Author's Preface
The first flash split the clouds. Lightning spidered across the sky, painting the floating archipelago in cold blue light. From the abyss below, a shape rose, massive, plated in storm-dark scales.
The dragon breached the clouds with a roar. Ilho, Ryul, Hanjo and Jinhu stepped forward in the same heartbeat. Blue grasped his Jian ready to step forward with his brothers.
“Don’t,” Ilho said without looking back. His twin blades hung low, points toward the stone. “Don’t interfere.”
Jinhu flexed his hands inside the steel of his gauntlets. “We’re not here to follow you,” he said to Blue, eyes never leaving the beast. “We’re here to walk beside you.”
"They are right, we have to earn this." Ryul nodded and drew his sword.
Hanjo planted his staff, prayer beads rattling faintly in the rising wind. “If we fall, it is on us,” he murmured. “Not you. Amitabha.”
The dragon’s wings slammed once. Wind tore over the island, peppering them with grit. Its jaws unhinged, lightning pooling between fangs.
“Move!” Wu Jin barked from the rear.
Ilho moved, he dashed left, skimming the island’s edge in a sliver of qi, his twin sparked against the stone. Jinhu went straight in...low, brutal, a battering ram disguised as a man. Ryul jumped, aiming for the dragon's throat. Hanjo threw his staff down and prepared his palm techniques.
The first bolt came like a thrown spear. It missed Jinhu by a breath and shattered a boulder, showering the island with shards. The second zeroed in on Ilho, he slid under it, hair lifting in the static’s wake, and came up inside the dragon’s reach, blades crossing for the tendons behind the foreclaw. The strike wasn't deep, but enough. The dragon screamed and raked at him. Ilho flipped backward, a breath too slow...talons grazed his chest. Fabric split. Blood followed. Ryul came crashing down, black arcs from his Wudang qi left an open wound on the dragon's neck.
Jinhu slammed into the other foreleg. His gauntlets rang. The dragon’s limb buckled, but only for an instant, he barely rolled free as the tail scythed across the ground, carving a trench where he’d been. Hanjo took the opening. He vaulted, then struck the base of the skull with a shattering palm strike. The dragon’s head snapped sideways. Lightning went wide.
“Again!” Ilho shouted
They pressed. For a few moments, it worked...Ilho attacking the joints, Jinhu crushing the openings, Hanjo struck with precision blows as Ryul attacked from above. The dragon bled bright, crackling arcs sputtering through its wounds. The dragon took the blows, as it watched the four. Then it learned. The next roar came with a storm. Sheets of blue-white fire cascaded from the clouds. Lightning crawled over Jinhu’s armor and found flesh beneath...he staggered, smoke curling from scorched hair.
Ilho dove through a curtain of rain and electricity. He mistimed the angle barely, the bolt clipped his left shoulder. Everything in his arm went numb. He skidded, teeth gritted as he hissed. Ryul raced and caught Ilho as he sunk his feet into the ground. The boys came to a stop. Hanjo anchored them with a chant that brought a dome of sound into being. The dragon’s tail hammered the shield.
Blue’s knuckles whitened on the Jian’s hilt. He took a step.
“Don’t.” The word was quiet. Yong Ma’s hand landed on Blue’s shoulder, heavy, immovable. "You’re just like Yoryeon,” the Heavenly Demon said, voice low, eyes never leaving the fight. “But this is Murim. We honor a warrior’s choice to stand. Interfere, and you dishonor their heart,” his grip tightened. “and me.”
The dragon roared again. Jinhu bounced once, twice, from the island’s edge to the point of a rock, the air left his lungs. Ilho rolled, came up on his knees, blood running down his ribs in a narrow line.
No matter what happens,” Yong Ma said, “they take these steps alone. I will not allow you to take them for them.”
Blue swallowed the urge tearing at his muscles. He stayed.
“Up!” Wu Jin snapped. “Find your rhythm!”
Jinhu shoved himself to his feet. Ilho rotated his dead shoulder once, twice, forcing qi through. Hanjo's hand turned golden as he let qi flow to them. Ryul took a low stance, his sword out wide of his body.
The dragon lunged. Ilho met it first. He traded speed for stillness, stance widening. When the claw descended, he didn’t try to move it, he slid inside the arc and stitched a line of cuts along the softer skin between scales, each stroke the width of a hair. The dragon bellowed and reared.
Jinhu’s gauntlets found purchase under the chest, then higher, then higher. He climbed the dragon like a cliff face, each punch along the way forcing the beast to adjust its weight. When it did, he turned a climb into a fall...dropping with all that mass behind his fist and driving it into the joint in the opposite shoulder. Bone crunched, the leg buckled.
Hanjo smiled. "Amitabha." A large golden hand appeared and crashed into the dragon's face. Ryul followed through as he slipped between the wild lightning and attacks, finally meeting his sword with the dragon's eye.
Jinhu kicked off the dragon and landed. All four boys stood side by side as the dragon roared and wildly shot lightning into the sky.
"You two stay here, we need to try something." Ilho looked at Ryul and Hanjo. "Jinhu, we should both be able to do it now." Jinhu smiled and clanked his fists together. "Hell yeah, let's kill this big lizard."
Ilho stepped backward about ten paces. Jinhu turned his back to the dragon. Ilho nodded and sprinted toward Jinhu, his feet landed on Jinhu's hand who in turn launched him in the air.
As Ilho came crashing down toward the dragon he felt it. He could do it. Shadow Sever - Second form: Twin fangs. Ilho spun as his butterfly swords carved arcs through the incoming lightning. Ilho's eyes latched onto the wound Ryul created. His blades found the dragon's exposed throat. The dragon screamed and blood splattered on the stone below.
At the same time, Jinhu and grinned at Hanjo and Ryul and spun. Mu Jang had taught him the second form of Earthsplitter, but his body wasn't ready. He didnt have enough qi to handle it. Jinhu sprinted toward the dragon, each step left imprints in the earth. As he ran he gathered qi to his right hand. A ball of qi formed, he focused. The massive ball became smaller and smaller. As he reached the dragon, the ball was no bigger than an egg. Jinhu slid to a stop at the dragon's chest, he looked up and saw Ilho backflip off the dragon's neck. He looked at his fist, did his best Mu Jang laugh, he cocked back his arm and swung. EarthSplitter - second form: Earthquake. Jinhu struck the dragon sending it stumbling backwards. Its tail swung, Jinhu noticed too late. He got an elbow up but still took the full force of the tail. He went airborne and rolled twice before he stopped. He didn't get up.
"Jinhu!" Ilho turned. He launched again toward the neck. The dragon's head met him halfway and its teeth clamped down on his right blade. With a swing of its head it sent Ilho's blade flying into the void between islands. Ilho clenched his remaining blade and stabbed the dragon on the nose. Its mouth opened, lightning gathered. "Fuck." Ilho said. His foot was caught between two teeth, he was stuck. A staff came from nowhere, flying past his head and down the dragons throat, momentarily stopping the impending attack. Hanjo appeared a second later, with one punch he shattered a tooth and grabbed Ilho and jumped.
Blue's hand clenched harder. See?” Yong Ma said without looking at Blue. “Let a warrior climb his own mountain.”
As Hanjo and Ilho were mid air they saw Ryul. Ryul sliced where Ilho had on the beast's neck. He sliced the wound deeper and wider, as the dragon was focused on his comrades. Jinhu sat up. "Damn it, he's still not dead." Jinhu stood as the other three landed beside him. "Jinhu can you continue?" Ryul asked. Jinhu nodded. "Good, we need you and Hanjo to distract it. Ilho and I cam aim for the the same spot on his neck and finish him." The boys all nodded. Blood, cuts, and bruises covered them.
"I'll go low, you go high monk." Jinhu pointed. "Amitabha." Hanjo winked at Jinhu.
Both dashed forward. Jinhu aimed for the dragon's chest. Hanjo leapt into the air, scripture left his mouth as another golden hand appeared above the dragon's head. Ilho and Ryul moved as well.
All four boys attacked in unison. Ilho and Ryul gave their best attacks aimed at the open wound as the hand smashed against the dragon. Below Jinhu launced attack after attack on the scales of the dragon's chest. The wings came swinging around. Ilho and Ryul both landed on it, bent down and launched. Ilho was faster, his remaining blade sliced the wound until it met the bone of the beast's neck. As he did the head pointed high into the sky, lightning left the dragon's mouth and filled the sky as it roared. "Get back!" Ilho screamed at Jinhu and Hanjo. As lightning came crashing down, Ryul who was now one hundred feet in the air came crashing down on the neck that was barely attached. His blade was covered in Wudang's qi, he landed. His blade crashed against the neck bone. He screamed, the bone cracked slightly. "FUCKING DIE!" Ryul's blade sliced through the bone, his momentum carried him through the flesh of the neck that was still attached.
Lightning struck Ryul as he sliced. He fell as the head crashed down in front of the elders and the demon squad. As Ryul fell toward the ground he started to lose consciousness then he landed, he looked over. "Nice catch." He said before his eyes closed. Blue stood with his brother in his arms. Ilho, Jinhu, and Hanjo rushed over. Blue smiled at Ryul and the boys. Blue took Ryul to Wu Jin, he bent down and placed him on the ground. As he stood, the hair on his neck stood up. His system pinged.
[2 of 3 Dungeon Masters eliminated.]
[Old god detected: Dragon God]
As Blue turned to tell Wu Jin, a deep voice echoed through the islands. The sky started to turn black. "Ah. The golden one's scent. At last." A massive dragon's head poked through the clouds. Yong Ma, Yeol and Cheng stepped forward.
"Everyone back!" Wu Jin screamed.
Blue didn't move. He couldn't. He stared at the head. The body emerged from the clouds slowly, its scaled were like midnight. Horns curved from its head. Stars adorned its body, as if the dragon was space itself. This dragon was no beast. It was an answer to a call Blue didn't know he made. And it was staring directly at him.