Kamikaze
“Kam... There’s a dragon in the upper level. I have no idea how big or what type it is. All I know is that judging from the destruction of the town… It’s a fire dragon.” Suzette slumps her head grimly. “I knew that we were too late. It was pointless for us to even come here. Now we’re just both in danger. This is my entire fault. I need to face this dragon alone.” She eyes me determinedly and kisses me. “If you can get this message to Swift, tell him I did this for him. If I don’t make it out alive… Go back there and fight with them taking my place.”
The magnitude of being emotionally pressured is proportional to the importance of the pertaining event. The shock of Suzette's resolution and the fear of losing her momentarily constricts me.
What? Before I can stop her, Suzette flings her arms around me; a combusting romance, all the more fleetingly so. And the woman I love takes flight up the stairs, charging headlong into the abyss of death.
She's doing 'this for him'? For Swiftant? Why do I have to fight alongside Swiftant in place of whom I want to be fighting with? No way... No way am I giving her up for him, not after already losing her now!
"
Do it, then..." A rather tenuous voice rings in my mind.
Who's voice is that?
Do it.
Swiftant..? What are you-
You know what you have to do, and you have my assurance.
"
Zap Execution." Normally, lightning gets absorbed into the ground via buildings, bypassing the contents within. As in the natural, initial processes of lightning formation, opposites attract. By relinquishing a forced output of enlarged positive charges, I have the ability to directly, not just trace, but alter the tracks of negative electricity discharged from the clouds, thereby sustaining a homing trail of lightning. Synchronizing the user's otherwise inherent timeframe with the speed of light, a lightning flash to the seemingly human eye would be akin to eleven and a half days to me. Adding to the fact that even as an electric user, I'm not completely invulnerable to lightning as a toned-down soul of Swiftant; my skin would be burnt to a crisp in three flashes, though I'd be left with a thin thread of survival odds. This move deeply scars the user physically and mentally, in a flesh-by-flesh slow and arduous torture.
Do it...
A blinding light decimates the roof of the castle and hits me hard, forestalling whatever actions Suzette has planned. In hindsight, I was probably only trying to envelop myself in debilitating pain with which my shock could be superimposed. And, Swiftant had given me his assurance - his guarantee in Suzette's life and my skill.
"I didn't do it because
you told me to..." I cripple to the ground.
"Kimi... nari... Edge." I have to jolt my already electrocuted heart from slowing or collapsing. My sakkat and armor pads lie in charred rags. Streaks of maroon trickle down my eyes, not from the anxiety, not from the excitment, not from the regret, even though my regenerative anatomy works unreservedly to fasten the seam on my head, which had been impaled in a split second...
Damn... It seriously hurts... But... That eleven days are... Nothing to it... Swiftant... I've always visited the devil and come back more than alive.
Convoluting my muscles to jerk my line of vision upwards, from the depths of the disintegrated castle top, I see the dragon of flames grunting in pain and spasms assaulting her body. She obviously has taken quite a moderate hit, which would have been a straight strike, if not for her fiery hide. Out from the darkness, I make out a glint...
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Swiftant
“Ahh, finally got you to speak up, ehehe, yessss, it is true, just as we set out for Shinkirou once the barrier was knocked down, I heard that my personal unit reached Asgard, my best soldier, the beauitful Lyren, she is a deadly thing, one of the most powerful warriors in the Dragon Army, she is an expert in fire, perhaps just as well as I....”
"Hmph, I don't think so, Zanden." I rise from the ashes, much to Tatsu's unamusement.
I hold Shinkirou's once luminiscent commander by his throat, feeling him swallowing in a bid to get air down his lungs. At the last minute, with Vengeance's reflect-affliction ability, the damages dealt to me were repaid in full to the commander and his top officers. Vengeance has come and gone, and I have decided against lopping off the commander's head and plucking out his spine. Although disarmed and dishonored, he has still a family - a gasping kid with a tear-streaked face, who had always thought the world of his undisputed father, 'til now it appears. All in all, an impressive feat to even touch an enhanced me. With Kamikaze out of my system, my injuries aren't going to heal anytime soon.
"How long were you planning to stay under, Swift?" Tatsu reprimands curtly.
"Just until you slay the fire elite, but he said something he shouldn't have."
"Heh, I'm not about to be presumptuous, though his words got to me, too."
"Well, one of his dogs," I lead on. "Lyren, or whoever she is, should be writing her will now."
"Ha ha ha... Ignoramus, your arrogance precedes you," Zanden snorts heavily. "Notwithstanding, your girlfriend has no chance against Lyren. Why? That's because... If not for Lyren's slothful nature and disobedience, she would likely have been...
My replacement!"
"That is..." Tatsu begins.
"Going to be a very good test of Suzette's bonafide powers," I finish. "All of you, Suzette included, underestimate her latent dragon strength. How do you think she was able to become a dragon spy, fighting for both her survival and silencing suspicions with an iron fist?"
"Regardless of who her parents are, half of her is of dragon heritage. Then, Suzette doesn't yet know her own strength, does she?" Tatsu whispers to me in alarm.
I smirk teasingly. "I have absolute trust in her, and my other self. It's all been seen to. I don't like two-on-one, so she might even wrap things up there before you're done with Zanden."
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Kamikaze
Out from the darkness, I make out a glint... Suzette wields her...!?