"The Lighting Warrior" is the first book in The Chronicles of Metorm, introducing Sagiron, a Silvonian boy who had ended up homeless with his father after an accident. He is somewhat miserable hunter and dubbed as the worst swordfighter in the village, dreaming of mundane things and a small adventure to get out of the boring, bleak highlands.

One day, while hunting, he discovers an odd scroll. Little does he know what everyone say is but a trash contains the code of Salat Kata, the Secret Skill, a latent ability of the mind that was long lost. After tragic events, he is left to seek vengeance, and he is determined to become a better warrior.

As the true nature of the scroll is unveiled, it turns him overnight into an unmatched warrior. Confident it will change everything, he travels to see an old order to announce about the discovery, only to end up the middle of a cataclysm. Left with the ultimate responsibility, the enemy searching for the code is already on his tracks, he soon finds out he is in big trouble.

As things escalate, he has to balance between personal matters and greater ideals, and things get more complicated than he initially believed. Those who were supposed to be enemies might turn out to be vital allies.

Prologue:

Hadriam, the Arkman, has reclaimed a copy of the Prime Code, but the colonial empire’s knight-detectives led by the Royal Family’s Prince Chasoir catch them, but not before he manages to hide the scroll.

Story begins

Seeking adventure

Sagiron discovers the hidden scroll in his daring venture across the Silvon Stream, but manages to get chased by bandits over a prey. One of the bandits die during the chase, killed by a sudden appearance of a legendary beast, saginair, a winged lion.

He returns to their village with his father where they reside for now after their cottage burned down, and Sagiron tries to solve the scroll’s mystery with his friend Merkhat, and they visit Yazarat, a local herb-smoking hermit who they knew used to be an ex-Skill Games trainer. The hermit dismisses the scroll as a trash, but is messed up due to the herb.

The next day, the bandits raid the village, and one of them recognizes Sagiron, blaming him for his friend’s death, demanding a duel. His father intervenes, killing the bandit, but is shot as a revenge. The rogue chief faces Sagiron, but discards him as worthless. Before the bandits flee the cavalry, Sagiron notices a Whitling boy with a white hair.

Seeking vengeance

After the funeral, Sagiron ends up drunk and passes out, and he wakes at Arhim’s, the village’s herbmaster, who offers him a place as a thanks for saving his life. The herbmaster quickly deduces that Yazarat is smoking a drug-herb, and they make a plan to steal them to force him sober up. While Arhim travels to town, Sagiron faces the village bully, Percilion, the statelord’s son, who mocks him of yesterday’s events.

In the night, they sneak into Yazarat’s cabin and steal his herbs, but not without trouble. The next day, Arhim teaches the boys about history and other things, and takes a look at the scroll, but doesn’t see anything.

A few weeks later, they visit Yazarat, who has sobered up, and learns of Sagiron’s father’s death. He promises to train them to hunt down the bandits, but the scroll still remains elusive.

Over the next two months, the boys learn combat through calligraphy, being initiated to the symbols which are a part of the way of the warrior. They try to crack the scroll on their own, to no avail.

Revelations

Merkhat gets sent to the fields, leaving Sagiron alone with Yazarat. He finds the man passed out in his cabin, and then stranger things start to happen. He has tapped into the scroll once more, and deciphering the Prime Code, he has discovered the Secret, the long-lost arcane skill of the lightning warriors. He initiates Sagiron into it, and they practice some of its abilities: bending the will and excelling in combat through reflection. As Sagiron returns to the village, he is suddenly turned into a master swordsman, easily matching the best, arousing suspicion.

The first pilgrims come, signaling the Temple gathering has begun, and Yazarat tells Sagiron to prepare quietly. His friends deduce something’s up, and Merkhat gets jealous, cursing him. Sagiron tells Arhim out of respect, but Arhim has received letter from his parents, planning to leave village.

In the morning, Sagiron departs with Yazarat to the temple, traveling across Silvon, carrying the Prime Code. They present it to the Shalon Brethren, who immediately begin to indoctrinate the knights. Sagiron duels with one in the Skill Games, demonstrating its abilities and limitations against another Secret-Keeper. Yazarat waits to see his old friend, Halin, but he never comes.

But in the Great Evening, during the initiations, the knights bring in captured spy, who turns out to be Arhim. He warns them of impending attack—the colonial empire has sent an army. Sagiron gets banished as a traitor and chased down, but Yazarat intervenes, allowing them to flee. The enemy has besieged the temple already, and slaughters the pilgrims and the order who is direly undermatched despite many knowing the Secret already. Yazarat dies, taking the last copy of the Secret with him to prevent the enemy from getting it as the knight-detectives storm in.

Arhim figures out a hidden escape route described in the old legends, and the two escape the temple, but get captured by Harachimians, the deemed arch nemesis of the Brethren, having heard them mention the rumored escape route. Evading the empire, they flee the valley together through the mountains. They offer Sagiron a new way, but he declines out of suspicion.

Dead End

They return to the village, where Sagiron finds himself back in square one. In no time, he gets into trouble as the new village chief is found dead, and is accused of murdering him, but with Arhim’s help again, they manage to prove their innocence. The statelord’s son is now promoted as the village chief, turning the village into a prison camp. Sagiron plans to seek Halin, and as Arhim forbids him to participate into any temple-related stuff again, he meets Merkhat, and they reconcile and Sagiron tells about the Secret to him, and they try to memorize the code so he could teach it to Merkhat, to no avail. They agree to leave first thing tomorrow.

But the next day, the villagers are rounded and part of them are relegated away due to a rebellion nearby, including Merkhat. Merkhat’s brother Kerwin causes a scene and escapes under the cover of his girlfriend, the captain’s daughter. The village is put into lockdown, locking Sagiron in. He, the innkeeper’s son Jarmack and his friend Harrogat band together to make a reckless plan to rescue their relegated friends and families, he refrains from using the Secret in fear of exposing himself. Rumors spread already however, and Sagiron ends up doing things that arouse even further suspicion.

This triggers Arhim, who refused to believe in anything supernatural until now, and as he faces Sagiron, he finally admits there is more. Arhim had copied the Prime Code to his Journal way back in the day he first saw the scroll, and things change. Sagiron teaches the Secret to Arhim, who demonstrates the abilities as well, realizing the imminent danger they are in.

Things Fall Apart

They try to escape the next evening during the Harvest Festival, but the knight-detectives are already lurking around. The statelord’s son tries to arrest them on their own, and they are forced to use the Secret, instigating the villagers into a full-blown rebellion, and they flee the village gates banging, only to fall into elite meusar’s ambush, led by Prince Chasoir.

Sagiron, Arhim, Jarmack and Harrogat are taken to Tritoria town, where the statelord Le-Muel, who has been investigating the matter since the Arkman capture, questions them about the Journal. They make a last attempt to escape and destroy the Journal, ending up locked in the dungeons—they need to keep them alive just in case to decipher the Prime Code.

There is a squabble between the statelord and the prince over authority, but Le-Muel is confident enough he can decipher the Secret before the prince can act. The prince, although one from the ruling family, formally inferior to the statelord, tries to extract the prisoners out. The Whitling boy Sagiron saw in the village, Roy, comes lurking around with his friends disguised as castle guards, creating a scene, and they divert the prisoners, and they make a bold walkout, now all disguised as guards. Arhim is adamant on recovering the Journal, and they storm the statelord’s tower, but the statelord jumps into a ditch, escaping with the Journal.

New Plan

The friends flee Tritoria castle, but as he realizes who Roy is, he blames him for his father’s death. Arhim presses on about the Journal, Jarmack and Harrogat on the villagers. Roy however tells Sagiron to face the rogue chief, as the rogue band’s rule states whoever bests the chief becomes the new chief. With the Secret, Sagiron takes that route, and they ride to the hideout, where he slays the chief and his goons.

To reclaim the Journal, they ride to Gatsemat, where the earlier rebellion had taken place, and fabricate a plan to rescue the imprisoned rebels and Elyara, the rebel leader, increasing their strength, but not without squabble—Sagiron promises to hand over his chiefship to Elyara after the raid. Now, the united rebels make a plan to attack Silvon Palace, where Le-Muel has retreated, from both them, and Prince Chasoir, who has gone to get his father’s aid to put Le-Muel back into his place.

The Palace Raid

They find a rumored route to the temple grounds, but face an army garrisoned there. In the chaos and confusion, they release the slaves in the Palace grounds and manage to open the gate for the rest of the rebels. The army itself is still protecting the palace, marching to face the inferior rebels.

A thunderstorm rolls in however, and Sagiron now gains the full strength of the Secret, unleashing the thunderblade on the troops. It helps only so much, but he accidentally diverts a lightning strike at the troops, causing the ranks to topple over, allowing the rebels to ride and decimate the force.

They storm the bricked-in palace, cornering Le-Muel and his son, who reluctantly hands over the Journal. Sagiron looks into his memories using the Secret, finding more about the Arkman’s capture. The Prince’s elite troops are riding in however, and in the ensuing panic, Le-Muel and Percilion manage to escape through a secret door. Jarmack and Harrogat have found records about the relegates, and despite the statelord’s escape, the raid was successful, with the Journal, gold and the records retrieved.

Debrief

They flee into a hideout to celebrate. Jarmack and Harrogat promptly depart for their family and friends, but Sagiron refrains seeking Merkhat by Arhim’s orders, in fear of endangering them all—they need to go their own ways. Knowing their future is still in jeopardy, Arhim presses them to leave Silvon. As Roy and the rebels press Sagiron, he thinks again, and decides to stay with the rebellion to reveal the Secret to them, creating an army of lightning warriors. As they plan, Arhim however still fidgets with the Journal over the decision to either keep it and fight, or destroy it and secure the Secret forever.

Brief Synopsis of

The Lightning Warrior