Ancient Forces (2018 Reboot)

Chapter 48 - A Talk of Deja Vu

Everyone sat around the lunch table once again enjoying their meals and trying to keep as light a conversation as they could. It wasn't looking very joyful today however, especially after this morning's report.

Four Mystic squads were attacked. All of them killed this time. But contrary to what one might expect, the attacks weren't from Dragon Hunter, who seemed to have stolen the spotlight of the world for a few weeks. The attacks were the work of Death Blade, painfully obvious due to the deep cut wounds and bloody ground the members laid upon. For all the fear Dragon Hunter brought to the table, the total horror that Death Blade could exude without even being seen was overpowering. Zayne worried deeply about his future. Whether the Dragon's Heart was there or not, whether his friends were there or not, Death Blade was shaping up to be an opponent no one could stop. Perhaps not even the entire MRaCD attacking him all at once. If nuclear bombs could not stop Death Blade, what could? Zayne stewed over his own thoughts until he was spoken to.

"You alright?" Damien asked.

"Huh? Oh, yeah," Zayne sneezed loudly, "Yeah I'm fine."

"You don't look fine," Aries noted as he looked to Zayne's right arm, which was covered by a long black sleeve separate from his shirt, "What's with the arm?"

"Nothing. I think the Dragon's Heart is acting up because of my cold," Zayne replied as he sneezed again.

"I don't think going out last night was a good idea," Eli whispered in self pressure.

"What I don't get is, ah, AH, AH," Zayne sneezed even harder, "How I can fight Damien and be fine, but the minute I step into the open air on a cool evening I'm instantly sick."

"You might have been developing it and it hasn't come out yet until now," Damien suggested.

"It's possible. I still don't fully get the correlation between the Dragon's Heart and my immune system. It's a little wonky right now I think," Zayne replied.

"Sounds like even more reason to stay out of all of this," Aleah mumbled from across the table.

"That'll certainly be better than going out and making it worse wouldn't it?" Zayne agreed as he sneezed once more.

"I wonder what your cold has to do with the Dragon's Heart?" Eli asked more as a rhetorical question.

Zayne sneezed once more, except this time instead of just the regular force applied, strange orange glowing slime erupted from his mouth, spilling all over Zayne's food. Everyone stared at the strange new gunk everywhere with disgust and surprise, looking back up to Zayne who gave them even more confused stares.

"What. The hell. Is THAT!?" Aleah exclaimed as she ran over and started moving Zayne away from the table.

While Aleah furiously shouted at Zayne for coming to school and demanding that he go home at once like always, everyone else looked and studied the strange orange slop over his food. It was pulsing with energy, occasionally a small fire would ignite for a moment and stop almost immediately afterwards. Eli moved in close, just barely putting his finger within a foot of the slime before feeling a powerful force push against him. The gunk was releasing an aura of power that pushed against the outside world.

"What is this stuff?" Austin asked as he reached forward and, with difficulty, touched it before pulling his hand back.

"It looks like jello on crack," Aries chuckled before pushing his own food away, his appetite gone.

"I think this is... Dragon's Heart energy," Eli said.

"How do you know?" Damien asked.

"When I was in the room at the old base while I was training I got sick for a few days. Zayne was off doing something, I can't remember what anymore, but he wasn't checking up on me as frequently and I started feeling worse. Eventually it got to the point where I started sneezing out this weird green goop just like this. It had the same look but green, and it had the same power aura too. I was confused and scared for a while, until I started connecting the dots. Previously before this my body would start glowing at random intervals, and I would feel a random pulse of energy to the body part. It was as if the Dino's Heart was acting on its own. When I started training a little while later and released that energy, I went back to normal. I think, and this is theoretical here, but I think the Dragon's Heart is storing an excessive amount of power inside of him for something in the future. Zayne has had visions and warning of the future before right? What if the Dragon's Heart is saving up for a future event, and with no fighting going on the power is overflowing now and causing Zayne to get sick."