[Prologue Arc] Shard VI - The Hunt

Mystic Elder Rep! : 19 Location : Los Angeles, California

As she speaks, I nod to her as a hunt is exactly what I want right now. Lifting into flight, I realize that I am noticeably faster now as well. We exit the temple in a matter of seconds and outside in the open, she guides me through controlling the sensations that I was experiencing. My eyes take a moment to adjust to the ambient light and all the colors around me. Sniffing the air, I smile at her and she caresses my cheek. "Not yet. First, you have a stronghold to defend." I look at her and she shares with me what she sees. The strength of telepathy impresses me even after all that we had been through over the course of those psychic weeks. We accelerate forward again and she smiles as she exits the edge of the barrier. On our flight over, we notice a few locations with enemy troops advancing towards the Alliance's territory. Breaking the siege is in fact the priority, but all enemies must be crushed.

There are numerous occasions on the flight back to Topaz Village where I nearly falter for wanting to embrace my overwhelming emotional responses to seeing enemy forces. But I found that I had a near-absolute obedience to the female dragon and she kept me focused on the objective. She didn't even have to issue verbal commands. My mind had become able to pick up on her surface thoughts easily, so when she thought that I needed to stay focused, I would pick up on it and shake off the urge to attack. After a while, I managed to get myself partially under control. Enough to prevent any noticeable incidents while we traveled. I just continued to make mental notes. Instead of acting on the impulses, I just channeled them into mental visualizations of what I wanted to inflict upon them.

Within a matter of hours, we arrived at my village in rather grandiose fashion. Instead of landing and meeting with the strategists and commanders, Daniva finally let loose of the reins. With one word, she unveiled her "renovation" of me. Like a comet impacting with the earth, I landed in the center of the attacking siege forces and released a powerful shockwave and explosion as I am finally allowed to stop suppressing my powers. My eyes, which I still haven't seen at this point, no longer look like that of a normal Kotada. They maintained their color, but their shape and the visage are distinctly different. As the dust cloud from my impact settles, I look at the enemy forces as they pause for a moment in trepidation. An ultimatum is issued, "Surrender or decimation." Those were their only options. Those who tried to retreat like cowards were their first to feel my wrath. Those who sought to attack were next. It is true that my Void powers had grown much stronger, but she had unlocked the secrets to actually using them at greater efficiency and capability. Destruction was mine to wield. Watching their allies and brethren get eviscerated by void rips and vacuums into nothingness brought about a panic. When the two brokers leading, well commanding the attack appeared, Daniva shifted her focus from observing me to finally entering the fray herself.

Daniva appears next to me as the Brokers dash towards me to attack. I telekinetically grab one of the enemy Kotada and launch him past me to intercept the attack. Even without her watching my back, I had a stronger awareness of my surroundings. I had known power before... well I thought I had known power before her. Fighting in such close proximity with her showed me that I had known nothing before she enhanced my powers the way she had. Now, however, I knew power, but with it came something else. Something that I thought I had gained total control over in my younger years. I have an overbearing hunger for battle and vengeance. All I see when I encounter these fools are ways to destroy them. What should be truly alarming to me is not so much that I see them in such a manner, but that when I carry out my visualizations, it excites me into wanting more. More blood, more carnage, more fear from my enemies, more cheers from the walls of my home village... more death.

The enemy tries to divide their forces in the hopes that I won't be able to help Daniva fight the Brokers as well as stop them. Daniva had not even begun to truly show her power. Opening my mind to Daniva, I show her my prediction of their plan. She tells me that she is curious to test herself against these commanders and that I must break the enemy. She grins at me and speaks telepathically, "Let them hear you roar, Kavos, and watch what happens." She giggles to me and with a swipe of her left hand an arc of razor sharp wind clears me a path. I vanish from sight and the two brokers attack her. She defends their attacks and finds her mildly amused with them. They were more powerful than most of the troops that are near her, but they aren't truly peaking her interest as she had hoped. These Brokers were not top tier and she knew it. As I reappear ahead of the charging attackers, she binds them both and turns to watch me.

Mystic Elder Rep! : 19 Location : Los Angeles, California

As I levitate above the battlefield, my hands rise towards my face with my right wrist pressed against the back of my left wrist. My body is relaxed. My breathing is steady. My eyes are focused. Energy gathers to me as if I lit off a beacon. My image begins to distort and the enemy's charge slows a bit, but does not stop. Once I have gathered enough energy around me, I absorb it all into my body. My body now starts to shimmer a bit as if light is reflecting off of it the way it would a bunch of crystals. My eyes close for a moment as my body descends towards the ground. I stop about ten feet or so off the ground and my eyes open as I am ready. I inhale deeply and even within me I feel the energy filling every portion of that breath. I look at Daniva and she smiles with a nod. My hands move from my face as my arms fling apart as I release a thunderous and bone-chilling roar that sounded nothing like a normal Kotada. It didn't even sound like it came from a person. While the sound was impressive, the destruction and carnage that I longed for is what people would truly talk about. I had never unleash my roar that powerfully before. While we trained at the Temple, she used multiple breath weapons against me, in both her humanoid and dragon forms. After a while, she taught me how to use one of my own. When I unleashed it, a cone of raw destructive energy was released and mowed down the enemy forces as if they were nothing. Moments after it hit them, they, in fact, were nothing. Months and months of rage had been unleashed upon them. As the path between the enemy force and the walls of Topaz Village lay littered with ashes, scattered charred and singed remains, and me with my eyes showing my hunger for more. I had never felt so alive and been filled with such enjoyment like this before. I often suppressed my powers since I was often worried about losing control of them, but now with Daniva, I don't worry about any of that. All that matters to me right now is that my enemies are overcome and frozen with fear. I can hear their screams of horror both vocally and telepathically.

Daniva turns to the Brokers whom she still had trapped in a binding spell and looks at the weaker of the two and clinched her hand in his direction. Show great is the telekinetic force of her powers that she instantly crushes his bones. Done with him, she allows his body to drop in a lifeless heap. The enemy retreats as quickly as they can often trampling one another in order to escape. Daniva chuckles at the sight and tells the other Broker to report back to his superiors. She tells him that she wants them to call for more powerful reinforcements. Until she is presented with ample challenge, she will continue to take from them everything that they have worked for. She places a hand on the broker's chest and extracts all of the spirits stored within him that he had taken on this island. The others are left with him as she cared little for non-dragon and non-dragonkin spirits. Truth be told, I think she anticipated that his superiors would kill him for his powers in order to make themselves stronger in preparation for her. She let the broker escape with the enemy forces and as they did, she made her way over to me. She lands in front of me and I lower to the ground. Her right hand reaches up to the left side of my face and she moves my hair from my face. "And now our hunt begins... my champion." I bow my head to her in respect. With the power she have given me, I can truly have my vengeance and protect my people.

With the siege broken and the enemy forces in full retreat. The defense forces of Topaz Village rejoice. There are cheers of my name that ring throughout the village. I care nothing for that. I simply want to get updated on the current status of things, so I can select my next target. Agon flies over to greet us. He looks at me covered in ash, sweat, and blood and nods to me. "It is good to have you back, brother. This has been a rough week, but I've sent messengers to spread the word of your return and what the two of you did here. This should help boost morale and hopefully shift the momentum back to our favor." I nod to him and before I can even look back to Daniva to introduce her, I get one of her psychic nudges not to identify her. So instead of turning around, I nod to confirm my agreement to her wishes. Speaking to Agon, I speak briefly, "I need to be brought up to speed. Assemble the strategists immediately." Agon smiles at me and nods before rushing off. Daniva and I enter Topaz Village and while the cheers and celebration continue, I ignore it as we pass through, but I can tell that Daniva is enjoying the revelry and the respect being shown to her "work".

We walk into my original Strategic HQ within Topaz Village, which I hadn't step foot in for weeks, but I could tell that Agon had been using it in my absence. The organization of the room is definitely him. I put things back to my liking so that I can operate easier. I begin setting up the map and adding the intel on troop locations that I gathered on the way here. It had only been an hour or two, so their positions would not have changed drastically. Agon arrives as I am assessing the situation and when he enters, he fills me in on things that I have changed during the last week. Since it is just the three of us, he asks, "Kavos, how did you learn to roar like a dragon?" I nod towards Daniva. "She taught me. Agon, I am not the same as I was." He looks at me and chuckles in a sort of "no-duh" manner before replying, "One look at your eyes and that is obvious. You have the eyes of a dragon and you kind of have fangs now." I look at him and he grabs a mirror to show me. This was the first time I had truly seen myself and looking at my eyes in a mirror, I turn and look at Daniva. My eyes matched hers. What in the world did she do to me? I look at the fangs and poke at them intrigued. I prick my finger on one of them and smile. I press my finger onto the map outside of Topaz Village where the siege was broken and the broker died. The wound closes immediately afterwards. About an hour passes as he explains the battles that have occurred and the locations lost and gained. He also informs us that more "thieves" arrived while I was gone. Daniva smiles at the mention of this. We select a new piece to signify known locations of the Thieves. Once Agon sets the board, Daniva steps forward to observe further. She selects one of the locations and looks at me. I smile and she lays the piece on its side. A low growl rumbles in the back of my throat and looks at me to keep me calm. Excitement and anger are still so much more volatile now for me. Agon notices but says nothing.

» [Prologue] The Hunt
» Demon Hunt: The Chase
» Storyline Notes: Prologue Arc
» Demon Hunt: Inanis
» [Prologue Arc] Shard IV - The Civil War