The Invincible Hero 9 It's Not Over 'Til The Fat Lady Sings

After hearing about Lorne's success of discovering the Bear ancestor; most of the tribes were willing to help Lorne in the hopes that he could help them locate treasures for their tribe. Lorne had unconditionally promised that anything he found would go to the tribe it should belong to. The Bear tribe encouraged the other tribes telling of their own successes. They related how the generous hero had selflessly brought blessings to their tribe.

As Lorne researched, he began to see a pattern. All of the records noted that about seven thousand years before mighty heroes of the forest appeared. This was the strongest age of the forest. Unfortunately, so much time pa.s.sed that the tribes in the forest had forgotten that era. However, there was one person who didn't forget, but that was because he was the only still living member of the generation of the Calamity Heroes. It was the Tiger ancestor.

In the era of the Calamity Heroes, he was a young warrior. He met the dragon ancestor when he was young and was taught how to cultivate and grew strong. Among the many records that Lorne found there were the remains of a prophecy made by the dragon ancestor about the dragon egg that had yet to hatch one day, it would open the path to a new age of heroes.

It was obvious that the prophecy referred to him. He wondered why the dragon ancestor never visited his family.

The clues that Lorne gathered and the hard work of himself and some of his forest friends helped him recover two new legacies. One legacy belonged to the Lu Tribe. These were Deer Men, they were quick, alert, and majestic warriors. The legacy was pa.s.sed to a young a young deer warrior named Kuaisu a young friend of Lorne's. The next legacy belonged to the Songshu Tribe. Their young warrior Weifeng was also a playmate of Lorne's.

Lorne had been coming to this forest every day for about a year now. All of the forest kids he used to play with had grown up. One after another they took on roles of responsibility within their tribes. Many became their tribe's new generation of warriors. These young warriors were being sent off to the Forest Warrior Academy.

Among those leaving today was Big Bear. Over the last six months, Big Bear had rarely come to the forest to play. Instead, he focused on increasing his strength. The legacy that Bear ancestor, Bear King, left for the bear tribe was extremely powerful. Big Bear had already broken through to the True Warrior realm. The six bear brothers who went with him were also given cultivation techniques as well as armor and weapons from the legacy treasures. The six bear brothers became known as Liù Xiōngdì. These six typically followed Big Bear everywhere he went.

It was Lorne's last day to see Big Bear before he left.

"Big Bear, my parents said they'll take me to see you at the Forest academy next year. They even told me that if I become strong enough they'll let me attend the academy until my naptime." Lorne said.

"Little Bear, you must come. I'll take care of you once you get there. Us Bear brothers will be reunited! We'll become the strongest on the campus!" Big Bear said.

The two brothers spent the day talking about all their adventures together. Lorne mentioned the two new legacies he had found and how he believed it wouldn't be long until he found a third. He believed the next legacy he uncovered would likely belong to the Chòu Yòu tribe. Lorne laughed and said he wasn't sure he really wanted to find this legacy. Big Bear laughed at this.

The day drew to an end, the next morning Big Bear would leave the forest. Lorne decided to say his goodbyes tonight. He hated getting emotional around others. Big Bear, on the other hand, didn't care where he got emotional. Bears were emotional creatures. Big Bear started blubbering to Lorne and told him what a good little brother he was.

Lorne reluctantly parted with Big Bear and headed home a little sad. He knew this wasn't the last time he would see Big Bear, but it was the last time they would be peers. The next time he saw Big Bear the difference between them would grow. Lorne would still be a dragon baby, whereas Big Bear would be a young warrior bear, something like a college student.

Lorne sighed but continued home.

When he got home his parents saw how sad Lorne was.

"Don't worry Xiong'er, you'll get to see that bear brother of your in a year." Lorne's mother promised.

Lorne simply smiled at her before heading to his room and laying on his bed.

***

Kal N'Dar was frantically navigating through the rift fighting against the turbulence and trying to find safe pa.s.sage through. The rifts were like cracks in the crust of the Earth's tectonic plates. More often than not, the rifts led to the densest areas of energy in the universe. Sometimes, these rifts would split straight through from one universe to another. The dragon twins seemed to believe that the Qwyvar rift leads to a new universe, one with time disfasia that could allow them to grow up relatively quickly.

Even if they were right, one problem that would need to be faced was the amount of time disfasia or the rate of difference. The twins were already gone for a month. How long has gone by here, a day, a year, a million years or could it be minus a million years? You could never tell about a universe with time disfasia until you personally went in to take a look.

BS42 had pa.s.sed Kal the soul tracking codes for the dragon twins and given Kal a tracker. The tracker could be carried by hand, but it could also connect to the s.h.i.+p and work with the cosmic cartography machine.

It was at this time that Kal activated the tracker hoping that now that he was in the rift he would be led to the twins. Thankfully the tracker immediately picked up their trail. Kal followed the tracker noticing that the flight path that the golden twins chose was much smoother for travel. He was sure they had received some kind of special gift. There's no way they would have found the safe pa.s.sage by luck, and he knew that no one even knew this was an access point to a new universe. They made their navigational decisions on the go.

After several weeks of flying, Kal finally made it out of the rift. The rift opened to a new universe and Kal saw a new set of stars. Kal had Benton, his Warbox, on standby to study the new universe environment and to make changes and upgrades to his weapons. He also made sure that everything was being recorded. Universe probes were immediately dispatched from Kal's Samsara pod.

"It looks like the twins headed in that direction." Kal thought as he plotted a course. It took a couple of months but he eventually found his way to a large planet. The planet was a life planet with lush vegetation and many varieties of animals.

Kal matched the twins landing zone, landed the s.h.i.+p, took the tracker and headed to the armory to meet Benton. Benton patiently waited for Kal. Laid out before Kal was a new set of armor and weapons.

The under armor was dark brown leather-like pants and a dark navy blue s.h.i.+rt. The over armor was a thin body formed upper armor and a thin loose leg armor. A half helmet, s.h.i.+eld, sword, arm cannons and condensed photon rifle stood ready. There was also a storage ring with various supplies. Benton would stay with the s.h.i.+p to guard it an have it ready in case they needed to leave in a hurry.

The first thing that Kal noticed when he got off the s.h.i.+p was the T1 Long flyer remains. This was the s.h.i.+p the twins had stolen on their little outing. It was laying here in a mess. It looked like someone had burned it from inside out. The twins were stranded on this planet and he didn't know how long they had been here. Based on the vegetation growth and state of the destroyed s.h.i.+p it had been here for a while. He just didn't know how long.

Pulling out the tracker, Kal left to follow the crumbs to find the kids. "When he finds those kids, they are going to be in trouble!" Kal promised himself.

***

"We're in trouble sis!" A golden horned dragon youth cried.

"I can't find an opening to this cave. We'll have to hide!" Yelled a beautiful golden horned dragon girl.

This brother and sister pair were the twins that Kal was looking for. The pair came to this universe in the hopes of finding a way to speed up their growth. Dragons took thousands of years to grow up. They were supposed to help their young lord make his way in the universe, but how were they going to do that when they were just a couple of dragon babies?

They found this world not long after they had arrived in this universe. At first, they came exploring and thought it was a nice place to cultivate. Pianzi, her brother, managed to get high-tier Gold-dragon cultivation techniques. If they had been able to get the high-tier Five-Clawed Gold Dragon cultivation techniques they wouldn't have needed to come to this universe. They just didn't have the access to get something as protected as those techniques.

For the first few thousand years, they were here it was fine. They were even able to go into their long baby dragon sleep cycles without a problem. They had brought several puppets to guard them while they slept. Since they didn't have Samsara pods they had to find hidden caves to sleep in.

About three thousand years ago, someone had spotted them on one of their scouting trips. The person recognized them for what they were, dragons. In this universe dragons were non-existent. They used to live here but no longer. The dragons had mysteriously disappeared. Many dragon inheritances were left behind but only dragons could use them so they were pretty useless to everyone else.

The one thing that had been discovered in an old ruin before the twins arrived was a technique for transferring the natural dragon talents from a dragon to a non-dragon. This would boost a person's cultivation through the roof. Bottlenecks would become almost non-existent. Of course, the dragon would be consumed in the process, but who would care about that if it made them strong.

Until the twins were discovered no dragons had ever been found so even though it was a powerful technique it held little value. It had almost become a curiosity. Some tried adapting the technique for other powerful species but the results were hit or miss.

Then these two dragon youths appeared. Now, they were being hunted. The wily twins had done a pretty good job of evading capture so far, but a few hundred years ago they were forced back to this planet and barely escaped before the s.h.i.+p was destroyed. They've had little rest since then.

Today, they were discovered while looking for food and fresh water. Just as they got near a river and were about to start fis.h.i.+ng and getting water; other cultivators showed up. Both sides were surprised when they ran into each other. Congming, the female dragon, managed to kill one of the cultivators, but the other one ran off too quick and raised the alarm.

The twins immediately ran away and tried to get to one of their hidden lairs. Unfortunately, they couldn't lose the cultivators who were tight on their heels. The pair were finally forced into the cave they were now in. For now, they were safe. The cave only had one entrance and it was easy to control. However, pretty soon the cultivators would find a way to force them out. When that happened they would be done for.

The only thing going for them right now is that the cultivators were at an impa.s.se as to who would get to have the dragons. The air outside was extremely tense. It was a powder keg waiting for a spark.

Kal N'Dar showed up around this time. Sensing so many cultivators converging at the spot where the tracker indicated the dragon twins should be; he immediately deduced that these cultivators were after the dragons.

It was clear that the first thing he needed to do was find out what's going on. Kal blended in with the other cultivators. Kal looked as if he was just walking around, but what he was really doing was listening to what was going on. He discovered that everyone wanted the dragons to use a technique that could transfer the dragons' strength into them.

The problem everyone was facing was who would get the dragons, there were only two of them. Kat was able to sense the tension. Soon, there might be a fight amongst the cultivators. This would be the time for him to save the dragon twins. He needed to light the match on this explosive situation before cooler heads prevailed. Stirring up trouble was something that Kal excelled at.

Preparations were quickly made and Kal began his rescue plan. Time to stir up some trouble. The easiest way to turn this into a free for all was to increase the pressure. Right now, there was a fine balance between all of the forces. This had helped prevent things from going out of control. Everyone still felt like they had time to act, there was no need to hurry. All Kal had to do was give everyone a reason to hurry.

One of Kal's lesser-known talents was ventriloquism. It was something that even mortals can use, but no one ever bothered to learn it except for performers. Kal always liked this skill. It didn't use any qi or other energy so it couldn't be traced to him. The only trick was that cultivators' senses were extremely sharp. Kal had taken his ventriloquism to the next level. He was able to throw his voice so well that who could make people think it came from wherever he wanted it to. This was a no-cost trick that had helped him strategically start a lot of very beneficial trouble.

"Did you hear that the Lion's Roar Syndicate was on the way." Someone whispered.

"The Lion's Roar Syndicate is on the way?" Someone suddenly yelled in surprise and fear. All of the cultivators were suddenly panicked. if the Syndicate got here and they were still at a standoff then no one would get a piece of the action. Everything would go to the Syndicate because no one would mess with the Syndicate. Whatever the Syndicate wanted, none of them would be stupid enough to stand in their way. If anyone wanted those twins it was time to make their move. Almost all at once several people rushed towards the cave. Immediately, others rushed to stop them. Soon a ma.s.sive fight broke out!

"It was just that easy," Kal smirked as he patted his own back.

Inside the cave, Benton's holo-pod had made its way in. The twins were informed that Kal was here to save them. The two were immediately relieved. They thought he would have gotten here a long time ago. Little did they know that they underestimated how big of an effect greed had on the Dragon Clan. Everyone's greed kept the search for the dragon twins delayed for over a month.

"What's the plan, Benton?" Pianzi asked.

"We're going to try and sneak out," Benton said.

"Can't we just enter your holo-pod?" Congming asked.

"This is not BS42's holo-pod. Kal's Samsara pod is topnotch, but it's much more limited than BS42's." Benton said.

"How are we going to sneak out then?" Pianzi asked.

"Just wait a couple of minutes. You think you're a trickster. Wait and see what Kal does." Benton said.

"Oh yeah, hide those horns." Benton suddenly remembered.

Outside the cave, chaos reigned. Several cultivators had already died.

"It's time for someone to break through," Kal thought.

Kal had spent his time looking for something while on the battlefield. He finally found what he was looking for. Sneakily moving through the battlefield Kal got behind a male and female cultivator and suddenly punched both of them in the back towards the cave. The punch instantly killed the two. However, to everyone else, it looked like the pair was rus.h.i.+ng to the cave.

"Ah, someone's makin' a break for it!" A voice suddenly shouted.

Before anyone could move the pair of cultivators flew into the cave. Almost immediately the two flew back out and into the field. The pair crumpled up on the battlefield with their cloaks covering their figures. Someone went and checked on the pair.

"They're just knocked out he yelled." Everyone started laughing.

"What a couple of dumb skogs!" someone else yelled. The fighting got more intense afterward.

After a couple of more hours of fighting more than half of the cultivators were dead or fled. A booming could be heard coming from the sky. Everyone stopped fighting and looked up! Three Destroyer puppets in the markings of the Lion Roar Syndicate came through the clouds. The cultivators stopped fighting.

"This is the Lion's Roar Syndicate. We have come for the dragons, everyone else, SCRAM!!!" yelled an imperious voice. The crowd knew it was time to leave and so everyone fled as quickly as possible. Since the Syndicate was here now they had no chance of getting the dragons. The area in front of the cave was cleared of all living people. Only the dead remained on the field of battle.

Out of the clouds descended Lion's Roar Syndicate s.h.i.+ps. Three s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps escorted by a dozen fighters. Out of the s.h.i.+ps descended several members of the Syndicate descended with armed guards. The Syndicate members made their way to the cave and their guards cleared the entrance before a few of the members entered.

A loud boom sounded from the cave! The explosion blew out bodies from inside. The Syndicate forces were sent into disarray. The remaining members and guards quickly rushed towards the cave. Those who had gone into the cave were actually high-ranked members of the Syndicate. If any of them could be saved then they would be rewarded heavily.

No one noticed someone slip aboard one of the s.h.i.+ps. After a few minutes, the figure slipped out once more and headed west.

After excavating the site and determining that everyone was dead, the remaining Syndicate members boarded their s.h.i.+ps. The command was given, hunt down and immobilize all s.h.i.+ps until the dragon twins were found! The three landing craft for the Syndicate rose through the air. Unexpectedly, the landing craft started firing on their fighter escort. The fighters were taken completely unaware and were destroyed almost instantly. After all of the fighters were wiped out, the three landing craft self-destructed.

In s.p.a.ce, a Syndicate Carrier and frigate watched what happened on the planet. Command was shocked! It wasn't that no one had ever attacked the Syndicate before, it's just, the Syndicate had never attacked itself before. What was going on?!

In a cave, west of the battlefield, Kal entered. There he found the two dragon twins waiting fearfully. Kal walked in with a big smile on his face.

"Look at this, all grown up. Made a mess of the Dragon Clan, got General Long in trouble with the Dragon Emperor, and got me in trouble with BS42!" Kal said angrily.

"Not only have the two not followed orders repeatedly; you nearly got yourselves killed!" Kal shouted.

"But Kal, we thought you would get here a lot sooner!" Congming whined.

"Oh, so this is my fault now?" Kal sneered.

"That's not what Congming meant, we just figured you would follow the clues we left and get here faster..." Pianzi started.

"So now I'm stupid," Kal said as he radiated anger.

"Let me tell you two amateurs something! The reason I didn't get here sooner is that your trick caused those guardians of yours and an unknown number of elders in the Dragon Clan to delay telling General Long for over a month. The reason is that they wanted to claim credit for finding a new universe. I had to get BS42 to help me find you two and then I had to blindly fly into the rift! On top of this, the two of you had no way of knowing the nature of the time disfasia, if there was any, so how could you know when to expect me? Come, come, share some of your brilliant insights with me now!" Kal roared.

The twins knew that the best thing to do was keep quiet.

A few hours pa.s.sed before Pianzi finally summoned the courage to ask Kal some questions.

"Uhm, Kal, why didn't was sneak away to your s.h.i.+p earlier when we had the chance?" Pianzi asked.

Kal gave Pianzi an angry look and ignored him. Kal had spent most of his rage at the kids but he was still upset with them. These two were crucial to the success of their mission. They acted recklessly for no good reason, just like a couple of hot-headed kids.

These two kids weren't kids at all. They had both cultivated thousands of years before their disembodiment. If that thought Kal yelling at them was enough to make things go back to normal, they were crazy.

"We just want to understand your plan," Congming said with a friendly smile.

"Now the two of you want to understand my plan...You never tried to understand my plan before!" Kal shot back at Congming.

You two...I don't even know what to say right now. So you know what. I'm going to explain my thinking to you in the hopes that the next time you get a hairbrained idea you might actually know how to think so that you can successfully execute your hairbrained idea!" Kal said.

"First, there is a blockade in s.p.a.ce. The Syndicate was informed of your location the moment you were spotted. One of those cultivators out there figured they were more likely to get paid by the Syndicate than have any luck capturing the pair of you. The Syndicate was waiting in the upper atmosphere until the cultivators had thinned themselves out.

Second, most people rabbit as soon as they get the chance when they're being chased. The Syndicate was probably looking for this and was tracking every s.h.i.+p in this world.

Third, those smart enough not to run immediately will usually hide in their s.h.i.+ps. like I said before, the Syndicate is probably tracking on the s.h.i.+ps so right now their going s.h.i.+p to s.h.i.+p looking for you two. Our s.h.i.+p is already in s.p.a.ce sending me updates on movements made by the Syndicate. When the Syndicate leaves, we'll leave." Kal said.

"I don't understand one thing," Pianzi said.

"If they were watching every s.h.i.+p then how did your s.h.i.+p get off the planet without being noticed?" Pianzi asked.

"Simple, my s.h.i.+p was only on the planet long enough to drop me off. I had Benton take the s.h.i.+p out to look for some info on what's been going on in the region. It just so happened that not long after Benton left the Lion's Roar Syndicate showed up." Kal said.

"How come we were able to just leave the battlefield? Why didn't anyone stop us, and how come the Syndicate hasn't found us in this cave. Don't they have sensitive enough sensing equipment to find us?" Congming asked.

"There was too much chaos, you two laid there for half an hour pretending to be knocked out. After half an hour it wasn't unreasonable that both of you woke up. There were also a lot of cultivators leaving the battlefield when you woke up. No one cared about you. You were one less person they had to fight.

"The reason the Syndicate can't find us is that the glyphs in your bodies allow me to track you while at the same time hiding you from others when your heart rate is elevated," Kal said.

Kal was clever, he was great on sight strategist. He really understood human psychology and how to take advantage of it. Whoever came up with that glyph was a genius too. Heart rate hides them.

"Kal, does that mean that if our heart rate isn't elevated they can track us?" Pianzi suddenly panicked.

Kal had been waiting for this question. Not so dumb after all.

"Here, put these on." Kal tossed out a pair of armor for each of them. He had taken it out of his storage ring. He also throughout some weapons for them.

"Those are stealth armors. Exactly what a couple of scared little rabbits need right now." Cal said as he smiled.

The twins quickly changed into their new armor. Congming sat down and looked at Kal.

"Now what?" Congming asked.

"Now we'll wait until everyone leaves, and then we'll leave," Kal said.

The pair simply nodded their head and started cultivating.

***

It was an interesting experience watching everyone around you growing up. The Forest kids he played with just a year ago were now responsible adults. Many of them had families of their own. Little Tao, the rabbit kid, has already started raising his first litter of rabbits. His wife, Keai, met him thanks to the soccer games.

It occurred to Lorne that even though he was a dragon baby he couldn't just play around for the rest of his life. He only had around ten years until his big nap. Right now, Lorne was much stronger than he was in his previous life, but around here, in the forest, he wasn't so strong. What was Lorne hoping to accomplish? He had a new life, what did he want to do with it?

He was an archaeologist in his last life, but he was also the protector of his world. It didn't mean much to him to be Earth's protector at first. To him it just seemed like a good way to use his powers. It was fun. However, that last battle against those Usurpers, it was the first time in his life that he actually felt like he was doing something worthwhile. Standing up for Earth cost him his life, but he would do it again. He felt responsible, but he also felt honored that he was given such great strength.

Unfortunately, he wasn't strong enough in the past. He knew a lot more about strength since he came to this world. However, he had never fully committed himself to it. Lorne thought about all of his friends and how they were working hard to take responsibility. They had chosen their path in life and were doing the best they could to make it happen. Lorne like being a protector and he wanted to continue in that vein.

Lorne couldn't protect this little bit of paradise he has now; just like how he couldn't protect his last planet. Lorne was blessed with strength. Yet, it wasn't enough. He needed more. With this thought in mind, Lorne decided to earnestly begin training himself. He had learned about cultivation and had even dabbled in it. However, now, he wanted to excel in it. If he did get better faster, he might be able to see his brother, Big Bear. Even more than that, he didn't want to be in a situation where he was so outmatched that he had no choice but let himself be killed.

It wasn't because he was afraid of death. It was because if he was dead who would defend other people. It seemed he was brought into this world to be a protector. To be a protector you need strength, yet Lorne knew just how weak he was.

In about a year, Lorne would go to see Big Bear. He wanted to show Big Bear just how strong he had become. He wanted to know his socks off. Lorne wanted to be a hero again, but this time he understood the responsibility he was agreeing to take on.

This world didn't have superheroes, but did that mean it couldn't have superheroes? Lorne would inaugurate an era of superheroes, just like on Earth. To do that he had to become much stronger. He needed to become strong enough to weather any store and push forward when there was no hope.

"So long as you're alive, there's hope!" Lorne thought.

"How does someone become stronger?" Lorne wondered to himself. This world possessed something called cultivation. He would use that to grow stronger. However, before immersing himself in the cultivation world he knew he had to maximize the abilities he already had. How could he do this he now wondered?

Ever since Lorne came to this world he had gained powers that he didn't previously have. The one he was most fascinated with currently was the energy perception he gained through his Wu Di bloodline. I have energy powers. My Laser vision certainly energy based. I wonder if I could use my energy perception to help me improve my abilities.

Lorne began to use his energy perception to examine his body. The more he used this ability the more improvements he saw that he could make. The improvements could increase his abilities.

Finally, Lorne realized that all of his abilities were energy based in some way. Just as he made this discovery, Lorne's senses picked up a conversation between his parents. His mother was crying and his father was trying to console her.

Lorne moved to the living room where his parents were.

"Mother, what's wrong?" Lorne asked.

His mother immediately tried to deny that anything was a problem. Lorne persisted until his mother finally told him the truth. Somehow, the Dragon Clan had discovered the hidden Wu Di Clan. The Clan was currently being surrounded. Even the daughter of the Dragon Emperor had come to deal with the Wu Di. There was little hope for members of the clan. Lorne's mother had lost hope.

"Where there's life, there's hope, Mother," Lorne said

Lorne turned to walk away and his mother suddenly asked him:

"Xiong'er, where are you going?"

"I'm going to save our Wu Di Clan of course."