Shadow Dragon Slayer Third Generation: Ancient Bonds

Akeya wrote:

Magic:
Shadow Dragon Slayer Third Generation: Ancient Bonds

Caster or Holder:
Caster/Lost Magic

Description:
In the ancient times, before humans became the most prominent and powerful species on the surface of the world, the world was ruled by the dragons. Just like how gods are the kings of the heavens, and demons are unchallenged in their rule over the hells, dragons were at the apex of what lived on the earth. They were mighty, they were ancient, they were knowledgeable, and they were large. And just like humans have learned how to use magic to improve their lives and become strong, all dragons had a very close and natural connection to the forces that make up the world and keep it spinning, and their magic was based on using those forces. There were a very wide variety of dragons, divided by which element they had such a connection with. While almost every single force in nature had at least one dragon using it, there were a couple who were the most popular, with the most numerous dragons: fire, water, earth, wind, lightning, ice, light, and darkness.

For a long time dragons ruled unchallenged. They had become powerful over many millennia, so it was no surprise that no other creature could equal them. That is not to say that there was never any opposition, but no force ever came close to toppling the dragons as the mightiest beings of this world. The only real enemy that the dragons could be said to have were themselves, as dragons were not known for being social or cooperative. Each dragon knew that they were the strongest, and so each of them demanded respect and the ability to lay claim to whatever they wanted. Each dragon would set up a territory, in which everything was theirs to do with as they pleased. They would make large lairs and store in those lairs whatever they wanted to keep close. And as dragons set up those territories and created those lairs there would be other dragons who wanted that territory, and the things hidden away in those lairs. The biggest enemies of dragons were other dragons, as they would fight over everything, from territory to possessions to mates. They could never have done this if they were not the strongest, but throughout those many years they had even forgotten the idea of having to worry about anything but what the gods and demons might send at them. The celestial spirits might also have been a threat, except that those were happy to leave the dragons be, and the dragons had no desire to start a war with another dimension. The gods ruled the heavens, the demons rampaged through the hells, the spirits kept to their own realm, and the dragons were the sovereigns of this world.

However eventually the humans, and other creatures like the humanoids, began to become noteworthy throughout the ages. At first the dragons were merely curious about those small creatures skittering about, building such things as tents, followed by huts, and eventually actual buildings. However as time went on it became clear that these humanoids, these bipeds, were actually managing to evolve and improve at a surprisingly rapid pace. Of course this was still over the course of many years, but for dragons, who can become so old that for a human to count their age they might not reach it before dying of old age themselves, time has a tendency to be of less consequence, and thus what would feel like ages to humanoids can be considerably more bearable for them. They stuck to their territories and lairs, watching these humanoids carve out their own place in the world.

Of course not all dragons reacted the same. Most dragons thought of these new arrivals as nothing more than food, even if it was food which was marginally more interesting than the rest. They would still make sure that nothing invaded their territory which they did not want there, so the humanoids were completely at the mercy of the dragons if they happened to find themselves in the wrong location. Luckily while the dragons were numerous, there were places which had either not been claimed, or which had been abandoned for a variety of reasons. Other dragons actually welcomed the humanoids in their territory, even though they saw them as mere pets and cattle, slaves which could be eaten if necessary. While better than the other dragons, this was still a very precarious situation. There were also dragons who went out of their way to avoid the newest most active creatures of the world, these small critters which were apparently unhappy with what was given to them and wanted more. They would actually go so far as to relocate their territories to places too dangerous for the pests to live in.

And then there were the very few dragons who actually took an interest in these humanoids, either out of sheer boredom (while dragons can stand the test of time better than most, it is still possible for them to have difficulty thinking of what to do next) or because they saw something new and exciting and wanted to learn more about it. To much chagrin of most of the other dragons these friendlier dragons would actually talk to and interact with the humanoids, learning more about them and causing the humanoids to learn more about the dragons as well, which was the main reason why the other dragons weren’t very happy about it. While they didn’t consider the humanoids as anything significant, the idea of having other dragons reveal important information was not one which they approved of.
This only became more of a problem when the humanoids kept becoming stronger and more prominent, until the impossible happened and they actually became powerful enough to pose a threat to the dragons. At this point the war was inevitable, and so was the fact that some of the dragons would be siding with the humanoids instead of their fellow kin. The dragons, ruler of the world for many ages, would not accept that these upstarts would dethrone them, and the humanoids had enough of having to live in fear of these tyrants. They might not be as old and not possess the same raw power or connection with the world around them, but over the many years the humanoid races had become significantly stronger, and had also learned how to use their heads. While the dragons could win any fight which came down to raw power, the humanoids used trickery and cunning, which was more effective than the dragons had anticipated.

However the war was at first still going in favour of the dragons. That is, until the dragons who sided with the humanoids decided to give them the one advantage the dragons had that was keeping them in the more powerful position: they began to teach the humanoids the magic used by dragons. The reason why this was so important was that dragons, over the ages, had become very resilient to almost anything. The only creatures which could still inflict significant amounts of damage to dragons without wasting large amounts of energy were supernatural beings...and dragons themselves. Dragons, powerful as they may be, still followed the rules of evolution. Or maybe it was because of evolution that they became so powerful to begin with. Either way, the result was that any dragon whose magic wasn’t effective against other dragons had died out long ago. Dragons uniformly had a special property to their magic that allowed them to largely bypass their own resilience towards magic, purely because those who didn’t were long gone.

Teaching humans that same magic with that same penetrating property meant that suddenly the humanoids could actually hurt the dragons, which caused a major shift in the war. Suddenly the dragons could no longer shrug off any and all attacks thrown at them, only succumbing to the most persistent and thorough of assaults and the most dirty and deadly of tricks. While not all the humans could learn this dragon magic, those that could were valuable assets in the war, because they could unleash onslaughts that ripped through those tough scales which endured almost everything else. The dragons who had gone so far as to teach humanoids their own magic were branded as traitors, and were now hated by all other dragons. These new dragon mages were almost as bad as the half dragons had been.

Yes, half dragons. Not mentioned before, this was not the first time that some dragons had given the humanoids something. Before they began to spread the knowledge about dragon magic they had already given humanoids children who were half humanoid, half dragon. These creatures were quite dangerous, as they had the tendency to possess the advantages of both sides, which made them a threat no matter who they were facing. These half dragons usually learned dragon magic even without a tutor. The reason why half dragons weren’t a problem during the war was that almost all the half dragons had been killed, by both humanoids and dragons. The dragons who had gone so far as to have a child with a humanoid also weren’t spared, and the same went for those humanoids. Neither dragons nor the humanoid species approved of the birth of half dragons, and thus had actually worked together to remove them from this world. Those that survived had no inclination to show themselves.

Either way, now that the humans could use dragon magic the dragons were actually losing. Suddenly they were no longer nearly invincible, and there were even dragons helping the humanoids. What’s worse, there was a secret to teaching a humanoid dragon magic, which could be considered terrible by many: a humanoid that possessed dragon magic would possess the magic power of a dragon upon killing them, becoming stronger and stronger. The reason for this was that dragon magic was not meant for humanoids. When a humanoid was taught how to use it their bodies and their magics would attempt to match each other. Since the humanoids were forcibly learning magic that belonged to dragons, that meant that their bodies would become those of dragons. Absorbing the power of slain dragons accelerated this process immensely.

Eventually the dragons decided that the war was becoming too costly. They had not yet lost, but they had lost almost all of their advantages, the humanoids were only becoming more powerful, and it looked like the humanoids would not stop until every single dragon was dead. Somewhere down the line the humanoids, those that had learned dragon magic, had actually begun to turn against their own tutors, because in the end the hatred against dragons was stronger than their gratitude and any feelings of friendship the lone individual might have. The dragons who had been friendly realized their mistake, and tried to flee together with the other dragons. However those dragons viewed them as traitors. In the end next to no dragons who had sided with the humanoids survived.

With the dragons having retreated to places in the world where the humanoids were not willing or unable to go the humanoids believed that the dragons had gone extinct, claimed the world as their own, and expanded even more rapidly than before now that the tyrants of the ancient world had been driven away. The only legacy that was left by the dragons was those humanoids who had learned dragon magic but who had yet to be turned into a dragon (those that had turned into a dragon tended to be killed quickly as the other humanoids thought them monster and abominations). Sometimes a new dragon mage would turn up (claiming to either be taught by a dragon, or having found some kind of mysterious source of power which had given them this magic. Or a book), but they became rare. Dragon mages were renamed to Dragon Slayers, as the humanoids believed that this was a kind of magic which had been specifically designed to slay dragons of old, not realizing that it was the magic of the dragons themselves. The dragon magic was now called Dragon Slaying magic.

Now it is many, many years down the stream of time. Some humans no longer believe that dragons ever existed, that they were mere fairy tales. Dragon Slayers are still rare, although at some point it was discovered that special lachrima exist which can give you Dragon ‘Slaying’ magic, which increased the numbers somewhat. And in one village in the Phoenix Mountains, lives a family of whom nearly everybody is a descendant of a half dragon. The only ones without dragon blood are those who married into the family. The dragon blood has become weak throughout those thousands of years, but it has yet to die out. All it needs is a single spark, the single push that would allow it to resurface.

That spark turned out to be Akeya Kuusai, the girl said to be born with the soul of a dragon. How this came to be nobody could say, but when she started to learn magic it quickly became clear that in her the dragon blood was ready and waiting. Her magic allowed her to temporarily change her body parts into those of a dragon, increasing her physical abilities and also giving her some stealth, as the specific dragon type she was using was one of shadows. Leaving the village to learn more about the world Akeya continued to cultivate her magic, until at some point she managed to find a shadow dragon who had survived throughout the years, mostly because he had never bothered with either other dragons or the humanoids: Whedalsin of the Night Sky. Sensing Akeya’s dragon blood, and the strange nature of her soul (for a humanoid. For a dragon her soul was perfectly normal) he decided to teach her the magic of dragons, revealing to her that this Dragon Slaying magic she had heard of was something completely different from what most people believed it was. When her body, which already had the blood of dragons, and her soul, which was one of a dragon, received the magic of a shadow dragon Akeya reacted a lot more strongly than Whedalsin had expected: the transformation which all dragon mages go through, from human to dragon, was accelerated significantly. Akeya, born as a human with dragon blood and a dragon soul, was now a half dragon, and from the looks of it she would continue to lose her humanity and instead become a dragon.

In contrast to most humans Akeya didn’t mind it, instead stubbornly continuing to learn more about her lineage and this newfound power, more and more draconic traits showing themselves over time. Realizing that there was still one thing left to do Akeya eventually set out to find one of these mysterious lachrima. Specifically, the lachrima of a shadow dragon. Fusing the lachrima with herself Akeya Kuusai was most likely the humanoid most like a dragon. Dragon’s blood, dragon’s soul, dragon’s magic, and dragon’s lachrima. The only thing left of her humanity is her body, which is already halfway to becoming a full dragon. Akeya is the first half dragon known to be born in the new era rather than the ancient one. Whether she is the last, a unique case after which everything returns to normal, is up to the future to reveal.

Akeya uses her magic to become as dangerous a predator as she can be. She is not somebody who focuses on fighting, or creating, or anything of the sort. In the wild, where mistakes are not tolerated, a predator would be suicidal to fight like the humanoids like to do. A predator who wants to survive in straining circumstances finds a target, stalks, waits for the perfect moment, and then tries to bring the target down with the least amount of effort. Every bit of energy saved increases the chance of survival. A predator doesn’t have any use for honour, glory, or the thrill of combat. In the terms of humanoids Akeya is an assassin. She finds her target, observes them without being seen, and when the target has an opening she will strike, attempting to kill or incapacitate her target with one swift strike. She can do this because her draconic traits and magic grant her very impressive physical abilities. Besides of that, since she is a shadow dragon she gains abilities which allow her to both move fast and be stealthy, becoming invisible whenever it’s dark and taking the darkness with her to make it harder to be detected and scare her prey. Clothing herself with shadows and darkness to enhance her attacks further Akeya is good at inflicting a lot of damage in a short period of time.

Strengths:

• Dragon Slayer magic is a powerful type of magic which allows the user to turn themselves into the focus of their power, rather than a mage who possesses powerful spells but possesses a very fragile body.
  
• As a Shadow Dragon Slayer Akeya is significantly stronger whenever she’s in a place with many shadows, or any dark location. This includes night time, when the world is shrouded in darkness.
  
• Unlike many other Dragon Slayers Akeya focuses on assassination, including high mobility and stealth. This means that she is in her element when not attracting attention, eliminating her targets one by one without a sound.
  
• Akeya is extremely elusive due to her ability to merge and travel through the shadows. Even if she is discovered many would find it hard to catch her, as she slips through their hands like a shadow.
  
• A half dragon, possessing many draconic traits, is quite intimidating. Akeya can actually use that intimidation to dispose of weak-willed opponents and force people to tell her things they’d rather stayed hidden.
  
• A Shadow Dragon Slayer, especially one as thoroughly infused with the magic as Akeya, is a dangerous opponent for both dragonkin and opponents who use shadows and darkness.
  
• Being the inheritor of both the lineage of dragons and the magic of dragons has some interesting results. One of these is that Akeya can actually communicate with all dragonkin, regardless of whether they speak the same language as her.
  
• Can consume shadows and darkness to regain magic power and energy.
  
• As a Third Gen Shadow Dragon Slayer, whose soul, body, blood, mind and magic are all in tune with each other, Akeya has possibly the deepest understanding any non-dragon can have of this magic. This allows her to infuse her shadows with her draconic will and essence, making them inedible to the Fallen God Slayer and the Hell Demon Slayer just as she can’t eat their shadows/darkness.
  

Weaknesses:

• While Akeya does have some abilities which work from a distance, and she is quite mobile, she still does not like it when her opponent is capable of assaulting her from quite a large distance.
  
• Akeya might be significantly stronger when there is either shadow or darkness available, but when placed in a situation where there is neither of these her power notably drops.
  
• Focusing on assassination means that Akeya is mobile, stealthy, and can inflict a lot of damage with a single strike. However it also means that she really doesn’t like it when she’s exposed before she can strike. She suffers against people who have a reliable way to detect her when she’s trying to be sneaky.
  
• Akeya is an escape artist, but most of her escape techniques actually have a pretty short range, mostly allowing her to get out of immediate trouble but if she’s in the middle of trouble she most likely won’t escape in one go.
  
• Light magic. She just hates it. Light might create shadows, but unless the light mage is friendly they’ll most likely kill more shadows than they create.
  
• Being able to deal a lot of damage against dragonkin would be a lot more beneficial if there were a lot of dragonkin about. There aren’t, so it’s more of a nice thing to say to impress people than that it’s actually useful most of the time…
  
• This magic might have given Akeya significant abilities, but at the same time it’s made her an outcast. She might be able to intimidate people, but at the same time she usually doesn’t have another choice as most people try to avoid her or meet her with naked hostility.
  
• Don’t ask her about other Dragon Slayers.
  
• Just because she can talk to dragonkin doesn’t mean they’ll talk back.
  
• Because Akeya is focused on avoiding open conflict and attacks she is not as good at taking hits as more combat-oriented Dragon Slayers of her caliber.
  
• Akeya can consume shadows and darkness. If they’re pure. If there’s other elements mixed in eating them would make her very sick. This also means she can’t eat her Demon and God counterparts.
  
• Riding any kind of vehicle is quite likely to incapacitate Akeya very, very quickly. She either needs to receive a status buff which cures her temporarily, or be on a vehicle specifically designed to prevent Dragon Slayers from suffering from motion sickness.
  

Lineage:

Draconic Heritage:

Unique Abilities:

Slayer Perks (Shadow Dragon/Third Gen):

Personal Traits:

D-Rank:

C-Rank:

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