Dragons of the Apocalypse - An Achievement Hunter and Ray Narvaez Jr. Fanfiction

Chapter XVII: Nothing is Invincible

The six draconians struggled in their unconscious states, trying to escape their worst fears. The demonic snake that was torturing and destroying them was reveling in their torment, laughing manically in a way that would send shivers up anyone’s spine.

The creature was confident that none of the vessels could break the curse it had set upon them, sure that the power of it was too strong to be broken. It knew that it was inevitable that the curse would stay unbroken.

Except that it wasn’t.

Jack was reliving his fear for the, what was it? Sixteenth time?

Anyway, the water vessel was forced to experience his fear for the sixteenth or so time when he felt something click. Something changed, though he wasn’t sure what at first.

Then, when he was halfway across the ice bridge he was steadily creating, he felt that something was different. It took him a minute to realize it as he continued to slowly trek forward, but he didn’t feel the terrible heat that he had felt all the times he had attempted this task before.

Before he knew it, Jack opened his eyes in the simulated fear and found that he was at the other side of the gorge. His fellow vessels were congratulating him and giving him hi-fives, and he discovered something.

He had been successful.

In the real world, Jack’s eyes snapped open, and he fell from where he was suspended in the sky and landed roughly on the ground. The serpent stopped laughing abruptly when this occurred, eyes narrowing in on Jack, who was quickly rising from where he had fallen.

“Interessssssting,” the demon snake announced, moving to look at Jack, who was creating a ball of water in his hand.

“Unimportant, though.” The creature spoke again, shaking its head slightly. “You sssssstill musssssst die.” Dark tendrils rose from the ground and shot towards the water vessel, who quickly stunned them by throwing scalding hot balls of water at them.

Jack then leaped into the air, using his wings to propel himself higher, and tore Ryan’s staff from his belt, the death vessel still floating and unconscious. The staff stopped cycling between the six colors and selected blue, Jack tightening his grip on the weapon as soon as it did so.

The water vessel, with the empowerment of the staff, conjured giant spikes of ice in the air. He then propelled them at the tendrils of darkness that were again reaching for him, killing them instantly.

The serpent of darkness let out of low hiss in distaste, firing bolts of red lightning directly at the only conscious vessel, who quickly conjured a shield of ice to block them. The snake then launched itself at the water vessel, who sidestepped the creature gracefully.

Jack then slammed the serpent in the head with Ryan’s staff, stunning it and forcing it to emit a noise of pain. The demon swiftly attempted to bite the water vessel, who again dodged its attack. He then summoned a wave which tossed the snake on to its side, helpless against the vessel’s assaults. It squirmed and hissed, its power useless against Jack, who had been able to face and defeat his fear.

Said draconian then jumped up, lifting his borrowed staff above his head, before impaling it through the eyes of the defeated serpent of darkness, who let out an ear piercing screech as it was killed.

As the creature thrashed violently as it died, still impaled on Ryan’s staff, the six other vessels were released from their nightmares, quickly snapping awake once they fell and hit the ground.

They all watched in awe as Jack extracted the staff from where it was speared through the demon snake’s eyes, and tossed the weapon to Ryan, who swiftly caught it and reattached it to his belt.

No questions were asked about what had happened as the group progressed, leaving the dead serpent behind, as all that mattered was getting to Mount Coronor and completing their destinies. Jack remained humbly proud, though, happy to know that he had saved his friends and fellow vessels from certain doom. He wasn’t sure that he had completely conquered his fear, he heard it in the back of his mind, the thought of it still sending shivers down his spine, but because of his ability to face it at the least, he had stopped it from truly happening.

The vessels had conquered another challenge, or at least, Jack had, but they could feel it in their bones that there was still more to come before they even had the chance to complete their fates.