Dark- and so the long awaited new chapter of dark rising finally arrives!
Spectre- it's about time you got to your training day with me, i was getting worried.
Sabre- we all know dark's best work comes slowly.
Dark- thank you sabre it's always-
Zero- best work, ha. his best work won't be seen until he gets through with the day i trained him.
Ender- what you did can't really be called training zero.
Tidus- agree, it was more like you poor nature got the best of you.
Zero- and what do you mean poor nature?
Dark- and here's where i cut you guys off, enjoy the chapter people.
After we got back that night I had a dream. I suddenly found myself alone on a battlefield across from Nightmare and his army of monsters.
"Natura is doomed Dark Oblivion, your dream is over." Nightmare said to me as he rose up above his monsters.
"This dream isn't over until I'm not around to fight for it!" I shouted as I drew Mira in her true form.
"Then you'll just disappear along with your dream. Kill him!" Nightmare ordered, sending his monsters charging toward me.
I held my ground as the creatures came at me, hellhound, cannon-blades, fright knights on the night-mares, brutes wielding their giant axes, almost the entire nightmare roster was coming upon me en masse. The first things to get to me were a couple of cannon blades that teleported across the battlefield to me. Before they could strike I was already bounding off the chest of the on nearest to me as a blasted the head off of one of its counterparts with dark energy. I launched myself high into the air, charging a void sphere in each hand as I ascended. When I felt I had reached a suitable height I launched the two small building sized void sphere down at Nightmare's army of monsters.
The two giant spheres landed upon hundreds of Nightmare's beast and numerous others could not stop themselves before running into the attacks before they dissipated. Though I had taken out so many of the creatures with just two attacks I had barely dented the numbers of the army. As I cursed my luck three knights rode their night-mares into the sky and came after me. Knowing I had the advantage of being able to remain in the air on my own power I had Mira change into a large war hammer and flew toward the knights and their mounts ready to strike.
As the first night came within range he drew his blade and swung at me as hard, with a quick swing of my hammer I knocked his blade out of his hand. I let the momentum of the hammer carry me around as I dealt a heavy blow to the head of the knights mount, knocking it head over heels as its rider was knocked off and it tumbled from the sky. I let the hammer fly from my hand as the other two knights rushed toward me. I shot one steel tentacle from my hand toward the hammer and coiled it tightly around its handle, swinging it like a mace to build power before launching it into one of the Knights.
The knight plummeted to the ground, its mount still head toward me. Extending a blade from my free arm I charged through the night-mare's flames as it spewed them over me, slicing deep into its neck. As the beast fell the remaining knight rode to my level in the air. Cracking my neck I withdrew my tentacle that held Mira returning her to her true form as I sized up the knight.
"You have caused master Nightmare much trouble. I will not be felled until I eliminate you from this world." The night growled as it drew its sword. Kicking its mount in the ribs the knight came at me, blade in the air.
I deflected the first strike as he passed by me but his mount quickly circled around and came at me again. I spun around and blocked the night again this time sending out two tentacles that pierced through his shoulder and pulled him off his mount. I brought the knight close to me and wrapped a tentacle around each of his limbs.
"Release me!" the knight ordered as his mount came around again, ready to blow a torrent of flames toward me.
"Not until we kill your pet." I laughed evilly as I threw the night into his night-mares torrent of flames, using the tentacle wrapped around his arm to drive his sword into the beast neck. As the nightmare fell out of the sky I pulled the night back toward me, my fist charged with dark energy as I delivered a dark impact to the knight's head, turning his skull into puzzle pieces.
Swinging Mira around I once again had her change into a hammer, this one a fair deal larger than the previous. I swung the hammer under my feet then let myself drop while holding onto the hammers handle. As I fell I charged the head of the hammer with dark energy; on the ground several brutes threw their axes up toward me, most of them missing, but one managed to clip the hammer and threw me into a spin. The suddenness of the spin threw me from the hammer and I crashed hard into a hellhound, my hammer falling somewhere into the throng of monster while delivering the desired result of an earth shaking explosion.
I groaned in pain as I stood up atop the hellhound, but I was hardly standing straight up when another pounced on me and pinned me to the ground, several other snarling and prowling around me for their turn at me while I held this one by its jaws to protect myself. Then my heart sank as the creature suddenly collapsed into smoke and merged over me, increasing the pressure on my chest as they formed a giant Cerberus. Once again the beast tried to snap me up in its jaws, giving me the much more difficult task of holding its jaws open by its teeth.
The creature hot rancid breath choked me as I struggled to keep it from crushing my head like a grape in its teeth. With a growl the Cerberus jerked it's head upward, tossing me into the air as it jumped to snap me up. The beasts jaws slammed closed around me but I wasn't dead yet.
"Black massacre!" I cried out impulsively, as a voice rang in my head.
"Wake up."
"Dark wake up." I heard through as I slept, still not realizing I was asleep, "wake up!"
My eyes snapped open and I suddenly found myself falling to the ground. I hit the cool moist earth with a soft thud, my head hitting the ground.
"Shit…" I groaned, my heart still racing from the combat intensive dream, "how the hell did I fall out of the tree?"
"you practically blew the thing up that's why ." Spectre informed me as he snaked his head in front of me.
Curious I looked back up at the tree and found the there was hardly anything left of it. Somehow in my sleep I'd managed to reduce the tree to less than half of its original height with no hint to where the rest of it could have gone.
"That must have been some dream you had if you did that without realizing it." Spectre said with a nod as he looked up at the tree, "And I thought you're aura was powerful before, but just before you woke up, it was so strong it almost scared me."
"What is this about my aura, and why would you be scared if my aura was really strong." I asked as I stood up and brushed myself off.
"You mean you really don't know how your aura allows you to boost the effect and control of your abilities?" Spectre asked, shocked as I shook my head, "what the heck do you humans learn when you're born."
"Like you learned about auras at birth? You probably couldn't even understand anything even if someone tried to teach you." I doubted.
"Ha, dragons aren't that pitiful at birth, the skill of understanding speech and all the basics of living are there at birth. Hell I was talking in a few weeks after I was born and able to hunt a two months." Spectre explained with a confident smile.
"Well, I always did think dragons were never too vulnerable." I thought to myself, rolling my eyes.
"Either way you need to learn how to control that aura of yours now or you may just hurt someone the next time you have a dream like that." Spectre advised taking to the air, "follow me, I'll show you my usual meditation spot. That's where we'll start your training."
Looking back on the other exiles that were somehow still asleep I said," fine, might as well go with you since everyone else is asleep."
Jumping into the air I followed Spectre as he led me far from the small patch of forest that the exiles used as their home and into the mountains that always seemed so far off in the distance. But my mind was far from the idea of where I was going, aside from my position behind Spectre I had no clue where I was. My dream kept replaying in my head over and over, my heart beat speeding up each time it began again.
"Dark!" Spectre called pulling me out of my thoughts, "whatever you're thinking about can you please stop. It's making your aura go crazy and it's making me feel sick."
With a quick nod I pushed the dream from my mind, turning my attention to following Spectre. We flew for a long while before we came close to the mountains. The mountains rose high into the sky and cast long shadows over the land behind them, Spectre and I picked up speed now that our destination was nearby and we both could use the stability of solid ground to rest.
"Alright the way in is over here." Spectre called back to me as he snaked his long body into a large opening in the wall of the mountain.
Following him in he led me through a long dark winding tunnel filled with stalagmites and stalactites alike. I was almost expecting to get caught in a swarm of bats as we came to the tunnels end and entered into a cavern that looked as if someone had excavated it by hand. A small waterfall poured in a the far end of the cavern creating a shallow river that surrounded a large stone island rimmed with columns that extended to the cavern's roof which had an opening from which light poured into the room. I was taken aback by the unexpected natural beauty of the room and at Specter's luck to have found such a place.
"You've calmed down, good." Spectre said as we landed on the small stone island, not even bothering to look back at me.
"How the hell did you find this place?" I asked, just to get the question out.
"I asked, those who've decided not to pass on know about some pretty cool places if you can get them to talk about them." Spectre replied turning to me, " no first things first, I want you to get as calm as you possibly can. Meditate." He ordered, with a sort of kind drill sergeant flair.
I immediately cocked an eyebrow, glancing around nervously since I knew I had little to no clue how to meditate, calling upon what I could gather from my memory I sat down Indian style.
"Ok, I honestly have no clue what I'm doing. Any instructions to offer?" I asked, sighing deeply.
I know now after seeing the way Spectre shook his head in disappointment that I may have been the first person to ever witness the dragon equivalent of a facepalm.
"Just close your eyes and focus on your own natural breathing, and that means you're breathing that you don't will to happen." Spectre instructed, uttering a low growl of annoyance. More importantly the only real growl he'd ever directed toward me.
With a frightened sense of necessary haste I closed my eyes and did what Spectre instructed. I focused in on my breathing and tried to slowly stop myself from willing the breaths I took. At first the lack of lung response caused me so much discomfort that I felt like I was suffocating and had to take a breath by will, and it continued that way for a while. But eventually after maybe a half hour of trying I found myself barely breathing and at a degree of calm I'd never been at before.
"Alright, now we can start." Spectre spoke softly as I opened my eyes.
"What's different now that I'm so calm?" I asked not understanding the need for the meditation.
"A calm mind is quiet, and a quiet mind is open to learn." Spectre answered with sensei-like delivery.
"Most epic line from a dragon I've ever heard…" I thought to myself, nodding slowly.
"Anyway, if I'm going to teach you about aura I should make sure you can see them. It makes the process much easier." Spectre announced as he stretched his long flowing whiskers out toward me, "hold still."
He touched his whiskers on my temples and closed his eyes. Tiny pulses of light raced down his whiskers and into my body, causing my eyes to twitch. I closed my eye tightly for a few seconds then opened them again, but I couldn't see anything more than I could before.
"I don't think it worked." I doubted, looking around as Spectre pulled his whiskers back.
"Give it a few seconds to take effect." Spectre nodded, backing away from me.
With a quick shrug I stood and waited for something to happen, but as far as I could tell I hadn't been granted any special vision that allowed me to see auras. I was about to tell Spectre it hadn't worked again when I rose my hand into view and noticed gray light flowing around it. I looked at my other hand and it was there too, unsure I turned to Spectre.
"So this is my aur-damn…" the sight of Spectre's aura stole my words. It spread out from his body several feet and while it what neon green close to his body as it spread out it changed to a shade of lavender slightly lighter than his scales.
"Yeah that's you aura, and from the look on your face it seems you find mine impressive." Spectre replied with a smile.
"well compared to you I have no aura, I thought you said that my aura was powerful?" I asked somewhat offended that my aura looked so weak.
"Don't judge strength by size, your aura is still strong. But since your calm right now, your aura is calm and sticking close to you. If you were angry, you're aura could potentially fill this room." Spectre advised as I walked over to the river.
I peered down at the water's surface, examining my reflection in the water. I could see that my aura did seem to cling to my body as I moved, but as felt myself growing more annoyed I saw my aura begin to grow more and more agitated.
"Hey, chill out and stay calm." Spectre advised behind me.
"Have you done this before or something, because you seem like a good teacher?" I asked turning to him.
"yes and no…" Spectre chuckled looking away for a moment before looking me in the eye, "so, want to hear why I ended up an exile before we continue to the real training?"