Wherever the fog had spit Leander out was nowhere near the lake. It seemed that although Leander had thought he was moving in a reasonably straight line, he had moved to the left at some point. Although it was an annoyance, Leander was happy enough not to have been running into the mountains. Not that getting lost in the mountains was his main concern anymore, but rather… what lived in the fog.
Creatures large enough to shake the ground with every step, a voice that sounded human but also ate away at his soul. Had Leander stayed within the fog, would he have discovered more creatures that put his very life in danger? Could he have died?
The thought sent a shiver down Leander's spine. Rubbing the back of his head, Leander looked around himself.
'I am so lost…'
The lake was nowhere in sight, leaving Leander on the border of the Wilds. At first, he had thought about following the wall of fog down until he found the lake – Leander eventually decided to put as much distance between himself and the fog as possible.
Leander didn't think the creatures of the fog could leave its boundaries, but it was not a subject he was willing to test.
Walking into the Wilds, Leander angled his path forward so that he would eventually reach the lake. That was half a day ago; now, the sun shone brightly down on the land of beasts. Surprisingly, Leander had yet to face a beast in combat; the few he had come across left him alone. Was this because he was undead and they would gain nothing from fighting him, or did their instincts warn them of this new predator that had entered their home?
Staring at the ground as he continued onwards, Leander squinted as a large shadow fell over him. Turning around, he looked up to see how big the cloud was that had blocked the sun.
'That's a pity, I was just starting to enjoy the warmth-'
A pair of large reptilian jaws descended from the sky, about to take a large bite out of Leander. Watching the jaws, Leander froze, not because of the gaping maw that grew closer with every moment of his hesitation, but due to Leander's instincts screaming at him to use anima and pull on the power of his soul. With only a second left to react, Leander threw himself towards the jaws. Diving under the gaping maw, Leander heard the teeth crash together as he rolled forward.
Now underneath the beast that had tried to take a bite out of him, spreading his feet, Leander clenched his fist and brought out all of the strength in his body as he swung upwards, delivering an uppercut directly into the brown scales of the beast's underbelly.
A pained growl escaped from the beast as it flapped its wings, trying to get away from Leander. Before the beast had time to escape, Leander threw his second fist up, aiming at the same spot his first fist had hit – the consecutive punch struck the same location, dealing enough damage to break one of the beast's ribs.
This time, the beast managed to free itself from Leander's onslaught. With a flap of its wings, it moved backwards several dozen metres, giving Leander a good view of what had attacked him.
Despite his lack of memory, Leander recognised the beast in an instant – it was a dragon. Its dark brown scales shimmered faintly under the afternoon sun, their scales reminding Leander of his own scale armour. The only difference was that the beast bore a jagged scar near where its heart would be. Near its head, the dark scales gave way to patches of dull purple hair, adding a strange, regal wildness to its appearance. A pair of slender horns adorned its head, jutting upwards with a slight curve. Its massive wings spread behind it. It stood on four powerful limbs, the front pair eerily resembling hands, their unsettling dexterity hinting at an intelligence beyond mere instinct.
And where there was a dragon, there was fire. So, as the beast reared up onto its hind legs, Leander dropped to one knee and covered his head with his arms, preparing for the incoming flame. A moment later, the dragon slammed down onto its forelegs. To Leander's surprise, he wasn't annihilated by a surging source of fire; instead, the dragon simply roared, charging forward.
A moment of confusion passed Leander by as he went to draw his sword, but the dragon was already upon him, one of its fanged hands raised to crush him. Knowing he could move out of the way and evade this attack just as he had its gnashing teeth, Leander wanted to test something.
As the dragon's hand came crashing down, Leander did not move – instead, he put his arms up, positioning his legs to brace for the impact. The dragon's hand did crash into Leander, but instead of showing surprise.
Leander grinned.
'This beast is weaker than Lewren.'
Throwing its hand to the side, Leander dashed forward his fists brought up to his chest. The dragon growled, trying to swat Leander with its other hand, but to its annoyance, Leander ducked to the side, stamping his foot into the ground. Leander bent his arm, striking the beast in the jaw. Causing it to flinch backwards from the pain.
Leander's eyes narrowed.
'This beast is nowhere near the level Lewren was on, it's evident in how it tried to attack me from behind. Descending from the sky in an ambush. Had this dragon been anywhere near Lewren's strength, it would have attacked me head-on.'
Before the dragon could withdraw from the fight again, Leander threw punch after punch against its face. He struck it to the right, to the left, driving his elbow into its nose. Had it just been his fists, Leander might not have dealt much damage, but his punches, enhanced by the gauntlets of his armour, to the dragon, every punch felt like a hammer.
'I overestimated it at first, It's not every day you meet a dragon that is weak but this beast. It's actually only as strong as a manyfang. Of course, it would kill a manyfang, but fundamentally it is on the same level.'
Despite the dragon's best efforts at attacking Leander, the man paid its attacks little notice, either dodging by ducking under them or striking them with his own fist, stopping their momentum. As he continued his assault, Leander thought back to his fight against Lewren. How the beast's tail had moved with such inexplicable speed that it left Leander with no room to fight back.
'Lewren bested me because of his use of anima. The moment I used anima, I quickly turned the tables on that creature… Until my soul broke.'
The dragon began spreading its wings; seeing this, Leander smirked.
'But this dragon can't use anima.'
Leander struck the dragon one final time, his fist landing perfectly on the dragon's skull, already concussed due to how much Leander had been assaulting its head. The dragon fell to the ground, unconscious.
Resisting the urge to pat himself on the back, Leander knew this victory wasn't much to behold. He had simply overpowered something weaker than him; beating this dragon meant as much as beating a manyfang.
Preparing to draw his sword and finish the beast, Leander paused as the blade made it a few inches out of the scabbard.
The scar on the dragon's chest made Leander think. This dragon would have known he was undead; thus, killing him would result in no food, as eating the flesh of an undead was as good as eating rotten meat. No matter how human-like Leander may seem, at the end of the day, he was just a zombie. A zombie reanimated by more advanced magic.
'Which means this dragon was desperate, so desperate it would have eaten rotten flesh...'
For this reason, Leander's happy mood soured.
Sheathing the sword, Leander gave the unconscious dragon one more look, an almost pitiful gaze. Before continuing onward, surely the lake wasn't that far away.
----
Three days later, Leander finally reached his destination.
Smoke billowed out from the chimney of a shack that stood in the clearing of a small forest. On the porch of the shack, a man sat in a rocking chair, his eyes closed, rocking back and forth. Leander's hand moved to the hilt of his sword as he noticed a pair of short, thin, blood-red horns sticking out of the man's long white hair that was tied up behind his head. A thin smoking pipe was held in the corner of his lips, swaying back and forth as he rocked.
Before Leander could speak, the man spoke without opening his eyes. His voice was calm despite the armed figure that had just walked up to his home.
"You here to kill me?"
Leander paused, tilting his head slightly. Moving his hand off of his sword, Leander shook his head as he answered:
"No. Melaine sent me here. She said you can fix my sword."