Rise Of The Spatial Dragon

"Yeeeeeeeehhhaaaaaaa!!!!!" Dane the hawk was hurtling down the side of the cliff in a sharp dive. He hadn't known how much or how high he had climbed in his spirit form, one of the downsides of the body.

One could say Dane was still acclimatizing to his new reality, first as a spirit and secondly as weak. At Grade B, there was very little he had to be afraid of in the universe. Secondly, he was a faction protector. The very top in the universe in terms of power. They may be a policing unit, but make no mistake, they were extremely powerful and well equipped. Every single one of them was comparable to an entire army of elite Supers. Though Dane was still all that, he was now in a lesser vessel, he had to be more careful next time.

After he was done berating himself, he took the time to appreciate his newfound enlightenment. Dane was overjoyed because he had some control over the bird. Now, this was Possession! He could make the bird do anything he wanted. The body and soul, if it had any, were fully submitted to him, part of his vessel now.

Furthermore, Dane had missed flying. As a dragon, flying wasn't done so much for fun as it was so tyrannical. With a wave of his wings, even without intending, Dane would leave cyclones in his wake. He had to fly using spatial disruptions to dispel the air pressure he created.

As a bird though, this was his element. He flew with gust and joy. His wings were built for the skies. His feathers feeding him sensory data at an instinctive level. One thing that fascinated many was that no matter how well built an engine was, no pilot could compare to flying like a bird. Any that had experienced knew this.

This was one of the underlying principles of some of the more advanced drones. The pilots would enter a VR reality where they were the bird. The concept had achieved great success, yet Dane knew that he had such an unprecedented advantage over others. He was the bird itself, not the artificial neurons it had.

For 3 days Dane roamed around and lived as a bird. He would hunt mice and voles and other small mammals he could find. More than that, he haunted the village he had found the bird in, roaming around the shaman's place.

Dane needed to perform reconnaissance before he could make his approach, for he would not be making the same mistake again. He needed as much data as he could find about his targets.

The first thing he learned was that they were part of the resistance. Not so integral to the newly built kingdom, but as a human settlement, they were part of Kedan's territory. Dane still hadn't learned the name of the human kingdom, all he knew was that his brother was king, or was supposed to be king, according to the plan.

Though they were not so much aligned, they were very excited by the discovery of the new treasure. Word had spread that the King had led a group of explorers to inspect the treasure and that what came back was nothing short of momentous. Dane had had to dig deep in his pockets to come up with these treasures, but he had quite a stockpile. After all, he owned one of the most powerful weapons development company in the galaxies. He had enough to spare.

As for the old woman, she was the leader of this establishment. Everyone here looked up to her as some sort of matron, mother to them all. She had a daughter who bore a son, and therein Dane saw his target.

The boy was in his late teens. He would be 19 in 2 months. More importantly, he had a lineage to the old woman. This would fit his explanation, and as he very well knew, cultists and religious people had a tendency to fill in the details, and bloodline was one such consideration.

Dane was in no rush at all. He silently stalked his prey before making his approach. He was masquerading as a 'Mighty Hawk Spirit!' The moniker the shaman had given him.

***

The little lavel was laughing so hard she couldn't breathe. Her elder brother had her pinned down and was tickling her, causing her to laugh some more. Embers of fire burned outside their shelter late into the night.

This was a happy settlement, they weren't that many, just a combination of 2 clans. They had quite a large territory where they hunted, and their cubs had learned to grow in peace in these prosperous times. They were content to live and let live, ignoring others and happy to be ignored. Too bad the feeling was not reciprocated by others.

Unknown to them, the entire settlement was surrounded, and an attack was imminent.

Lutukai, the lead warrior and head of the settlement, was doing his rounds when he picked up some unfamiliar scent in the air. Being a close-knit community, he could tell everyone by just their scent. The one he had picked up though was not any that he knew of, but he knew it was a lavelian scent.

Being this late, he couldn't afford to take any chances. He had heard of surprise attacks that came from bandits. Though they had never faced an attack, they knew that bandit groups were slowly increasing in size, and theirs was a small settlement, extremely susceptible to an attack.

Just as he was about to raise an alarm, an arrow caught him right on his shoulder blade, making him tumble over in pain. He didn't die, but he didn't pass out either. He was awake long enough to see a silhouette emerge from the treeline with a club, knocking him unconscious.

The same scene was being replayed all over in the settlement. There had only been 5 sentries on duty. Each one of them had been taken out so precisely. The bandits moved with relative ease, for them, this was just another score. Their power and prestige lay in the weapons and wealth they received from the vasilians and shedding some few drops of blood was not so bad.

Kiserian was always careful never to kill anyone he didn't have to. Usually, these settlements would just band together and continue living, and who knows, in a few years, they'd have some more cubs to be relieved off. It never once occurred to him that he was hunting one of his own to go sell to another race. All he saw was the profits of the trade.

As Kiserian made his way to the settlement, thunder clapped in the sky, followed by an outpouring of heavy rainfall. Lavels were used to this, and Kiserian, this was much better cover than darkness, as the rain would dampen the scents.

The creeping predators soon began to circle their prey, ready for action. Every one of the 23 bandits knew the plan, once the sentries were taken down, they would await the signal, then move in at the same time. Kiserian, as the lead, would be the one giving the signal.

From one of the corners of the settlement, Kiserian noticed a commotion. It looked as though his people were caught up in some fight. 'Fools!' He thought, they were supposed to wait for the signal, how could they allow themselves to be discovered prem.a.t.u.r.ely. 'No matter, we move out,' he thought, as he gave the signal.

The signal, which was supposed to be his roar, jolted all the bandits into action, only... there was a considerably lesser number that rushed into the settlement than they originally were, but Kiserian was too busy to notice this. His mind was on the lavelian cubs, and how much they would fetch in the market.

With his club at the ready, Kiserian rushed to one of the settlements ready to whack it down. He had his club raised, and as he entered one of the settlements, he was about to bring it down on the alpha lavel. Always go for the biggest threat first, which was what he did.

With all his might, he swung his club, only, it didn't budge. It was as though it was stuck somewhere. Looking up, he saw a massive paw holding on to his club. He turned around to find a larger than life gorilla-sized lavel standing over him. Before he could mumble, a fist the size of a boulder connected with his jaws, sending him to dreamland.

Elsewhere in the battlefield, four running bandits didn't even notice the ice blocks flying towards them, instantly knocking them out. They didn't even notice their approach.

"There's a ghost! There's a ghost in the battlefi..." One of the bandits noticed that his own were falling like flies. In the group he was in, they were attacking from the north. He saw one of his companions fall, then another. That's when he noticed her.

The small lavelian huntress had locked her eyes on him, causing his hair to stand in terror. However, what spooked him the most was the fact that she just vanished in thin air. That was why he was shouting, but before he could finish, a short dagger penetrated his c.h.e.s.t from behind. The bandit fell with horror written all over his face.

Running through the settlement, the bandits realized that they were no longer the predators. Some more superior set of fighters had fallen on them. Many turned to run as far as they could. Little did they know that their fate had been sealed that day.

One group turned to the east to make their east, but they started skidding and falling all over the place. The water movements and the mud just wouldn't let them leave, stumbling and falling like children. Suddenly, all five trapped in the mud field had an ominous feeling. Turning around, they tried to find out where the danger might be coming from, but they never got a chance.

A bolt of lightning so bright and so loud that it woke anyone that was still sleeping by now was shot at the group, instantly incapacitating the group. A look of disgust flashed upon the thunder mage, as he made his way to the settlement. He couldn't understand how such people could live with themselves after selling their kind, nor did he want to understand their misconstrued logic.

"Bamboo, all the bandits have been captured." Maple reported as she caught up to him.

"Good, have them brought to the settlement meeting grounds," Bamboo said, then added on second thought, "also round up all the settlement residents, have them gather as well."

Bamboo took the time to admire the settlement as he made his way to the meeting grounds. It was a decent looking settlement, one built by peace-loving lavels. He could see many that had panicked expressions on their faces.

A big fire had already been built at the meeting ground, and as he approached, Bamboo watched Krea go about healing people. Even Lutukai, the settlement head, had already been patched up, no injury remained.

His gaze went to the settlement natives. They had a look of worry about them but on seeing the tied-up bandits, some of their worries had been lifted. They knew perfectly well that bandits wouldn't tie them up, they'd kill them and take the children.

Looking at the tied up bandits, Bamboo couldn't help marvel at the efficiency of his team. With little to no weapons, they had put down a seasoned group of bandits on their first day out.

A hush fell over the crowd as Bamboo stepped onto the meeting ground's stage.

"Fellow lavels, for too long our kind has had to live in fear! For too long the lavels have had to cower and live in large numbers. Yet the threat is not out there, but of our own making! Today, I have come to make a declaration that we shall no longer condone this.

No more shall our own slaughter each other just to receive the scraps that fall from the vasil's table. No more shall we sit by idly as our neighbors and friends lose their children to slavery! Now I charge you! Let those who would snuff the future of our race know this, I Bamboo have declared it here and now! NO MORE!"