Terra was left confused. She felt Alister’s presence suddenly leave her mind and thought he might have leaped towards Draven or Cinder, but he wasn’t with either of them, which puzzled her.
She frantically searched the sky and then looked down, wondering if he had jumped. Her deep blue eyes scanned every inch of the chaotic landscape below, but she still found nothing.
“Where is the young lord?” she asked, her words directed at Draven and Cinder.
…
Alister suddenly found himself far away from where the sandworm was raging. He was plummeting from the sky, slightly disoriented and unable to control his fall. The ground rushed up to meet him, and he landed with a massive boom, the impact creating a crater around him.
Alister slowly got to his feet, his body aching. He looked around, trying to make sense of his surroundings. The landscape was barren and unfamiliar, with strange, twisted rock formations and an eerie, unnatural stillness.
“What the hell?”
“Where am I? I was sure I just saw Ka-”
Before he could gather his thoughts, two shots rang out, piercing through both of his legs.
BANG
BANG
Alister screamed in pain, his legs buckling as he collapsed to the ground. Blood poured from the wounds, and he gritted his teeth, bearing the pain.
[Blood manipulation activated!]
[Blood healing activated!]
Steam slowly began to rise from the wounds as they started to close, but before they could heal completely, a figure appeared out of nowhere, moving with a burst of speed. Alister barely had time to react before a powerful kick was aimed at him. He managed to block it with his arms, but the force of the blow sent him flying backward, crashing into a nearby rock formation.
“And stay down!” a voice suddenly yelled.
“Ha! Young master, you’re quite the feisty one.”
“Can you blame me? I’ve been waiting for this for a while, and now that it’s time, I can’t help but get right into it.”
“But I won’t make this fast. I’ll be sure to make it as painful as possible for him, so that he’ll regret what he did to Yanzi.”
‘Yanzi?’
Alister wondered as the dust from his crash slowly began to clear, just then Terra’s voice echoed in his thoughts, ‘My lord where are you? What happened? There was a sudden presence and then you disappeared.’
‘I was teleported,’ Alister responded.
‘Teleported!? Should we forget about the humans and make our way to you?’
‘No, continue your search, I can handle myself, you and the others need not worry.’ Alister responded, reassuring her.
‘Instead focus on finding my team and ensuring their safety.’
‘Understood… We will not disappoint you.’ The telepathic link ended.
Just then another voice spoke up in his thoughts, ‘Take care, my lord.’ The voice belonged to Cinder.
Alister smiled slightly, responding, ‘I will, ensure you help Terra find Ren and the others.’ ‘Understood, my lord.’
The telepathic link ended again.
The dust finally cleared to reveal the figures of six individuals. Each of them wore black and purple tech suits with a scythe symbol on the left side of their chests, the symbol of the Reapers Guild.
The ones who had been talking a moment ago were Kai and Karl. Alister recognized Kai and deduced that the person who shot him must have been the man with ash hair standing at the side with a sniper in hand, Jin.
It was obvious they hadn’t brought him here for a chat, and the fact that they had just whisked him away before he could save Ren and the others already had him in a foul mood.
“What is the meaning of this?” Alister said, rising to his feet as he slowly took a step forward, his armor and face covered in dust.
“Oh? Boy, isn’t this a surprise,” Kael said with a sarcastic tone. “You’re standing despite getting your legs shot by Jin. Fascinating.”
“Guess the word from Master Liang about you being more than just a summoner was-” “I just asked a question,” Alister narrowed his eyes. “What is the meaning-”
BANG
Another shot was fired, this time not aimed at Alister, but it tore past the side of his left cheek, drawing blood as it went past to shatter the massive rock formation behind him, silencing him.
“You don’t talk to the captain like that,” Jin said with a cold tone, sniper pointed at Alister. “Easy there, Jin,” Kael said, using his left hand to lower the sniper. “Remember, he’s young master Kai’s plaything. You can’t go damaging him more than you already have.”
Jin finally pulled back his sniper. Kael then turned his gaze back to Alister and said, “Now to answer your question, young summoner, you messed with the wrong people, so now you have to pay back with your life. So I guess you can call this… Compensation.”
“Compensation?” Alister repeated.
“Yes, Compensation,” Kai said with a crazy smile, causing Alister to redirect his eyes towards him. “Although… it was going to be difficult since we were all going to be wearing body cams and you were going to be with your teammates.”
“So…”
Kai chuckled slightly. “We had to get rid of both of them.”
Alister’s face suddenly darkened as he lowered his head slightly, his hair covering the upper half of his face as he asked, “What exactly do you mean by ‘get rid of them?””
Kai’s smile widened further. He was seeing Alister in pain, and it was giving him a sick sense
of satisfaction. “What else do you think?”
“We are the ones responsible for the signal jamming…”
“As well as the appearance of the sandstorm that ambushed your teammates.”
“Speaking of them, did you see the face the red-haired one made as the ground gave out under them? Man, it was totally hilarious.” Kai chuckled.
“Shut up…” Alister said, his anger rising.
“I mean, according to our intel, he’s supposed to be your team captain, and he was making a face like that? Talk about pathetic! Even the rest of them were as pitiful as their leader.”
“With expressions that had lost all hope.”
“Shut up…”
“And it’s all your fault, you know. They wouldn’t have died if they never met you. They suffered for your sins. Don’t you feel guilty for making them die because of summoner trash
like you?”
“But don’t worry, I’ll be sure to send you to them soon, but only after I make you pay for what your overgrown lizard did to my sweet Yanzi.”
Just then Kai teleported directly in front of Alister, swinging his dagger towards his abdomen, but in that instant, time seemed to slow down.
Out of nowhere, a system window materialised before Alister.
[Ding!! New quest!]
[An Overlord’s Wrath:
Description: A group of foolish humans have carefully plotted to take YOUR life and dared to
pull the members of your team into it. As an Overlord, you cannot let this slide.
Quest completion requirements: End the lives of all six humans [0/6]
Quest reward: XP +456.
Failure Penalty: Death.]
With a sudden burst of speed, much to Kai and the others’ surprise, Alister backhanded Kai’s
attack, sending his dagger flying. In that momentary lapse of concentration, Alister shifted his weight to his right leg, lifting the left, and landed a powerful kick on Kai’s jaw that pushed
him back, sending him crashing to the sand.
BANG!
Jin shot, the speed of the bullet kicking up a small cloud of dust that slowly began to settle.
But much to everyone’s surprise, Alister caught the bullet with his right hand, in between his thumb and index finger, proceeding to drop it harmlessly on the ground.
At this point, each of the members of the Reapers tensed up, weapons ready. Each of them knew one needed to be at least SS class to dodge Jin’s bullet, let alone catch it.
Hearing Yanzi’s name again had further irritated Alister. “So…”
“…let me understand what’s going on here.”
“You guys are the ones responsible for the appearance of the sandworm that endangered my
teammates in your attempt to end my life…”
“All because of some human trash?”
Alister gritted his teeth, clenching his fists, and slowly raised his head to reveal his glowing
reptilian eyes as he gazed intensely at them.
His voice suddenly became deeper, “Is this supposed to me some kind of joke?”
Boom!
His mana suddenly raged intensely, causing the air around to whip violently, kicking up dust
and sending debris flying everywhere.
“What the hell!” Rex exclaimed.
“Kael, what the hell is this? Did the young master tell you about the summoner kid going off
like some kind of bomb?” Aria yelled as she and the others shielded their eyes. “No, goddammit! Obviously not. What kind of a dumb question is that? You make it sound
like you weren’t at the strategy meeting.”
“Then what is this? How the heck does the kid have this much mana?” Maria asked.
“He can’t be human, that’s how.”
“A human can’t have this much mana!”
“Ummm… Kael… The summoner kid… He’s growing,” Jin pointed out.
“The… hell,” Kael said as he strained his eyes to look past the massive inferno of mana, his
voice nearly strained with fear. In it stood a transforming Alister.
[Dragonic Rage active!]
[Second gate opened: Dragon Body!]
[Berserk active!]
[Dragonic Rage’s grade has increased to (SSS).]
[All stats increased by 300%.]
There, in that raging inferno of golden mana, Alister’s body enlarged slightly as it was slowly
encased in black and white scales.
For the first time, Alister was performing a proper draconic transformation. A tail grew from his lower half, tearing out of the suit. His enlarged body did the same, as his fangs became larger. He grew a pair of black horns as his face was slowly encased in white scales, taking on a
slightly more dragon-like shape. Black limbs sprouted from his back, slowly turning into golden wings.
The crests on his arms flared brightly, and then out of nowhere, he let out a massive roar.
~ Graaaaaaaaaaa~