Chapter 5 – Blood

Drake slowly walked towards the creature, which was looking like a lion out of stone. Anger was seen in his gaze. He had observed the fight almost from the start and he felt respect for the crocodile man. Even though the crocodile new that the beast was way stronger than him, he stood tall and proud. His gaze was filled with pride, challenge and the will to fight. This was a real man, a man Drake could relate with. So he decided to help him. After two years of constantly killing beasts, he knew that the stone lion was absolutely no match for him. It was simply too weak. It was a lot stronger than the blood bear, true, but he had two years of further experience. He wasn’t as weak as before. Countless beasts had found their end, pierced by the scorpion tail or smashed with his fist. The scorpion tail, which was only faintly glowing before, was now almost completely visible. It looked a lot more lifelike and it exuded a strong aura of power. With every beast he killed with the tail, it grew stronger. After a year, he discovered that he could even change the poison inside of the stinger, with just a thought. He then only used paralyzing poison which worked slowly. With this he would surely win the fight, but the beasts could still try to fight back.

He learned a lot with this tactic and his moves got more refined. Even though he became stronger, he realized that he simply had no knowledge of fighting, except for the basic military combat training. And this training was designed for man versus man fights not for killing beasts. In his old world, guns were the weapon of the world. The most important training was the gun training, but this new world didn’t have guns. So Drake decided that it was time to find a remote place to train and maybe develop his own kind of martial arts technique. He believed that with his body’s strength and the scorpion tail he was definitely able to accomplish this.

Drake stopped in front of the body of the stone lion, which was desperately trying to move, but couldn’t. Slowly he raised his hand into the air and curled it into a fist. With a low chuckle and a disdainful look his fist sped down. A loud crack could be heard as the head of the stone lion got crushed. Blood and brain parts splattered everywhere, except on the body of Drake. After the two years of killing the soulsea beneath his Flame soul had become a lot bigger almost looking like a real sea and he learned to control it. He could now shield his body with his soul energy. The shield wasn’t very strong, only protecting him of rain and other things like that. He tried to condense stronger shields, but it seemed like his understanding of the power wasn’t good enough yet. It was kind of useful though, because he always had to crack the head of the beasts to get the crystal. Without the shield he would’ve needed to bath every time he killed a beast. Drake didn’t like being bloody. He didn’t mind killing beasts in the most brutal way, with blood and organs spraying everywhere, but he didn’t like it when the blood was spilling on his body.

He searched quickly inside of the crushed remains of the head and soon found what he searched for. A mat grey long crystal, with a proud looking lion inside of it. He activated his Dragon chain and the crystal disappeared from his hand. Inside of the Dragon Chain there were hundreds of different crystals. Drake hadn’t used any crystal since the fight with the blood bear. He faintly knew that he could create more tattoos on his body, but he hadn’t even fully mastered his scorpion tail tattoo, so he decided against it. He decided that he would first try to create some techniques with the scorpion tail and with his body, before he would create the next tattoo, although he knew that with every tattoo he would become a lot stronger. He wanted to fully experience countless life and death situations, because he believed that he couldn’t grow stronger otherwise. Also he felt like his mind couldn’t bear another tattoo at the moment.

Suddenly a low growl came from behind him and Drake, who was standing there with half closed eyes, got ripped out of his thoughts. “Shit I forgot, the crocodile got wounded!” Drake yelled and hurriedly rushed to the side of the creature. The crocodile looked really fierce with clack scales and the dangerous mouth. The whole body of the creature was covered in deep wounds and Drake could see that the crocodile man wouldn’t live much longer without help. “Well…I’m not letting you die, friend!” he muttered and started to think again. The proud look in the gaze of the crocodile let him remember a face. It was a human with the exact same look inside of his eyes. Drake felt that the face was very important to him, but he couldn’t clearly remember why. “Strange…” he thought. They had the same look and Drake was full of respect for this crocodile- like creature. He felt that if he managed to help the crocodile, he would get something unbelievably precious. He didn’t know where this feeling came from, but he trusted it. Even if there wouldn’t be a feeling like this, he would still try everything he could to rescue the crocodile. The creature had deeply impressed him. “How can I help him…? I don’t have any healing abilities and strangely I never met another one of those blood bears…” he thought and continued to observe the crocodiles body.

He saw how deep red blood flowed continuously out of the wounds of the creature.

“Wait a moment…blood?” he muttered and remembered something. “Didn’t the dragon give me his blood to drink, so that I can become his successor? Can I possibly do the same, but in a slightly different way? “ he thought excitedly. “But what if I vanish, just like the old dragon did…?” he remembered the dragon, as its body slowly turned into dust. “Its no use to think more about it! I have the feeling, that if I don’t save this crocodile, then I will regret it for my entire life! Fuck it…I have to try it!” Drake muttered and a determined look appeared in his eyes.

With a fast move the scorpion tail slashed a long cut on his chest, right above his heart. He tried to imitate the actions of the Taran’Kha. With a thought a vase appeared out of thin air and Drake put it under the wound. Drop for drop silvery blood started to drip out of the wound and into the vase. The blood was a lot more pure than the blood from the rest of his body. It was almost completely silver only a little red was mixed within it. Drake felt weaker with every drop of blood, but he still held on and slit open the wound every time it tried to heal. Slowly the vase filled until it was almost half full. Drake let the wound close itself and the scorpion tail disappeared. He brought the vase over the body of the crocodile and turned it around slowly. The blood started to flow out of the vase, directly onto the body.

When the first drop hit the creature, it started to glow in a faint silver light and the drop of blood flowed on its own inside one of the many wounds on the crocodile’s body. Soon more drops entered different wounds and all of them started to glow in a silver light. The wounds began to close slowly . Suddenly a bright flash blinded Drake and after a moment the faint patterns on top of the crocodiles head started to burn with small silver flames. Slowly the pattern changed and the lines bend in different directions. A new pattern was built. Drake was shocked and couldn’t believe his eyes. The pattern changed in form of a Dragon. It was not the same shape as the tattoo he had on his back, it looked kind of familiar. He felt very familiar with the tattoo, as if it was a tattoo of his soul . Suddenly the Dragon tattoo on the head of the crocodile was completed. The dragon started to move its head and stared directly into Drakes eyes. With a loud ‘wooosh’ sound Drakes vision turned black.

After a moment of panic, pictures started to appear and Drake concentrated on them. He saw a small baby crocodile with black scales crawling on the ground, observed by its parents.

The scene changed and he saw a slightly older black crocodile playing with his brothers. The black scaled crocodile was happy and Drake felt happy with him.

The scene changed again, this time he saw how the brothers of the black scaled crocodile were coming back into the village with animals dragging behind them. The small black crocodile was almost worshipping his brother’s, they were heroes who hunted for the survival of the tribe. Drake felt the same.

The scene changed and the black scaled crocodile was a lot older now. In front of his eyes the hero brothers eyes were dull, without any intelligence. The parents of the black scaled crocodile and his brothers were talking vehemently to the three older brothers, but they seemed to not hear them. Suddenly bloodlust crept into their eyes and without warning they attacked the parents. Drake saw, together with the black scaled crocodile, how his parents were ripped apart by unbelievable strength and the blood splattered onto the black scaled crocodile and Drake alike. Drake could feel despair, helplessness, anger, shock, horror all at the same time. Tears started to stream from his eyes as he watched how the brothers turned away from their dead parents walking out of the tent, ignoring the screams and tears of their younger brother. The black scaled crocodile followed them and saw the same scene everywhere in the village. All the warriors of his tribe came out of the tents at the same time, covered in blood. They all turned around to the forest and started walking towards it with lifeless eyes, as if someone was controlling them. The black scaled crocodile fell to his knees and bloody tears started to drop from its reptile eyes.

The scene changed again and the shocked Drake watched how the small crocodile trained his body for years until it was so strong that he could go hunting. The crocodile never paused and a deep determination and anger was visible in his eyes. Drake felt that anger and determination the same way and he understood. The crocodile wanted to take revenge, he wanted answers.

The scene changed again and Drake watched how the black scaled crocodile, which had become a really big and muscular creature, fought against a big hooved creature with four horns on top of its head. Drake struggled together with the crocodile and when he finally killed the hooved beast he felt triumph. This was a true warrior! Then he saw how the crocodile dragged the body of the hooved beast behind him and was discovered by the stone lion. Then everything became black again.

Suddenly information streamed into his mind. At first he didn’t understand any of the things, but after a few seconds the things became clear. It was a language, which was spoken from mind to mind. It was the language of the beastmen. Something clicked in his mind and his eyes opened automatically.

He was really weak and he felt that the blood inside his body had become a little less pure. He gazed down and was surprised to see the crocodile man fully healed. Not only was it healed but a faint silver tattoo of a dragon was visible on top of its head. It also became a lot bigger, almost two heads, and the former normal black scales had turned into a black deeper than the night. A faint silver glint was shining on the scales and Drake could faintly feel, that they had become a lot harder, almost comparable to his own body.

Suddenly a bright red flame ignited on the tattoo of the crocodile and Drake felt a sharp pain on his chest. Slowly a bright red, flaming claw mark burned itself on the right side of his chest. It felt like lava. He could see a similar mark appearing on the chest of the crocodile. Slowly the burning subsided and with a cracking sound a barrier broke apart inside of his mind. Behind the barrier he could feel…life. Another intelligent being was connected with his mind.

“It must be you…it seems like we have become connected by blood. But can you become my brother?” he whispered with hope and doubt filling his eyes.

Suddenly, as if the crocodile man had heard his words, his former closed eyes opened with a loud click sound and they stared at each other.