Chapter 3 Delusional
"Surely we can come to a reasonable conclusion. You wouldn't hit your brother now, would you?" Nix forced a smile to calm his pounding heartbeat.
No matter how hard he tried, to calm his racing heart. He just couldn't. This feeling of fear felt so real. Was this not a dream?
"Now you view yourself as my brother." Naz squatted, raising his chin.
'Why the hell would you pull up my chin at such a close range?' Nix fought his inner thoughts from saying that out loud.
He had to think of a way out of this. He had to in order to survive.
"You are right. I hit my head so I haven't fully recovered my memories." Nix covered his nervousness with a slight chuckle.
'Would I ever recover memories that were never there?'
Humming, the male let go of Nix. "At the very least you still fear my capabilities so that's a headway."
Aimi ran forward, defying his words to stand and watch, she wanted a hug from him.
Pointing at her eldest brother she decided to help him out with his name. "He is brother Naz."
"Have you bothered looking at your reflection lately?" Naz interrupted with a frown.
"I don't see why that would be needed, but if I do have one I could do it." Nix shrugged.
Naz shook his head, raising his hand, he used an index finger to make a circular motion. Crystal clear water sprung from the mud and following the movement of his hand but forming a continuous loop in a rapid motion, thin enough for it to reflect an image.
Nix's mouth dropped open. He blinked twice to be sure if what he was witnessing was still true. Maybe he still needed to be hit.
"I'm you... no... you are me." He pointed back and forth at himself and Naz. "And how could you possibly do that?" He looked at his reflection from the water, he wondered how his mother could tell them apart.
'Does everyone have powers? This is oddly similar to the gifts I had drawn.' He tilted his head in thought.
Naz sighed, his brother's condition was far worse than he had intended. If he could forget he had a twin brother, what else could he have forgotten?
'My face!' Nix panicked, looking down at his hands, surely then it looked like his but judging from the face, he was surely not the same person.
"Brother Nix is still delusional." Aimi wailed, running towards Naz for comfort.
"At least my name didn't change." Nix let out a sigh of relief. That was one identity crisis avoided.
'Oh please, spare me all the sentimental worries.' Nix rolled his eyes. He never thought well when it came to crying females.
"It's alright." Naz patted her head, frowning at him.
"Get up this instant!" Naz yelled in rage, the same blue glow in his eyes activated.
He didn't need a memo, he pulled himself together, his clothes soiled from the mud. He would need to wash up soon.
Aimi groaned, holding her head.
"What's wrong? Do you see something?" Naz searched their surroundings, he had hardened the water into sharp icicles surrounding them all.
"What is it?!" Nix asked.
"Shh!" Naz hushed him.
'How rude!' Nix narrowed his eyes. For one thing, he never liked being kept in the dark.
"They are coming. We have to go." Aimi opened her eyes, it had glowed the same blue as Naz had.
'You also have powers. Just great! Then what is my power?'
Pulling Nix down, they laid on the ground. A layer of water prevented them from laying totally in the mud. A tremor occurred a few seconds later.
Nix looked at Naz and Aimi who tried not to make any sound.
'What could we possibly be hiding from?' Nix wondered, even Naz had hidden, surely whatever they had coming was a formidable foe.
This was a dream after all, he could definitely risk it and sneak a peek at whatever was coming.
"Nix, don't!" Naz hissed, his brother must have gone mad after the accident.
Ignoring his call to get back, he slowly made his way in the direction of the tremor.
[Congratulations you have unlocked a new trait: Courage. A daring move to face the danger is achieved]
Nix tried to push off the user interface in front of him, surely his love for gaming couldn't come crashing in on his dreams.
'I am not here for games. I need a way to get back to my original body. If I can't get hit, I might as well get scared shit and wake up.' He thought.
"Nix, come back!" He could hear the distant voice of his brother.
The tall grasses were proving a hindrance to his vision. Pushing some of them out of the way, he set his eyes on a boulder up ahead, he could use that to rebound and collect his thoughts.
The interface popped up again, he was glad he had hid behind the boulder. All he needed to do now was navigate it so it could be removed.
[Name: Nix Lae]
[Level 1]
[Health: 90/100]
[Exp: 50/100]
[Energy: 100/100]
[Strength: 66/100]
[Agility: 99/100]
[Trait: Courage]
[Class: None]
[Gift: Fire]
His eyes widened at the latter part, 'G... gift'. He gulped, his eyes glanced above him, it was all starting to rush back to him. He didn't understand why he hadn't realized it earlier. This was the world he had drawn back in his apartment.
'If this is the world I drew, then that means the cause of the tremor...' Nix bit down on his lips, his heart pounding to the imminent danger.
A snarl could be heard at a close range. He gulped, there were few creatures he had drawn that could make that sound if they were awakened.
Looking to his side, Nix witnessed heated light streamed between it's razor sharp teeth come into view. The sheer size of a staggering 11 feet, made him tremble in fright.
The thick horns sprouted amidst it's black scaly body. It's yellow eyes were yet to take into account his presence until it took a sniff of the air.
Turning its head, it's glaring locked onto him. It was the very dragon he had drawn. He cursed his luck on why he had come up against such monstrosity.
[New mission: Tame Raiken]
"Tame?!" Nix hissed, his legs were barely able to move and yet he was meant to tame it?!
He definitely couldn't die in here, he had no guarantee he could respawn if he actually did so. This was his fantasy world, the world he had created, a mere dragon shouldn't be a problem.
"Oh ho! So you're Raiken." His head looked upwards at the gigantic size of the monstrosity.
'I must have been foolish to draw such a thing.' He was instantly regretting this detail in his art piece.
"Brother!" Aimi yelled to get the dragon's attention.
'Shit!' He panicked, wondering where Naz was to let her out of his sight.
Fire brimmed in Raiken's mouth as he prepared to attack on sight.
Aimi ducked to hide her presence, crawling with her hand closer to the scene. She was stopped from any more crazy action by Naz, who had his grip tightly on her ankle.
"What is wrong with you?" Naz hissed.
"But..."
Nix let out a sigh of relief, the danger had been averted, he wouldn't forgive himself if she was hurt. Wherever Naz was, he hoped he would get to her in time.
"What are you looking at?" Nix sneered at the dragon.
Spitting a wave of flame at Nix, it closed its mouth, confident it had killed it's target.
"Nooo! Brother!" Aimi's voice was muffled by Naz water gift. He couldn't afford her running out of his grip anymore nor put herself in danger because of their stupid brother.
"You brought that upon yourself." Naz closed his eyes to prevent the tears from falling.
As the smoke died down, it revealed Nix unscathed. He blew on the smoke, coughing.
[Gift: Fire in effect]
[Health level dropped by 2 points]
[Congratulations you have unlocked a new trait: Hope and survival. A new found expectation to deal with the problem]
Angered, it let out a roar, raising it's claw scaled hand to smash the boulder.
Rolling out of the way, if he hadn't done that he would have been turned to jam.
Nix's eyes sharpened at what he perceived as a threat. If it was going to play it's game that way. He was going to show it who's boss.
'I made you, so yield!'
Steadying his ragged breathing, he dashed to the left, he aimed to climb on it through the tail which laid on the floor.
He had no weapon on him, so he had to rely on brute strength to his advantage.
He ducked his head low to evade the swinging claw at him.
Evading another wave of fire shot at him once more, he was pleasantly surprised this creature would use the same tactics twice.
Even though it had little effect on him, he couldn't afford to lose a bit of his health.
[Agility activated. Your movements have been increased by 45%]
"It's time to end this." He dashed, switching his position just to confuse Raiken. Luckily it worked like a charm.
It spat out it's fire at Nix in a blind rage. He evaded each and every one of it's attacks, getting a step closer to his target.
Meanwhile, Naz couldn't believe his eyes. The moves he was using were far too complex and he was trying to get closer to the dragon, why?
No one had ever dared challenge the dragons, they were mythical beings that held untold power. In their defense, they were in their territory. They would never attack back home due to the magical barrier placed above the whole city down to the outskirts.
"What really happened to you, Nix?"