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Chapter 12: The Journey North
Last Updated:
2023-11-19 22:28:55
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Dragon-kissed Chapter 13: Extinct
“Have we lost it?” Temujin screamed, his dark-accustomed eyes straining to pierce the inky vastness below. “Tell me we lost it!” “Of course we lost it! Bears don’t have wings, silly,” Aki tittered. “Oh, you should’ve seen your face! That was the most scared I’ve ever felt in my entire life!” They tried to bring their racing hearts and the sudden rush of adrenaline under control. Griffin especially, whose heart they could feel through all his bulk and feathers, beating madly like a rapid volley of cannon fire. “It wasn’t just the bear!” Temujin shouted. “There was something else!” “Something else?” Aki shouted back. “What?” “I can’t be sure… but I think it’s… a dragon!” “A dragon? Are you out of your mind? Dragons have been extinct for two cen—” Before Aki could finish her sentence, a large mass from below struck them like some black, flameless rocket. Griffin stiffened in pain. “Nooooooooo!” Temujin screamed as Griffin convulsed trying to break free of the deathl
Last Updated : 2023-11-20Dragon-kissed Chapter 14: The Showdown
The Kuma-wani water dragon hunched over Griffin’s body, wary as any predator. The relentless winds swept the land and sometimes howled like angry spirits. They were enough to send frightened children under their blankets and push ordinary trekkers to the ground. But Temujin wasn’t ordinary. He was a Slayer. The dragon tensed and snarled when it saw Temujin ahead, making a lone stand in an extremely uneven showdown. His right hand was crimped on his side and blazing like a torch. Without it, he would be lost in the suffocating darkness. He was like a faint candle on the edge of the world. The dragon didn’t mind the dark. Its eyes glowed yellow. Just like Temujin, it was capable of night vision. And a dragon could see a hundred miles ahead of it, close to if not surpassing the visual acuity of its ancestor breed, the Ri-Tatu. “Hey you!” Temujin shouted. “That’s right. I’m talking to you, Ugly! That’s my friend you got there. If you know what’s good for you, you’re gonna leave him alo
Last Updated : 2023-11-20Dragon-kissed Chapter 15: Close Shave
Aki brought all the elements smashing against the dragon’s glowing underbelly. The beast budged and used its tail to steady itself against the onslaught. It was determined to withstand the second attack and prove it was the king, the alpha predator of its domain. What the dragon failed to realize was that Aki wouldn’t stop at hurling funnels upon funnels of wind. After she had super-cooled the dragon’s underbelly, she launched herself in the middle of her own cyclone and withdrew a short wooden implement from her suit. Another ingenuity of the Ciconi Clan, the object was an extendable bō staff. Near the mouth of her wind tunnel, Aki teleported again. But she was so focused on what she was doing that she barely noticed. She ended up floating parallel to the dragon’s chest and executed rapid combos of two-handed underarm spins with the bō staff. It appeared as though she was emerging from the cyclone in an invisible boat but she was pulling the oars so fast that she threw out sparks on
Last Updated : 2023-11-21Dragon-kissed Chapter 16: Daybreak
With the sunless dawn came the proverbial ray of hope. A gaggle of curious onlookers from the nearby villages had come and caught Aki and Temujin asleep in the open. Last night, they were sitting close to Griffin and Aki projected a giant dome of airflow around them (with a chimney on top). Then Temujin radiated heat to keep themselves and the whole length of Griffin warm. They must’ve been exhausted from the fight because they fell asleep that way. They were woken up by a great deal of chatter and wide-eyed stares, just as Temujin’s fire disintegrated into its last sparks and Aki’s air dome fizzled away. Naturally, it was still dark in the north but at least the weather had cleared. Many of the villagers, blonde and blue-eyed, were carrying torches that threw a harsh light on the outlanders. “Greetings, friends!” spoke a jovial, stout man who sported a lot of white, from his handlebar and long, squarish beard to his ermine-trimmed surcoat. “Welcome to our humble little fell, Pukk
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Before they fell asleep last night, Temujin had asked Aki if she wanted a piece of dragon scale, or all of them, to fashion into armor. Dragon scales were highly prized material because they were impervious to a lot of things, even fire, as their recently concluded battle had just proven. Aki answered in the negative. Ciconi Slayers disliked any form of heavy protection and preferred to rely more on teleportation or speed to evade attacks. “Forgive my ignorance, Lord Temujin,” Mr. Olsson said after a star-struck gasp, “but are these lovely cut glass bowls from the renowned glassmakers of the Vulcanus Clan? They’re curiously shallow but no less expressive than a chawan cup. Dare I say you’re exceedingly generous to even consider offering these beauties as a warming gift to me?” “Forget it,” Temujin harrumphed and put the scales back inside his jacket, away from Mr. Olsson’s reaching fingers. Before the town master could barrage them with more grand oration or another out-of-this-wor
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“Blitzlicht,” Aki repeated the word to herself as soon as she heard it from the photographer. She let the foreign word roll on her tongue as though she could taste it, could see its physical equivalent again: Flash Light. “It’s incredibly bright,” Temujin agreed, reading Aki’s thoughts. “It’s from a new solution,” chimed in the photographer, who had brown hair, blue eyes, and very pale skin. The photographer also wore a monocle that barely hid the many layers of bags under his eyes. He looked more at home under the black tent of his creation than in the outside world. In Aki’s rich imagination, he evoked the image of a ki-sucking phantom called kyonshī. His assistant, on the other hand, the one who had held up the frying pan during the photo op, looked like a gravedigger in an ill-fitting suit, like someone assembled from stolen body parts. He contributed very little to the conversation so the impression was enhanced. Earlier, Aki had used sleight-of-hand to spirit away the tintype
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Temujin added some new rocks into the pit in the center of the lodge to keep the temperature at a good forty degrees. He himself was sweating like a candle; he could only imagine how Griffin felt with all his down feather. He dipped water from a bucket and poured it into the hot stones, raising puffs of steam. “Have you come to seek counsel?” Temujin was startled. As the steam dissipated, he noticed the shaman, the original fire-tender, sitting cross-legged at the far end of the lodge. He thought everyone else was at the feast. “Forgive me,” Temujin quickly apologized with a bow. “I didn’t realize you were here.” “It matters not,” the shaman answered in Temujin’s western tongue. “I am neither here nor there and I come and go as I please.” Temujin looked at the shaman more carefully. His overall impression of him was “Elephant Man”, because the man was bald and had had his ear lobes stretched with big wooden disk gauges. His whole body was also covered in tattoo, as far as Temuji
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Everyone knew the story. The history books of all four clans didn’t differ or sugarcoat when it came to the evil of the Clan of Vulcanus, otherwise known as the Salamanders. The Clan of Salamanders used to have a strong and prosperous khaganate, the mightiest kingdom in all the land. They were the best miners and blacksmiths, and they were the first people to master and command their mother element: fire. They were also the first humans to betray their kind and collaborate with the dragons. Salamander clansmen were considered direct descendants of Homusubi, the fire god. Together with their dragon overlords, they hewed entire mountains and smelted ores to build the stateliest castles and the most impregnable fortresses. They created hand weapons and war machines – repeating crossbows, hand cannons, trebuchets – that extended the power of the nine-headed dragon god, Kuzuryū Daimyōjin, to every corner of Pan-Terra. The exhaust of the Salamanders’ smokestacks choked the sky as far as
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Dragon-kissed Epilogue: New Dawn
“’Tis a sin tah suffer such a numbskull as ye live,” Captain Fang said, “but it appears we be a perfectly even match. Ye know as well as I do ’tis futile tah resort tah our mother element.” The pirate could barely stand in his exhaustion and was leaning on his sabre. Sasha was also down to his last reserves of energy. He was poised low on the ground, ever ready to strike with his shinobuken held horizontally in front of him, his left hand behind. “Were we in a trainin’ dojo where ye’ve been raised,” the captain said, “no one would claim victory… BUT HITHER IS NOT A DOJO!” Captain Fang thrust his amputated right arm and released the harpoon on the end of it. As a matter of fact, Sasha had earlier grabbed a handful of salt when he tumbled forward across a drying pan. Now he swung his left hand from behind him and flung the salt to the captain’s eyes like a sumo wrestler purifying the ring. Sasha felt a certain amount of pleasure when he heard the captain utter a pained squeal. In a s
Dragon-kissed Chapter 89: The Cleanup
Yuriko poked her head inside the hole in the roof. The building was a temple. Its ceiling was high above the floor and the whole place, although spacious, was empty. There were plenty of Everlite crystals to keep the temple well-lit. She regretted that she didn’t bring a grappling hook. She made the hand seal of Pyō the Great Thunderbolt to execute a Kyūbanjutsu (Suction Pad). It was one trick she inherited from her clan and had been useful during her stint as a cat burglar, till she scaled the hull of Captain Fang’s ship and became a stowaway. She channeled her ki to the soles of her feet and created partial vacuums on them so they would stick to any flat surface. The suction was enough to let her stand completely upside-down on the temple’s ceiling, her braided hair hanging down from her scalp. “Thanks for dropping in.” Yuriko gasped. Aki was across from her and also upside down. With the better lighting, she looked formidable in her white Slayer suit, at ease and back in her ele
Dragon-kissed Chapter 88: Rooftop Fisticuffs
Aki leapt from roof to roof. Her tabi boots touched the tiles lightly before pushing off. She was harnessing Karamijutsu (Body-lightening). Without warning, a tile she was stepping on broke and she slid straight down to the edge of the roof, only managing to grab the gutter in the nick of time. She was dangling there when Yuriko appeared on the incline, just a few feet away, crouching and fanning out a set of throwing knives. Apparently, she had launched a projectile that broke Aki’s foothold. “Fancy a prince tah rescue ye, princess?” “I’m not a princess,” Aki replied through gritted teeth. “I’m a SLAYER princess!” With a back flip, Aki brought herself upside-down with her legs spinning in a wheel kick. Yuriko held her forearms up in an X shape and the casings of her katars blocked the kicks. Aki landed right in front of her. They were soon locked in hand-to-hand combat; something rare for Stork Slayers who emphasized defense over offense, evasion over brute strength. Yuriko projec
Dragon-kissed Chapter 87: The Teacher
“What took you?” Koumori-shishou asked. The old man remained seated on the driftwood, his back still turned and exposed to the newcomers though all three of his students had sprung to their feet. “Cor blimey! Whar be our manners?” Captain Fang said sarcastically, drawing a water-saber that he instantaneously generated out of an empty, solid scabbard. “Apologies fer keepin’ ye waitin’.” The saber was made possible by the Undina Clan’s Mizu Funsha no Jutsu (Water Stream), which produced a very high-pressure jet of water that was as strong and sharp as regular katana. “Well,” Koumori-shishou said, “we would not be very good Slayers if we threw away fifteen minutes of head start, would we?” “Maybe you’re just stupid,” Ganzorig said. “It was precisely the light in your pipe that led us here.” “Death on a hook is food in the eyes of a fish.” “Be ye sayin’ ye lured us out here, ye treacherous cur?” Captain Fang roared. “This shall nah end well fer ye.” “As I be a soul,” Kosano said, “
Dragon-kissed Chapter 86: First Class
They sat around Koumori-shishou on the moonlit beach. Like real students, Aki thought excitedly. Sasha had returned to his human form and was still half-naked. Apparently, shrinking back down was relatively easier than blowing up to the fearsome scale of Dragonkist Ryūjin. The master sat on a large piece of driftwood. He took off the tunic-like uniform of the Dark Emperor and revealed his usual attire underneath: the saffron robe and pom-pommed surplice of the hermit monks, the Yamabushis. From inside his sleeve, he drew out his shakujō staff with the six rings. Like Aki’s bō staff, it could be retracted and extended. Next, from his slightly hunched back, he produced his straw conical hat and placed it on top of his head. Finally, he unclipped his one-toothed geta sandals from his belt and put them on. He was completely transformed. Aki clapped and Sasha muttered, “Wow.” Koumori-shishou bowed with a flourish. “You’re a true master of disguise, shishou,” Aki complimented. The monk
Dragon-kissed Chapter 85: The Emperor of the Dark
From the strong rocking movements, Aki could tell they were on a small boat. Her captors were using oars. All at once, the bag was pulled from over her head and the wind coating was removed from her mouth. “Get your stinking hands off me or I swear you’ll lose them!” Aki blinked to adjust her eyes. It was still night. Have they arrived in Dragon’s Horn already? “Spoken like a true warrior-princess,” said a familiar voice. Aki couldn’t believe it. She strained her eyes in the dark. “Temujin?” she blurted out. “That’s right. It’s me.” “But I thought…” “I had some help,” he said, gesturing to a second figure behind him. Aki let out a frightened gasp. In the pale moonlight, she could make out the Dark Emperor! “Oh, don’t be alarmed!” Temujin said. “It’s just my master, Koumori-shishou.” To Aki’s great consternation, the Dark Emperor swept back his hood and took off his iron dragon mask. An old man with slanted eyes and a long wispy beard like a mountain goat’s was beaming at her
Dragon-kissed Chapter 84: Hard Truths
“What do you think they’re going to do to us?” Aki asked Sasha. They had eventually given up hope that Temujin would return. As much as it pained Aki to admit it, she knew he would succumb to brainwashing. Most Slayers did, sooner or later. “Well, at first they were pointed south like us but then they made a U-turn, which explains why we didn’t see them coming. My guess is they’re now taking us to Dragon’s Horn. It’s a big and busy trading port, for all things legal and illegal.” “They’re gonna sell us as slaves?” Aki said in horror. “No, we’re much too old to be submissive. But they know you’re the heiress apparent so they’ll demand a princess’s ransom.” “A princess’s ransom? How much is that?” “Let’s just say they’re gonna try and bleed your empire dry.” “My grandfather would never allow that. I’m sure he’ll have imperial soldiers waiting for us when we reach port. I’ll have these pirates arrested before they even—” “They probably wouldn’t tell anyone about you just yet. The
Dragon-kissed Chapter 83: Torture
In the afternoon, after their cheerless and tasteless brunch, the captain came down to the brig to grace them with his presence. Aki was right, the four most important people on the ship were: Captain Fang, the Dark Emperor, Kosano and Yuriko; in that order. But because they were pirates, it was easy to imagine incessant politicking among the last three. The entire crew was of course curious about the young Slayers who had kicked their butts, but they were under strict orders to stay on their posts and perform their duties. Nevertheless, Aki recognized Zaterra and Ganzorig; the first was endlessly cutting his nails with a dagger. Temujin also noticed his cork backpack slung on Zaterra’s shoulder. “Hey, that’s mine!” Temujin shouted, gripping the dragon-bone bars of his cage. “Finders keepers,” Zaterra replied and stuck out his tongue. “Give it back to him!” Aki demanded. “Be yer companions knowin’ yer secrets in this here bag?” asked Kosano. Temujin fell quiet. “Cat got yer ton
Dragon-kissed Chapter 82: Prisoners
They were held in separate cells down the ship’s brig. Aki’s and Sasha’s were adjoining while Temujin’s was across from theirs. Each cell had an additional feature. For instance, Aki’s had a water barometer to monitor the slightest change in atmospheric pressure if she attempted to form winds inside the ship. Sasha’s had a quicksilver thermometer to keep the room temperature in check. Last, apart from confiscating his flint and steel, the pirates put Temujin in a cell with the fire-proof bones of a red dragon for bars. In case the prisoners showed any signs of defiance by using their powers, the pirates also had a weird-looking contraption like an electrically charged spear. Sasha figured it was a weaponized version of the Leyden jar. If it touched their prisons (the conductor), it would discharge tens of thousands of volts. This last piece of technology suggested a link between the pirates and Tamerlane’s research on the fifth element, but all of them pointed to the fact that the cap
