Chapter 47 - Dead Hero’s Last Cry

Slowly climbing out of the shelter, it felt as though I’d just stepped out of a time machine. The world I stepped into bore a faint resemblance to the one I'd known, but that was the extent of it. As though some cruel wind had ravaged through it, then thrown it aside like a ragdoll after becoming bored of it, it seemed as though this whole space had suddenly grown older, more wearied and worn down from the weight of time and the predations of unkind circumstance.

After throwing one last sour look towards the mushroom cloud still soaring higher in the distance, I spat to one side as though to clear a bitter taste from my mouth.

Damn lizard, it had to go and ruin it in the end, by making itself an object lesson to my adopted child. Not that I minded giving the instruction, but the first time breaking someone into the rules of the real world was always the hardest, and the one you questioned yourself about the most in the end.

Was it really worth it? For me, survival merited any and all means necessary to achieve it, and if some rough play and a few shattered illusions were all the price I had to pay for even the slightest edge in the deadly game of life, then I’d pay it thrice over without thinking about it twice.

But there was a catch. I didn’t have that much to lose from the very beginning, in any case. I had already done a world tour of the world and its many miseries when I hadn’t even been old enough to legally drink alcohol. By the time these same harsh lessons were passed down to me, I’d simply nodded indifferently, then calmly stepped over the cooling corpses of countless victims.

For people like Shia, it was simply a different story altogether. Especially since it felt as though she were my charge, my responsibility. Hell, at times I still surprised myself by referring to her as my “daughter”. What had begun as a simple joke had now become a distinctly uncomfortable anomaly in my otherwise caustic nature which I couldn’t bear to explore, now of all times.

So, was it truly worth the price? Only time would tell.

These were the heavy thoughts weighing on my mind as I slowly made my way back toward the fountain. As such, you will understand the reason why I didn’t realize it until it was already far too late.

The first warning was, strangely enough, the heat of it. It may sound ridiculous, but the first warning I had that all was not well in the world was the uncomfortable, smothering heat I felt in the back of my neck, accompanied by an irrepressible shiver that ran down my spine.

I’d had that feeling a few times during my career. It usually meant I’d screwed up big time.

“Mommy! Watch o-”

That was all I heard of Shia’s startled warning, before it was drowned out by the roaring that filled my mind when I slowly turned around and the slight frown on my face gave way to surprise at first, then gaping disbelief.

You have GOT to be kidding me. Of all the..

That was all the time I had before the vicious ball of fangs and fire that was Sharinne hit me like a freight train jetted up on nitro.

Even as the dragon bore down on me, I couldn’t help but gawk in absolute shock. That was a goddamn nuke, for gods sakes. Sure, just a baby nuke with a limited payload, but it was still a goddamn nuke!

Granted, the dragon looked like it had been through hell and worse. Smoldering spines that showed more bone than skin were all that was left of its wings. One of its front claws hung limply at her side, while the other had been torn off at the elbow. Her hind legs were not in much better shape, one of them limping badly, the other barely able to propel her weight forward without sending out prodigious amounts of flaming scarlet blood.

About that fire, it wasn’t just her leg constantly pumping out what seemed endless streams of lava that belched fire at every other step. The whole dragon was being consumed by it, as blood copiously poured forth from ghastly wounds that would each have guaranteed a mortal blow.

Hell, since one claw hung limp and useless, it was actually using the amputated stump of its other forelimb to charge at me. Are you kidding me?

As my incredulous gaze traveled up and finally met her single remaining eye though, I could finally understand how it had managed not only to stand, but to charge at me with that furious, determined snarl. I’d seen that look a few times on the battlefield.

Now that was one pissed off dragon.

It was very rare, but from time to time I would come across cases like these. Soldiers who would take a full clip of bullets to the chest, and still howl maniacally while charging at the enemy lines. Mothers who would lift a truck with their bare hands to pull out their wailing child from underneath its wheels, only to drop dead on the spot immediately after. I personally branded it as hysterical strength - little more than an adrenaline-fueled craze that would burn away a person’s life with it. The soldiers called it the dead hero’s last cry.

Well, watching all thousand-odd tons of burning dragon flesh rushing at me in a headlong, desperate charge, I would be a liar if I said I didn’t almost shit my pants right then and there.

There would be nothing heroic about that.

Fortunately, a lifetime of life-and-death struggles were not in vain, as my survival instincts belatedly kicked in and I threw myself headlong to the left, hoping the dragon was as blind in its fury as it looked.

Alas, though it was furious, it was not the least bit blind. Instead, as my soul-powered, adrenaline-pumped legs propelled me an impressive thirty feet to the side of the oncoming avalanche of dragon rage, the freaking dragon actually turned on its side and whipped its twice accursed tail at me once more.

Now granted, this tail was a bleeding, charred and badly mangled shadow of its former self. Mind you, it was barely a third of its former length, but that was more than enough to bat me away like a game winner at the bottom of the ninth. Except I would probably fare much worse from the impact than a baseball would.

Damn it, there were some rules in this game. You were supposed to be dead already. We even gave you the whole silent minute and philosophical debate about the nature of victory and defeat in the altar of life and death. So, shouldn’t you have the decency to stay dead?

I definitely wanted a refund for that nuke!

All these thoughts flashed through my mind, then I was back in the action. As I racked my brains in that half-second before a life-crushing impact pureed my brains all across the stones below, I instinctively summoned my soul power once more. I knew I had overdrafted it, and I didn’t know whether it would work or not. However, at this point I simply acted on reflex, and perhaps that is what saved my life.

I could have tried to summon Aetna, and died with a stupid look as though I were constipated and struggling mightily to pass on one last good crap before I could even come close to replicating that feat. I could have tried to summon a flaming sword, and been pancaked under the dragon’s ass while the useless toothpick twirled prettily in the air, then buried itself by my side, a fancy marker for my tomb.

No, what my desperate last minute reflex managed to summon was instead a huge freaking shield, like those worn by medieval knights to storm a castle that was raining hell and doom upon you.

I guess that kind of speaks about my general state of mind right at that moment.

“You damn bi-” I cried out loud while hunkering behind the shield as well as I could while flying through the air.

The rest of it was abruptly cut off as the dragon’s maw slammed into the shield, then the whole world flashed in a white fog of pain, and I just didn’t really give a damn about any of this crap anymore.

I was just so damn tired.

If I could just catch a break, rest for a while. All those memories, all those tragedies, and now this final betrayal, this violation of the rules, it was simply too much.

The wind rustled through my hair, and my whole body felt weightless and carefree. A smile slowly began to tug at the corners of my lips.

Ah, yes. This was more like it. I’d just catch a bit of a breather here..

“Mommy! Wake up!” Shia screamed in my head.

Jolted by the urgency in her voice, I instantly shook the fog from my mind and felt for the ground below me in order to stand back up, all the while wondering how the hell I’d actually survived that. It was then that I realized that there was actually nothing, not a single thing below me. Or around me, for that matter.

I dizzily craned my head around and realized I was still flying in the air, a good twenty to thirty feet off the ground. My whole body was numb, and I belatedly realized I still had the shield clutched in a deathgrip around my hand. At this moment, however, I was soaring through the air so fast that the world around me was a blur. I knew this couldn’t last for long, and indeed I felt that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that told me I’d begun my long descent towards the ground, where certain pain and likely death awaited like hungry dogs.

I couldn’t feel anything in my arms, and I knew at least a few bones must be broken. Still, I refused to give up and painfully twisted the shield around, eventually succeeding in reversing our positions so that when I finally did hit the ground, instead of grinding all my flesh on the floor, the shield skidded crazily over the ground in a blind rush of speed, before crashing against a barrier and flipping me headlong into oblivion.

Fortunately, what awaited me was not a wall of stone ready to crack my thick skull. Instead, with a loud splash I fell into the central fountain of that plaza where I’d first met my nemesis.

Coughing roughly and spitting more water than I’d thought I could possibly swallow in such a short time, I finally managed to find my unsteady feet and turned my gaze back in the direction I’d flown from.

There, barely 300 feet away and closing fast, came the berserking dragon, ready to end me with one final blow. As it approached me, limping badly and leaving a trail of blood and flames behind, I could tell this would be the final showdown.

Still, it was all I could do to stand. I dug deep within me but that vast reservoir of soul power simply kept getting farther and farther away, slipping through my fingers like grains of sand. My left arm hung limply by my side, with bone showing through below the elbow. My other hand grasping the retaining wall of the fountain was at the moment the only thing keeping me standing, as my unsteady legs certainly wouldn’t bear my whole weight and balance at the same time.

As it approached, a mere 200 feet now, the dragon gave out a blood-thirsty roar of victory. Blood caked every inch of its disfigured face, with countless wounds crisscrossing every inch of it. One eye was permanently closed, but the other burned with an intense flame as it gazed unwaveringly at me.

The mighty roar proved too much for me, and I stumbled backward as the physical power of it hit me. Falling on my back in the middle of the fountain, I couldn’t take my eyes off my opponent as I unconsciously moved away from it.

“Damn beast, if only I had a weapon. To have come this far and lose..” I whispered, still bitterly unreconciled with this outcome.

“Mister, you came for me. That’s enough,” came the soft voice behind my ear. “Sorry I made you wait. I’m ready now.”

“Sol?” I stammered, and suddenly my whole body was infused with newfound strength and vitality as my fingers closed upon an object that felt vaguely familiar.

It was the hilt of a sword.

The dragon’s single blazing eye widened, looking every bit as surprised and taken aback as I was. My only working hand was holding on to Malky, and although I could feel its massive weight fill my grip, I felt certain I could swing it as though it were an extension of my own body. Warmth endlessly inundated my body, penetrating through my hand and infusing me with a ferocious vitality that made my heart thunder in my ears. My blood sang a willful song of fire and steel as I calmly gazed back at my would-be huntress, who had stopped short of the fountain and stared back.

Now that we truly stood toe to toe, I could see the massive extent of the wounds I’d inflicted on Sharinne. If anything, it was far worse than I’d thought. It was a wonder she was alive at all, let alone staring down at me in baleful, unresigned defiance. At the last moment, however, a shimmering orb of scarlet energies I’d failed to detect at first seemed to tremble when her gaze fell down upon Malky.

“Soledad,” Sharinne at last spoke, though the tone was different from before. It seemed more ancient, venerable, and age-wearied beyond belief. “Child, this one boon you may not request of me. It cannot be!”

“What are you talking abou-”

The rest of it died in my lips as Sharinne seemed to pull the last of her dwindling reserves, her very lifeforce itself, and sucked in that reddish sphere of energies around her through her maw. I instantly gritted my teeth and grinned fiercely to myself.

This was it. It had all come down to this final clash.

Air crackled and popped as the dragon opened its maw and spit forth a massive torrent of flames toward me. I responded in kind, opening my mouth wide and letting out a vicious cry as I twisted my hips and leaned forward, delivering a great overhand slash with Malky. The enormous sword seemed as light as a feather in my hands, pulsing eagerly in its desire to quench its thirst for battle.

A tremendous clash resounded in the air as sword and flames collided in an incredible explosion. I felt resistance for but a moment, then the mighty sword cleaved open a path through the flames as easily as an iron blade chopping through dry tinder. The force of the blow instantly cleared a path all the way to the Dragon, before finally halting right before its single glittering eye.

A tired, defeated look flashed through Sharine’s gaze before she let out a despairing sigh, and her whole figure rapidly wilted, until all that was left was the same old woman who had first welcomed me to the Shrine.

Grinning fiercely and not one to waste such a chance, I lifted my arm to end it all while I still could, when I suddenly found that not only had Malky mysteriously vanished from my grip, my borrowed strength and vitality were also leaking out at an alarming rate.

I barely managed to hold my victorious expression with faintly trembling lips, and silently prayed that I wouldn’t completely disgrace myself by collapsing on my knees right then and there.

Then shockingly, it was the dragon who did. Kneel, that is.

Sharinne fell on her knees and placing both hands on the ground, she laid her forehead against the ground.

So in turn I did the only logical thing to do at that moment.

I laughed.

I laughed my ass off until tears began to stream from my eyes.

Because if I didn’t laugh now, I wasn’t sure I wouldn’t start to really cry.

Women, they are just crazy.