Chp.29: Akheilos

Carrion couldn't help but go wide-eyed as he watched the huge jet of boiling water shoot up from underground right under the feet of his own army. "How... how...?"

What kind of magic was that? He didn't understand it. He had never seen any kind of mage unleash such power. And where did that water come from? Why was it so hot, and why did it rise from the ground with such force? Carrion had read in the books of the royal library that in some areas of the world, especially near volcanoes, very similar jets of water were occasionally given off, but that could not clearly be the case. There were no volcanoes around the Arapaina Gorge, and even if there were, how would the dragon have predicted exactly when the explosion would occur?

The reason, which Carrion obviously couldn't know, was much simpler than one might have expected: Haku had just felt the water arrive much earlier than everyone else. Haku was still a dragon and his hearing surpassed that of any living being, and he had also sensed a change in the temperature of the ground and an imbalance in the smells of the ground. While legendary levels possessed senses acute enough to perceive that the illusions created by the rune of invisibility were indeed only illusions, those senses were still inferior to those of dragons. Haku and his brothers could tell immediately when something was an avatar and when it wasn't, and through a particular combination of smells, sounds, body temperature and air movements they could guess what was the true form of the person who was using the rune of invisibility. A detailed map of their opponent formed in their minds in seconds, even if they were unable to see him. In contrast, legendary levels could only partially sense when something was an illusion and when it wasn't; Haku had had proof of this when his sisters had told him about the battle with Thornag and Hara, who had become aware of the illusion very late and even once they had done so they had not been able to understand what the true form of the avatars. This showed that dragons' senses were still far superior to even those of a legendary level. And in fact Haku had realized that Maldor and Isaac had implemented the plan well in advance, and had therefore been able to conclude the conversation with Carrion in an extremely efficient way (thus respecting his promise: he had guaranteed no attacks until the end of the them to argue, so once it was considered finished, so was his promise. Dragons were still geniuses at finding loopholes after all). For the rest... he had played on timing.

Carrion watched in shock as his men were torn to pieces by the fury of the waters, reduced to nothing but boiling, crushed and even poisoned corpses. Hundreds, no, thousands of brave soldiers, men who had fought to defend the kingdom and who would stop at nothing, sweep them away in an instant. That was absurd... this wasn't how it was supposed to go! It was supposed to be a simple victory, which would have cost a few troops, but only a few dozen, a hundred at the most... certainly not thousands of men! Yet, in an instant, everything had gone down the drain. Carrion watched helplessly as the survivors desperately tried to get up but were continually thwarted by the fury of the waters and debilitated by the poison. The army of almost five thousand soldiers was now nothing more than a group of just a thousand men lacking coordination and order, confused and unable to understand what was happening.

Then something emerged from the water. Carrion could clearly see two huge serpents using the powerful force of the jet to leap up and grab hold of his wyvern, which was trying to fly to him. They were basilisks… but they were far beyond normal. Normally a wyvern would have got rid of a basilisk quickly, or at least it shouldn't have had to try too hard, but instead this time the two snakes wrapped themselves around her wyvern and crushed her, then bit her and paralyzed her causing her to fall to the ground. Such a thing was impossible; what kind of animals were those?

All this happened in a matter of seconds, just enough for Carrion to recover from the shock. When he was finally able to think again he immediately began to tap into his divine power. Now his plan was no longer valid; the best thing was to finish everything immediately, and as a legendary level he could do it easily. First he would have killed the two basilisks, then he would have closed the hole from which the water emerged, and finally he would have eliminated the rest of the rebels. While he couldn't bring those who were already dead back to life, at least he could revenge them and save the survivors.

At least, that was what he should have done… but he didn't get the chance, because a flash of light suddenly appeared and blinded him. Carrion suddenly felt all mana vanish from his body; it was as if the light gathered every single ounce of the precious power from his veins and dragged it away. The man for a moment feared that his divine power would also vanish, but fortunately it remained, which made him breathe a sigh of relief. Instinctively, she used this power to create protection, expecting a second attack…but it took too long. Barely a fraction of a second after that light appeared, something stung hard in his neck and a strange fluid seeped into his veins. Suddenly his body was like fire shot through, and his organs seemed to melt from within. Carrion screamed in pain and backed away quickly. When he managed to get far enough, he saw that two other individuals, two women, had appeared next to Haku. How was that possible? He was sure there was no one there but the two of them!

Of course Haku had planned all of that. His conversation with Carrion had certainly not occurred by case: it was a ploy aimed at limiting the perception of the man. When Haku had called Carrion to talk to him, he was actually alone on the ledge of the wall; therefore, even though Carrion had searched the surrounding area at the time, he hadn't noticed anything unusual because, in fact, it wasn't there. But when the two had started talking Carrion had concentrated his perception exclusively on the place where he and the dragon were. This was natural: expecting a trick and having established that there was no one else but them, anyone would focus more on the person in front of them to be ready to react immediately at the first sign of danger. Haku had also planned a long conversation aimed at distracting the man more and more... but for a strange twist of fate he hadn't needed to use it, since Carrion had practically distracted himself due to the emotional effects caused by telling his own story. Thanks to those limitations, Kotaru and Finiar, the two sisters who were there with him at that moment, had been able to climb the wall undisturbed using the rune of invisibility; for the occasion they had modified the hands and feet of their avatars to equip them with extremely strong claws to be able to penetrate the rock and cling to it. Thanks to this, while Haku and Carrion kept talking, Finiar and Kotaru had gotten very close to them, but not enough to be perceived by the man.

Here Haku in reality had made a small bet. It was based on the fact that when Carrion and Hara found him they hadn't been able to extend their perception to a large area because they were focused on the hydra and him. However, he couldn't really be sure how that power worked, as divine powers were still something incomprehensible to him. Fortunately, however, he had guessed it: Carrion hadn't noticed anything and when the chaos had begun he had been too shocked to keep his guard up, which had allowed Kotaru and Finiar to lunge at him and hit him. The first had activated a rune of nullification, wiping out his mana, and the second had injected some hydra venom into his neck. Haku was very careful about using this poison, since their supplies were increasingly limited, but using it to face a legendary level was certainly not a waste.

However, Haku was sure that that wouldn't be enough. Thornag had been defeated due to the fact that he had been too confused and worried about his king, and as a result the hydra's venom had had time to infiltrate his entire body and debilitate him. But Carrion had no limitations at the moment, and as a general he was quick to think; as soon as he felt the poison penetrate his body, and seeing that his divine power couldn't eliminate it but only partially counter it, Carrion understood that the situation was really dangerous and that most likely the dragon had other arrows in his bow; surely he had prepared everything to defeat him. So he made the best decision at the time: to summon help from above. Half of his divine power went to fight against the poison, while the remaining half flowed from his body and he began the summoning of a high-level spirit.

Haku watched the divine power condense into a sort of blue thread, which then went on to form a circle within which strange symbols formed. 'So this is the summoning of a spirit...' he thought. He had never seen one; Isaac had confirmed that he, as a level mithril mage, knew some summoning magic and could therefore summon a low-level spirit, but he had refused to let him do so for fear of attracting the unwanted attention of a god. The only information he had about spirits was the information his sisters gave him, but for what he was thinking, that was enough.

Carrion raised his arms: "Come forward, Akheilos!"

A being appeared through the divine circle, and descended upon them with grace and power. It had the body of an extremely muscular man, but it also had a very robust tail ending in two very sharp fins, on its back it had another fin similar to a crescent, and its head was extremely massive and with a long, bristling snout. sharp teeth. Haku immediately traced all those characteristics to a fish; appealing to the knowledge that Maldor had transmitted to him, he traced it back to a shark, a fish that his sister, reading the books of the Academy of Magic, had discovered to be very common in the sea. That spirit was basically a fusion of a man and a shark. Its body was covered in tattoos that glowed with a strange blue light, and seemed to move as if they were waves driven by the wind. It wore only a very patchy waistband that covered his pelvis, while otherwise it was completely naked. In its right hand it held a mighty trident that seemed not to be made of solid matter, but of liquid water that mysteriously remained motionless in its present form.

Haku was certainly not an expert, but considering the characteristics he was quite sure that this was a water spirit. It made sense that Carrion had called it: given the situation, someone who could manipulate water could be of great help. And it could also help him get rid of the poison by using the fluids in his body. "What do you wish, chosen one of the goddess?" the spirit asked with a deep voice. Thanks to the timbre it became evident that it was a male.

Carrion grit his teeth. The hydra's venom hurt him terribly, but he couldn't concentrate on it right now. "Akheilos, squash those insects immediately!" he ordered pointing at Haku, Kotaru and Finiar.

The spirit nodded and raised his trident, and Kotaru and Finiar instinctively stepped in front of Haku to protect him (unlike them, if his body had been destroyed he really would have died!), but the dragon burst out laughing. "Not so fast, little shark" he said to the spirit, who didn't seem to like that comment. "I advise you to save your energy. I brought a friend for the occasion"

And suddenly, the sun was obscured. Two immense wings appeared in the sky, supporting the body of a gigantic creature. Carrion blanched when he saw it, and even Akheilos seemed to lose his composure.

An adult dragon had just appeared in the sky.