I do not own Blue Dragon or any of the characters.
Right Place, Right Time
The monstrous tigers roared, charging at the three children and a Devee, each of which had a shadow that was transformed into the upper body of some kind of creature through magic. One was a dragon, one a bull, one a sabertooth tiger, and one a bird, possibly a phoenix, though it was hard to tell since all four shadows were a dark blue. The dragon shot forward, punching one of the two in the face as the sabertooth did the same to another, both tigers slamming into the other two before the burd exhaled a massive stream of flames onto all four, burning them to death in moments. Above the group on a cliff, their silent observer nodded approvingly and took a bite out of his apple. As he was chewing, a heavy, metallic rumbling reached his ears and he looked to the right, seeing a massive, mechanical centaur, with no head and a massive cleaver with a skull between the blade and grip, charging down the road toward them. The shadow-users reformex their respective creatures just as the threat reached them, then scattered, their shadows striking at the centaur whenever they got the chance, all mimicking the movements of their weilders. However, their strikes were ineffective. The bird criew out and raised its wings, which had three-fingered hands on top of them, each finger bearing a black talon, and massive stones erupted out of the ground below the centaur, sendjng it staggering and nearly knocking it over, however, when they four shadows moved to exploit it by attacking the centaur, it spun in a circle, its blade slashing all four shadows and hurling the children away, all four of them shouting in pain as they took damage to their life force directly due to the drawbacks of their magic.
Their silent observer sighed, taking another bite of his apple before hurling it into the air and dropping off the cliff. He plummetted rapildy toward the ground, then shone with a blue light just before landing, dropping to a squat before standing in front of an old man amoung the people the children were defending. He helheld out his right hand to the man, and smirked.
"May I borrow that?"
The man looked down at the warhammer in his hands before passing it to the new arrival, who hefted it in one hand and set it on his shoulder. Then, as he strode toward the centaur, he caught his apple with his free hand. The centaur spun, a deafening bellow rang out of the centaur and it charged, sword pulled back. The man smirked, taking a bite of his apple as he shone blue for a moment. Then, his shadow shot off of the ground, expanding into a massive blue humanoid wolf's upper body, its fingers tipped in claws and its right hand holding a massive blue replica of the hammer the man had borrowed. The centaur slashed, but the wolf raised the hammer, blocking the blade with the handle before shoving it to the side and spinning, slamming the head of the hammer into the centaur's side, launching it sideways into the cliff, which crumbled. The centaur bellowed again, pushing itself up out of the rubble, only for the wolf to streak forward and slam the top of the hammer's head directly into its chest, caving in its torso before smashing it into the cliff again.
"Little girl, use Ground on the cliff face above him," the man said.
The girl nodded and her bird shadow cried out, raising its wings again. The cliff above the centaur all but exploded and the centaur leapt forward, only for the man's wolf shadow to swing the warhammer around again, slamming it into the centaur's horse body's chest, once again caving the metal in, launching the centaur backward into the cliff, completely shattering anything that was left of the cliff face. Thousands of tons of stone came crashing down on the centaur, who bellowed in agony for a moment before being drowned out by the explosions of sound the falling rubble was making. Then, finally, the last of the stones tumbled to a stop and everything went silent.
The man took another bite out of his apple and the sound seemed to break the trance everyone was under. The other four magic users turned on him, their shadows still active and all four ready for a fight. He smiled, his own shadow fading as he set the head of the warhammer on the ground and leaned on the shaft, sizing the four up.
"You're not too bad," he said. "You've gotten pretty good at using them. You've got a long ways to go, of course, but for kids as young as you, it's pretty impressive."
"Who are you?" the middle boy, who seemed to maybe be the leader, demanded.
He looked young. Maybe fourteen. He was short, had long messy brown hair in a ponytail with his bangs messy and bordering on spikes and the ponytail itself no better, wore a black muscle shirt, yellow shorts, had blue forearm and shin warmers, and black shoes. He was the one with the dragon shadow. The Devee had the sabertooth shadow, and wore a maroon leotard with no sleeves, a black cape with spikes along the bottom, and a horned pot on his head. The girl looked to be roughly sixteen or seventeen, with a black dress, a yellow belt, pink forearm warmers, her hair pulled back into a ponytail except for the bangs hanging almost to her chin on the right side of her face. The other boy had his brown hair neatly combed, and wore a black turtle-neck shirt under a sleeveless green tunic that hung to his knees, white pants under it, brown leather boots, and had the bull shadow.
"My name's Kai," the man finally smirked. "What's your name kid?"
"I'm not a kid!" the mouthy one snapped. "I'm sixteen years old and my name's Shu!"
"Sixteen, huh?" Kai asked. "Very well. I take it back. You're almost an adult."
"Hey!" Shu shouted.
"That's enough, Shu!" the other boy finally said. "Thank you for your help. My name's Jiro. I'm seventeen."
"I'm Kluke," the girl said. "Sixteen."
"Marumaro!" the Devee basically shouted.
"He's weird," Shu said. "Try to ignore him. So, since you can use magic, did you swallow a light sphere like we did?"
Kai studied Shu in silence for a long moment. After a moment, he looked back at his shadow, still saying nothing.
"Hey, didn't you hear me?" Shu growled. "I asked you-"
"Yeah, I swallowed a light sphere," Kai said. "A long time ago. I was younger than you, and it nearly killed me. The reason I didn't respond right away is because I don't like to talk about it, since swallowing the light sphere was what ended up getting my family killed."
The other magic-users all stared at him, wide-eyed, for a long while before their faces fell.
"I...I'm sorry," Shu said.
"It's fine," Kai sighed. "You couldn't have known. Anyway, you all are headed to Jibral, right? If you want an extra hand, I can help escort you all there."
"Really?" Kluke asked. "You...you really wouldn't mind?"
"Well, I don't have any other pressing business to attend to at the moment, and I was heading there anyway," Kai said. "Honestly, I'd probably be there already, but I happened across you all on the way and stopped to watch."
"We're going to find somewhere a bit more open, then set up camp for the night," the old man whose hammer Kai still had said.
"Alright," Kai nodded. "There should be a field just up ahead. And here. This belongs to you."
"Keep it," the man said. "You'll put it to better use than me."
"Thanks, but I don't actually need it," Kai said. "It just made the fight faster."
The man nodded and accepted the hammer back. The carriages made their way around the mountain of debris, then continued on until they reached the field. Once there, Kai helped set up camp before lying off tot he side of the camp and going to sleep quickly.
Kai whistled pleasantly as they walked along beside the wagons. Shu was to the left of the front one, with Kluke on the opposite side, Jiro was behind Shu, and Marumaro was behind Kluke. Kai was walking along the front, using his shadow to hurl any boulders or trees in the carriages' path out of the way, as well as killing anything that attacked from the front. There were a few rats the size of bears, and a couple of Steel-Eating Tigers, like the other four had fought the day before, but for the most part the trip was quiet. He was actually getting a little bored.
After about three hours of traveling, they left the valley they had been in, reaching a more open area that had only steep hills on the sides rather than cliff faces. Kai smiled as Jiro announced they should be safe from there on. Kai's smile dropped. He just had to jinx them. Sure enough, a half a second later, dozens of Steel-Eating Tigers charged toward them from both ends of the road, blocking their escape from both sides and creeping toward them slowly, all crouched and ready to pounce.
"You jinxed us Jiro!" Kai called out as all five formed their shadows. "Shu, cover the back, the rest of you, we're punching through the front!"
"There's no way we can outrun those things," the old man, Shu's grandfather, Fushira, said.
"Don't give up!" Shu said. "I won't ever give up!"
"You can outrun them just fine if we kill them all," Kai said. "But you all are in the way."
Fushira was silent for a moment before nodding. Suddenly, arrows began to stab into the tigers on both sides. They all looked to the top of the hill to their right and saw a line of soldiers in blue and silver armor, all on horseback. The soldiers drew their bows back again and fired a second equally ineffective volley of arrows before one of them, who wore no helmet, had a red vest on, and who happened to be the king, held his sword up and forward.
"Attack!" the man shouted, the soldiers charging instantly.
"Oh look, it's Jibral," Kai grinned. "Perfect timing."
He turned back to the front and sent his wolf out, the wolf punching a tiger and sending it hurtling backward through the rest. Then, the soldiers had arrived. It didn't go nearly as well as they had hoped. For every one tiger killed by most of the soldiers, at least two soldiers were killed. Usually more. The only two doing decently were the king, and a woman with long silver hair, a black bandanna with a skull on the front, gold hoop ear rings, a blue tube top that only covered about half of her breasts and none of her midriff, a pair of skin-tight teal shorts, a dark blue cloth wrapped around her waist, then hanging down behind her, black elbow-length gloves, black knee-high stockings, and brown leather boots and gloves. One of the soldiers landed in front of Kai, wounded but alive, and Kai knelt, taking the man's sword and helping him up, then stepped past him. His wolf faded and he sprinted forward, flipping over one tiger's paw and stabbed it in the head, then swung around on the handle, landing on the tiger's head before forming his wolf again in time for it to smash its fists down on either side of him, killing a pair of tigers as they leapt at Kai. He let his shadow fade again and wrenched the sword free of the tiger's head and spun, holding it in reverse grip as he slashed another tiger across the face and flipped over it as it finished its pounce, only to crash to the ground in a heap. He landed beside Shu again as the king rode over to them.
"I am King Jibral the Sixteenth, I am here to help you," he said. "Tell me, from whence do you come?"
"Talta Village," Kluke said.
"We're on our way to Jibral, Your Majesty," Jiro said.
"I see," King Jibral nodded. "Please direct your people to our carriages. Our people will escort you to Jibral. Bring the carriages!"
A pair of carriages were quickly brought over and King Jibral turned to the children.
"You there, come on!"
"We're going to stay and fight," Shu said as the four of them formed their shadows, King Jibral staring in amazement.
"All of you can use shadows too?" the woman that had been slaughtering tigers with a sabre asked, walking over to them, Kai noticing a necklace made out of a pair of monster fangs with white stones to space them out and one on the outside of each, making it look like a set of vampire teeth.
"What do you mean too?" Shu asked.
"You too, huh?" Kai asked.
"Your Majesty, please take the villagers to the castle," the woman said. "I'll provide the rear guard." She held her left arm across her chest and bowed forward slightly.
"Very well, I'm relying on you Zola," King Jibral said.
Just then, Kai's wolf shadow formed and shot forward, fist breezing past Zola's head, only to slam into a tiger that had been mid-pounce toward her sending it crashing into two more.
"Thank you," Zola said.
"No problem," Kai said. "We'll help you too."
She nodded. "I am Zola, captain of King Jibral's Blademaster." As she spoke, a black bat formed from her shadow, roaring. "Let's engage the foe."
"Wow!" Marumaro shouted.
"She can use magic too!" Shu gasped.
"I thought so," Kai smiled, stepping up beside her. "Want to see who can kill more of them?"
She glanced at him. "This is serious."
"Is that a yes?" Kai asked, grinning challengingly at her.
She sighed, smiling slightly. "Alright. Fine. You're on."
"You...you...you...you so cool!" Marumaro shouted. "IT'S LOOOOOOOOOOVE! ! !" He fell onto his back, kicking his feet and waving his arms.
Kai snorted. "Sounds like you have an admirer."
Zola shook her head. "Let's go, my fellow magic users."
"Yeah!" Marumaro cheered.
"Right!" Shu shouted.
Kai shot forward, drawing the sword he had borrowed on the way, his shadow forming a replica. Three tigers leapt at him but the shadow slashed them, killing them all and hurling them aside. Another leapt at Kai and the shadow drove its sword down through the tiger's back, pinning it to the ground. Kai heard a roar to his right and spun, seeing a tiger charging him, only for Zola's bat to swoop down, its extended claws tearing through the tiger like a blade as it held its hands with the fingers extended and joined in a knife-hand. The tiger collapsed and slid to a stop as Zola passed him, using her sword to kill another tiger as her shadow killed yet another.
"Now we're even!" Zola called back to him. "Keeping up?"
"More or less," Kai smirked, jumping and flipping over her, the wolf slamming a fist down on a wolf before batting it aside, its back clearly broken, along with its ribs, then slashed outward to the other side, killing several more tigers.
As it did, a tiger reached Kai and raised its paw, only for him to jump, slashing it up the face before landing on its back and slashing the back of its neck. Another tiger leapt at his back but Shu's dragon slammed a punch into it, hurling it away, though not killing it. Kai nodded to Shu before spinning and hurling his sword, the shadow doing the same. Kai's sword split a tiger's throat as it reared up to attack Kluke, then bounced off of the tiger and fell to the ground. The shadow's sword spun through several tigers before crashing to the ground and fading.
Finally, a path had been cleared, and Jibral's forces began to retreat, fleeing toward Jibral Castle. Kai turned back to the tigers and his wolf set its hand on the ground before ripping it upward, massive spikes of stone exploding out of the ground and impaling a large group of the tigers, blocking the path to follow them, though they would crumble after about forty five seconds.
"Let's go!" Kai shouted, all of them turning and running after the soldiers.
It took a lot longer than Kai had hoped. However, at long last the castle came into view. They kept running and soon passed through the gate, which slammed closed behind them. The children all began to pant and gasp for breath, both from the fight and the run, and Kai had to admit he wasn't a whole lot better off, though he could breathe.
"We did it," Jiro said, holding his hand out to Shu for a low five.
"Yeah," Shu nodded, tiredly raising his hand, then letting it fall, his palm slapping Jiro's on the way down.
"I'm so glad everyone made it here safely," Kluke said.
"And we owe it all to King Jibral," Jiro said. "And to Kai."
"Nope," Kai said. "You would have beaten Dullahan without me. Same with those tigers."
"Still, you helped a lot," Kluke said. "You're amazing."
Kai shrugged.
"Maro call you Lady Zola," Marumaro said.
"Lady Zola?" Shu asked.
"Okay-okay-okay Lady Zola?" Marumaro asked, running over to her, practically bouncing with energy again.
"Uh...well...I suppose so," Zola said.
"He is really weird," Shu said.
"Zola's shadow is in the form of a bat," Jiro muttered. "Devee are fascinated by things like bats. We find them scary, but they find these things intriguing."
"Well that may be true, but I think he's stuck on Zola," Kluke said. "She is pretty cool."
Kai, who had been listening to their conversation while having his own regarding seeing which of them was better with a sword, smirked.
"There's a garden on the top of the castle where I often train," Zola said. "Meet me up there later and we'll see about our match," Zola said. "As for you four, you're pretty skilled."
"You too," Shu said.
"You'd better get some rest," Zola said, turning to walk away.
"You have plans for us?" Kai asked.
"You'll see," Zola said over her shoulder. "If you want a decent sword, I'd recommend the blacksmith in town. The one in the castle has grown lazy and complacent from outfitting our soldiers in exchange for a place to live and food. The one in town is far better, and is probably going to be replacing our current one soon. Just tell him I sent you and that I'm calling in my favor."
"Will do," Kai smiled. "Thanks."
She nodded and walked into the massive doors leading into town. Kai released a long breath before turning to the others.
"I think you have some competition Marumaro," Kluke said.
"No way!" Maro shouted. "Maro saw her first!"
"Yes, but you're also only tall enough to kiss her knee unless she crouches down and picks you up," Kai said. "Besides, I never said that I liked her, or had any intention of courting her."
"But you do," Kluke said.
"I simply recognize and appreciate her beauty," Kai shrugged.
"That's a yes," Jiro said. "Come on. Everyone else is at the castle."
They all nodded and headed into town through the massive doors Zola had gone through. Kai branched off, walking to the blacksmith shop and opening the door, the blacksmith looking up at him and smiling.
"Welcome. how can I help you?"
"I was sent by Zola," Kai said. "She said you make the best swords."
The man smiled. "She overestimates my abilities. What kind of sword are you looking for?"
"Something that can be used with both hands, double edged, preferably light but sturdy and sharp," Kai said.
"Well, I have two options for you," the man said. "Aside from forging a custom sword, of course. First, is actually a sword sold to me by a wandering explorer recently. He said he got it from a giant lizard that he killed." He set a broad, stout, yet short blade, flat on the sides, and with a white-wrapped grip with a black stone in the pommel and a gold guard on the counter. "It's a little on the heavy side, though. I also have an older one, but it never sold, since it's about as plain as they come." he pulled out a sword about three feet long with a basic blade, a silver guard with the ends bending upward slightly at the ends, a grip with metal rods twisted around it, and a ring pommel.
Kai lifted both before setting the lizard's sword down in favor of the plain one. "I'll take this one. I don't need anything fancy, just well-forged."
"Well, that one's blade and hilt are all a single piece," the man said. "The only thing that was attached after it was forged was the grip, but it's definitely not going anywhere. The only way for that sword to break is for something to go through it."
"Awesome!" Kai smiled. "Thanks!"
The shop owner handed him a red sheath with gold around the opening and on the point, then in a pair of rings where the strap was attached. Kai slid the sword in and slung the weapon across his back. The sword didn't in any way match his blue tunic, his off-white pants, or his leather boots, and yet it somehow fit. He smiled, running his fingers through his messy, dark brown hair.
"How much?" Kai asked.
"It's free for you," the man said. "Zola owed me a favor anyway."
Kai chuckled, nodding. "I was going to pay you anyway, then let you know this was her favor, but suit yourself."
The man chuckled. "Tell her I invited her back to get her sword reforged whenever she needs."
Kai raised a hand in fair well as he left, heading toward the castle. As he entered, he found a Blademaster waiting by the door. The Blademaster saluted and Kai waved a hand and the soldier lowered his hand.
"His Majesty the King is in the throne room, speaking with Lady Zola," the Blademaster said.
Kai nodded and walked through the castle to the throne room, the soldiers standing guard there opening the door for him. He walked the length of the throne room and stopped beside Zola, kneeling.
"Your Majesty, I've returned from my mission," Kai said.
"Mission?" Zola asked. "Who are you?"
"I'm an orphan from a village that was destroyed by monsters on what we called the Dark Day, the day the violet clouds came every year," Kai said. "I was the only survivor, thanks to my shadow, but everyone else died. His Majesty, king Jibral the Fifteenth...shall we say...took me in. I wasn't royalty, or ever his son. Because of my powers I was used as a sort of...secret weapon. He always said I was his Shadow. I think it was a joke, given my magic. Once he passed, His Majesty became king, and I began to do the same job for him."
"And your mission?" Zola asked.
"I was sent to find any way of dealing with the Tsunami Vortex, or finding the source of the violet clouds," Kai said. "I believe I may have found both. Shu and the others claim to have found out who is the source of the violet clouds, and he may either be responsible for the Vortex, or know what it is."
King Jibral nodded. "Good work. I suppose it is about time the two of you met. I apologize for never telling you about him."
"It's alright, Your Majesty," Zola said. "Now I know there's someone I can train my magic with."
The king nodded. "I'll arrange to have Shu and his friends brought to me once they arrive. You're dismissed Kai. I'm sure you'd like to be able to retire to your quarters."
"Yes Your Majesty," Kai bowed, then turned and left, heading back to his room to rest before his sparring session with Zola.
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