DARK BLACK smoke and dust filled the air, covering Ahara's clear vision of the serpent.
The only thing she could see was her immediate surroundings and the blood coming out from her wounds, dripping on the rubble.
Thirty minutes had already passed and yet, she couldn't shake off the Dramba.
Her neck was bruised, and so were her legs and arms. The venom it had injected in her wounds was beginning to take effect, she could feel her heartbeat getting slower—a measly 200 beats a minute.
That was the heartbeat for infants in Gibbous.
Ahara wanted to open the portal whilst clouded by the dust, but every time the portal made noise when she unleashed it, the serpent was able to tell her exact location and attack.
Thank goodness there was blood everywhere. It couldn't track her by scent alone.
Whereisitgoingtocomefromnext? She wondered, pressing on the wound by her hip.
As if on cue, a cold whoosh of heavy wind came from her side, strong as it carried the weight of the Dramba's tail. The hairs on Ahara's back stood.
"Left."
Swinging her sword, it curved in the direction of the assault, the segments of her blade separating as the magnets held it together. A loud cracking sound came in the direction she had swung, followed by the annoying scrappy sound of metal rubbing on the snake's scales as sparks of fire lit in the dim smoke.
She had hit. Again!
"One more time and I'll kill it," Ahara pumped herself, withdrawing her sword as it sucked the blood from the serpent. Then she whipped it around, slicing the air in semi-circles around her to form a shield.
Both she and the snake were damaged beyond repair. It was now only a matter of who struck first to decide who would be the victor of this battle.
The sword belt extended its range with each swing she took, making a whip as tall as Ahara herself. "Come at me you ugly beast!" She screamed.
At the sound of her taunt, the heavy wind came again.
"There you are."
With all her might, Ahara swung her sword in the direction of the formidable wind, jumping so as not to take a hit. However, as she was jumping, her wounded hip throbbed, rendering her legs useless and reducing the height of her jump to nothing.
It took that small split second of a mistake to change everything. To change fate.
Before Ahara could land on her feet, the serpent's tail smacked her straight across the face. She had no time to react.
The next moment she opened her eyes, her body was flying, headed nowhere she knew in particular. Her nose was bleeding, and her head was fuzzy.
Time seemed to still as she floated midair. Even the stray tear coming out of her eye slowly rolled off her cheek. She had no way to land safely on the ground. Her arm had been broken by that last hit she took from the Dramba's tail.
This was the end.
As if sensing its victory, the Dramba hissed, exploding into a bloody rampage toward the direction in which Ahara was headed. She could feel it coming at her, ready to give her a taste of death.
"Ha!" Adder scoffed when she felt gravity pulling her back down. "I'm only twenty-two damnit."
Closing her eyes for impact, Ahara was shocked to land on something fluffy and hard. It wasn't large enough to be a flying carpet used by the Arabian wizards, nor was it hard enough to be a dragon.
"Are you okay," came the familiar rumble of Probe Kingston's voice, her Alpha werewolf boyfriend.
"I am, now that you're here," Ahara replied smiling to herself, relief coursing in her body when she noticed the familiar blue dragon figure floating in mid-air.
It was her former jokester senior from school, Song Kim in his dragon form.
Beside him was the prideful son of the wizard lord, Dion Slade, chanting spells as Song Kim blew hot steamed water at the serpent, burning its skin scales, and all.
Being the water dragon from his family, he had learned his skills enough to be able to control the state he wanted the water to be in before attacking.
Kingston lunged in the air, shifting into his human form in mere seconds and grabbing Ahara before she fell. They were already far away from the fighting scene, a huge gap of nearly half a kilometer covered in the blink of an eye.
A coat appeared from what had been fur a few seconds ago, covering the werewolf's naked body. He produced a small bottle from his pockets, dipping its bitter contents in Ahara's mouth as the silver ring on his hand glimmered in her face.
"You should've called me, I could've helped," he said in a low pained voice, his brown eyes scanning all over her body which was slowly repairing thanks to his medicine. "Look at what that thing did to your beautiful skin. The melanin is even more pale here," he added wiping her cheeks.
Ahara could only smile weakly at him, glad to have survived the fight.
"I'm going to kill that ugly thing," growled the alpha.
However, he couldn't bring himself to leave Ahara alone no matter how deep his bloodlust was. He would have to leave the revenge to his friends—for Ahara's sake.
A loud blast came from where the others were fighting with the serpent, the flash strong enough to make the buildings within their ten-meter radius blow up to pieces.
Even the hot air blasting from the explosion was so extreme, it could be felt from a kilometer away.
"To hell with you," the blue dragon roared as a loud hiss escaped from the serpent, sounding choppy and pained as the blast diced it to pieces.
"You feel that?" Ahara asked the Wolf who had already shifted before her. She could sense something coming at them at high speeds.
"I'll cover you," he growled, barring his teeth at the waves of threat. But alas, it was only a chunk of the serpent's body that had been blasted in their direction.
With a loud sloppy thud, it landed in front of Kingston, sliding between his four legs and nearly into Ahara's face.
Then the rain followed.
Thick black drops of blood showered from above the building, heavy and noisy as they poured all over the place. Ahara could tell where it came from by the stench coming from it, after all, it had been in her blood a while ago before the medicine Kingston gave her started working.
"Don't let that blood make contact with you! It has poison!" She shouted.
"Way ahead of you genius," came the most annoying icy voice Ahara was used to by now. "Otheoaktiv!" Ahara backed away as the spell's bright light flashed past her face.
The chunk of the serpent's skin that had been in her face a while ago was hit, blasting away from her like paper.
"You could have removed my head you fucker!" Ahara hissed at Dion, her fangs showing when she glared at him.
"But I didn't," the guy replied, brushing his spiky hair with a bored look on his face. With brown eyes, thin pink lips, and black clothes as his main color all the time, he was just another average guy in everything but fights.
Having been two years ahead of her back in school, she had never been able to defeat him. Even now when they were both warriors, he still was way out of her league—a Rogue killing machine.
"That was magnificent! Let's do it again!" Came the dragon's rumbling voice as he shifted into the bulky man he was, ignoring the banter Ahara and Dion were having. Deep blue fox eyes and silky black hair were his most noticeable features.
"Shut up you uncultured swine, or you're gonna call the devil king and have us all killed," Dion hissed at him in his usual British rebuking tone, pointing at him with his wand.
"I'm pretty sure I can take him down," Kim boasted, grinning. He wasn't exactly lying. Amongst the lot, he was the strongest warrior. Rumor even had it that he was in line to becoming the next Numen.
Kingston slightly shook his head, shifting and carrying Ahara in his arms before licking his ring. As if it came to life, the silver crept up his fingers, covering bits of his protruding veins until it was right on the tip of his now elongated nails.
Poking at his other hand's skin, he withdrew a tiny drop of blood. The sliver glove immediately glowed, a blue hue forming out of nowhere as a portal opened.
"It'll close once I enter, so you guys need to go first," Kingston warned.
"Yeah, right. As if we can't transport ourselves back home," Dion hissed even though he made his way inside the portal.
Song Kim followed in silence, his grin dropping when his eyes met with the scar on Ahara's hip. Passing by without saying anything, Ahara silently thanked him.
"The Numen called us, so we were headed to his house," Kingston told Ahara. The three boys weren't yet higher-ups in the military ranks, but their commanders had considered them powerful enough to receive orders directly from the Numen through telepathy.
"Before we could transport ourselves here, Kim said he heard the sound of a Dramba hissing, so naturally, we made our way towards it to kill it," he further explained, adjusting Ahara in his arms.
"I owe my life to him then."
"And me," the wolf was quick to add. "I saved you from falling on your head didn't I?"
Ahara smiled lovingly at him. "Yes, I owe you too—"
"Shut up you gross lovebirds. We're here," Dion cut her.
In mere seconds, the four of them appeared right inside the Numen's mansion. Gold and silver cased every metal in the palace whilst glistening ceramic tiled all over in a matching ombre that oozed royalty. It was heavenly, a sight before the eyes of the young men and woman, even though she lived there.
Song Kim immediately gasped, pointing at the large painting of the Numen and his family as if they didn't have one like that at his house.
"Why are there no guards?" Dion spouted.
"That's what I'm wondering too. Probe, take me to Damien's room please," Ahara begged the wolf.
"Got it," he replied, immediately sprinting up the stairs. The others used their magic, one turning into a dragon and flying up the staircase until they reached the topmost floor where the family rooms were. But there was no one there.
Dideveryonego to waralready? Ahara wondered, her heart racing.
"Probe, do you think they already went to war without us?"
"No, that isn't possible. They can't take the baby with them," he reassured her, but the way he was scrunching his face in confusion betrayed his words.
Touching his temple, Kingston closed his eyes to concentrate on the telepathy he was about to perform. But someone within their speech connection beat him to it.
Ahara felt her head going blank again and she winced, placing her fingers by their ears. Everyone in the room followed suit.
"The Numen's son has been kidnapped by the devil king! I repeat the Numen's son has been kidnapped by the devil king!"
Just like that, Ahara's senses came back to normal, but her heart rate spiked.
Damien had been kidnapped? By the devil king himself at that?! This was bad.
"They went to war with the kid? I thought the Numen was supposed to be the smartest man here," Dion hissed, already opening a portal back to the crime scene.
"Maybe that's why he wanted me back immediately," Ahara said to no one but herself as Probe lowered her on the kid's small soft bed, about to leave her and enter the portal back to war.
"I'm coming with," she asserted firmly.
A quick flash of water hit her legs and before she knew it, it had frozen.
"Song Kim you set my legs free this instant or I'll use my blade on you!"
"No, you're going to stay here and get some rest. We will assist the Numen in saving your sibling. I promise," the dragon answered back.
Whipping her sword out, she smacked the ice in one forced swing. "I said, I am coming with you guys. Nobody is allowed to stop me," Ahara hissed through gritted teeth, forcing herself to stand.
Another flash of light flew past her face, this time, a fiery light. "Stop trying to act like the hero and sit the fuck down you bleeding idiot," came Dion's sharp remark as he pointed his wand at her.
Ahara turned to look at her boyfriend, but even he seemed on board with the idea.
"We will save your family, princess," Probe cooed, kissing her forehead and standing, "leave this to us and rest. Your father would be mad at us if we let you go to war looking like that."
Turning around and giving her one last glance, he was the first to disappear into the portal.
"Yeah, what he said," Yong Kim asserted, following after Kingston all whilst Dion still had his wand pointed at her. "One more word from you and I'll send you into oblivion," he hissed, slowly stepping into the portal and disappearing.
The trio might have managed to shut Ahara's mouth, but not her heart.
She knew better than to believe people's promises about coming back from war. After all, her parents had made the same promise, only to leave her orphaned the next day.
And how right she was not to believe the boys.
Four hours later when the night sky was darker than death himself, she saw the trio who promised her victory trudging up the mountain that led to her house with saddened looks on their faces. They hadn't even bothered to use a portal or their shifted forms to transport themselves up.
But they weren't the ones who caught Ahara's attention the most.
Behind them was the face of a man whom Ahara had last seen when she was still a student at Gibforge—Principal Twiller Dextrodus. His silvery long white hair swerved in the wind as he walked up the mountain with his hands outstretched.
Each of them held two small familiar figures that made Ahara's heart thud in her chest, itching and hurting as if a rusty blade was scrapping on it to make it bleed.
Clenching her teeth, she jumped down from the topmost balcony she was standing, landing on the green-filled land below her and limping toward the four men coming at her.
"No, it can't be," she chanted as she came close to her subject of interest, shaking her head in denial.
However, when she was close enough to not be able to deny her clear vision anymore, the world crumbled at her feet and she dropped to her knees.
Her eyes weren't playing tricks on her. The figures in the old man's hands were indeed Damien and her uncle's beast, Silky.
The wind increased its villainous velocity, whooshing past her ears as it collected her tears with it. The tall grass she was kneeling in rubbed against her skin, leaving small itchy cuts that would've made her scratch any other day.
But this wasn't any other day, for history was threatening to repeat itself.
Where was her uncle and aunt? Where were the guards? Why did Damien have a mark on his neck? And why was Silky a small bird again?
The questions kept running in her head like a whirlpool, sucking all her breath and the bit of rationality in her mind away. Ahara pressed hard on her temple with her palm, tears brushing past her eyes as they got swept along with the wind.
What on earth was happening? And why the fuck was Old Man Twiller here?