Alix didn't get far, unfortunately. The silent soldier swooped down from the skies and cut off his escape.
Alix felt his legs wobbling, and his throat becoming dry. The soldier was towering over him, and he could feel his piercing gaze from the two black slits on his helm.
Alix couldn't stop shaking. He collapsed to his knees and put his arms behind his back, not willing to show Vaylor his missing arm. "Oh, God! Please, please. I didn't do anything wrong, sir. Please don't kill me." He pleaded, not daring to look back up into the black voids of his helm.
"Who are you?" The soldier spoke. His voice was low and baritone and was sharp enough to cut through bone. Alix could regrow another one, at least.
"A-Alix," the boy quivered. "My name is Alix Vineyard."
"What zone do you hail from?"
The zones were districts within the Draconian Empire. Alix was forced to move around a lot as a kid, his parents would often be bought off by some other tamer-lord so that they could work on their land, and Alix and his sister were brought along with them.
Within those zones, there were plantations that many slaves were born on. Alix had been conceived for the sole purpose of slave work, and was born on a distant plot of land belonging to a lord.
"The fourth zone, sir. On the Didsbury plantation. I-I'm a slave."
"Your clothes made that plain enough. What is all that gunk on your body?"
"M-mucus," Alix replied.
The soldier paused. Alix could feel him weighing his answer in his mind, and the next words out of his mouth were laced with suspicion.
"Do you know who did this? An investigation is already underway, and you could be the only witness here."
Alix was terrified of lying to the man, but would it really be a lie? He didn't know who the man was, he didn't even know his name. "No." Alix replied.
Alix shuddered under the weight of his piercing gaze, and he braced himself for some act of violence as the soldier opened his mouth to speak. "Tell me. How does a tamerless slave like you manage to survive where many other tamers have died?"
Alix didn't know how to answer that. He couldn't answer that. He feared what the tamer might do if he answered wrongly.
"I'll ask you again," the tamer said, severing the brief moment of silence. "But perhaps there needs to be a little more urgency. Look up, fool."
Alix did as he was told. Without a word, three giant windows appeared in front of the menacing soldier, floating and displaying heart-thundering stats that Alix could only dream of comparing to.
[TAMER WINDOW]
[Name: Vaylor Bloodsworn]
[Status: Alive]
[Tamer-Type: Dragons, Wyverns]
[Creatures Tamed: 67]
[Total Evolutions Made: 43]
[PERSONAL WINDOW]
[Name: Vaylor Bloodsworn]
[Status: Alive]
[Tier: Lord]
[Class: Overlord]
[Natural Attributes: Fire-Breathing, Metallic Scales, Flight, Fire Invulnerability…EXPAND TO SEE MORE]
[Evolutionary Attributes: Flame Malleability, Flame-storms, Flame-binding, Complete Incineration…EXPAND TO SEE MORE]
[Resets: 0]
[Tamer Soul Fragments Claimed: 78,889]
[Soul Fragments Claimed: 88,976,076]
[Soul Fragments Until Next Personal Evolution: 453/250,000,000]
[CREATURE WINDOW]
[Blackwing]
Evolution Capacity: 3
Evolution Lines: 3
Abilities: Red Flames…EXPAND TO SEE MORE
Evolutions made: 3
Soul Fragments Until Next Evolution: N/A
Description: Blackwing is a monstrous beast made of doom and despair, swallowing entire cities with its shadow alone. Those who meet its fangs will have the mercy of never seeing its flames, for the conflagration does not burn, it expunges.
[EXPAND TO SEE MORE TAMED BEASTS…]
"Summon Blackwing," Vaylor hissed.
A gargantuan dragon materialised from nothing but Vaylor's demands. Alix wanted nothing more than to close his eyes, but he wouldn't dare defy the tamer in front of him.
The black dragon glowered at him with blood-red eyes, and its diamond-shaped iris was glinting with malice. A stream of saliva was dripping from its maw, and its razor-sharp teeth were big enough to leave bite marks on a mountain.
Its scales were hard and tough, and as black as night. Each snarl and exhalation it made could blow a man back from the place they stood.
The dragon opened its maw, and spread its coal-black wings as if to accentuate its ferocity. Inside its mouth, a bright red light washed up across Alix's face as the beast crept closer.
Flames. Its…its going to burn me alive
Destroy me, actually, Alix thought—recalling the text from the description.
"Now," Vaylor spoke, "how does a tamerless slave like you manage to survive where many other tamers have died."
"I'm a tamer! I'm a tamer!" Alix blurted out, with tears streaming down his face.
The soldier knelt down and wiped the tears from his face. The cold touch of his gauntlet gave Alix a modicum of comfort.
"You say you're a tamer?" Vaylor scoffed. "Show me your windows."
Truthfully, Alix didn't know how to. He had only closed his eyes before and they appeared. And so, he did just that. He closed his eyes and when he opened them up again, three green screens were now floating above him.
Oh, thank goodness!
"You're a…" Vaylor paused, and then broke off into a fit of laughter. "…a worm tamer!? What on earth!"
The dragon seemed to be sharing its merriment, Alix thought he saw a grin on its ancient face. Vaylor repeated the description and then laughed even harder, it made Alix feel so worthless, but all he could do was hold back more tears.
"A tenacious worm, eh? I suppose the beasts we tame really do suit us!" He roared.
The men on the construction site had heard his laughter, and called out to him from below. Vaylor ignored them, however, and took the moment to relish in his amusement.
He removed his helmet, threw it away, and then wiped the tears of laughter from his face. Alix had to wipe his own tears to see him clearly. His grey hair was kissed by moonlight, and there were streaks of red that adorned it.
His face was young, handsome, and pristine, accompanied by a jawline that was sharp enough to cut bone. His crimson, monolid eyes could put a blood-moon to shame, and his thin lips were curved up in a mocking smile.
"Oh, that was a good laugh. Say, Alix," Vaylor said, huffing away the remnants of his mirth, "when you showed me your windows, I believe I saw an attribute that could explain why you're even still breathing. Regeneration, was it?"
Alix quickly showed him his missing arm which was still healing and growing back over the new bone.
"Ah, and you paired that with your secretion attribute. It's all coming together now." Vaylor said, and Blackwing snarled as if he had come to the same realisation.
"Yes, it's all coming together indeed. You're a trainee tamer who has ran away from his duties, masked himself by playing the role of a slave, and tried to flee from the upcoming war. Am I right?"
No, Alix thought, but he didn't have the guts to tell him. He had already lied to him once, he didn't want to make it seem like he was lying again, he simply nodded.
"Good. Telling the truth is good, Alix. It will get you far. You, on the other hand, won't be going anywhere, unfortunately."
Alix didn't know what he meant, but Vaylor filled in the blanks quickly.
"I'm sure you know what we do to runaway tamers, no? There'll be a beast and a tamer waiting for you when they put you on trial for desertion. It's such a waste, honestly. But I don't expect a worm tamer to be valuable."
Alix felt his heart sink to his guts. He hadn't even spent a day with his new powers, and now he was about to be sentenced to death. His fate was sealed, and there was nothing he could do…but run.
Alix got up and sprinted past Vaylor with his heart now in his throat, he didn't dare look back, he knew that Vaylor would be chasing him, but seeing it was a much different, frightful story.
Alix could hear the man laughing behind him, and the dragon was still snarling beside him. The laughter was behind him, and then it was above him, and much to his horror, it moved to the direction ahead of him.
Vaylor swooped down from the skies once more, and then soared through the air to crash into him. He balled up a fist made of steel, and then clobbered Alix right in the face.
His vision became blurry, and Alix could feel a stream of crimson flowing past his nose and pooling just beside his cheek. And then the world became as black as the soldiers dragon.