Born of Fire: The Dawn of Legend (101 page)

“Wait,” Rex said to her. “Something’s wrong here.”

“Just noticed, did you?” she replied with angry sarcasm.

“No, I mean look at them. Why haven’t they just attacked us already?”

“Savoring the moment?” EeNox offered grimly.

“I don’t think so,” Rex replied, eyeing LemaRes warily. “She said ‘he has need of this one’ about me. Why would he want me, us, to come all this way to just kill us now?”

“You forget they already tried once on our way here,” LyCora said.

“That was a close call, too,” EeNox said, shaking his head at the thought of how close they all came to dying.

“Somehow I doubt that,” Rex said, now regarding the DraGons overhead with a menacing glare. “This was a set up: this whole thing. He wanted us, no,
needed
us to come. He knew that we were too well protected in KaNar. After all, he was beaten there once, already.”

Hearing his words, LemaRes scowled down at him.

“Wait…you don’t mean…” EeNox started.

“The one that KyGahl turned into,” Rex growled. “DayKar.”

“But we killed him! The whole village!”

Rex just shook his head. “I’ve had this strange sense that he was still alive ever since that night. I can’t explain it, but I know he’s there, calling to me.”

“We watched him die!”

“We watched him get blown out of the sky,” Rex said angrily. “But there was never any body.”

“How could we have been so careless?” AnaSaya said, looking down.

“It is the nature of your entire race,” LemaRes said, unfolding her arms. “Forever doomed to miss the obvious until it comes to kill you.” She turned to the other DraGons who had been silently watching them but now seemed to come alive with the prospect of her impending order. “Now, let’s have some fun with them, shall we? After all, we have waited so very long for this opportunity to pay them back for what they did to us…tenfold.”

“Aye!” they all said in unison.

“I remember that beast of the blue flame even as a child,” VoRon said. “She was the one who gave me this scar.” He rubbed the shallow gash over his left eye, which had once been a deep wound.

LyCora gazed up at the bulky old DraGon. Something about him seemed almost familiar, but she of course could not place from where. Still, his four-winged silhouette gripped her like a distant memory pulling its way back to the forefront of her mind. Her focus was shattered, however, when she felt someone come up next to her.

LemaRes stretched out her arms, and as if moved by her own will, the other DraGons spread out and surrounded them from above. The five young warriors on the ground sensed that an attack was imminent. Instinctively they closed ranks, putting their backs to each other.

“Everyone focus your flames into a barrier,” LyCora said. “If we can hold off their attack for a bit we might actually survive long enough to run for our lives.”

“Are you sure this is going to work?” asked Rex, crouching lower and digging his claws into the ground.

“Not at all.”

The five of them prepared for the DraGon’s onslaught, which came mere seconds later. As if triggered by some silent signal, they all breathed fire down upon them, just as the five expanded their own flames into a large dome that encapsulated them. The DraGons’ fire pounded into the shield but did not manage to break through.

“It’s working,” AnaSaya exclaimed.

“Yeah, but for how long?” EeNox shouted. “I don’t know about you, but this is putting a lot of strain on my body!”

“He’s right,” said ShinGaru as he gritted his teeth and snarled. “We won’t be able to keep this up for much longer!”

The pressure of the DraGon’s combined flames grew stronger and stronger until at last it destroyed the barrier in a brilliant explosion of light. Rex and the others were sent sailing through the air in several different directions.

Slamming into the side of one of the large stone buildings, Rex felt something inside of him snap. His blood began to pump faster, and his lips curled up, revealing his thick, menacing teeth. However, this was not simply anger like he had known it all his life, the kind that came with lightning speed as a reaction to pain. No. This was one born of frustration, one of being victimized by those who felt they could and just get away with it. In truth, there was no real reason why they could not, but he could not help but feel as if they had committed some terrible crime, an unforgivable act of injustice: being aggressive obstacles in his path. “I never asked for any of this!” he growled, slowly rising to his feet and causing LemaRes to glance over in his direction. “But no matter how hard I tried to avoid people like you, you always come to me looking for trouble!”

It’s working
, LemaRes thought to herself.

Rex’s fury was escalating, as was his strength, for he had already shaken off the attack that still left the others unconscious. “You always have to come looking for me!” he roared, walking with heavy steps in their direction. “Always had to go out of your fucking way to make my very existence a living hell! Why? Because I was different? Because I wasn’t like you? You always had some bullshit excuse, didn’t you? DIDN’T YOU!?” Rex no longer saw a DraGon but rather the face of every person who had ever abused him running like a montage right before his very eyes. The worst part was that they were all laughing at him.

“DayKar’s plan seems to be working,” VoRon said, leaning over to LemaRes. “Should we withdraw now?”

“Withdraw?” protested the disfigured DraGon. “We just got here! Let’s at least have a little more fun before we leave.”

“Might I remind you that this is a mission, not an outing for your own amusement, knight? You will remember who it is you serve.”

“Oh, I remember,” he replied in a low tone while glancing up at the sky.

“LemaRes, it’s your call,” VoRon said.

LemaRes watched the young TyRanx approaching, regaining his strength and tenacity with every step. “Perhaps we should…no,” she decided suddenly, stricken by the memory of an impossibly large and terrifying TyRanx lunging for her from the ground with nightmarish jaws bared wide. “We will not be intimidated or chased off by a mere child!”

Rex now began to pick up speed as sparks of red flashed all around him. “I’m not afraid of you,” he said, his feathers standing on end.

“But LemaRes,” VoRon said, shocked by her defiant tone. “Our orders were to antagonize him so his power would be at its peak when he arrived at the tower! Look at him! Can you not feel it? His flame is burning hotter than any of ours!”

“Enough,” she roared and unleashed her own blue fury. “I’ve had enough of this bastard’s legend! You all may fear him, but I don’t!”

Rex could hear them clearly. To his surprise they seemed to be arguing…
arguing about me
.

“Have you forgotten what the Doom Bringer
is
?” VoRon demanded, grabbing LemaRes by the arm. “Do not say to me that you have forgotten what that monster did! How close he came to bringing absolutely everything to an end!”

“Do not lecture me on ancient history, old warrior!” she shrieked back, snapping her jaws at him. VoRon recoiled, stunned by LemaRes’s outward aggression: the girl he had mentored since she was but a mere child. “I remember all too well what that monster was to our people…and even his own.” She turned back to Rex and regarded him with a look of hatred. “Besides, the scriptures make it all too clear: he is the beast which stands against the Nova Queen and who will extinguish the light of all flames: The Doom Bringer. Yes, I know as well as you, but that child down there is not the Doom Bringer! He is merely a shadow of his former self, living fossil remains of what was once the king of all nightmares.” She shook her head. “Oh, how the mighty have fallen. I could laugh at the mere contrast between past and present, but the reality of what I’m looking at now is just too pathetic.” She spat on the ground directly in front of Rex, who recoiled slightly in surprise. “The more I think of it, I doubt very much you would even still be powerful enough to accomplish our goal. Maybe DayKar was wrong after all. Maybe I should just kill you now!”

Rex felt as if he was about to explode out of his own skin. “Come and try!” he shouted up at the only thing that seemed to exist in the world right now, the thing which now had a name: LemaRes.

With a fearsome cry, she rushed forward, swooping low over the ground directly toward him. Not wasting a second, Rex vigorously put one foot in front of the other, picking up speed as he charged the oncoming DraGon.

Farther back, EeNox raised his head with a groan and went wide-eyed when he saw the gap between Rex and LemaRes quickly vanishing as the two were set on a collision course. At the last moment, Rex lowered his head, leaped several meters into the air, and slammed into the DraGon. The force of the impact was one of such power that there was a crack like lightning, then a thunderous boom that sent a shockwave out in every direction.

LemaRes was sent sailing backwards, where she hit the ground and skidded a hundred meters through several buildings, all of which collapsed. Rex landed squarely on both feet, shook his head, and refocused his attention in front of him. He watched the large dust cloud rise high in the sky before straining his neck forward and roaring ferociously in the direction he had sent his enemy. So full of fury and assertion was his battle cry that it came across as less of a response to an aggressor and more like a declaration of dominance.

Meanwhile, the other DraGons prepared to race down to where their captain had fallen, but were stopped by VoRon, who held out a hand. “Stay where you are,” he spoke without so much as a hint of concern in his voice.

“But what of Templar LemaRes?” one of the others began before being silenced with a stern look from the old DraGon.

“Believe me, I trained her to be able to withstand more than that. This battle is far from over…I fear.”

There was an explosion of blue fire that sent rubble in all directions, causing VoRon and the other knights to scramble to avoid it. Rising from wreckage with a bellowing cry, LemaRes took to the sky and swooped down on burning wings with all manner of murderous intent.

“Ha!” Rex scoffed. “This again? Suit yourself.” With that, he charged forward once more to meet his adversary head on.

Rex had indeed proven he was superior in terms of physical strength against a DraGon of LemaRes’s caliber. However, he was still not very adept at reading levels of power being put out by one’s flame, something that came as a result of his lack of dealings with it on Earth. EeNox, though, who had managed to shake off most of the concussive effects he had been reeling from, could sense full well just how much power LemaRes had channeled into her flame and was now roaring instinctively to get Rex’s attention. Rex, however, noticed too late, and no sooner had he turned his head in the direction of his friend’s cry of warning then did LemaRes slam into him with such force that all the breath in his body was pushed out.

Flying through five stone pillars, Rex slammed into the side of the canyon wall so hard that it left a circular indentation thirty meters in diameter behind him. He coughed up blood before choking on it as it slid back down his throat. Gasping for breath, he let out gurgled growls and grunts, but was cut short by a searing pain in his lower side. Glancing down, he saw that LemaRes had driven her lance into him just below his ribcage.

“How does it feel, Doom Bringer?” she asked with what almost sounded like sensual pleasure, all the while slowly driving the cool alloy deeper into his trembling body. “Or should I say Rex? Tell me, what hurts worse, the feeling of me slowly pushing myself deeper into you?” Rex let out a shrill cry of pain as he felt the blade sliding in deeper. “Or the fact that you weren’t strong enough to save that little bitch of yours?”

The mention of DiNiya brought him back to the moment, forcing his head forward to lock eyes with LemaRes; yet his vision was blurring and he knew he was losing too much blood.
How long can I hold on?

“Oh, Rex, if only you could have seen what DayKar has been putting her through these past five days,” she said, now thoroughly enjoying the effect her words were having on him. “It’s a wonder there’s still enough left of her to be of any use to us.”

Rex now saw his vision returning, felt the pain slipping away, and sensed his own power growing. Soon everything else seemed to just fall away, leaving only LemaRes directly in front of him. The mere thought of her or any of those monsters harming DiNiya stoked the fires of his rage until he felt as if his own blood would sear through his veins.

“And when we’re done with the both of you,” she continued, now bringing her face so close to his that he could feel her hot breath against him, “I’ll use this same blade to kill her so very slowly while I make you watch.” A cool dissonant laugh escaped her. “You see, Rex, as long as there are those you love, we will always be there to take them from you.”

The image of Rex’s father reaching up to him as he was dying rushed back to him now. He could remember the feeling of fear and great sadness he felt to see the man that had always been the pillar of strength in his life look so frail and broken. Then in an instant, he was mere ash. “Damn you!” Rex said, sputtering blood on her face, from which she recoiled in disgust. “I’m going to kill you all!”

With a sickening twist, Rex snapped off the blade from the hilt and lunged forward, where he bit clean through her wrists, freeing himself from her hold. LemaRes cried out and looked down at the bleeding stump where her right hand had been. Then hearing a low, throaty growl, she quickly looked up to see Rex floating in the air level with her, surrounded by a red flame that burned hotter than any she had known before. With glowing red eyes, blood running from between his serrated teeth down over his lower jaw, and her broken spear tip still lodged in his side, Rex looked like horror come to life. It was then that she sensed it—so visceral was it that for a moment she thought she could even see it with the naked eye: the form of an enormous dark beast behind him, its burning red gaze bearing down on her.

“No,” she gasped breathlessly. “It can’t be…it can’t be you!”