Chapter 3: Dangerous Encounter
X91, During the Tartaros arc:
Setasuke wraps up a huge mission, along with Hiouis and 3 others from a different guild: Thatch, Roga, and Misu.
"I gotta say, Setasuke, you're Ice dragon slayer magic is incredible." Thatch complements.
"Freezing those giant beasts wasn't a problem for me whatsoever." Setasuke shrugs.
"You could say that again. It's nothing you can't handle as this happens all the time." Hiouis said.
"You're in S-Class Wizard in your guild right? How did you become one?" Misu asks, curiously.
"One answer: Train day and night consistently." Setasuke replies, still looking ahead as they walk.
"That's it?!" The three exclaim dramatically.
"What? You all thought it was gonna be easy? Fat chance!" Hiouis laughs and teases.
"Oh, you little-" Roga mutters under his breath with a tick mark, which Hiouis sticks his tongue out.
They are now in a wasteland land area and around this time, "!" Setasuke stops, "I sense incredible magic coming our way..."
"What magic?" Hiouis asks.
"! Get back!" Setasuke warns and they all get back as something comes in front of them.
"CRASH!" Out of the smoke comes a Dragon with black and blue stripes around him.
"A dragon?!" Misu exclaims in shock.
"Why is there one out here? I thought they didn't exist!" Thatch said and admits.
"Found you." The dragon then transforms into a human with long dark blue hair, a black cloak, and scales on his arms and face, grinning after coming out.
"His magic level is off the charts!" Roga sweats in shock.
"Yeah, he's bad news..." Misu tightens her fist.
Setasuke steps up and asks, "Who are you?"
The man speaks and eyes them, "I am Acnologia, the King of Dragons."
"The... king of dragons?" Setasuke questions and doesn't get it.
"This guy...?" Hiouis doesn't get it either.
"I sense it, a dragon slayer is here." Acnologia grins sinisterly, tightening his claws, "And there you are." He points directly at Setasuke.
The group sense the bloodlust coming from him, sweating in shock.
"This guy must be a dragon slayer himself or something..." Hiouis guess, stepping back in a little fright.
"My thoughts exactly..." Thatch agrees, "This is bad!" He then turns to the ice slayer, "Setasuke, you need to get out of here now!"
"What?" Setasuke asks in disbelief.
"We're no match for this guy! He's not an enemy we can take, especially head on, so just go!" Thatch tells him.
"We'll hold him off as long as we can, so get moving." Roga agrees.
"No, I'm the strongest one here and I'm fighting to-" Setasuke insisted by is suddenly knocked out by Misu, who then catches him.
"No, we won't let you get slayed by this guy." Misu says to the unconscious Setasuke, "Hiouis, go on ahead and get him out of here!"
"Right!" Hiouis grabs Setasuke by the back and flies away.
The three turn to Acnologia, "Alright, you're dealing with-" Roga was about to say but he is suddenly stabbed through the chest, "GAH!" He spits out blood.
"Roga!" Misu and Thatch shout in shock as he drops to the ground, dead.
"Roga...!" Hiouis looks back and can only closes his eyes, not wanting to watch or wanting to leave them, but must.
"Misu let's go for that move!" Thatch nods to her and she nods back, "Magic Combo: FLOWER SWORDS DANCE!" They do a combination attack at Acnologia but the human dragon isn't fazed and simple eats the attack, "What?!" They both exclaim in shock.
"Thanks for the meal." Acnologia rubs his mouth before proceeding to stab them both through the chest, making them spit out blood violently, the same way as the dead Roga, "That's three down." Acnologia grins as they drop to the ground in a pool of blood.
He then looks and sees that hiouis and sueong are nowhere to be found, "Tsk, that cat got away with the dragon slayer." He scoffs, "Oh, well, I have better matters to attend to anyway." He then transforms into his Black Dragon form, sprouting is wings, "Now to go 'there'." He then flies off, leaving the allied guild members dying.
Thatch slowly looks next to him, "Misu..." He sees that she's dead and blessed out, "Damn..." He then looks to the sky, "Thank god... at least hiouis got away with Setasuke... hope he's got far too... we can't afford to let one of our allies die..." He mutters his last words before succumbing to his wounds, now dead and the wind breeze blows over their dead bodies.
Meanwhile:
Hiouis flies and stopsnear a sitting up ahead, in the forest.
"Phew, think we lost him." Hiouis sighsin relief and deactivates his wings, "But... thatch, Misu, and Roga." He saddens a bit, thinking, "You're sacrifices weren't in vain, I got setasuke away from him."
The ice slayer then wakes up, "Oh..." He rubs his head.
"You're awake." Hiouis checks on him.
"Hiouis... what happened-" He then recalls to Acnologia and Misu knocking him out, "Hold on! That guy with the cloak!" He recalls, "And what about the other 3?!"
The cat lowers his head in a sad expression, "They... didn't make it."
"What...!" Setasuke is shocked.
"They held that guy off as long as they could, but got killed in an instant." Hiouis explains even more.
"Are you kidding? That quick! If I was there, they wouldn't have had to die!" Setasuke is mad at this, "What was she thinking, knocking me unconscious during that moment?!"
"It's a good thing Misu did knock you out, otherwise you would've been killed!" Hiouis states at his friend with a concerned look, "They chose to be left behind so they could save you from that dragon king guy!"
"..." The ice slayer gazes in silent for a second.
"Setasuke?" The cat questions.
"That guy... I did sense an enormous amount of magic in him." He explains, "It's no doubt that he's dragon slayer as well... an evil one at that." He recognizes, "By the moment he sensed me with dragon slayer magic, his bloodlust awakened."
"Does he have a thing against dragon slayers or something? Even though he's probably one too?" Hiouis thinks with a paw on his chin and doesn't get it.
Setasuke looks up at the evening sky, "Who knows... but that guy is dangerous and must be prepared for." He gazes to his exceed, "We're going back to the guild, and reporting this to Master Raburn. He adds, "After encountering that guy... I'll need to train a lot harder than ever."
"Right." Hiouis agrees, before they head on their way home.
Setasuke Ryuta's first encounter with Acnologia, the Dragon King Himself. 3 guild random allies immediately got killed, but it was worth it as was to buy time for the Ice dragon slayer to escape as he didn't stand a chance against the Dragon king yet.
When he mentioned, Something to attend to, I think some of you know where Acnologia is heading. Oh boy...
Alright, Peace out.
