Chapter 7 - The Law Of The Strong

My father just stared at the creature after the fireball landed and exploded on a tree blasting it and causing small fires to appear all around the immediate area it helped because the creature somehow was able to control the shadows but thanks to the fires burning the shadows seemed to weaken and shy away from the light.

"Good so its mastery over shadows is only at a intermediate level good this will make things easier, now boy I need you to focus on spreading the fire around that will weaken this creatures powers while providing us the light to see and fight."

"Ok father I will but first what is this thing."

"No time to explain just know that if you were alone you would not have a chance to blink before dying, the only reason you are still alive is because I pose a big enough threat to have made it hesitate while it was trying to grab you."

With my father telling me just how close I was dying the world color drained from my face as the fear of death crept into me. The only thoughts I could think of were of how I had not gotten the chance prove how strong I could be and eventually to thoughts of my old life and of the family I left behind.

".....Ve...Vexs....Vexsus!" I feel a strong push from my side as my father shoves me out of the way of a bladed arm slicing through the darkness almost reaching me.

"Vexsus Focus if you do not you will die, I could see in your eyes back at the cave the rage you felt towards your siblings now use that to grow stronger and overcome this moment, overcome your fear and help me to kill this monstrosity."

Those words woke me up out of my stupor and the world came rushing back and as my focus came back I could see that my father was guarding me against whatever the creature was and occasionally shooting a stream of flame in a general direction setting more and more of the surrounds alight. But I finally started to notice that the fires were starting to weaken until they finally fizzled out as the darkness started to surround the flames and eventually seemed to swallow them up. So that is why he wanted me to spread the fire it serves more than just those 2 purposes he told me, fine if my life is on the line than in this new body my mind must also be new to counter the upcoming challenges that my old life would never have encountered.

I jump up from where I was and spotting a fire a little ways away from me I rush toward it and I could see around it that it was a dead branch with a lot of dead leaves still attached, 'perfect using this I should be able to set more fires if the surroundings are also just as dead.' I grab it with my jaw and running with it along the ground I was able to leave behind smaller bundles of hot coals and small little fires that to my luck set alight the fallen leaves and using that as a base I was able to see a tree small enough that with my puny strength I could possibly break its branches off and produce an even bigger fire, but as I was doing this the whole time I could hear what sounded like small sonic booms but it wasn't loud like a snap but more of a low frequency boom that vibrated the area around the source, I turned to where I last saw my father only to see that he had a large gash along one of his front legs and he was missing some of his scales along his side, for a moment I started to worry before a voice entered my head.

"Do not worry about your father descendant only focus on the job you have been given your father will survive, he will be injured but he will be alive, but only if you hurry and provide him the light to start attacking."

The voice in my head drove away my moment of hesitation and allowed my mind to focus once again on the task my father gave me, and with that I was able to break down the small tree and without thinking to much I dragged the whole tree ontop of the path of small flames I had made and then proceeded to gather more leaves and small twigs to put on and sustain the flames until the tree would be lit up, I even tried to blow fire myself but like last time all that came out was just a hot layer of smoke. So failing once again I just do what I could with what I could find and slowly the fire grew brighter and brighter allowing me to find more and more fire material until I was able to make a roaring fire not caring once for the forest around me, I had up rooted bushes slowly and overtime adding what I could to the fire and after a while I was able to yet again see the creature that my father was fighting as it looked over at me again with a look of pain from the light of the fire.

"good Vexsus now your job is to keep that fire going as long as you can and stay safe, I am going to start my counter attack now." The second I hear those words a loud boom could be heard and a large piece of earth was thrown from outside the darkness almost hitting the creature, causing it to dodge to get out of the way but at the same time my father was able to see this and sent a giant clawed slash at the creature sending it flying through the air and hitting one of the trees that barely showed from the barely burning coals near its base.

"Darling I'm here I heard the loud noises from the cave and after seeing the darkness I came as fast as I could I sent Salus to get the Elder just in case." I was relieved to hear my mothers voice as it meant that we had a healer close by and that allowed my father to attempt riskier moves to end the fight quicker all the while I was slashing at trees and branches to get wood for the fire while also pulling up bushes to provide the fast burning material to keep the fire going strong and hot. After a few minutes I heard a few dings go off but paying no mind to them I kept doing my best and every so often I would try and breathe fire but each time all that would come out was smoke until after the tenth time another ding went off, ignoring that aswell I only focused on providing the only support to my father that I knew I could until at one point I felt a cold breeze run down my spine.

"VEXSUS DODGE NOW" I reacted as fast as I could but my body was still to weak to follow my mental commands at the speed needed and the next I knew I could feel a warm spray across my face and as I land I could feel what seemed like a liquid that was to dark to see start to pool under me as my body started to get weaker and weaker, It was only after a few moments that felt like minutes a tingling almost burning feeling start to run down front left leg and using the fading light I looked down to see that the warm pooling liquid was blood pouring out of a giant open wound on my leg cutting all the way to reveal the whiteness of the bones and an almost perfect cut through meat and sinews, Looking at it it looked to alien for my mind to wrap around the reality of it being my leg But what really drove it home in my brain that my leg was now missing was that moments after this I was fully woken up from my hazy fading conscious just for a brief moment by an overwhelming amount of pain. I screamed so hard that my voice turned shrill and peeked until it just became a harsh gurgling. Before I passed out the last thing I saw was of my father biting down onto the creature while it was distracted with a green scaled limb that it was savagely devouring without a care to its surrounding sealing its death.

I wake up with a jolt only to find my mother laying next to me, and after she senses me awake she jumps up and yells for my dad. "Mom where's dad? Where is that creature? What's going on why are we back at home?" all these questions leave my mouth at the speed of sound only for my father to limp in and stare at me with tears in his eyes. "Son I am so sorry I should have done a better job at protecting you, I have failed you again." he then lowered down to the ground and lowered his head to be on the same level as me which meant he had to fully place his head on the ground and his eye level was still taller than me "You did such an amazing job throughout the whole fight you did your best to keep that fire going and you even did you best to make it as big and as bright as you could thank you for helping me in that fight." I could not believe my ears my father this tough stoic dragon who until recently barely spoke to me was now looking at me with teary eyes and even apologizing? I stand up to walk towards him only to fall trying to take a step forward and land straight on my face and tears fill my eyes as a mind numbing pain takes over and then the last moments of the fight enter my mind and I look down and my hope that it was all a nightmare was destroyed as I tried to wiggle the toes that were not there.

"Little one I am sorry I would have tried to reattach it but the creature had already tainted what was left and I had no choice but to destroy it." My mother was shedding tears as she looked down at me and tried to console me the best she could but the only thing on my mind was the fact that I had lost a leg and also lost the ability to walk normally. But After remembering the fight and how I felt during it I was determined to keep training and not back down from this new challenge. With a look of determination I looked up at my mother and father and sighed before smiling through the pain.

"Mother, Father this royally sucks but during that fight I saw father do amazing things while all I could do was build a fire as quickly as I could I was of little help in actual combat only at the last moments of the fight did I have a major role in it and at the cost of my leg no less. But I will not quit growing stronger, to me this is just another challenge on my list to overcome on the path to being strong so please do not give up on me yet and continue to support me."

Those words shocked my parents and after a few minutes of silence my mother and father smiled at me and nodded. "Yes we will do our best to help you along your journey but my son Just know that if you continue on your path that I will resume my standard testing of you I will not lower how difficult it is even with your missing leg is that clear?"

"Father I would not want it any other way, all I ask is that before we continue you let me get used to moving around and adjust."

"You both need to rest and recuperate, Solace You have cuts all along your body and even have scales missing around those cuts this was not a normal Shadow Eater, this had to be a mutation to cause this much damage to you. And Vexsus, little boy you are missing an limb no less until further notice you 2 are ordered to rest and leave the work to the rest of your family." With a stern look in her eye my mom peered into me and my dads souls before both of us looked at each other and with a loud laugh we both agreed, and with that my mother went back to her normal caring smile and went to go grab us some food while she made us go and lay down, After she was out of sight my father turned to me.

"Listen Vexsus That creature we fought was indeed a mutant it was far stronger than anything I have fought in a long time but the main point I want to drive home is that with one showing up that can only mean that there are a pack of those things slowly expanding from the Dark mountains, they only come down from their caves once every few years to stockpile on food before going into hiding but while they are active the world is their playground they are strong and by normal means there are only a few of each species around the world that can kill them and defend major areas from total destruction. We the Dragons have vowed for a Millennium to always observe and when spotted destroy any Shadow Eaters that emerge. So after we heal I am going to have to be extra hard on you children to prepare you for the upcoming fight that will arrive far sooner than was expected.

Str 1 -> 3

Con 0.5 -> 1.5

Heat resistance 0% -> 30%