From Another World (DISCONTINUED)

Chapter 14: Darkness

A dragon attacked a town which made Flare contact Captain Noel. We traveled a bit and I found out that they knew the dragon personally. Her name was Coco and she was supposed to be a friendly dragon.

While waiting for information on the dragon's whereabouts, I met Artia, a mage who was investigating a strange energy which was causing monsters to become more aggressive. I suspected that the strange energy was affecting Coco.

My suspicions were proven correct when the dragon attacked us when we were attempting to talk to her. Captain Noel and Flare were doing well in fighting her so I investigated another source of the weird energy.

And now a bandaged man wearing robes was touching my forehead with his arm that was coated with darkness. If my theory was correct, he would be attempting to give me a bit of that strange energy. I don't know what the effects on humans would be but I had no choice but to find out the hard way.

"Release yourself", he said.

But nothing happened.

The man was so surprised that the chains wrapping around me weakened and I could move again. I broke the chains and I swung my sword. My strike hit his torso and I managed to wound him...

However, instead of blood, darkness oozed out of the wound. That was creepy. The man didn't even look in pain and was looking at me in confusion. I backed away and pointed my sword at him.

"To be unaffected by the Dark Corruption... What are you?" he asked me.

What am I? Wasn't it supposed to be a "who" instead of a "what"?

"Although I only heard it from them, the Dark Corruption is supposed to affect humans too. But seeing you unaffected by it... How interesting", he said.

The eerie feeling returned as a dark aura emerged from the man. He was probably serious now. I could feel a cold sweat running down my face. The bandaged man faced his palm towards me and a wave of darkness surged out of it.

It covered a huge area and I couldn't possibly avoid it. That was why I braced myself for whatever pain it would bring.

However, there was nothing. It felt like having a breeze blow through me. What kind of attack was this?

The wave of darkness disappeared and the bandaged man looked at me.

"Even that amount of darkness did not faze you... What exactly are you?" he asked.

His eyes looked straight at me. He seemed to be analyzing everything about me.

"This was fun... But I have to take my leave now", he said and a magic circle appeared on the spot where he was standing.

"Wait!" I charged at him.

"We will definitely meet again. After all, you are an interesting existence", he disappeared after a flash of light.

Tch. He teleported. What was he doing here?

I then felt the strange energy nearby Captain Noel become stronger. Ah crap... I totally forgot about them!

When I arrived at the place where they were fighting, I saw an impossible sight. The dragon was lying on the ground while Captain Noel was panting with her right fist raised.

She had dirt and soot over her clothes and the area around them were filled with debris. They probably had a tough fight while I was busy with the bandaged man.

"Captain Noel!" I ran towards her.

"Mikage..." she had a grim expression.

"How's the dragon?"