The Eternal: Dragonborn - A LitRPG Saga (World of Ga'em Book 2)

by Dhayaa Anbajagane

  “Yes, that’s a very important thought to have right now,” Nyx sighed.

  All of a sudden I saw a shadow of a dragon head in front of me and my body froze, my heart nearly jumping up to my throat in the sudden shock. I stepped back, and blinked, hoping the image would disappear.

  But it didn’t.

  A man stepped into our vision. That man stepped into our vision.

  His white armor was nearly faded in with the snow, both of them the exact same color. The gold streaks on it were the only thing that kept the thing noticeable.

  “Hello there, Diablo,” he said, amused. “How nice of you to come visit me.”

  So he’s with the Alliance of Light after all, I muttered.

  “I guess the white armor and gold decor were kind of a dead giveaway.”

  “Why are you doing this?” I asked him. “What’s in it for you? Why are you working for the Alliance of Light?”

  He laughed. “Why am I working for them?” He touched the inner-side of his helmet, and I heard a hiss, as though something was depressurizing. His helmet expanded a bit and he lifted it off his head.

  Brown locks of hair emerged, and radiant eyes of sky blue looked at me, amusement within their expression. One glance and I realized my question had been answered.

  I knew who this man was.

  Markus Goodfield.

  ***

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  I had expected the man in white to be someone from the Alliance of Light. The color code of his armor had been a pretty good indicator of that.

  However, I hadn’t expected the man to be the leader of the Alliance of Light himself.

  DING!

  Congratulations! You have completed the quest: Who is the Dragonborn? You have found the Dragonborn’s true identity to be Markus Goodfield, the King of Aingard. What repercussions this will have to your plans is yet to be seen. Reward: 1800000 Sol. Reward 1000000 XP.

  I swiped at the screen, closing it and turning to the man in front of me, annoyance in my eyes.

  “Surprised?” Markus asked, an amused smile on his face. He looked right at me, his gaze piercing my mind. I felt uncovered, as though this man could read my emotions, forwards and backwards. I was uneasy in his presence, for there was nothing I could predict about him.

  “You’re the Dragonborn,” I said.

  “Indeed,” he said. “Took quite a bit of effort to even get this far. I’m glad to see it all paid off. I must be quite powerful if even an Eternal can’t face off against me.”

  I grit my teeth but said nothing. My power right now was quite nerfed, but that was a statement that wouldn’t enhance this conversation in anyway. I needed to be diplomatic about what I said and what I did right now.

  “Why are you trying to resurrect the Shadow Dragon?” I asked. “How does that have anything to do with the Alliance of Light?”

  He sighed. “I expected you to be brighter than this, Diablo,” he chuckled. “Maybe the old wizard can help you understand better.”

  I calmed myself down, not giving in to any outbursts. “If you’re trying to resurrect Acnologia, then why would you be heading in a direction completely opposite of where the chamber is?”

  He smiled. “Now that’s a more interesting question,” he said and glanced up at the sky, at the now hidden sun. “You did a good job with changing the weather, wizard. I hardly noticed the mana from your spell until a few seconds ago.”

  That’s how he found us out, I realized.

  Markus put his hand in the air and uttered a word. A sphere of light lit up in his hand and expanded out in a flash. Within the span of half a second, every single storm cloud in the sky had vanished. The snowstorm ceased, and the winds slowed to a calm state once again.

  “There, that’s better,” he looked at us. I could now see his whole squadron behind him, all of them staying put. He’d probably asked them all to stay there until he got back. There were three carriages in total, and the one in the middle seemed the most heavily guarded.

  That’s where Nazu is, I made a mental note.

  “So, Eternal,” Markus stepped forward, his helmet in hand, a comforting smile on his face. “How would you like to do this? Surrender or battle?”

  “Give me back the kobold and you can have all the peace you want,” I muttered.

  “You realize we found the kobold before you did, don’t you?”

  I stared at him. “What?”

  “That tower,” he smiled. “What do you think that tower in the desert was for? For decor?”

  My eyes widened. “You were scanning for beings with Dragon blood.”

  He nodded. “The kobolds have many members of Dragon-Blood within their ranks, however the race in general is stupid since they kill most of the Dragon-Bloods off when they realize their hybrid lineage. The tower was meant to help us find one of the few Dragon-Blood left so we could capture and use them.”

  I kept staring at him, everything falling into place now.

  “So as you can see, you took away our kobold. Not the other way around,” he said. “So it would do you good to stand down and walk away from this. No one needs to get hurt.”

  I stood firm, my fists clenched. “Don’t hold your breath,” I muttered.

  Markus sighed. “Why is it so hard to be understanding?” He thrust his hand up, palm facing me. I heard a blast and the next second pain shot through my nerves, partially paralyzing my limbs. I felt heat lodge onto my skin, as if I’d been roasted over a fire.

  “Ah, you’re still standing,” Markus said, looking surprised. “Maybe I should have used something stronger.”

  “He just attacked you with some lightning move,” Nyx said. “It’s from the Wind Arts and seems very strong. Your health’s down a fifth already. We need to find a way to counter his attacks.”

  Got it, I said. Arm me first.

  “Done.”

  A stream of lights swirled around me, and in an instant, I had equipped my Berserker armor. I shook my limbs a bit to get rid of the lingering numbness, and glanced around quickly, noticing that Freya and Krof had fallen back to a few yards away from us. That was good because now I didn’t have to worry about them getting caught in either my or Markus’ attacks.

  I looked to the Dragonborn, and put my hand up. “Uher!” I yelled, summoning my go-to move. The Dark Phoenix rose from the ground, charging right up the Dragonborn. I didn’t stop with that though, and charged right behind. The phoenix sunk into Markus, and I followed right up, grabbing Dawnbreaker and sending a strike right to his chest.

  Markus flew through the air, crashing into one of the rock formations and slumping down to the ground.

  “That seemed to work,” Nyx said, sounding hopeful.

  “Ugh,” Markus stood up, rubbing his head. “Should have used this before,” he put on his helmet and tapped something on the inner side. A hissing sounded once again, and the helmet locked into place. “Better,” he said.

  He shot towards me, his fists aimed at my face. I threw my hands into the air and shifted my body weight to resist his attack. His blows struck my wrists, soundwaves blasting from the impact points, and I got pushed back, my legs sliding across the snow. My health went down considerably from the flurry of strikes, now just a bit over the halfway line.

  I’ll have to depend on health regeneration to keep me alive here, I thought, and that meant stalling between moves so that I had enough time to recover.

  “You’d have to stall for quite a while in order for that to happen though,” Nyx said.

  I don’t have another choice, I said and pushed forward, my legs rushing across the surface. I pulled Dawnbreaker out fast and struck Markus right on the helmet. He went flying to the side, sliding down onto the snow. I didn’t waste the opportunity and headed after him, summoning spells as I approached.

  “Erkiela!’ I yelled, sending a blast of fire his way. The snow melted in an instant as the wave of flames rushed over it and hit him hard. I charged in right after and swung my sword.
I heard a loud clang and felt my strike bounce back. I immediately knew Markus had pulled out his sword as well.

  Suddenly, sounds of metal-on-metal rang in my ears. I quickly pulled back a few yards, and looked around to see Freya and Krof dish it out with the rest of the squadron.

  “The squadron is around level 180 on average,” Nyx said. “I don’t know how long Freya and Krof can handle that on their own.”

  “Don’t ignore this battle, Diablo,” Markus had rushed up to me, his sword already swinging down onto my head. I had just enough time to move my blade up, blocking his strike. The force from the blow hit me hard, making my bones ache and causing the floor below me to crumple, creating in a mini crater where I stood.

  I pushed up, fending him away, and pulled myself back, putting a few feet between us.

  My mind was working clockwork, trying to see what I had to do here. Right now I needed to keep Markus at bay at the very least. But in addition, I probably had to figure out how to get Nazu out of the fix he was in right now. The kobold was weak compared to the people all around us, and so that meant using a mass move to defeat the knights might mean I accidentally end up killing the kobold as well.

  “Why don’t you just kill Nazu too then?” Nyx asked.

  I froze for a second, images of the burnt man from the Black Guardians flashing through my mind. That’s not who I am, or who I want to be, I said. I’m surprised you even suggested it.

  “Hey, I just wanted to see what your reaction would be.”

  Well now you know, I said, not thrilled that I was asked that question.

  I broke off from the conversation when I saw Markus’ form charge at me, his sword ready to strike. I dug my heels into the ground and threw my sword up once again, blocking his strike and holding him at bay. I lifted up one leg and kicked him hard in the chest, sending him flying away.

  I heard yells come from behind me, from the Knights Freya and Krof were battling. However, I didn’t focus on that, and instead charged ahead, ready to land another strike on Markus. We exchanged blows at a rapid pace, our swords clashing almost twice a second, the fury of our battle making the cold winds dance around us.

  Sparks flew across the metal blades, heat rupturing between them.

  “You seem to be struggling a bit, Markus,” I said as I pushed him back. “Anything wrong?”

  He said nothing as he charged at me, and we went through a flurry of exchanges once again.

  “It’s possible his magic spells haven’t recharged yet,” Nyx said. “They all seemed quite powerful so it’d make sense if they had long recharge times.”

  That makes sense, I said. His physical attacking stats are probably not as great.

  “Yeah,” the spirit agreed.

  Time to go all out then, I switched mentality and struck Markus’ sword low on the blade, and a clang rang out, our blades vibrating from the clash. I put my had up in front of me. “Osulier!”

  Darkness rose from the ground and struck Markus, shrouding him in black. I saw him fight the shadows, his body struggling as they bound him still, slowly dragging him back to the ground. I lay still in front of him, my eyes closed, my mind focused, ready to take advantage of the few extra seconds I had before he broke out.

  I concentrated on my inner energy and brought it all to my hands. I felt it dissipate into the air around us, permeating into the minute spaces within the very sky. I opened my eyes, confidence in my mind.

  Markus yelled out something too unclear for me to make out. Parts of the shadow binding him broke away, revealing a body of glowing light within. The shadowy capsule suddenly shattered, and Markus broke out, the light from his body slowly dying down. He stood there, breathing heavy, a little exhausted from being suffocated by my shadows.

  Dammit, not enough time, I realized, and cut off my attack, not ready to use it.

  “Zoran!” I heard Krof yell out to me. “Twenty seconds!”

  That statement sounded cryptic, but I knew exactly what he’d meant with it. I quickly charged at Markus, running a mental countdown in my mind as I did. Our swords clashed like before but every strike I made landed with renewed vigor.

  “Ten seconds left,” Nyx said.

  I heard rumbling from above us, and the sunlight quickly faded, blocked away by familiar clouds of dark gray.

  “This again?” Markus asked, fending me away. “This is going to have no effect on what happens in this battle.”

  “Sure,” I pushed him further and kept him at bay.

  “Three,” Nyx said.

  I struck Markus high on his blade.

  “Two.”

  I kicked down his shins, buckling his knees and collapsing him to the floor.

  “One.”

  I dived to the side.

  “Loes au Tundra!”

  A massive blast exploded out from behind me, and I turned around, just in time to see a beam of white emerge from Krof’s hands and hit Markus. In less than a blink of an eye, a massive glacier formed around the Dragonborn, holding him captive in its midst.

  I’d have stood there admiring the sight, but I knew we had things to do. I quickly pushed forward, aiding Frey and Krof as I struck down the knights that stood between us and Nazu. It took us about a minute before all the knights had fallen. I quickly opened the door to the carriage and in there sat the young kobold, his hands and legs chained to a metal pin embedded in the floor.

  I used my sword and cut off the links around his limbs, releasing him from his bonds. “There you go,” I smiled.

  “The chamber,” the young one said, his voice monotonous.

  “No time for that,” I grabbed him and took him out the carriage.

  “Good, you got him,” Freya said. I saw Krof behind her, walking between the fallen bodies of the knights. The glacier behind him stood tall, rising nearly a hundred yards in height. I could see the Dragonborn’s body frozen deep within it, completely immobile.

  “We need to leave,” I said.

  “Chamber,” Nazu said once again, struggling against my hold on his arm.

  “Nazu you can’t go to-”

  “CHAMBER!” he yelled out, his voice yelling in dual tone, and that’s when I realized this was serious.

  “I think we need to listen to him,” Nyx said. “There’s something else going on here.”

  Yeah, I said.

  “So, are we headed to the chamber?” Freya asked.

  I stared at her.

  “What? He spoke in two voices at once. When you hear anything that way you know you’ve got to take it serious.”

  “But it’s not safe for us to head back there. The Dark Alliance could still be there.”

  “We have to do it,” Krof said as he walked up to us.

  I paused. “Fine.” I grabbed Nazu by the wrist and charged out, running alongside Freya and Krof as we headed back up the mountain.

  “This has got to be the silliest thing we’ve done,” Nyx said. “Heading to a place we just saw bloodied and decimated by someone who did both those things to you literally hours ago.”

  Thanks for the pep talk, Nyx, I sighed.

  “Just be careful,” he said.

  “Krof, what on earth did you use back there?” Freya asked.

  “Water Arts,” he said. “Ice magic is one of its sub-spells, and what I used is one of the highest tiered spells. Traps the enemy in a glacier. I don’t know how long the Dragonborn will stay trapped in it but it’ll at least hold for as long as it takes us to get to this chamber.”

  “That sounds like a super powered skill,” I said.

  “Well, it has a recharge time of one day and it takes up all of my mana, so don’t expect me to be using that too often.”

  “Wow,” I said as I jumped a rock and kept heading up the mountain. “That’s a pretty huge penalty”

  “It’s also a very powerful spell.”

  “True.”

  We soon came upon the tunnel we’d used to leave the chamber earlier. I stopped at the entrance for a second a
nd looked down, half expecting Markus or someone from the Alliance of Light to be after us, but it seemed like we’d subdued them all for the moment, something I hadn’t really expected.

  “Come on,” Freya said, her sword in front of her as she led us into the tunnel. We ran through quick, not facing anything or anyone on the way through. The stench of blood hit us as soon as we entered the larger chamber within the mountain. The icy floor was still stained red, although now there were not as many men left collapsed on it. I could tell that at least half the bodies from before had all gone.

  They must have all been alive, I thought.

  “I just assumed everyone was dead when we first saw them,” Nyx said.

  A group of them were all probably just badly injured, I said.

  “So much death,” Freya said softly as she walked around the bodies, heading to the large doors of rock ahead.

  “The chamber,” Nazu said, the dual tone in his voice still existent.

  “What the heck is going on with him?” I asked.

  “I don’t know,” Krof said. “I have not heard of something like this before.”

  “Maybe the dragon part of him wants him to visit the chamber,” Freya said.

  “That’s possible, but why would it want him to do that?” I asked just as we headed to the doors. They were already wedged open, probably from when I’d first opened them a while ago. Freya placed her hands on the inner side and tugged, sliding it wider. The rock creaked as it swung open, and we stood a ways back as the door completely opened up, revealing the staircase inside.

  “Come on,” I said and ran down, my hand still grabbing onto Nazu’s wrist. Freya and Krof followed me down, and I could tell from their body language they were just as excited as I was. Sure, this was worrying, hearing a kobold speak in two-toned voices especially, but it was equally exciting, to know something like this was happening, and especially to be a part of it.

  My feet slipped a few times on the ice panels of the staircase before we finally reached the inner chambers.