Part 1

Screams.

"THE DRAGONBRINGERS ARE COMING!!!"

Panic.

"WE NEED TO RUN!!!!"

Various piercing screams and loud yells rang out as everyone was in a panic.

It was overwhelming for the small child as he was running, having his right arm pulled by his mother.

Everyone was running.

The child's short stature made it difficult to see what the commotion was about.

Everyone was running in masse.

People were running into each other, some being knocked into the ground before being stepped on by others.

Everything around the black-haired, blue-eyed child.

In this panic, the child turned and raised his head, looking for any comfort from his mother, but there was none.

On the mother's face, there was nothing more than fear. In one hand, she was pulling the child along by his wrist; in another, she was holding an infant to her chest.

".... Mother."

"Do not stop running."

In the chaos, that was her only reply.

The child looked around.

The sound of screaming started to overwhelm the small child.

And then-

A loud sound broke out that rumbled in the sky and sounded like thunder.

A growl.

A loud growl made everyone who was running panic more.

A dark shadow quickly moved across the ground as something flew above them in the sky.

Whatever it was, it kicked up a huge gust of wind that trailed behind as it flew by, shattering windows, buildings, and monuments, blowing several people into the air.

The child, for a brief second, saw it as it flew by.

It.

Black and orange

Large.

Four wings.

A pair of larger and smaller wings

A long tail.

A beast.

A beast his mother always told him about.

A beast he was hoping never to encounter.

A dragon.

The creature dove towards the ground.

Suddenly, the dragon flapped its wings down, slowing itself.

The force of the wings created a large shockwave of wind in all directions that enveloped the area and fleeing people.

Within the smoke, various screams were heard as the debris from buildings and the wind tore into their bodies.

The dragon hovered over several destroyed buildings, flapping its wings.

Slowly lifting his head, the child saw that the dragon began to descend, landing on a building monument with its tail wrapping around the stone statue.

The dragon slowly raised its wings up into the air. As its wings began to glow a bright orange, dimming the sky.

In a quick motion, the dragon brought its wings down, slamming them on the ground.

There was a quick flash of orange light that swept across the ground in the area.

Nothing.

The child watched as nothing happened.

Then suddenly-

There was a large shockwave.

The surrounding area near the dragon started to be blown away, with the dragon at its epicenter. From its wings, orange waves of energy started to blast out, further destroying the area, tearing into the ground, and destroying several buildings with an unrelenting force.

Noticing that she could not outrun what was about to happen, she quickly moved behind a destroyed building, pulling the child along behind her.

Now behind the rubble, she quickly pulled the child and infant in front of her, holding them tightly on her knees.

".... Mother"

"Don't move, alright."

The child did not reply, only watching as his mother tightly closed her eyes.

Suddenly, the outline of her body and, by extension, the two she was holding began to glow white.

Her hair started to sway.

She pulled the two closer to her chest.

She tightly closed her eyes as she heard the dragon wings slam into the ground.

The ground began to tear, flashing orange.

There was a huge shock wave that hit the trio.

Then everything went white, followed by a scream from the mother.

________________________________________________________________

Emergency sirens blared out.

Yellow caution tape.

Orange cones on the street.

Various chatter.

“Wow!”

A voice broke out.

“Knowing you, when you said you got into a fight with the old man, I had expected nothing more than a simple hand-to-hand bout, but this...”

The voice came from Alistair Michaels.

Right now, he stood on the ledge of a two-story building with his right hand in his pocket and his left hand above his forehead, blocking the sunlight from his face and eyesight.

A grin appeared on his face.

“....I didn’t expect that would be anything like this.”

Across the street was an abandoned warehouse, or what used to be an abandoned warehouse.

The building looked like an explosion had gone off inside, ripping through the building and tearing into the walls.

But-

What spilled out into the street from the building was ice—a lot of ice.

His eyes glanced up.

From the roof of the building, several flames and smoke had broken through upwards, forming a flammegentius cloud in the sky that had frozen over solid.

Alistair lowered his eyes to the street.

From the front of the building, large icicles had burst through the walls, piercing the nearby cars and several buildings across the street, including the building whose roof this makeshift group was standing on.

Alistair Michaels.

Aurelius Lucia.

Valeria Lucia.

Camellia Lucia.

Aoi.

And Haruko Matsumoto.

“Right under our nose, a few blocks away, and none of us were any wiser,” Aurelius said, grumbling.

“Well, he is the mage killer after all.” Alistair replied.

Alistair kept looking at the building and the surrounding area across from him.

In that chaos, there was something particular he was looking for.

Noticing this, Aurelius spoke to Alistair.

“You’re still going on with this half-baked theory of yours?”

“Until it gets proven wrong, and besides, it is the only lead we have on him.”

“About the dead bodies.”

“Believe me, I wish it was something else, but we play with the hand that we are dealt: nothing more, nothing less.”

He sighed.

There was too much damage to see if anything was there.

He hopped off the ledge, turning to see Haruko, who was sitting on the ground with Aoi healing his right midsection.

“Haruko.”

Haruko raised his head as Alistair stopped a few feet from him.

“When you fought this guy, did you happen to see a dead body nearby?.

Blank.

Everything went silent.

Blank.

Everything went quiet as the teen tried to process Alistair’s question.

He wanted to believe that he was joking, but the look on Alistair's face was anything but.

A body.

(Wha….)

A dead body.

Haruko tried to wrap his mind around that concept.

But-

Was there even a way he could answer this question correctly?

“Umm... none that I can recall.” Haruko replied.

Alistair stared at Haruko.

“Are you sure?”

Haruko paused.

It felt as if he was being interviewed by a cop.

The man that was pinned down under the old man slowly stared to come back into his mind.

“Not a dead body, but someone was there; he probably would have died had I not intervened."

Alistair did not reply beyond glancing back over to the building.

"With no body, perhaps we may need a different method for this individual." Aurelius said.

"Maybe," Alistair said in a low tone, turning to Aurelius. "Mark this location down for the time being."

"Are you sure?"
"It is not a coincidence that he chose to attack here, and it would be a grave mistake to overlook or disregard an area of one of his attacks; whether there is a body or not, there is something about this place." Alistair replied to Aurelius.

Blank.

Haruko stared at Alistair.

(That’s odd....)

Haruko had known Alistair for over two years, since the start of high school, and during that time during classes, he was just as much of a slacker as he was, but now-

It was like he was someone different or-

(...Was he always like this?)

Everything seemed surreal to him right now.

Something important.

Something important was being discussed in front of him, something he could not even begin to comprehend.

"Alistair..."

The low growl from the teen caused Alistair to turn his head toward Haruko.

With his hands on his knees, Haruko began to stand up.

"Wait, don't move yet; I am nowhere near done healing you." Aoi shouted at Haruko.

"I'll live." Haruko grunted

Alistair put his hands in his pockets.

"Between my necklace, Aoi, that old man, this group here, and you, what the hell is going on?"

Alistair stared at Haruko.

"Then, I guess I have to bring you up to speed."