Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 55059 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 275(@200wpm)___ 220(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55059 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 275(@200wpm)___ 220(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
“You underestimate Eira. Regardless of whether Eira is in my life or not, I would have never touched Yuri. I feel nothing for her.”
“You cannot love Eira. Her beauty does not compare to that of my daughter’s.” Kage practically laughed. “You would willingly have children with a woman whose relatives have been a source of humiliation since their arrival here?”
“As opposed to having a child with a woman whose father is a murderer?” he mocked.
Unperturbed, Kage didn’t even bat an eye. “I have done what is necessary. What you should have done yourself.”
Ryu stopped dead center in front of Kage. “You are aware I cannot let you go unpunished for your crimes?”
“I am prepared to be banished.” He nodded. “It was a price I was willing to pay to have the dragon lineage for my family, which is more than you or your family have done. The dragon was gifted to a line that none of you have done anything to deserve such honor.”
Ryu’s head fell back in maniacal laughter. “You don’t get it, do you, Kage? If you had confined yourself to murdering the villagers, you could have asked them for the mercy of banishment. But you allowed yourself to strike out at Eira—my mate—and then attempted to kill her twice. She is of the royal house; therefore, the punishment falls onto my shoulders.” He let his words sink in for a moment, then continued his taunting, “I am not as merciful as the villagers. There is only one punishment I find acceptable for the crimes you have committed—”
“You think you are capable of killing the man who has trained you since you were a boy?” Amusement filled Kage’s expression, which Ryu didn’t take personally. Kage made a habit of underestimating others. “You will not be able to best me in your human form. You will have to call forth your dragon. It will be seen from the palace and the training area. How do you think the villagers will react to the dragon killing their beloved sensei? You will only find yourself becoming the outcast.”
Ryu’s dragon-like gaze didn’t waver. “I do not need to call forth my dragon to beat you.”
“You cannot beat me in a real battle,” Kage scoffed.
Unafraid, Ryu assumed his position. “We shall see.”
“We shall.” A smiling Kage assumed his own.
Ready to fight to the death, neither bowed to the other, showing their lack of respect for each other.
Readying himself for Kage’s attack, the hot-blooded dragon in him demanded him to make the first move. Filling his mind with cold reason, Ryu ignored the dragon’s demand. Kage was a master of his art. His family line had trained dragons for centuries; therefore, they were granted the small gift of living a longer life as well, as only when they grew too old to fight were the Teis able to best Kais in combat. Kage had never been beaten, which had only added to his arrogance.
Ryu might be younger, but the master was far from being an old man. His body moved as fluidly as a much younger man’s, and he spent hours and hours training students.
Kage came at him, lunging at him like a pouncing tiger, hitting at him like claws aiming for his lungs to drive the oxygen out and to get him to expend his energy on defensive moves. Like a predator, he wanted to weaken his prey before moving in for the killing blow.
However, Ryu blocked the blows, using chi when Kage managed to land a strike. For every strike Kage made, Ryu stomped forward, making strikes of his own.
The two combatants parried blows back and forth. While the two fighting styles allowed Kage to reserve his strength, Ryu had to expend more energy to land harder blows. Kage was banking his defense that he didn’t have the stamina to defeat him.
But what Kage didn’t take into account was Ryu had started training students, also, and would often become bored in the evenings, deciding to spend them training to become a better instructor. He had actually set himself a goal to become an instructor as good as Kage.
When his sensei had moved the target from his lungs to his arms, pain filled him as one of Kage’s moves had him biting back a grunt of pain as the master tried to rip his arm open. Blocking the pain with his chi, Ryu struck at Kage’s own arm with a heavy blow at the weakest part.
A distinctive sound of bone snapping had Kage losing momentum for his next strike, his arm hanging uselessly at his side.
Automatically, the master switched his fighting tactics to that of a crane, using his one arm to defend himself and attack. Ryu didn’t let Kage switching tactics faze him, sticking to the dragon, sweeping from one side of his opponent to the other. His blows became harder. Fiercer. Determined to beat Kage into the ground for daring to hurt any of the islanders under his protection. Those were the blows he was receiving in punishment. They might hurt a hell of a lot, but they did not kill.