"So, what you're saying is that I just need to focus?" asked Dave. He and Galanoth had returned to Galanoth's dwelling after much back slapping and hooray's from the villagers. Dave, of course, had saved their village and livelihood, and they wanted to pay him back for it. At the current, Galanoth was teaching Dave an offensive position, named the Dragon Strike. If he was fighting a dragon and he perfected the technique, he would inflict double the damage as usual when he executes the attack.
Galanoth stood for what seemed the millionth time. "Let me demonstrate." He lifted the huge dragon blade towards the dummy that they had set up. He closed his eyes for a brief moment, then lunged forward with lightning speed. The sword seemed the go straight through the dummy, and all Dave could see was a flash of light. Galanoth turned and sat down. The moment his bulk hit the ground, the dummy fell to the ground as if by magic, cut to ribbons.
"How-?" Dave started.
"Focus. That is the key. You must learn to focus your energy in order to execute this attack. Now, give it what you've got," Galanoth coached. Dave stood with his newly obtained Flame Blade. He leaned forward slightly, just like Galanoth had shown him in order to get more propulsion. He tilted his head to an angle, maybe a change of ten degrees, and held the sword ready. By this time, training with Galanoth, he had learned basic fencing and Zweihander styles. He closed his eyes for a moment and focused. Recently, he had learned to tap into his mana, his ability to do magic. By using his mana, he could do things he normally couldn't do, like run at the extreme speeds necessary to execute this attack. He pulled a small piece of his mana away to use now. He leaned forward and started to dash. His legs didn't touch the ground. He had flown forward, faster than he had expected. Leaning back a little in mid-flight, he swung around the sword. Time seemed to freeze for a moment. Dave took advantage of this brief pause to inflict as much damage to the dummy as possible. When he pulled away from the dummy, Galanoth stood and nodded.
"You've done very well. You've just executed the Dragon Strike technique. Look." When Dave looked at the dummy, he was dumbstruck.
"I did all that?" he asked. The dummy was torn in eight places and stuffing was falling out everywhere. Galanoth's attack looked subtle compared to this. Dave slowly shook his head. He was getting stronger. Warlic, who happened to teleport directly in the middle of the training grounds at that moment, looked at the dummy and then to Galanoth.
"Are you demonstrating how to do the Dragon Strike?" he asked.
"No, Dave did that himself," said Galanoth. He nodded in Dave's direction. Warlic turned and face Dave as if seeing him for the first time that day.
"Well, it looks like you'll be an Elite Dragon Slayer before long," Warlic mused. Warlic took a seat next to Galanoth. "I was thinking of asking him to come along with me on a mission of vast importance."
Galanoth simply scoffed. "Everything is 'of vast importance' to you," he said. "What sort of mission is it?"
"Well, I've decided to call it my Epic Quest," Warlic replied. "You see, the Drakels are mobilizing against us, searching for something that we either have or protect. We don't know what it is, but we must find out before it's too late. You remember what they did last time, right?" At this, Galanoth chuckled and nodded.
"What did the Drakels do?" asked Dave, ever the eavesdropper. "Actually, before you answer that question, what is a Drakel?"
"Well, a Drakel is a type of humanoid lizard. They almost always stay inside their city, whose walls are so high, even the wind lord has some trouble getting over. They don't really like visitors much. Well, in the past, they were meddling and messing things up. They unleashed Carnax the Scourge. It is an almost unstoppable monster. Riona Shadowgale was the one who defeated it in the end. She used the psychokinetic bond between her son and the monster to destroy it by using the power of her almost extinct race. Carnax was known to utter words in his last moments, something about being free from someone. I can't recall exactly off the top of my head, but as strong as Carnax was, he still had a stronger master. Who that is, no one knows." Warlic spoke with a kind of reverence.
"Well, whatever I can do this time to stop something like that from happening, I will," said Dave with finality.
"Well, Warlic, he's all yours. I finished teaching him the Dragon Strike. He cannot learn the Dragon's Fire without gaining more power in his armor," he said to Warlic. Then he turned to Dave and said, "If you kill a dragon on the way, tell me later his name and I will tell you if you can learn a new technique."
"Your path will be revealed to you in good time. Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get going," said Warlic to Dave. Dave felt a light lifting feeling throughout his entire body and saw a flash of light. The next thing he knew, he was standing in an inn, Yulgar's inn, if he wasn't mistaken. "This, Dave, is Sage Uldor."
Uldor wore tattered robes, not entirely falling apart, but almost shredded at the ends. It was an ugly brownish tan color. He wore a blindfold of the same color. His skin was gray, like microwaved chicken. When he spoke, he spoke with a deep, foreboding voice. "My name is Uldor. I may be blind, but I see all. And your fate, is quite interesting."
"You're not here to learn of your fate. Get information. I must take my leave now," Warlic whispered into Dave's ear. And with a small flash, he was gone.
"I'm not here to learn of my fate this time, Sage. Warlic sent me here to begin a journey. He said my path would be revealed along the way," Dave said.
"Warlic is a powerful wizard, but he is not a sage. His ability to foresee is limited by his reliance on magical methods. My abilities are of a different origin," the sage spoke.
"What do you mean?" Dave asked inquisitively.
"I was born blind, but was able from the beginning to see into the future of those near me. As a child, this would have driven me insane. I would have been sent to an asylum, or worse, if it hadn't been for the kindness and patience of an individual I am most thankful for," Uldor went on.
"And who was that?" asked Dave. He felt full of questions, but this was the issue at hand.
"A Drakel named K'talith," said the sage. Dave had an exclamatory look on his face, mingled with a small measure of inquisitiveness. "I am a sage and do not read minds, and yet I know what you are thinking."
"I bet you do! I thought that the Drakel were a selfish, warlike race," Dave stated, slightly nonplussed.
"The Drakel, as all of the races, consist of more than one group. They are the oldest of the intelligent races of Lore—" Uldor was cut off by a string of blue film fired from the back of the room. It hit him squarely in his back, sending his flying into a table.
"Whoa! Sage Uldor!" Dave exclaimed as he rushed to help him, but he hesitated when he saw what had shot the filmy substance. It was some kind of undead thing. It had a skull, ribs, and a spine, but beyond that, it was devoid of any structure. The teeth in the skull were huge, like knives. The ribs still had rotting flesh in them. The spine extended down past its lowest rib like a tail. It rest on its spine, keeping its ribs about a foot off the ground. That tail seemed to be at least four feet long.
"An Undead Ribber!" exclaimed Uldor. He leapt behind the table he had overturned when he hit it and hid there.
Dave was in this alone. He looked at the Ribber and thought for a moment. It was undead, and all the stories he had ever heard with undead anything was always evil, so he supposed his light blade would do some measure of damage. He drew it from the left hand scabbard and stood ready to fight. He doubted that his Dragon Strike technique would accomplish anything against this enemy, so he would wing it the old fashion way.
Turning on the Ribber, snatched a chair from behind him as a shield and began to slash at it. The Ribber recoiled venomously and hissed, then struck. Its teeth were not that sharp, but it did land a decent bite. Dave pulled back and clubbed its skull with the chair. The chair shattered into pieces, leaving the Ribber dazed for a moment. Dave took advantage of the lapse in battle and swung a horizontal blow, decapitating the Ribber right then. The skull hit the floor with a thud and rolled to the table Uldor was hiding behind. "Is it gone?" Uldor inquired.
The back door swung open, revealing another Ribber. Dave grabbed a chair again and thrashed the Ribber before it could get a bearing on the setting. It stood to full height, some six feet, and spat the blue filmy stuff. It hit Dave in the chest, but oozed off. Dave was only hit with the impact hit, not very damaging. He swung the sword downwards, catching the Ribber in a rib and breaking it clean off. The Ribber screamed in pain and made more strange hissing noises. The rotting flesh on its ribs quivered. It spat more of the stuff, but missed Dave entirely. The Ribber bit at Dave, and Dave made to guard himself with his blade. It bit down on the blade and wouldn't let go. Dave released the blade, sending the Ribber sprawling. He picked up a chair leg from the broken chair and bludgeoned the Ribber repeatedly. The skull began to constrict under the rain of blows. Eventually, Dave was just pounding powder into the floor, so he stopped. The body began experiencing its death throes and began to thrash slightly.
"Are those monsters gone?" asked Uldor. He had finally stood from his vantage point.
"Yes, I have defeated them. I've never seen anything like them before! By now, I'm sort of used to being randomly attacked by monsters, but I'd like to know one thing: Just how did they surprise us like that when you are a sage? You should have predicted they would be here!" Dave said.
"This confirms the suspicion that Warlic and I have had recently. There must indeed be some force out there that neither one of us can detect. Someone or something is able to partially control the Ethereal Realm, so even I cannot sense its actions."
"I'm not even going to pretend that I understand that," Dave said.
"I will meet you again soon. But first, you might want to make a journey to the Easternmost point in Darkovia forest. There you will find someone who knows the answer to the question that is important to us," Uldor said mysteriously.
"Who will I find?" asked Dave.
"I cannot tell you, for it may affect the outcome. But the question you must ask is: What is the source of the red fog?" Dave stood in silence. "Now, GO!"