How many days has it been?
Alix was lying in perpetual agony. He could feel the rocks pressing against his bones, the sharper ones cut through his skin and buried themselves into his flesh, and the eternal silence was even more disturbing than his current predicament.
How am I alive? What happened to…the man. And Leesa!
Alix could feel blood dripping from all over his body again, and the hot crimson irritated him as it flowed past his ear.
But then it'd stop, and somehow begin pouring all over again.
What the hell is happening to me!?
His breath became shallow, and it was becoming harder to inhale the limited oxygen that he had. There was nothing else for Alix to do but shut his eyes and go to sleep.
But a sudden panic beat against his heart as he did.
What if I don't wake up?
The thought frightened him immensely, and forced him to stare back out into the void of darkness. At least it was, once.
When Alix opened his eyes again there were three windows staring back at him, illuminating the black void and washing green light across his face.
[TAMER WINDOW]
[Name: Alix Vineyard]
[Status: Alive]
[Tamer-Type: Worms]
[Creatures Tamed: 1]
[Total Evolutions Made: 0]
[PERSONAL WINDOW]
[Name: Alix Vineyard]
[Status: Alive]
[Tier: Slave]
[Class: Fledgling]
[Natural Attributes: Regeneration, Secretion]
[Evolutionary Attributes: None]
[Resets: 0]
[Tamer Soul Fragments Claimed: 0]
[Soul Fragments Claimed: 0]
[Soul Fragments Until Next Personal Evolution: 0/100]
[CREATURE WINDOW]
[Raina]
Evolution Capacity: 3
Evolution Lines: None
Abilities: None
Evolutions made: 0
Soul Fragments Until Next Evolution: 0/50
Description: Raina is nothing but a simple flatworm, bound to crawl under the earth for life. Her tenacity knows no bounds, however.
Woah! Woah! This is unreal. I'm…I'm a tamer!
Alix was puzzled. How had the man passed on his powers so easily to a tamerless slave like him?
Well, tamerless no more!
Alix's eyes darted from the personal window to the creature window. He was ecstatic to see that Raina was still alive and thriving. He had left the flatworm behind and wished her well before he was ordered to work in the mines.
He wondered if he could summon her, the man summoned those giant worms easily enough, and they tore through the entire mine like it was nothing.
Everybody under there is dead…even Leesa
He was glad the slavers were gone, Alix would spit on their corpses if he could. But the slaves, their families, and Leesa…
They were all innocent, but they died all the same.
The thought made him hold some level of hatred towards the strange man.
Tamers are all the same. They carry death wherever they go.
Now looking at the personal window, Alix saw two things that caught his eyes under the natural attributes section.
Secretion and Regeneration… is that why—
The two attributes expanded without warning. Both of them held descriptions that Alix had to read carefully, squinting his eyes. His parents taught him how to read and write, thankfully, but it was still hard making out some words.
[Secretion]
- The tamer is able to secrete a thick layer of mucus from their stomach and their back to travel through narrow cracks and uneven passageways.
[Regeneration]
-So long as the brain isn't destroyed, the tamer's cells aren't completely and utterly expunged, the tamer is able to regenerate and heal at a slow rate.
Secretion would be really useful right now…
Alix could feel something hot and sticky gushing out of his stomach and his back. He looked down and saw green light washing up across a thick layer of mucus. His rags were covered in it too.
Alix then felt that it was easier to move and manoeuvre. Above him, a plethora of rocks were blocking his ascension, but Alix saw a narrow crack that could be slipped through. He slid up and his body squeezed through the crack as if it was nothing but a needle.
It felt like his brain was being squashed and crushed between the rocks, but Alix kept on despite the immense amount of pain.
Alix had stopped moving. No matter how much he forced his body upwards, an absurdly powerful force pulled him back.
He used the green windows to illuminate the world below him.
Crap. My arm
His arm was stuck between two rocks that refused to let go of their feast. Throughout his bizarre journey, Alix had to hold his breath in order to travel through the rubble. The weight of the rocks wouldn't allow for his chest to expand, and his oxygen was running out anyway.
If I get stuck here I'll die. Crap, crap!
Alix pulled and pulled, and his arm screamed out in agony. The painful cry bloomed an idea in Alix's head—squashed head.
He continued moving up despite the pleads his arm made in the form of pain. He could feel it tormenting him, cursing him, all while he grinded his teeth in anger and frustration.
Come off you stupid, stupid arm!
Alix heard something snap, and then a guttural cry of anguish escaped his lungs. The sound of flesh ripping and tearing almost made him retch, and the sight of it would likely force the revolting liquid out of his mouth. The boy had to look away.
A final snap allowed him to swim upwards, as if he was gliding through a clean pool of water.
F-finally!
Alix's relief and silent triumph was slowly swept away, he knew the consequences of tearing off his arm but looking at them was a different story…
There was blood flowing copiously out of the stump, and the limb he lost had been long since left behind. Alix hoped he wouldn't have to leave another, the pain would fare too much for him. He could feel his vision getting blurry, and the corners of his vision were turning black.
Gotta…hurry
After what felt like hours, Alix had finally reached the surface. His head popped up through the rubble, and for a moment he felt like a human-plant that had just bloomed from out of the earth.
After another squeeze, Alix's entire frame had left the pile of rocks. It felt good taking in the air, even with how sweltering it was. The scorching sun felt like a kiss in comparison to the squalid conditions of the mines, and the azure blue sky was a sight for sore eyes.
Now…to leave this terrible place
But where would I go, he thought. He had nobody, no family, nothing. Leesa was a girl he had met on the construction sites just above the mines, and now she was dead, just like his parents. As for his sister, he had no clue where she was.
Wait…where are the construction sites?
Alix had been carrying barrels on that site, too. Along with weapons and artillery. In the distance, he saw a giant banner billowing in the wind. The fabric held the image of two red phoenixes sending up gales of fire on a jet-black field.
The Draconian Empire
Alix recalled how the Draconian Empire had forced slaves to build up additional strongholds on the construction sites in preparation for the great reset.
Their lot were paranoid, he had heard another slave say. They feared the other empires and even the smaller kingdoms of tamers leading incursions into their lands.
The world had known five hundred years of peace, but soon it will know five hundred years of war.
Or remember, Alix thought bitterly. The strange man had talked about how tired he was before he gave up his powers so easily to a weakling like Alix.
Just how long had he been fighting?
The great reset…it sounded like something that had happened in the past. Where emperors, kings, and lords all prepared to fight a war to the death in order to keep their their lands and titles.
Even though he was now a tamer, Alix did not intend to die like one. Some other ruling tamer would try to force him, he knew, but he now had the ability to fight back…somewhat.
Right now he could only survive the impossible like a worm, but strength grows, just like the worms he saw the man use in the mines.
Alix looked down at his missing arm and smiled. A new bone had bloomed out of his stump, and the flesh was growing back all along it, albeit at a slow rate—still growing regardless.
Alix set his sights on the construction site, he was too curious to ignore it and walk away. There were various buildings planted there, they had all taken months to build, and now they were nowhere to be seen. It saddened him deeply.
We worked for nothing
The rubble beneath him were once buildings too, now they were mangled and broken like the slavers below him. That made Alix happy, at least.
He climbed through many mounds made from rock, and almost crashed into many too. His feet were no longer blistered, and the mucus he applied to his feet made his travel smooth and unperilous.
He climbed another rocky-mound, and the site below him made his eyes widen with an unprecedented amount of shock.
Slaves and slavers were dead and rotting, the soil was drinking their blood with glee, and the strongholds had collapsed all around them. Alix squinted his eyes and unraveled a hidden layer of truth. Their bodies were mangled and broken, just like the slavers below him.
The giant worms
The strange man had been here, killing all the slavers and the slaves, too. But why?
Just ahead of the corpses, Alix found something else that had put the fear of the tamers in his heart.
There were men that were armed to teeth, all donning armour inlaid with neillo, and their helmets had been wrought into the likeness of a dragon.
Men from the empire, Alix shuddered. Alix backed away from the edge of the mound and prepared to turn tail and run, but to his relief, none of them had seen him.
Thank goodness
He looked up to the sky and took in a deep breath of solace. But his solace died as quickly as it came.
In the sky, a man was flying idly just above him. Same armour, same helm, and with two dragon-wings jutting out of his back, flapping repeatedly to allow his flight.
He was watching him, Alix realised. He had been watching him for a long time. Alix swallowed hard, and ran. What else was the boy to do?
A worm like him can't beat a dragon tamer.