the side, asking, “What do you mean? That throw with the rock was incredible. It saved my life! Without that opening, I couldn’t have caught that soldier unprepared.”

Skyle glanced at the dead soldier with a look of mingled sorrow and disgust.

Leon caught that look and snarled, “It was him or us. Don’t tell me you’re having scruples in killing these beasts!”

Skyle turned his serene eyes on Leon and shook his head.

“No, I don’t regret my actions, but it doesn’t mean I like them either,” Skyle said softly, but he still crouched in front of the guard and reaching out with one hand, closed the corpse's blank, staring eyes. “No, it was necessary. Like you said, I will not die like a dog.”

Leon scowled as he watched Skyle, but bit back the words he had been about to speak. After a moment, he said, “We should leave. More could be on their way soon. All this blood, doesn’t take a genius to know that we’ve been through here.”

Skyle shook his head as he calmly stood up.

“First, since we will be killing our enemies from now on, we need to be more methodical about this. That means no more random stones. We need to arm ourselves.”

Leon gawked at Skyle, “You mean this entire you’ve been hoping to get away without killing anyone? Is that why we haven’t stopped so far?”

Skyle shrugged. “So?”

“They’re killers capturing hundreds of helpless people in order to sacrifice them in some ritual!”

“They’re also just soldiers taking commands from others. They’re all someone’s fathers, sons, husbands, and brothers.”

Leon’s eyes narrowed as he looked at Skyle critically. “Mercy to your enemies is a huge liability. That kind of weakness will get you killed eventually, especially in this kind of situation.”

“Mercy is never a liability. In fact, this kind of weakness is also my strength, especially in this kind of situation,” Skyle replied without a hitch, approaching the crates lying behind without looking back.

Leon growled in frustration, putting a hand to his temples.

“Oh great lord summoner Draxas, move your exalted ass and search the nearby tents for anything useful. I’ll do the same with these crates.”

“The tent I was in was empty, what makes you think the other tents have anything?”

Skyle pointed at a sign hanging from one of the tents. “I can make out some of those words, thanks to my True Sight.”

Leon squinted at the sign, which was an unintelligible mess to him. “So?”

“It’s got something to do with essential equipment,” Skyle nodded with eyes brimming with honesty.

“So what? Didn’t you hear me?” Leon asked, bewildered. “We need to leave. More soldiers could come at anytime.”

Skyle carelessly pointed with his finger over his shoulder.

“You notice that there haven’t been any more explosions after that last one?”

Leon frown as he thought about it, then nodded. “That’s true. What about it?”

“My guess is they’ve been reinforcing the rift the whole time,” Skyle answered as he began to tear open one of the crates, seemingly disregarding the noise he might be causing.

“So?” Leon prompted, still hefting his hammer threateningly as though he expected enemy soldiers to leap out of the shadows anytime now.

“So, the beast likely saw that and it is no fool. But now, it’s ready. And it looks like third time’s the charm,” Skyle said casually, rifling through the contents of the crate.

“What does that-”

BOOOOOM!

Leon cut off abruptly as a brilliant flash of light lit up the skies above, immediately followed by a deafening explosion that was so intense it felt like a physical blow against his lungs, even from such a long distance.

His eyes automatically turned towards the source of the light, and when the blinding heat in his eyes cleared, he could see a thick column of dust rising in the distance, and a golden aura seemed to light up the deep gloom of the skies above the center of the camp.

“What in the abyss is that thing?” Leon breathed, his hands clasping the hammer to his chest as he stared at the dust cloud in amazement.

“An opportunity we shouldn’t waste. Get a move on, mr. elemental adept.”

Thus, hundreds of soldiers stared in shock at the aftermath of the great explosion that had rocked the entire camp, except for one herder boy methodically digging through a battered crate, and a genius fire summoner of world renown bitterly cursing under his breath as he rummaged through a pile of slightly soggy, squishy objects in a dark, cramped tent reeking of unwashed armpits and fetid sweat.

“Summoner adept of the third rank, you ignorant bastard,” Leon muttered, squinting his eyes against the tears that threatened to overflow from his stinging eyes. The stink was unbelievable. “Lord summoner adept to you.”

“What was that?” came Skyle’s voice from outside the tent.

“No-” Leon coughed violently, retching at the foul stench. “Nothing. You sure about what the sign read?”

“Yeah, important equipment of some kind,” Skyle repeated. “Just give it 30 seconds per tent, something should turn up.”

Skyle allowed himself the tiniest of smiles as he read the script of the sign hanging from the tent.

“Discarded undergarment depot.”

“They are, after all, part of a soldier’s indispensable equipment”, Skyle noted in his mind while nodding judiciously.