The North frontier

The North frontier of humanity was not one for the faint of heart. Dragonborn may loose in raw strength to Orcs but they they had strong magic power and hard scales covering their bodies. Some, as hard as steel. They possessed a unity unlike the Orcs and Humans even though they had no reigning king. Small scale skirmishes to obtain a foothold in the Human realm was an everyday event.

In one of the many battles, there stood Keita, breathing in the smell of the battle that he missed so much.

'This is it! This is what I was missing.' he said inwardly, satisfied. 'The smell of blood, Humans and Dragonborn pissing themselves while dying, the screams, the sound of metal meeting flesh!' he was ecstatic.

The battle wasn't big in scale. Around 400 regular soldiers and 100 militia against no more than 200 Dragonborn. Right now the battle has turned into a giant melee, but even though the great advantage in numbers, the Human's were loosing. The reason was simple. The Dragonborn are strong.

The commanders did not matter at this point. Keita could make out the Human commander from the distance, since they used banners around him to convey messages to the troops, but the Dragonborn were quite different. They used messengers and magic to send orders to few key individuals inside the melee. If Keita wanted to locate their commander, he had to read the battlefield and heighten his concentration. Even his trained eyes, had difficulty making out the messengers inside the battle. He sat down on the hill, overlooking the chaos.

What he was looking for were changes in the flow of the battle. Meaning, he was looking for the location of the key individuals and when he found all of them, he could find the messengers who would lead him to the commander. He had to think fast though, since the battle was going badly. Not that he cared if a few humans died but he needed this battle to succeed.

Just as the Dragonborn were fighting to obtain footholds and invade deeper in Human territories, Keita was doing the same. The old Raigon estate that he was looking for was in the Dragonborn realm, in the middle of a desert. Even he, would be hard pressed going in alone. He needed the Humans to do their job and win, otherwise he risked too much.

The Dragonborn realm was unlike any other. Dragons lived there after all. Their magic power has changed their territories. A scorching dessert meant a sand Dragon made their lair somewhere close. A giant pond in the middle of nowhere, a Water Dragon. Mist that never lifted, an elemental Dragon and a land of ice, a breathless ice Dragon, one of the few left. These changes in geology and climate made the Dragonborn territories dangerous for the unprepared. Not to mention, a Dragon might appear at any time.

That of course meant little to Keita.

'Found him.' he grinned.

The Dragonborn commander's location, his headquarters could not evade this old general's eyes for long.

Keita put his hands on his two katanas. One on his each side. The two seemingly white pieces of wood revealed the steel inside the scabbard.

'It's time to hunt!' he rejoiced.

While making his way to the North, he never enjoyed a real battle. He found some goblins and slaughtered them but as a Bronze rank soldier, he couldn't accept any better prey. But at this location, he could join any battle he pleased. His smile, was not human any more.

He activated Shroud and Haste and made his way to the battlefield in a flash, leaving two trails of white in his way.

"The Crimson Flash is here!" he heard a Human's voice.

It was no joy in his voice, but panic.

"Get out of that lunatic's way! Hurry!" another urged.

In an instant, the human's stepped aside. Keita quickly became notorious in the North. Since he never talked with anyone and no one else except the Aerch Militia receptionist he reported to, knew his name, he received a moniker. Crimson Flash. Crimson instead of white, which was the color of his magic power. Red because wherever he went, blood followed. It didn't matter if they were human or Dragonborn. If they stood in his way, they were going to be hurt. Thankfully no Human died yet because of him but there were many injured. Since things like that happened from time to time in the battlefield, he avoided prosecution, but the Aerch Militia were very strict with his behavior. The fact that allies sometimes accidentally hurt each other in the midst of battle didn't explain how the same name kept popping up. That, coupled with his secrecy made him a suspicious person and not one fit for a promotion to the Silver rank. He was only spared for now, because his accomplishments couldn't be denied.

Keita was there, so blood flowed like rain. Guts, arms and legs. Dragonborn heads were cut down by the dozens.

'It's an amazing thing, this Apotheosis. Not only my magic power, my Skills have been upgraded too.' he though as he made his way to the commander. 'It isn't just Haste's speed, all my senses are heightened when I am using it. My perception of time...' everything slowed down around him, the faster he went. He could feel the magic power used for Haste, also going to his brains and eyes, augmenting his kinetic vision.

But that wasn't the only thing that was different. The three months that took him to get to the North, Keita was doing a special kind of training. Kaito and Raijeto. They both possessed astonishing amounts of mana. Keita had figured out along the way, since Heaven's Path - particularly Haste and Statue - demanded greats amounts of mana, he could get stronger by just increasing the amount of his magic power. The more mana he used for Haste, the faster he could move after all. And since now he could actually see when using a ridiculous amount, as long as he had enough mana, there were no drawbacks.

Before he even realized it, Keita made his way to the enemy commander. Even though he left a path of carnage in his wake, the Dragonborn weren't easily scared. The commander smiled and raised his fist. At the same time, most of the Dragonborn around opened their mouths and howled like wolves, their voices echoing throughout the battlefield.

Keita's expression was full of questions. He soon felt the magic power of every Dragonborn around him move.

The battlefield was engulfed in a sea of flame. Dragonborn could breath fire, even though it was child's play, comparing it to a Dragon's breath. Their scales also protected them from the flames.

Every Dragonborn on the field of battle, breathed fire at the same time. It was a tactic Keita never saw before. More than half of the human forces were wiped out in an instant. Priests frantically cast White flame but most of them didn't make it in time.

Keita on the other hand has curled up like a ball, his mantle enchanted with fire resisting runes saving him from certain death. When he raised his face, he was met with a giant ball of electricity.

His infamy wasn't restricted to the Humans. After being foiled time and again, the Dragonborn made plans to kill him once and for all.

The white ball of electricity, moved towards Keita. It was too big to dodge and he wasn't going to make it even with Haste. As a last resort, he raised his two swords and swang vertically, in a futile effort to cut the ball in half. And he did.

"..."

Keita who was sure he was going to die a moment ago, was looking stupefied as two chunks of the ball exploded behind him. The Dragonborn mages that cast the spell were even more so. Lighting magic wasn't something that could be cut after all.

Keita looked at his two katanas. The white light still shining brilliantly.

'Haste can cut magic...' he thought. He never heard anything like it before. The ball of lighting was cut clean in half. Even Ma-clayar couldn't do that.

His eyes turned to the Dragonborn commander and his subordinates. The smile on Keita's lips wasn't human.