CHAPTER 1

FIGHT FOR THE TITAN

Dante

10:00 am

Chisinau, Moldavia

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"I've never been to Moldavia before!" Lok said, in a child-like manner.

"Even me! I hope it's a beautiful place!" Sophie said.

"Well, you can just see down. We're flying over it!" Zhalia said, in a bored tone.

"I hate you guys! You promised to give me a more comfortable bag!" Cherit complained.

"It's Lok's fault." Sophie simply said.

"Wow, wow……my fault? Who the hell burnt my new bag yesterday? It was the most comfortable one I had got for Cherit!"

I was looked outside and saw nothing but clouds. I was sleepy as I hadn't slept well last night.

"Are you okay?" Zhalia asked me. She looked quite concerned about me nowadays.

"Yeah, I'm just not completely awake." I said, while trying hard not to yawn.

"Okay…….maybe this will help you……." Saying this, she splashed water on my face from her bottle.

She started laughing so hard, something she rarely did; something which I loved. Soon I realized she wasn't the only one who was laughing. The passengers in the flight joined her. Even the air staffs couldn't hold themselves back and giggled.

"Are you crazy? What's wrong with you?" I asked her.

"I was just trying to lighten you up. You've been looking quite serious about the mission."

"It is serious. There's a report about a powerful titan resting somewhere in Chisinau."

"What is it called?"

"I'll give you the details once we get down. Also, remind me about revenging you." I said, giggling at her.

Ten minutes later, we were in the Chisinau airport, checking out. Out of us, Sophie had most number of suitcases. She had to take a cart while we all managed to carry our luggage ourselves. I wondered sometimes what she carried in those baggages. She never allowed anyone of us to look into them.

We took a cab and went straight towards a hotel. Unfortunately, there were only three rooms vacant. Hence, I decided to share the room with Lok, while giving the ladies their separate rooms.

"Alright Seekers, here's the mission. We've to go to the market place and find a Draco-Titan warrior, Nordrake. It is considered to be highly powerful, and we should do everything to get it."

"Hold on!" Sophie interrupted, "We will get this titan at the market place?"

"You mean we'll have to buy it?" Lok asked me.

I heard Zhalia sighing loudly.

"No, Lok. The reports say that there is a secret entrance to the cave where this titan could be found. We'll first have to find it." I said.

"So, what are we waiting for?" Zhalia said.

The market was a colorful place. I heard Zhalia admiring one of the feather hats she'd seen at a stall. Sophie was ready with money for a shopping session, but Lok controlled her. It had many exotic stuffs, right from amazingly colored beads to strange fruits and vegetables. People all around me kept talking in a language which I couldn't catch.

"They're speaking in Moldovan." Sophie whispered to me as if she read my thoughts.

I nodded and looked ahead. I had a certain feeling that the cave was somewhere near me. I saw an alley and motioned the others to move towards it. It was dark and looked as if the sun had never risen here. I could get a faint smell of a drain somewhere. It was quite filthy, with bins containing overflowing garbage. There were some things written and drawn on the walls in a pulp fiction manner. I saw some young girls in skimpy clothes, smoking and talking with some young guys who looked more like goons. One of them even dared to wink at Zhalia. She looked down with a bland expression. I moved closer to her and held her firmly by her waist, in 'she's my girl' kind of a way. It took me a moment to realize what I'd done and I backed. But Zhalia didn't seem to notice it. Or, she just ignored it.

Lok tapped on my shoulder and pointed me towards my right, where I saw a faint blue light.

In no more than a second, we were inside a cave, which had a tint of blue. It was beautiful. There were certain stones embedded on the walls of the cave, which were probably some kind of crystals. They were twinkling like some stars. The whole scenery was just so mesmerizing.

"Augurfrost!" I heard someone yelling behind me. I turned and saw a team of Suits and an injured Lok. Sophie looked after him while I kept Zhalia as my backup. It was strange why I always chose her to team up with me. It would come naturally to me.

"We'll have to get out of here!" I said to Zhalia.

"I don't think we can. We are trapped!"

"She's right, Dante. You're trapped!" another deep voice said.

"Nice joke, Rassimov." I screamed at him.

"Good to know that you like my sense of humor. Now get ready to die!" Saying this, he and the Suits started attacking us. Lok was okay now, but still weak to fight. Sophie was with Lok, trying her best to protect her. Zhalia was fighting with full power. I wanted to help her even after knowing that defeating the Suits was a child's play for her. I had to take care of this Rassimov. Ever since Defoe left, he's become another headache for me. The negative point was that he knew how to control his powers and was a far better fighter than Defoe.

The fight was turning against us. Sophie was badly injured. Lok tried to fight but couldn't keep up. I was tired and Zhalia……………where was she?

Suddenly, I felt something hard on my face and realized that Rassimov had given a powerful punch. I fell near his feet. He pulled me up by my hair and said loudly, "Do you have a last wish?"

"Leave him now!" a sweet voice said. I turned to see Zhalia, who looked full of energy and determination to fight.

"That can't be fulfilled." Rassimov said, smirking at her.

"I knew you wouldn't get it straight." Saying this, she took out an amulet and held it high.

"Emerge, Nordrake!"

A blue colored dragon came out the amulet. It was magnificent, and stood behind Zhalia like his protector. Its fierce green eyes scanned the entire area, as if planning to destroy the cave.

"Suits retreat!" Rassimov screamed loudly and no sooner, they were gone.

We were the only ones in that dazzling cave.