Chapter 55: Chapter 55: Meet Up

Now story starts on the day when John went to meet with Luther.

The sun was going down at afternoon, bathing the hillside with gold.Today it belonged to them alone Luther

and John.

John tossed a wooden sword across the lawn with a mischievous grin.

“Your swing is still too slow,

Luther.

If there was a real enemy, you’d already be dead.”

Luther, panting from their training, sneered at him.

“You want me to be a great warrior?

I just like playing, even if it’s like practicing.”

John raised his eyebrows.”Play all you want, but one day the wars will be for real. What will you do then?”

That struck Luther. He took the wooden sword in silence and launched another attack. The thudding of wood against wood echoed across the hill. Their strokes were powerful, their laughter wild, as two young cubs would learn to fight. Birds fluttered from nearby trees, scared by the boys’ energy.

Weary, they finally collapsed to the grass, their foreheads dripping with sweat, their smiles still bright.

“I said so,”

John laughed,

panting for breath.

“You’re getting better.”

Luther lay out on the earth, looking up at the heavens. “In fighting you, I don’t think I’ll ever tire.”

There was a hush between them for a moment, broken only by the gentle whisper of the wind and the distant calls of the birds. Then John’s voice grew softer.

“Luther, can I tell you something in secret? But you must never tell another soul.”

Luther rolled onto his side, interest burning in his eyes.

“What is it?

Why do you sound so serious?”

John drew in tighter,

whispering as though the air around him would eavesdrop.

“My father has a secret room. I stumbled into it by accident. And inside… there’s a book. Not any book, but The Book of Warrior Lords.”

Luther sprang straight up immediately, eyes wide.

“A book like that?

What does it contain?

John took a deep breath.

Hash…

“It has the history of each generation of Warrior Lords. Their power, their tactics, their wars—everything. It’s a living genealogy of our family.”

Luther’s heart was racing. Even though he came from a poor farmer line, he had always felt an unseen force drawing him toward strength, as if destiny whispered in his ear. Perhaps that book held the answers he never even knew he needed.

“Go on,”

he urged.

John’s expression turned serious. “It says in the book that the true secret of the Warriors is not just body power or sword skill. The source of their power is the Breath.

All the Lords had learned a personal Breath Technique, a way of tapping life itself into raw power.”

Luther blinked, confused. “Breath? Like. inhaling and exhaling?

John shook his head firmly.

“No.

Not easy breathing.

Breath is the door of life.

The Lords drew their power through it, shedding it forth like fire from the heart.”

The weight of those words pressed on Luther. Something stirred deep within his breast, something he could not yet determine.

John hesitated, then went on, “I heard my father speaking one time. I thought it was some other man, but then I recalled. it wasn’t human at all.”

Luther’s voice dropped to a whisper.

“Not human?

What are you talking about?

John’s eyes glowed when he revealed the truth. “It was a fierce beast, with steel-hued scales and wings that swept across the sky. A dragon. His name is Gidora.”

Luther gulped, his breath caught in his throat. Dragons were just campfire tales, myths to scare children. But John talked so matter-of-factly, like he’d seen it himself.

“Everybody assumes monsters are evil,” John continued, “but Gidora isn’t our enemy.

He is Father’s friend. Ages and ages ago, he gave my father his Fire Breath. With that power, Father defeated countless foes and saved the village from destruction.” Luther stood there stiff with shock.

He had guessed John’s father, Eric, was powerful, but he never imagined a dragon was behind his victories.

“Then your father’s power is not entirely his own?”

Luther breathed.

John nodded.

“Yes.

Without Gidora,

it never would have worked. But this can never get out. If people knew that a dragon helped him, they’ll fear him—or worse, turn against Gidora.”

Luther’s chest tightened. The world opened up, grew greater, darker, full of secrets he never imagined were there.

John shattered the silence by drawing symbols on the earth with a stick. “The book mentions that there are different kinds of Breath Techniques.”

He drew four rough symbols on the earth.

• Fire Breath – fires that reduce enemies to ashes.

• Wind Breath – speed and swiftness, rumbling like a storm.

• Water Breath – streams of energy as swift and deadly as water.

• Acid Breath – Release so much Acid from user that melt anything.

Luther moved in closer, eyes locked intently. Each word was a seed that planted deep in his heart.

“But there’s one more,” John breathed, voice dropping even lower. “The most lethal Breath of all. The one even my father dares not use.”

Luther’s heart skipped a beat.

“What is it?”

John hesitated before he spoke.

“It’s called the Acid Breath.

Only the Vampires ever employed it.

When they sucked the blood from their victims, they released the Acid Breath to disintegrate the bodies away into nothing. No trace behind.

No tombs.

No signs.”

A shiver ran down Luther’s spine. His skin crawled, and a chill seeped into his bones.

“That’s appalling.”.

Yes,” John agreed gruffly. “The book says they were the horror of mankind, feared more than beasts or demons. If Vampires ever return, and with them the Acid Breath, the world would be drenched in terror once again.”

The two boys sat in silence. Above them, the sky burned the dark red of sunset.

At last, John smiled, breaking the tension.

“One day,

I’ll inherit my father’s Fire Breath.

I’ll master it just like him.

When that day comes, you’ll stand beside me, won’t you?”

Luther turned his gaze to the horizon, then slowly smiled back.

“I’ll always stand with you,

John.

Maybe one day,

I’ll discover a power of my own. Something that belongs only to me.”

Their laughter rang out once more, on the breeze across the hill. But far beneath, Luther’s heart trembled at a secret he did not yet understand. For somewhere deep and hidden within him lay a power unlike all others—a power of both warrior and sorcerer blood.

Then….

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