The Celestial Way

Chapter 13 - Warrior's Way

CHAPTER 13 – WARRIOR'S WAY

"Listen well, Aspirants! Once in battle, forget about morals, ethics, right and wrong, good and evil – those things are used beforehand, and if you are already fighting, it means you have failed. In combat, it's simple to tell apart winners from losers: at the end of the day, the winners are still breathing.

Still, there's a twist not many live long enough to learn: sometimes you win, only to lose; and sometimes, in order to win, you have to lose."

– excerpt from combat training lecture at the Starspire Academy, circa 229 RE

Come morning, Airo had a short, intense conversation with Veralla. The dragonet was restless, pacing around the circular room and flapping her wings.

"Why are you called the Dragonslayer? Is it because you killed dragons seven centuries ago?" she asked.

"Yes and no," Airo replied. He was practicing martial techniques with the katana, going through the moves in calm and focused fashion. He had gotten better at rekindling his skills, and intended to turn this into a daily routine as he had done in his previous life.

"I do not understand," Veralla said, after he didn't add anything further. "How can both acknowledgment and rejection be true at the same time? Does becoming a dragonslayer require... something else, besides... killing dragons?"

"There are no other dragonslayers," he said, slashing the air. "There is only one. Me. The Dragonslayer." He stepped forward, turning the current kata into a fluid seven-strike flurry.

Veralla stopped pacing, and her slit-pupiled eyes fixed on him. "...why?" she hrrr–ed.

Airo felt her intensity, and ceased his exercise. He faced her. "Everyone fought against the dragons during the Red Colony Campaign," he said quietly. "It took the effort of many to bring down even a single dragon. I made it possible for everyone to kill a dragon."

"Why?" Veralla murmured again.

"I created veronite," he said. He met the dragonet's amethyst gaze, and struggled against the overwhelming memories it evoked. "Thousands of your kind died because of my invention. And I personally ended the life of more dragons than anyone else. Thus I became the Dragonslayer." He averted his eyes, looking through the room's narrow window at the clear weather outside. "As to why I did it, the answer is simple: I was at war. It was not my war, and I was not even affected by it. Yet I took part in it. I watched friends die all around me, victims of a conflict which sent all of us far away from our homes across the vast ocean of stars. In the end, it was for nothing. However, it was a war all the same. In a war, you fight for your life, and the life of your comrades. Nothing else matters." Airo sighed, and sheathed the katana. "It was us against the dragons. They killed many of us, and would have killed many others, including me. So I killed them in turn. And continued to do so. Until... until things changed."

Veralla listened to him with an unhappy, yet pensive expression. "Why did you take part in that war, if it did not affect you?" she asked, after reflecting for a minute.

"Why indeed..." Airo uttered, his eyes focusing somewhere far away. He caught himself after several lingering moments. "I think it was ultimately a mistake on my part. I was young, and like every typical adolescent I desired adventure, a chance to see new horizons and to discover new experiences. So I went to the Starspire Academy, where the best and brightest on my homeworld were trained to become Magisters, people of honor and prestige.

"Yet things turned out differently for me. Somewhere along the way, I was made a soldier instead. An elite warrior, trained to kill and fight at the bequest of others. I realized that too late. By then, I had experienced loss, had bled blood and tears, and had become what I am. The Dragonslayer."