I do not own Dragon Quest 11 or any of the characters.
Revenge
Kai groaned as he stirred. He was lying on the ground, webbin lg of some kind sticking to his body all over. He groaned again, struggling to move, but his muscles flared in pain. Everything hurt. His muscles, his bones, his skin. Breathing. His heart beat. Everything hurt. he looked up just as Jade knelt beside him.
"Eat this," she instructed, stuffing several dry leaves in his mouth. "It'll help with the poiaon."
He chewed the leaves, if only to avoid choking on them, then swallowed. For a moment, nothing changed. Then, he felt the pain fading slightly. It didn't help much, but it was enough for him to pull most of the webbing off and brush it on the ground. He groaned, struggling to stand, and Jade turned, taking his arm over her shoulder and standing.
"I'm sorry," Jade said. "I didn't know the glaive belonged to your fiancée."
"I know," Kai nodded. "Why are you helping me? I tried to kill Robert."
"I would, too, if I were in your shoes," Jade said. "If I could find the person who caused the fall of Dundrasil, I'd want to kill them, too."
Kai nodded slowly. "You were a survivor, too."
Jade nodded. "You're not going to be recovered for a few days. We're going to bring you with us."
"I have no intention of traveling with that fat bastard," Kai growled.
"I wasn't asking," Jade said. "Right now, even a child could beat you."
Kai growled under his breath, then sighed, nodding. Jade helped him up through a tunnel to an orphanage, then to the inn. Once in the room she and Robert had been sharing, she dropped him on the bed, Kai dragging hinself under the blanket.
"Here," Jade said, pulling a bag out from under the bed.
From it, she pulled out a smaller bag filled with small red spheres. Panacea. Medicine pills that were used to treat a list of illnesses and medical problems. He accepted the pills, swallowing them, and sighed.
"Thank you," Kai said. "But also, go fuck yourself. I hate owing people."
"You don't owe me anything," Jade said. "I'm doing it because it's right, not because I want you to owe me."
Kai nodded, then sighed, his eyes sliding closed as he passed out again. When he woke again, he was lying on grass, a fire crackling beside him. He groaned, pushing himself up. He felt better now, albeit not back to normal, but he could move around himself. Jade tossed him a bag of panacea pills, and he swalled a few before tossing it back and walking away from the campfire to relieve himself out of sight. With that out of the way, he walked back over and sat in front of the fire, holding his hands out toward it. He hated being cold, but thanks to the poison, that was exactly how he felt.
He glanced at Jade, seeing her staring at his palms, and he turned them toward himself, remembering when he'd gotten the scars. "Even before we were slaughtered, Dragovians were hated."
"Aye," Robert nodded. "It was your power to turn into dragons. The same reason we were able to be led to think you'd betrayed us. People feared it, so they hated you."
Kai nodded. "The people of Dundrasil and Heliodor wanted to be able to identify Dragovians by something more easy to see than our crests," he held a hand to his pendant, "so Robert," he shot him a disgusted glare, "had us all gather together and use our necklaces as brands. Our options were either our faces or our hands, so we chose our hands. We understood the hate and fear. We were dangerous, so we allowed it. We remained loyal and branded ourselves. We chose to consider it a rite of passage to be allowed to serve Dundrasil. In hind sight, we should have expected the next step would come."
Jade stared at the ground in silence. "I never knew about any of this."
"Aye," Robert nodded. "I didnae think any of them were alive, so there was no point in digging up the dark, unpleasant past. Every nation has made mistakes. Even Dundrasil."
Jade nodded, remaining silent. Eventually, everyone went to bed, though Kai couldn't sleep this time. The next day, they packed up and left, reaching the Dundrasil ruins within a couple hours. Kai remained silent, staring around at what had once, long ago, been a second home, as well as a prison. They made their way through a small village across the river from the main city, then the ruins of a small cluster of shops. The gate had collapsed, but they took a secret passage in through a nearby well, one Robert claimed to have frequented to visit the tavern. Once they were out on the far side, Robert said he would wait to greet the Luminary, who would be following them on account of them stealing the Rainbough, a twig from Yggdrasil that the Luminary was searching for. Jade and Kai headed to the top of a hill where an altar had been errected.
"We're going to send the souls to Yggdrasil?" Kai asked.
Jade nodded, and they began to gather what would be needed, preparing the ritual. Then, just as they had finished, David and the others arrived, led by Robert.
"What are you doing here?" David asked.
"Being held against my will," Kai said, just as Jade held out more panacea pills, smirking at him.
He rolled his eyes, swallowing the pills.She knew as well as he did that he could easily leave on his own, and would recover from the poison naturally, now. Instead of either commenting, he walked back down the hill, heading for what had once been the Dragovian armory. He dug through the rubble, feeling the last of the poison's effects fade as he did, until he finally found the weapons that had been long-since abandoned. Most of the weapons had been smashed by the building's collapse, and other things had rotted with time, but a few things remained untouched by the passage of time. Among them was a cuirass made from black scales shed by a Dragovian with black cloth to hold on scale armor running down the outsides of the arms, a Platinum Lance, and a chest that was cracked but mostly intact with fresh clothes inside that hadn't been rotted by time, though they were faded and worn.
He looked down at his own clothes, grimacing as he really took stock of himself for the first time since before Octagonia. His jacket was ripped and faded, his pants were about to wear away to nothin in places, and his shirt was so covered in webs still that he doubted it would ever be clean. He quickly stripped his clothes off and pulled out the semi-fresh set. As his own outfit was a style that Dragovians once wore when traveling, these clothes were a nearly identical, off color outfit. This shirt was a dark blue, the coat was a metallic grey, this one included a red cloth wrapped around his waist, and black pants. He put on the black, Dragovian Scale Armor under his shirt, and when reattaching his weapons, he slung his two swords both diagonally across his back beside each other, his curved, Dragovian Sword under his Cobblestone Sword.
"You should travel with us," a voice behind him said as he was adjusting his weapons.
He looked back as he slipped his Claws into his pockets, seeing the older blonde. "No," Kai said. "I'm not interested in helping you."
"But he's the Luminary," the blonde said.
"And I'm the last Dragovian," Kai said. "I don't care. The Luminary didn't help my people when they were slaughtered by the kingdom the Luminary was born into. He didn't help me when Hendrik found me as I was passing through Heliodor territory and beat me into submission then locked me up."
"But I heard he did help you escape," the blonde said.
"No," Kai said. "Erik opened my cell door and let me use his escape tunnel, and then both abandoned me when I decided I didn't have any reason to run from Heliodor's guards. Your precious Luminary didn't do anything for me."
The blonde's face fell and Kai turned, exhaling a jet of flames onto his old clothes before starting back up the hill. He stopped as a massive stream of glowing, pink butterflies suddenly filled the air, a trail of them leading all the way back to Yggdrasil. Then, a couple minutes later, it was raining. Kai rolled his eyes, then stopped, sniffing.
"Blondie, hide," Kai whispered.
"It's Serena actual-"
"I said hide!" he hissed quietly.
Serena immediately ducked under a chunk of stone as Kai tore off toward the altar where they'd left the others. Within moments, he heard soldiers running behind him. He turned along the road, heading for a large open area atop a cliff, the river dozens of meters below. Then, he turned to face the soldiers, drawing his Cobblestone Sword. Heliodor's soldiers drew their own blades, inching forward. There were twenty of them. Finally, one of them charged and Kai's eyes narrowed. When the soldier slashed, he sidestepped it, slashing the soldier across the gut and left side, allowing him to tumble over the cliff where he fell to his death.
The rest of the soldiers unleashed battle cries and charged, but Kai didn't feel like playing around. He inhaled, then roared, a jet of flames washing over half of the soldiers, a few being lucky enough to manage to avoid them by dropping flat to the ground. As they stood, Kai shot forward, slashing three before ducking under a blade and spinning, slashing two more. One stepped up behind him, but Kai spun, a windmill kick crushing his helmet around his head. A pair of them stabbed at Kai and he swept the swords aside before his knife flashed out, slitting their throats. One of them shouted in desperation and ran forward, sword in the air, but Kai slashed him up the front, then turned, exhaling a jet of flames onto the last handful as they fled.
He turned to the cliff, looking up just as Jade and David fell past, Jade hugging the Luminary to herself. He looked up at the top of the cliff above them, seeing Hendrik watching him from a small rock outcropping. Both narrowed their eyes, Kai's shimmering. Then, Hendrik shouted an order to his men, pointing his greatsword at Kai. The soldiers around him charged down the hill and across the bridge, Kai meeting them at the end of it. As he tore through the soldiers with his Claws, his eyes remained locked on Hendrik. Hendrik was Heliodor's greatest soldier. If he killed him here, it would leave Heliodor crippled. Ripe for the slaughter.
Finally, the last soldier between him and Hendrik dropped and Kai exhaled flames onto his Claws, incinerating the blood before putting the claws away. Then, he reached back, drawing his curved sword. It was the sword of the Drakovian King. His father's. He'd been left his father's sword, and his brother had been left their father's claws.
"Dragovian," Hendrik almost accused, striding onto the bridge opposite him, Kai moving to meet him in the middle, Kai's scales spreading down his arms and over his hands. "I had been taught that you kind were wiped out. It will be an honor to slay the last of the most dangerous species of monster to ever sully this world's surface."
"I can't wait to take off your head," Kai growled. "Then, when I burn Heliodor to the ground, no one will be able to stand in my way."
Hendrik snarled angril, then charged. Kai deflected the first overhead slash to the side and it fractured the bridge. He slashed back at Hendrik, but Hendrik spun out of the way, his cape fluttering away. Hendrik's sword whipped around, and Kai ducked under it, darting forward and slashing. His blade sparked along Hendrik's before Kai flipped over Hendrik's counter, spinning upside-down and slashing at Hendrik like a propellor. Hendrik blocked the first slash, only for it to knock his sword away. Before the blade had whipped around again, however, he had ducked, Kai's blade only removing a couple centimeters from the end of his hair. Kai flipped, landing on his feet as Hendrik lunged, stabbing at him, and Kai sidestepped it, then blocked a slash, the sheer force hurling him backward. Kai flipped, landing on his feet, then shot forward, leaving his boots behind as his scaled, clawed feet carried him forward faster than his boots. Without them, he was more agile, and when Hendrik slashed, Kai sidestepped it, then flipped sideways over a second sweep. As soon as he landed, he slashed, his blade grazing Hendrik's shoulder, not making it through Hendrik's armor, but forcing him to step back to keep his arm.
Kai lunged, slashing rapidly, and Hendrik's massive sword became a hinderance. It was too cumbersome to keep up with Kai's smaller, lighter blade. Kai's sword grazed Hendrick's thigh, his chestplate, his cheek. Kai spun and ducked under Hendrik's blade, drawing his knife, ad slashed upward with it as he stood, the blade carving a scratch up the front of the chestplate at a slight angle. He spun, his sword whipping around, only for ot to glance off Hendrik's blade. Hendrik slashed, and Kai lept over it, slashing at Hendrik's head with his dagger to force him to retreat, then shot forward as he landed. Flames roared along his blade as he pulled it back.
Hendrik moved to avoid the strike, crossing his arms in front of his face to shield himself from the flames. And then, agoiny shot through Kai. He shouted in pain, falling to his knees as his body convulsed. Hebdrik stared at him, surprised, and Kai clutched at his chest. The poison wasn't as healed as he'd thought.
"This fight is finished," Hendrik stated, raising his sword. "Die, now, monster."
Kai grit his teeth, and when Hendrik struck, he threw himself backward, slashing. His blade bit into Hendrik's side shallowly as Hendrik's own blade grazed Kai's left shoulder. Hendrik staggered to the side, catching himself on his sword, and Kai crashed to the ground by his boots.
"Forgive me, I foolishly believed you to be completely subdued," Hendrik said. "I'll not make that mistake again."
Kai glared at him, then roared, sending a wall of flames at Hendrik. He retreated, shielding his face, and Kai grabbed his boots, turning and leaping over the side of the bridge. The fall was long, but he formed his scales so that landing in the water didn't hurt. And as he landed in the water, a single, white scale on the front of his throat, fused to the top of one of his own scales to allow him to retract it along with his own, shimmered slightly. He inhaled, the spell on the scale making the water he inhaled turn to air, allowing him to breath underwater.
He slipped his boots into his pockets, then allowed his feet to grow to their full length, tripple their normal size, before extending his wings. As he began to swim, his extended feet allowed him to swim much faster, and his wings cut through the water like fins, allowing him to swim faster still. He raced down the river, searching. If they'd drowned, they'd be somewhere around here, and if they'd survived, they should be trying to resist the current to get to shore. Finally, he found them. Jade was struggling to carry David away from the water but the fall had taken its toll on her also. Kai surfaced and climbed out of the water, retracting his wings and compressing his feet back down to normal, then walked over, taking David from her. She nodded to him tiredly, and they headed for a nearby cabin. Kai put a pile of wood in the fireplace and blew a puff of flames onto them, igniting them, before searching the cabin, finally finding a few blankets. Jade dried herself as much as she could without stripping with one of them while Kai dried David a bit with the other. Having more clothes on than Jade's revealing outfit, David didn't get narearly as dry as Jade, but it was better than nothing. Once that was done, Kai put David in the bed and put all but one blanket over him to keep him warm, Jade wrapping the last one around herself.
"Thank you," Jade said.
"You're welcome," Kai said, taking the platinum lance from the sling he was carrying it and his glaive in, passing it to her. "Here. You can't just kick everything to death."
"That's debatable," Jade smirked, but accepted the spear. "Are you alright? You look exhausted."
"I fought Hendrik," Kai said. "The poison's not fully cleared up, yet, so it didn't go as I'd hoped."
Jade nodded. "I can't say I'm disappointed you didn't kill him. He was once a friend of mine."
Kai stared at her for a moment before turning to the door. "I'm going to get more firewood."
"What about the poison?" Jade asked, already having pulled out more panacea pills.
"I'm recovered enough for any weak monsters around here," Kai said. "I'll be back."
He left the cabin, heading for the trees nearby. He broke off branches and broke them up, collecting a pair of large bundles, then returned to the cabin with them under his arms. As he walked in, David was just waking up. Kai set the wood down and took the panacea pills Jade handed him, then headed back outside, leaving Jade and David their privacy. He expected the long lost prince of Dundrasil and princess of Heliodor had a lot of catching up to do. He jumped up to the roof of the cabin, sitting on top of it. After a few more minutes, the rain began to let up, and then a few minutes after that, the sun finally broke through the clouds. He exhaled a jet of flames above himself, the heat of it drying his clothes, and a moment later, Jade and David left the building, looking up at him. Kai dropped to the ground, looking around, then back up at the ruins of Dundrasil.
"We should find the others," Jade suggested. "Then we can figure out our next move from there."
David nodded, and Kai sighed, the trio heading back to the ruins to look for the others. Within a few minutes, however, they stopped as Hendrik galloped over and skidded to a stop before them.
"So, I was right," Hendrik nodded to himself. "I had suspected it would take more than a mere fall to put paid to the Darkspawn." He turned first to Kai, who had his dagger and Dragovian King Sword drawn. "Monster." His eyes turned to Jade.
"Sir Hendrik," Jade said worriedly.
"Can it really have been so many years since that fateful night, Princess?" Hendrik asked, then held his arm across his torso and folded forward in a bow. "To see you alive and well...you cannot imagine how much this pleases me." He straightened up, glaring. "But should you choose to continue to side with the Child of Darkness, you may not live for much longer."
"Look, I know how you feel about duty, Hendrik," Jade began. "How could I forget? But you don't understand how important this is! Please, you have to let us go!"
"You would ask a sworn knight of Heliodor to disobey the orders of his king?" Hendrik scoffed. "You have been away from home too long, girl!"
"Not long enough for the years to have changed you," Jade said, disheartened. "Still loyal to a fault. I wish it didn't have to come to this." She lowered her head. "But it has!"
She leapt at him, throwing a kick, but he easily blocked it with his sword. As she flipped to the ground, she sprinted around the horse, then flipped over Hendrik, kicking down at him, only for him to again block it. Jade landed on her feet in front of David, but as she held out a hand to signal David to let her handle it, Kai roared, sending a jet of flames at Hendrik. He leapt off his horse, avoiding the flames and allowing his saddle to ignite instead. However, as the horse began to panic, Hendrik slashed, cutting the saddle's strap and allowing the horse to flee safely, the horse slowing to a stop a short distance away.
"So, Hendrik," Kai said calmly, stepping forward. "Bring any kindling today, or is it just you?"
"Just me," Hendrik said. "You impress me, Princess. It would seem that the spirited young girl of old has grown into quite the warrior maiden."
"Oh, please!" Jade scoffed. "I'm not a child anymore! It'll take more than a pat on the head to distract me!"
She shot forward, throwing several rapid kicks, only for Hendrik to deflect them all before shoving against a drop kick and throwing her backward. She landed hard, rolling to a stop.
"And what will it take to convince you that I am deadly serious?" Hendrik asked. "That if you stand on the side of the Darkspawn, I will have no choice but to destroy you?"
"Just shut up and die," Kai growled, stepping forward.
"Of course the monster will protect the Darkspawn," Hendrik snorted.
"As I told Jasper, I don't give a ahit about your Darkspawn," Kai growled. "I just have a favor to repay."
"What favor?" Hendrik asked.
"Heliodor owes me a slaughter," Kai said. "Dundrasil did, too, but they're gone now, with one exception, so that leaves Heliodor. And with you out of the way, I'll be able to collect easily."
Hendrik narrowed his eyes, crouching and pulling his sword back, preparing to react to any strike. Then, just as Kai was about to charge, Jade set a hand on his shoulder. He sighed heavily, sheathing his sword and dagger.
"Another time, then," Kai said.
Just as Hendrik moved to strike, a blinding flash shot out of Kai's eyes before he ducked under the blade and immediately transformed into a dragon, causing another blinding flash. His expanding head and neck slammed into Hendrik, hurling him into the river, albeit safely, unfortunately, while his arms picked up Jade and David. Within a second, the transformation was complete and he beat his wings, taking to the skies. His dragon form had black scales, a long snout, wings with blood red webbing, a pair of long, black horns, three small, black spikes aligned from smallest to largest along his brow in front of the horns, a row of small, black spines running down his back to the tip of his tail, and his eyes burned as they had when he'd faced Robert in the arena, though with lit pupils now and the irises filling his eye. He flew them quickly, landing in Dundrasil and setting the other two down before returning to his human form, his clothes fully intact.
"Thank you for sparing him," Jade bowed.
"You know I'll kill him eventually, right?" Kai asked. "He stands in the way of my revenge."
"I know," Jade nodded. "But...at least for now..."
Kai sighed, nodding. "For now, I'll ignore my revenge. I'll help the Luminary in his mission. It'll allow me to make sure Lord Robert doesn't get himself killed, anyway."
Jade nodded, smiling. "Thank you."
Kai nodded then turned on David. "But if I'm going to help you, you need to be less pathetic. If you're constantly needing saving, how are you supposed to save the world?"
David's face fell, but he nodded.
"Relax," Kai said. "I'm going to train you."
David blinked in surprise and nodded. "Okay."
"Look!" Veronica announced suddenly.
David's entire group ran over to them instantly.
"There ye both are!" Robert greeted David and Jade. "And in one piece, too!"
"Just about," Jade nodded. "All thanks to David. He fought Hendrik last night, stopping him from chasing us, and then got us away from him just now."
"So, it was auld Hendrik, was it? I thought it might be. I would have liked a wee word with the rascal, buy...I doubt he'd have told us much. But, where did all of his men go?"
"I killed them," Kai said. "Only Hendrik's left."
Robert hesitated, then bowed. "Thank ye for protecting Jade and my grandson."
"Don't make me feel like I need to bathe," Kai warned. "Let's move before reinforcements arrive. We can discuss our next move on the way."
"Wait, ye mean yer coming with us?" Robert asked.
"I have to make sure you don't die or turn coward somehow," Kai said. "You all coming, or what?"
Everyone hurried to catch up to him, leaving Dundrasil behind and heading toward Costa Valor while Robert explained his theory that a dark sorcerer named Mordegon was behind every aweful thing that had happened, including the cult who'd gotten the Dragovians slaughtered.
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