Empires | Arc 2 | Chapter 2 | Hero Meets the Heroine

It is dark. Slowly, Leon‘s eyes open. He looks around with still-foggy eyes and sees he is lying on a bed made of wood. He gets up on his elbows and looks around; it is a room made purely of wood and stone.

A voice rings out, “So you are up?”

Leon‘s eyes snap toward the direction of the voice coming from the door, and he sees a lady. She is undoubtedly the most beautiful being in the current world, capable of mesmerizing any man or woman alike. She is in a khaki sleeveless vest, olive tactical pants, and brown boots hiding an athletic form.

Leon stares at her, momentarily suspended. To any normal man or woman, it might look like Leon is fawning over her, but to Leon, he is focused entirely on her presence. It is too focused, too regal in a way.

The woman asks, “What? Trying to eat me with your eyes, are you?”

Leon breaks his gaze, looks her in the eye, and says, “How is your Heat so focused… so precise?”

For the first time in her life, a man isn’t fazed by her beauty, but instead asks the secret behind her strength. She says, “You are not… you know… speechless to see me?”

Leon replies with his usual arrogant demeanor, but there is a slight, undeniable respect in it. “Why would I be?”

She says, “Because everyone else usually is.”

Leon says, “Aren’t women supposed to be beautiful? What’s the big deal?”

She laughs and says, “You are quite a ballsy man. I am Maven.”

He says, “Leon. And now that we are done with the formalities, mind telling me how I got here?”

She finally stops leaning against the door frame and walks into the room, saying, “Well, when you poked those bulls and were about to die by their fire, I had to intervene. But when I tried to rescue you, as a byproduct, you got knocked out anyway. So I felt guilty and decided to give you shelter.”

Leon says, “You?…” His eyes widen, and there is no emotion in his voice as his throat dries up. He says, “That blade.”

Maven smirks, saying, “You are sharp. Most brutes I meet are all brawn and no brain. Yup, that blade is my Heat.” She finally holds his arm, saying, “Come on, you have been passed out for days, and you need something to eat.”

As Maven takes Leon downstairs, the ground floor is a sight to behold. It is a restaurant of sorts. Many people here wear nothing fancy, just practical wool or cotton, which reminds Leon of Jarrod as he mutters to himself, “So he is from here?”

Maven catches it, asking, “What’s that?”

Leon says, “Just got reminded of someone.”

Maven says, “Yeah,” looking around. “We have all kinds of people here from the west.”

They take a seat, and as they give out their order, Leon leans in and asks, “So you have been a Heat user for how long? Because…”

Maven cuts him off, saying, “Because my Heat is so concentrated? I am not much older than you, Leon.” She looks out the window, adding, “I might just have had better teachers.”

Leon follows her eyes toward the window and out into the sunlight-lit savanna.

Suddenly, a man breaks into the room, huffing, and says, “Kasha… it killed again… my customers…”

The people inside the room start to whisper. Leon can hear they are talking about a rumor and are clearly terrified of it. Leon looks around the room and asks, “What rumor? What is Kasha? What are they talking about?”

Maven slowly drinks from her cup, saying, “It’s a dragon… terrorizing a nearby fauna-filled area not much far from here.”

Leon turns to her, asking, “Why?”

Maven looks at him over the rim of her cup. “It’s big, and when you are big, you need food.” Leon looks at her like he didn’t quite catch the meaning, so she clarifies, “It needs food.”

She states it like it is a simple matter of fact. Leon might not notice it, but this attitude heavily resembles a certain someone in an olive duster.

Leon gets up, walking up to the terrified man. “Hey, you… show me where this Kasha is!”

The room goes quiet. The man who came running freezes. From behind the counter, the owner says, “Oyee, kid, it’s not a snake…”

Leon doesn’t turn, simply stating, “Snake or dragon. This man needs protection, and as the strong, it is my duty to give him that.”

The moment he finishes his line, Maven puts down her cup and tilts her head to the left, amused but intrigued. Before she can ask what he means, Leon slaps the man’s back and takes him outside toward the location of Kasha.

Maven gets up. Seeing them walking away, the owner—an old lady—comes to the door, looking in the exact same direction Maven is looking, and says, “You brought him here to save his life, yet he goes now to give it up again.”

Maven doesn’t look at the lady. She simply stares out at the savanna field and says, “Some of us live in the death.”

The old lady humphs and goes back to her work.

As they reach the location, Leon sees it is a water body surrounded by a couple of medium-sized trees. Leon walks forward, the man a few steps behind him. Leon looks around. Everything looks normal; the water body is right in front of him. The trees, though, are a little high above the ground. The terrain seems uneven, which is unusual for a savanna.

The man doesn’t notice anything, but Leon hears a slight twitch on the ground—a constant KHASH KHASH KHASH.

Leon looks around, and it is like the trees on the high ground have moved a little. Some are further to the left, and others are further to the right. To confirm, Leon turns and freezes, his eyes wide.

The man is also looking around, but he sees Leon—the man who brought him here—frozen in place. He asks, “Wha… what?”

Leon sees a head bigger than a sedan, more like the size of a truck, hovering directly over the man. It is the exact same brownish color as the ground, so unless it raised its head, it was impossible to notice it was waiting in plain sight all along. Leon‘s eyes widen even more when he realizes this thing has lived for so long that literal trees and grass have grown on its scales; that is why, when it moved earlier, the trees changed their positions.

Leon shifts his right leg muscles just a fraction. Even with a microscope, it wouldn’t have been noticeable inside his boots. He only puts slight pressure on the balls of his feet, leaving the pressure off his ankles preparing for a sprint, trying to push the man aside from under Kasha’s mouth.

As Leon calculates his exact move—

ZIIIISHCLUUUTCH.

The head comes down and puts the whole man inside its mouth. Without a single bite or chew, it completely swallows him. Leon doesn’t need an interpreter to tell him this is Kasha.

Leon doesn’t have time to process what just happened to the man, as his own life is now on the line.

Kasha doesn’t waste time. It slithers toward Leon, who notices it doesn’t have a torso; it has a serpentine body, but it possesses two arms with three fingers each. When it moves, it uses its tail to push forward while using its arms to close the gap.

Leon closes his eyes and immediately channels his Heat, Weapons of Doom: Axe.

He gets a massive strength boost, but his speed dies down because an axe has pure power, but its heavy weight kills pure velocity. His durability spikes. Leon thinks he can tank a direct hit and hold the beast for a split second to land a finishing blow.

As Kasha gets closer, right at the moment of contact, it turns. Leon is bracing for a direct, head-on impact, his arms crossed in front of him to tank it, but the dragon uses its right claws to graze him. The three sharp claws tear into Leon‘s arms, ripping the skin apart, and the sheer impact throws him to his right, near the water body. He lies there, screaming in pain.

Kasha stops. But it doesn’t rest or wait for Leon to get up. It immediately coils up high, looks down on Leon, and then dives at full speed, baring its teeth, about to devour him while he is too distracted by pain to dodge.

Suddenly, a melody is heard: “Holy Blades of the Divine.”

Two blades—the size of greatswords, but unlike that redwood-sized blade, this pair also lacks a hilt—pierce through Kasha‘s lower and upper lips. This causes the beast to slither to its left, hiding behind its own massive body to protect its head.

Maven arrives with her activated Heat. Four blades hover on her right side, and four hover on her left side in a crescent moon formation around her shoulders, floating effortlessly.

Leon can’t use his arms for now; the pain and burning sensation are too much. He simply raises his head and sees Maven extend her arms, palms up. She curls her fingers like a dog owner calling a pet, and the two blades that previously pierced Kasha rip out of its mouth with a sickening SLIIISHHHH, returning to take their positions on each side of Maven‘s shoulders.

Kasha glares at her through the cover of its large body and then bounces over itself, ready to strike.

As it slithers toward her, Maven controls the blades with her arms just like Friling controls his feathers with his fingers.

She holds up both her fists vertically and then launches them forward. As a result, all ten blades are thrown at Kasha at an amazing speed—not blindingly fast, but heavy and swift.

But this time, the moment the blades are about to connect, Kasha jumps upward toward the sky, taking the Heat blades on its inner underbelly. Since it always drags on the ground, that is its hardest, most calloused side. The blades still pierce it, but the effect is minimized.

Then, Kasha takes another dive directly toward Maven. She curls her fingers to call the blades back, but they are stuck in its inner skin.

How can they be stuck?

What Maven doesn’t know is that Kasha has intentionally expanded its dense inner muscles to physically lock the blades inside its flesh.

Maven uses all the force of her arms to telekinetically pull the blades back out, but it doesn’t work.

The moment Kasha takes the final dive toward her, she stops the struggle and stands completely still. Seeing she is about to be devoured, she is not afraid. She stands there, not moving back a single inch.

Leon feels that mesmerization again. This is what he was looking for. Back on that day in the city, he closed his eyes because he couldn’t accept his death, but this woman—she accepts it. How can she? She is so powerful, why wouldn’t she fight to retain that power as long as she can?

Leon grits his teeth. If she won’t fight for herself, then he will, because he refuses to see a powerful human like this go to waste.

He gets up, bleeding heavily through his arms, and channels Weapons of Doom: Spear.

Since a spear is all about precision and speed, when airborne, he gets incredible velocity—not quite like an arrow, but fast—at the cost of strength.

Leon will only get one shot. If he misses, he is dead, and so is she.

He waits for Kasha to get low enough. The moment it drops, leaving less than ten feet between its gaping mouth and Maven, Leon launches himself. The exact moment the beast enters within three feet of Maven, he pierces straight through Kasha‘s eye and directly into its skull, killing it instantly.

Maven watches this whole sequence. There is no surprise in her eyes. As Leon bursts out from the top of the monster’s head, ripping it open, drenched in blood and skin, Maven simply tilts her head to the left again, observing this strange man.

In the evening, when the sun goes down for the day, the dead body of Kasha still lies near the water body. Under a hundred meters from that area, in a small establishment of tents put together as a temporary rest stop, locals are celebrating. When the nearby people heard that a new guy killed the dragon Kasha, they came running in to see it for themselves and celebrate the death of what they considered a demon.

Leon is getting treated for his injuries. His arms are being sanitized, and fresh bandages are being wrapped on.

Maven comes to see him. He immediately gets up from the bench, gives her a deep, formal bow from his waist, and says, “Please teach me how to fight. I beg you.”

Maven gets flustered and says, “What the fuck are you talking about? And please, don’t bow, I hate this royal shit.”

Leon stands up straight and says, “You and I share the same Heat style, but the way you controlled those blades of yours only proves you are…” Leon looks away from her eyes and finishes, “…you know, good at what you do.”

He stutters for a moment. It is incredibly hard for him to admit someone is better than him, and his mouth twitches as he actively fights his own arrogance as the former hero of Titan City.

Maven stares at Leon. Given her observant nature, she reads this clearly on him, despite not knowing him personally. She says, “When you are recovered, meet me near the water body, and we shall see.” With that, she leaves the camp.

By now,

on the West Side of Titan City, Taglia has crossed the grasslands that separate Titan City and Royal City. Unlike the savanna of the East Side, these grasses are taller and much greener; even to Taglia, they reach up to his knees.

There is a small forest between the grasslands and the city, after which lies the City of Traditions itself.

As he walks through the grass, he can hear various animal sounds. One in particular is noteworthy: the screeching of an eagle perfectly mixed with the roar of a lion echoes in the distance.

But Taglia, aloof as ever, crosses the remaining part of the grassland and enters the forest.

The moment he takes three steps into the woods, the sunlight that was bathing the grasslands is gone. The forest floor turns into a night-like atmosphere filled with the sounds of various nocturnal bugs. The trees here are so dense that the foliage never lets a single drop of sunlight get in.

But Taglia is not fazed. He keeps walking forward, his hands in his pockets.

Suddenly, a tanto is thrown violently on the ground, in front of where his right boot is about to step on. The sheer precision of it is lethal; a millisecond later, it would have pierced straight through Taglia‘s foot.

Taglia doesn’t lose his balance. He doesn’t flinch or jump back. He simply suspends his right boot in mid-air, still hovering, right over where he was about to take a step. What the deep, oppressive forest couldn’t do, the tanto finally achieved: Taglia has stopped.

Then, a voice echoes from the darkness of the jungle. “Where were you? Whoring around again?”