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  DAIGON

  First Dance Water Swordplay

  R. K. Star

  © November 2017 R. K. Star

  All rights reserved

  @RKStarauthor

  No portion of this novel may be reproduced, copied, transmitted, or stored in any form, or by any means without prior written permission from the publisher and author.

  Publisher’s Note

  Characters, names, places and incidents are all created by the imagination of the author or are used fictitiously; any resemblance to events, locations, businesses, persons (living or dead) is purely coincidental. This novel is a work of fiction.

  Book design by Jessica Dueck (StarsColdNight)

  Electronic ISBN 978-1-7751725-2-9

  Print ISBN 978-1-7751725-0-5

  Preface

  This novel is told in first person as the character experiences and remembers her life.

  The late portion of the novel is told in third person but the time line is continuous.

  table of contents

  Prologue-Nexssi outskirts, Bressi

  1-Beginning

  2-Schooling

  3-Departing

  4-Stanford

  5-First Semester

  6-Second Semester

  7-First Partition

  8-Second Partition

  9-Third Partition

  10-Second Semester

  11-Enigma

  12-Understanding

  13-Transfer

  14-Joan Nifor

  15-The trio

  16-Stephanie Ovartis

  17-Senior Year

  18-Lisa Angen

  19-New Beginning

  20-Songnar, Yhonar

  21-Zartarth, Plitarth

  22-Honar of the Watnar district, Plitarth

  23-Songnar outskirts, Yhonar

  24-Highnar, Yhonar

  25-Old Town of Highnar, Yhonar

  26-Highnar outskirts, Yhonar

  27-Highnar seaside, Yhonar

  28-Maytrinar, Bressi

  29-Highnar outskirts, Yhonar

  30-Nexssi outskirts, Bressi

  31-Honar, Plitarth

  Prologue

  Nexssi outskirts, Bressi

  In the twilight before sunrise. Far west in the distance there was a warm shimmering light. It overcame the trees emerging from every direction and filled the sky. The forest stretched out absorbing the light. The planet woke up with the light in its eyes.

  In the opposing area still covered by a blanket of shadows, an orange-reddish glow emerged on the horizon. It created a beautiful backdrop with dark orange and red at the bottom coming from above the ocean, and then a yellow mixing into a dark blue and purple that transitioned into a light blue, from which a few clouds were visible. The colours mirrored into the clear ocean creating a mesmerizing double scenery. Shining as bright it removed the cloak of darkness on its side, it was the sun and it challenged the light from the forest, cancelling its overpowering glow onto its side. The light from the forest moved, and it was heading away from the forest into the open field. As it came closer the light got brighter and brighter, pushing the sun’s rays back, forcing the sun’s light to recede away until everything blended together.

  Light radiated from a young woman that appeared from the forest. Her long black hair bundled up neatly but also some of her long strands falling down her back. She stood straight with her shoulders back at about a hundred and eighty centimetres tall, dressed in calm neutral beige and tan layered robes. Her outfit was completed with a long cloak that was fashioned on with an orange gold jeweled star broach. The cloak dragged on the ground combing the grass as she walked past. Her expression, neutral and placid. She holds what looks like a cumbersome Buddhist staff about two and three quarters metres in length but she carried it easily with one hand. A staff of punishment and pure evil, meant to slice flesh. It had four prongs that open up from the head of the staff, with razor sharp blades curving to the top and a longer blade slightly curving backwards. It was meant to be used as a mace but with theses blades it would sever anything that would test it.

  Her reaeslave arranged a secret meeting with the Emperor Daigon Qunor Moon at sunrise. Slowly the sun crept up the sky and the time was late. Immediately she felt something was awry. If Qunor was nearby she would have detected his unique signature. She couldn’t sense him or anyone else besides her reaeslave in the distance but she could sense her reaeslave moving around. If this was an ambush she would have sense the presence of someone else nearby. It was most strange and the air started to suffocate her with a pungent smell of gangrene, a truly necrotic scent of death. She turned around and made her exit the way she came and saw Sami, her reaeslave. Sami came running towards her.

  “I believe we are betrayed my daigon, Daigon Moon is nowhere to be found. Quickly this way, we must leave now.”

  Clouds had started to form in the sky and they thickened and darkened quickly. Slowly the clouds proliferated and began to cover the sun. A strong wind started blowing and the clouds moved quickly to block the sun. In a short moment of time the sun’s light was gone and her glow was fading as well. Isvara stopped in her steps and looked back to where the sun should be. She couldn’t sense the sun now but only a darkness within the forest. A dark figure lurked in the shadow of the trees, she could make out a rough outline. She took a few steps back and let whatever was lurking a chance to come out. Sami back up, behind his daigon.

  “It’s always a pleasure to see the Power, Ava Guan Isvara.” A man exited the forest into the open field. He wore a black cloak covering himself from head to toe. He removed the hood and reveal a horribly disfigured face. Thick scars on his face advertised the endless torture he has suffered.

  “Who are you? What business do you have with my daigon?” Sami demanded.

  “I am a nameless shadow that creeps in the dark, I consume the soul of life for the abyss and I come for Isvara.”

  Isvara had a look of distaste, she knew someone was behind this child’s play.

  “You will watch your tongue when you speak to the Emperor Daigon Isvara. I shall teach you a lesson.” Sami stepped forward, he felt the wind blowing across his face and manipulated it. “Wind gale,” he shouted.

  The wind immediately picked up and screeched. The wind came from behind Sami, calmly then picked up speed as it raced forward towards the shadow man. The wind moved with great speed and whipped across, the force could slice a wooden board in half. The man raised his hand and the wind calm down slightly then pass by his palm. Sami took a step back looking shocked. The man’s power and ability to manipulate the elements surprised him. He drew his sword, he would test his physical strength with his blade. The shadow man revealed his weapons, two maces. They have definitely been overused. The oversize head that probably once had sharp ridges on the side was completely smashed and cratered in on itself. Although there were no sharp edges now, if he received a single blow from the mace it would break his bones.

  Sami had a short moment of hesitation and doubt before rushing in. His blade was twice the length of the mace giving him a reach advantage but he was not a match for the shadow man. The nameless man strikes where overwhelming and with each clash of his blade against the mace it sent a shock through the blade to his hands. The shock made his hands weak and quiver. His hands were getting tired from the shock, you could see his hands trembling slightly making his blade wobble. He was not too fatigued, his lungs stilled carried oxygen. His legs still had strength to carry his body, his movement hadn’t slowed yet.

  The shadow man gave him no chance to rest and march forward on him. He was well trained using his maces. His left-hand work in coordination with his right. If the right hand parried then the left hand immediately moved to strike his foe. When Sami used his sword to parry the mace from the left hand the shadow man would quickly pull his left hand back while his right hand was already advancing for the strike. The shadow man was great at predicting Sami moves. Finally, the shadow man out maneuver Sami and the mace smashed into Sami left shoulder. Sami felt his bone crack and his nerves carried the impulse to the pain receptors in his brain. He quickly jumped backwards as the pain made him feel fear. He glanced over his left shoulder and saw pieces of his skin scraped off showing his raw flesh bruised and battered. The shadow man was still advancing towards him. Sami felt the breeze blow by and whipped it at him scratching his face and knocking him back. However it did little to phase the shadow man as it only delayed him a few seconds.

  The shadow man eyes pierced into the soul of Sami. “Writhe in agony in the darkness of the shadows,” the man spoke softly in a harsh voice as a black shadow erupted from the dark and covered Sami, consuming him. You could hear the cry of fear from Sami. The shadow pulled Sami into the forest until he was no longer visible.

  The man now looked at Isvara. Slowly he stepped closer towards her but she had a disinterested look on her face that pissed him off. When he got closer to her he ran forward and sprang at her, bringing both his maces downwards with all his might to smash her face while laughing hysterically in a shrieking voice. Isvara was not impressed. With one hand, she brought her staff sideways to counter his attack. The head of the staff collided with both of the maces and the force from Isvara sent him backwards as he smashed and tumbled against the ground for quite a few metres before the friction stopped him.

  The shadow man got up still looking unfazed but clearly his body was damaged. “I was foolish trying to take you on by myself.” Two more
figures crawled out of the forest. “My brothers are here now.”

  Isvara couldn’t figure out how they were hiding without being detected after she had scanned the area. Someone of their power would definitely leave an energy signature. Even as the three of them stood in front of her she could only sense a weak energy. It was the level of a peasant, a weakling, nothing more.

  She looked into the faces of his brothers who were also hideously disfigured. Their faces were more visible. Their skin burnt by fire or acid and grotesquely scarred by heated metal. Their skin was elevated in some spots due to the scar tissue and caved in on others from the flesh being eroded off. Certain areas had heavy malignant fibrous tissue overgrowth—a nasty sight. They had only small streaks of hair that was overgrown in certain areas of the skull. Their eyebrows were gone. There were patchy parts of the skin on the skull that was corroded. Their nose was distorted and was a stub on their faces. The pigmentation on their lips were no more, you couldn’t tell where the border of the lip was or which was part of their lips. Their ears were burnt and seared onto the skin on the side of the skull. The damaged skin ran down their necks and you could only image what else they might have suffered. However, it was a mercy for the looker’s eyes that the cloak they wore cover up the rest of their disfigured bodies.

  “You would do wise to stand out of my way. I have no quarrel with you.” Isvara spoke placidly.

  “We have quarrel with you though. We won’t let you leave.” The three shadow men spoke in unison with a raspy voice.

  Isvara couldn’t recognize them, they were hardly recognizable with their faces as they were. She wondered why they didn’t rebuild their faces. Just from seeing his performance earlier against Sami, she was sure he had skills and the ability to heal his scars and reconstruct his facial features.

  “What quarrel do you have with me? Do I know you?”

  “You don’t recognize us? I suppose we are too hideous for you to recognize but we are not here to talk or answer questions. We are here for you.”

  “So be it. Draw your weapons. You will answer my questions when I’m finished with you.”

  The other two took out their weapons. One had two morning stars with lethal spikes protruding. The morning stars had not seen many battles yet, they were newly forged, probably for this occasion. The other had a black scythe that was styled beautifully with metal working details. It was over two metres long with a lace pattern on the handle portion and a skull worked in on each side where the blade connected to the handle. The end of the scythe had a snake head with ruby eyes. The other two walked into formation and encircled her.

  Isvara stood there looking jaunty, just waiting for them to come at her. The first one came at her with his maces and the second follow up with his morning stars. They moved fast and didn’t try to clash with her staff but tried to jab at her when the other created an opening. The one with the scythe played a supportive and defensive role to block heavy strikes from her and allow for his brothers to retreat.

  She was taken by surprised, they were much more skillful then she expected. They predicted her movement precisely and it was frustrating her that she couldn’t land a direct strike against any of them. They definitely knew her well and was very aware of her fighting pattern. She thought this would end quickly but it was going to be anything but quick. Her internal strength was more powerful than theirs combined but they dodge almost all of her strikes instead of parrying them which negated her strength advantage.

  It wasn’t long before they started to overpower her and she found herself backing up in retreat. Her confidence turned to dread. She knew she couldn’t let any of them cripple her, if her movement slowed they would be able to strike her. She felt the breeze in the sky and manipulated it to generate a strong gust trying to push the clouds away so the sun could shine. The rays from the sun would nourish her and provide her with renewed strength. She got the wind to blow strongly but the clouds that was covering the sun refused to move. Someone was hiding and focused on keeping the sun covered up. The situation looked worst and worst as it passed. She was feeling fatigue and anger at Sami. How did he talk her into coming to this meeting without her servants. If she had her servants they could temporary hold them off while she engaged in a temporal shift. Or even if she helped that idiot Sami earlier he could hold them off while she escaped.

  Without the sun, she couldn’t win in an endurance combat against the three of them and she couldn’t escape. Her boldness diminished with her confidence. She was over expending her power now in exaggerated moves to prevent them from advancing on her. She strengthened the blades on the end of her staff and swung it, smashing across the ground and upwards. It created a shock that sent the debris flying as projectiles towards them. This kept them on the defensive but she was fatiguing herself much more quickly than they were.

  She didn’t have many options now, she had to get the light from the sun to shine through the clouds to regenerate her energy. Even though she couldn’t see the sun she knew where it was hidden. When she focused on the dark patch of clouds she could sense the sun. She could feel the warmth behind the darkness and she pull the hidden rays forward. Slowly a slight shimmer of light peak through a crack in the clouds. She back into the light and the electromagnetic waves kissed against her cheek softly and she absorbed the energy from the photons. Slowly it revived her strength and rejuvenated her. She was able to pull more light from the sun and it broke through the dense layer of clouds hitting the ground and illuminating the field again.

  She charged at the three shadow men now. She could continue to fight them at an accelerated pace and fatigue them. When one of them would make a mistake, it would be over. As long as she was in the presence of the sun her power was limitless. She targeted the first one who wielded dual maces. His body was already damaged and he was a step slowly than the other two. If she could take him out it would drastically weaken the other two.

  Ava focused mainly on her offensive striking and she swung her staff with both hands at the first shadow man. He was fatiguing and slowing down, unable to dodge the strike he held his maces in an ‘x’ formation to block the staff. The staff struck against the mace as a bat would against a baseball and sent the shadow man flying out the field and colliding into a tree. The other two went into a retreat, falling back to their brother to assist him.

  Victory was hers now, she just had to finish this childish game. She moved quickly towards them to finish the three of them off.

  “Do not think you’ve won,” the shadow man spoke coughing up his blood. His internal organs were heavily damaged during that strike. He laid against the tree that he smashed against and dented. His two brothers stood in front guarding him.

  “Do not try to stall your death, you cannot defeat me.” Isvara exclaimed.

  “We really wanted to make you suffer physically before making your soul suffer but it looks like we overestimated ourselves.” The third shadow man spoke with dissatisfaction.

  “I’m not sure who you are but you obviously know something and you’ll tell me now. The only question is which one. The other two will perish against my blade.”

  “You haven’t won just yet Ava. Do not act so cocky.” The second shadow man spoke.

  “Hahaha, do you think you can stop me. The three of you had a chance against me but with just the two of you, you don’t stand a chance.” She noticed the shadow man address her by first name this time; he must have been close to her before. It didn’t matter now, her confidence was back and she found it quite amusing to belittle them a bit before letting them succumb to their own foolish fate.

  “You shall see!” The third shadow man spoke. “Writhe in agony and fade to the black, become nothing,” he spoke in a creepy croaky voice. A darkness came from his body and floated above as he disintegrates into it.