Valerian, The Legendary

159 Shaman.

Valerian and Fortuna were moving in the direction of the tent. They both had their unique style of fighting. While Valerian was engaged in close-range fights, Fortuna was akin to a death god from the skies.

She would dive down and cast spells while breathing fire on the enemies. As a dragon, her damage output was off the charts. In the same amount of time as Valerian killed one enemy, Fortuna would bring down too. However, at most Fortuna had always injured her targets seriously, leaving them wailing on the ground.

Priscilla was observing this oddity and was confused, she thought if only she could talk to someone knowledgeable. However, she did not understand bird language and her bonded companion beast was lying inside the beast pouch.

Dejectedly she took back her gaze. Unknown to the point that Valerian was also asking the same question to the dragon on the ground. He let out a low growl and asked, ‘Why are you not killing them?’

Fortuna replied, ‘Let’s talk after the battle comes to an end.”

Valerian nodded and had no problem with this arrangement. After all, taking down the enemy was most important. They both proceeded and as if affected by Fortuna’s actions he avoided killing the enemies and immobilizing them became his first priority. The river of blood finally slowed down, but the groans echoed in the surroundings and grew denser.

The tent was just a few meters away from them. Almost all the enemies have been dealt with. Fortuna landed beside Valerian and said, “I sense a strong mana source in that tent.”

Valerian nodded, and said, “I can feel it now, very pressuring. Let us not enter it, burn it directly.”

Fortuna agreed with him and then blew a thin stream of flames from her mouth. The temperature was very high, and the young man beside her took a step back. He said, “You want to melt me alive?”

.....

The dragon princess did not give him a reply, she was simply uninterested in his jokes. Valerian was nervous when he saw the mana radiating from that tent and this joke was meant for him to calm down. A stream of flames landed on the tent the cloth vaporized. When the flames vanished, an ethereal dome appeared in front of the two.

Valerian was surprised while Fortuna furrowed her brows. She said, “Mana dome.”

Valerian caught on to her voice and shrugged, but his guard was up. Inside the ethereal dome, an old man sat with his eyes closed, long beard, and scattered long hair. The boy noticed that the body of this person was riddled with scar marks. Around the man, a lot of different types of skulls were placed and Fortuna furrowed harder, the rage in her eyes could have torn the old man to pieces.

Maybe sensing her gaze the old man opened his eyes and looked back at Fortuna. He revealed a creepy smile and said, “I never thought I will meet a dragon again in this life. A young one at that.”

Fortuna took a step forward and roared loudly. Valerian sighed and asked, “Old Sir, who are you?”

The old man cast a gaze at Valerian and spoke with surprise, “A human standing so close to a dragon. Interesting, very interesting.”

Valerian frowned, this old man did not answer the question and stuck to his own tune. This person was not easy to deal with. He asked again, this time rudely, “Old Man, will you tell me who you are or not?”

The old man chuckled and said, “Hahaha, foreigner, to get the information you need to be strong.”

Valerian thought of something and walked closer to the dome. Fortuna asked him with a growl, “What do you intend to do?”

The boy did not reply, he did not want to reveal his talent to communicate with the beasts to this old man, and made a few signs behind his back. Fortuna was smarter than the rest, he has taught her hand signs in his free time in the academy. This was to prepare her in case he lost his collar chain.

The old man looked very curiously at the youth walking toward him. Soon, Valerian was standing at the edge of the dome. The old man observed him silently and burst out laughing. Valerian was assuming a battle stance. The old man said, “Kid, this dome is made up of natural mana. It will not break.”

Valerian ignored his words and began to punch the dome with complete focus. His punches all fell in the same place as the first one, the string of punches was compact and precise. The old man was laughing as if he saw something hilarious, while Fortuna was surprised.

She could not help but growl in satisfaction. Suddenly a click was heard which was then followed by a chain of clicking sounds. The old man inside the dome froze. Earlier he did not take things seriously, but now, he was shocked. Valerian was cracking his dome. Yes, the dome of natural mana, which cannot be controlled by humans, was breaking down.

This dome was an effort of his entire youth, but it was being takedown by a child. How can the old man let that happen? He yelled and began to shuffle around the skulls of beasts around him, the dome began to fix itself. However, Valerian was not going to give him this chance. He concentrated his power and hit the same spot.

This blow poked a hole in the dome, and with his hand inside, Valerian chanted, “Ustilo.”

A grade one spell cast with the power of grade six. The impact was highly damaging. The old man yelled and curled up in a ball. The fire was strong enough to melt a few smaller skulls and the dome began to fade. Fortuna noticed this and moved over, she gazed at Valerian, who retracted his hand and let the dragon princess deal with the old man.

Fortuna placed the front of her face at the opening and blew her fire breath. The old man did not react, but the skulls around began to melt which in turn led the dome to fade away. As soon as the dome vanished, Fortuna stopped her attack.

The old man was lying on the ground, he revealed a set of enraged eyes. and uncurled to stand up when Valerian said, “Terra Liga.”

The feet of the old man were encased in stone. Then Valerian thought it was still not secure enough and he cast another spell, “Vitis Paralytica.”

Vine protruded from the ground and they entangled themselves with the old man, the spikes dug into his body and deprived him of his power to move. The old man was surprised and asked, “You have three elements. Who are you, where are you from?”

Valerian did not answer him and asked Fortuna, “Can we kill him?”

Fortuna shook her head sideways and said, “This guy has created the same dome that he has created for himself in a bigger range. We need to locate the skull or we will be trapped. The people from the surrounding tribes might arrive to his aid.”

Valerian found this logical and said, “Fine, interrogate him and locate those skulls.”

Fortuna sighed and said, “How am I supposed to do that, he does not seem to be someone who can be pursued with sweet words.”

Valerian thought for a bit and then cast a shadow spell, “Mens Laqueo.”

The old man wailed from a strong pain in his head. Fortuna did not want to interrogate and said, “I do not speak human language.”

Valerian almost wanted to curse this big beast. Then he looked at the man and asked, “What is your name?”

The old man was in a daze and was compelled to answer truthfully. He said, “I am Shalom, shaman of the tsingi tribe.”

Valerian asked, “What is a shaman?”

The old man replied, “Shaman is a medium that can use the natural mana to follow through his body so that the tribe can be safer.”

Valerian sighed and spoke in dragon tongue, “This guy is a mana receptor.”

Fortuna nodded and said, “I can understand that. Ask him how to undo this dome.”

Valerian nodded and asked the old man, “How can we take this dome down?”

The old man seemed to be amazed, and then he said with a bitter smile, “I did not set it up.”

“What?”, reacted the couple.

Valerian instantly asked, “Who was this person?”

The old man shrugged his shoulders and refused to let out another word from his mouth. The session of questions lasted for dozens of minutes before the old man hit his head on the ground and fainted.

Fortuna said, “It seems like, the second guy will come over soon. Let us regain our strength.”

Valerian nodded and sat down on the ground absorbing the mana in the surroundings. This barrier allowed outsiders to come in but not the other way around. They were now trapped to face the elites of the enemy.