Metsryuu.
By: Mostafa Hani
Goblins, dragons, griffins and elves. Creatures deemed once nonexistent and mythical. Merely bed time story creatures. But… What if they did exist? Maybe they weren’t myths after all? These questions always seemed to cross my mind countless times. Until I saw it with my bare eyes…
“Incoming flame breath at 10 o’clock, take cover!” As a knight clad in a yellow armor that seemed to shine like the radiant light of the sun and wielding Rairyuken , a sword that resembled Zeus’s lightning bolt howled at me in the loudest pitches of his voice. “Thanks ,Yamada” I shouted back as I ran to the nearest rock and hid behind it. “The dragon’s getting tired, now’s our chance to take it down!”Said another knight, but this time, a more feminine voice let these words out, it was our command center’s leader, Akira, who had entire vision of the barren wasteland that we called the battlefield which was ruined due to the countless battles we had with many dragons. I signaled Inuzuka, the knight clad in the Aquos Armor which enabled him to control the power of the water. He was our defender, wielding the unbreakable Poseidon shield, he was our cover. I signaled him that we are going for an all out attack, and he nodded back. As I gathered my resolve and drew my sword that emitted white hot flames, Karyuuken was its name. On the count of 3, Inuzuka and I let out a battle roar and charged furiously at the mighty dragon…..
“Haru, Haruuu, wake up already, you’re going to be late for school!” I suddenly opened my eyes to see a round face with big eyes and long hair. I jumped back and hit my head to the backboard of the bed. “Owww that hurts!”
I exclaimed.”Bahahaha! That was hilarious!” My sister Shoko stood in front of me as she bursted into laughter. “Not funny” I said as I flung a pillow towards her.
“Comeon Haru, you have school remember,” “ fine fine” I groaned as I headed towards the bathroom.
The name’s Haruto, Tokishima Haruto, a nobody living a normal high school student life. I’m living with my sister Shoko as my parents are in another country, they are never around.. You get used to it eventually. I am no exceptional person, at all, really. All I have is my really wild imagination, which got me into countless troubles. As a kid, I was fascinated by stories of dragons, mighty, fire breathing winged creatures that were deemed the mightiest of all mythical creatures. I like playing video games, watching anime, and playing football and basketball. This was my sad reality, I wasn’t a dragon slayer or a warrior of great might.
“I’m off to school now, have a nice day!” I said to Shoko as I left home for school, on the way I met up with Rukino.
Rukino’s my childhood friend, I’ve known her since I was a little kid in 1st grade, and ever since then, we became friends. “Mornin’ Haru” Rukino enthusiastically said to me to which I bluntly replied, “Mornin’” “Geez, you’re as gloomy and dark as ever, have you ever considered changing your attitude to, I don’t know, A MORE CHEERFUL ONE!” Rukino howled at me as she nudged me slightly. “Not really, it’s too much work to do, you know how lazy I can be, besides, one goof like you is enough, two is too much for the world to handle.” I replied. “Whatever, idiot” She shot me with that reply; the rest of our walk to school was silent.
“Take out your books and study, two weeks until examinations begin!” Said Mr.Moseby as he walked into our class lookin as annoying as ever. I thought to myself, “Ugh, I have to deal with this guy on a daily basis, I seriously can’t stand him.” I took out my literature book from my bag and set it up on the desk, then I pretended to be reading and proceeded to take out my phone, access my school’s wifi network, and started to chat with some of my online buddies.
Ordinary high school student shenanigans. I am certain I was discovered by Rukino simply due to the fact that I was chatting with her.
The rest of the day was pretty normal until lunch break because then… the most unexpected thing happened…
As I went to have lunch with Rukino, the wind mightily blew, and clouds started to gather, I thought that was pretty awkward because the weather forecasters said today is a very sunny day, I guess I shouldn’t be trusting the news reports so much. All of a sudden a giant rift appeared in the sky from which a humongous, white dragon with wings that gave off a radiant light like that of a neon bulb’s appeared all of a sudden. I stood there motionless as my jaw dropped in awe. All of a sudden the dragon started gathering up a white ball of light in his mouth, which he flicked at the entire school, blasting us into what seemed like oblivion, the last thing I remember was seeing flashes of blue and yellow light before passing out..
“Nghh… where… am I?” I asked as I regained consciousness. I found myself lying in what seemed like a regeneration capsule you see in sci fi movies. I started stumbling towards what seemed like an elevator, holding onto any object I find for support, and as soon as I entered the elevator, I pressed the only button it had, which had the letters H and Q.
As I went up, I was looked at by bunch of people, 2 guys and a girl. “Thank God you’re safe, we thought you were dead!” The girl said. “Dead? What on Earth happened ?” I replied, still confused. “Please excuse my partner Akira”, one of the guys said. This guy seemed to give off an aura of wisdom and looked like quite the good guy, not to mention, he was handsome. “ The name’s Inuzuka, nice to meet you.” He sternly replied. “Nice to meet you too, my name’s Tokishima Haruto, but you can call me Haru” I replied as I came back to my full senses, not feeling any of the exhaustion I felt before. “This is Yamada”, before Inuzuka continued, he was abruptly interrupted,” I TOLD YOU TO CALL ME THUNDER!”The other loudly yelled as I jumped back from fright.
“But yeah, I’m Yamada, nice to meet you, I’m not good with all the chit chat.”He said.” Nice to meet you I guess.
“Now, mind telling me what is up with all of this? Where am I and what happened? More importantly, who are you guys?” “I’ll do that” Inuzuka replied. “This is Module 77, you’re currently under the ocean, 10000 ft to be precise.
“Oh oka- WHAT? 10000FT?”I replied sharply upon perceiving what Inuzuka just said. “Get yourself together, scaredy cat!” Yamada replied, “now shut up and listen before I beat you to a pulp!” Yamada said, threatingly.”Okay. Sorry.” I cowered down.
“Ahem, moving on, listen closely, Haru, we are a group called the Metsryuu, we fight dragons from different dimensions, called Dimensional Magiuses. Now, these aren’t ordinary dragons that you’ve heard about in fairy tales and myths, these are dragons capable of time and space wrapping, among many other astonishing feats.” And that means?” I asked looking dumbfounded as possible.” That means, we are a group of people who fight dragons.” “Oh Okay-WAIT WHAT?” “How is that even possible??!!” At this point I was met with a fist that bashed me into the ground. “Hey what was that for, Yamada!” “I told you it’s Thunder! And I also told you to stay calm and shut up and listen!” Yamada yelled at me , furious by my idiocy that seemed to never end. “Then that dragon that appeared at my school earlier…” I said slowly. “Yes, that was a Dimensional Magius too.”“Rukino…” “WHERE’S RUKINO?”I asked in fear of the worst,” Oh don’t worry, she’s completely fine in another recuperation room aboard Module 77” Akira said reliefingly. “Phew, thank God.” I said as I sighed.
“Now, we brought you here to not only recover, but to help us fight that white Dimensional Magius, are you going to help us? Inuzuka asked me quietly. “Yes I will” I replied without thought. “But there’s one problem, I don’t know how to fight, I’m such a wimp, besides, I don’t have whatever you guys use to fight these monsters.” “Yamada will take care of that, now let’s get you in shape, we need you ready in 3 days, because that’s when we were informed that the white dragon, codenamed Cain is going to appear.” “Nice to meet you, I’m going to make you my little guinea pig, get ready, you’re in for one hell of a training regime. Hehehe.” Said Yamada as he approached me slowly.
I gulped in fear and nodded in agreement. The next few days were…. Painful. Yamada had me train using sword, nunchucks, guns, staffs and lastly, hand to hand combat, he also made me run 10 miles each 3 hours. Akira taught me countless combat tactics while Inuzuka told me more about Dimensional Magiuses and more about their weaknesses and strengths. Every day after training, I went to check up on Rukino to make sure she’s fine, as she was quite weak and tired.
The night before the epic clash between us, the Metsryuu and the mighty Dimensional Magius, Cain, I went to check up on Rukino…
“Rukino? Are you awake?” I said as I knocked her room’s door.”Yeah, come in, Haru.” She said, and then she continued as I entered the room and sat on the chair next to her bed “Tomorrow’s the big day Haru, are you nervous?”She asked “To be honest, I really am, I mean, I’m going to fight a dragon that breathes flames, who wouldn’t be nervous, but the fact that this is what I always imagined about makes me feel much better so yeah, I think I’m fine.”I replied. “Well Haru… Just so you know.. I love you.” She said as she blushed and her face started turning red like a tomato.”Rukino… I’ll make sure I’ll kill that Magius and survive somehow, then, I’ll tell you my answer.” I said as I was trying to be romantic, but deep in my mind, I wasn’t sure if I was going to survive. “Well, I’m going to sleep, I need as much rest as I can get , goodnight Rukino” I said as I left the room while smiling at her” “Good…night” she replied. I sensed that there was something bothering her, but I didn’t ask, I was too busy thinking about tomorrow.
The next morning, I woke up to Inuzuka’s voice,” Wake up, there is one more thing you have to do before we head out” “Nnghhh, alright I’m coming…”
I followed Inuzuka throughout the hallways and corridors of Module 77 until we reached a room that looked like an arsenal of sorts.
“Here, put this on your chest” Inuzuka said as he gave me a round, circular device.” What the heck is this?” I said as I put it on my chest, before I even continued, the device pierced my chest; I let out a roar of pain as staggered back.
“This is an armor fitter, it implements the power of one of the elemental armors into you, but you don’t get to choose the armor, the armor chooses you.”
“But.. that was painful “ I said as I found myself being engulfed by marvelous crimson flames, “Uhhh Inuzuka? I’M ON FIRE OVER HERE, HELP” I said as I kept running around in circles. “Hold on a sec, this doesn’t burn.” As the fire finally settled down, I found myself clad in a crimson armor that emitted strong heat waves. “This is so cool… I said to myself”. “ Ah, it seems the armor of fire, Igneel chose you, and with the sword Ignius in its sheath near your right leg, you are known as the Knight of Fire. Kari no Kishi.”
“Now, let’s head out.” Inuzuka said, looking as serious as ever. I walked with him and together, we went to get Yamada who has practicing his sword skills, and then as the 3 of us stood there, the 3 elemental knights of the Metsryuu, we told Akira we are going to the location using the teleporter.
We headed to the teleporter and in the blink of eye, I found myself in a barren wasteland, and in a few seconds, the Dimensional Magius, Cain, appeared out of thin air in front of us.
“This is it guys… let’s kick some Magius butt!” Yamada said as he recklessly charged at Cain. Without hesitation, Inuzuka and I followed him.
As we were charging at Cain, I noticed something, this fight was exactly the same as the one I had in my dream a couple of days ago, remembering the details of the dream, I quickly yelled” Incoming flame breath at 10 o’clock, take cover!”
Without questioning my sudden request, Inuzuka and Yamada followed my order just like I did, and surprisingly, I was right. Inuzuka and Yamada stood behind the rocks in awe as they looked at me.
Knowing the key to winning this fight, I started giving out orders, all while relaying Cain’s movements, but then, Cain managed to severely injure Yamada by clawing him , “YAMADA!” I yelled as I rushed towards him.
“Hey…. Kid, make sure to win this… for all of us.” He said as he passed away slowly in my arms.
I didn’t believe what happened, but then, I decided that we needed to end this and fast because Inuzuka started showing signs of heavy fatigue, following my dream, I signaled Inuzuka that we are going in for an all out attack and he nodded in agreement, and then I drew out my sword, Ignius and made a run for Cain, as he started to claw me, Inuzuka jumped in front of me and used his shield to protect us, I then got in front of Inuzuka and hopped onto Cain’s arm, starting running towards his head in fury of what happened to Yamada, and with one mighty slash from Ignius, I separated Cain’s head from his body… “Phew, I guess this is over…” I knew It was over but I had a feeling of uneasiness.
I saw Cain’s body glowing and took a defensive stance, the next thing I saw was a white spirit, it shined like a diamond and it started going upwards in the sky as it materialized into a winged, delicate looking creature.
I stood there in shock, not able to comprehend what happened, but then I heard a voice, “Metsryuu, you freed me from the body of the Magius… one wish is yours.”
Normally, anyone would wish for a lot of money or something materialistic as that, I simply stated my wish” I wish everything would return back to normal and that everyone who died would come back to life.”
“Very well.” And then the spirit started shining brighter and brighter until it faded away. At the same time, Inuzuka and I collapsed.
I woke up in my own bed, with Shoko in front of me telling me to wake up for school, I thought I was dreaming again, but this time I opened my wardrobe to find to my surprise, Igneel and Ignius.
I smiled, got into my school outfit and headed out.
A few moments later, I met up with Rukino. “ Soo, what is your answer” She said as she flipped her hair backwards.
“Well, what’s always a good ending to a story full of dragon slaying , of course yes, I love you too.” I said as I smiled
At school, the most awkward thing happened, 3 students transferred to my class, to my surprise, standing there were Akira, Yamada and Inuzuka.
They all looked at me, smiled and then walked across the class to me, thanked me and sat down as Mr.Moseby came in…
The End
