Everyone around Yijun is bustling in excitement. He can’t see much of the town square as silk sleeves keep swinging in front of his face. All round him, masters call for their servants. 

 Dread sinks heavy down onto the pit of his stomach as he sees the townspeople has no idea of what they’re up against. Yet he can’t voice it out as he should, as the air is overwhelmed with the sound of blacksmiths hammering out swords, armorers fitting the warriors with gear, and healers brewing potions to aid in the battle.

 The guards around him cheer them on and one of them elbows him.

 “Don’t look so glum,” the guard cajoles. “Our Jie kingdom is built as a kingdom for enlightened human warriors. We have no deity to serve when we have King Jie. King Jie has slain many enlightened beasts and ingested their cores so he is above any Beast.”

 The guard then tells him the story of Jie Kingdom. The kingdom was formerly a village until King Jie was born. He grew into a formidable warrior so he slew their village deity and ate its core. There, he gathered his own retinue to make war with Enlightened Beasts around them and won. He then built his kingdom to train warriors strong enough to hunt. Then, he sent his servants to ask villages about Enlightened Beasts they encounter and bring their knowledge back. He also fostered learning about Enlightened Beasts and other spiritual matters and regularly sends treasure hunters to hunt for spiritual plants and artifacts. A hundred years later and Jie kingdom indeed become a shining example of humanity’s progress to the heavens.

 “So don’t worry too much about dealing with a flood dragon. They’re just another Tuesday with us,” the guard concludes. Then his eyes become cold as he looks at him. “Or are you looking down on us?”

 “I don’t dare, I don’t dare,” Yijun immediately replies. He don’t dare but the one they’d be facing is not any sort of flood dragon but the apocalypse dragon himself. There’s no use convincing the guards about the danger they’re in so he turns his eyes on the center of the town square where King Jie is standing.

 Around him stands a group of seasoned hunters, clad in leather and steel, their faces lit with anticipation. Their stances look formidable.

 “My good people,”, King Jie intones to the crowd, “today the heavens bless us a quest that will test our courage and strength. A flood dragon plagues our land and it falls upon us to rid our kingdom of this beast once and for all. A priceless bounty we will get from its body and with its death, humanity shall step into the heavens!”

 The people cheers, warriors and non-combatants alike while Yijun can only watch in dismay.

 King Jie points his sword at his direction. Yijun sees the crowd parting then the guard behind him pushes him forward. He stumbles  then regain his footing as he walk towards King Jie. He sees the craning heads, the asking stares and the pitying looks.

 You shouldn’t pity me, pity yourselves, he wants to scream.

 He reaches King Jie who pulls him up the platform. “This stranger risks his life to warn us of our bounty. This day, we shall pay him tenfold. He shall see the might of our warriors. Wives, Mothers, Daughters, dress yourselves in your best, prepare your most delicious dishes for we shall return in victory tonight!”

 A horse is brought for King Jie. As it trots towards us, its coat shimmers under the sun  like ebony. Each sinew and muscle ripples beneath its sleek hide, a living proof to the countless hours of training and conditioning it has undergone in preparation for the battlefield.

 When it reaches King Jie, it tosses its proud head. King Jie mounts it and with a shout, orders his retinue to go. Yijun suddenly feels weightless then his stomach hits bone as someone slung him over their shoulder. He could only grunt, as he is being constantly winded by his carrier’s jogging. Behind him, he sees a trail of people running after us, looking as if they never tire, their legs never slowing down in their steps.  

 Is this the power of Enlightened Humans? he asks. Beasts increase in power and strength upon enlightenment but the same seems to happen to humans.  

 He look at the sky and see the same ominous clouds gathering above.

 In no time at all, they arrive at the hill Yijun mentioned. Hands pull him down and onto his feet and they face the slope uphill, where he saw the dragon last. One of the vanguard is already running down the hill to meet them. He stops in front of King Jie and salutes.

 He says something to King Jie and King Jie suddenly whips his head to him. He crooks his finger and the guard beside him hauls him to him.

 “He thought you said it’s a flood dragon? But his scouts say otherwise,”  King Jie hisses. “It’s no beast at all but an immortal!”

 “That was what I was trying to tell you, his Lord,” Yijun says meekly. He admit it’s partly his fault for calling the dragon a flood dragon, but they didn’t give him a chance to explain at all. He become more bold due to his fear and worry. “Punish him later, my Lord, but we have no time to argue about that. We have to stop that immortal from destroying your kingdom.”

 “How audacious!” the guard beside him yells and butts him with his scabbard. He doubles over in pain, winded.

 “How can I trust you when you lied the first time?” King Jie asks.

 Yijun coughs but he force myself to nod at the sky above us. “A storm is coming over your kingdom. You either trust me now or your people die.”

 King Jie gives an irritated snort and signals his guards to haul him up the hill. They climb the grassy slope until they arrive at the location Yijun saw the dragon last.   

 The dragon is still casting his spell. His arms still when he sees the humans. King Jie walks forward respectfully, his head slightly bowed. “My Lord, if He might have a word?”

 The dragon only looks at him impassively, his face still under the illumination of his spell.

 “We were misinformed that there is a flood dragon here by this human,” he gestures to his side and a guard pushes Yijun into view. He stumbles onto his knees. King Jie cups his hand and bows his head. “Please accept our deepest apologies. We will never mistake your great presence as that of a vile beast.”

 He may as well be the wind as the dragon only blinks at him.

 “This human also insinuates that you were about to commit vile acts. He beg Your Lordship, to enlighten us regarding this matter and allow us to enact justice on his wretched mouth.”

 The dragon looks at Yijun, mouth hanging open at the accusations, kneeling with his hands behind him then back at King Jie. “All true,” he asserts.

 “I beg your pardon?” King Jie asks, taken aback.

 The dragon finishes his spell with a wave of his hands and turns to face King Jie fully. “I am here to destroy you.”

 He waves his sleeve, seemingly to send something at King Jie but a shower of arrows appeared from the trees on his left. 

A wind blade materializes from his side which he sends forth to the trees. It cuts through the trunks and screams sound from the depths. The tops of the trees fall off and birds fly into the sky.

 By then, the guards pull King Jie to safety while some of them advance on the dragon with spears. To the side, a group were chanting spells and making hand seals. The dragon nimbly avoids their attacks, flying in the air as roots shoots from the ground to pierce him along with pillars of earth. The warriors give chase, their spears growing long to catch him as they hop from pillar to pillar. The spellcasters shoot forth light as they weave a trap for him.  

 King Jie holds his sword, swinging it. Air slashes materialized in front of him and speeds toward the dragon where his movement is restrained by the roots, spells, and the pillars.

 A whip of glowing lightning falls from the dragon’s sleeves. He waves his arm and the whip slaps the magic attacks away. Deafening roars explode in the air as the whip makes contact with each slash. When all slashes are gone, he whips it again. It snakes through all the humans, stays still for a second then explodes with a blinding flash.

 Yijun feels pain at the back of his head as the explosion knocks him backward. His skin burns and he inhales the smell of burnt hair. His body twitches  on the ground surrounded by screams of pain. The twitches stop and he open his eyes. His surroundings were covered in dust and smoke. He turn to his stomach and force himself to crawl away from the sounds of metal clashing and explosions. Wind whistles past his ears and he instinctively curl up. Stones and dirt pelt his face, getting in his mouth and he spits it out as he continue to crawl. Finally, he senses the beginning of the slope and he pushes his body forward. He tumbles down the hill, away from the fighting.

 He hits the level ground and he runs towards the bushes. He stumbles forward into its ruffled branches as another explosion blasts behind his back. He yelps as a branch whips him in the face but he ignores it to crawl away again, deeper into the woods. A rush of wind hits him behind and he tumbles headfirst to the ground. He rolled to his back, pick his heels and runs. The grass cuts his ankles, branches draw scratches on his face but still He runs. He rolls down a gully and curls there, hands over his head, while explosions after explosions rocks the soil around him.

 He hears one big explosion then silence. He sticks his head out of the gully and sees the dragon holding King Jie by the neck as they hover in mid air. King Jie is struggling while the dragon looks at him as if he is examining a fierce puppy. Then he throws him down with such speed that the impact shoots forth a column of earth. When the rock and soil lands, everything becomes silent.

 Yijun gingerly picks himself up and heads towards the dragon, now standing at the lip of a crater where the hill used to be. The god glances at him, mistaking him perhaps as one of the human shamans. He sees it is Yijun so he returns his gaze over the horizon. Around him are uprooted trees and earth, with bodies all around. Yijun carefully pick his way to him, gritting his teeth and keeping the visions of the past from his eyes.

 Yijun is about to ask the dragon if it is over when he sees him raise his arms again. He follows where his arms are pointed and sees the dark clouds hanging over Jie Kingdom.

 “Wait, my lord what are you-”

 The dragon waves his arms down and a thousand lightning bolts from heaven crashes on the city right in front of Yijun’s eyes.