TAHAROS
Years passed since that fateful day, and the Slayer led the cyclopes into countless victories. The Slayer had a son with a beautiful Cyclops woman, but the woman had died in childbirth. Taking his son in on his own, Taharos protected the young boy. Yet, as Taharos was needed more by the ranks of cyclopes, he left his son Drosk in the care of Sahngar.
One day, Drosk asked his father to get the same blood runes as he had.
Taharos was reluctant, knowing the pain his son would have to go through to acquire them, but Drosk was persistent.
Taharos agreed to help his son, and told him everything that the elder cyclops once told him.
Preparing the area and draining the blood of a dragon into a large cauldron, Taharos instructed his son on what to do next before Drosk sank into the dragon blood.
It was only moments later that Drosk threw himself out of the dragon blood. The cauldron came crashing down, with Drosk in it. As Drosk choked up dragon blood and his eye and nose were blooshot and running, Taharos knelt down to help his son.
Staring at his son’s face and arms, he saw incomplete Blood Runes running along Drosk’s skin.
Lying to protect him, Taharos told Drosk that it was all over, and that he was okay.
Drosk stared at his arm and reached for the flame. His flesh wasn’t burned by the flame, and Taharos stepped back, shocked. Perhaps even the little time Drosk spent within the blood had done enough to make him fireproof after all. Yet, he couldn’t be as strong as Taharos was. At least, not yet. So, Taharos congratulated his son, and asked Sahngar to watch over him later on when the Slayer was needed again.
The Slayer was called to fight, and as he fought on that day, tragedy struck. Dragons attacked Sahngar, burning his shield and destroying his warhammer. They cut and struck the cyclops general, but Drosk struck the dragons and killed all but one of them. Stepping through the fire, Drosk was unphased. It was in that moment that the last dragon stared at Drosk with eerie recollection.
The dragon smiled and tilted its head.
“Hello, son of the Demon… I’ve been looking for you.”
Charging into Drosk, the horned dragon struck at him, but Drosk defended himself, punching the dragon in the face. Roaring in anger, the dragon clawed at Drosk’s arm.
It drew blood. To Drosk’s surprise, his skin was weaker than that of a dragon’s. He might have not been burnt by the flames, but he could still be cut by the dragon’s attacks. And if he bled, he could be killed.
“Remember the name of the one who will kill you.” The dragon bellowed.
“I am your end… I am Seiku, the son of Maldraxion!”
Sahngar raced toward the Seiku, but was slammed to the ground as the beast swung its tail against the general’s chest. Gasping for breath, Sahngar could only watch Drosk as his vision grew blurry. With his head hitting the grass beneath him, Sahngar fell unconscious.
Drosk grit his teeth and swung his axe toward Seiku, but the beast dodged and struck Drosk across the face with his tail. Hitting the ground with a concussive thud, Drosk clawed at the ground and tried to stand, gasping as blood ran down his chin. His hand shook as he tried to strike the horned dragon, but Seiku threw down his clawed wing. Drosk threw his hand up and caught the wing of the beast, pushing it back as the beast threw his other spiked wing toward Drosk. Dodging the strike, Drosk turned to look at the beast’s face, but it was too late…
Drosk gasped as a sharp pain lit up all of his senses. Looking down, Drosk saw Seiku’s left horn piercing his chest. Drosk coughed up blood as he tried to breathe, but as he did Seiku rammed his head forward, skewering Drosk’s body upon it. As Drosk took his last breath, Seiku ripped his horn from Drosk’s chest and dropped his lifeless body on the grass beneath them. Snarling, Seiku stared at Drosk’s body before turning to Sahngar. Not seeing the general’s body moving, Seiku threw up his wings and took off into the air, leaving behind Drosk’s dead body and an unconscious Sahngar.
Later that day, Taharos returned to where Sahngar and Drosk were supposed to be. Seeing the scorched grass and his son’s body laying there, Taharos ran to Drosk and pulled him into his arms. Sobbing, Taharos screamed. Managing to pull himself up, Sahngar held his side and limped toward Taharos and Drosk. Seeing that Drosk was dead, Sahngar stood and wept.
The Slayer’s son was dead…
