Shinigami Rex (BK1): Lost Hope

Chapter 32

Dmitri and Vladimir locked swords in a bid to overpower each other. When neither gave ground, they pushed against their swords and slid apart to a halt. The excited yells of the Rex household reverberated through the hall and made everybody present to pause

“Now that’s music to my ears,” Dmitri whooped when he heard the collective shouts of his friends who were helping Rex. He twirled his swords around then pointed them at Vladimir with a smile. “How about we get serious?”

Vladimir swung his sword to the ground and the pressure cleared off all the dust around him. “As you wish, boy,” he replied as he leapt at Dmitri.

Across the hall, Drake lunged at the dragon but it sprung into the air and roared forcefully at Drake creating a blast of wind that pushed him back.

Drake covered his face with his arms to block the mass of air and saliva that spurted from the beast’s mouth. He slowly uncrossed his arms while taking in the deepest breath he ever had. He forcefully uncrossed his arms, firmly planted his right foot on the ground, bent forward and boomed out the loudest roar which echoed throughout the castle.

The force of his outburst not only cancelled out the dragon’s own, it pushed the stunned beast back by a couple of steps. 

It wildly wagged its tail in an effort to regain its balance and the ground cracked in the places it landed. 

Dmitri and Vladimir jumped back when the tail trashed close to them, but when the tail got back up, Dmitri noticed Vladimir was no longer on the ground.

“Damn!” he cursed when he saw Vladimir on the dragon’s tail and leapt for the tail. The beast now had its rider and by Vladimir’s orders it swiped its tail at Dmitri. 

Caught by surprise, Dmitri only had enough time to place his swords in front of him to block the scaly whip but he could not dodge the blow itself. He was flung across the room and would have crashed into the wall had Drake not dived behind him and caught him.

“Oof!” Dmitri gasped when he hit Drake’s hard scaly body. “Thanks,” he said when Drake let go of him and turned to the dragon. “Damn, my back hurts,” he joked while he made a show of cracking all the bones in his body and twisted his upper body in an attempt to ease the pain at his back. “I almost think the wall would have been better. Almost,” he said and winked at Drake.

“You’re taking my transformation quite well for a vampire,” Drake mentioned.

“Seriously?” Dmitri scoffed. “Dude, hang out with Rex for a couple of years and you’ll see shit that they don’t even tell in stories. A kid who turns half dragon is nowhere in my ‘Holy Crap’ radar.”

“Holy what?”

“Yeah. Liz jumping off a beast into a flock of deadly creatures in midair with a smile that would make the devil cringe is way up on my radar.”

“I don’t have time to bother with your weirdness. We got bigger problems to deal… God, no.” Drake swore when he saw a dull black glow on Vladimir who was deep in meditation at the back of the dragon.

“A talking lizard calling me weird; Now I’ve seen…”

“Shut up vamp! We’re in deep shit cause of your distractions.”

“What’s… oh,” Dmitri gulped when he recognized the glow, “Well things just got a bit complicated. Didn’t stop to consider him being a legit rider.”

“Me neither,” Drake croaked when he realized he had slighted the noble beast by thinking it was a slave to Vladimir. To the astonishment of the two vampires, he got to his knees and bowed his head in reverence. “Thy forgiveness I plead, noble beast of the skies. I wrongly judged and showed thee great disrespect. I beg of thee one more chance to prove my worth.”