Arise the Dragonslayer [⚔️The Flash warrior series #1⚔️]

Chapter fifty: Dark chamber

"Yo Xabe, you feeling all right buddy?" I woke up as heard Victor's voice. He sighed in relief. "Great. Hey guys, he's awake!" I found myself laying on the ground while the waves of the black ocean soaked my pants. I'm still wearing the same thing, and finally, the claymore and my watch necklace were still with me. Somehow, despite the red sky with stormy clouds and horrific sides of the island, Victor looked cleaned as if he took a bath. I grunted as I got up to my one knee. Claes, Sean, Chloriette, and Lenard ran closer toward us. Why were they so far away?

"Thank the heavens," I heard Claes' voice. "You have to be ready, kid." I had no idea why I felt as if I'd been laying on the most comfortable couch ever that I had no energy to stand up. "Hang on a minute," Sean said as he reached something in his small pouch. I realized also that the four of them were clean too- and glowing. "Here, drink this." Sean passed me a small blue flask. I never felt so refreshed after I drank it. I stood quickly and never felt so pumped. 

"What is this?" I looked at the flask. 

"This, my man." Sean put the flask back inside his small pouch. "Is the refresher energy drink. It's really good, right? Now hold still."

He held out another flask, but this time it was a shape of a circle, and inside was twinkling blue dust. Sean sprinkled some of it on top of my head. I looked down and was surprised at how dirty I am from all the adventures we had. But the filthiness of my body was gone as the dust fell gently at me. "Let me guess, purification flask," I said. 

"Yup." Sean nodded. "I thought of bringing this because I'm a genius."

I came closer to the view that I was most attracted to. They followed as I was staring at the exploding eruption of the volcano. Just like what I dreamed of. Lighting darted toward the ground followed by the sound of the furious thunder. And mostly, this huge island had the best appearance of a wasteland. Crushed trees, littered with rusted armors and swords, and skeletons. And smoke appearing from nowhere. A powerful roar echoed over the high volcano. The earth quaked, the cracking of faults started to form beneath the surface, and we tripped out of balance. "Xabe, look." Chloriette pointed at my watch necklace. "It stopped ticking."

And she's right, as I looked at my watch, so for some reason, it stopped ticking. 

"It's not broken," Lenard said. "It is affected by the halt of time. I studied about time a lot lately."

"So, do you have a plan?" Claes looked at me, followed the rest of my friends as we got up.

On the inside, I felt I carried way too much because now that I becoming nervous, but read at any cost at the same time. "When we found the Devastrigon, we distract it while I try to stab its heart." The really weird part was there were only six of us. One boy, who turned out to be a Dragonslayer, a captain with the power of hypnotic illusions, a hippie-with-style with wizard magic skills, a girl could sing magically (Literally), a young athlete with super-enhanced abilities, and a nerd with the power of knowledge and also a spell caster. I think we had high hopes.

As we stepped into the final act of the story, we had never seen mountains stood so well, including burned slopes from the ruins. We hurriedly race on the mountaintop as the dragon's roar was getting louder. My concentration only mattered now is this mission. I couldn't believe that I'm thinking this way. "What about the doors of death?" Chloriette asked. She was shinier with the purification dust.

"If we deal with the dragon, the doors will be closed," Lenard said as another roar boomed after the volcano exploded. "I hope so."

"Then, what are we waiting for?" Victor smiled at the sight of the destruction. "Oh look, cave." We turned around to see a massive hole followed by a cry. "I should've brought more pants." Lenard whimpered. It was not a typical quiet cave-like we used to enter, this one was always echoing with thundering sounds of the Devastrigon. According to the Slayers' Enchiridion that I had read during my training, dragons often roar, growl, or cry from their recovery because of many efforts they had to heal themselves. Wow, I did a huge punch back there.

Igniting my claymore with my magic, the blade guided our way through the endless tunnel that could lead us into our end. "Psst, hey Lenard," Victor whispered, although he was still loud. 

"What?" asked Lenard. 

"You still have the blanket that I borrowed from Renzy when we had a sleep-over, right?"

"The blanket with creepy spiders on it? Uh . . . yeah, I can barely touch it. Why?"

"Could you give it to her and tell Victory says thanks?"

"Why can't you give it to her by yourself? And it was not a sleep-over, it was a gathering meeting for animal study."

"Come on, Len-man," Victor frowned. "You know why I can't give her the blanket all by myself."

"Wait, you invited warrior friends on a sleep-over without me?" Sean said to Lenard.

"It's not a sleep-over." Lenard tossed his arms.

"Be quiet now. We're getting close." Claes shushed. And it was true. At the end of the dark tunnel was a black hall with dimming flames dancing on debris. We walked and glanced everywhere stealthy so we won't get anything to face other dangers we might encounter. I slowly swung my sword to see the gigantic claws shredded the walls, countless skulls displaced as trophies, and what was even scarier about this dark chamber was when we saw flames on top of the ceiling.

Another thing that I learned from the Slayer's Enchiridion is that Dragonslayer's often use their enhanced senses to track the dragon. Well, I guess I'm the one who became the hunter. I used my senses. I could hear rumbling from the other side of the hall followed by another deep sound. What's it doing?

Exited from the hall, we went outside to see the view of the volcano. Lava splashed like tidal waves, lightning continued to zap the earth, the black clouds continued to swirl around. And now the only question that must be answered was where's the three-headed dragon?

It couldn't be, we couldn't be this late because it was still here. If the dragon left, we would hear the flapping of its wings. "Okay, this is weird," Victor said. "How are we going to kill it if we can't find it?" My senses got stronger, but in our vision, the monster was not there. 

"I think it's hiding," I said.

"How in a million times does that dragon hide? Besides, it's this big." Lenard stretched his arms, depicting the size of the Devastrigon. 

"I know how to deal with this," Chloriette said. She started to sing a song by persuasion. 

"Come now, come now, come now from the shadows of where you are.
Come here and stop hiding. We know you're here, so please step out." 

The chorus was repeated. This helped because I could feel the earthquake with a weak amount of force. Somehow, the lava didn't splash in our way as we continue to walk.

Chloriette kept singing the same lyrics, this time she sang as if she was summoning a spirit. Walking near the edge of the volcano, my senses expanded. 

"Do you guys hear that?" I asked. 

"Nope," Sean said. I could hear something while hearing Chloriette's voice. I knew it was still here. It cannot go away.

Chloriette's singing turned weaker as the shadow behind us rose. We could barely hear the sound of lava from the volcano. Smokes slowly gathered to our surroundings as wandering ghosts. "Uh, kid," Claes whispered. "You might want to turn around." Seeing them facing backward while lifting their heads. 

I followed where they looking until I stopped to see three humungous silhouettes covered with hot steam. We all backed away, trying to be careful from the unexpected danger. I gripped tightly at my claymore's handle. The captain unsheathed his black sword while Sean drew out his own. I'm not sure either Lenard would have a spell for our advantage or couldn't move because of the sight. Chloriette held her feather blade tightly. "In case we die," Victor said, "I just want to say I love you guys."

Behind the steam, two volcanic eyes opened, followed by another two pairs of eyes from the left and the right. 

A/N:

Only seven more chapters to go. This is the moment we've been waiting for. Find out what will happen next in the next chapter where the Dragonslayer and the Devastruction confront each other for one last time.