Hello again, beloved readers. I've returned. I do apologize for not posting anything for over a month. I originally planned to post the latest free release last week on June 1st, but I got sick and was out of commission for awhile, plus I wanted to complete a few more chapters before posting.
I've decided to resolve myself to make only 1 free post per month. At the time of this chapter release, I've written 2 chapters and posted them on my Patreon. So the gap between the free and paid version is now 8 chapters behind instead of 7. I've also started working on a One Piece fanfic project and released 3 chapters on my Patreon. So, check it out if you are a fan of One PIece and like my writing.
patreon.com/TheWorldForger
Chapter 20
A Promise Between a Former and Future Hero
The white flames in the sky that burned the Dragon went out, taking the monstrosity with it. Snow like ash fell to the earth as its magic stone that was the dragon's core crumbled. Part of the cost of the Assimilation Knife was the total degradation of the monster's magic stone. Not that it mattered to Kuda, although it was a costly waste. The magic stone of a monster like that would have been worth at least a million.
His Blaze magic deactivated, the flames produced from his body going out, and he descended to the earth like a falling stone and landed inside the village on his feet with the grace one would expect from someone of his caliber.
For a moment, everything was ghostly silent. The next moment, every villager cheered at the top of their lungs.
"T-That was incredible!"
"He saved our lives!"
"Who is this man!?"
"He's the adventurer, Kuda Zeldon!"
"Amazing! He's amazing!"
"Kuda-san!" In the midst of the villager's cheers, Nim and Phina embraced him on either side.
"You heard our screams!" Nim said excitedly.
"You really do care!" Phina said emotionally.
'Oh, please. I would have come regardless of your cries. You two just did it to be dramatic,' Kuda thought tiredly. He stood stiffly in between the elf and chienthrope's hug. 'Get off me…'
"That was well done, sir," Eddie said as he walked towards him.
"You alright?" Sabrina asked with concern. At the mention of his condition, Nim and Phina let go. They looked up at him with genuine concern. "Was that too much?"
"I'm alright," he said. "Eddie, Sabrina, sorry for the trouble. You, too, dummy duo."
"Hey!" The dummy duo shouted, incredulously.
"It's not a problem, boss," Eddie said.
"Yeah," Sabrina nodded. "Especially, since you did all the work."
"I'm sure you two would have been okay if I hadn't come on time."
"Maybe. Glad we didn't have to, though."
That earned a laugh from them all, but then Kuda's laugh turned to wheezing coughs and their expressions strained. The villagers stopped their cheers at the sight of their hero coughing like a asthmatic.
"Is he alright?" Sapphire asked, running to them.
"I'm fine," Kuda responded when no one else answered. "I just need to go rest."
"Oh… really," she said, concerned. She had some bad experiences dealing with his kind. Them being easily fatigued was not one of them. "I see."
"Kuda-san!" Bell ran to them along with Clarabeth.
"Bell," he said sternly. "You aren't supposed to be here. Or you, either, young lady."
"I…"
"It was my fault," Clarabeth interjected. "I figured it wouldn't really matter if we were outside or not."
"Perhaps," he said, understanding the logic. "Even so, you shouldn't be reckless. There are people who would cry if you disappeared, you know?"
Both Bell and Calrabeth looked down, ashamed. When he said it like that, they understood how selfish leaving without saying anything was.
"Wow, look at him acting like a dad," Nim teased.
"Pretty hypocritical, considering half the stuff we heard he did as a kid," Phina joked.
"Eddie. Sabrina. Please, hit them."
They obeyed, each of them smacking one of the girls' heads mercilessly.
"Ow!"
"Hey, I'm gonna head over to the barn," Kuda said. "Can the rest of you manage on your own?"
"Of course," Eddie and Sabrina said.
"Good, Thank you," he said, walking away. The villagers still looked at him somewhat concerned. He didn't enjoy that, so he worked the crowd in the same way his late captain liked to do. He unsheathed his broadsword and pumped it up in the air. "We did it!"
"YEAAAAHHH!" The whole of Noda Village boomed with cheers as Kuda walked past the crowd as people made a path for him instinctively.
"Typical," Alystar scoffed. "We do all the heavy lifting and Kuda gets the glory."
"Well, it is Kuda, you know?" Kyra shrugged. They were just outside the village. The two of them had rushed in pursuit of the Dragon, but when it was clear that Kuda would reach it first, they knew things would be okay. "Look at him. He's trying to act like Max."
"Seems to be working."
"Bless small village values."
"...Seems he pushed himself too hard again," Alystar said, his eyes narrowing as Kuda walked heavily.
"Well, that's also Kuda for you," she said somberly. "What can you do? If it was us, we would win, but maybe not before that thing did serious damage. Kuda was the best person for the job."
"Yeah…"
They took notice of several people following after him, Bell included. They moved to meet them also. With their speed and quiet movements, none of the villagers, who were still cheering, noticed them move past them, except for Eddie and Sabrina, who recognized the distinctive breeze that was produced by them.
Kuda found every step laborious. His breaths sounded louder. His heart pounded faster by the minute. He had hit his limit,
'Darn, not gonna make it to the barn, am I?' He lamented. He noticed he was by Bell and the Old Man's house, so he decided to go there. The surrounding area was empty as everyone had run to the front of the village entrance to cheer for him after killing Insley. He had entered through the fence, then walked to the door, then decided to just rest his back on the front door and slumped down. 'Yup, can't even open the door now.'
"Kuda-san!" Bell had run to him as he sat exhausted in the front of the house he had lived in with his grandfather. Nim, Phina, Sapphire, and also Clarabeth stood outside the house, looking with concern over him. He had been so tired, he hadn't even noticed them following him. "...Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, Bell," Kuda said, between breaths. Despite his condition, he smiled strongly at everyone. "Just a bit of asthma. Gee, guys, why do you all look like I'm dying?"
"Asthma?" Sapphire whispered. "How can someone like him have that?"
"The 3 Quests took a lot from us," Kyra said from behind them, making the girls jump. She and Alystar had come up behind them without any of them noticing. "The Behemoth, the Leviathan, and of course the One Eyed Black Dragon. All three of those calamities proved to be as horrific as the legends claimed. More, I'd say. The terrible poison of Behemoth, The wild seas of the Leviathan, and of course the devastating winds of the Dragon. They all took away beloved friends and allies of ours, and left those of us who survived with scars and injuries that will never fully heal. Kuda got it the worst of all."
In the battles 11 years ago. He endured endless barrages of the Behemoth's poisons to burn a path for the ones tasked with delivering the killing blow. Against the Leviathan, he went inhumanly long without oxygen to help force it above sea level. And then against the One Eyed Black Dragon… It was lucky he survived such an ordeal.
"All that left him with breathing problems," Alystar said. "He can still fight for a short period of time. About 15 minutes, give or take."
Kuda was a Level 7. For 15 minutes, he was among the strongest. Afterwards, he was as helpless as anyone else. With such a severe time limit, it was obvious there was no returning to the Dungeon. Or fighting the Dragon again.
"I guess you could say even that is a blessing…"
"There is no treatment…?" Orario had some of the best healers and doctors in the world. Surely, if there was a treatment for him, they could perform one.
"No," Kyra said with finality. "This is a result of a complete devastation of his respiratory system. You can't heal something like that with magic."
In other words, he was stuck this way for the rest of his life.
"...Why?" Sapphire asked, choking the words out. "Why fight, if that's the case? If it reduces him to this in the end, why fight at all?"
"Because he's Kuda-san." Nim and Phina said together.
"Even if he can no longer fight at 100 percent," Nim said. "What he does have is far more than other people's best efforts."
"He decided after the failure to defeat the Black Dragon that he couldn't save the world," Phina said. "He'd still protect people."
"That's…" Sapphire had no words.
"Nuts? Crazy? Insane?" Kyra suggested. "We have said those sorts of things and then some to him a thousand times before, but he won't stop. Not until he can't fight anymore. There's no denying that despite his condition, he can still protect countless people. Like today. That's why we follow him, even after our familia's destruction. To lessen his burden."
'Also…' Alystar thought, staring at Kuda and Bell. 'His significance is more than just his fighting strength. He's also someone who can light fires in others more so than anyone else.'
"They know I can hear them, can't they?" Kuda said, still breathing hard. "Honestly, they are far too talkative. I'm fine. So, stop looking at me like that, Bell."
"But Kuda-san…" Bell was unsure what to say. Or rather, he was struggling to say it. "...Why fight so hard, if it does this to you?"
"...If you ask Kyra, it's because I have a savior complex."
"Savior complex…?"
"It means I save people at the neglect of my personal wellbeing."
"Oh… is she right?"
"She usually is. Although, she can also be a bit self centered."
"Says you!" Kyra shouted.
"But honestly, I just know that I'm not easily replaced. As arrogant as it may sound, there are few who can fight at my level. So, I fight as hard as I can for as long as I can, short as that may be."
"I see… I think that's amazing." Bell honestly thought that. But someday, he hoped that Kuda could be replaced.
"Bell… what do you want to be?"
"Huh?"
"When you grow up, what is it you desire to become?"
He hesitated. "An adventurer… I guess."
"Liar."
Bell groaned, as he felt this man he barely knew could see right through him. He felt pressure from Kuda even though he wasn't trying to. With a sigh, he answered him truthfully.
"A hero. I want to be a hero like the ones in the epics my grandfather read to me."
Kuda nodded. "Okay. I'll help you out. All of us will. We'll teach you what you know to prepare for the day when you can become a hero."
Bell's eyes widened. He could not believe what was being offered to him. "Why me? There must be people far more worthy of learning from you than me."
"It's just a hunch I have about you. I feel that someday, maybe, you can become someone significant to the world."
"That's impossible." It was utterly impossible that a timid crybaby like him could ever become someone like that.
"Perhaps, but maybe it's worth trying. At the very least, you want to become strong yourself, don't you?"
"…!"
"I've always thought being saved is the worst feeling ever, tied with being powerless to save who you want. If you just want to become strong enough to protect those important to you, then I'm game. What do you say?"
Kuda's words felt heavy to Bell. He said them lightly, through labored breaths, yet when they were from a person of his stature, they felt heavy like a super heavy object. He had expectations for him. He feared he couldn't live up to his expectations. He said all of them, too. Mean Alystar and Kyra, along with that beautiful elf, that exotic amazon, and that strong looking dwarf as well? The expectations of all of them felt too much for him.
He was an honest kid. He thought he should say no and someone else should learn from them. Someone more worthy.
His grandfather's face flashed in his mind. His grandfather was a confident, brave man (he hit on many women). If he was here right now, Bell knew exactly what he would say.
"If you're fine with me."
Thus began the prologue of Bell Cranel's epic.
"Hm?" Bell noticed something. "Kuda-san, we're your eyes always that color."
At that Kuda, Alystar, Kyra, and Nim and Phina's eyes widened, as if caught in a lie. Kuda's eyes up to this point were dark, but now they were red like the boy in front of him.
Kuda was wearing dark colored contacts, like Kyra dyed her white hair pitch black. It was important to know that Kuda's magic, Blaze, was a flame that burned everything, including what he was wearing. The first time he used his magic in the Dungeon he was left completely naked, his clothes, armor, and equipment all burned to ashes. It wasn't a memory he wanted to relive, so he acquired special fireproof clothing that could withstand his flames. Unfortunately, his contacts were not made of the same material, something he forgot to consider, so they melted when he cast Blaze.
"Umm… about that…"
Done. Not much to say here I think. Kuda has a time limit for fighting. I felt I needed to give him some sort of handicap. Having 5 Level 6s on top of a small army of Level 4s would be a bit too overpowered if the head Level 7 was in perfect health.
If you want to continue the ride, then you can on my patreon.com/TheWorldForger. You can expect the next free release on July 1st.
I hope to see you all next time as we adventure together with Kuda Zeldon and the other Zeus Remnants.