The Invincible Hero

All he saw were chubby baby feet and hands. The third hand was also cute but it was bizarre. Unlike his other hands, he had three fingers and two thumbs. There was no top of the hand. The hand was flexible and the fingers could make a fist in either direction.

The arm was unlimited in the direction it could bend in. It went up, down, left, right, diagonal, it could even twist in a three-hundred and sixty degrees circle. Lorne thought this arm was more like a tentacle with fingers than an arm. It didn"t even have an elbow!

Lorne discovered He could suck the arm back into his chest until only the hand was exposed, but the hand followed the counters of the chest. If he had a tight t-shirt on no one would be able to tell he had an extra hand. Convenient!

At that moment, Lorne wondered what he looked like. He saw a mirror to the right of his father so he flew over and hovered in front of the mirror. Lorne was a little surprised by what he saw.

"I"m a Chinese Dragon Baby!" He exclaimed.

"I"m also naked!" Lorne said as he suddenly covered his nether regions.

"Can I have some pants?" Lorne asked.

Lorne"s New father grabbed a onesie sitting on the table and put it on, Lorne. Lorne looked back at the mirror and noticed that he was now dressed in a cutesy dragon sleeper. The opening for his face was in the middle of the open mouth of the dragon.

"A little on the nose isn"t it father?" Lorne said.

For the first time, smiles appeared on the faces of Lorne"s new father and mother. The pair were both ecstatic! The baby was a little strange but he recognized his parents, or at least his father.

"Call me mother!" Lorne"s new mother pleaded.

"Mother," Lorne said as he smiled.

The pair began to dance around the room because they were so happy. Soon, Lorne was swept up into the celebration. Lorne was a considerate person. Any lesser person would have asked them to calm down and stop touching him. Mentally, Lorne was an adult. However, physically, he was a newborn.

Lorne recognized that this pair had expected a baby, not an adult. Their affection was real and so was their happiness. Never hit someone smiling at you. This is the second time that Lorne had thought of this saying.

He owed grat.i.tude towards this couple just as he owed his original parents grat.i.tude. He had every obligation to behave like their child. He would do his best. Looking back at himself in the mirror he knew his role as a dragon baby wasn"t going to be easy.

"Xiong"er, what did you mean by Chinese Dragon baby?" Lorne"s mother eventually asked.

Lorne suddenly realized she might be talking to him. He looked back at her and pointed at himself.

"I"m Xiong"er?" Lorne asked.

"Yes." His mother said as she nodded her head.

Xiong"er that"s an interesting name.

"What"s my family name?" Lorne asked.

"Ying," his father said proudly.

"So I"m Xiong"er Ying," Lorne said.

"Ying Xiong," His father corrected.

"Oh yes, we"re Chinese our names are backward. Hey, didn"t you just say that my name is Xiong"er...?" Lorne asked.

"Xiong"er is an affectionate form of your name." His mother said.

"Oh, it"s a silly name for kids. Got it." Lorne said.

"Xiong"er, you once again called yourself Chinese, what"s that?" Lorne"s mother asked again.

Lorne realized his mistake. He had been using his thinking from his last world to understand this one. He was confusing the language, race, and culture in this world for his old one. Was there even race in this place? Maybe everyone was Chinese here...or was race identifiable as dragons? Complicated.

Lorne noticed that his parents were looking at him expectantly. Lorne figured he might as well be honest and explain things. These were his parents, perhaps they would understand he was a traveler from another world. He hoped it wouldn"t be too much of a blow.

If they took it weird he could always pretend it was silly baby talk he thought.

"Mother, Father, the truth is that I am not from this world. I have already lead a life before this one. In my world, I was an adult of 32 years old when I died. I hope you can understand if I don"t see too babyish but overly mature." Lorne said.

Unexpectedly, Lorne"s new parents didn"t seem shocked or disappointed. Instead, the both of them started laughing. Both kept saying, "how cute," his Father did an imitation of a little guy

"hims a big thirty-two-year-old boy. Look at me I"m all grown up, I"m thirty-two!"

Lorne"s mother laughed even more at the antics of his father. She was even holding her sides and snorted a couple of times. Hearing his wife"s laughter, Lorne"s father ramped up his play acting.

Hiking up his pants he said lots of typical kid things like he was a big boy, he was hungry, and he didn" want to take a nap. Lorne just sighed as he listened to the couple. Finally, the two stopped laughing looking at the unimpressed Lorne.

"I don"t get it," Lorne said.

"Xiong"er, son, thirty-two is really young for a dragon. You won"t even hit p.u.b.erty until you"re around thirteen thousand years old." Lorne"s father said.

Lorne was really surprised by the ridiculously huge number.

Well, how long do I have to be a baby?" Lorne asked.

"Just three or four thousand years." Lorne"s mother said to her exasperated son.

"Three or four thousand years! You don"t expect me to run around in onesies for four thousand years do you?" Lorne asked.

"No, just a few hundred years," his father said seriously.

Lorne completely blanked at this. The Invincible Hero, doomed to several hundred years in a onesie. If all those humans who idolized him so much in the past could see him now. Lorne was really depressed. First, he spent ten thousand years in an egg, and now he would be treated as a baby for three or four thousand years.

A thought suddenly occurred to Lorne.

"You two don"t seem too upset that I"m reincarnated, or is it that you don"t believe me?" Lorne asked.

"We believe you, it"s just that it"s not very surprising." Lorne"s mother said.

"It"s not surprising, why"s that?" Lorne asked.

"It happens a lot among children born into my clan." His mother said.

"What clan is that?" Lorne asked.

"The Wu Di Clan," his mother said.

His mother"s answer wasn"t nearly as helpful as Lorne had hoped it would be. Lorne"s father, the Emperor, was right. He needed to learn how to ask better questions.

"Mother, you aren"t a Dragon, could you tell me what species our Wu Di clan is?" Lorne asked.

"Why would you say that I"m not a Dragon." His mother asked.

Oops, Lorne had too much information even for someone who reincarnated. He thought for a moment before responding.

"I just noticed that both father and I have horns and metallic colored eyes whereas you don"t," Lorne said.

"What a clever baby, smart like your mother." Lorne"s father said.

"You"re right, I"m not a dragon, not a dragon, like your father at least. My Wu Di clan is very special. We are a clan of Chamono Dragons.

"Chamono Dragons?" Lorne repeated.

"Yes, it"s a little difficult to explain. We are a hidden race." Lorne"s mother revealed.

"Xiong"er, it"s good that you brought this up. We need to discuss the Hydra in the room." Lorne"s father said.

"What"s wrong father?" Lorne could see that every time he called his father, father or his mother, mother the two would get happy. He kept using the term to bring them closer. Maybe they would be more willing to answer his questions.

"Xiong"er there are two things that no one can know about until you get strong enough to protect yourself or at least until you"re strong enough to run away." Lorne"s father said.

Lorne looked at his mother who had a worried look in her eyes. Lorne knew it was serious from the way his parents were behaving.

"Okay, what are those two things," Lorne asked.

"The first thing is that no one can know that your mother comes from the Wu Di clan. They have been hunted for millions of years and are practically extinct. If anyone found out your mother was from Wu Di, they would do their best to capture her and then torture her to find the location of the rest of the clan.

Do not ever reveal your mother"s origins. As far as everyone is concerned, your mother is a half-dragon." Lorne"s father said.

"Of course, I"ll never say anything," Lorne said.

"The second thing is that you"re a Five-Clawed golden dragon. If word were to get back to the Dragon Empire, they would take you away from us and we would never see you again. They would also immediately launch an investigation into our family and would naturally discover the ident.i.ty of your mother.

Five-Clawed Golden Dragons are as mythical and unique as humans. They are almost impossible to find. The Dragon Clan would raise you like a little Emperor, but they would never let us near you, especially when they find out who your mother is.

The Problem is that I just don"t know how to conceal your ident.i.ty." Lorne"s father said.

Lorne thought about it for a few moments before finally answering."

"How about I do this," Lorne said.

Immediately Lorne"s horns and irises turned silver. Lorne pulled down the onesie so they could see his chest change as the little hand that was there vanished before their eyes. Lorne pulled the onesie back up as he looked at his parents.

"How"s that?" Lorne asked innocently.

Lorne"s new parents were completely floored by this nonchalant action of their son.

"Holy Dragon t.u.r.d!" Lorne"s father suddenly cried out.

***

Ten thousand years ago inside the Samsara pod. Several weeks had pa.s.sed since Lorne had entered his gestation period in the Dragon egg. BS42 hadn"t sat idle during this time. He had been making preparations.

In a lab the size of four football fields, BS42 was pouring over data on his computer screen. Thousands upon thousands of Gene Pools could be seen in this warehouse. However, the Gene Pools varied in size. Some were very tiny while Some Were very big. There was one Gene Pool that took up the s.p.a.ce of one entire Football field.

It wasn"t just that this lab took up a lot of area, the lab was actually multi-level. Some level"s contained what seemed to be specialized Gene Pools whereas others seemed to contain materials of every kind. The list of materials ranged from mineral to organic and it seemed like there was an unlimited variety of them. Another level seemed to be filled with nothing but container units for souls!

"At last, a newly undiscovered world for me to explore! New species to catalog! This is an opportunity that doesn"t come often. I remember the days when I was the head of the New Universe Recording and Species Research Inst.i.tute (NURSRI). It seemed like I was constantly busy in the beginning days of the Empire. Eventually, though, the frequency of new universes and new species dwindled. The Empire couldn"t afford its continuous expansion. We had even encountered formidable enemies who required us to protect what we already had.

At last, at last, there"s something for me to do in my beloved area of expertise!" BS42 thought to himself.

If Lorne could see BS42 now, behaving like an excited kid he would be unconvinced that this was actually BS42.

"First, I"ll send the surveyors out all over this world. We"ll concentrate on taking species samples and cartography."

BS42 was hard at work at a computer terminal. As he worked he activated thousands of the tiny Gene Pools. Genetic material was supplied to each of the Gene Pools. Thousands of Fairy bodies began to form from countless embryos. Finally, the souls that had been on standby were synchronized with the embryos.

The Embryos were "birthed," and then moved to special incubation chambers. The Fairy bodies began to grow older until they were at an adult age. The largest Fairy was a male fairy who was about the size of a hummingbird. The female fairies were much smaller.

Once all of the fairies had finished the accelerated growth process, the incubation chambers" doors all opened. Each fairy flew to waiting lockers and dressed in the provided outfits. The fairies all dutifully lined up into countless rows waiting for their orders.

"Welcome back to life!" BS42 said loudly to the Fairies.

"My name is BS42, and today you have been awakened to make rest.i.tution for the crimes you have committed against my Empire. I have a simple mission that needs to be completed," BS42 said.

"We are in a new universe, there are new species as yet unknown to our empire. Your job is to catalog these new species and to map the world. Each of you has the necessary tools in your storage rings. All data you collect will be automatically sent to me here.

If you are successful in your surveying work, this will count towards time served of your sentence. If you accrue enough merits, you will be allowed to reincarnate to your next life. Those whose crimes against the Empire were minor may even have the opportunity to be guided to reincarnate into a citizen in the Empire.

"Success!" BS42 shouted at the end.

"Success!" The thousands of fairies replied in a military shout.

BS42 chose fairies as the bodies for his surveyors for two reasons. First, they were really fast and hard to catch when they flew. They could even go under water. Second, experience had shown that fairies were common through the multiverse and most planets wouldn"t find it odd to discover a fairy flying around.

The orders with sectors to survey and map were sent to the mapping teams. The genetic sample-gathering teams were similarly sent to specific sectors to perform their work. Once BS42 had enough genetic material of the local species he could begin to create additional spies, scouts, and warriors to move on to the next phase of his plan.

Once the fairies received their orders they moved to the transportation gate and were sent from the Samsar pod into the new world.

***

Three thousand years later, BS42 was working in a specialized Gene Pools lab. He was standing before two Gen Pools about the size of the one that Lorne had used. The mapping teams of the fairies had finished mapping the world not long ago and they were retasked to aid in gathering more genetic materials.

Enough Materials had been gathered after fifteen hundred years for BS42 to begin creating two very important warriors. The birthing process was completed. Two naked warriors stepped out of the Gene Pool and walked to a bench that held clothes, weapons, and storage rings. The pair of warriors walked to BS42 waiting for his orders.

The first warrior was a Four-Clawed Copper Dragon. His Horns and eyes had a Copper color. His hair was a deep reddish brown. He was a very large man standing about two and a half meters in height. He wore a simple tunic, pants, boots, and belt with a Greenish Brown cloak. His weapons included a High-Grade Mace, High-Grade Axe, and a High-Grade Longbow with ten thousand arrows. All weapons and clothing were in the style of this world.

According to the survey teams, no one on this planet used high technology. This was a "High-Magic" world. Meaning, magic power was relied on here as much as technology was relied upon on other planets. A person with enormous power could stand against magic beasts and casters. Overall, however, magic was king on this world.

Even though this dragon man was only a Four-Clawed Copper Dragon, he couldn"t be looked down on. His body was designed to be similar to Lorne"s. It was a blended version of Lorne"s parents with the Zimwarn genetics. According to projections, his physical strength should be more than triple the typical strength of either a Zimwarn warrior or Dragon warrior of his level. The Dragon Warrior"s strength was at the Void Emperor realm.

According to the survey teams, the highest level of cultivation on the planet was rumored to be the Void King realm. This was one full realm difference to the Four-Clawed Copper Dragon"s level. Lorne"s father Ying Tian was only at the Small Origin Core Realm. Of course, he was a young dragon himself. He was less than twenty thousand years old. He would certainly become much more powerful in the future.

BS42 could have made the realm higher for these two warriors, but that would have meant more time to grow the warrior and many more resources. It was better to let the warrior cultivate himself if necessary. BS42 chose a Four-Clawed Copper Dragon instead of the Four-Clawed Silver Dragon or the Four-Clawed Golden Dragon because it would take too long to grow these Dragon bodies.

Even though BS42 could accelerate the aging gestation process of the pair of warriors, there came a point where the more powerful the organism the closer to regular gestation period it would become. At most, he could only shave a couple of thousand years off of Four-Clawed Silver Dragon at the Void Emperor realm, and only five hundred years for the Four-Clawed Gold Dragon at the Void Emperor realm. Instead of three thousand years, it would have taken five thousand for the silver dragon and seventy-five hundred years for the golden dragon.

He needed these two warriors now to begin the second part of his plan. He already had a couple of Golden dragons gestating. These were pure dragons, not a mixed race dragon and each of these would be at the much lower Great Origin Core realm. They would hatch about a thousand years before Lorne, however, their job would be to infiltrate the Dragon Empire and get cultivation techniques for Lorne.

It was too dangerous to have Lorne enter a Dragon Empire academy to train. Not only was there the issue of his mother, there was also the issue of the Samsara pod that could be easily discovered if someone were at a high enough rank. Within the Dragon Academies, there were plenty of Dragon Lords strong enough to discover Lorne"s Samsara pod. Who knew what would happen if they discovered Lorne with such a thing. They might destroy him, soul and all, in which case he would be dead for sure!

The other warrior was similarly dressed as the Dragon Warrior, but his species was totally different. He was a mutt if there ever was one. BS42 decided to create a warrior that didn"t easily fit into any species.

This warrior would explore other planets. He would also be given his own Samsara pod to help with exploration. BS42 chose to blend multiple species together to give him a well-rounded capability, unlimited potential for later development, and a mysterious history.

What kind of person would be the result of having so many species blended together? To create such a warrior, his ancestors must have been mutts themselves. At least, that"s what people would think.

The main ingredients of this tossed salad of genes were genes from the Wu Di clan, Tigermen, Tyrant Stingraymen, s.p.a.ce otter, and Fighting Monkey. There were several other species thrown into the mix but their ratios were nearly negligible. BS42 decided to name this species "The Fighting Texan," or in the parlance of this world: "Yǔ dé kè sà sī Zhàndòu." Naturally, BS42 named this species referencing Lorne"s past home on Earth.

BS42 looked to the Dragon Warrior first.

Your name will be Tiě lóng. Your first mission is to receive a disciple. Go into the mystic forest and find a disciple amongst the young warriors. There is a Tiger cub I noticed who looks promising. In your ring of holding you"ll find a mission scroll with details of your mission. The mission scroll can also be used to send in reports and receive new missions with their details." BS42 said.

Tiě lóng nodded his head and stepped back.

Next, BS42 looked towards the Fighting Texan Warrior. "Your name shall be Kal N"Dar named for the records of the pa.s.sage of time amongst the Sussani peoples. Your mission is to begin a survey among the stars. You"ll need to gather star maps, cultivation techniques, and much more. I have purchased an interstellar vehicle for you and it is in your storage ring. You can always move onto something bigger later, once you get the money. Your cover is as a smuggler, gambler, and merc for hire. Not a hard roll for you to pull off I suspect"

Kal N"Dar stepped back and nodded similarly to Tiě lóng.

"I have provided an a.s.sistant for each of you." BS42 signaled and two creatures flew forth. The first was a flying snake with wings. It went to Tiě lóng and coiled itself around him. The next creature was a flying spider-turtle-monkey. About the size of a large cat. It flew towards Kal N"Dar and landed on his shoulder.

"You are dismissed. Glory to the Empire!" BS42 said.

"Glory to the Empire!" the duo responded together. After finishing their words the pair left the Samsara pod through a transportation gate to begin their missions.

***

Lorne was walking through the nearby forest. He had reached thirty-two yesterday and as part of his birthday present, he was allowed to venture into the forest to find some friends. Lorne was glad to be out. He had spent the last thirty-two years with his parents.

Ever since he shocked them with his shape-shifting ability, they made him display all of the powers he had from his previous world. At first, Lorne was going to pretend that was it, but his parents were too clever and told him they knew he had more. The punch he gave his father was enough to guess that.

Lorne finally relented and displayed what he thought would be his best ability and that was his laser vision. Unfortunately, he could only muster up enough energy to burn a hole in the wall. He thought he would shoot through the wall and cut down a few trees in the forest. He even found the common materials in this world prevented him from using his Ridarn vision. He felt really weak.

After lamenting about how weak he was, his kind mother encouraged him by telling him that he wasn"t really that weak it was just that he was a baby and it could be that his previous abilities weren"t as strong in his new life as they were in his old life. After all, he had a completely new body, who knows how everything worked? It was amazing that he managed to retain any of his abilities from his old body. Lorne accepted their good intentions and moved on.

Life was pleasant with his parents. He learned that his mother"s name was Shenmi Yun, and his father was Ying Tian. Lorne was also happy that his mother taught him about the powers from her side of the gene pool and even gave him some cultivation techniques. His father similarly gave him some cultivation techniques, but his techniques were of a poorer quality as he had left the Dragon Academy early in his student career.

It turned out that it was the nature of the inborn powers that the Wu Di clan possessed that lead to them being hunted. His mother"s clan was known as the invincible clan mainly because of two powers. The first power was their ability to consume pretty much any energy. This included magic, soul energy, and so forth.

When attacked by these energies directly they could just consume the energy. This was problematic for creatures like Dragons whose main strength, other than their enormous physical strength, came from their magic power. The Wu Di clan were the ant.i.thesis of the Dragon Clan.

The second power was their ability to intuitively perfect almost any energy based techniques whether it was spells, fighting techniques, runes, and formations or even pill recipes. Any field could be perfected. This was dangerous for other Clans. It was a threat to the Dragon clan in particular as it threatened to throw them out from the hierarchy.

These weren"t the limits to the Wu Di clans abilities, but with just these two abilities alone they had been marked for extinction.

Lorne found it odd that his new parents had met and fallen in love. Wouldn"t his mother see his father as a threat to her and her people? Lorne"s mother confessed that at first, that"s exactly how she felt. However, Lorne"s father had proven himself over and over again to her. Eventually, she couldn"t help but fall in love with him.

Lorne"s parents almost didn"t let him have his birthday wish to roam in the forest. They were worried about whether or not he could take care of himself. Lorne demonstrated his superspeed to his parents. In the past, he was pretty quick but over the course of the last thirty years, he had focused on developing his new and old powers.

Dragons could be really fast, but with Lorne"s speed from his previous life, he was a little hard to catch even for his father! Maybe he couldn"t beat up everyone in the forest, but at the very least he could probably escape with his life.

At the beginning of the morning, Lorne was very excited about the prospects of making new friends and meeting almost anyone. His parents were great, but they had been the only other people he"d spent any significant time with over the last thirty years.

He did receive the occasional visit from members of the Wu Di clan from time to time. His mother"s parents were especially excited about Lorne. They didn"t know about his variety of powers from his old world. However, they marveled at his ability to fully utilize both parents abilities. His grandparents often brought consumable treats like candied magic b.a.l.l.s, and other Wu Di childhood delicacies. Lorne found energy could be really delicious.

He had even started discovering his ability to occasionally improve a cultivation technique he had. His mother told him he would get better at it over time. However, she stressed that he should always leave some flaws in anything he improved or it would lead to a disaster. His mother had a library full of improved techniques, she showed them to Lorne who was absolutely dazzled.

As Lorne reflected on the happenings of the last thirty years he noticed that even though he had walked forever; he still hadn"t found any kids his age.

"Where"s everyone at?" Lorne wondered out loud to himself.

"You have silly parents Lorne." BS42 suddenly said.

"Why do you say that?" Lorne asked.

"Because they never told you that as a dragon you have a natural presence that makes all other surrounding creatures tremble in fear when they are near you. In this world, you are a super predator. Only someone insane would seek you out the way you"re releasing your oppressive aura." BS42 said.

"Really, I had no idea!" Lorne said.

"Of course, you had no idea. You"re the super predator. You think a tiger ever notices that it"s really scary?" BS42 mocked in response.

"Can you help me repress this aura?" Lorne asked.

"Sure, but just doing that won"t be enough to make friends. You"ll probably need to find someone who isn"t intimidated by a baby Dragon. That"ll take someone really strong." BS42 said.

"It"s one thing after another with being a baby dragon. I"ll tell you right now, it ain"t easy being a baby dragon." Lorne said.

For some reason, BS42 found this comment a little amusing and let out a soft chuckle. Immediately after this, BS42 taught Lorne how to repress his aura. Right after doing this he started noticing more and more creatures in the distance. No one approached him, but at least he started seeing more and more people.

"Most of these people look really animal-like." Lorne thought. That one looks like a fox person, another person seems more like a duck man, was that a snail man? That"s pretty weird looking. Lorne was having a grand time identifying the different species of animal people.

Suddenly, Lorne heard a roar from the Jungle.

"Where"s that little dragon baby at? Who does he think he is coming into my forest causing trouble?!" Lorne was startled by the roaring and shouting. This person certainly had a presence.

Over a hill, a large figure popped out. The figure was about three times Lorne"s height. He could tell that the person was still an adolescent. He looked a little bearish.

The bear boy continued to make his way towards Lorne. Ever since he saw Lorne, the Bear boy locked his eyes onto the baby dragon. The ground seemed to shake with each step the boy took. Lorne could feel the other creatures in the forest staring at him wondering what would happen. Sure, he was a dragon baby, but he wasn"t the most terrifying existence in the forest. Not right now at least.

There were two tribes in the forest who always competed for number one. The Hu tribe and the Xiong tribe. To all the animals in the forest, these two tribes represented the top of the food chain. Neither tribe was petty or vicious, but their strength was scary.

The Hu tribe was made up of all the tigers in the forest. There were all types of tigers in the Hu tribe from the orange white and black types, the black and white types, to the white and black tigers. The current leader of the Hu tribe was Fēixíng báihǔ. Legend has it that the ancestor of the Fēixíng tiger family had wings and was unmatched in his generation.

The other tribe was the Hēixióng tribe. The Hēixióng tribe was made up of Hēi family, the Māo family, Tàiyáng family, Běijí family, Lǎn family and the Yǎnjìng family. The current leader of the Hēixióng tribe is a member of the Yǎnjìng family named Bīngshān. The adolescent bear boy walking up to Lorne seemed to be of the Yǎnjìng family.

Finally coming directly before Lorne the large bear adolescent looked down fiercely at Lorne.

"It"s the one causing all the problems. Hey baby dragon, why don"t you tell me your name." The bear adolescent said imperiously.

"Ying Xiong."