The world becomes quiet when you pause. When for the first time in a long time, you stop running, stop thinking, stop imagining and just pause. Pausing to take a look. Pause to listen to things around you. With a pause, everything becomes peaceful but for a moment. And all the pain, the suffering, the loss, everything else just goes away…
That’s what he said.
“Tobey…”
Tobey was surrounded by darkness. He stood in the void of black, waves swirled around him in no pattern. The eerie echoes sounded in his ears, hitting past his flesh and striking against his very bones.
“Where am I?” Tobey asked as he walked around. Each step he took in the dark felt like he was sinking his feet into deep snow. Pulling his feet out was like struggling against quicksands and all to put it in deep snow again.
Tobey kept walking forward, his eyes were more curious than scared. He looked at his hands. Both were sore, stained with blood. His black armbands had loosened, falling to his hand. He wrapped it around his arm again, covering his scars.
His hands shuddered as he rubbed them against each other. The blood on it had turned into cold specks of red. Tobey’s eyes had slowly become used to the darkness. He could feel awkward waves of mana in the swirls of black and began running along with the waves. Better to have some direction than getting lost, He thought.
He panted as he chased after the waves which had become faster. He could feel the strings of black tugging at him as he ran, making it difficult. Tobey kicked against them, not stopping for a second.
As his breathing calmed and he reached the destination of the waves, a light so blinding appeared in the darkness. Tobey covered his eyes with his hands and squinted to look.
The exit. He ran towards it, wheezing with each breath as the pains in his legs kicked against him. The light grew brighter, almost enveloping him.
“Tobey!”
That voice again. This time it was louder, clearer. He stared at the light. A backlit figure stood within the bright cloud of white rays. The figure, a shadowed image of someone he once recognised smiled at him. Tears gathered up at Tobey’s eyes and fell down his face slowly.
“Dad…” Tobey called out.
“Hey, son.”
Tobey ran. He ran into the light and towards the shadow, hugging him. Warm hairy hands encased him. He could feel the long hair against his face as he gripped the shadow.
“Woah there, that’s a tighter hug than I expected,” the shadowed image of his father said patting his head.
Tobey squeezed, sobbing against the shadow. “I… I-I, I don’t…”
“Shhh.” The shadow interrupted, rubbing his roughened hair. “It’s been a hard ten years, hasn’t it? You’ve done well. You can rest now Tobey; I’ve been waiting for you.”
Tobey sniffed, “Dad…”
“Get the fuck up Tobey!”
That voice again!
“Is this how you wanted to be the Grand Mage?”
Tobey suddenly let go of the shadow, much to his own surprise. His widened eyes stared at his hands then at the shadow who stared back in confusion. It felt like someone had poured hot coal down his throat as he spoke his next words.
“I can’t.”
“What?” the shadow asked shaking its head in confusion.
“I can’t come now Dad,” Tobey forced the words out his throat again.
“Why?”
“Because I got things I need to do first.”
Tobey’s shocked stare quickly turned to a glare. He smiled at the shadow who smiled back.
“Well, guess I’ll see you later then.” The shadow crossed its arms, flashing a smile at Tobey.
“Wait for me, dad.”
The shadow nodded and slowly evaporated, leaving Tobey in the light that grew brighter and brighter, engulfing him till-in seconds-he was completely swallowed.
“Took you long enough.”
Tobey opened his eyes to Renbao who stood in front of him. A wall of lightning stood between him and his master. Tobey stood up slowly. The broken ribs crawled inside him like a rake on fallen leaves. He was pierced at the side and had wrapped a cloth around the wound. Only one eye saw clearly, the other was blurry, stained with a red that trickled from his head down to his neck, soaking his blue jacket collar. This was no dream again. This? this was real.
Tobey’s eyes turned left and right. They stood in ruins of several buildings. Most had been burned to ash, others engulfed in flames. The smoke from the surrounding fires rose to the sky, shrouding it in a thick black only interrupted by flashes of yellow lightning, causing sounds that banged against his ears.
Tobey turned forward. Above them in the sky-floating-was a man in a battered exoskeleton-armour. His deep red eyes glared at them below. With the pain and the man above them, Tobey could remember where he was again.
“Did we lose?” Tobey asked Renbao as he walked towards him.
Renbao had his eyes on the man before them but he tilted his head to stare back at Tobey.
“No, we haven’t lost yet,” Renbao replied, turning back to the man above them. “ But I thought I’d lost you for a moment.”
“I’m guessing that would have cost you trouble.” Tobey grinned.
“You have no idea,” Renbao replied chuckling. “You okay?”
“I don’t have a choice.”
With the weave of his fingers, Renbao removed the lightning wall allowing Tobey to walk forward to him. They both locked eyes with the man who slowly opened his mouth to speak.
“Have you no limits to your disgrace son of Vassar?”
“Not a shred old man,” Tobey replied.
“You are an embarrassment to your father and tribe. Very well, I shall assist Harmodan and end your disgrace here and now.” The man raised his hands and began weaving them for a chant.
“You’re a disgrace to your son,” Tobey replied glaring back with eyes of red.
“Here he comes Tobey.” Renbao eyes narrowed and he weaved his hands.
The man lunged at them, diving with a speed that shook the air. Renbao hissed and jumped to intercept.
“Golden lightning, scatter within, Areknis Utlik.” Renbao chanted.
They crashed arms against each other with a loud boom. Yellow lightning and deep red fire clashing against each other sending a surge of energy that shook the ground where Tobey stood.
Renbao grit his teeth as he began an exchange of blows with the attacker. His electrified fists smashed against that of his opponent, often time finding their way past but to end as the attacker dodged time and time again.
Renbao had little to no luck defending and took hit after hit in the air, his mana had been drained and he could not keep up with his enemy’s movements or attacks. His last chant was one for speed, if anything he had to be fast enough to move with him and that was running out. Yet the smile on his face remained. As he clashed with the man, bolting through the skies, familiar mana was rising beneath them.
“Hear me, O Crimson Bone.”
Tobey had his hands weaved, and he kept weaving them. He had been warned, but Finn wasn’t here. Bell wasn’t either, and against this guy, it was all or nothing.
As he chanted, he felt the scales erupt from his right side, stabbing upwards and out, hardening itself to bone plates as they met the hot air. The scales covered his right arm and right leg. A large part of it was spread around his torso in parallel lines, gripping him. And on his back, it erected itself on his spine like spikes that grew in harrows. The spikes grew out of his back and into the air, forming a tail.
Tobey grit his teeth as the scales solidified. His head was covered in the scales, leaving the parts beneath his nose exposed like a visor. The pain of it was horrendous. Like a thousand vibrating needles piercing the same spot of injury over and over, but he endured.
“Yaefelim.” Tobey hissed, ending his chants. His eyes turned to the figures fighting above and in one sudden burst, he jumped up, craters sprung up from the shockwave of his jump. He threw himself at the man on fire and lunged with his right hand. He grabbed his neck and swung the man around and suddenly threw him down at a torn down building.
“Dammit, Tobey… You used the chant!” Renbao said with widened eyes before an arm swing from Tobey sent him crashing into the ground in a straight line.
Fuck! I can’t control this for long!
Tobey roared into the sky, his voice echoing past the clouds above. He glared below, the man on fire stood standing and staring at him. He could feel the rage burning in his chest as he glared, like smoke filling up his chest. The man on fire gave a devilish smile and lunged at him in the sky. Tobey reacted split second, his tail interrupting what would have been a fatal blow to his chest.
“I’ve changed my opinion of you, son of Harmodan. You may yet be the best thing that happened to me since the war.” The man grinned as he reignited his fists, preparing for his next attack.
“I…Kill-” Tobey could find no words in his state of rage.
“You do not have to say it, son, I can see it in your eyes, you’re a monster now. Just like me.” The man grunted. His skin had begun to char off his body, this chant had gone on for too long, and he had not expected this backlash so soon. The caked ashes that fell off his skin didn’t go unnoticed by Tobey.
Tobey chuckled, “Good you know.”
The fires raged into the skies, burning all around it. Tobey didn’t care if anything else got destroyed. He didn’t care about the mission or those he came with. At this point, staring this man in the eyes, he knew the battle had only begun.
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