The Nine Dragons The Dragon King Part Nine

 More Soldiers 

It was late in the morning when Loc woke up. She thought about the ten men and fifty eagles. The battles the two days before. Her body ached and she felt tension in her chest and upper abdomen. She felt cold too. She let out a deep breath as she shakily slipped out of the bed. Then slowly she walked to the chair next to the window. Once she sat down and looked outside to the black patch on the horizon.

Now that is one down, yet I know that ten men and eagles just will not beat what’s ahead.

Yeah, which means I will need more but I don’t think I want to convince people to commit suicide! No, if they all die then I will have to do all to do this myself. 

But why? Why am I doing this? No one likes it when I try to help them!

But what if, by some luck, I find a piece of one of the Reality Spheres? What then?

That was when Wolf Raven’s words echoed in her head.

“Just the opposite, my dear. After all, I did tell you didn’t I? I’m going to make a feast of you. See, in order to activate a shard and move onto the next world, a certain condition must be met.”

She shook as she remembered and could feel the kiss on her lips. Her first kiss and he stole it. Then fed upon her life energy. Then she turned to the memory that followed.

“You have to kill me. After all, I am this world’s evil stronghold.”

Oh, yeah that.

That was when she heard a knock on the door. She looked up and slowly looked at the door.

“Yes?”

“The king would like to see you.”

She got up.

“Coming!”

She slowly walked over to the door and opened it. She followed them to the king. They were soon in front of him. She looked to the right to see more men and women.

“Are you Loc?”

“Are there any more people in this world with eyes like those?”

“No.”

“Who are you?”

“Here's to join your army.”

Her eyes widened. She looked around and counted sixty. Yet as she looked on she noticed that there were twenty more.

“And why did you decide to join now?”

“We all were asked but, we are ashamed to admit it, we were afraid for our lives.”

“And? What changed?”

“You did. We saw you fight regardless of how many died and even with ten men and fifty eagle men you were still able to get victory.”

“Just about!”

“And? You still did it! And we want to help.”

She nodded.

“And how many are you?”

“One hundred and thirteen.”

“And?”

“There are none more.”

“Right. So one hundred and twenty three men. Then do all that you can. When will the army division arrive?”

“One at sunrise, one in the late morning, one in the afternoon, one in the evening and the last at night.”

Her eyes narrowed slightly.

“So lunch and tea break. Lovely. So is it the hydra next?”

“Yes.”

“Then do all that you can to sharpen your sword.”

They nodded.

“But don’t be here for glory. Just note that you could very well die tomorrow.”

They all became pale as they nodded. She then walked to the training grounds. There she spent the morning training. Then, after lunch, she was called back to the king. There, she saw two hundred, at least.

“Who are you?”

“We are from the Skylands. It may have taken a long time to get here, but we did.”

“And how many are you?”

“Three hundred and thirty seven.”

She nodded.

Four hundred and sixty. Good.

So she said the same thing as she was joined with all the men and returned to the training grounds. There they stayed until the rest of the day and went to bed at nine.