The TRIBE Chronicles : Forgotten Memories (Completed)

09.1 - Awakening of... (Part 1)

          

As they fought, each of them thought if the battle seemed to be endless.

It was true that the magical soldiers were not as strong as they thought and could be easily banished by a swing of their weapon. However, because their base was made by liquid, the fallen soldiers would somehow be revived again; they knew if it was the work of magic.

The repeated process had started to tire out the group physically. None of them could stop to take a breath. Whenever they paused from the fight, another attack quickly came and they were forced to fight again. Even Lopka and Gail began to think if they were lucky when they fought the soldiers downstairs earlier.

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Lia finally landed at the center platform. She stuck the lower end of her staff on the ground and bent her body forward, using her knees as support as she was trying to catch her breath.

Seriously, fighting the liquid soldiers endlessly had worn her out physically although she didn't actually cast any magic. And she noticed that her friends were almost exhausted as well. She realized that everything would be ended if they could somehow defeat the silver-haired man; he was still standing at the door, watching the fights in relaxed manner. However sensing the great power from him, she didn't sure whether she could defeat him or not, even with her power.

She also knew if she had an option of casting out a vast scale of frozen magic to freeze dozens of soldiers, keeping them from reviving; so her friends could go after the man. But she doubted if she could keep her own magic in control, especially when she felt that her power seemed to be unstable with something inside of her head that was waiting to emerge; it had caused her head to throb in pain right now.

That's right.

Ever since the fight began, she had noticed something ready to emerge inside of her head. From the feeling that it had given, she knew if it was the same thing that appeared from when the Shadow ninjas attacked her. So, if something went wrong and she lost control of her power or herself, she didn't know what that would be happened; perhaps she might be able to freeze the whole city and destroyed it in flames, just like what she had done to a village years ago. Seriously, it was something that she wanted to avoid now.

She looked up and saw the red moon that had almost reached the highest peak of the night.

It's almost midnight, she thought. And the throbbing pain on her head seemed to appear more often.

Lia took a deep breath and heaved it out to ease the pain. She then took her staff and prepared herself for fighting again. However, as she stepped her foot forward, a sound of heavy heartbeat was making her stopped.

What was that, she thought and questioned inside her heart.

But she could feel a heavy pressure lingering around her, disturbing her feeling and arisen her awareness. She turned, trying to find the cause of the pressure, before realizing that it was actually coming from beneath her.

Curious, she then knelt and pressed her right palm against the smooth surface of the platform before shutting her eyes close. She concentrated to expand her vision. In her mind, she could see far beneath: fresh corpses of girls, mummified remains that made her stomach overturned, souls that had trapped under for years, paper charms with the strongest binding magic that she could ever meet, and the thick steel scales of a Dragon.

Furthermore, as her vision traveled toward the head of the Dragon, she found that the eyes of the Dragon had suddenly opened. And it turned his head on her as if it felt her presence. But as it fixed its eyes toward her, it became furious and suddenly moved forward to pounce toward her.