Chapter 70: Enemy

Givontair: 

For the first time, Ajax is serious about killing me. He wants me dead. To keep his life for eternity. Yet, I can't help but pity him. He is too blind to know that I will never try to fulfil the prophecy. Now, I seem him for the person he is.

He is the enemy. He will always be an enemy, until one of us expires.

A younger me would have been hurt, at the fact that my father sends necromancers after me. Yet, I don't give that hatchling's pain any voice. Instead, I go into the necromancer's personal space, and slash at him. 

I manage to cut through the shirt. What I see from the exposed skin, makes me jump back. This is not just any necromancer. This is a Plague Lord. I take a couple of steps back again, and ponder on what I should do next. The last thing I want, is to end up dead by the sicknesses he carries. 

"Make it easy on yourself, and stab yourself with that dagger," I hear Ajax call from the side. He sounds amused. Never before have I felt such hatred towards anyone. 

"You got damned worm!" I yell, as my fire glands prepare the cocktail of chemicals, which will allow me to breathe out fire. "You are not man enough to face me!" 

"True, that," Ajax shrugs. "To be truthful, I nearly let you keep your life. Do you know what changed my mind?" 

I am not given the option to retort, for the Plague Lord pulls down his mask, and throws a slime ball at me. It doesn't hit me, but it does splash on the ground. The surrounding grass withers before me. My eyes narrow. This is not the time, to let Ajax distract me. 

I do have one advantage, though. In my human form, I am more flexible. I weave back into the Plague Lord's personal space, and then try to gauge out one of his eyes. The dagger sinks into a hole. I don't bother pulling it out. This is not just any Plague Lord, but one who is at the verge of death. 

"Just what did Ajax promise you?" I yell at the necromancer. "I can heal you. You can live for many more years." 

"You think I can be bought?" The raspy sound that comes out of the being's mouth makes me shiver. It is comparable to nails on a blackboard. "I know only one ruler, and his name is Ajax the Bold." 

A loyalist? And here I thought they all gave up on my father when the world was liberated. I search the Plague Lord's mana for any odd currents. If he is this close to death, then there must be a cluster somewhere. 

I don't want to do this, but I don't have time. I coat my hands with healing mana, and then slam them into the Plague Lord's chest. Furthermore, I find the cluster, which is just over his heart. Before I manage to break it, and give the being its death, the Plague Lord grabs my hands. 

He wrenches my right one, and bites down on it. I punch the being, but the damage is done. The bite will be infected in the coming minutes, and I will have to heal myself. Yet, before I take care of myself, I undo the cluster. 

The Plague Lord turns into mucus, which poisons the grass. I look around, and see that Ajax has stood up. Without giving him much time to run away, I scoop up the mucus from the ground, and rush at him. 

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He seems to understand what will happen, for he tries to bathe me in flames. I sidestep them, and reach him, just as his stream dies. The way he is now, without the ability to breathe fire for the next minute, and without managing to get his dragon form, he is a sitting duck. 

I don't feel the same inner turmoil, I felt in the steps of Trelia. Ajax knows I take my job as a healer seriously. Yet, he brought a Plague Lord to a town. I can't even come back, until I am no longer infectious. All because of him!

"You are not my father," I snarl, and slap his mouth with the mucus. He takes a step back, and then pushes me to the ground. The first punch catches me unawares. 

"Do you know how hard it was, to not kill you? Do you know what shame I felt that my youngest would destroy everything I built, and end up a monster?" He punches me again. Just how is he this fast, in this form? He tries to punch me for a third time, but I catch his hand. 

I kick him in the stomach, and he is thrown back. I glare at him, as I take a stone from the ground. 

"Did it never occur to you, that I am not destiny's puppet?" I snarl, as I hurl the stone at him. "That I could have looked up to you, back when you were worth looking up to?" 

"My empire declined because of you!" Ajax hisses. He stands on his feet, and then prepares to breathe fire again. "If the people didn't know your destiny, they would have still trusted in me. Yet, you ruin everything, as usual." 

"It wasn't my fault that you are all too happy to burn settlements," I hiss back. I can feel the poison of the Plague Lord seeping into my bones. I try to stand up, but I feel as if my bones are as hollow as a bird's. "If you only cared about your subjects, you'd still be a king! Instead, you looked down on all the other races!" 

"The final war happened because of you, and that damn Fae!" Ajax accuses me. I see red, when he speaks of Alinar. He knows full well, that I still mourn him. My best friend is yet another reason, why I should just kill Ajax now. 

"Did you order his death? Did you take away from me the one who understood me the best?" I ask. A question which I wanted to ask for the past 1,000 years. 

"Get the only person who kept you sane killed? Do I look stupid to you, boy? How many times are you going to accuse me of such a thing?" Ajax's voice rises at the end. I blink back the tears. 

"Why can't you just be an accepting father?" I ask him, the tears prickling in my eyes. 

He doesn't respond. The next thing I know, he is limping away. The Plague Lord's poison must be spreading in his bones, yet, he keeps his head high. If I have ever thought of him as a parent, then now I become disillusioned with that.

 

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