Ch23 - Corrupted

[Good job, Kalia, Liliane.]

Taki said as he walks towards us and held up his forearm forward for a bump, our after hunt handshake.

[Wow… That was an amazing combination of traps! How did you do that?]

Lily asked Taki, amazed at what he did. To be honest, I'm curious as to how he did that too. A pitfall with explosives in it, that sure is something new that was not in DHO. The arrow with the net too. The way he hunts really amazes me.

[Oh, that's actually quite simple. First I find a good spot, then used the magic tool to make a big hole, planted it with explosives and covered it up with earth magic. When the dragons landed on my trap, I used earth magic to lessen the soil below them and voilà, weight pulled them down.]

Taki said with a smug, satisfied with his own explanation.

[Just to confirm, how much explosives did you plant in there.]

[If compared to a barrel bomb, I planted explosives equal to the power of about twenty of them.]

I sighed at Taki's reply. That… may be a bit of an overkill. I bet both Dawn and Dusk were burned to dust.

[Anyways Kalia, do you not know how to use your weapon?]

[What do you mean? Am I using it not well enough?]

[You do know that you need to pour mana into your weapons to draw out their powers right?]

[Eh? What do you mean?]

[Eh? Onee-chan. Didn't I tell you this before? That our weapons are powered by our mana.]

[Nevermind that. Take out your weapons first.]

Taki told me with his hand rubbing his forehead while Lily is giving me a 'uwaa, I can't believe it' face. As instructed by Taki, I took out my Eternal flame dagger and Endless tide dagger.

[Alright. Now pour your mana into them.]

Following Taki's instruction, I slowly started pouring mana into both my weapons.

*Voom!* *Swish!*

[E-Ehhhhh?!]

I leaked out a voice with a stupified expression. After I started pouring mana into them, Eternal flame dagger ignited flames surrounding the blade while Endless tide dagger has rapid water torrents swirling around the blade. Now I know why my attacks from before were weaker than Lily's.

[And now you understand.]

Taki said while shaking his head with closed eyes while Lily looks amazed by my weapons.

[Anyways, Onee-chan, I thought you understood after you were able to light up the fire stone…]

[Well… You did not tell me that I can do the same to my weapons…]

I said while sheathing my weapons.

Right after I sheathed my weapons a loud roar suddenly echoed from within the pitfall, followed by a strong burst of whirlwind gushing out from it. From within the whirlwind, something can be seen flying out of the pitfall. When the whirlwind finally disperses, Dawn can be seen hovering above the pitfall. It looks like it is heavily injured but something seems off about it. Its eyes have a red glow and there is this evil looking black aura leaking out of its body.

When it saw us, it gave another roar, a roar so loud that I can't help but cover my ears. Before any of us can do anything, it fired a whirlwind breath at us in a sweeping manner. All of us got swept away by the blast crushing onto a few trees before we landed. I can feel pain all over my body but I still forced myself to stand up. I am sure there are parts where I am bleeding as I can smell a heavy scent of blood and taste iron in my mouth. As this is my first time feeling such intense pain, fear slowly crept up inside me. What makes things worse is that Lily and Taki can be seen not far from me, also heavily injured. Furthermore, Lily seems to be knocked unconscious. Just what is this? I have never seen such a dragon like this before in the game. Are we really going to die like this?

[That… *cough* is a corrupted dragon. We might really be screwed this time.]

Taki said with a smirk while staring at Dawn. Really? At a time like this, he still got the cheek to smile. He is already in a very bad shape, sitting up while using a tree to support his back. And corrupted? That's a term I did not hear before. Not understanding what it is makes me all the more scared. However, I can't fall here. If I fall, who is going to protect Lily, my one and only little sister? Who is going to be there for Jun, my best friend that is always with me since childhood?

With my last spurt of willpower, I unsheath my Eternal flame dagger and started pouring as much mana into it as I can while holding it up over my head. The more I poured my mana in, the bigger the flame grows.

The corrupted Dawn that is walking towards us stopped on its tracks shocked when it saw the amount of mana I am gathering and started charging up its own mana for a breath attack.

The pillar of fire from my Eternal flame dagger got so tall that it already went passed the height of the trees. Intense heat can be felt and wild flames can be seen swirling around me but I do not feel hot at all.

Right at the same time when Dawn shot its breath, I swing down the pillar of fire towards Dawn with a war cry. At the moment where the whirlwind collided with the fire, it got absorbed into the fire turning into nothing. Dawn then got engulfed in the flames, crying out its last breath before being burnt into cinders. When the flame finally disperses, the roasted body of the once blue dragon collapsed onto the ground. After making sure that it is dead by staring at the corpse for a while, I literally saw white and collapsed to the ground. The fatigue from not having enough sleep is finally kicking in together with the fatigue from exhausting my mana.

Still clinging to my bit of consciousness, I can feel a huge tremor like something huge landed beside me. I don't even have the energy to turn my head to see what it is. The next thing I know, I can't feel the ground anymore, it seems that I am lifted up into the air and my vision is filled with the orange of the setting Sun. After just a short while which felt like about fifteen seconds, I can feel the ground again.

I am still trying to keep myself from fainting, afraid of what will happen if I lose consciousness. During that moment, the faint figure of a man with long silver hair dressed in a black mantle entered my vision. Seeing how his lips are moving, I tried focusing on hearing what that person is saying.

[Looks like she is the one but it's still not time yet.]

From what he just said, it seems like he is talking to himself. A short moment later, the sound of someone running can be heard coming towards us. Instead of running, it sounds more like galloping.

[Looks like it's time for me to leave. We will meet again.]

Leaving those words behind, he disappeared from my sight and I felt a huge gush of wind a short moment later. We will meet again? I can't see that person's face clearly so I will not even know if we really do meet again. Not like he even did anything, just mumbling to himself instead of trying to help me. Thinking about it made me a little fed up. As I am thinking about that, the sound of the galloping got louder and louder and eventually stopped near me.

Ugh… Using up my last bit of energy to get angry, I can't hold my fatigue any longer and finally lost consciousness. Hopefully, nothing bad happens. (a.n. This is definitely not a flag!)

Author's note:

Ehhh ummm... Nex chap about 4 days...