I Refuse To Be Fate’s Puppet - Chapter 40

Night fell and darkness covered the forest. The most suitable environment for the Sato Clan. The two boys activated their Shadow Awareness and the forest became even more vivid and clear than it was during the day. Arata had been standing there in silence thinking about the images in his head. Although he understood that the Forest Drake’s were just trying to feed their young, but it was still a lot for Arata to process. Conflicted inside, Arata turned to Ryouma.

“Let’s go.”

Ryouma charged a powerful flame on his arm and stuck his fist out towards Arata, who grabbed his fist and absorbed the flames. Arata nodded.

“That should be enough. The timers are all set to activate in 5 minutes. That’s how long we have to ignite them all and get back to the centre.”

Ryouma nodded.

“Yes, Captain.”

The two boys rushed into the forest, heading back to the nest. Under the cover of darkness, they were now practically invisible. With their outfits and their speed, they were barely a shadow to the untrained eye. Even a trained would miss them.

Arata reached his first trap, two Forest Drake’s were sitting comfortably below him. The trap was a small, crystal ball that was hanging on a metal chain. The chain was connected to a box with a timer on it and the box had been clipped onto the branch. He channelled the Fire Energy he got from Ryouma and charged the crystal ball with it.

It glowed softly with a red light. Arata nodded and moved on to the next one. The two boys quickly rushed around, apply Fire Energy to the crystals before meeting up by the inner circle of the nest. They stood by one of the traps that they had set up around the edge of the inner circle. The trap they were at was slightly bigger than the other ones.

The traps around the inner circle were red gems that were attached onto trees. The gems were all placed carefully to create a formation around the nest. The one they were standing by was a slightly larger gem and Ryouma stood there with his hand on it. The two boys nodded at each other before Arata left Ryouma there to wait.

Arata snuck in the darkness, making his way to a safe spot to wait. He closed his eyes and remained completely still. He had been counting in his head this whole time, counting down the time till the traps would go off. After roughly 30 seconds, Arata opened his eyes. The sounds of explosions could be heard, large bursts of flames could be seen throughout the forest. The Forest Drake’s by the nest all looked up in shock, roaring in fright at the sight of all the fire.

They panicked until a loud roar could be heard within the nest. Arata shivered as even he was affected by the roar. The Forest Drake’s had calmed. Another roar sounded out and the Forest Drakes spread out, flying in small groups to the different areas where the fires were. As Arata observed, he saw the Forest Drake’s reach a suitable place. He sent a signal to Ryouma.

Ryouma felt a strong pulse and understood. He poured his Energy into the large gem. All the gems around the nest began to glow brightly. They sensed each others location and connected with each other before bursting into flames. The fire connected with the other fires in the circle creating a large and powerful wall of fire. The Forest Drake’s were moving to quickly to stop that some flew straight into it, roaring in pain as they were set ablaze. The unlucky ones that had passed over the line halfway were cut in half by the wall of flames.

The lucky ones stopped in panic before they flew into the flames. Arata pulled out a gem from his pocket and threw it high into the air. Ryouma felt another pulse and directed his Energy. The gem flying in the air exploded and connected with the wall of flames. The Forest Drake’s now were completely surrounded and also covered by this wall and ceiling of flames.

A Cage of Fire.

The crystals from before had dropped and exploded, killing the Forest Drake’s on the outer circle. The wall of flames was then able to kill a few more Forest Drake’s. Just these two powerful traps were able to dispose of half of the Forest Drake’s. This was all within Arata’s expectations. By reducing their numbers, they could reduce their power as that was where Forest Drake’s got their strength from.

Arata knew that now would be the best time to act, while the Forest Drake’s were in chaos. He moved around the nest, sticking close to the wall. He looked for stragglers, those in panic of the flames around them. He found a Forest Drake roaring at the fire wall, burning Forest Drake’s around him. One of the “lucky one’s”.

Arata used his Shadow Awareness to scan the Forest Dragon’s neck as he moved on the ground. His eyes lit up as he found it. He raised his arm with the strange claw and aimed at the spot he found. He sent Energy into the device and the claw shot off and was sent flying to the Forest Drake’s neck. He pierced the neck and then, once inside, spikes shot out of the claw, damaging the Forest Drake more while also embedding it in the neck.

The Forest Drake tried to screech and roar, but couldn’t. The place the claw had pierced was the Forest Drake’s voice box. Although it didn’t damage the Forest Drake much, it hurt it enough to confuse it as well as take away it’s voice. The Forest Drake then found that the claw had something attached to it.

A long chain connected the claw to Arata. Arata channeled his Energy throughout his body as he gave a large tug at the chain. The Forest Drake was taken by surprised as a sudden pull caused it to lose it’s balance in the air and sending the Forest Drake falling in the direction of the fire wall. The Forest Drake panicked as it tried to regain its balance, but it was too late. The Forest Drake couldn’t screech in pain as it died quietly in the fire.

Sending his Energy through the chain, the spikes in the claw retracted and the chain pulled the claw back to Arata. He sighed quietly at this brutal and underhanded method, but what must be done, must be done.

He ran off in search of another Forest Drake. He found another one and quickly disposed of it in the same way. This time, however, there was another Forest Drake that witnessed him attacking and screeched in response. The other Forest Drake’s turned over at the sound. Arata quickly threw his claw at the Forest Drake. He retracted the claw, sending himself flying towards the Forest Drake. As he hit the Forest Drake, he used Vitality Bestowal to absorb its force as he removed the claw, twisted around, and used the force to push the Forest Drake into the flames.

As the Forest Drake was thrown in the direction of the fire, Arata was thrown towards another oncoming Forest Drake. The Forest Drake opened its mouth to bite Arata. Arata absorbed all the light from the flames into his fist as he activated Righteous Discharge. He smashed into the Forest Drake, sending it flying back down into the ground, landing with a loud thud. Arata was still falling as he sent his claw out to another Forest Drake, pulling himself to it.

As he hit it, he saw two more Forest Drake’s heading over. He maneuvered around the Forest Drake he was on, and pulling on the chain that was still embedded in the Forest Drake, he got the Forest Drake to twist and collide with one of the oncoming Forest Drake’s. He leapt off and jumped on the third Forest Drake. He wrapped the chain around the Forest Drake’s neck before pushing off of its wings.

Arata was now going up from jumping off the neck of the Forest Drake. His chain was now wrapped around two of the Forest Drake’s while still being attached to the other. With them trying to struggle out, they began to have trouble staying in the air as they rapidly flapped their wings.

Arata sent his Energy through the chain and activated Vitality Bestowal. The three Forest Drake’s were stunned before plummeting down towards the ground. As they plummeted down, Arata released the chain as he began falling as well. As he fell, he pulled out a smaller claw, attaching it to the contraption on his wrist. Before he hit the ground, he shot out the claw and hit the large nest. He then retracted the claw and was pulled to it.

The three Forest Drake’s landed hard on the ground, injuring all three of them. Arata knew he wouldn’t need to care about them for the time being as he landed on the side of the nest, holding himself onto the wall with the help of the claw. When he landed he heard a powerful roar come from within.

Arata knew that it was that large Forest Drake in the middle. He was certain that he wouldn’t leave, to protect the young one’s. But the others would be sent out. Since he had killed and/or taken out most of the Forest Drake’s, it would make sense that they Elders would come out now.

And he wasn’t wrong. Three Bronze Ranked Forest Drake’s came out accompanied with one of the Silver Ranked Forest Drake’s. Arata sent a signal to Ryouma. Immediately after, Arata felt the flames go weaker. The Forest Drake’s wouldn’t have noticed this, but it was significant to Arata.

‘I’d say we have 5, maybe 6 minutes before the fire disperses. Let’s make this quick then.’

The Silver Ranked Forest Drake roared as the other three charged at Arata, who was just hanging on the side of their nest. Arata planted his feet on the wall as he leaped off headed towards one of the Forest Drake’s. The Forest Drake opened his mouth and Energy began to build in his mouth. Bronze Ranked Drake’s were able to tap into their Dragon lineage and use Dragon’s Breath. This move was the collection and projection of Energy. Forest Drake’s used Earth and/or Wood Energy in their attacks.

Arata saw that this was a pure Earth Elemental Dragon’s Breath. Before the Forest Drake couldn’t fire it at Arata, Arata’s eyes began to glow as he locked eyes with the Forest Drake. The Forest Drake was shocked to find that he couldn’t release his Energy as it continued to build in his mouth. Arata reached the Forest Drake and kicked the Forest Drake’s heading to the side. As he did, Arata released his Shadow Awareness and the Forest Drake had no choice but to release the charged up Energy as he fired at one of the other Forest Drake’s.

The Forest Drake was hit by the Energy, crashed into the nest hard before plummeting down to the ground. Arata shot his claw into the Forest Drake he had just kicked. It pierced the Forest Drake’s wing, and Arata used it as a swing as he swung under the Forest Drake, the claw ripping through the wing before coming out and sending the Forest Drake unable to sustain flight as Arata was sent towards the other Bronze Ranked Forest Drake.

Seeing Arata flying towards it, the Forest Drake also charged a Dragon’s Breath to fire at Arata. Arata, however, already had anticipated this and threw a crystal at the Forest Drake’s mouth. The same kind of crystal they had set up with the traps earlier. This one also had a red glow to it as well. It clashed with one of the Forest Drake’s fangs and broke. As it did, the Energy inside was released in a powerful explosion of fire, killing the Forest Drake instantly. Arata flew through the flames and pushed off the falling Forest Drake’s body to head towards the Silver Ranked Forest Drake.

The Silver Ranked Forest Drake wasn’t just floating there doing nothing, he had been charging a large powerful Dragon’s Breath. The amount of Energy was much larger than Arata’s whole body was. It was obvious that Arata would not be able to survive if he got hit by it, but he was smiling. The Forest Drake wasn’t the only one charging up Energy. Arata chuckled as he flew.

“Too slow!”

The Forest Drake was surprised by a sudden explosion of flames as he was hit in the face by a giant arrow made of fire. Arata then shot his claw into the Forest Drake’s chest as he lost his momentum and began falling. He managed to pull the injured Forest Drake down with him. The Forest Drake did it’s best to stabilize as it fell. They began to slow their descent and Arata released the claw from the Drake’s chest as he was close enough to the ground to not die.

As he fell, another fire arrow collided with the Forest Drake. The Forest Drake roared as it smashed into the ground. It struggled a little on the ground before dying. Arata looked up and saw Ryouma running over with his red bow in hand.

“I scanned the area, there are no more Forest Drake’s out side of the nest.”

Arata nodded and looked at the nest’s entrance.

“Let’s finish this.”