Dusk of a Hybrid

by Ryan Johnson

  Valverno didn’t just get an army of land but warriors by sea. He had realized he has an army trained to fight at sea, and this was a big victory for him. Not only had he surrounded the Lion Clan by land with the Eagle, Tigress, and Cheetah Clans, but now he can surround them by sea.

  Valverno saw Teutates as an enemy of Lusìvar and only sought to seek the throne they both knew belonged to Teutates, but Valverno was hesitate to give up the power. He was proclaimed by many lords and dukes as their rightful ruler of both the two islands: Shimabellia and Isla Maeli.

  Teutates didn’t sit well with Valverno being proclaimed the leader, so he decided to run back Isla Maeli where he and his ancestors lived in exile. He sees Valverno as a rival to the throne of Shimabellia and won’t ally with him unless Valverno gives up the throne. But until Lusìvar was defeated, Valverno won’t give up the throne.

  This would end up causing both of them to go to war with each other. Valverno paid his attention on Shimabellia’s western coasts of capturing the seaports and subduing Uragiru’s loyalists he didn’t his spare time on the eastern fronts, which Teutates could land the Lion Clan on. However, Teutates didn’t invade while Valverno was busy doing battle in the west.

  And just in case Teutates did invade, the warships the Lizard Clan uses can use to patrol the Seaport City Teutates and the Lion Clan were in. And hopefully, the Lion Clan didn’t have any warships of their own to battle against the Lizard Clan’s warships.

  For four full days, morning to even, all ten soldiers sailed from the southwestern coast of Isla Maeli to the eastern coast and to the Seaport City. Surprisingly, their ships sailed with great speed to the east against the winds blowing to the west. The sails were tied to the masts and the soldiers used long oars to pull their warships across the Isla Maeli’s southern seacoasts and against the winds blowing in the opposite direction.

  Valverno never saw such discipline of humans taking on the blowing winds and the vastness of their sweats of pushing and pulling the long, heavy oars. This clan he saw could do anything: fight on land and battle on the sea with strong, sturdy warships. He knows for a fact this clan was going to be a winning faction for him against Teutates and his Lion Clan.

  With thousands of warships that stretched across the horizon like a swarm of giant hornets swimming across the vastness of the open sea, Valverno kept his distance and soared in the sky and saw to it no ship was left behind.

  Valverno now had the command over a fleet so large and massive, but he now has an army of the sea. He led the entire fleet and all the soldiers the ships carry to the eastern shores of Isla Maeli.

  And he’d cut there faster if he could to guide the gigantic fleet through a river that would take them too directly to the Seaport City from the southeastern banks of Isla Maeli. But the river wasn’t deep as it was wide. The river was shallow as shallow can be.

  None of the warships’ bottoms would be able to sail through the river’s shallow waters. They could sail on the river if they had to take small boats that could depart from the warships but that would take a travel by that river; the river floats from upstream like snow melting from mountain slopes.

  So, they were going have to go the long way around the southeastern corners of the island they were sailing on its southern shores to reach to their destination. And that would take at least another day or longer sailing around the corner and sail up north.

  About two days had passed since they made sailed around Isla Maeli’s southeastern corners and were sailing their way up north. The thousands of ships that took up much space of the sea made great haste and the wind was in their favor: the wind starting blowing to the north. This made the soldiers stop peddling the oars and casted down their sails and let the winds carry them.

  Valverno added a little wind power of his own and made the wind of the seas make the warships sail faster by the slightest of his wind power. He flew to the back of the large fleet and he exhaled a small ounce of breath from his mouth and let his breath’s wind get moisturized with the sea’s winds and let two different kinds of wind power collide with each warship’s sails.

  He was glad to have such power in his lungs. Otherwise, it would have taken two weeks to reach their destination, and Valverno didn’t want to spend time all that time flying and blowing winds from his lungs for two weeks. He would have to eat and sleep like a human would need his sleep and food to restore his own energy.

  For the hybrid that he was, he could go without food and sleep for a few weeks. There was at one time he could go months without food and sleep. But this was another side-effect when he summoned Origenes; all the natural powers, which gave him impenetrable skin and other magic powers meant for other creatures, such as healing powers for Unicorns and turning living creatures to stone for Gorgons, were casted away. Valverno no longer processed any uncanny ability given to him through genetic enhancements. He turned himself into a true human being without the use of magic, but still retained what he was given to him by a god.

  Valverno was weakened but he still thought he still held onto a great deal of power in him and would grow even more when he would find the last armor artifact. Now, he was focusing on the getting a fourth clan with the other three clans and see how the three leaders would react when a rival clan was coming their way.

  He was going to need to inform them of the Lizard Clan and really needed to convince them of a rival clan will be joining them. The three clans don’t trust the Snake Clan when their leaders were under a suspicious impression the clan was somehow evil, and they were proved right when the Snake Clan was loyal to Uragiru.

  Now, with the leaders dead and the clan renamed the Lizard Clan, Valverno was the leader of the newly, reformed clan and had his work cut out for him. The leaders wouldn’t agree with him and his choice of bringing a clan with a reputation using sneaky skills and poisonous weapons.

  At one point, seeing how the people are where they were sailing, Valverno decided to fly ahead in a speeding paste. The demigod needed to tell the clan leaders of the approaching ships and very fast. The speed the warships were sailing would make a cheetah running in the open savanna look like a kid racing against a horse pulling a chart.

  It nearly took him a good half hour before he reached the nearest encampment of the three clans were set up. Thousands of tents were set up as far as the eye can see. Each tent bared a flag of an animal’s head: an eagle’s head, a cheetah’s head, and a tiger’s head.

  He drew to a halt as he descended about a hundred feet from the ground the tents were settled on. With many tents in view, it was going to be hard for him to find the exact tent the three leaders shared.

  When it came to a large encampment of a large army, the leaders would be in the largest tent set up, but when it came to these clans; there was no large tent or roof very wide enough to tell which holds the leaders Kelda, Bjorg, and Orinù. And each leader had their own separate tent and it was still hard to tell where each leader was.

  Valverno sailed through the sky as he heard many shouts and cries being hurled at him. Hundreds to thousands of soldiers below him saw their leader flying pass by them and they cried in loud cheers. He only ignored those cheers as he was aiming to find the three leaders and keep the thought of being cheered away.

  He saw the cheers only for the people to inspire themselves of their leader was in sight and kept their morality up. His appearance alone was all he needed to keep his army’s morale up and make sure they weren’t forgotten.

  With all his flying, it took Valverno at least a good hour until he came across the tent the three leaders were at: a tent with a flag with the heads of the eagle, cheetah, and tiger. He landed on the ground and folded his wings. In front of him of the tent’s only entrance, he saw about five guards in front of it.

  They moved away aside in a matter of seconds when Valverno landed in front of them. This was such a devotion they showed to their sworn ruler that he wa
nts to speak with the clan leaders.

  Without a moment’s hesitation, Valverno strolled into the tent through the entrance that was narrow and small enough for a human to enter but too small and narrow to see through.

  Inside, he saw the three leaders looking at a table built of solid rock. It top was covered with many black figures shaped like chess pieces and objects shaped like castles and little formations shaped to be mountains. It was a map forged of a large scale that covers all of the two islands from north-to-south and east-to-west.

  The main spot the three leaders were looking at was the island of Isla Maeli and their forces of animal shaped figures surrounding a small sized castle positioned by the eastern shores.

  Valverno walked closer to the large table seating the large stone mapping the two islands and the forces of each figure was positioned at a castle (or fortress) that was under control by a figure resembling what forces were under control under. He looked closely at Isla Maeli to see the animal figures, which were cheetahs, tigers, and eagles surrounding the fortress on the left with lion figures seating by a flat surface that was the sea to the right with no figures, were surrounding the Seaport City very well.

  “Demigod Valverno!” said Bjorg.

  The three leaders stood up straight as their ruler came walking in the tent without them seeing him. “At ease, people,” he said. “Don’t get so worked up every time you see me. I maybe your leader, but I’m no ruler. Just treat me as an equal and not as a god or a king.”

  “But you did take over the throne of Shimabellia, did you not?” asked Kelda.

  “I destroyed the throne, not taken over, Kelda,” corrected Valverno. “It was supposed to be King Uragiru’s responsibility to rule over Shimabellia, and he failed to do it, by allying and would have betrayed the Shadow King. His daughter doesn’t have the knowledge to rule the island, and she is adopted and therefore has no rights to the throne. Teutates would have exiled all the creatures from Shimabellia and only make room for humans to live on the island. And nearly everyone on the island proclaimed me to be Shimabellia ruler.

  “As such, I destroyed the seat Shimabellia’s ancient royal family and this made it clear a stone seat one power; its divine influence that gives one power. I am a demigod, and the way I see it is there is no greater power than that of a god.”

  “You always keep saying that, Valverno,” said Bjorg. “Everyone knows you are a demigod. We don’t need to keep being reminded of what you are. No offence.”

  Valverno stared at the leader of the cheetah army and smiled at a man who seemly was questioning the demigod. Bjorg was very much less fat than he was three years ago. Thanks to Valverno’s divine influence and a bit of motivation, Bjorg lost a tremendous amount of weight and was no longer vertically challenge when it comes to running. Bjorg was now thinner than he used to be and had more slight muscle on him.

  “Don’t be so rude to our ruler, Bjorg,” warned Orinù.

  “At ease, Orinù, mere words can’t do me any harm. Trying to kill me with any metal weapon would do me harm. I like daring people who want to put up an attitude against me. I am not a tyrant or dictator who executes for showing such rudeness; I try to encourage them because living in fear would just decrease them to lose their humanity. Bjorg here is just showing how much of a human he is, which is what I like to see. But enough of this stuff. What the latest with our competitor?”

  “He’s being quiet as ever for the past three years, as we have been here for three years,” answered Kelda. “He and the Lion Clan have completely blockaded theses in this city. He hasn’t made a single move or set out any small squads of the Lion Clan toward us. Among the five clans, the Lion Clan has such elite warriors they could see through the darkness of the night and can fight in mere darkness just like a real lion seeing through the night like seeing things in daylight.

  “However, they haven’t made a move yet. They haven’t even sent a squad of their best soldiers to thin our numbers. This is something I do not understand. They have the best of the best of the best warriors in that city and their not taking us out.”

  “In my opinion, they are buying their time,” said Bjorg. “They are waiting for a good time to strike. An opportunity to catch us off-guard. And when we are caught off-guard, Teutates will send a signal for the Lion Clan to attack.”

  “And if they don’t attack by land,” said Orinù. “They could attack at sea. We have very few ships guarding the Seaport City at sea, and he could as much as build many ships of his own. But the Lion Clan isn’t trained to be elite warriors by sea but by land. We try to infiltrate that city, but its walls are very high and we don’t have the right number of warriors to invade the city. Even if we had the Snake Clan as our allies, they just won’t do because they mostly use poisons to kill.”

  “By the way, how did your battle go with the Snake Clan?” asked Bjorg. “Did you wipe them all out or were they too much for you to handle? We do know you once had impenetrable skin, but he gave it up when you summoned a god and order him to banish all evil, black magic sources back to the Pool of Shadows?”

  Valverno remained silent. He looked at the leaders waiting for him to respond. He needed to tell them about the clan coming their way, and they were expecting him to answer of he either won the battle or retreated.

  “Well, to summarize what has happened in a short matter, I killed the leaders of the Snake Clan: the Council of Three,” said Valverno.

  They cheered in his response and shouting a small “Yes” in a soft cheer. This was something they wanted to hear from him, but he only told a small portion of the truth. Once he told them the clan was coming by sea, Valverno was going to feel the heat from the leaders’ reactions. They definitely didn’t want a rival clan joining them.

  “What about the Snake Clan? Or more of the people of the clan?” asked Bjorg.

  Valverno blinked twice before looking at them with blank eyes. “I spared their lives and they are coming here on ships as we speak.”

  “What?!” the three gasped very loudly the soldiers outside the tent could hear their leaders’ voices. This was the reaction he expected from the clan leaders, and he was going have to convince them for the Lizard Clan to join them.

  “They are no longer the Snake Clan, leaders. They are now known as the Lizard Clan, and they will be here with a big number of ships. We will have a navy and an army at sea, and we will be able to counterattack any ships the Lion Clan would throw at us.”

  “What are you talking about?” asked Orinù. “It’s the Snake Clan! They are a rival clan, and they have sworn loyalty to someone else. They aren’t going to be so friendly like we three are. The Snake Clan will kill us all. And they are coming here as we speak?”

  “They are no longer known as the Snake Clan, and I changed that name,” said Valverno. “And it would be of they were members of the Snake Clan that were brainwashed into being enslaved soldiers. I freed those soldiers from a brainwashing spell, and they are now under my command. And they all volunteered to join me.

  “After a long time of being brainwashed, they all have made a decision to join me. They are now known as the Lizard Clan. I was thinking of naming them a Hybrid Clan, but that would be too ridiculous and an animal’s name would be better.

  “They are ten thousand soldiers I’ve spared, and they all joined me. They have hundreds to thousands of ships sailing. Not only are they trained on the battlefield, but they are trained to fight at sea. We have such a hybrid army with solders trained to fight on land and sea. There can be no better army than having the Lizard Clan to join us. Whatever you like it or not, we will have a forth clan joining us, and they will be patrolling the city by sea. Question my choices if it’d be, but I will not massacre an entire clan for being brainwashed and unwillingly served sorcerers. They are coming here and they will be kept by sea, so they won’t be able to attack on land, and that is going to be final.”

>   Valverno saw on the leaders’ faces of how disappointed they were of bringing a rival clan to join them. He expected as much to see reactions of their faces of a certain choice of bringing their most hated rival the eastern shores of Isla Maeli.

  It was indeed a risky move of Valverno of sparing a clan that is known to be violent and could possibly turn violent, and kill them the three clans given the opportunity. He was going to take the risk and have the Lizard Clan join the ranks of the Eagle, Cheetah, and Tigress Clans.

  He had the power to create portals after all; he had the power to come to the island through such things and could sense the distress of others when in battle. He could come and kill the Lizard Clan should they kill the three clans. Only time will tell if the Lizard Clan would give up the ways of the Snake Clan, or if they will still stat as the Snake Clan.

  Kelda sighed and shook her head. “I won’t agree with your choice, but I’ll trust you on your word, demigod,” she said. “But should the clan do anything do any harm us or if any suspicious activity is going on with them, the Tigress Clan will take necessary to fight back. We will not take responsibility, if we have to slaughter the entire clan. We will be under the oppression of acting in self-defense of my clan and the other clans, and it will be the ‘Lizard Clan’ that would have started attacking us.”

  “Agreed!” replied Bjorg and Orinù.

  This was the kind of response Valverno was suspecting from them. He could order them not to attack the Lizard Clan, but the rival clan is still considered an enemy as well as the Lion Clan and has a reputation of attacking and killing in stealth attacks, even when they were ruled under the Five-Headed Dragon.

  He even still thought of the Lizard Clan to be an enemy to him. Even though he didn’t sense any hostility when they approached him on the mountain he was on, there was a possibility some hostility could arise in a few soldiers and still live up to the reputation the Snake Clan has.