I had this one sitting around for a while, so I decided to slap on the last thousand words and submit it! I realised I was more focused on drawing Elemental Chronicles rather than writing it, and we can't have that, can we?

The Veiled arc is nearly at it's conclusion, the next chapter will end it with a bang! I am really excited to post the next one, but enjoy this one for now and don't forget to give me some feedback.

(I should really rewrite the first 10 or so chapters and edit out all the teeny angst bullshit- this chapter this is what Elemental Chronicles is about! actually anything after chapter 10 ahaha)

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Raven Chapter 17 - Bloodline part 2

Raven opened his eyes to look at Arturo facing the ground as strong gusts of wind were exuded from his body, obliterating the soil around himself. He squinted to protect his eyes as the dirt blew hard against his body. He took his first few steps towards Arturo and struggled against the gale force winds. His body felt heavier after locking Blood Raven away. The color in his vision started to slowly come back from the scale of grays he opened them with. His eyes returned to their normal blue state. Arturo slowly lifted his head, he expected the final blow to have come already, and his nerves were shot, the wait was more torturous than the pierced hole in his chest and aching body. He saw Raven walk towards him, struggling against his wind. He would have expected Raven to have used his body flicker to move through the wind. He knew something was different.

And then Arturo’s spirit read the atmosphere – The dark presence of Blood Raven was gone, the air wasn’t as heavy anymore, and his spirit no longer felt numb. But the fear is still there, the pang of release, and the new found regret of coming to Veiled against his better judgment, which hit him harder than Raven a few minutes prior.

“What happened to your Bloodline?” Arturo asked. The wind died down and he stopped to leaks in his barrier.
“I locked him away”
“Ah, your timing was a bit off though. This could have been finished already”
“Aye” Raven sighed, “But if there was to be blood on my paws, I would rather be personally responsible for it”
Arturo laughed as Raven’s words struck him in his chest, making him more aware of the hole where Blood Raven’s skeletal wing pierced him. That was when Raven realized the blood on his face wasn’t his own, it belonged to Arturo. Raven turned head and tried to push the nauseating feeling from his mind.
“I really don’t want to fight you, waterwolf”
“Then I beg you, get away from here!” Raven barked out.
“I wish I could, but my paw is forced by King Orion. I have no choice in the matter. If I don’t do what he says he will punish Deeproot, he will send an army to destroy it and murder all the civilians. I’ve heard of it happening in the northern part of Aria. I could take him out in a whim, but I cannot fight a whole army, a whole kingdom. Deeproot is granted independence and protection as long as I’m a pawn in his military game”
“But you are a windwolf; he won’t attack his own kind”
“That is where you are wrong! He didn’t take over Aria to expand Azueroth (wind kingdom), he took it to be an independent kingdom apart from his brother’s reign. The once war general of Azueroth, who stood next to the king that also happens to be his brother, wanted his own kingdom as well. And that is who Orion is! Ex-war general, now corrupted king, playing war against his brother” Arturo explained, “This once beautiful kingdom is being destroyed and rebuilt according to Orion’s will, all the killing and devastation is only the first step of the game he is playing. It’s been seven years since he took over the thrown, and he is still fighting battles within this country, I doubt he expected the Arians to fight back this hard after he conquered the Natiri Isles so easily”
“What the fuck are you talking about…?”
“Are you listening to what I am saying?”
“This is a game?” Raven growled. His hackles rose as he felt the rage burn up inside his body after trying to understand what he’s being told. His shoulders ached; it felt like there was an ember burning through his skin.
“I am a windwolf, but I am Arian, and so is majority of the population in Deeproot. I am obligated to protect them, even if it means to play a pawn in his arsenal! I am sorry Raven, I truly am. You might think I am a monster, but I need to do this for my city” Arturo said with a tarnished voice.
Raven broke his posture and started laughing uncontrollably.
Arturo froze where he stood, “What… Why are you laughing?”
“You speak of monsters! You know firsthand what I have become! I saw everything through the eyes of Blood Raven; my spirit cringed when I felt your blood splatter across my face. You want to fight me, right? Then you will fight a real monster!” He growled furiously. As Raven spoke he felt like he was listening to someone else, it didn’t felt like he had control over his words, but the words poured straight out of his heart. He was changing.
“You don’t have the power of your Bloodline, I can see the low discipline in your eyes, it is the same blue apathetic eyes I fought with before your Bloodline manifested. You can’t hide that fact through your raging scowl” Arturo challenged him, with the voices of his city ringing in the back of his mind with his new found will to fight. He hated himself for accepting death in that moment of weakness. He just needed to be reminded why he fights.
“I will always fight, even if I am weak!” Raven’s shoulders were on fire, “I will fight in the name of justice until the last drop of blood leaves this body!”

The Elder sat against a tree in hearing distance of the battle, Ravens voice echoed through his spirit as his body slowly materialized to his fleshly vessel again. He admired Raven’s will. It seemed that Raven has matured a lot in the course of this battle. Even if Veiled will be defeated, a new leader might emerge, a wolf that will be equal in greatness of Falcon. For that is who Elder was hearing at that moment, his dear friend Minnow, the leader of the rebellion and Raven’s grandfather.
“Nayate”
He came forward, “Yes, Elder?”
“I cannot return to my Guardian form, I am unable to fight” Elder’s ears dropped.
“We will protect Raven, sir. We will jump in when the situation turns dire” The Elder looked at Nayate with a pang of admiration. Nayate always was a trouble maker, a narcissistic wolf who never cared about anyone other than himself, but after facing Raven in the arena he changed. He trained to become stronger, not to defeat Raven, but to be strong enough to help Raven mature – and in the process he has matured into a fine leader himself. He understood without the Elder having to tell him that he cannot intervene while Raven can still fight, it will destroy his progress, so he will hide in the shadows and face Arturo when Raven is about to fall, followed by a small party of guards.

The rest of Veiled has calmed down. Against the rough odds, the guards and villagers have overpowered Deeproot and captured them and made them flee, but most of them already turned tail when they saw a dragon. The biggest threat was Arturo, a threat that will still be able to turn the tides once he has defeated Raven.

With the storm stronger than ever, and hundreds of deaths howling in the wind, Arturo and Raven faced each other again. Neither of them will make the mistake of take each other lightly this time around. But Arturo was intuitive enough to know what Raven was capable of by now, putting all the unknown variables aside, but he was sure Raven has no more trump cards hiding behind his eyes anymore.
Raven smiled as he realized Arturo’s gaze is fixed on his eyes, “You think you know my power. I don’t even know my power, but I am sure as hell curious about this new outpouring in my spirit”
Arturo’s eyes widened, “What?”
Raven ran towards Arturo, and Arturo accepted the challenge and did the same. He got to a tail length away from Raven and unleashed a gust of wind that blew him over and sent him rolling across the mud. Raven tried to steady himself with his paws and saw Arturo already advanced on him, ready to strike again. He stabilized himself on his back and veered his paw through the air, compressing the rain into a blade and sending it into Arturo’s waste, which thanks to his barrier, only managed to throw him aside without it touching his skin. He growled and stood up, but Raven pushed him down. Rain started to circle them both as Raven struggled to keep Arturo down, and as he did the water turned into a deep ring ready to come down. Raven felt the invisible barrier bend under his weight; he realized it isn’t as strong as before, after Arturo released a lot of the pressure. The water came down and engulfed them in a dome. Raven propelled himself out and poured his spirit into the outer layer of the water, compressing it. Arturo felt the water pressure against his barrier grew stronger after each passing second, soon the weakest part of the barrier, which was by his chest, pushed against his wound and made him cry out in agony. He lost control of the mental seal which holds his barrier up and it exploded around him, sending the water in all directions and blasting Raven away. Before the explosion could become fatal, he got hold of the air again and reformed his barrier. He dropped down onto the ground in exhaustion. The sheer amount of spiritual manifestation needed to compress that amount of air took a toll on his body. With his level of skill it is possible to hold up the barrier permanently, but to create it was challenging even when he was at full health.

“You recovered fast after that blast” Arturo said with Raven standing next to him, as he waited for him to get up. Raven had to face of someone with regret, Arturo could tell, but Raven has yet to do anything he will regret. And then he noticed Raven’s eyes began to change. Arturo rolled over and stumbled to his feet as he could feel the presence of Blood Raven return.
“It is still me, Arturo. You thought my Bloodline was gone. I only locked the consciousness away, but it insisted for some of its power to seep through the seal”
“I can feel him here”
The white in Ravens eyed turned gray, and the blue of eye receded into his pupil leaving a darker gray iris. It wasn’t as demonic as Blood Raven’s eyes, but it still managed to strike fear in Arturo.
“I can see him” Arturo whined, a cold shiver ran down his skin, as if he could feel the rain run through his barrier and fur. Raven looked away in shame, to strike fear into someone referred to as a ‘monster’…
“Give up” Raven insisted.

Those words rang in Arturo’s ears. If he gave up, thousands of wolves could possibly die, and the lives of all the wolves that died in Veiled would have been in vain. He got up with renewed energy and pounced at Raven unexpectedly. He bit Raven on his muzzle and pushed him down onto ground while he charged a compressed wind sphere under his paw. He held Raven down with his strong neck who was whining in pain as Arturo’s teeth sunk into his sensitive facial features. He couldn’t pull free in fear of getting his nose or jaw ripped off, he couldn’t believe Arturo’s desperate maneuver. He cried as one of Arturo’s fangs managed to penetrate his nasal passage from above his muzzle. But then Arturo suddenly unhinged and hit Raven in the belly, unleashing an explosion a second later which blew him away. Arturo spit out Raven’s blood and fur and charged to where to was blasted to immediately. Raven was still busy struggling to his feet when Arturo tackled him over and jumped onto his chest with two wind spheres under his paws that sent a shock wave through Raven’s body and made a crater under them. Raven coughed out blood and his mind was fading out of consciousness. He felt Arturo bite into his tail, and then the soil under him as he was being dragged.

The pain his body was in was excruciating, but what seemed to feel the worst was the burning on his shoulder blades. Raven smiled through the gore as he thought about when he was a child living in the castle – was this the moment his spirit realized he was going to die? His childhood flashed in front of his eyes, the memories that were gone for so long which he hasn’t had time to process yet since it returned, but he only saw the good memories. His beautiful mother hugging him out in the gardens, with his sister lying on their mother’s back with her belly and paws hanging on either side.

“By now you two have seen your grandfather and I spar many times” She said.
“Yeah, I want to be just as strong as grandfather one day!” Asyria said and bit her mother’s flank; she quivered and tossed Asyria of her back.
“I want to be as strong as you, mom” Raven said and rubbed his cheek against her arm; she hugged him tighter, and then sat down and pulled Asyria in as well who tried to escape.
“Why are you so touchy today?!” Asyria growled.
“You know I am going away for a bit, I will miss my pups!”
“You never stay away for too long” Asyria rolled her eyes.
“Every second away from you feels like an eternity” She said and licked Asyria’s face, who growled and tried to bite her mother’s ear but fell over. “Strength isn’t measured by how powerful your abilities are. It is measured by your resolve and your will”
“What does that mean?”
“Well Asyria, you always talk about being the strongest, but why do you want to be strong?”
“I don’t know - I just want to be powerful” She shrugged.
Aeya looked down at Raven, “Uhm… I… I don’t care about being the strongest, but I will be happy as long as I can protect those I love, I guess” Raven said shyly.
“You are one step close to having a very strong will, Raven. If you have a strong will then you can overcome any obstacle. And there is one ability that is part of our heritage that relies solely on your will. Do you know what I am talking about?”
“Our bloodline power?” Asyria raised a brow.
“Not quite… Even though our Bloodline is hereditary. But I am talking about…”
“Your waterwings” Raven said.
“Yes, very good. The waterwings you’ve seen me wield in my sparring matches with your grandfather are the most powerful ability in my arsenal, and I don’t mean powerful in terms of offence. My waterwings are a near perfect defense, even if it can be wielded as a weapon. The stronger the will, the stronger the defense. It is a perfect ability for a waterwolf, and for some reason Vox has entrusted it to our spirits. One day it will come to you as well, just like it came to me in my youth after I’ve tamed my bloodline, and just like it came to your grandfather and his mother and so on” She explained to them, happy with their large hungry enthusiastic eyes. “One day you both will tame your Bloodline and get your own unique power according to your spirit, but we all get our own variation of the waterwings. I can’t wait to see how beautiful you will look!”
“If our Bloodlines don’t kill us” Asyria said dryly.
“Asyria, hush” She said and placed her paw on Asyria’s mouth just as Raven looked at her conspicuously.
“Nothing will happen, alright? Not when I am here to protect you. I will always protect you”

Aeya closed her eyes and began focusing her spirit into the environment. The air above them began to sparkle in the sunlight as she drew out the moisture and poised it behind her. She gather more and more until it started to form wings above her pointed towards her shoulder blades, but not touching her person. It became thicker and ampler as the water became more abundant, until there was enough to form to giant solid glowing wings.
She stood up and took a few steps back so her children could admire the wings, which they did. Asyria got excited and ran around her mother, trying to jump up and bite into it. Raven sat still and watched it with awe in his eyes as it swayed so naturally, as if it was a living limb. She scooped Raved up with one wing and lifted him high into the air. Usually he would have been afraid of the height, but he felt completely save in the radiant crystal coolness of his mother solidified will.

Raven started to tear up as he thought of his mother and sister. The pain in his shoulders was so unbearable that he decided to give into it, for he realized what it was. A wave of force emitted from his body and froze the rain in place for about five seconds as a deafening silence engulfed the forest village even through the storm. The force stunned Arturo’s spirit and made him let go of Raven’s tail and step back a few paces, and then suddenly then the silence was broken by Raven’s horrific cries.
“Nayate, go now!” The Elder ordered.
“Yes sir, follow me! Nayate ran with his thorned tendrils poised forward for battle, followed by three bruised and bandaged up guards to back him up, with duty flaring in their eyes.

“Don’t you go as well” the Elder said, sitting alone and he watched his pride charge into ultimate ruin.
“Invisibility is no use in a storm” Shade said and appeared above the Elder as she floated down to face him.
“It is good to see you again, Awrahn”
Her ears dropped sadly, “I haven’t been called by my real name in so long”
“The life of a spy, you are called by many names, but rarely by your own. You look like you’ve endured a lot” he inspected her malnourished disposition with deep remorse “We thought you were dead”
“I was found out when I helped a white Firewolf escape from Deeproot, my identity was compromised and I was locked up”
“That is unlike you to show compassion when you are in deep cover. But being locked up, never have been one of my favorite trails. But you weren’t just locked up, were you?”
“What they did to me is unimportant right now. I could have escaped if I wanted to, but I chose to stay. The flow of information wasn’t blocked when they decided to lock me in the dungeons, I still had my ways of getting what we need”
“Driven with duty without fault”
“But after months of torture and starvation, my body was too weak to escape and get here on time” She broke her solid composure, “If only I was faster, I could have warned you of this attack. I only managed to get to Raven, a few minutes before your defenses were breached”
“Awrahn… This wasn’t your fault. You did more than expected from you, Falcon and the Elites would be proud. If Raven was easier to manipulate he would have been somewhere safe right now. But his stubbornness and will to protect is equal to that of his grandfather. He fights because he needs to”
He lifted her chin up with his paw, “Everything will be alright”
“Will it?” they both turned to Nayate and Arturo facing off, with the guards already down. And Raven squirming on the ground.
Before she could ask, “Raven has been so focused at keeping his Bloodline consciousness suppressed that he had no energy to process the return of his memories, and since the consciousness is gone, his memories are hemorrhaging through all at once. I cannot even begin to imaging the turmoil that is happening in his spirit right now… He might be a whole different Raven once he regains himself. He already changed a lot in the course of the night. I fear this might be too much for one wolf to handle” he explained.
“Then we need to assist wherever we can. I can buy some time until Raven regains himself” She started to walk towards the battle.
“No Awrahn” The Elder leaped forward, but his legs gave in under himself. “You will be killed!”
“Then I wish to buy a few minutes at the expense of my own life” She smiled and ran towards Nayate.

“Is this all Deeproot have left to offer?” Arturo growled as he had Nayate pinned down by the neck with his paw, “You guys are tenacious, I give you that. But you knew you were walking right into your demise when you chose to face me. I grant you a safe passage to the afterlife” he growled and the created a vacuum strong enough to collapse Nayate’s lungs. Before Nayate’s chest imploded, Arturo saw Awrahn charge towards him with her violet eyes lit with her channeled spirit, and she phased through Arturo before he could read her intentions. Arturo wind was knocked out of him and he heaved as he struggle to breathe, giving Nayate the opportunity to wriggle out of his grip.
Arturo laughed whilst he choked, “I had no idea you had this power, Shade”
“You know nothing about me” She snarled.
“So it would seem! But you are in no state to face me, not after what you went through the last 8 months. Who do you think authorized everything Raeza did to you?”
“I will spit on your dead corpse” She snarled, she allowed herself to get worked up even though she knew it was his intentions. Though she knew that meant he felt a bit threatened by the unknown of her Specter abilities.
“Nayate, help me buy some time. Fight with me!” She barked.
Nayate, who was spitting out the blood from his lungs, nodded in agreement. He had no idea who she was, but at that moment she was an ally. He reinforced the thorned vines that grew out of his back with his spirit, and poured more of his life force into them, making them thicker and sharper. They charged at Arturo simultaneously – Awrahn just a bit faster. Arturo sent out a quick blade from his barrier that pulsed out in a ring and grew in size and picked up speed as it was pushed out in a 360 degree arc. Awrahn barely managed to phase through the silver edges and picked up her speed as she invaded Arturo’s spirit once more, leaving him to squirm on the ground and throw up. Nayate managed to latch himself onto a branch and propel himself into the air with his vines, succeeding in missing the relentless silver blades. He dove for Arturo with his vines posed forward as lances, and got a direct hit that shoved Arturo into the ground with the force. He made his vines limp and wrapped it around Arturo, he could feel whatever Awrahn did to him had a huge effect on his composure, as he was nothing more than a ragdoll in his thorny grip. His barrier also seemed to fluctuate with instability.
“Whatever you’re doing, keep doing it!” Nayate ordered Awrahn. And as much as she wanted to, she knew she couldn’t manage to do it again – the toll on her spirit for invading another’s spirit even for a split second is excruciating, she was about to hit her limit as her sight was starting to get blurry. Nayate tried to imitate Blood Raven’s tendril blood spear ability but with his vines, as that proved to be the most successful maneuver, so he threw Arturo into the air with his own weight and sent out a flurry of hits into Arturo, trying to achieve the same speed and power as he saw Raven had, but he struggled to even keep him in the air. And then he saw Arturo’s cold amused gaze stare back at him through the fury of vine movements – Arturo was toying with him, allowing him to think he is making an impact.

Arturo expanded his barrier in an instant and pushed Nayate flat into the ground, crushing the hard ground under him into an elliptical crater. Nayate heard most of his bones break, before his mind could even process the pain. But it never will, his skull was crushed and his gore seeped out onto the stone. His body was reduced to an unrecognizable splatter.

Awrahn’s legs nearly gave out under her as she saw what happened while she was running at Arturo again. She was appalled, but she saw her only opportunity to get in a proper effort in a desperate situation. She channeled the very last of her spirit in a last ditch effort, knowing that she will pass out and be killed. She made peace with her death when she joined in on the fight - a rebel with barely any battle experience, with all her time not only invested in infiltration and deceit, but analytical aptitude as well. She knew it took Arturo a lot of discipline to repress his barrier once expanded, and she will take that opportunity to hit him. She grabbed a knife out of a waist satchel she stole off a body and poured her spirit into it until it glowed in violet brilliance, she concentrated the remaining spirit into her body and became weightless as she jumped into the air and flew above Arturo.
It is now or never, she thought to herself and channeled her weight back as she started to fall. She swung her neck around and threw the dagger along with the force of her fall. It swiftly whistle through the rain leaving a violet trail and phased through Arturo’s visible barrier, it hit him right in the back and dug itself into his flesh.

He screamed out in pain and fury as he descended to the ground, still pouring his focus into suppressing his barrier back to his body. Awrahn’s body went limp and she fell to the ground head first, seeing her success at infiltrating his perfect defense, and the failure of making his concentration fail. Arturo truly was an Elitist in his own right, with unmatched discipline.

“Anyone else?!” Arturo roared out after his barrier was skintight and invisible again. He looked around and laughed menacingly. His head rung out in bloodlust, the bit of compassion he wielded moments ago was now clouded by massacre.

“Raven, oh Raven… Are you ready to meet all your friends in death?” he laughed as he stared at his still body. Sometime in the commotion Raven has quitted down and seemed to have fallen asleep in a puddle of his own blood mixed with rain and dirt.

“Death is a strange concept” Raven suddenly whispered.

His words impeded Arturo’s spirit.

“Does one truly understand death, as an agent of life itself?”

Arturo laughed out cynically, “There is that cocky Waterwolf talk I came to despise so much after all these years!”

Raven smiled as his shoulders flared up one last time.