Narrator pov:
The Lionheart family was one of the 4 pillar families under the Dragonheart royal family, they were the biggest family in the empire and had the most members.
The rest of the families, including the royal family, all had some sort of specialty or something unique about them that empowered them and allowed them to reach their heights. This was not the case for the Lionheart family, the whole family was a jack of all trades master of none.
The family reached its heights thanks to its large number of members, who were spread out in every field. They were integrated into the majority important roles such as scholars, researchers, civil workers and they even made up a massive portion of the empire's army.
The members of the family were not the best of their respected careers, but because they had a natural inclination to be decent at most things and able to handle almost any situation thanks to a diverse skill set, they were most likely to be chosen as leaders in their fields.
They were the biggest supporting pillar that held up the empire, that's why their treason and revolution dealt a massive blow to the empire and the only reason the revolution had hope that they could overthrow the current Royal family.
The Lionhearts served directly under the royal family and were the emperor's most trusted subjects. But, they did not exist for the royal family, the rules of the family dictated that they are obligated to serve the common people. And since they were closest to the royal family, they noticed the shifting of the nature of the royal family from a benevolent one into a tyrannical one first, and thus were the first to rebel.
Arius Lionheart is the current lord of the house, he was forced to take up the role of patriarch at the age of 19 after his father passed away at the beginning of the revolution. At this current moment he is 28, yet thanks to the horrors of war he matured into a leader at an accelerated rate.
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Arius Lionheart pov:
I tried my best to twist my thoughts, if I doubt myself and already consider myself defeated my aura will turn on me, weakening me and forcing me to actually be defeated.
A soul is a reflection of a person's mind and experiences, its shape, size, colour and whole existence is dependent on what a person has gone through and their mindset. Aura is the manifestation of the soul, it is the will of a person. Aura allows people to impose their will on the world, bending it to their desires.
Manifesting aura is an arduous process that is unattainable by most people. Only those who have gone through an immeasurable amount of experiences and trials are able to grow their souls enough for them to manifest their aura and impose their will.
Those who manifest aura go beyond the realm of superhuman, they cannot even be considered human. How could a human alter the laws of the world through their thoughts alone?
That's why if I believed that I'd lose then it would be inevitable. I had to win and I needed to have the mindset necessary for it. Instead of my doubt I focused on my hate, on how much I wanted to rip the person in front of me limb from limb.
All I thought of was how I would kill that bastard and avenge my loyal subject that sacrificed herself for me along with the hundreds he and his dragon terrorized and reduced to dust on the battlefield, not even leaving behind a corpse to bring comfort to their families.
With my newly invigorated thoughts, my mane of golden flames erupted once more, burning more fiercely and raging wilder and stronger than the flames of the dragon. I had once more illuminated the dark sky.
I jumped off the wyvern and dived head first towards the platform of the dragon's back, unsheathing the long sword that the female knight gave me before her death.
I condensed my flames and dimed them as I kept falling. The Scarlet knight brought his shield up and prepared to engage me in combat.
Unfortunately for him, I wasn't planning on fighting cleanly. Right before I got close enough to swing my sword at him I released the flames I was holding back, creating a makeshift explosion.
The expanding flames emitted a bright light and pushed him backward, breaking his stance. I took advantage of the situation and used up all my built up momentum and swung the long sword with both hands at him.
Using his ungodly abilities he predicted my attack and had already brought up his shield to meet my blade. He deflected it and pushed it to the side, leaving my right side defenceless.
Before he began to swing the blade in his right hand I shifted my body and whatever momentum that was left from my fall and the clash, to crash into him shoulder first.
This pushed him back a few steps and allowed me to get myself out of that defenceless situation. Using what little time my reckless action bought me, I steeled myself and held my blade up, holding a defensive stance.
My right arm pulsed with pain, first the arrow that crashed into it and now I had used that same arm to perform the shoulder charge. Sadly I didn't have time to dwell on the pain.
"That was an extremely ballsy move you did right there. If i had been slightly faster, your head would have been rolling through the air tumbling towards the ground and eventually reduced to mush" The scarlet knight said, his voice monotone.
"You got really lucky, please don't act that recklessly again. It would be really disheartening if you die too quickly, I hope that you can entertain for a little bit at least," his voice held barely any noticeable emotion.
It was as if he was a kid that had come across a toy randomly, trying it out for the first time, figuring out what it could do. There was a hint of curiosity in there but it was overshadowed by his boredom.
He was bored, he had taken hundreds if not thousands of lives without bating an eye, yet all he felt was boredom. My desperate stand against him was reduced to nothing other than a play session.
He took no pleasure in massacring, all the lives he had taken, lives lost while fighting him. They meant nothing to him, they were reduced to mere ants for him to step on during a walk.
My hatred for him grew more and more. I was going to kill this man even if I had to pull his beating heart out of his chest with my teeth alone.
I am going to crush him under the weight of all the lives that he took, all the lives that are meaningless to him. I will force him to acknowledge their deaths, and then I'll snuff out his life like he did theirs
"Don't you think you are overreacting? This much hate for a person you just met? I don't think I have ever done anything to you." he said as he lowered his center of gravity.
"So tell me, why is it that your eyes are filled with so much hate when you look at me?" He asked before he dashed straight at me.
I was able to see his movements and I reacted to them. He brought his blade up and aimed a jab at my right arm, having seen through my vulnerabilities. I brought my long sword up and met his blade guiding it off course.
I pushed my blade forward and stabbed at his chest. In response he took a step back and dogged my blade. An explosive step closed the distance between us and I recovered my stance and delivered a downward slash the moment I stepped into range.
He brought up his shield quickly and smashed its side into my blade. It dug slightly into the shield and when he moved his arm my blade got caught in his shield. He moved his shield to his side and dismantled my defence.
"You are too predictable. What's the point of all that anger if you don't even know how to wield it?" he said with a hint of disdain in his voice.
He pushed his blade forward, and it moved with precision towards my sternum. I let go of my blade with my left hand and brought my hand to meet his sword.
I grabbed on to the side of the blade with all my might as it dug in the flesh of my hand, I forcefully directed his sword and arm to the side. After that I relaxed my grip on the blade of the sword and grabbed on to his wrist instead as fast as I could.
He had managed to restrain my right arm and blade with his shield and I had restrained his right arm by grabbing his wrist.
We were brought face to face and we pushed each other's limbs to the side, we were so close that our breaths could touch. As I glared at him I could make out his eyes underneath his helmet, his eyes seemingly bored and unexpressive.
As I glared into his grey eyes, I felt a hate so raw and pontent that it made me question all my previous emotions. All of my previous expressions of emotions paled in comparison to the magnitude of what was flowing through me right now.
I felt my consciousness stir and swirl, I was caught in a typhoon of my own uncontrollable and unexplainable emotions.
"There you go again, letting yourself be overtaken by your own anger. It's honestly pathetic, the almighty general of the revolution is being reduced to a mere mutt at the mere presence of his enemies" he said as he brought his face closer to mine
I didn't reply and it wasn't that I didn't want to but that I was unable to. I was too volatile to even say a single word, at this very moment the only thing that would escape my mouth would be nothing but the growls of a rabid dog.
"You are supposed to be a lionheart? You are no lion, you are but a mere house cat that bit the hand of its owner, and here you are pretending to be some sort of leader. You are no king, you are nothing but a stray now." He said, inching his head ever closer.
"All of your anger, pain, efforts, all the blood you shed, all the people that you sacrificed, its all going to amount to nothing. You will amount to nothing, reduced to a short passage in a history book, and even that book will eventually be forgotten." He said, his voice lowering slightly
"Strays that are problematic should be put down, and that's what I am going to do" He said, placing his helmet against my forehead.
"So could you be a good kitty and entertain your owner before he puts you down for good?" He said practically whispering in my ear.
"AAAAAAH!!!" I let out a scream from the depths of my soul. I was too emotionally unstable to not fall for his provocations.
All I wanted to do was place my entire boot right where his teeth are. I wanted to carve a cavity in his face, I wanted his teeth shattered, evicted from their sockets. I need to feel his mouth wrapped around my boot, to have it take up permanent residency in the ruins of his shattered jaw.
I wanted nothing more than to feel his squirming broken body under the heel of my boot. To feel his life fade as his broken air pipe struggles to keep him alive. Nothing other than him drowning in his own blood, gurgling and whimpering as he gasps for air would satiate me
My continuous screaming came to an abrupt end when he became irritated enough by me screaming into his ear. "WOULD YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP!!" He shouted back, showing emotion for the first time in our fight.
He then smashed his helmet into my face as hard as he could, the sudden impact made me lose focus briefly. At that moment he released my right hand and clocked me straight in the jaw with his shield.
After the scuffle we created distance and eyed each other from just out of range of each other. At that moment I found hope, this was a battle that I could win.
From his left shoulder there was a small stream of blood leaking through. His shoulders were practically un armoured to allow him higher mobility; this would be his downfall.
Right as he had bashed me in the face, I had reflexively swung my blade with one hand toward an apparent weak spot.
He took a second to observe his wound and said "Now that was unexpected, aren't you being a good kitty?" There was a hint of joy in his voice.
It didn't matter what he said; blood was pounding through my skull, my senses were overwhelmed and foggy, yet my mind was clear. I could see the faint glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.
If he can be made to bleed, he can be killed.