This is a Side Story special, taking place a bit before the fic itself.
At the Edge of the Map, Here be Dragons.
First Monday of March.
Tachyon prided himself for being handy at many things. Having survived many magical conflicts during his run, he was an expert in Spell Cognition. He was physically fit, using Parkour to extreme degree, leaping over walls and rooftops like a ninja. Agility and Dexterity he was best at, to the point where he was faster than the speed of light.
However, every pros had its cons.
He had a terrible sense of direction. He distinctly remembered having traversed for 5 hours out from the very town he was attempting to reach supermarket from within, simply because he arbitrarily decided to use a shortcut.
Because of that reason, he had very little idea where he even was at this point.
How did he even end up in here?
Obsidian floors, dark stone walls, ground clean at the center, other parts covered with stalagmites; high ceilings covered with stalactites. Befuddled, Tachyon carefully stepped around, flashing his torch at various places.
There, at further up, the center, resided a gigantic black dragon.
The only explanation Tachyon could possibly come up for this impossible situation with was that he somehow reached the end of the world. Within the world of magic mythology and creativity was everything. In ancient times map authors had the impression that the earth was flat, and they marked the uncharted territories – namely, at the very same point their map started with – with a picture of a dragon, and a warning to those who attempted to reach there.
Using that ideology one could create a set of magic where they pretended that the earth was indeed flat. What if people held the conception of earth being round due to the fact that once they reached the edge, they reached the point they started from? What if the very edge they sought was out of their reach for good reasons? And how the heck did he even reach the edge of the lands? He prided himself on achieving impossible tasks, but this was flat out ridiculous.
Obvious problems aside, Tachyon focused upon the dragon. To his eyes, it looked absolutely beautiful. Smooth, jet black fabric covered the majestic beast. Shining bronze scales covered its back, curving down all the way to its twitching tail. Steel claws gleamed dangerously against the unnatural atmosphere of light that covered the entire lair. Its large ears slightly quivered this way and that, perhaps to be aware of any intruders. It was bigger than four eighteen wheelers, and its snores rang out loud through the silent cave.
If it weren't for obvious reasons Tachyon would have loved to keep it as a pet. He gazed at the creature, stupefied at its gorgeousness. Normal mortals would have fallen prey to its natural charm and mere presence, but Tachyon rather fixated his attention on its appearance.
(If past chapters did not give enough hints, Tachyon had weird preference for affableness.)
And then, behind the dragon, treasures of all kinds shone magnificently. Piles of coins, chests, barrels, blades, etc were all there. Bones and skulls were scattered here and there in an unsettling manner.
Noticing an intruder within its home, the eyelids of the dragon twitched, and then slowly opened. Warm glow of ember shone from the slits of its eyes, soon replaced by an intense smolder of a furnace. Small streams of smoke steadily arose from its mouth and nostrils. The orange irises focused on the lone interloper who wielded a torch and wore a leather hat that contrasted bit too much from his appearance.
And then, suddenly, the beast was right in front of him. Teleportation did not describe it well – it only relied on its pure speed. Its large face leered intimidatingly at him.
"You should not have come here, human." the beast spoke slowly, barely moving its mouth. "Why do you cross through my domain?"
Tachyon at first struggled for speech in front of the unnerving creature, but spoke nonetheless. "I was on my way to the kitchen for a snack, and then I was lost."
Look of doubt permeated from the dragon's visage. "You ended up in the unexplored dark lands on your way to the kitchen?"
"I am not a clever man," Tachyon quipped.
Induced at his impudence, the dragon immediately unleashed a stream of green fire from its throat. The color itself resembled the shade of the green one often saw at the cover of the Monster Energy Drinks. Tachyon subconsciously triggered emergency temporal shift in response, barely managing to avoid the deadly strike. The transmigration itself should have – and did before – avoid any harm that would have been inflicted onto Tachyon. Despite that fact, slight smolders of green flames danced upon his navy blue jacket. Tachyon hurriedly patted away the dangerous fire from his clothing.
It was very apparent that the dragon itself was not even trying.
"Using tricks will only get you so far," the dragon spoke. "Come now, amuse me. I have been asleep for eons."
"Certainly." Tachyon readily responded. "But before I do so, may I have the privilege to know the name of my adversary?"
"The term 'adversary' does not fit well into the aggression between an insect and a giant. But you may call me Beresad."
"Beresad... prepare yourself!" from behind his cover – one of the hundreds of stalagmites upon the floor – Tachyon launched his attack. Numerous elementary particles flew from his body toward the dragon, each streams circling around chaotically. Blue beams of light danced around like heat seeking missiles. The beast flapped its almighty wings, shielding itself from the attack that truthfully would have done very little damage even to its unprotected flesh. It thrashed around as if it was bothered by an army of fleas, as tears flowed from its eyes, not from pain but from laughter.
"You'll have to do better than that!" Green flames devoured the majority of the lasers. "What do you possibly expect to do with this weak attack?" The dragon asked.
But Tachyon was gone.
Attempting to sniff him out from his hiding place, the Dragon moved around, relying on its sense of smell and sound. However Tachyon was not even within the present vicinity.
"Over here!"
The dragon whipped around only to meet a large arrow head on. The projectile itself bounced harmlessly off of its face, and absolutely no damage was done to the beast. It only served to further annoy it, and what it saw next angered it more.
Tachyon was standing right on the gigantic hoard of treasures, and he was currently wielding a large bow. He waved at the dragon in a friendly manner.
"DO. NOT. TOUCH. MY. RICHES!"
Another green stream of fire bellowed from its mouth. Tachyon quickly grabbed the platinum blue shield he had retrieved before and squatted down before it. Hot air permeated throughout the area as the valuables burned in green fire. After the blast Tachyon slowly stood up, realizing that the spot he was standing upon was the only place protected from the flames. All the surrounding area was blazing, including his shield, due to the flames tenaciously holding on. Yet no visible damage was being done to the objects. It seemed as though the dragon adjusted its firepower in order to not damage its goods.
"Clever, I'll admit, standing amidst by belongings in order to not be harmed. But..."
The dragon flew toward him with great speed, its claws gleaming dangerously.
"That changes once I come up close!"
Grabbing a random sword nearby Tachyon swung. The blade clashed against the numerous teeth of the dragon, each one of them stronger than steel. Bright sparks flew from friction. Tachyon was thrown back, his blade slipped from his fingers, and his back crashed against the numerous gold coins on the floor. Leaping up again, Tachyon grabbed a pike next to him and readied himself for the next crash.
It came sooner than he expected. The dragon wasted no time leaping up once more in order to collide against him again. Tachyon was again launched through the air, but this time he kept his grip tight on the polearm. He saw himself appearing right behind the beast and understood his own intentions.
And then, he transmigrated directly behind the dragon, his weapon pointed directly toward the dragon's back. The tip crashed against the skin, and, it should've pierced it through.
But it didn't.
The blade twisted itself against the flesh of the dragon. Tachyon bounced off of the beast, and the dragon's tail swung in a perfect rhythm against him, knocking him further back toward the deep recess of the dungeon. All this time the dragon stood still, deep chuckle emanating from its throat.
"It will take more than that to penetrate my flesh, mortal."
What is up with its thick skin?
Apparently nothing that was available to him would be able to pierce through the dragon's scales. Even so, he needed to try every sort of possibility before succumbing to the dragon's flames. Standing up despite his pain, he hurriedly ducked down in order to avoid the next strike from the dragon's tail. In order to initiate his Plan B, he needed to be right on top of the it. If he were to use transmigration to achieve that directly, there was the limitation of needing to spend precious minutes he did not have in order to properly calculate the necessary coordinates. His other option was to be within the quick transmigration range, which was several meters. A huge distance in front of a dragon.
And the beast itself was not about to give him the chance to come close.
Tails and claws swung dangerously around the place as Tachyon desperately dashed. True to its metaphor, it resembled a giant swatting a fly in midair.
Getting close within the range was a difficult task. Tachyon was quickly caught up within the rapid succession of attacks, and was soon flung into the air by the tail strike, this time his left leg being ripped open due to the bronze scales. Tachyon quickly transmigrated himself in order to change his trajectory. Tachyon accelerated toward the dragon, and once he was within the necessary range, transmigrated once more right on top of the beast. Forming claws using tachyon particles he clung tightly onto the skin of the dragon as it attempted to shake him off. Seeing that it was ineffective, the beast clawed its own skin, ignoring the scratches it was creating along with it, in an attempt to shred Tachyon into pieces. However he tightly held on, transmigrating this way and that in order to avoid being pierced, relying upon the appearances of his future selves in order to predict the attack. The dragon began to bleed from its own scratching, and Tachyon was soon soaked within dragon blood.
He began to pant as he realized his need to carefully watch the energy used up by his transmigration.
Seeing that it would take a long time to get him off of its skin using claws and tail, the dragon flung himself toward the pile of gold, in an attempt to cover its entire body with metal in order to shake off the intruder. Tachyon quickly jumped off in order to avoid being buried within the coins and sharp weapons.
Seeing his arm covered with blood, Tachyon gingerly licked it. Supposedly, dragon's blood had special abilities; he was willing to try that out.
Mm, metallicky.
"You have amused me greatly, human. Now, allow me to finish you off." Dragon came up and close toward him as it prepared another blast. Tachyon attempted to flee, but continued pain within his leg slowed his progress. At this rate he would be covered with fire.
But the blast did not come. Tachyon observed the dragon suddenly struggling against an invisible force as if an unseen chain was holding it back. Great anger was being expressed on its face.
"Now, now, Beresad. I told you to stay out of trouble."
A lone figure appeared from the cave opening. He was covered within a dark shroud, and his hood obscured his face, with only his long ears pointing out. He was holding a large emblem decorated with gold within his left hand.
"Apologies." the figure said. "My creature gets in all sorts of trouble with other strangers. I do hope you can forgive his behavior."
"Ah, well, um..." Tachyon replied, bit taken aback with this sudden development. "It's fine, really."
"Glad to hear that." the man smiled.
"So, where am I?" Tachyon scratched his head. "I did come by this place in accident. I had always thought dragons were not real."
"You are at my home." the man stretched out his hands toward the entire cavern. "This is my preferred place of living; I was a bit bored with traditional houses. Interior decorators these days are really so unreasonable, unable to achieve a simple request of 'make it look like it came right out from the Lord of the Rings'. Mighty men of olden days lived in castles and towers, so I decided to emulate their style. My personal belongings is located after the long chain of gold treasures. The Dragon himself is just a simple touch, one of the creations from the experiments of the magical scientists. Fancy, is it not?"
"Well, I am impressed with all this. And I definitely wouldn't mind helping myself to one of those precious weapons on the pile over there."
"I'm glad that you see it as a perfect home. Ah, how rude of me. My name is Vorinor."
"Tachyon. Nice to meet you."
"Same. This place theoretically shouldn't have any regular visitors, and that's simply just to avoid annoying solicitors. However proficient magicians did manage to wonder into this place from time to time. And, consequently, they were silenced."
"...Silenced?"
"Yes. I really do need to destroy anyone that somehow is able to enter within this lair. The information about this place leaking outside would be rather troublesome, you see. So I need you to stay still while I destroy you. I hope you understand." From out of nowhere he drew up a long sword, and he swung it directly at Tachyon. A large wave of energy was shot toward him. Tachyon punched at the attack in response.
"타키온 방패!"
A large wall of blue light began to circulate from his fist as it resisted the energy attack.
"I did tell you to stay still..." the man grumbled in an annoyed voice, as if he actually expected Tachyon to do what he was told. He flailed his sword around for a second attack.
"타키온 사베르!"
Tachyon conjured his sabre and launched his assault toward his new opponent. While fighting with swords the hooded being managed to counter every single tachyon bullets shot toward his direction with his blade, displaying an excellent dexterity.
One thing that caught Tachyon's attention was that the man held on to the emblem within his left hand even while fighting. What function that object served, Tachyon was yet to find out.
"Give up." the man said. "I have defeated many proficient magicians such as you. My experience clearly exceeds yours. There is no way you can win."
"Ay, there's the rub, isn't it?" Tachyon replied. "I am not a magician. If you were as experienced as you said you were, you would have noticed the lack of mana outputting from my body. Do you see any runes carved around this place?"
He was right. There was a suspicious lack of magical activity from him. The man frowned in response, carefully re-analyzing his opponent.
"Not a magician, hmm? Then, don't tell me..."
"Precisely." Tachyon grinned.
"One of the very beings that the occult was formed to counter against?" the hooded figure countered strikes from Tachyon while he continued. "An ability user!"
"Well, the name varies. We didn't exactly assign ourselves a specific description. But you are right, nonetheless."
"Even so, I shouldn't have too much difficulty defeating you. You don't seem to possess a particularly powerful ability." pointing his sword toward Tachyon, the hooded being blasted out many powerful waves of energy.
"Aghk...!?"
The tachyon sabre shattered after receiving three hits from the wave. The fourth blast severely burned his arm, knocking him a fair distance backward on his back. In an instant the man was right in front of him, his sword aimed at his chest.
"Farewell, trespasser." the man said. "You have fought well, compared to other magicians."
"Yes, well, that's the thing." Tachyon replied. "No matter how many magicians you fought, statistically I am willing to bet that I fought more."
At that instant, the emblem held within the man's left hand penetrated right in the middle. An arrow stuck out from the heart of the magical artifact.
"What?" The man glanced toward the direction of the attack. Inexplicably, Tachyon stood there, wielding the large bow from before. "A doppelganger?"
"Not really. You seem to hold on to that object constantly for some reason. What would happen now that it was pierced?"
A large shadow suddenly loomed over them. The man fearfully turned around to see the terrifying gaze of the dragon directed toward him.
"You..." the dragon rumbled in a deep voice. Before the man even had a chance to protest, the dragon's long tail swooped out, knocking him right on his temple. The man fell to the ground, knocked out cold.
"-Whoa, wait." Tachyon hurriedly raised his arms in objection. "Before you kill me-"
"You have done me a great favor, mortal." the dragon cut right over his stammer. "That detestable being held me captive with that artifact for quite some time. You did well in destroying it. In return, I will let you go free with your life. Hurry up, as I still have to exact more revenge onto this pitiful creature." The dragon eyed the man on the floor.
"Um, I have no idea how to get out from here..." Tachyon replied.
"Not my problem. Get out before I change my mind about eating you." The dragon was clearly indifferent to his concerns.
Tachyon sighed, trudging up from the floor. He still needed to transmigrate in order to retrieve the bow and to destroy the artifact, all the while with an injured leg and arm. This was going to be tough...