The Enlightened Blade

“Baby you light up my world like hmm hmmm hm hm,” Raj whispered, singing one of his favorite songs. If my friends heard this, I would get clowned on. Good thing nobody will ever see, read about, or even know about this particular moment. Not like my story is gonna get made into a book or something. What a ridiculous notion. Raj continued humming tunes as he walked through the forest.

Raj suddenly stopped dead in his tracks, his last notes carried away by the wind. Directly in front of him lay the change in scenery he was desperately searching for. A small, cozy cottage rested in the middle of the newest clearing, with a brown thatched roof and a yellowish frame. That wasn’t what caught his eyes, however. Off to the side of the house was a group of… No way I'm seeing this right. But his eyes were not playing tricks on him. It was a group of genuine, bonafide, dragons.

His growing excitement was quickly quelled, however, upon identifying the dragons.

[Drake - lvl 16].

[Drake - lvl 16].

[Drake - lvl 18].

There was a lot of information to process. The first being the fact that they weren’t even real dragons! “Aww come on!” Raj exclaimed before quickly covering his mouth. He dove back into the treeline before quickly yelping in pain. “Owwwwww! Stupid, stupid, stupid! What the fuck am I doing?” Raj furiously mumbled. “How did I manage to put the dragons on alert, give up my location, and injure myself?”

Raj got back to his feet, wondering how a man of such talent was allowed to exist. He crept closer to the dragons once again, seeing if they were still at the same spot. At least I didn’t send them into a frenzy. But wait… were there not 3 dragons before? So why do I only see 2…

The realization on his face quickly morphed into terror as he instinctively jumped to the right, narrowly avoiding what would have been a life-ending claw to the back. His eyes scanned the area, and saw that the other two dragons had stopped their Oscar-worthy acting and joined the fight.

The next two minutes were perhaps some of the most chaotic and dangerous of Raj’s life. Simply put, he was helpless. Not only was Raj outnumbered and out leveled, these drakes were also outmaneuvering him. Raj was sure he could take them individually, but they had numbers, and they were smart enough to use those numbers to their advantage.

Raj smiled grimly as he got smacked to the ground, a memory of his mom yelling at him to memorize to study film for soccer. These drakes almost seemed to be using premeditated attacks on him.

Time seemed to blur as his vision grew cloudy. He was doing his best, activating Mana Slash(Common) over and over again. There was just nothing he could do.

Raj had always been a stubborn person, and he always tried to follow his moral compass. This had gotten him into trouble more times than he could count, but he had always been able to feel sure of himself. Now, however? Raj felt every moment of hesitation, worry, and pain rush back to him at once. He started to question himself. What am I doing here? I’m no superhero. I’m still that same old college kid from before, and I'm in way over my head. He bitterly chuckled, coughing out blood.

Raj fell down into a pose of acceptance, dawning a look of defeat. The drakes sensed this, and came in for the kill.

*****

Foolish human, drake #1 thought. How dare you attempt to challenge we, the three brothers of Sneed!

Drake #2’s chuckles echoed through their mental bond. Another bumbling fleshling filled with arrogance.

Drake #3 huffed impatiently. Brothers, let us quickly finish this fleshbag off! I hunger.

The three drakes moved in for the kill on the weak, helpless human. Just as they jumped, however, the human disappeared.

WHAAAATTTTTT! Drake #3 roared. WHERE DID THAT PESKY FLESHBAG GO!

*****

Raj sprinted through the woods, jumping for joy. “There’s no fucking way that worked,” he happily exclaimed. “I love my new ability. I basically teleported! Although, I probably could have used it earlier had I remembered about it,” he said, trailing off.

Raj started to slow down as the adrenaline wore off. He had still been injured pretty severely, and he needed to find a spot to recuperate. After a few minutes of searching, all he could find was a small cave.

Really? Anotha one? Raj thought in his best DJ Khaled impression. I guess I don’t really have much of a choice. He inched his way forward, feeling like a chopped up clam with more back problems than a man in his nineties. He relaxed, happy to be in a safe space. All that running had made him exhausted.

As he started to walk towards the wall of the cave, he suddenly felt senseless. His body turned cold, his hands clammy. Spots danced across his vision. That’s when he noticed the overwhelming pain that seemed to radiate from his lower back. The pain intensified as something jerked his body forward, causing him to arch his back. He fell to the floor, writing in agony. He reached back with his hand, only to feel something warm and sticky. He brought his hand to his face, only to find the substance was blood. His blood.

Raj’s eyelids suddenly felt heavy, and he fought a losing battle, desperately trying to stay awake. He crawled in an attempt to create separation from him and his attacker. It was all in vain, however, as a foot pushed down on his neck, threatening to break his neck.

Raj felt himself sink into darkness, an insatiable pit of despair. Just before he was completely submerged, he turned his head, his eyes widening at the familiar face.

Is that… Arj-?

His thoughts were cut short as he passed out, and the last thing he felt was a chilling sense of betrayal.