CHAPTER 13: EXECUTION

XENON WINGATE

3 YEARS AGO

A loud explosion blasted in the area. Snow dust and ashes whirl around the place, making a zero-visibility smoke that covered everything around me. But even with that impaired visuals, the dragonoids with assault rifles continued to spray their bullets blindingly towards us.

“Diiiiieee!!!” Most of the dragonoid shouts can be heard despite the deafening noises of the gunshots.

After ten seconds of endlessly firing, the dragon knight raised his hand, signaling them to stop. All the Dragonoid complied, and they had a fierce smirk on their face. They are fully confident that they have pulverized us completely. However, the dragon knight is not pleased. Instead, he’s shaking out of fear. His armor clanks as his body vibrates in terror.

“I-It can’t be…” The dragon knight muttered.

When the smoke faded, everybody witnessed the mystical power that I have awakened.

Behind me is an eight-meter-tall white-and-blue dragon. It has two large blue horns and a flaming bluish-white fur on its back. It has curved claws like a scimitar, fangs like those of a liger, and a tail like those of an iguana. It has wide snow-white garuda wings which were used to protect me from the barrage of bullets directed to us earlier. This dragon is the awakened form of Serena Maizono. She is a Nexus Dragon.

The Nexus Dragon’s crimson eyes glowed as it gave out a loud roar.

“Grrrrrraaaaaaaahhhh!!!”

“Y-You’re a dragon knight too!?” The enemy dragon knight exclaimed. “I-Impossible!”

My emerald eyes glowed as I fully succumb to my anger. The dragon knight in front of me is my target. I poured all my focus on the enemies around us. There are twenty-two, including the dragon and the knight. With my current enhanced magical prowess and my cemented resolve for revenge, there is a hundred percent chance I can take them down.

“Serena!” I shouted.

“Grruuuuuuaaaaaaahhhhh!!!” The Nexus Dragon unleashed blue flame blaster from its mouth that swept all the armed dragonoids on our front, left, and back. Fourteen of them caught the fire which made them agonize as they helplessly see their own bodies burn to death.

“Aaaaaaaaahhhhh!!!” Those were the dying screams of the armed militia.

“Fire at the human!” One of the dragonoids shouted, and the remaining five goons agreed. They sprayed their bullets to us, emptying their magazines. All of those bullets are directed to me and not Serena because they know too well that bullets won’t work on her.

In the nick of time, I picked up the shattered tower shield beside my best friend's corpse and positioned the shield in front of me. It’s only half of its size, and it’s not enough to block all the bullets rushing at me, so I have to fortify it up!

“Forge!” I cried. Then, the ruined parts of the tower shield started repairing itself as if the shield has regeneration power.

With my brand new shield, I caught all the bullets directed to me. I bolted forward with the speed of a rocket and slammed my shield towards the nearest armed dragonoid, making his nose burst and blood splatter all around his face. The enemy goon fell down lifeless.

“Damn you!” One of the dragonoids withdrew a machete on his waist and recklessly charged at me. The other four also switched to melee as firing this close would be inconvenient to them.

I slammed my tower shield on the ground and lifted my lower body. With the shield as my temporary foot to the ground, I used my legs to create a one, two, three combination kicks that beat the crap out of the second dragonoid’s face. I think I accidentally snapped his neck on the third kick, so he’s now dead on the ground.

The third dragonoid managed to close in, but he’s too late as two of my feet is already on the ground. I swung my shield up and sliced his face clean, leading to his immediate death. 

The fourth dragonoid has made it on my back. He raised his machete, ready to chop me up. With my extensive reflexes, I grabbed his face with my left hand, which made him stunned for half a second. That time is too short for him to realize his doom. “Forge.” As soon as I muttered the word, a sword materialized inside his mouth and its edge pierced his head all the way to the nape of his neck.

The fifth dragonoid is right in front of me, so I withdrew the sword on the dead dragonoid’s face and sliced his chest. I felt that the blade slashed through his lungs and his heart, so he’s finished.

“Woah, waaaaaah!!!” The last dragonoid dropped his rifle and machete as he proceeded to run. But if he thinks that he can get away from me, then he’s gravely wrong.

I positioned my left arm to aim, and my right arm is holding the shield as it gained momentum. When the crosshairs locked onto the enemy, I spun and threw the shield like a boomerang. The big shield chases the cowardly dragonoid until it hit his head, giving him an early goodnight sleep. After doing its job, the shield made its way back to my right hand like an obedient pet parrot.

“Don’t get cocky just because you’ve unlocked the Vesryn Pulse!” 

A voice full of anger echoed as I saw somebody charging towards me with his cone-shaped lance. In the nick of time, I blocked the attack with my shield, and all it made was a loud clunk. Unlike before, this tower shield is fortified with magic coming from the Vesryn Pulse, so his lance wouldn’t pierce through it.

“Graaaaaaaah!!!” The white-and-blue Nexus Dragon came to my rescue as it launched itself towards the enemy. It readied a claw attack, but the dragon knight immediately stepped back to evade it.

“You will pay for killing dragonoids, you sinful human! The Arcadia will never give mercy to you!” The enemy shouted as he continued to jump back until he reached the head of his Chaos Dragon. “You will die in the most horrific way possible!”

Suddenly, I saw the black Chaos Dragon charging its own body up with purple lightning. It opened its mouth and gathered particle energy from the air, and a black miniature dark hole formed and floated on its tongue. The magical energy is so tremendous that it made the debris around us float like zero gravity. 

“Majestic Chaos Incineration!” The dragon knight pointed his lance towards us.

At that moment, a sea of black flames surged towards us. The heat is so tremendous that all the snow around us was immediately converted into steam. If we get hit by this attack, we’ll certainly be finished. Not even Serena’s wings and my tower shield can withstand that attack. 

But, I have an ace on my sleeve. Activating the Vesryn Pulse the first time has given me powerful magic I never once possessed. The said ancient mystic arts injected magical information on my brain and gave me a lot of mana at my disposal. Knowing what spell to counter that attack, I raised the tower shield up and poured my energy unto it.

“Wall of…”

Light particles gathered towards my shield. It made a bluish-white glow which made it a lot heavier than thousand tons. My arms wouldn’t be able to keep up, so I let it down and slammed the tip of the shield to the ground, making a loud bang! The clunking noise on my weapon continued as the tower shield released its restraints and anchored to the ground.

“...Babylon!”

The moment I shouted the spell, a gargantuan stone wall sprouted from the ground which is twenty-meters tall. It blocked the sea of flames like a dike preventing a great flood. Black smoke filled the area.

When the surge of flames ended, I took the chance to climb on Serena’s dragon head. Then, Serena the Nexus Dragon flew forward and rammed on the unaware Chaos Dragon with its two big horns.

“What the-!” That’s all the enemy could mutter as he was caught by surprise. He never thought that we can survive his attack.

“Graaaaaah!” The Nexus Dragon immediately bite the Chaos Dragon’s neck without the intention of letting go. Blood gushed out from the enemy dragon.

“Hraaaaaagh!” I bolted forward and jumped to the enemy dragon knight. With my tower shield, I slammed his face. With the tremendous impact, the enemy crashed to the ground, leaving a small crater on it.

“Guah!” The enemy cried.

Without giving him the time to rest, I purposely landed on his stomach. The enemy knight readied his lance to make a thrust straight to my skull, but I managed to kick his weapon off his hand. Now that he’s down laying flat on the ground without any weapon, all he can do is to talk his way out of this.

“You… You’re powerful…” The enemy knight coughed. “...I never stood a chance… This is a one-sided battle.”

“This is not a battle.” My emerald eyes sprinkled terror to my enemy. “This is an execution.”

I raised my shield and slammed it to the head of the dragon knight. I slammed, and slammed, and slammed until his helmet is nothing but a flattened metal. Blood and guts splattered out from a helmet like pork and beans spilling out from a squeezed tin can. 

I didn’t even bother to ask the knight’s name. I didn’t even bother to remove his helmet and see his face. It doesn’t matter. All that matters to me is to get my revenge. All that matters to me is for my enemies to die with my own hands. All that matters is my wrath towards my enemies who have done wrong to me.

This is my execution. 

This is my justice.

This is my wrath.