*clang*
*wrhhh*
The sound of scraping dirt and colliding metals resounded loudly with no pause.
Legs moving swiftly, each with it own rhythm at a pace that damu was barely able to keep his eyes on.
A tall male adorning a two-piece white tattered fabric roared with fury as he swung his giant broadsword at an even more massive monstrosity.
The monster, unfazed, took the blow straight at it's shoulder coming out with an unignorable abrasion.
A lizard's head, and a scaly roturn body that now had patches of flesh revealed, stood between two figures draped in white.
Even before the monster could shake off the warrior, a bronze skinned female strode under and between it's legs slashing at it's right leg's achilles tendon making a more significant cut.
It's movements were hindered to some extent, but not completely as it charged backwards twisting it's torso towards the short-sword wielding swordswoman with a violent screech that scraped the ears.
Damu covered his ears beforehand expecting an ugly sound
Momentarily in a daze, the combatants failed to make a move and the swordswoman almost stumbled.
Barely dodging the mouth of the beast with a drop in height and lunging forwards into a roll, the swordswoman scrambled ahead, the male counterpart dashing ahead in their direction.
Slashing horizontally, at the previous cut near the ankle, the broadsword cleaved the foot off completely dropping the beast as a shrill screech bellowed.
Before the dirt that rose could fall to the ground, the swordsman swung the massive sheet of metal, twisting his body, all the while carrying the momentum from his dash and led it towards the beast's skull.
*CRACK*
*CREEEEEee-*
A cracked jaw separated from the remainder of the skull as shards of bone fell amid the pooling blood.
Damu heightened his alertness now aware that the peoples' attention had fully diverted to him.
"Hello!"
The tall blonde male approached him with hefty steps, while the female chose to remain close to the corpse, digging through the belly as if looking for something in there.
Damu leaned onto his 'weapon' with his palm placed on it.
"We're done with today's quota already, no need to panic now."
He spoke with a steady tone.
"That thing you saw earlier was the last of today's."
Damu didn't reply and only looked at the man opposite to him with a sharp look. Keeping a composed exterior.
-'Why is he talking to me as if he knows me?'
-"Hello, I really just took a wrong turn, can you lead me to the exit?"
"Haha, you've got a good sense of humor there Azras.
Who knew the son of halberd would like cracking jokes?"
-'? Who??'
Damu stared silently without answering while maintaining a staid expression.
"How is he doing these days? Haven't seen him since then."
-"I really don't know what's going on and I don't know who you're talking about."
"Ah,"
A silent sigh escaped his mouth.
"I see."
Silently nodding his head, the blonde man diverted his attention towards the lady and spoke
"We'll be hosting an unexpected guest for now, and did you extract the core yet?"
No answer came and instead the lady got up and walked across the grassy 'island' towards the opposite edge of Damu.
A solemn statue stood, too far for Damu to even acknowledge let alone properly analyze. It appeared about as tall as the lady herself.
The blood covered hand rose with a black, palm-sized orb and calmly placed it inside the open jaw. The orb disappeared without a sound leaving nothing behind. The statue underwent a slight change as an almost ethereal feeling of light dispersing emerged.
Despite the distance, Damu could feel something lighten around his chest. Almost as if a silent burden had been slightly eased.
"Lets head back now."
A soothing voice addressed the tall male.
He turned his neck to look at Klein and pointed ahead, as if gesturing at him to come along.
Damu stood on his spot unmoving with a determined expression.
-'Its better if I wait for a bit and decide on my next move for a bit. Its best not to be hasty.'
-"I'll be accompanying my head for now, thank you very much."
'What an odd way to speak.'
"Suit yourself, we'll be going now."
'We'll be seeing you soon regardless.'
-*Whew*
-'Wait, why does his posture suddenly look so confident.'
What followed next was something Damu would never have expected in his wildest dreams.
The two figures suddenly started convulsing and pulsating as their flesh warped horrifyingly and their outlines enlarged by multiple times. The shape of the outlines started resembling that of large lizard-like beasts. The final outcome was something anyone would be familiar with.
-'Huh? HUUHHH??!'
-'DRAGONS? THEY WERE DRAGONS THIS ENTIRE TIME?'
The two massive figures, one yellow and the other a shade of blackish-brown lept up into sky and flapped their wings in a manner so majestic he could not describe. Gusts of wind blew in the odd landscape shifting the flow of the walls of water ever so slightly.
The shimmer of light shining through the gaps between the folds of the wings left Damu blinded as he was left in a daze.
The massive shadows' outlines covering the plain slowly grew smaller as they increased their distance from him. The silver threads of water trickling down the sides finally seemed to settle down as they restored their previous state of supposed inaction. Mimicking a mirror again, the unusually steady water flow regained its clarity and the blades of grass once again became stationary.
Damu walked with light steps as he approached the human sized statue. The soft feeling of grass under his foot felt like a blessing at the moment after his prior experience but it was still quite stifling as he was still stuck with no path outside.
Damu approached the gray statue with vigilance in his demeanor.
Standing close to the statue, Damu noticed it looked to be in quite a shabby condition at first glance with moss growing in certain cracks that were spread across it. The person it depicted gave off an extremely regal feeling, with a proud but composed posture, an elegant but very light looking black-crown sitting atop on the head silently. The torso and legs were covered by the same long piece of cloth, the exact shape of the body undecipherable. The face could be described as extremely handsome with a sharp nose and eyes that despite looking like cobblestone, commanded a sense of authority. The mouth appeared to be closed.
-"How did she put that sphere inside before?"
*Stare*
-"Pause."
-"Where could it even go?"
Damu continued staring at the statue for a while and after racking his mind for a while, he came to the conclusion that this figure probably depicted someone important to the dragons. It could quite possibly be the king himself. Otherwise what sense would it make for a pair of dragons to be serving the statue.
-'I should definitely be polite otherwise I'll be converted into dragon chow.'
He was still curious about the crown but he did not dare to touch it out of fear of some unfortunate event.
Quite some time had passed by while Damu was processing all the information he had gathered, and now the sun that appeared high above the ring had now crossed by, leaving behind a crimson hue.
-"At least I made it out of that place."
-"What do I even do from here on?"
He sat down on the soft surface below him. Placing his palms on the ground behind him, he turned his head to the sky staring into the distance.
-"How and why did I come here? I'm not in a position to complain but why me?"
•
*Your questions will be answered in due time*
*'Hint: Your future self will be proud'*
;)
•
-"My future self will be proud?"
-"You're just adding onto the confusion. How should I even go about 'saving this world'?"
• *...*
•
*Hahh*
-"I guess I don't have much to do right now. I had to worry about getting out of that damp and dark environment. But I guess I have some actual time to think of a plan."
Damu folded his legs as he lowered his core and body, resting in a position with his legs folded on the soft grass. He calmly placed his palms on his knees, as his dull white eyes slowly shifted out of focus in the direction of the titanic wall of streaming water. Myriads of thoughts raced through his head.
The situation in this world had to be dire, but a time limit was not provided to him. Hence he was left with slight tinge of urgency that was plaguing his mind. Firstly he had to understand the scope of the distaster that was about to unfold, and for that he had to find out what situation is.
-'Those two looked quite impressive, I need to engage with them more actively next time I see them but I don't know how to actually talk to them and whether it's even safe. The guy seemed to recognize me and didn't seem hostile to me, but I'm not sure if I should be even warier because of that.'
It seemed to be his best bet, and they could possibly enlighten him about what's going on. It's obvious Damu wasn't the best at engaging in talks. But need incurs change. A change was his best shot at getting out of this alive. Obviously it wasn't something that could change overnight, but something to take one step at a time.
Having come to this decision, he was still a bit curious about the statue and the crown on it's head, but he decided for his safety that some things are better left untouched.
*Thud*
Dropping down on his back with a light thud, Damu tied his fingers and put his hands behind his head as he supported one of his foot on his raised knee. His long hair dropping onto his forehead and the ground below.
*Sigh*
-"It's a really outlandish and pretty view. Not sure how many more times I'll be able to witness something like this."
Gazing off into the distance the moonlit canvas with stars smeared across it's expanse, limited between the circular dark fold of water, the sound of water crashing down emptied his head. The wind was non-existent but it was still quite chilly.
Damu eyes slowly rolled back amidst this relaxing scene as his eyelids drew closer. A mild slumber overtook Damu as he was pulled into a hazy dream.