Oken Rebirth: Tales of An Unknown World

CHAPTER 26: THE BLACK DRAGONS

Elsewhere| Titus, Hor
Land of the ice giants

Hor, a land found found in Titus, home of the giants. Its freezing planes, a place the fainthearted know not to visit - storms rage all year round with thick snow coating everything in the cold and unforgiving icy landscape. The only warmth known to Titus is found in the kingdom Sues where lava flows like river streams from its volcanic mountains, bellies of its native beasts or the bellies of the colossal giants.

Titus is a continent seven times bigger than the continent of Orion, with only a quarter of its lands having been explored by other kingdoms. In all exploration, adventurers and travelers have bared different species native to other parts of Titus, these species are some of the most aggressive and savage beasts on the surface of all of Oken, like the Bisons of Hor - large furry horned four legged aggressive creatures that live in the coldest parts of the mountains of Hor -named after the giant king of the west, Horus.
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"Run, dammit! Run!" someone shouts from deep in the mountain woods of Hor. Accompanying his voice, a young man covered in black scales from head to toe runs in the dark and livid mountains.

Behind him the loud crackling sound of trees being broken finds its way to his ears accompanied by howls from a pack of wolves and as if that isn't enough, a loud roar bellows in the distance.

"Dammit Gabriel, you just had to start a fire!" The young scaly man shouts as he dodges tree after tree.

"I was cold, okay! If I hadn't done that I would've frozen to death!" Gabriel retorts jumping off a giant boulder.

"Oh and what's better, freezing or being gobbled up by wolves and giants?" The man asks.

"Being gobbled up by-!"

"Neither!" A girl cuts in from the tree tops. "Dercaris, would the two of you stop it. Focus on running and fending off those wolves?"

The young man, Dercaris, dodges a couple more trees and jumps over some snow covered boulders.

"Fine! I can't believe I have to clean up after Gabriel again." Dercaris says and unsheathes his sword from his side. "Eve, how far are they?"

"About twenty feet!" the girl shouts.

"Okay," he turns around and takes a deep breath. "[Ragnor's inferno]!" he sees the pack of wolves heading his way and finishes off his attack. "Ignite!"

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Skill |[Ragnor's inferno]: A wall that erupts from the ground swathed in flames native to Ragnor. This is a skill used mostly for protection, but it can also be used to attack or fend off one's enemy or enemies.
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With that, a wall of fire erupts from the ground saving Dercaris and his group from their five foot pursuers.

"Good going, that should buy us some time!" Eve, who is now running alongside the rest of her four men party says picking up her speed. "We should head for the hideout."

""Aye!"" The four party members say in unison.

Soon the yelps of agony from the sweltering wolves becomes distant and after a long run the group slows down near a cave opening in a mountain close to the sea shores.

"What are you all doing back here? You should be half way up the mountain by now. What happened?" A beautiful young woman speaks up to the heavy-panting party of five.

"I'll tell you what happened... a certain genius, and do put gold on him being a genius, thought it was a great idea to start a fire in these mountains without any cover." Dercaris answers in Eve's steed.

"What?" the young woman, a warrior, exclaims and turns back to look at Eve since she was the leader of the party that headed out to scout ahead. "What happened?"

"Hey, don't look at me okay? I wasn't there when it happened, I was scouting further up the mountain. If you want your pound of flesh... there it is." she says in between gasps and points at Gabriel.

"Ga-bri-el!"

After a long scolding from his leader, Gabriel takes a sit at the end of the campfire with the rest of the ten member party as they treat themselves to a hot meal.

Their meal: hot potato soup, with chunks of giant hawkon meat - meat from a man-sized land bird native to the lands of Hor. Their meal is topped off by stale bread and an array of beverages.

They discuss their next move and prior to that, the party discusses the black scroll that appeared a few days ago out of nowhere and the benefits it brought with it like new abilities, skills, information about how strong you are and so on and so forth.

After their meal, the party members head for their sleeping tents.

Paired together: Gabriel, a young warrior who prefers to use his staff rather than his sword because he has an affinity for fire magic and an alchemist with an affinity for defensive magic.

The party leader, a skilled warrior and mage is paired up with Eve, a skilled assassin. Dercaris, a strong swordsman and magic user is paired up with his younger sister, who happens to be a healer.

A group of three Elvin girls - two twins, both archers with one of them also classified as a master tamer, and a shape-shifter, who all share one sleeping tent and one dwarf standing guard who is a melee specialist and craftsman.

All together the party of ten makes up the infamous Black Dragons of Orion.
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AN: Hello there beautiful reader, auteur here and congratulations on making it to chapter 28. It has been a ride, we have lost some readers on our way here and we have also gained others here and there, it has been a journey.

Oken recently passed the 1k reads mark and celebration is in order as well as thanks to everyone who has been reading. With that, I want to give a big thank you to everyone who has (again) been reading, voting, commenting, sharing and just all out enjoying the story.

With this chapter Oken is starting a new arc in the story and I wanted to start it off with a bang, but unfortunately I couldn't do so without introducing some of the lead characters of this arc. I really hope you enjoy the way the story has been going so far, the turn it's taking now and I can't wait to hear form you on what you think about it.

IMPORTANT NOTE: A lot of countries are still under quarantine and as a result a lot of us have a lot of free time on our hands, so if you are under quarantine in your country or even if you are not, please stay safe. Read a good book, learn a new skill, doing something you've always wanted to do, but never had the time for. With Oken I will try and make your experience at home a more enjoyable one with chapter updates every week.

And with that, stay home, stay safe, happy reading and may the magic find hearth in your heart.