Tales from the Tavern...

Police sirens filled the air as the hospital soon became surrounded by just about every officer on the force. Spotlights shone on the broken window and glinted off of his hair as he stared down into the darkness below, searching for Merlin. The officer’s below believed a ghost was staring down at them and several drew their weapons.

            “Bahamut, this isn’t over, you know!” Merlin shouted from above. Ryu glanced upward to see him leaning over the edge of the roof as he tried to control his emotions. “Get up here, demon!” Crystal stepped forward in concern when he hopped up onto the window sill.

            “Be careful.” She said.

            “I will.”

            The crowd below watched as the ghost drifted out into the open air, then upwards onto the roof. Unable to see anything else, officers radioed in for air support. Within minutes, both police and news helicopters arrived and began shining spotlights on the two on the roof, as they squared off, ready to face each other.

            “Why are you doing this, Merlin?” Ryu asked, “You have nothing to gain. How can you obtain fame if no one knows you exist? Haven’t you already learned that from me when Tiamut and I left behind our story?”

            “You finally admit that you are Bahamut, eh?” he laughed, “I have much to gain by defeating you. Not only will I make myself known, but I will have power beyond my wildest dreams!”

            “What do you mean? Aren’t you satisfied with the power you already have?”

            “When what I have is threatened, I must remove the threat to keep what I have.” He said, “And if in the process, I gain, then it’s all the better!”

            “How can you gain from this fight?” Ryu asked.

            “How do you think I’ve gotten so powerful over these years?” he asked with a sneer. Then it hit him. Ryu finally realized the reason for everything. The island wasn’t just for ‘containing the threat’. The reason why Grim was being experimented on wasn’t to conquer death. It was to extract those powers and make him more powerful. He was no knight. He was neither holy. He was in every sense of the word, a vampire, feeding off dragons and gaining their power. It wasn’t magic that had kept him alive all these years, but rather the life force of every dragon he had slain.

            “Immortality isn’t enough for you?” Ryu asked.

            “I want to live forever as ruler of all.” He laughed, “I will be a GOD!”

            “Heaven will never open its gates for you!” Ryu yelled, “Go back to hell where you came from!”

            “Ah, but I’ve already been there!” he said, “They couldn’t stop me, and neither can you!” Ryu stepped forward and the light around his body seemed to dim, replaced by a dark shadow. His cloak faded from bright white to dark black and his hair became its crimson shade as before. Putting his holy powers aside, he stepped forward, knowing what the power felt like and still feeling the same as before. It wasn’t his holy power he felt this time. He felt as he did beforehand, but he still had the raw energy behind his magic, and it was at his beck and call.

            “After what you have done to Rosette,” Ryu rasped, “I’m going to be much worse than hell!”

            The police squad below didn’t see it coming. Neither did any of the growing number of helicopters in the sky. It seemed as if the hospital was hit by an errant tomahawk missile, even though the military base was too far away for it to hit. The roof erupted in a hellfire that sent a shockwave of heated air out in all directions. The rain pelted down as night turned to day, but no amount of rain could douse these flames.

            From the ashes and burning wreckage atop the hospital came a devil of a dragon that towered above the condemned. Merlin had used his magic to protect himself and was now brushing soot off his now dulled armor.

            “Is that the best you got, dragon?” he laughed, “What happened to the power of Bahamut?”

            “I can beat you with my own power.” Ryu snapped, “You are nothing. Lower than nothing!”

            “That power is yours, dragon! And it shall soon be mine!” He yelled. With his hands clasped together his body began to glow, until it started to change. At first he seemed to grow, almost doubling in size. Then a pair of dragon wings and a tail grew to complete the look. He set down on the rubble of what was left of the hospital roof and pulled his sword once more.

            “Shall we begin?”

            Below in the hospital room, Crystal was nervously pacing in front of the window, totally oblivious to the swarm of police below. Sparcy was sitting with her back against the far wall, with Nydra at Rosette’s side. Grim stuck to the corner as a few police officers milled about the room, taking pictures and writing reports. None of them came near Rosette, even though she was injured, mostly because they were afraid of the odd bunch of people around her and what they really were. It wasn’t until the scent of roses tickled their noses that they directed their eyes to the door and saw Flora’s frightened face. Her eyes scanned the room for a moment until she spotter her mother, Jessica sitting on another hospital bed, and ran into her arms. Policemen jumped out of the way to let the green-haired girl by and the smell of cigarettes mixed with the roses.

            “Hey, everyone.” Gantz said, “Where’s Ryu?”

            “He’s up on the roof, fighting Merlin.” Sparcy muttered.

            “How’s Rosette?” he asked. Nydra sniffed and wiped a tear from her face.

            “I don’t know.” She said, “She was dead a minute ago, but she’s not now.”

            “And now he’s up there fighting who?” he asked, approaching the window.

            “Merlin.” Crystal said.

            “As in the Merlin from the King Arthur books? The wizard?”

            “Yea the same one.” She said, “He’s not a wizard, he’s a monster.”

            “Can he handle this by himself?” Tom asked. Crystal just glanced out the window, but his question was answered by a deafening explosion from the roof.

            “He’ll be just fine.” She said.

            The battle began with another deafening explosion. This time they left the hospital behind as they flew upwards into the pouring rain. Among the bolts of lightning, fire streaked across the sky and bright flashes of light erupted from Merlin’s sword. He could easily dodge every attack that Ryu had launched at him, and was even able to counterattack. With him being the more experienced fighter, the fire dragon was losing, but even so Ryu put up a good fight.

            In a torrent of flame, Ryu lunged at Merlin sending a fireball in his path, which he easily dodged and flipped over the rampaging dragon, then blasting him with a shot of magic. Ryu saw the ground rush up at him as he fell, and landed with a monstrous splash in the same lake where his sister’s cabin was located. Darkness surrounded him as he slowly sank to the bottom. Light from nearby lightning strikes illuminated the surface of the lake, which was becoming further and further away. He didn’t want to give up. He couldn’t. But his body wouldn’t move. He couldn’t breathe. And the worst part was, he had let everyone down. He couldn’t protect his friends, he couldn’t protect Rosette, and he couldn’t protect anything. As he felt the cold lake bottom touch his back, he could barely see fish swimming above. His breath released in a slowly rising cluster of bubbles and the world went black.

“I want to protect my friends.”

“I can’t beat him. He will hurt them.”

“I don’t have the power.”

“I am using my power! I’m using all of it!”

“What power? I need help.”

“What do you mean?”

“Others?”

“Who are you?”

“Myaan?”

“You….. you have been reincarnated? As……as…..”

His heavy foot dug into the dirt as he set down on the shore. The rain was letting up and the moon peeked out from behind a cloud to cast an ominous glare over the surface of the water. Merlin sheathed his sword and kicked a stone into the water as a smile began to spread across his face. Behind him, the trees lit up with light as red and blue danced across the landscape. A wall of police cars formed behind him and the click of a dozen pistols drowned out the snap of a twig as Merlin turned around.

“Freeze, dragon!” an officer yelled, Merlin laughed.

“I’m no dragon! This is not my true form! I am Merlin! I have slain the mighty Bahamut! The king of dragons! The likes of you can’t possibly be a threat to me!” He laughed, but stopped when the water around his feel suddenly froze, and hard ice traveled up his legs.

“He said freeze, Merlin!” Crystal yelled as she stepped out in front of the cars. She was followed by Sparcy, Jessica, and Grim. The police were stunned at this woman’s bravery and several became confused as to what was actually happening. The ice continued to climb up his body until he was pinned at the waist, and his tail frozen in place.

“You think you have enough power to beat me, Tiamut?” he laughed.

“No.” she said, “Not alone, but that’s what friends are for!” Her body became engulfed in snow as she transformed into her dragon form, with the rest following her lead. The police backed away as room became scarce. There was a brief pause, then shattering ice signaled the start of another battle.

“I have nothing left.”

“I don’t want to give up.”

“I won’t….ever……give up!”

            He felt so cold. He could barely feel his body moving in the current. It took him a while to figure out that the current was kind of strong for a lake to be shaking him like this. It was as if someone was trying to shake him. His eyes cracked to see blackness still, but there was definitely someone shaking him. There was a flash of light above and the outline of a large animal in front of him became outlined against the mirror of the surface. The animal grabbed him and began pulling him upwards. He felt as if he knew what it was that was pulling him and he felt like he could trust it. When his head finally broke the surface, he could hear it speak.

            “Ryu! Are you okay?” Nydra cried.

            “N-Nydra, is that you?” he coughed.

            “Listen, I don’t care if you are the most powerful dragon in the world, NEVER be afraid to ask for help!” she yelled.

            “F-Fine, I’ll remember that.” He stammered, “You saved me?”

            “Yes, you almost drowned!” she cried, “Don’t scare us like that!”

            “But you can’t swim! You said so yourself! You could have drowned!”

            “I’m a water dragon, Ryu. I can swim, I just don’t like water. Just be grateful!”

            “I am” he said, “Thank you.”

            “Let’s just get to shore.”

            The battle wore on as magic spells flew in all directions. Sparcy and Crystal did most of the work, with Jessica using her mind tricks to get the police to move out of the way. Grim was using most of his power to keep his human form and contain the aura of evil he had acquired from hell, so now he was putting it to good use in his ‘reaper’ form, trying to catch Merlin in a trap of curses. A few of his tricks even sent shivers up Jessica’s spine as he even summoned undead creatures from the ground to attack Merlin. Rocks formed together to create demonic Golems and even water demons rose from the lake to do his bidding. Still with all this power, they were only breaking even with Merlin. It was only when a bright light from inside an approaching car shone in their eyes that they stopped the fighting and turned to look. They saw Detective Gantz pull up and open the back door. Everyone gasped when Rosette stepped out.