Chapter 103: Old man.

Chapter 103: Old man.For the first time in his lives Lee saw an old man this strong. Arax easily lifted the tortoise shell with one hand while Lee earlier had to crawl under it to hide, not capable of moving it.

Nevertheless, the guy was old. The fight didn’t last that long, but Arax’s red face was full of wrinkles, his hair was white, and even his horns seemed to become smaller and looked somewhat crooked.

"What happened?" Lee asked.

"No time!" Arax said, "Quickly, come! Save Thorax!"

Those were the words Lee was afraid to hear. Arax might have overused the power of the sparks and become old, but there was no way he could outrun him yet in attempt to escape.

"Where’s Jiraxa?" Lee asked.

"She ... didn’t make it ..." Arax slightly deflated, pointing at a puddle of dirt at the side, but then pulled himself together, and ran towards the hill-sized beast that was once his opponent.

Lee froze, gawking at the scene, trying to comprehend how exactly it was possible for him to kill it alone, but Arax’s repeated calls brought him back to reality. He glanced towards the spot where the remains of Jiraxa were supposed to be, and shivered, and a feeling of dread overtook him.

Obviously the beast stomped her to death and now there was nothing left, except a puddle of gore. Not that Lee cared for her – he was scared to find out what happened to Thorax.

During the past month he played the following scenario in his mind multiple times, preparing for the inevitable, but suddenly he had the premonition it was not going to go as well as he hoped. Nevertheless, he didn’t have better ideas, thus he played the role he practiced all this time.

"Don’t touch him! Let me see first!" Lee jogged towards the spot Thorax was supposed to be, pretending to be worried about him, but almost stumbled when realized Thorax wasn’t in much better condition than Jiraxa. In fact, Lee felt he should’ve better shared her fate, because the guy was clearly in agony.



He lie next to a humongous pile of dead flesh, and from the angle Lee looked at it, it was impossible to tell what the beast looked like when it was alive. He could see its enormous foot, though, that could easily destroy a house with a single stomp.

Unfortunately for Thorax, that foot had stomped on him, just like on Jiraxa. But contrary to Jiraxa it only caught Thorax’s left leg and the left side of the abdomen. The guy was dead for sure, except neither he nor his brother knew it yet, and Lee’s presence filled the two with delusional hope he could do something about it.

From what it seemed, at this point it was unlikely the advanced medicine could save Thorax, to not speak of Lee who had no clue how to operate his spark. His stepmother or stepfather, or any other accomplished healer probably could, and Arax’s expectant look was the proof of that.

"We can’t do it here, like this!" Lee said, "We need to get him back to the valley so I can wash his wound."

Thorax was in a bad shape and most likely would die on the way, in fact, he would definitely die – Lee couldn’t save him no matter what he said or did.

"It’s too far!" Arax protested, "You have to wash him with your water!"

’Damn it!’ Lee cursed to himself. The guy clearly had seen the healing process before and thus one of his cards was out of the window.

"We have to do it! The damage is too heavy and if I don’t properly clean him, he’ll die before I can heal him." Lee said, turning to plan b, "But you can’t carry him the way he is. Use the tortoise shell! I’ll do my best to make sure he’s fine! And don’t just stand there! We’re running out of time!"

This was the best Lee could think of considering the circumstances, but he banked on Arax not having any other options. And he was correct.

Arax looked at him in despair and anger at the same time, and Lee felt he could faint from the stare alone. Fortunately the guy, well, now – the old man, rushed after the tortoise shell, clearly showing he accepted Lee’s suggestion.

Lee squatted next to Thorax who was mostly making gurgling sounds. His eyes were open, but it was unclear whether he was conscious. If he was, the pain he felt had to be excruciating.



"Sorry, buddy." Lee softly said, "There’s no other way. At least it will be your brother that brings you on your last journey."

Despite his sudden aging, Arax was quick. Lee could only wonder where the guy got the physical and mental strength from. Ignoring the thickness of the jungle, he pulled Thorax towards the valley all night.

Lee was so exhausted he actually considered whether he should suggest a reason why he also had to be in the passenger seat in the shell, but the fact that Thorax was alive scared him out of his wits. The guy clung to his life and simply refused to die! The tenacity of the two brothers was amazing and frightening at the same time.

The sun barely crawled over the treetops, illuminating the large bodies of the killed beasts in the valley, when Arax finally arrived. Unfortunately his brother stopped breathing right after.

Arax stood there, next to his mangled brother’s body, looking lost. It was a pitiful sight, but he had no one to blame but himself. Obviously Thorax died because of their greed, and in the process killed Jiraxa as well. Nevertheless, looking at Arax’s old and exhausted face, Lee felt pity for him.

"Don’t blame yourself." Lee said, "There’s nothing that could be done. Sometimes we have to accept the reality and mourn the people we loved."

He knew it sounded cheesy, but he had to say something, at least it felt that way. Unfortunately Lee’s words didn’t have any affect on Arax. He didn’t roar to the sky or cry, though. He gave Lee a strange stare that made him uneasy, but before anything happened, a jeering voice came from the jungle line.

"Would you look at that?" Slivax and his squad appeared, along with thirty more treasure hunters.

Not all of them looked as happy as he, most had complicated expressions because everyone knew the guy managed to kill the monster they saw last night. Slivax gathered all of them to hunt it together, but it was long dead when they arrived. And the worst thing was, it lacked the most valuable part.

And no matter how happy Slivax was to see Arax mourn his brother, he was pissed he didn’t get the spark.

"Where’s the spark, Arax?" Slivax directly asked, "With the way you look, you don’t need it anyway. You even lost your sword in the jungle ... good thing we found it! But you know ... finders keepers!"

Seeing Arax was ignoring him, Slivax took few steps closer, and asked again, "Where’s the spark, Arax?"



Arax threw a glance at him, and shrugged, "No idea. Probably lost ..."

"You want to tell me you lost quakeback behemot’s spark? You’re taking me for a fool?" Slivax got angry.

"Yes?" Arax gave an absentminded answer, and stopped paying attention.

"Don’t get arrogant only because you got lucky!" Slivax hissed, "There was only one method to kill it, and you know it! Thousands of lives were lost back then to kill the scorchadon behemot, and you used the same strategy we did in the end, did you?"

The earlier exchange was unpleasant, but this part drew Lee’s attention. Apparently the dragon in Arax’s story was real, except it was called scorchadon behemot. An odd name, but it didn’t matter. What Lee was interested in was the method Arax used to kill it.

Unfortunately he had to wait with the questions and play the good guy role now.

Trying to divert Arax’s attention, he said, "Should we bury him?"

It took few moments for Arax to register his words, but the reaction was not what Lee expected.

"Why?" Arax said, adding a sarcastic snort.

All of the sudden Lee was glad there were other people around. If he went with Arax to the rift alone, it would feel like he was going somewhere to only dig his own grave. All he lacked was a shovel.

But then it struck him – he was free! They were about to go through the rift and he would never see this old man again! Jiraxa was dead, and no one would find him after he dropped the fake attire!

The problem was, the moment he stepped in the rift, everything turned dark.