Kayus & Bahamut

Kayus and Bahamuts are protagonists of 1988 horizontal shmup arcade game Dragon Breed.

Description
Back in the ancient days when gods, demons, monsters, dragons coexisted with humanity and magics and sorceries were real, the tales of Dragon Breed depicts the journey of a young prince and his dragon in their bids to stop a resurrected demon tyrant and save humanity.

A sole heir for Agamen Kingdom, Kayus succeeded his father and became a king at the age of fifteen. But not all welcomed his ascension to the throne: there were those who are dissatisfied with such a young prince became a ruler of a vast kingdom so they sought to usurp him and seize the throne for themselves. To that end Cleatler, the leader of traitors, located and broke the seal confining Zambaquous, a powerful demon overlord, to seize the kingdom with Zambaquous' dark power.

Immediately after Zambaquous' release, Agamen Kingdom's geography changes: wind was filled with miasma and the ground began to rot, sky gradually turning into darkness, Agamen was beginning to resemble hell on Earth. Realizing something is going very wrong with his kingdom, Kayus sets out on a tour where he was telepathically contacted by a voice that beckoned him to come to highest peak of Agamen mountain. Then Kayus discovered a large, glowing and sentient orb which spoke to the young king:

"King of Agamen, your kinsman has unsealed the entity of darkness. As the leader of Agamen bloodline you must embrace the responsibility. Together, you and I, shall fly high above the sky to prevent this darkness from resurrecting upon your world."

Realizing this orb contains the last magical Dragon known to men that holds the key to save his debilitating kingdom from destruction, Kayus releases the dragon from its seal, and a mighty dragon named Bahamut emerged. The two then set out to defeat Zambaquous and his demonic forces. After fighting various demon armadas in the darkened sky, infested lands, above volcanoes, corrupted caves, the two partners ultimately reach a deep cave that leads them to abyss where Zambaquous is. Fortunately for Kayus and Bahamut Zambaquous is still encased in crystal: even with its seal broken, Zambaquous is still not totally freed and its resurrection is not yet complete. Even with its current state, Zambaquous still proves to be quite formidable. Its crystal cage reflects every shots Kayus fires at it while it can fire its own waves of deadly shots at him, Cave ceiling spews its deadly homing shots, and Zambaquous' only vulnerable spots is a sentient orb that comes in and out of Zambaquous' crystal cage.

After a long fight involving battle of will and tenacity, Kayus and Bahamut seemingly defeat Zambaquous. But this reveals to be a trap. With each damage his orb took during the battle, Zambaquous gained more powers and gained more parts of his bodies. And when Zambaquous' orb was destroyed, it caused not only Zambaquous to be finally freed from his crystal imprisonment, he regained much of his corporeal form. Upon being freed, Zambaquous blasted Kayus and dismounted the young king from Bahamut. But then something unexpected happened:

Kayus was engulfed by a holy bubble which carries him out to safety while Bahamut rushes towards the heart of Zambaquous. The collision between Bahamut and Zambaquous caused both the dragon and the demon lord to perish, and with the demise of Zambaquous the whole demon cave exploded and collapsed.

While all these events unfold, Kayus is last seen unconscious but alive outside forest cliff, far away from Zambaquous' hideout cave which was collapsing upon the defeat of Zambaquous.

Kayus
The young king of Agamen Kingdom who succeeded his throne at the age of 15. He can command and control dragon Bahamut. He is armed with a very advanced magic crossbow (can shoot 3-way shots when he dismounts from Bahamut, 1-way straight shot when riding Bahamut). When presented with solid land, Kayus can jump off Bahamut and walk around independently, as the dragon hovers nearby. This action is often underutilized though.

Players should treat him with care, because while Bahamut is indestructible, Kayus is not.

Bahamut
The last surviving dragon of its kind, Bahamut is a limbless and multi-segmented dragon with capable of magical offense powers. Its body is indestructible to all forms of physical and magical attacks. In addition Bahamut's body is able to damage and kill enemies on contact. Its body is very flexible and responds to Kayus' movement, enabling Kayus to use Bahamut as a mobile shield or as a weapon. Bahamut can be upgraded and can wield different magic powers by obtaining magic orbs. There are four different types of orbs, each of will change Bahamut to a different color and grant him a new power:


 * Red Orb - allows Bahamut to breathe a long, powerful flame
 * Golden Orb - allows Bahamut to fire crescents in all directions and circle its body around enemies to kill them. The tail of the golden Bahamut can be coiled around Kayus to offer him almost complete invulnerability for a limited time
 * Blue Orb - Allows Bahamut to fire downward bolts of electricity from its underside
 * Silver Orb - allows Bahamut to produce up to four miniature dragons, which seek and home in on enemies

Kayus can further enhance Bahamut's powers by picking up orbs up to three times.

Bahamut can also spew charge shots (by holding the fire button down); the dragon can build up charge shots in its mouth and the longer the charge shot is hold, the more powerful the shot will be. There are four levels of charge shots; at its strongest, the fireball resembles Bahamut's head.

Aftermath
With the heroic sacrifice of Bahamut the Dragon, the age of dragons came to an end. As the result of heroism of Kayus and Bahamut, the demon tyrant and "King of Old" Zambaquous was once again vanished into eternal darkness along with his demonic legions.

Witnessing the battle, Animas, the deity of light (presumed to have intervened to save Kayus at the last minute), lifted the soul of Bahamut to the heaven and made it a constellation in its honor. Animas then severed every and all connections between heavens and humanity to make Earth belong to humanity alone.

Kayus, who was later called "The Last Dragon King", ruled Agamen Kingdom for 200 years before he died of old age. When he died, according to Agamen legend, a shining dragon appeared from high above the sky and carried Kayus' remains towards the heaven.

Thus began the age for humanity.