Valerian, The Legendary

178 Despair.

The old man was forced to drop Valerian from his grip. The boy lay on the ground, squirming and whimpering from the pain in his body. The old man located the creature that stood in his way, and scoffed as he said, “So, a chicken also dares to attack me?”

His words unintentionally sparked the rage of an arrogant dragon. He called Fortuna a chicken. Even if she was in the form of a thunder falcon, this behavior was untoward, and she found her image and ego to be tarnished by this remark thus she let out a shrill cry and a stream of lightning zapped at the old grandmaster.

The attack stunned and repelled the Valkyrian veteran to a significant distance of twenty meters. Fortuna initially wanted to attack the old man even more, but when she found Valerian whimpering and struggling in pain, she put the thought of revenge aside and made an agile turn.

Her shape was that of a thunder falcon, but her body size was still the same as that of the young dragon. She dove slightly and scooped Valerian up in her paws and with a quick flap of her wings, she flew to the skies. The old man yelled, “Let me see what capabilities you have to defy my majesty.”

He grunted and a red battle aura surged from his shoulder and flowed toward his palm. The battle aura condensed into a long spear. The old man raised his head to the sky, seemingly aiming at the bird. Then with a deep breath, the man flung the spear, and it shot straight toward Valerian.

Valerian was able to look down and said, “Bank right.”

Fortuna did not waste any time and banked, the long spear passed in front of her and vanished in the clouds. She could sense danger but Valerian’s command helped her react even more quickly. However, she heard a grunt from Valerian.

The boy was hurt, the long spear brushed his back and took a considerable chunk of flesh off his body. Fortuna was seething in rage at the audacity of the human trying to hurt Valerian even after she protected him. This was a challenge to her dignity. She was a prideful dragon and once she decided to save something or someone, that object of care must stay unharmed. There was no violation of this fact.

Before the old man could fire the second long spear, Fortuna was already above the clouds. She gently placed Valerian over the back of the thunder falcon. Then she turned into a silver cat and said, “You moron, did I not tell you not to get over yourself. Argh, how irritating you are.”

.....

The boy did not refute he was overwhelmed by the pain. Fortuna snorted and cast a few healing spells to calm down his nerves. She said, “These wounds cannot be treated by magic anymore. He needs to be taken care of with the help of herbs.”

Linea nodded and said, “I shall proceed at my full speed.”

Fortuna said, “Go, I will follow you.”

Linea was surprised by this and asked, “Your Highness, what do you intend to do?”

Fortuna said, “These people saw Valerian’s face, and they will track him down to the end of this world. These berserks are sticky bastards. So, I want to deal with this problem before it grows and that Grandmaster, he needs to die for what he did to him.”

Her words were filled with endless hatred, she did not know where this feeling originated or how should it be explained, and this caused her to be enraged as well. Valerian was her soft spot and she wanted to avenge him.

Linea wanted to convince her but Fortuna did not give him any chance at all. She jumped off his back and morphed into her real shape, the silver dragon, but in a blink, her scales turned as dark as the night sky. Glistening black, enough to blend into the night. She dived straight down, and Linea gave up the idea to fly away on his own, he wanted to witness a dragon venting her rage in all her glory.

As Fortuna descended, her body was surrounded by seven elemental orbs. She was preparing something dreadful to gift the Valkyrians, these orbs were all condensed mana in the purest form. Such orbs were capable of destroying a large area and leaving nothing behind. However, these orbs had a drawback, the caster will not be able to use any other spell for a few days.

Fortuna had her innate skill to change shape, and thus she was not worried about her need to cast the spells. The grandmaster looked at the sky lamenting on how he missed the chance to kill that rat when he suddenly felt an embroiled sense of danger.

He focused his gaze and caught a black shadow surrounded by glowing orbs rushing toward them. Just as he located the shadow, the shadow also located him, and the shining orbs fired strong beams as thick as a human. The man shivered as a beam impacted right in front of him. The people were scared off by the tremor they felt.

The ground shook as the first wave of attack hit them, the green beam created chasms wherever it went. The chasms swallowed the soldiers, and the old grandmaster condensed a spear in his arm when an azure wave hit him. The azure orb vanished and a storm of wind blades was left to shred the enemies.

The old man’s aura spear also vanished in the storm. The destruction that Fortuna was causing was simply too scary for the people. The old man yelled, “Retreat.”

He could not cause his people to do blindly, retreat was the only option. Just as his words dropped, a terrifying roar shook the void. Fortuna heard his command and roared in anger. She was enraged at the thought that these people even dared to think that they can retreat. She decided to end this man first, and all the orbs around her body fired at the same time.

The impact was so strong that even made the city wall nearby tremble and shake. The old man was not even given a moment to scream, his death was almost painless. The next moment, Fortuna opened her mouth and fire rained over the scattering soldiers. The impact of the mana orbs was still sustaining, and the soldiers were left with no other option than to die with regret and remorse.

...

Kunta was facing a part of the Valkyrian army in the distance when he heard a loud roar. The scene paused for a moment, and the people looked at the shower of fire raining down on the Valkyrian campsite. He yelled, “Hail Sapientia, kill these berserks.”

The morale of the army was uplifted in just a moment and the people from the rescue unit charged forward. The blood was spilled, forming rivers. They were now sure of their victories and then pushed back the berserk army.

As they got closer to the campsite, they were left shivering, the sight was nothing short of doom’s day. Corpses were left in pieces and charred. The disgusting smell was nauseating. Fortuna was nowhere left to be seen, and General Kunta was confused when he looked around and did not find Valerian in this chaos.

The man sighed and said, “Move to the city gates and let’s see what the situation is.”

...

Fortuna did not give a damn about anyone else and left the place. Valerian was lying unconscious on the back of the thunderclap and they were headed straight to the Lumen Imperial Palace. Fortuna did not trust anyone with Valerian, other than Fragrantia.

...

Two days passed since the battle and there was no news of Valerian at all, Deputy General Kunta was fearful and he searched every nook and cranny. Then he helplessly returned to the capital with the news that the mission was successful and that the Young Prince went missing in the chaos.

The news reached Lumen Empire and the Imperial palace was flung into chaos. Fragrantia sent out her personal Shadow guards to search for the prince. She even stated that if they did not find any news, they do not have to return to the palace at all. She did not want them to serve if they could not fulfill such a simple task.

Fragrantia was walking in the garden with her hands behind her back, she had not slept for more than a few hours in the past two days and the dark circles under her eyes were the evidence of that. She mumbled, “Flos, forgive me, forgive me.”

She was worried that something had happened to Valerian and thus she apologized to her sister. Suddenly, a bird’s cry broke the solemn silence. She raised her head and a big bluish-black bird descended down in front of her. Fragrantia was surprised to see a magical beast approaching the imperial palace, but she spotted the silver cat over the back of the bird and said, “Stop.”

The guards in the palace had already taken action but they stopped at once, and Fragrantia rushed towards the big bird, her maid was worried and wanted to stop her when The Empress said in a hurried tone, “Call the Imperial Medicus. Hurry!”