Twilight of a Hybrid

by Ryan Johnson

  “I’d never felt much raw, stable yet unstable power and coming from you,” said the Dragon King. The Dragon felt so hopeless he couldn’t signal to let his bodyguards to defend him, as they felt the power the hybrid unleashed before them. “Here, I thought you would be easy to subdue and sent to the king for condemnation. Here, when you showed your memoires to us, I thought it would be an illusion, a lie. But how could one, a single specimen, be this so powerful?”

  “Who else could have equal godlike power compared to Lusìvar?” asked Valverno.

  “There is no doubt about and it is no doubt eye in the eyes of a dragon; you are Valverno,” said the Dragon King.

  The Centaur, Unicorn, Pegasus, and Fairy rulers were stunned by the Dragon King’s answer. They were standing in the presence of a demigod, an ancient being from an ancient world now forgotten. Told from countless generations as stories and legends, Valverno was standing before them.

  “But your eyes and your body? What happened? You look so… evil,” said the Centaur King.

  “I had bathed in the place where all evil is thought to have been born and I have it well balanced with my half divinity: the Pool of Shadows has changed my appearance.”

  “The Pool of Shadows? You bathed and came out alive, but you’re not killing?” asked the Dragon King, horrified. “Whoever comes out of the Pool of Shadows comes out a reborn man as an evildoer.”

  “But this evildoer from the Pool of Shadows controls the Shadow instead of the Shadow controlling me,” said Valverno, with a low slur in his voice. He held out a hand and a purple flame puffed out. “Such darkness could easily corrupt a person, but not to a demigod. I know how to balance my power and as I can balance my humanity and my divinity. My appearance may have changed but my personality of my humanity is still intact.”

  Then Valverno signaled to his sister.

  Sora walked forward with no fear. She stood next to her half-brother and her clothes had turned into the glowing white armor, signifying the White Knight of Charity she is. She proudly showed off her outfit of bright armor glowing brightly like the sun.

  “This is my half-sister Sora. She is the Nameless Girl from the ancient stories you all have heard and she is the first and original White Knight of Charity. Geraldus is also a White Knight, descended of the White Knight of Loyalty.

  “And I have just learned Teutates is a White Knight of Strength. Only the White Knight of Trust remains anonymous. And the power you all felt a few moments ago was my divinity calling out to nature: I ordered it to make a small quake.”

  The creatures widened their eyes of the profound power they have felt, and they never felt such a ghostlike power crawling from the ground and into their feet, which made them suddenly all shiver like living in the winter snow.

  “This is just a small fracture of my true godly power granted to me by the Crystal Dragon god, but it is not fully restored. Ten thousand years ago, I and the four White Knights were supposed to go into hibernation and wake up when Lusìvar was to return.

  “However, our location was discovered and the White Knights have perished and my body was morphed into an embryo. The Shadow Men, the ancient followers of Lusìvar, found our hibernating place and destroyed it. Two White Knights made it alive: Charity did but was trapped in crystal glass and Loyalty had his memories erased. Strength and Trust died in the event.

  “And I was unable to save them, my family and survivors from the destruction of Pangaea. Pangaea was the land I grew up in as did the four White Knights. My parents. Their parents gave up their great, holy powers to save our lives, so that I and the White Knights could prevent the Shadow King Lusìvar from conquering the two islands born from the remnants of Pangaea.

  “I fight not for self-gain but for the Light. Those who oppose the Shadow King as I do are my allies. Those who support the Shadow King are my enemies. When it comes to battling an ancient spirit from the long-distant past, you can either get in line or step to the side, but don’t get in my way of my main goal: Lusìvar’s death. So what is it at this point: are you with me or are you against me?”

  Valverno flew to the sky and drew out the Crystal Sword. The blade glowed a purple-blue color and it glittered like the starry night. The cloud swirling within was glowing brighter than ever before, even brighter than the sun.

  “What do you say?” asked Valverno, pointing his sword at the clan leaders. They knelt quickly before the Demigod. Then he moved the sword to Sora, who knelt before him. And he moved it again to the Dragon, Centaur, Unicorn, Griffin, and Pegasus kings and the Fairy Queen. “What about you, creatures of Shimabellia? Allies or enemies?”

  The Dragon King’s fear of Valverno’s power was swept away and he looked with great wonder at the soaring Demigod. “The Dragons hear and oblige to you, Demigod Valverno.”

  The other rulers were shocked by the Dragon King swearing loyalty to the Demigod. They didn’t know what to do now: arrest the Demigod or do they join him? This was such a difficult situation for them, and they were in a dire situation.

  Sora went from her kneeling to flying close to the Demigod. “I, the White Knight of Charity, am at your command, Demigod Valverno.”

  Valverno landed to the ground and looked at the kneeling clan leaders. “Eagle Clan? Cheetah Clan? Tigress Clan? What about you? Allies or opponents?”

  “You have our alliance,” they said.

  Valverno turned to see the Council of Three standing emotionless. He could ask them about having an alliance or their loyalty but he somehow knew they were going to remain silent or just say “no.” Still he needed to ask: “Are you with me?”

  They remained silent.

  “Fine, what about you Teutates?” asked Valverno. The demigod walked to the White Knight of Strength. If he wanted to, Valverno could try to read the mind of Teutates and see what memories Valverno could possible see. But that won’t be a good start to a possible alliance.

  “Why would I want to serve an ancient being from the past? You’re supposed to be dead.”

  “So is Lusìvar,” said Valverno. “Would I want you as a slave? I need alliances with other people. Teutates, the leader of the Lion Clan, do we have an alliance, or would you be my enemy and be an ally of King Uragiru and Lusìva—”

  There was a sudden screech of a woman’s voice hollowing from a far distance. Valverno turned in the direction and saw a large swarm of Harpies and three Dragons flying in the direction of the village. Then his eyes turned to see a large horde of Chimeras and Cyclopes charging beneath the swarm of Harpies.

  The village was going to have another attack with a sheer number of enemies that could overwhelm and overpower the Five-Headed Dragon.

  BATTLE IN THE VILLAGE

  Another bad calamity was coming straight to the village while the people and creatures were still busy working on the construction. Valverno could see there were about some hundreds of evil creatures charging to the village. From his hybrid eyes, he saw more than just Chimeras and Cyclopes on the ground: Manticores and Giants. In the air, the swarm of Harpies joined by the three Dragons.

  Valverno could see the Harpies carrying the small, scrawny Hobgoblins with small yet heavy clubs. This wasn’t going to be another skirmish like the capital city went through on his wedding day; it was a real battle coming. Valverno thought there would have been more monsters coming their way in the thousands, but he saw about four or five hundred.

  What he saw may have been a small army, but those were monsters of destruction like a charging human army of ten thousand soldiers. A large battle was coming to them, and Valverno doesn’t know how capable the people are of fighting.

  It’s been six months since he freed the people and they may have spent the entire winter building their village than spending time to train with spear and swords. It seemed it was up to him to take on the big forces himself and with Sora, since they were the only people capable of fighting.

  So, he drew out his sword and charged forward, flying at a slow yet steady speed. I
f he could off like an arrow being shot from a crossbow, his speed would have shot him past the enemies and send him back to Geraldus’s village.

  Upon flying to an oncoming army, Valverno blew out his dragon fire from his mouth to the ground and to the large army. His flying speed made him incredibly fast he was able to dodge any spear being thrown or arrow being fired from a bow. He hoped his dragon fire would thin the numbers and spread the evil creatures on the ground into separate paths. He could easily kill them all with his new upgraded, divine power.

  However, when Valverno fought with King Uragiru and Belverda, he discovered he had a weakness from a mysterious dagger that was held by the Piper. He mustn’t let himself be impulsive as to trying to fight all those enemies head on like he tried to do with Belverda when he tried to kill her. He ended up getting a scar on his eye, and the daggers the Piper held was able to cut through his skin.

  Valverno was going have to be cautious when trying to attack an enemy head-on. The army he was flying over may have weapons made from the same metal like the Piper’s daggers, which would mean possible death for the demigod. He knew he would be going in without any armor to protect his skin from the unknown metal that will penetrate his skin.

  After he blown a burst of fire and flown past the front lines of the enemy army, he surged past the rear posts and circled back around. Valverno flew back to the front of the army and blew out more fire, nearly covering the front lines of the invading army and having few monsters from trying to invade the village.

  Valverno saw the Harpies flying past him at an incredible speed. They were carrying the Hobgoblins to the village. Valverno soared back to the village while rising high to the Harpies. His speed managed to make him fly past the flying creatures and place himself in between the village and the Harpies.

  Then his stomach began to swell, if his stomach was eating and disgusting the air he inhales from his nose. Valverno inhaled a large amount of air from the sky and exhaled a large burst of a wind energy power toward the flying invaders.

  His wind power chiseled the wings of the Harpies with icy, cold winds. The air he’d unleashed was blistering cold and damply if winter had suddenly returned.

  The feathers of the Harpies’ wings were stiff cold they couldn’t maneuver their flying momentum in the sky. Because of their feathers becoming frozen stiff, the Harpies couldn’t flap their wings to keep themselves in the air and crash landing into the ground, along with the few Hobgoblins they were carrying.

  The hundreds of Harpies that felt coldness fell from the sky. However, there were few flying creatures not being affected by Valverno’s icy wind attack; dozens of Harpies flying near the three Dragons were still flying.

  As those creatures had flown, a dozen Dragons descended from the sky above, as well as a hundred more Harpies carrying a few Hobgoblins each. Even though Valverno may have thinned a few numbers, there were a larger number of creatures coming their way.

  Valverno landed on the close to the village. Then he looked at the creatures running on land and still a large portion not engulfed by his dragon fire was still charging. The creatures divided on land resembled back into one unit and leaving the weak to die in the flames.

  It seemed Valverno was going have to fight on his own. Teutates seemed not to fight by his fight. The Council of Three didn’t to have an army beside them. And the rulers of the Dragons, Unicorns, Pegasi, Fairies, and Centaurs could fight, but Valverno had no high hopes they would fight.

  Then there was a horn that blown in the wind.

  Everybody dropped what they were doing and began to take shelter from the invading forces. Soldiers started to assemble at once while the civilians were taking refuge of hidden doors built in the nearby mountain peaks.

  The creatures seemed to have slip away from view. The Dragons were slowly assembling behind the Dragon King, as did the other creatures assembling behind their natural ruler. They all moved slowly from a heavy crowd of people running in their path.

  Sora went running to Valverno’s side, intending to help her brother of the oncoming attack. “I’m seeing this to my death, Elder Brother. You got me into this, and so I’m staying with you.”

  Valverno smiled saw a union of three different flags represent heads of three different animals: eagle, cheetah, and lizard; he saw the three clans charging out into the fight. The three clans dropped what they were doing and charged right into battle, and to join Valverno.

  The Eagle Clan (consisting of scouts wearing leather armor and light-metal helmets holding shortsword and holding small shields) split into three formations, as the Tigress Clan (the clan with female warriors wearing heavy armor and leather-plated skirts) charged forward with rectangle shields and pounded their shields into the ground, and the Cheetah Clan (with long spears and archers with no helmets and long red capes) plundered their spears between the maidens’ shields while the archers assembled behind the spearmen and shield-maidens.

  He underestimated the villagers of the Northern Region; there were soldiers in the village all along, and didn’t bother to show themselves until a big fight were to happen. So the months he saved the village some people took the time to train with real weapons; and they seemed to have trained in the winter season.

  They all shouted great war cries. For a very long time those people have been enslaved by an evil menace. They manage to get their freedom when Valverno ended their enslaved lives, and they were now a free people. The soldiers rallying to his side weren’t going afraid to lay down their lives to stay free.

  Now Valverno had his army at the ready and were awaiting his command to strike. This was the first time Valverno had his own small army, so it was going to be a challenge for him. Although he does know the harsh truth of the coming battle, there were going to be some deaths in the upcoming battle.

  A lot of lives are going to be lost when the battle was going to happen. And he and his army were going to be facing with two humanlike gigantic species, along with two species very lion-like species.

  This was human against large and powerful beasts with brute strength. The soldier’s shields and small pointed spear tips weren’t going to be enough to

  Then Valverno pointed high his sword and the archers took aim at once. Hundreds of archers were ready to unleash a volley of arrow upon the charging creatures, both on land and in the air.

  When the creatures neared them, Valverno threw down his sword and the archers released their arrows. A large swarm of arrows were released at once and the archers released many more after the first round.

  As the arrows rose above the ground, Valverno waved his left hand and sent out a heat wave of fiery sparks at each arrow soaring past him and directly at the creatures coming to him and his army. He lit each arrow with a great magic flame hot enough to melt rock into liquid lava.

  And with each arrow lit with magical fire and soaring past him, the fiery arrows landed upon the creatures. A few of the Manticores (lions with scorpion tails) and their lion-cousins, the Chimeras (with a loin face as the first head, a goat or tiger as a second head and the body of snake as its tail) felt the pain of the flaming arrows falling down upon them.

  The Cyclopes and the Giants felt the arrows nothing but ant bites. Their hide must have made them immune to such magic power they would deem very weak and continued to charge forward.

  A few of the lion-like monsters fell beneath the arrows, but many more of them were still charging forward to the small army.

  Valverno saw the arrows he was adding his magic power wasn’t strong enough to bring down the monsters approaching them. He was using magic from his half humanity and not his divine power from his half divinity. Then in a second, he closed his eyes and reopened them to have them glowing white; his divinity persona took over and shot more fire power at the flying arrows.

  Now the arrows flying pass by shot down more of the beasts and the gigantic humans. More and more had been felled by Valverno’s divine influence.

  Just then Valverno stomped
on the ground and sent a powerful shockwave vibrating into the ground. This sent some of the charging creature flying off into the air. The solders around Valverno gained more strength from his shockwave. The shield-maidens pounded their shields deeper into the ground.

  Valverno was giving a small dose of his strength and into the people around him and into the weapons. The spears, the arrows, and the shields and every weapon each person was carrying became stronger by each passing second. He gave such small divine power to each weapon, of hopes of surviving the battle with greater odds of having slightly more powerful weapons.

  Then it happened: the Manticores, the Chimeras, the Cyclopes and the Giants, by the dozens, plowed right into the spears of the spearmen and the strong, board shields of the shield-maidens.

  Both opposing sides clashed into each other. The monsters swarmed into the spears now sharpened by Valverno and stepped on the shields now more durable and unbreakable.

  It was utter chaos. Both sides were suddenly fighting and losing many lives in the crossfire. Even with Valverno slightly raising a ground into a small hill beneath his entire army, just as both sides clashed at the same time.

  Humans were being tossed away and many of the evil animals. The Giants and the Cyclopes were charging straight through the spears and shields since they were seven feet taller than a six foot man. And the soldiers had difficulties stabbing their spears into the Giants and Cyclopes.

  Valverno and Sora also fought, plowing their weapons at each creature they were seeing. Both were fighting back-to-back like a duo paired for fighting. They used their magic power to slay any monster they cross paths with.

  From that point, Valverno seemed his small army with small weapons had been surrounded.

  “Onward, Centaurs!” the Centaur King shouted at his men.