Starting out as a Dragon Slave

Akane lunged at him, her blade whistling through the air like the scythe of death. But this time, Isaac’s body reacted before his mind could even register the danger. His muscles moved on their own, guided by a primal intelligence, sidestepping with perfect precision, evading the strike with a grace that defied the natural laws of movement. Akane struck again, but Isaac no longer needed to think: his legs bent instinctively, his torso twisted with mathematical precision, dodging the attack even before his brain processed the threat.

- "Isaac! She’s going to cut you to pieces if you don’t power up!" shouted Naesha from the shadows, her voice betraying a rare concern.

Isaac didn’t bother to reply. His eyes now burned with an incandescent glow, his pupils shimmering with white light, pure mana vibrating under his skin like a contained storm. His muscles reacted even before his mind commanded the movement, dodging, parrying, anticipating each of Akane’s strikes with an ease that bordered on the supernatural.

He took a deep breath, his body tensing like a bow, and a visible shiver coursed through his skin in concentric waves. His mana flared up, crackling around his fingers in luminous arabesques. His body seemed to ignite with a pale, ethereal light, and the air distorted around him as if warped by extreme heat. Akane, in response, accelerated further, her movements becoming frenetic, almost desperate, pushed to the very limits of what the human body could endure.

- "Very well..." Isaac murmured, finally accepting the true fight.

Their blades clashed again, but this time, Isaac did not merely evade. Each blow struck was parried with doubled strength, absorbed and returned with controlled violence. For the first time, Akane was forced to step back, her empty eyes fixed on him, her movements growing more erratic, less fluid, as if two wills were battling for control over her body. But Belgaroth’s grip was tenacious, relentless. Invisible chains pulled at each of her limbs, forcing her to attack again and again, even as pain began to flicker across her once impassive features.

That’s when Isaac saw it: the collar pulsing faintly at the base of her neck, the runes etched into the metal oozing with a sickly red glow, like corrupted blood.

- "That’s it," he murmured, a glimmer of hope igniting in his gaze.

He straightened up, adjusting his grip on his katana with an almost imperceptible motion, and turned slightly toward Naesha without taking his eyes off Akane.

- "I’m going to create an opening. Take care of the collar. It’s our only chance."

Naesha did not respond verbally, but her eyes narrowed in a sign of tacit understanding. The two warriors had fought together long enough to no longer need words.

- "Ready?" she asked simply, her daggers vibrating with contained energy between her agile fingers.

- "Now."

Isaac leaped forward with an explosion of power, his body vanishing briefly in a blinding flash of light. He reappeared behind Akane in a fraction of a second, his blade whistling in a perfect arc, slicing through the air with surgical precision. Akane reacted with superhuman speed, pivoting on herself, her movements as fluid as a raging mountain torrent. Their blades clashed again, and Isaac accelerated, pushing his limits, his movements becoming blurred, almost invisible to the naked eye, defying the natural laws of physics.

Akane parried, evaded with lethal grace, but Isaac now forced her into a rhythm she no longer controlled. Her breathing quickened, ragged, and her empty eyes flickered for a brief moment, as if something inside her was struggling to awaken. At that precise instant, Naesha shot out from the shadows like an obsidian arrow, her body propelling through the air in a perfect curve.

She didn’t aim directly at Akane, but at the collar encircling her pale neck. Her twin daggers crossed in a motion of millimetric precision, slicing through the enchanted metal in a sparkling flash that unleashed a brief explosion of malevolent energy.

The sound of the shattered chain resonated through the room like a crystal fracturing, a pure, almost musical sound in its clarity. Akane staggered, her body suddenly freezing as if all her strings had been cut at once. Isaac rushed forward, grasping her trembling shoulders, his gaze locking onto hers with an intensity that bordered on pain.

- "Akane... it’s me. It’s Isaac. Come back to me... come back to us."

Akane’s gaze grew clouded, oscillating between lucidity and darkness like a flame flickering in the wind, until finally, light gradually returned to her dilated pupils. Her eyes met his, shining with raw emotion, pure and almost painfully intense in its clarity.

- "Huh? Who are you...?" she whispered, her voice trembling, fragile like a thread of silk.

But their moment of reconnection was violently interrupted by a monumental crash that shook the very foundations of the room. The ground cracked in a network of lines that spread like black veins, and Lazare’s lifeless body crashed at their feet with a dull, sickening thud, blood seeping from his parted lips, his eyes wide open, reflecting the horror of his final moments.

Above them, dominating the space with his impressive height, Belgaroth watched them, his red eyes blazing with a predatory glow reminiscent of the deepest hellfires.

- "Oh... you’re still alive?" he breathed with a carnivorous smile that revealed teeth far too long, too sharp to belong to any human.

His blazing gaze lingered on the shattered collar on the ground, then slowly rose back to Akane with an intensity that seemed capable of burning flesh. His smile widened further, revealing sharp fangs that gleamed with a sickly wetness.

- "My toy..." he murmured, his voice dripping with contempt and morbid possessiveness. "Come back here. Now."

Akane straightened slowly, her shoulders tensed to the breaking point, her fists clenched until her nails dug into her palms. Her eyes met Isaac’s for a brief moment, a silent understanding passing between them, then she planted her feet firmly on the ground, standing tall and unyielding like a pillar of granite. Her gaze was now hardened, burning with a rage contained during years of servitude.

- "Never," she replied, her voice icy, cutting through the room’s oppressive heat, vibrating with a regained determination that seemed to emanate from every fiber of her being. "I would rather be consumed by flames than become your guard dog again. I would rather rip out my own heart than be your toy once more."

Belgaroth’s expression slowly shifted. The smile faded like mist under the sun, replaced by a mask of absolute coldness that violently contrasted with the heat he exuded. His eyes, usually twinkling with sadistic amusement, darkened until they became two crimson abysses, his vertical pupils retracting into minuscule slits like those of a reptile before it strikes.

- "Very well... I’ve had enough fun with you anyway," he whispered, his voice dropping an octave to become an inhuman growl that made the very stones of the ground tremble. "Then die with them, insignificant creature."