Chapter 111 (Interlude 14) - Dreadborne Harbinger

The air practically burned around her, each breath scorched by the searing heat radiating from the Blaze Lion. Hatsune could feel the sweat gathering beneath her armor. Her muscles ached, and the edges of her vision blurred—but she didn’t falter. She couldn’t. Klarion was fighting his own battle, and she would not let him be the one protecting her. Not this time. Not ever again, if she could help it. She had to show him—and herself—that she was strong enough to stand at his side. Even if it meant facing the second Blaze Lion alone.

The monstrous beast snarled, its eyes like molten coals locked on her as it pawed the ground. Fire danced along its shoulders, rising in snapping waves from its mane. Its last roar had deafened the night, and its body tensed to leap.

But Hatsune moved before it could charge.

She darted sideways, a blur of silver and gray. Her long ears streamed behind her, such was the speed she was moving. She twisted her body low as flames descended toward her as the monster’s paw lashed out. The edge of the heat licked at her armor, but she was already past it. She leaped high, blade flashing as she slashed downward across the beast’s shoulder.

The Blaze Lion howled in rage, wheeling with terrifying speed—but she was already crouched and gone again, sliding beneath a sweeping claw that would have bisected lesser warriors without her training. Her boots danced across the ground as she pushed off and spun around its flank. Her focus was sharp and cold beneath the adrenaline, but she fought to keep her breathing steady.

From the corner of her eye, she caught a flicker of movement—Klarion, just reaching the edge of the field, his black and crimson silhouette wreathed in dying firelight. Her heart stuttered.

No. She couldn’t let him interfere.

“I’ve got this!” she called, her voice cracking with effort, her focus on the Blaze Lion and not on Klarion’s reaction. “Trust me!” She didn’t wait to see if he stopped. She trusted that he would. Trusted that he trusted her.

The Blaze Lion lunged, fire practically spitting from its maw. She pivoted, letting the flaming jaws snap shut just past her. Heat bathed her side, but she grit her teeth and pushed through the pain.

The beast roared, turning to chase her again. Its movements were faster than she expected, its claws digging trenches in the scorched dirt. But she was faster still. She stepped just outside its reach, dragging her blade across its side again. Part of her wished that she could simply overpower the creature, but she knew that would never be her strength. Her training had been geared toward precision and, when necessary, patience. So that was her plan. She would slice it to ribbons, one careful strike at a time. Wear it down. Bleed it out.

Her blade whispered through fur and flesh, scoring lines along its legs, its back, and its exposed neck when it lowered its head in frustration. Every strike cost her something—each dodge, each leap—her energy waned with every pass. But she could see it faltering too. Wounded. Slower. Angrier. Unfocused.

Perfect.

The Blaze Lion lunged wildly now, roaring with desperate fire. But she stayed calm, letting her instincts take over. Her feet flowed across the earth, each movement calculated. Beautiful. Deadly.

She danced around the beast, and with every step, she focused on her goal to kill the creature, to prove she could to herself and to him.

When the lion reared back for a final charge, its body streaked with blood, she struck. Her blade carved across its flank as she spun around it, then leaped high. It twisted, jaws opening, but she flipped midair, blade poised downward, and brought the full weight of her body into the strike. Her longsword bit deep into its back, right along the spine. The Blaze Lion bucked, shrieking, flames bright within its maw—but she held on. As she slid down its back, she twisted the blade free and dropped low into a crouch. In the same breath, she kicked out with a sweep of her powerful legs, knocking the monster’s weakened front limb from under it as it was distracted by the agony of her most recent blow.

The Blaze Lion crashed to the ground, a cry of pain breaking into a hacking rasp. It tried to rise, but its paw gave way.

Hatsune didn’t waste the opportunity and was already moving around to its side. Her blade flicked outward, slicing through the thick tendons just above the knee. Then again across its other forelimb. It collapsed further, its breathing ragged.

Hatsune stood over the creature, staring into its dying eyes. Its fire still sputtered, defiant even in defeat.

With a final surge, she drove her blade down—right into its chest, through fur and flesh and burning heat, until it reached the heart. The Blaze Lion twitched once. Then again. The heat given off by the monster fell and then disappeared as its fire guttered out.

Hatsune pulled her sword free and stumbled back, her chest heaving. Every muscle burned, but she kept her eyes on the fallen Blaze Lion, waiting… just in case.

But it did not move again.

A flicker of motion across vision showed she had gained at least one level. She minimized it by habit, resolving to deal with it later.

Behind her, she heard a footfall. She turned, and there was Klarion.

He stood still, greatsword lowered, his expression unreadable. His armor was singed, his face streaked with soot—but his eyes were locked on her, wide with something that looked like surprise. Perhaps even pride.

Klarion staggered then, a pained groan slipping from his lips as he shifted his weight, the toll the battle had taken on him showing in the rawness of his voice. Her instincts kicked in, and she was there in an instant, her arms reaching out, steadying his bulky frame against hers.

“You’re hurt,” she said, concerned.

Klarion’s tired chuckle made her heart tighten. “I noticed,” he muttered, the humor failing to mask the exhaustion he carried. “Armor’s held up, but it was like wearing an oven for a bit. And I won’t mind not dealing with monsters that have claws for a while.”

Despite herself, a faint smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. He was trying to deflect the pain with humor, and part of her wanted to play along, to pretend that everything was fine. But she couldn’t. Not when she could see how he was hurting.

She guided him back towards the barn and to a patch of grass untouched by the fighting. The coolness of it contrasted sharply with the lingering heat of battle that clung to their skin.

“Sit down,” she all but ordered, not thinking about her tone. "Let me look you over.”

Klarion sat without a complaint, and she knelt to inspect him for injuries, but for all that she was focused on looking him over, her thoughts turned reflective as the adrenaline started to fade away. The second Blaze Lion had been hers alone, and she was glad that he had trusted her to handle the monster herself. Hatsune was happy that she had been able to kill it, and she now knew that she would be able to stand alone, blade in hand, and face whatever threats came after Klarion. She would just need to make sure that she continued training and gaining levels to win.

Klarion’s voice broke through her thoughts. “I just unlocked the Essence of Fire,” he said, almost to himself.

Hatsune looked up at him, startled. "Wait—really?" She had known that it had been Klarion’s goal to unlock that Essence, and that fighting the Blaze Lion was hopefully going to help, but it still surprised her that it actually happened. But then again, perhaps it shouldn’t have. The other scions had shared several conversations over time about how this pocket plane was special in some ways related to the unlocking of Essences.

Klarion nodded, the tone of his voice reflecting that he was a little surprised as well. “In the middle of the fight. The heat of the Blaze Lion was a lot easier to deal with after that.”

“I’m glad it happened like you’d hoped,” she said, returning her attention to looking him over for injuries. What few she was seeing were already in the process of healing, which made sense given the trait he had earned in the Dungeon back on the Academy’s campus. “You’ve been pushing yourself so hard. Trying to be ready for whatever’s coming.”

Klarion exhaled, leaning back against the barn as Hatsune finished checking him. “Yeah,” he murmured. “I have been. Still feels like I should be doing more, though.”

Hatsune wanted to say more. She wanted to tell him how proud she was that he had unlocked his first Essence. More, she wanted to say how much it mattered to her that she could fight beside him. But those words tangled with things—with feelings—she could not talk about until after they forged their swords. As much as she wanted it to be the case otherwise, the rules of her people’s culture, and her family’s expectations, were crystal clear. So instead, she patted his armored thigh lightly.

“All done looking you over. I think you’ll live.”

“Thanks to you,” he said, offering a crooked grin. The look on his face shifted then, becoming a bit more serious as she sat up to lean against the side of the barn, next to him. “You know, you didn’t have to fight that Blaze Lion alone, right?”

While Hatsune knew that Klarion was looking at her as he said those words, she kept her attention on the farmer’s house across from them. The words she wanted to say twisted and swirled within her chest, but rather than letting them burst forth all at once, she took a moment to make sure she knew exactly how she wanted to say it. It was important she get it right.

“I did though,” she said slowly. “Just like I needed to give you space and trust to face yours without distractions, I needed to face the second Blaze Lion in the same way. I needed to face it alone because I needed to prove to myself that I could do it.”

She could feel his gaze on her now, more intense than before. She didn’t need to look at him to know he was studying her profile, trying to understand. She could feel the weight of his attention, like a slow burn creeping through her veins. His presence was always there, unwavering, like the ground beneath her feet.

“You proved it,” he said softly, the words almost a whisper.

Hatsune didn’t respond immediately. She couldn’t. His words wrapped themselves around her chest, tight and unyielding, but there was something in them—something soft, almost tender. She fought the flicker of a smile, the soft tug at her heart that she couldn’t give in to. Not yet at least. There was still too many things they had to do before she could take that step. But still, a slight blush came to her face for a moment before she fought to push those thoughts down, hoping he hadn’t noticed.

“I’m serious,” he added, a trace of what she could now tell was pride in his voice. Pride in her. “You didn’t just hold it off until I could help. You killed it. That wasn’t luck. That was skill. Will.”

Hatsune shook her head. “Yes, but I still think I was slightly too sloppy with my strikes. Next time I will need to do better.”

“You fought a Blaze Lion by yourself. Don’t insult yourself trying to be perfect. You did well, and I liked watching you fight, though I would have preferred to help.”

A lump formed in her throat at his words, and she had to fight the urge to look at him. But she couldn’t help it. Her gaze slid over to him, her eyes searching his face. His red-gold eyes were fixed on her, and the look he was giving her reflected the feelings she felt within herself. This was what she had come to want more and more since she had been spending time with Klarion. To stand beside him. To fight with him. And one day, they would forge their swords together, the first step on a path that, if her family approved, would see their fates forever intertwined. The thought made her heart race once again and she allowed herself to believe in the possibility of it. Of them.

But before she could let herself drift too far into that thought, a sharp voice interrupted her reverie.

“Oi!” The voice rang out from the direction of the farmhouse, rough and panicked. “What’s going on out here?”

Hatsune’s head snapped back to the farmer’s house, and she lurched to her feet instinctively moving into a defensive stance, her hand reaching for her blade before realizing there wasn’t any threat. Her eyes narrowed as she saw Farmer Donovan rushing toward them, pitchfork in hand, his face red with exertion. The farmer cast a long shadow across the dirt, and she could see the worry in his eyes as he took in the scene of the two dead Blaze Lions.

She straightened, her shoulders stiffening as Klarion moved to stand beside her. The moment between her and Klarion, the one she had been savoring, slipped away.

But if everything happened like she hoped it would, she would share the same — and more — with Klarion soon enough.