Chapter 5: Dreamers

At the last possible moment Teus reflexively bent his knees and let his torso drop backward, narrowly evading the wind blast. Thick strands of his hair gently floated down towards the dirt below. A heavy grunt left Teus’ mouth as his body slammed against the ground.

“That was close!”

Whoosh!

Whoosh!

Whoosh!

But the sounds of Mister Fluff and Puff’s sword slashing through the breeze alerted him that the worst was yet to come.

He quickly scrambled to his feet and readied himself to dodge some more. 

The swings of the heavy sword cut a swath through the air like a tempest. The air pressure from the swing of the old man’s blade caused the very land to split. Teus frantically moved his body out of the way for each wave before it recklessly crashed into the ground or the walls of the buildings around them. Kicking up chunks of dirt and debris as it went.

Sweat fell from his chin as he took a leap back.

“What’s so wrong with my dream of wanting to be the one to find the King’s Crest? A treasure hunter is naturally going to want that adventure!”

A gust of wind flashed by Teus.

From his peripheral view he saw the ground crack beside him, forming a mini fissure. His pupils shrunk when he realized how close it was to him.

“...He’s really angry this time!"

He looked back to see the old man, rushing towards him for a close range swing. Still in his comical fury.

“No pupil of mine will venture for the King’s Crest, you’ll only meet a horrific end! So I’ll cut off your legs now so that you can’t go! At least that way you can still live, you’ll thank me later!"

Teus jumped in the air dodging the next strike from below him.

“As if! Look here, old timer, if you cut off my legs I'll just crawl my way there!”

The old man prepared for another strike as Teus descended from the air. 

“Then I’ll cut your arms too!”

Mid swing of his blade, the boy landed on his ankle and fell backwards, completely losing balance. Behind him was the fire that the two had used to fry the fish they were eating, right in his course of drop. With a crash he slammed against the sticks and flames before immediately rolling over. The sword missed him and fell inches from where his feet had been.

The old man prepared another swing, hoisting the sword over his head.

Teus saw the descending blade in his direction and quickly scoffed.

“My dragon core may not work but I’m not completely defenseless!”

He used all the strength in his legs to lunge upwards at the old man. Keeping account of his timing he pivoted on his left foot, spinning the rest of his body out of the direction of the large sword, barely missing it as it clipped pieces of his hair. 

“My strongest technique!...”

He stuck out his index and middle finger as he jabbed them into the old man’s eyeballs, utilizing the momentum of his swing.

“Arghh!” The old man reeled backwards in pain as he yelped.

Teus stood proudly with his arms crossed.

“...The Twin Dragon’s Arrow never fails!”

But his victory was short lived as the old man quickly regathered his bearings and effortlessly freed his sword from the dirt and swung it downwards towards Teus again.

Still in the falling blade’s pathway Teus quickly got up and looked for somewhere to escape the wrath of the elderly man. 

He was panicking.

“Oh no! The same move isn’t gonna work on him twice!”

Though before any more thoughts could go through his mind he noticed a distinct smell.

He noticed the smell of burning cloth.

Instinctively turning his head over his shoulder as his nose guided him to the source of the fire, he saw the flames eating away at his scarf.

The blade was seconds away from his head.

“Ah, damnit!”

Without delay, he grabbed the scarf and blew the flames out, fervently patting the cloth to kill the fire as quickly as he possibly could. Each slap against the scarf was more filled with passion than the last and his eyes fixated on the spot that the flame had left on his garment, not even paying the slightest bit of attention to the impending doom before him.

“You forgot to dodge…”

The blade stopped, inches before his forehead.

Teus looked at the sword in front of him and momentarily winced, as though for a split second he had forgotten where he was.

The expression of the old man became etched with a somber hint of sorrow and guilt. More than anything, pity. His next words lacked the boisterous tonality he had brandished before and exhibited a more compassionate inflection.

“Teus, you… really care about that scarf I gave you, don’t you?”

The child clenched it tightly before answering. A resolute look in his eyes began to form.

“Of course I do! This right here is my most valuable treasure! Remember Mister Fluff and Puff?”

The old man wore a guilty look on his face before dropping his sword to the side of him, causing a heavy thud. He sat on the ground leaned against the cold metal of the blade and placed his elbows on his knees before he gave a deep sigh. 

“...Ah…fine, you win…”

Teus resumed his tending to the scarf before looking back at the old man.

“We’re lucky. There's still a mark but It looks like there was minimal damage done to it, we should be good! What do you think?”

He handed the scarf over to the old man before he also examined it.

“Yeah, it's fine…”

****

Later on the two returned to eating the fish they had prepared. They had completely finished all the fish faster than he had expected. As always, the old man’s appetite was nothing to underestimate. Teus reluctantly watched the old man eat his dead rat, bit by bit. 

“I think I’m losing my appetite.”

The words of the old man snapped Teus right back into reality.

“I’m sorry about what happened before, Teus. I got carried away.”

“Huh, it’s okay. I know how things happen when you get angry.”

He looked around the area that had now reassembled more of a battlefield than an alleyway. Broken pieces of barrels, wooden boxes and debris had fallen everywhere and the walls were scarred by the old man’s blade. Cuts and cracks were deep into the ground. The part that shocked Teus the most was that he knew the old man was not even using all of his strength in that moment.

“Same as always, his power is incredible!”

Teus patted the old man on the shoulder as a sly smirk extended across his face.

“If you really want to make it up to me, you can always teach me how to wield a sword like you so I can find the King’s Crest.”

The old man immediately reengaged in his hostile tone.

“You’re out of your mind! No pupil of mine is going to dream of going after that thing! As long as that’s your goal, I’ll never teach you the way of the sword! The King’s Crest is a lost cause!”

Teus began to frown.

“No it’s not! I heard there are still groups of people searching for it, even to this day!”

“Those people are groups of idiots who don’t know the first thing about fighting a real dragon!”

A grim expression took over the old man’s face. He gazed into the fire with a sombre expression, brooding over memories of his past life.

“Teus, fighting a dragon as a Beast Breaker is one thing. But to go actively looking for them in their own territory is a whole other story.”

He took another bite out of his cooked rat.

“Those monsters are different from any beast you can encounter on this planet. Intense research was required before the battle even started. Their advantages, their weaknesses, you had to know it all before engaging, even then, your victory was not always assured. Some of them required entire teams of breakers, all of us were highly trained and some picked out specifically for the purpose of exploiting the dragon’s particular weakness…”

The old man sighed before continuing. His voice only grew more cold and stoic as he went on.

“Even with perfect planning, a coordinated team and flawless execution, I still managed to lose many of my closest comrades… It was always more than expected, less than what tomorrow had planned… And through it all, the dragons seemed to wage war so effortlessly, mocking our best at every turn.”

Gritting his teeth, with his back still turned to Teus, he bit the last bit of his rat, finishing his meal.

“When I say we’re dreamers. I mean that, but there’s a difference between improbable and impossible. Get chased by bears all you want but dragons are totally different. I can only imagine since I returned to humanity’s borders the dragon population has grown even more since then. Probably several times the size of ours. And their highest ranks exist in the core of Gayeal, even higher around the King’s Crest, if they haven’t destroyed it already. Compared to the dragons, we’re just peasants they haven’t squashed yet… But none of that is going to stop you from trying… is it Teus?”

The child shook his head.

“Eventually, someone is going to find the King’s Crest. There’s no reason why it can’t be me. If the problem is that the dragons were strong, then I’ll just have to get stronger than they are.”

Without looking, the old man boinked Teus on the top of his head again.

“Don’t be an idiot, it’s not as simple as that. I’m telling you we’re nothing but filthy peasants to those monsters, not even worth the trouble of killing.”

“There’s no proof of that!”

“What…” The old man creased his forehead trying to figure out what Teus meant.

“I’ll prove that they’re wrong! I’ll prove that we’re more than that when I find the King’s Crest!” 

The old man took another deep breath.

“...There’s no amount of treasure hunting in the world that can prepare you for a task like that.”

A bright grin flashed across Teus' face at the mention of that.

“I’m way closer to it than you think! Take a look at this!”

Teus rubbed the crown of his head before he shuffled his way to the front of the old man’s view. Watching the child reach into his pocket he raised an eyebrow in confusion before he saw a gem firmly held in the boy’s hand. His eyes widened.

Presenting him with a luminescent stone with an azure glare that had an insignia mark on its center, the boy beamed a confident grin.

“After all the time I spent searching for one in the abandoned dungeon, I finally found a functioning dragon core!”

The old man dropped his jaw out of shock. 

He had been hearing about Teus’ escapades in the abandoned dungeons but he figured that he wouldn’t have found anything useful. Dungeons were usually battle grounds where high ranking dragons, who ruled over lower ranking beasts, were ambushed by a group of Beast Breakers. While it was perfectly normal to find things like relics and weaponry in an abandoned dungeon, due to so many warriors dying in battle, to find something as valuable as a dragon core was very unlikely. His thoughts began to take a morbid turn.

“How many bodies did he have to sift through before finding that?”

The old man tilted his head to the right before replying.

"Do you even know how to use that?”

Teus rubbed the bridge of his nose with the side of his index finger and allowed himself a conceited smirk.

“I think you want to hear about my masterplan!”

“Uh, that’s not what I asked-”

“If you insist! I knew that If I could only just bond a dragon core with a weapon then I could wield the strength of a dragon once I’m recognized as its master! So I thought to myself, where can I find a dragon core? Then it hit me! The abandoned dungeon near Thorinhil was a magnificent place to look since so many fights took place there. Or so I thought, It felt like I was searching for it endlessly for the last two years! The moment I found it, I was just about to quit for the day until I finally found one. And the best part of it all: Since I looked through an abandoned dungeon I don’t have to go through the trouble of killing the dragon myself, pretty ingenious right?”

The old man fought the urge to yawn during the explanation before he chortled.

“Interesting strategy, I’ll give you that. But how are you going to get recognized as its master?”

Teus’ gaze quickly averted the old man’s as he nervously muttered.

“...That’s the problem, I’ve been trying to bond it to a weapon for months now. I have no idea what I’m doing…”