The Dragon Knight Order (4 page)

“As for the reason you can complete spells that only Naturals and Nobles can… It is because even if you haven’t formed a deal, your body is constantly drawing power from dragons near you, in this case me. That is how we selected Dragon Knights because only through sensing our presence could they drain our power. Only a few humans can drain magic from us, the higher the drain, the greater their strength. You see, contrary to what most humans believe, magic is not drawn from within oneself, it is channeled by the mind from the world. Once you make your first deal you will be drawing power from the magical link that exists between the world and dragons. You won’t need dragons to be close to you in order to use their power once this happens. But no matter how many deals you create, you will always be less powerful than dragons that draw massive amounts of magic from the world, for our bond with this world exists since the beginning of time and has only grown stronger with the passing of the years. Don't ask me where the planet’s magic comes from because even us dragons have yet to discover its origin. However, it is believed that like all things in this world, the world itself is alive and magic is just an after effect of its massive life force.  All I can tell you for certain is that it’s tied directly into the life of dragons. When we die, our final resting place will not grow or sustain any sort of life for centuries to come. We believe it is the way the world mourns our passing.”

“I don’t understand,” I said dumbfound.

“It’s a hard concept to understand, especially when you haven’t been educated on subjects pertaining to the Knights and the magical history surrounding them. The simplest way of describing it would be, the world is a living creature and magic comes from it. Dragons have a strong bond with the world and Knights leech off this bond to obtain their powers.”

 “And you call that a simple way of describing it? I get it, somewhat, but then where do normal humans get there magical powers? And Elves and Irkanians?”

“All from the same source, the world. The human bond has not been established for a long time; hence collectively humans are magically weak because the bond is not as strong. However, some individuals like the Naturals have a stronger bond because their parents had a bond with magic. Think of it as two mellow rivers, they don’t have much strength up until the point where they join. Elves were once much stronger than humans in magic but events led to their magical powers being severely limited after they came to believe magic harmed the world.”

“And the Irkanians, where does their power come from?”

 “It must come from the world just like the other species but we don’t even know how old their species is, where it came from, how it came to be… we know nothing of them except for their savageness and strength.”

Again a long pause, “So Elves believe using magic hurts the world? That’s completely different from what dragons believe.”

“Yes, it’s a difference of philosophy which originated hundreds of years ago when the strongest elf of the time asked a dragon where its power came from. The dragon explained what we believe in. That magic is an after effect of the world’s life force and by using magic we relieve stress from the world’s life force. The elf having learned from his people that magic came from each individual’s life forced disagreed with the dragon. After years in thought, they came to understand using magic presented a threat to the world and choose to cast a spell which would destroy the bond dragons, humans and Elves shared with the world. He died before he could complete his spell but not before damaging the Elven bond forever dooming the elven race to be magically inept.”

Another long silence, “I can’t always be here in the academy, I have other responsibilities,” stated Master Shadow. “And having you depend on my proximity will not help either of us in the long run. Therefore, I have decided even if it is your second day at the academy and second day being a Knight, you will make a deal with me. Not only will that solve our current problem of you depending on my energy, but it will allow me to begin your more combat oriented Dragon Knight training. However, since Darkness is usually not the first deal of a Dragon Knight, some measures will have to be taken, such as where and when you can use Darkness magic and against whom.”

“I thought we had to wait for me to get the basics of magic first.”

“You have proven that you can handle advanced classes with ease.”

 “I see,” was all I could manage to say. I was still having trouble understanding some of the things he said but it was nice to receive a compliment from a dragon. “So how do we make a Deal? I don’t have to drink your blood or anything strange, do I?” I asked jokingly.

“Dear me, no! Making a Deal is a very simple process. All I have to do is say your name and you say my name and place your forehead on mine. The rest is up to me. Let us begin.”

Afterward what happened was hard to describe, but I guess it could be described as being very cold and the world losing its color. But after a moment everything went back to normal.

“It has been done. Deal sealed. You are now at rank one within the Order. Congratulations Dragon Dealer.”

And so I became a Dragon Knight in training, a Dragon Dealer as they are called.

Vorm

Two months. It took me two months whole to dominate the first spell set Master had taught me. It's not really that complicated, in theory of course. The most complicated spell was creating a three dimensional sphere of shadows. Forming the sphere was easy but keeping it together was near impossible. Whenever I managed to do it, I was completely worn out after a few minutes. I called it shadow magic because it seems to be created by shadows that are close by. Master calls it the power of darkness.

We are supposed to have proficiency exams after five weeks and most students have been training as hard as possible to pass the exams. All you have to do is complete the minimum requirements for both of the exams phases in order to pass. Phase one is usually team matches against other classes from any branch. Phase two usually consists of a tournament of single battles where you must beat three students from any of the branches. The students who finish in the top 10 for both phases will receive an upgrade for their food and dorm. They will be exonerated from one class they choose keeping in mind core classes cannot be exonerated. And for one semester, they will be taught by a dragon. These are not exactly incentives for me considering I have the best dorm and food and already receive classes from a dragon. However, the down time from taking one less class is always welcome.

In the tournament there are ten classes consisting of about thirty students within each branch. The trick is that you have to not only beat your own classmates, but the other classes too. Since not a lot of contact is permitted between classes, it is quite possible that there are other students that are far stronger than the best students of your class. The rules for the exam are never announced until the day of the exam so people can’t train in a specific way and this helps to keep things fair. According to the professors we had been lucky this year, as the exams were to be done by year. In the past first year students would have gone up against second and third year students, but they had decided to change it for this year due to special circumstances. Talk about being singled out.

Not that I need to worry much anyway… I wish. I can now use water in very complex shapes and forms but that’s still not enough. We recently started with wind based spells which is considerably harder than water based magic since you can’t actually see the wind. No matter what I do, or anyone else for that matter, we seem to all be lagging behind Adria. One week ago she was able to call up three Vorms. Vorms are elements that the user turns and bends into becoming a dragon made up of whichever element is picked. They also differ from person to person since they are created in their mind. Once the dragon is 'born,' the spell will fuel itself from the elements own power. The problem is most people don't have the skill or stamina to do this, as the initial amount of magic needed is staggering. Another problem lies within the mental discipline of the user. If the user lacks the mental discipline needed to keep a Vorm under control, it will attack everything it sets its eyes on, making them a very dangerous form of magic. Vorm is the magical word needed to provoke them so it is appropriate to name them as such. As a Dragon Knight, I can form up to two Vorm at any given time without becoming too tired to control them. The fact that Adria can form up to three Vorms makes her the most skilled battlemage in my class and more than likely of all the battlemages in the first year. This means she will beat me in the upcoming exam easily.

"I am afraid that is not entirely true,” said Master Shadow, one afternoon after hearing me complain that she was going to win.

“Really? Master, not only can she bring up the Vorms of wind and water, but she mastered electricity, her third element. No one in the class has been able to come even close to that. I am the second best because I can also use three elements, but I am nowhere as close as her at mastering all three elements, much less a third Vorm. All of the spells I can do with electricity are relatively basic. I don’t stand a chance against three Vorms and her arsenal of master level spells,” I whined.

“Putting aside the dramatic tone of your complaining and exaggeration of master level spells, you wheeled a dragon attribute. That alone makes you more powerful than your teacher. I trust you haven’t shown anyone your darkness magic?” asked Master, becoming irritated with me.

“Those spheres? Those hardly count as offensive or defensive weapons. Besides they drain too much of my energy. I can hardly keep both of my Vorms under control when you tell me to practice using the spheres and Vorms at the same time. And no, I haven’t told anyone.”

“That little sphere is more powerful than her three Vorms plus any shield she can use or magical attack. As a matter of fact, I am positive that not even your entire class, teacher included, could pool their strength together to could come up with a spell that could counter the sphere. No matter how strong you are or what level of mastery you have over any element, it can never come even close to the power of the three legendary attributes. Try making the sphere move towards another magical creation or source. It will consume it and take the energy for itself and grow if it receives enough energy. If you were to hit a living person with it, the sphere would try to consume that person's magical powers. It’s like dying from being crushed from the inside out. And just like how it sounds, it’s an extremely slow and painful ordeal that in most cases leads to death.”

“The spheres are that powerful Master? It’s true that it draws almost as much power as a Vorm to create. But unlike a Vorm, it doesn’t stop draining my power even after its complete, but isn't that just because of the nature of the attribute?” I asked, surprised he had said the sphere was so powerful.

“Give it a try. Invoke a Vorm of either water or wind and then create a sphere and ram it into the Vorm. If you can manage to do that you are by far much stronger than Adria.”

I obeyed and concentrated on the fountain that stood in the middle of the Sky Dome and I said the correct words in my mind. A crystal clear dragon started to rise from the fountain. First the head, then the front claws, the body and finally the hind legs and tail. It was about 10 meters longs, not as big as Master, and it took almost half of what was left of my stamina to complete. I was holding the Vorm back from attacking Master. Not that he needed my protection, but I wouldn't be able to make another Vorm should Master destroy it. When I started to draw the shadows to make the sphere, I felt a tug in my stomach indicating that I was close to my limit.

After finishing the sphere, I felt like I was ready to sleep for the next few years. The Vorm sensed my weakness and struggled with me over control of its own body. I then realized it had lunged itself at me with incredible speed. I waited until it was a good 10 feet from me before I ‘pushed’ the sphere towards the Vorm. The moment the sphere was about to come into contact with the Vorm, I collapsed to the floor. Everything became dark but I saw a black claw cut through the water Vorm. After that, my vision went completely black.

Voices. They were the first things I became aware of when I started to come too.

“Lord Shadow you shouldn't push him this far! It is dangerous and reckless. He could have died from using
it
. He might be under your responsibility but he is also my student. I find it outrageous that you would place the well being of the student below the needs of the Dragon Knight Order. He is just a boy, 16 years old, and already he has endured his first brush with death. I will have a word with the Chairman about this. This level of irresponsibility should never have to be part of a student’s life,” said a voice I recognized as a furious Professor Lirean.