Chapter 18: Rebellion

The crowd cheered to their hearts content as Rhys watched from the background. Until now, he was so certain that success was a matter of birthright, as was victory. But the idea that he was bested by a stranger to their villager, a child no less had tortured his mind.

"Those cheers, those cheers belong to me!"

He thought back to the words that Areon had said to him earlier. 

"He said he won because, he hit the ground more times than me. He must have trained ridiculously hard. I suppose that's some serious willpower he's got there. What is he so determined for? Now that I think about it… he kind of reminds me of Lucious."

Rhys continued to watch Areon be celebrated among the elves. The smiling faces of his own kind and a dragon together with one mission, it was disgusting to him. Though above everything else he was perplexed.

"You strange, strange stranger. Areon, that's your name right? I wonder who's more driven between the two of you? Is it you, or Lucious?"

The gathered elves began pointing Areon in the direction of Lucious' tower.

"Here, if we take this route, we can find Lucious, make him stop the hunt on the dragon and then kill the Maimo!" One elf suggested.

"If we leave right now, we'll be able to avoid sir Winstes and Cornelius!" Recommended another.

He exchanged looks with Krieus briefly before watching the dark dragon give a nod of agreement. Areon then seemed on board with the plan.

"To get all of us to Lucious' place on Krieus' back is gonna be a little tricky…"

Areon scratched his head for a bit before something else entirely caught his attention.

"I like that idea, but before we go there's something I need to do first."

He walked over to Rhys' weapon and picked it up. His eyes were fixated on the glowing green element stone. He looked at the elf’s unconscious body with a grin.

“Sorry, but I’m gonna borrow this for a while.”

He turned back to Krieus and began to snicker.

"This extra bit of firepower will come in handy for sure. Just in case, if things get real dicey it wouldn't hurt to whip this thing out, right?"

But before the boy could extract the gem he felt a cold sensation course through his body. There was danger coming soon, he was sure of it. Areon leaped out of the way only to find the very spot that he was standing on had now been struck by lighting.

"I knew it…!"

He looked up to find the exact elves that were rumored to appear, Winstes and Cornelius. With a particularly annoyed look on the face of Winstes at the moment.

"I might be more effected by the lack of sleep than I thought. I missed him."

Cornelius responded with indifference, as his gaze was not leaving the dark dragon.

"You have never landed a hit on that small child since he got here. In a way, this is really your fault sir Winstes."

The forehead of the elder elf creased.

"Excuse me…?"

Cornelius remained silent as he descended to the dragon. His eyes weary but still harboring the innate enmity and hatred that came with all beasts.

"You dragon, why is it that you have done nothing but let your child run around since you've got here. Are you mocking us?"

A smile crept up on Krieus' face. He turned to the two elder elves and shook his head.

"If it were up to me, I would have already been gone by now. And your people would probably be dead or on the verge of dying. He just decided that your lives were more valuable than I did, to tell you the truth."

"Don't pretend like you're doing us a favor, dragon!"

Not being one to ramble with his enemy like his master, Cornelius had formed a giant ball of wind and aimed it at the dragon. He looked down to the elves and shouted his next command.

"Everyone! We are going to start engaging the dragon now! Please evacuate the area!"

Then a rock was thrown in the direction of Cornelius. His eyebrows furrowed as he fervently whipped his head back to see who had done such a thing.

"Did they just throw a rock at me!?"

The crowd began to jeer at Cornelius and Winstes. 

"Stop trying to hurt these foreigners!"

"Leave Areon alone!"

"Yeah, they're only trying to help!"

"Go back and tell Lucious he needs to stuff it!"

The comments made Cornelius writhe with fury. He looked to Areon, who had one knee on the ground and was glaring at the two elder elves with a confidence that made Cornelius burn inside with a certain sense of feeling infuriated, almost as if he was waiting for something. 

There was nothing more that he hated to watch in that moment, than to see that crowd surround themselves around that boy. Then he heard a voice.

"Cornelius…"

He turned to see Winstes staring daggers through the child.

"Take care of the dragon. Master Lucious has been made known of the situation and will likely assist you. But as for me… I'm going to take my sweet time dismantling the vermin who's corrupted the minds of our kin!"

Cornelius scoffed, he viewed the child as more of a problem than he was before, that much was undeniable. But the main reason why everyone was gathered here today was to hunt the dark dragon. He licked his lips as his eyes never left the beast.

"Do what you please, I will rid of the dragon for you."

The crowd was still dead set on the protection for the two. Their yells and screaming more loud than before.

"We're not gonna play puppets to Lucious' whims anymore!"

"We won't let you lay a finger on these two!"

A sly grin appeared on Winstes' face as the sky began to roar with bright flashes and thunder.

"You won't have to."

Bolts of lighting began to strike the elves and their territory, sending their homes crashing to the ground and causing the once united villagers to begin scattering and leaving for any measure of safety. Areon knew that he had to do something quick.

"Not yet, I can't strike yet!"

The boy patiently waited during the pandemonium and chaos of everybody running and being terrified before he saw his chance. In the heart of a brief moment, Winstes' eyelids felt heavy on him before they began to close. And in that exact instance where the elder elf had blinked.

Areon had started his attack.

Krackoom!

The boy had blasted to where the elder elf was and landed a solid blow in the elf's stomach.

Completely bewildered, Winstes caught a glimpse of Areon smirking at him up close. He watched in rage as he taunted him.

"Don't take your eyes off your opponent, Winstes!"

The elf was sent through the sky, catching Cornelius off of his guard.

"Winstes!"

Then a hard surface of scales hit him so hard that he was pushed into further heights in the air.

"Damn dragon!"

Krieus got ready in a stance suited for battle.

"If I recall correctly, you told your ally that you would rid the dragon, did you not? Don't tell me that you're taking that task lightly."

The two began to clash as the villagers ran for a place to hide. But this knowledge was not something unknown to the duo. Krieus flew high into the air, forcing the elder elf to keep his attacks away from the already dilapidated village. While Areon was keeping his fight airborne as well.

Surprisingly, the child was holding his own against one of the elder elves. He kept landing punches and blows that were knocking the elf backwards into the clouds, this was quite befuddling for Winstes.

"It seems that staying awake for three days straight has caused quite the toll on me. This child is actually connecting hits against me. Not that they hurt. But this doesn't do any good for our reputation! I should deal with him...cruely!"

Winstes backed away and created a collection of mini spheres of lightning. He thrust his hand forward as the spheres followed suit. Areon pulled out the sword that Krieus had gifted him and begun cutting the balls of lightning apart one by one. A surprised look was etched into the face of Winstes.

"Since when did he possess a blade that could cut through emission attacks like that!?"

But his thought was interrupted with another punch to the face by Areon. This time, sending him plummeting towards the village below.

"Shoot! I didn't aim that properly!"

Areon then gave chase and followed him through the sky. This was all going according to Wintses' improv plan, as a he struck his hand out towards Areon again.

This time a large strike of lightning came from the sky and struck down in his direction but Areon dodged that attack as well, without even giving a glance.

"Curses!"

In an instant Areon closed the distance again using his flames to thrust him forward as he headbutted Winstes into the dust. Causing a splash of debris to fly all around them.

As the smoke began to settle the elf started to laugh.

"You're not the brat I first met a couple days ago I'll give you that!"

Areon was backed away again, sweating profusely as his head was racing with thoughts.

"This guy's still dangerous! I'm landing blows on him now, but if I can't finish the fight fast enough he'll just kill me!"

He continued to watch the elf lay in the dust as he lazily stood up.

"Ten hits, it still seems impossible to me that you've connected ten clean hits against me, hehe."

Then with a crazed look in his eye he let out a guffaw as he continued to laugh.

"I don't think you know how painful your death is going to be because of this!"