"Hurry up, Kiran!" a stern voice called from atop the gate. "We need to finish before it reaches us."
"As you command, captain," Kiran yelled back. He had no intention of lingering outside even a second longer than necessary. His feet sped up as he inspected all the entrances. He had to make sure that nobody would be trapped outside once they closed the gates. Such a fate would be a death sentence.
Kiran gazed eastward, where the horizon met the endless dunes stretching like golden waves under the intense sun. The sky, once a serene blue, took on a muted, hazy hue as swirling particles began to paint the air with fine dust.
Kiran's keen eyes discerned the subtle changes: a distant wall of sand rising like a curtain, the winds whispering warnings through the shifting grains. The temperature dropped abruptly, and the once steady breeze gained strength, sending ripples across the landscape.
As he squinted against the encroaching haze, Kiran felt the static charge in the air, a prelude to the imminent tempest. Nature's cues were unmistakable, and Kiran, attuned to the desert's secrets, knew that an approaching sandstorm demanded swift action and preparedness for the turbulent spectacle about to unfold.
Just when he was about to turn away, he thought he saw a figure moving in the distance. He shook his head and rubbed his tired eyes. Ridiculous. Nobody would travel in this weather. It seemed age was finally catching up with him.
Kiran made his way back to the gate. However, a smidgeon of doubt remained in his mind. It was nothing but a whim that made him glance over his shoulder. At that very moment, the first bolt of lightning crossed the sky.
His feet froze.
This time, he had seen it for sure. There was somebody out there. He had clearly seen their silhouette in the short moment of light.
"CAPTAIN!" Kiran yelled over the noise of the wind.
***
Zeke was senseless, like a blind man trapped in a storm.
He couldn't see because he had been forced to close his eyes. He couldn't hear anything but the howling and relentless melody of the wind. He couldn't feel a thing because his entire body was screaming for rest.
Nonetheless, his feet didn't stop. Zeke had long since given up on carrying the Chimeroi and was now dragging them like his sled during childhood.
Were anybody here, they would furrow their brow at this strange sight. A one-armed man was dragging two bodies, leaving behind a snake's trail reaching the edge of one's vision. It was a sight that towed the line between tragic and comical.
Zeke had no mind to care about how he looked. The past days had been hard on him, and his constant consumption of blood had him teetering on the edge of sanity. Every step was a strenuous chore, and every breath a torturous ordeal.
The only thing that kept him going at this point was the knowledge that surrender meant death. However, it was only a matter of time until even this resolve wouldn't be enough to overcome the demands of the flesh anymore. Willpower wasn't endless, and Zeke was getting close to the edge. Every step carved away at it, and now only embers remained.
Suddenly, something unexpected happened — something Zeke had not encountered in a long time. Another living being had entered his sphere of perception. It seemed to be some sort of lizard.
His dried-up, crusted lips twitched, forming a bitter smile. Why couldn't that thing have arrived days ago? Zeke was under no illusion of being able to fight back anymore, not in his current state. He could barely walk. It was quite ironic that he might be killed by some random lizard when he had a Dragon's heart.
"Are you ok?"
He was snapped out of his thoughts. Was he hearing things? That sounded like a person.
"Hey! Can you hear me?"
Could it be? For the first time that day, Zeke opened his eyes. Only a fraction, but far enough to see a concerned face staring back at him from atop the sandstrider. For a long moment, he didn't know what to say or do. He merely stared at the brown, wrinkly face of the middle-aged man wearing a guard uniform.
"Can you hear me?" the man repeated.
Zeke nodded his head. He tried to gather enough moisture to speak, but even after several attempts, his throat remained as dry as the sands surrounding him. He eventually gave up and tried to form words as best as he could.
"Where… is this?" Zeke rasped, his voice as rough as sandpaper.
"You have reached the capital, friend. This is Swarnaloka."
Zeke pressed his eyes shut. He would have immediately started crying had he had the tears. Instead, he merely lowered his head. He had survived.
"…need help."
"I can see that. But I won't be able to let you into the city unless you identify yourself first."
Instead of answering, Zeke fished out the token of the Nair family. It was one of the only things he had not thrown away yet. "Your… name?"
"My name?" the man asked as he inspected the token. "I am Kiran."
"Kiran…" Zeke said. "Bring me… to… the Lion's Den…"
Kiran shook his head with a frown. "I am no servant. And even if I wanted to, I couldn't do it. My shift isn't over."
"A year's salary… If you can get me there… right away."
Kiran squinted his eyes. He seemed to be considering something. He then looked at the two bodies on the ground. A long moment passed in silence before a deep sigh could be heard.
"Very well. Get on."
***
Zeke shot up and found himself lying on a comfortable mattress.
He didn't remember much after his talk with Kiran — fractured images only. He could vaguely recall being loaded on the mount and brought somewhere. However, he was fairly certain that they hadn't gone to the Lion's Den. Even the room he was in right now was unfamiliar to him.
[Notice]
There is no need to panic, Host. We are not in danger.
Zeke relaxed back into the mattress, breathing a tired sigh. His head felt like it had been hit with a sledgehammer, and his entire body ached. Even so, his condition wasn't that serious, making it clear that he had received treatment. His arm was still missing, though.
"Where are we?"
[Answer]
I am not sure. But this building seems to belong to the Lion's Den.
Before he could even begin to wonder what was going on, the door to his room was pushed open. Zeke was on his guard for but a moment, then he recognized his visitor. "Leo?"
"My name is Keo."
"My bad," Zeke said. The insistence on his fake name could only mean that Leo wasn't alone. "Did you need something?"
"No," Leo said. "WE were just checking in on you." He opened the door wide and revealed his companion. Zeke recognized the old man. It was the instructor who would usually accompany him to his fights.
Zeke smiled at him. "It has been a while, instructor."
"Indeed, Blood Dragon," the old man said, returning his smile. However, it seemed like there was something keeping him from expressing his joy openly.
"What happened?"
The old man raised a brow. "Isn't that supposed to be my question?" he pointed at Zeke's missing arm.
Zeke sighed and began to tell his story. He didn't reveal everything, keeping his location and the black liquid a secret. However, he didn't hide the identity of his attackers. To his astonishment, the old man didn't display any sign of being shocked or even surprised. He had been right; something must have happened here as well.
"How are my companions?" Zeke asked after finishing the short tale.
"Companions?" the old man asked in a confused tone, but then he realized who Zeke was talking about. "The slaves? They are alive and well. Hmm, not quite well, maybe, but they are in a better state than you, at least."
Zeke beamed, and a feeling of relief washed over him. They had made it — all three of them. He took a deep, cleansing breath before his expression turned serious. "What has happened here?" he repeated.
Leo and the old man exchanged a glance. "There were traitors hiding inside our school," Leo explained. "They got us good."
Zeke narrowed his eyes. He had suspected the presence of traitors ever since he learned that the trade caravans of the Nair family had been targeted with perfect accuracy. It wasn't much of a leap to figure out that they had also sent someone to infiltrate the Lion's Den.
"What did they do?"
The old man sighed. "Under cover of night, they attacked, did as much damage as they could, and then fled."
"How much damage were they able to do?"
"Quite a bit," he said in a weary voice.
"Was the building completely destroyed, then?"
The old man tilted his head. It seemed as if he didn't understand why Zeke would ask such a thing.
"Isn't that the reason we are not in the Lion's Den?" he clarified.
The old man chuckled, realization dawning on him. "Ahh, I see. This must be your first time, then."
Zeke looked between the old man and Leo, questioning the meaning behind those words. It was Leo who answered him. "Do you know about the sandstorms? They can get quite bad around here."
Zeke nodded. He had gotten closer to that storm than he had wanted. Speaking of which, it was strange that he couldn't hear the sound of wind from the outside. From what he had seen, the storm wasn't something that would pass in just a few hours.
"To deal with those storms," Leo continued, "the people of the capital take shelter whenever a storm approaches."
"Shelter?" Zeke asked. "Where could they take shelter from something like that?" However, while asking the question, the answer directly came to him. "Are we in the Undercity?"
Leo nodded, a frown marring his face.
Zeke fell into deep thought. He had a good idea why his brother was displeased. From what he had learned, the Undercity wasn't a nice place. However, now wasn't the time to dwell on that issue. "Who were the traitors?"
The old man sighed. "Do you know the woman who trained the fighters for the third circle?"
"The tall one?"
"That's her," the old man confirmed. "That vile woman killed about half of the third Ring fighters before help arrived."
Zeke's mind spun. He had not started to compete in the third Ring yet, and those fighters were all relatively unknown to him. However, he remembered that they were quite formidable. "I didn't think she was that strong."
The old man shook his head. "She ordered the slaves not to fight back. It was a slaughter."
"Then how did half of them survive?"
The old man glanced at Leo, pride evident in his eyes. "This young man was still training at the time. He heard the commotion and managed to stall her until help arrived."
Zeke nodded. It wasn't too surprising that a maniac like Leo would still be training in the middle of the night. He suddenly remembered that his brother was already competing in the Third Ring. Knowing his personality, Leo must have been friends with many of the victims.
"Are you alright?" Zeke asked.
To an outsider, it might sound like Zeke was asking about Leo's safety. However, in truth, he wanted to know if his brother was fine after so many acquaintances had been killed.
Leo remained silent for a long time, his face grim. "I am pissed," he said eventually.
Zeke nodded. He felt the exact same way. Even without this recent bit of news, he had every intention of tearing the Firebrand school to pieces. He gave Leo a meaningful look. After a moment, his brother nodded with a satisfied expression. It seemed he had understood the message.
Zeke turned back to the old man. "When you spoke about traitors, you referred to them as they," Zeke said after a moment. "Who was the other one?"