CHAPTER 88: ELEMENTAL SAVAGE

XENON WINGATE

5 MONTHS AGO

A tower standing in a military establishment, with a height of about fifteen meters, has this glowing red bulb at the tip of its top. It started to unleash weird sonar-like sounds, and I can feel a ripple effect that is identical to a beating heart.

“Senor Xenon, pull back! You have to get away from the Psychic Amplifier as soon as possible!” Danielle panicked through my radio earpiece.

I don’t have to waste any second. I can’t have any of us mind-controlled, so I and my Nexus Bomber Dragon immediately took action. It’s not like we didn’t expect to encounter a mind-controlling device anyway. We are always ready for any adversary that comes right in front of us.

“Serena!” I cried out loud as I stepped on my dragon’s snout and deployed a blaster shield using my futuretech glove. “Do it!”

“Graaaaaaah!!!” Nexus Bomber Dragon roared as it materialized a spherical bomb at the orb of its forehead. 

The bomb immediately exploded, launching me up in the air. I used my shield to protect my own self from the explosion and to gain a rocket-like speed in midair, and I used the blaster to boost me further towards the Psychic Amplifier.

The giant tower made a sonar-like pulse. Everything in the surroundings became red in an instant, and all my allied dragons, including my Nexus Bomber Dragon, stopped racing. They just halted in midair, waiting for the orders the Psychic Amplifier may give. 

“Hraaaaaaaagh!!!” I cried out loud as I slammed at the Psychic Amplifier’s main body. 

Using my futuretech glove to create a giant hammer, I squashed the tower’s metals into bent metal bars, making a moderate explosion. The Psychic Amplifier was immediately obliterated, and all that’s left of it are chunks of steel and sparking electric wires.

“Everyone, are you okay!?” I asked my allies who bathed on the Psychic Amplifier’s pulse earlier.

“We’re okay! Nice save, Sir Wingate!” Jerick Fachias answered. Then his Quasar Dragon roared as it continues to hover like a jet as he proceeded towards the royal castle of Elysia.

When the smoke around me cleared, I found myself cornered by fifty footsoldiers, ten tanks, and fifteen sniper rifle lasers pointed at me. The destroyed Psychic Amplifier was inside the military facility after all, so it’s not a surprise that I got surrounded. I really didn’t think my reckless charging through. 

“Traitorous Xenon Wingate! You are under arrest! Put your arms in the air!” The soldiers shouted as they pointed their rifles at me.

I slowly raised my hands and put it at the back of my head. These goons really got me. It’s a shame that I’ll get captured in this phase of our invasion.

I smiled at my enemies, which gave them chills on their spines.

“What’s so funny!?”

Suddenly, multiple spherical metals dropped from the stratosphere. The spherical metals exploded on midair, and the metal chunks scattered like bullets that blasted everyone around me. The hundreds of metal shards of the spherical bomb also exploded upon impact with its multiple targets, completely changing the landscape of the facility.

After the explosion and the smoke faded, all the enemy soldiers, tanks, and the snipers who are aiming at me are all gone. It’s all thanks to my Nexus Bomber Dragon’s cluster bombs.

“Hey, Serena! That’s danger close!” I protested.

“You don’t have to be so overreacting, Xen! My bombs can’t injure by friendly fire!” My dragon sermoned at me as she landed to the ground near me. “Come on, let’s continue our flight!”

I immediately rode back to my Nexus Bomber Dragon, and then we soared back in the air. We are now so behind my other dragon knight allies, as they already hit the three-kilometer mark. However, I could no longer see Jerick Fachias and his Quasar Dragon. I think they must have flown far ahead from us as he wanted to rescue his dear friend immediately.

“Senor, I can detect a powerful magical signature intercepting your route!” Danielle said through the radio. “This magical signature, it’s-!!!”

I never heard what Danielle said after that, as a quick rainbow streak surged towards the dragons in front of us. The lightspeed dash, the rainbow trail, and the sound of the chains clanking while they fly; I already knew who we’ll be fighting for before we reach the castle.

“Sir Alphonse Faradeiss and his Elemental Dragon have arrived! I repeat, Sir Alphonse Faradeiss and his Elemental Dragon have arrived!” My ally Estoff reported through the radio.

I may be a couple of kilometers away, but I’m certain that it was really him. Long blonde hair tied on a man bun, five chains attached on his fingers, and he’s riding a crystal-winged dragon that has rainbow scales. There is no doubt that the mind-controlled Alphonse will be fighting serious as he already had his Elemental Dragon’s Rainbow Form active.

“T-That’s Sir Alphonse and Z!” Serena shouted inside my mind. “Xen, let’s hurry!”

In response, I tapped my dragon’s head and poured magical energy towards her body. I shouted: “Exceed! Forge into an extreme speed!” Then my dragon’s body glowed and reshaped itself.

My Nexus Dragon’s wings are now shaped like those of a stealth aircraft, and above her wings is a set of boosters. My dragon’s bones and skin became thinner and lighter to reduce wind resistance and support its mode to fly even faster than ever before. Blades spawned on my dragon’s cheeks, claws, and tail for better aerodynamics and control in the air. My dragon is now a Nexus Booster Dragon.

“Boost on!” My Nexus Booster Dragon telepathically shouted as she got her boosters flaming with blue jet flames. We broke through the wind barrier as we went the speed faster than a particle accelerator.

But even with that speed, we cannot prevent what is bound to happen with my allies. We’re too far away, so all we can do is watch until we arrive on the battlefield.

“Ice Crunch!” The dragon knight Alder Windstrafe confronted Alphonse first as he pointed his white rapier towards the mind-controlled knight. With his command, the Ice Dragon flapped its wings and unleashed icicle spears towards the Elemental Dragon.

Alphonse didn’t open his mouth. Z the Elemental Dragon didn’t even roar or talk telepathically. All they did is to charge towards the enemy with its powerful speed and rainbow elemental trail. Without exerting much effort, the Elemental Dragon evaded the attack by maneuvering in the air.

“Graaaah!!!” The Ice Dragon unleashed a series of ice balls. 

There were five of that ice projectile that surged directly towards Alphonse, but his Elemental Dragon is here to the rescue. The Elemental Dragon flapped its rainbow wings, unleashing magical sprinkles that are filled with embers, water sprinkles, earth dust, lightning sparks, and air gusts. Such a combination of the elemental magic immediately melted the ice balls just before it hit the target.

“I-Impossible!” Alder cried.

It does not end at that. Without wasting any second, Alphonse spread out his chains and wrapped the Ice Dragon’s right arm, left leg, and it's tail. The elemental chains immediately unleashed a strong electric surge that electrocuted the poor Ice Dragon.

“Graaaaaaaahhh!” The Ice Dragon cried in excruciating pain. It tried to flap its wings, but it’s no longer powerful enough to drag both Alphonse and his Elemental Dragon in the air. In fact, it’s the other way around as Alphonse has complete control over them in midair.

“Get off from Emy!” Alder surged forward, with his rapier pointed at the mind-controlled knight.

“Phosphorus Blow!” Alphonse replied with a white smoke breath that engulfed both Alder and his Ice Dragon. Upon contact with the poisonous smoke, Alder was caught in the combustion, as well as his Ice Dragon.

“Raaaaaaaah! Help! Help!” Alder cried.

“Graaaaaaaaahhhhh!!!!” The Ice Dragon also hollered helplessly. Having both of them poisoned, Alder and his Ice Dragon accidentally severed their connection with the Vesryn Pulse, and the Ice Dragon immediately returned back to its human form Emy.

Emy is now on the pitiful state as she is bound by the electrifying chains and ninety percent of her body was burned into the second degree. The dragonoid is no longer conscious, and it’s a mystery if she’s even alive or not.

“No! Emyyyyy!!!” Losing his dragon, there's nothing much left to the dragon knight to do. Alder cried as he freefall in the air, trying to reach his beloved dragonoid but not able to. The poor dragon knight then crashed on an unknown building, and no traces of him can ever be found. That was about a hundred-meter fall, and he's not guaranteed to survive.

“Trash,” Alphonse said. 

Commanding his chains, he threw away the poor burnt dragonoid girl towards the ground like a used-up ragdoll. Good thing my Nexus Booster Dragon I was able to make it in time to catch the half-dead dragonoid on my arms before she hit the floor. 

“Alphonse… What have they done to you?” I muttered to my old friend. 

I am all aware that my words would not reach him, but still… this kind of brutal fighting is not like them at all. What happened to his honor as a dragon knight? Has the mind-controlling magic succeeded in dominating his heart?