Fantasia
Arc3: The Heir of Ardneria
Chapter11: The beast and the judgment
When Demetri was in the edge of being killed by the wrathful Klaive, Juan Roné and Zolu showed up for the sake of the injured man, to be surprised by two unexpected things; the first one concerning the fact that Juan managed to land a hit on Klaive with ease, and the second one concerned Klaive who claimed that Juan is in reality a human and not a cursed beastman as everyone thought!
Albeit he was spiritually broken the angered Juan insisted on defeating their new sage ignoring that this man is now the strongest beastman in Ardneria.
"Let's go Roné! We'll try to hit him!" the shepherd ordered after instructing his brother who hesitatingly obeyed him.
And the two rushed toward Klaive in confidence, while the latter just stood there grinning at them, "Very well kids amuse me!" he shouted, while blocking every single punch or kick they were trying to deliver on him to finish with a swing that sent Roné away, but Juan smiled and signed to his ragon friend who reshaped the water he previously prepared under their feet as a large sphere trapping both of the shepherd and the sage inside.
The two of them weren't capable of breathing underwater, but since it was planned by Juan he already held his breaths a moment before the spell is casted, but that wasn't all because Juan shoved his finger in his right ear and lifted the left one transforming it into a bloated green limb full of red warts containing few large orange cavities in them.
Juan simply transformed his arm into a siren toad's limb capable of releasing deafness causing screams, and that what Klaive suffered being trapped inside a bubble full of water, but being incapable of reacting due to the heavy pressure on his head he noticed something on the left side of the sphere; it was Roné who gathered both of his hands preparing a powerful thick fire aura around his fist ready to strike!
And so at the moment Zolu disabled his water spell, Klaive received a powerful punch on the waist that sent him flying to the wall.
Juan then coughed the water out not believing that his plan succeeded, while Zolu hurried to him followed by Roné:
"Dude that was awesome! It worked!" the ragon claimed.
"Man I could've hit him stronger but the time was short!" Roné complained while rubbing his fist.
"Yeah but this doesn't end here…" Juan told them while looking toward the dust caused by the earlier attack.
"Amusing, it's simply amusing that three feeble insects like you managed to hit me!" Klaive boasted walking calmly out of the dust, patting on the left side of his waist as if that hit was a simple sting.
"Dammit man! We're doomed!" Roné said in fear.
"Trust me okay." Juan said calmly.
"Now let's see, should I start with the ragon, I hated your people a lot? Or maybe the human who thinks he's the smartest? But of course don't worry Roné you won't receive too much I don't want to break my daughter's heart…" the large man asked with mockery.
"Dude move it!" Zolu yelled.
"Calm down! Trust me!" Juan repeated.
"What's the matter Juan? Aren't you afraid to die? I must admit it's very brave for a human to stand against a wrathful beastman with such confidence…" the man said but suddenly his sight blurred as his breathes got shorter.
Juan smiled and pulled out an emptied vial from his pocket, "I guess since you called me a human, I should fight as humans; with more sleight and less power" Juan claimed with a sly accent he never showed before.
"You poisoned me! You bastard!" Klaive said while catching his breaths trying to remember when Juan committed this deed.
"When we were trapped in Zolu's water prison, I emptied this vial, it contained siren toad's saliva, it's usually harmless but when the mother is incubating it turns toxic but not deadly for beastmen so I thought of trying that out…" Juan explained.
But at this bleak moment for him, Klaive smiled and quickly he picked a small white disk from his pocket and bit it, and then he stood tall like nothing happened shocking everyone in the room.
"You know when fighting the lord of smoke (he pointed to Demetri) I thought that he's going to use some poisoned smoke on me so I've prepared this antidote, but I never imagined that he'll make an honest fighter than you do!" Klaive said before releasing a loud laughter.
Juan stood there shocked! His plan failed, he was only relying on that because at the present time he had nothing but these simple steps to count on fighting someone like Klaive, but despite his stray mind he was fast enough to notice that above them a magic circle was created dropping a large flaming boulder, resulting him to use his elastic arms and push both of his friends away leaving the rock to fall on him!
The other three feared that the shepherd met his doom under that fiery stone, but he surprised them that he survived by turning his arms into spiky grey oyster shell-like shields receiving only superficial burns for damage.
"Roné, Zolu, take Demetri and run!" he ordered his companions.
"But Juan!" Roné wanted to object but he couldn't complete because he himself was fearful and preferred to save his life!
But Klaive couldn't let them escape, his chest simply bulged drastically, and in a flicker he released a powerful fire breath that covered the entire room.
Then he stood there waiting to see the ashes of his victims, witnessing the smoke being lifted slowly off the sooty floor, and then he laughed deeply upon the scene "My God! You have the persistence of the cockroach!" he commented with amazement.
They all survived somehow; Zolu used the last ounce of his magic to create a water barrier, Roné and Demetri absorbed most of the fire but this seemed to exhaust them, and Juan wrapped himself in sluggish tentacles morphed from his arms which received a massive burning damage.
Klaive wasted no time as he rushed and surprised Zolu with a head ram to send him to the wall, then quickly to Roné with a powerful two handed chop pinning him to the floor leading him to pass out, and finally he kicked Juan ferociously to the stomach spitting blood out of his weakened body releasing every drop of monstrosity inside him.
But he didn't stop here, he took Juan's left arm and twisted it breaking the bone, then the right leg leaving the man crippled on the ground "Damned human bastard!" he insulted the injured man then "I don't see what father saw in you! You are nothing but a useless scum!" he completed.
Juan wasn't actually capable of hearing what Klaive was saying, the torturing pain he felt upon breaking his limbs was massive to let his mind think he just laid there staring at Klaive waiting for the strike of mercy.
Then Klaive decided to finish Juan's agony, and materialized a trident made of volcanic stone, then in front of the other three defeated out men, he stabbed the wounded shepherd in the face!
At this moment, preceding the final hit, Tsukiname who was evacuating the citizens felt it! A dreadful aura scarier than anything that she felt before, but yet it was nostalgic, she just gazed at the temple's top, she wanted to move but Juan instructions were clear, she hardly suppressed her wild instincts down but she knew that nothing good will follow this feeling.
It was like she thought, the merciless spear didn't went through Juan's skull, it stuck between his jaws, surprising everyone else, even Klaive who let go of his weapon and jumped back.
Juan…but that wasn't him anymore, he stood having his bad injuries totally healed, grabbed the trident and simply chewed and swallowed it to the last piece, then after gulping the flaming stones, his body got covered in a fiery shroud, even more powerful than Klaive's, and suddenly a loud growl was released trembling the land in Ardneria.
Juan went through an unfamiliar transformation, which only one person had ever seen -namely Prince Artemiciano Zoldeo-, his orange hair turned into a red fiery torch, his dark colored eyes turned into yellow ones resembling those of beasts, his small teeth turned into sharpened canines, his skinny fingers turned into yellow scaly talons, while his nails turned into black claws, as his whole body got covered in red flaming feathers… Juan simply transformed into a ferocious monster.
Everyone was stunned witnessing this unusual turn of events but Klaive, who grinned challenging this beast into another fight, he wasn't sure of his victory, yet…the beasty blood that runs in his veins was boiling leading every hair in his body to shiver encouraging him to fight, so he set his body on fire and charged toward the danger.
Juan wasted no time as well and attacked Klaive blindly with everything he got; his claws were slashing his enemy's body leaving droplets of blood which spread on the floor tainting the black scorched floor beneath them, but somehow this didn't hold the beastman back, he kept punching and kicking the monster caring less whether his hits were effective or weren't, for he as well was driven by mindless rage.
Then the two fighters separated, each one of them took a side of the room, but Klaive was faster as he summoned a blazing stone attempting to crush Juan, who simply carried the boulder and sapped all the fire in it before breaking it to mere dust.
Following this, the fire monster simply raised his head and started inhaling causing his chest to bulge exceeding the normal limits that anybody can bare, Klaive knew what's coming after this move but he just stood there waiting for the attack to land in pure confidence.
"I must admit you are probably the strongest opponent I ever faced, yet you are the stupidest!" he admitted before Juan released a powerful wide ranged flaming breath that pierced through the wall behind his foe drawing a glowing track out of the temple noted by every single inhabitant in Ardneria.
"HAHAHAHA! Thanks for the feast stupid beast!" Klaive shouted after appearing from the dust where only his jacket got burned, because he simply "ate" the flames that Juan emitted earlier and turned it into a source of power that returned what he lost during the previous battles.
The beast Juan didn't care because his mind was absent, and rushed toward his enemy but suddenly the fiery shroud, the claws, the scales, and all the feathers disappeared, leaving Juan half awake in mid air to be surprised by Klaive's large right paw grabbing his neck choking him.
"Let me guess, you used all your power back there, huh?" Klaive asked mocking his defeated opponent.
Juan wasn't aware of anything, his mind was absent during the whole transformation, and now he found himself totally drained out of power, strangled by the beastman who seemed mysteriously to him suffered from a tough fight, but he didn't care about his enemy like he cared about struggling to free himself.
"Oh now you've waked up!" Klaive said while tightening his grip.
"Leave him alone!" Demetri shouted while crawling desperately to save his brother.
"No, I have a better idea, I haven't used this technique for a long time, I guess Juan will be humbled with it" Klaive said taking a deep breath.
Suddenly silence reigned, the air shifted, and Zolu remembered this nostalgic feeling of dizziness, Klaive's arm shined with golden light followed by different runes slithered through to his palm, and the starry sky above them responded to this by the same reaction drawing the attention of beastmen who stopped to witness this unfamiliar scene feeling their power drained.
Zolu remembered the day Luffine faced Ramusus in a final battle, and recalled how their sage pathetically kneeled before Luffine begging to stop this spell…he quickly concluded that Klaive is about to cast Yusseir's judgment on Juan!
"Stop it Klaive! If you casted that on him he'll die!" the ragon shouted in fear, making Demetri troubled trying to stand up.
"So you know Yusseir's judgment, impressive…enjoy it then because it'll be the last sight of yours!" Klaive said with deep laughter mocking Juan's struggling to save himself.
And so the incantation to cast this merciless light started: "O' blessed light…the light given to the chosen one…shine…and fall from heavens…Make this evil of your enemies descend to the deepest abyss… to be forgotten for the rest of eternity...I call you from above…Yusseir's Judgment…Descend!" and with the last word of the spell, a pillar of blinding light fell from the shiny sky to hit Juan whose body glowed with golden light before illuminating the whole room leaving Klaive's laughter the only thing to be heard.
To be continued