A man scrambled out of a dense forest with a noticeable limp to his right leg. The man wore grayish, leather-like armor and a hooded cloak. His features hid behind a plain, white mask. Though the man panted with fatigue, his piercing black eyes shone with alertness as he scanned his surroundings for signs of danger.
After making sure that the coast was clear, the man sighed in relief, but his body tensed once more as pain washed over him. The man winced slightly as he reached to his side and gently patted his ribs.
“Broken rib and some fractures.” The man muttered as he felt his wounds. “If it wasn’t for this armor, I’d have died back there. How the hell did that monster even dent my armor? This is mithril we’re talking about!”
ROAR!
The man paled as he turned his head towards the bestial bellows. The enemy was near! He could not stay put much longer. He needed to keep moving. The man bore through the pain and hurried towards his destination. As he disappeared into another batch of trees, more roars shook the forest after him.
Minutes later, a large fiery figure burst through the forest and landed near the spot the man was previously. The monster was a ten-foot tall demon with two curved horns and volcanic-like skin. The demon didn’t wear a lot of armor. He only sported two spiked shoulder pads.
The demon glanced around him and sniffed. “He was here. That despicable scent…I know it anywhere!”
The demon sniffed once more and soon located the man’s trail. The demon laughed viciously and howled. “Khaos! Can you hear me? I’m coming for you!”
As soon as his words left his mouth, the demon bent down his knees and charged towards the man’s smell. Once the demon left the vicinity, a small clump of earth started to shake. With a whoosh, the earth split apart and out jumped the man – Khaos.
“Blessed Lady Luck! Good thing Ugrozad didn’t notice that the trail was fake.” Khaos praised as he gingerly sat on a collapsed tree. “Whew! That Earth Meld Escape Technique took out a lot of my energy.”
Khaos reached into his backpack and pulled out a purplish potion. It was a rare rejuvenation potion that could restore vitality, magic, and energy. Without a second thought of the potion’s rarity and expensiveness, Khaos downed the potion and started applying some medical treatment on his wounds. As he healed his external wounds, his vitality and stamina replenished at a visible rate.
Khaos stood up with a healthy complexion and hurried back where he came from. The cloaked man had a mission to complete. As the first and only apostle of Lady Luck, he was tasked to saving her from the evil grasps of Eblis, the archdemon self-proclaimed as the eighth Deadly Sin – Despair.
Using Earth Meld once more to prevent his pursuer from tracking him, Khaos dove into the ground and rushed towards the enemy headquarters. Now, Khaos naturally did not come alone. He had summoned his entire army of wvyerns, firebirds, dragons, and rocs to besiege the archdemon’s castle.
Luckily, Eblis was not present. According to his intel, Khaos found out that the archdemon was attending a conference in Hell along with the other Deadly Sins…probably to petition his position as a Deadly Sin. Archdemon Eblis had his right-hand – Ugrozad the Berserker – guard and manage his territory while he was away. Who would have thought that Ugrozad could pack such a punch?
Khaos winced slightly just thinking about the punch he had suffered earlier. If not for his mithril armor, his entire mid-section would have been evaporated. The hooded man shook his head to clear away such thoughts and focused on the bricks before him. If his memory was correct, the wall connecting to the entrance of the dungeon should be right about here.
Khaos felt around the wall for a weak spot before stepping back to meditate some Dragon Essence. After generating a plethora of Dragon Essence, the masked man unleashed three different moves onto the wall.
“Dragon Horn! Dragon Palm! Dragon Kick!”
Khaos punched the wall fiercely, causing a fist-sized crater to form on the solid wall. Seeing that the wall still stood firmly in place, Khaos maneuvered his fist to an open-hand position by his side. With a swift push, he smacked the wall soundly with his palm. The wall caved in but did not collapse. Perhaps one more move would do the trick. Khaos spun around and shot out his leg, sending most of the wall flying inwards.
After destroying the wall, Khaos pounced in with his guard raised in case there were enemies inside. There were five imps guarding the prison cells, mischievous bastards but nothing special. Khaos reached for his skinning knife and lunged at the nearest imp.
With an expertly executed slash, Khaos beheaded the imp. His knife had been tempered with the breath of an ancient dragon. A mere lower demon could not stand a chance of resisting the blade’s sharpness.
The masked man took a deep breath while channeling some more Dragon Essence throughout his body. With a lunging leap, he collided with the next nearest imp while throwing out a series of roundhouse kicks to the other imps. The last and furthest imp tried to attack him with his shortsword, but Khaos flowed to the imp’s side like leaves fluttering in the wind.
“Dragon Bite!” Khaos growled as he pierced all five fingers of his right hand into the imp’s chest, grabbing the demon’s heart and tearing it out.
After finishing off the last imp, Khaos started searching each cell for Lady Luck. Finally, after much effort, he saw the silhouette of the goddess at the far right prison cell. Khaos reached over and pull apart the prison bars. Immediately, he could feel his energy draining from his body at a significant rate.
Khaos looked around him, thinking that he had walked into a trap, but realized that the magic spell was directed towards the goddess sleeping before him. With so much energy drained over a long period of time, Lady Luck had to switch to a resting mode in order to conserve what’s left of her energy.
The masked man observed his surroundings, trying to look for a clue to dispel the magic. Seeing that there weren’t any visible markings, Khaos assumed that the spell was either deeply ingrained into the prison itself or somewhere underground. Fearing that Ugrozad might have already noticed his mistake and rushed back, Khaos decided to forcefully cancel out the spell as a whole instead of taking time to search for a way to disrupt the spell’s markings.
Khaos positioned himself with his legs apart and bent. Slowly, he calmed his mind and began gathering and generating Dragon Essence. As the spell seemed to only drain magic and energy, gathering Dragon Essence would be no problem for him.
Khaos breathed in deeply with his eyes closed and muttered. “Dragon Breath.”
Dragon Essence swirled within him, strengthening his health and mind while building up resistances and debuffing negative effects. With his mind stronger than usual, the masked man started using Scales of Dragons which used Dragon Essence to increase blood circulation and improve bodily defenses.
After strengthening every aspect of himself, Khaos directed what’s left of his Dragon Essence towards his throat. Lifting his head up, he roared. A bellowing roar mixed with Dragon Essence shook the prison and canceled the draining effects of the magic spell.
Maybe every enemy heard that roar, but he was counting on that. Not only did Dragon Roar unleashed raw power, it could also attack the mind and cause confusion, paralysis, as well as internal bleeding. Well, maybe for the small fries. But for Ugrozad…not so much.
On the bright side, the spell was dismissed and Lady Luck seemed to be waking up. The goddess opened her eyes slowly and gazed into my eyes with a smile. “You’re finally here. I’ve been waiting for you for a long time.”
“Milady, can you move? We need to leave this place as soon as possible. Ugrozad knows I’m here and I don’t have the strength to fend him off.” Khaos held out his hand with a bow.
Lady Luck grabbed Khaos’s hand and stood up. She leaned forward and kissed Khaos on the forehead. “Don’t worry. You’re my beloved apostle. Take this blessing, it will come in handy.”
A message popped in Khaos’s mind. He had just received a blessing of immense luck, which gave him a full refresh on his OverLuck ability. With OverLuck activated, Khaos would literally be invincible for a minute. This would give him ample time to fend off Ugrozad and escape with Lady Luck.
Khaos smiled at Lady Luck and thanked her for her kindness. Quickly, he led her to the upstairs. Luckily, the rest of the enemies were outside fighting against his army of winged monsters so there was no one to stop them as they made their way out a backdoor. Naturally, they won’t exit through the main entrance as they would stick out like sore thumbs before the two combating armies.
However, there was Ugrozad.
