Gatekeepers Book 2: Galeforce

That’s an unbelievable amount of magic the kid’s giving off. Vinkex assumed a defensive stance as Draycos’s aura grew larger and larger. The rest of the boy’s hair turned white as the left pupil turned blue. I guess it’s not just the Dragon King that’s sending him magic. It must be a combination of all the prominent members of dragonkind that’s sending it to him. This could get ugly if I don’t do something.

This is incredible. Draycos tightened his grip on his two scimitars as he felt more magic pouring into him from his pendant. I feel like I’m getting ready to burst at the seams with all this magic. Draycos’s focus lessened slightly as he thought this, and his concentration slipped. The blade of the scimitar in his right hand bloated up like a balloon before exploding. The backlash from the magical burst ruptured one of Draycos’s internal organs, and he threw up a mouthful of blood as pain laced through his body.

“Draycos!” Theravor reprimanded him through the crystal. “Do not lose focus of your Mana Overload when you have this much magic power being forced into you! One small misstep could cost you your life!”

“Alright,” Draycos replied simply. Wiping his mouth off on the back of his right arm, he resumed his original stance and spiked his concentration. A new blade grew from the hilt of his broken scimitar.

Vinkex had watched all of this with rapt attention, his eyes fixed on Draycos. “What the hell are you?” he finally muttered, half to himself. “Elves and dragons are the only races who’ve been able to use Mana Overload in the past due to their high proficiency with magic, but you learned to use it in a couple of minutes from a human who took twenty years to master it. Even now, most people wouldn’t be able to achieve a necessary level of concentration to use the technique in the middle of a fight; it takes too long to focus. Yet here you are, defying all previous boundaries.”

“I thought I told you already,” Draycos responded, taking a risk with speaking as he concentrated. “I’m a mold-breaker. People like me don’t exactly fit the standard mold.” Draycos felt the last bit of magic power trickle out of the pendant, and his aura flared up once more, this time displaying all the colors of the rainbow as sparks of lightning flickered around his body.

That isn’t normal lightning! Vinkex’s eyes widened in shock as he spotted it. That lightning is a result of the brat’s magic colliding with foreign magic floating in the air and eradicating it on contact! This is truly dangerous; I won’t be able to block any of his next attacks with half-ass magic!

“Let’s end this.” With that simple comment, Draycos began swinging his scimitars wildly before him. Each swing of his swords sent a flying sickle of magic power flying through the air, exactly the same as the one he already hit Vinkex with, except they were rainbow-colored this time. Dozens of these sickles flew through the air and headed straight for Vinkex. Unfurling his massive wings, Vinkex took to the air as he tried to evade the oncoming attacks, but the sickles bent their trajectories and pursued the dragon. Vinkex continued dodging all the attacks as he darted around the air while Draycos continuously fired off more sickles.

“Don’t let up until you run out of magic power, Draycos!” Theravor ordered. “Vinkex may be overpowered compared to modern dragons, but even he cannot come out unscathed by an attack powered by the magic of the entire Dragon Council!”

Draycos barely registered the fact that Theravor was speaking to him. He was giving this attack everything he had and had no concentration to spare on listening to the Dragon King. Manipulating the sickles to follow Vinkex as he continued to create more was pushing his mental capacity to extreme limits. A vein pulsing on Draycos’s forehead actually ruptured from his intense focus, and blood began spilling down Draycos’s face.

Got him. Draycos finally managed to completely surround Vinkex with at least two hundred magic sickles, all more powerful than the first one he shot off with his own magic. Tossing his scimitars aside, Draycos raised his right hand up to where Vinkex hovered.

“Blade Storm: Crescent Slash, Dragon Barrage!” Draycos closed his right hand into a tight fist, sending all the magic sickles hurtling at Vinkex. Completely surrounded, Vinkex could do nothing except curl himself into a tight ball to defend himself from the onslaught. The attacks all slammed into their target, and an enormous explosion rocked the massive cavern. Bracing himself against the explosion, Draycos watched as large cracks appeared in the ceiling. Parts of the ceiling caved in, revealing the star-lit sky through the holes left behind. As a weak beam of starlight hit Draycos, the majority of his vision suddenly went black. Light-headed, Draycos fell to his knees, barely managing to stay conscious.

“Hey, Draycos!” It was Zero’s voice coming through the pendant this time. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” Draycos answered in a weak voice. He wiped some of the blood off of his face. “I don’t need a homo like you to worry about me.”

There was a sudden burst of laughter from the other side of the communication. “If the brat’s smart-talking like that, then there’s no need to worry,” Vinzgar’s voice spoke.

“He must just be exhausted after expending such a massive amount of magic,” Boreta assessed. “There’s not a creature alive that wouldn’t be tired after something on that scale.”

“Are you finally done with your attacks?”

Shocked, Draycos twisted around to see the source of the unexpected voice. A set of claws glinted in the dim light and fell down, cutting deeply into Draycos’s back. Draycos screamed from the pain; it felt like someone had ripped his back open all the way down to his ribcage. Draycos fell face-first to the floor, unable to move as blood quickly pooled up around him.

“Draycos!” a myriad of voices shouted through the pendant.

Vinkex laughed loudly as he towered over Draycos’s body, blood dripping from his right hand. He looked completely unharmed. “That took much longer than I had expected, but it looks like you’re finally down for the count!” he exclaimed happily. “Still, though, that last attack could’ve done me in.”

Panting hard, Draycos struggled to twist his neck to glare at Vinkex. His back felt like it was on fire, and each movement brought a fresh wave of pain. “H-how...?” he managed to gasp. “When...did you...?”

“Oh my, still conscious after having your back torn open like that?” Vinkex shook his head in amazement. “Your endurance really is something, I’ll give you that. Anyways, you want to know how I managed to evade that ridiculous attack of yours?” He pointed over to where the dust still hung thick in the air. “Take a look for yourself.”

Draycos lifted his head up slightly and looked at where Vinkex was pointing. As the dust cleared, a badly-wounded figure was seen, curled up in a ball where it sat on the ground. After a few seconds, the top of the figure began turning white and dissipated into the air. Draycos’s eyes widened in shock as the rest of the figure disappeared. The while fragments flew over to Vinkex and merged into the aura he emitted before it faded away.

“What you just saw was an example of Imitation Hybrid-Class spells,” Vinkex explained. “It’s a hybrid of the Conjuration, Alteration, and Enhancement classes. That little spell is something I call Doppelganger.”

“An...imitation? But when...did you...switch with it?”

“From the very start.” Vinkex looked down at Draycos with a very pleased expression on his face. “The moment I broke out of that seal, I cast the Doppelganger spell and had him fight you from the start. The spell wears off only if the copy runs out of magic or sustains damage that would kill the caster if they’d sustained it. I’m glad I had him fight you; I’d be in quite the predicament if I hadn’t taken precautions.”

The occupants of the Dragon Council chamber all stared in shock at the image of Vinkex standing over a badly injured Draycos being displayed in the projection orb.

“Is this for real?” Vinzgar growled. His tightly curled fist trembled slightly as he stared up at the projection. “We pooled all our magic together to take out a fake?”

“I can’t believe he can use Imitation spells,” Boreta whispered. “Given the positions of the Enhancement, Conjuration, and Alteration classes on the standard magic diagram, it’s impossibly difficult to achieve the skill needed to use Imitation spells.”

“Not only that, he made an exact copy of himself,” Zero commented, eyes narrowed and tail twitching as he glared at Vinkex through the projection. “That’s no small feat.”

“Draycos, get up and retreat right now!” Theravor demanded in a loud roar. “We need to regroup and come up with a strategy!”

Draycos’s body trembled slightly as he tried to get up, but no matter how hard he tried, his body refused to obey his orders.

“I can’t...move,” he finally wheezed, slumping back to the ground. “I’m so tired right now....”

“If you could move after everything you just went through, I’d be terrified,” Vinkex commented. He leaned over and pinch Draycos’s right ankle between his index and middle fingers. Vinkex felt the bones snap as soon as he put pressure on them, and Draycos let out another cry of pain.

“Don’t worry, brat; I’m not going to kill you,” Vinkex told him as he lifted Draycos up in the air until he was dangling the young man before his face. “I still need something from you, after all; I can’t have you dying on me.”

“Shut...up,” Draycos groaned through clenched teeth. He glared at Vinkex through half-open eyes while he hung upside down in the dragon’s grasp.

“Still have the energy to talk back, do you? Well, that won’t be the case for much longer.”

“Hold on, what are you planning on doing to Draycos?!” Theravor demanded, holding the projection item close to his mouth.

Vinkex sighed. “I don’t have any obligations to answer you, but what the hell; it’s too late to stop me now.” Vinkex glanced over to where Galán was still treating Guerrino. “The only one left who can fight is the Gatemaster, but I think he’s smart enough to realize the difference in our strength.”

Galán grimaced at this remark and glared at the dragon, but kept his mouth shut and said nothing. He knew that he was no match for the unsealed creature; the fact that he’d been fooling everybody with a copy of himself without anyone suspecting a thing made things clear enough. All he could do was try to save as many lives as possible.

Returning his gaze to Draycos, Vinkex gave a satisfied smile. “You see, the spells placed on that wretched seal put on me would continuously weaken me if I ever broke loose, even if I broke free with the assistance of some high-quality blood. So if I broke out with the help of blood and didn’t suffer any immediate consequences, what do you think would happen if I had a constant supply of blood on-hand at all times?”

“You wouldn’t dare!” Theravor’s grip tightened on the projection tool, cracking the item. He knew what Vinkex was going to do.

“Yes, I would!” Vinkex answered, cackling loudly. “I told you; I have a goal in mind, and that’s to claim my rightful role as Dragon King! Dragons in this era are considerably weaker than they were a thousand years ago; a millennia of peace would do that, I suppose. But even I have no desire to try and fight a whole army of dragons in a weakened state.”

“Bastard....” Draycos groaned. He tried to move his body, but his limbs were like lead; they were too heavy for him to move in the slightest.

“Let’s not waste anymore time.” Vinkex lifted Draycos higher and dangled him above his head. He opened his maw wide.

“Don’t do it!” Theravor roared.

“Time to eat.” With that, Vinkex released Draycos from his grip. Completely immobile, Draycos could do nothing to resist as he fell into Vinkex’s open mouth. Vinkex’s jaws snapped shut and he gulped, swallowing Draycos whole.

To be Continued in Gatekeepers Book 3: Redemption