Partners
Davion is here to help a certain legendary dragon to get into the Defense of the Ancients.
Davion, suited in his red armor, stood at the base of a mountain. Looking up and glancing over at the visible cave at its peak, he felt even more determined to put an end to the legendary dragon that pillaged and ravaged countless villages and towns in the vicinity. The dragon hadn't killed humans or animals but it's the destruction that counts.
It's still noon and the sun's scorching heat prevented him from ascending the mountain in the fear of heat stroke. He cursed under his breath that he should have gotten here a little later. Since there's nothing else better to do, he decided to take a quick nap.
He sat comfortably and leaned on a tree. But even before he could sleep he heard a loud thud from behind and the ground shook as if a massive creature landed behind him.
Davion, surprised, turned around to see his target dragon behind him. Faced with such a threat, the knight quickly took out his sword and went into defensive stance.
"Oh would you look at that… Another challenger?" The dragon said, sounding amused by the sight.
"Do not dare mock me, dragon, you know why I am here" Davion made sure he sounded a lot more heroic than he seemed.
"Your face looks familiar… Have I seen you before? I think it's on the newspaper or something"
"Do I even need to introduce myself? I have murdered enough dragons and you still do not know of me?"
Instead of responding, the dragon merely turned around and started slowly climbing up the mountain "I can't recall. But I know I've seen your face on a newspaper before. The legendary Slyrak will be back soon, you just wait there" he continued climbing until he was out of sight.
Davion, highly offended that Slyrak didn't even give him a fight, changed his mind and decided to go after him and slaughter him inside his cave. He packed up his things and started the long climb, neverminding the scorching heat.
He was at around in the middle of the climb when he noticed Slyrak looking down at him from his cave, with a grin he could count as stupid.
"Hey! You're Davion, right?" Slyrak yelled from his position, enough to be heard by the person "The legendary Pygmy dragon murderer?"
"How dare you call me Pygmy Dragon murderer?!" Davion yelled back at the insult.
"It says here you kill Pygmy dragons for a living. Are dog-sized dragons enough for ya? How about the mighty ones, have you ever killed one of those?"
Davion looked up again, ignoring how Slyrak suddenly has oversized reading glasses and an oversized newspaper, and replied harshly "Do you know how many people are killed because of them?"
"Well… Pygmy Dragons ARE dragons after all. I think that qualifies you as a dragon hunter. "
"Enough of this pointless nonsense!" Davion shouted and started to speed up his climbing pace, ignoring any further words coming from the dragon.
It took him half an hour to reach the cave entrance and Slyrak was there sitting comfortably with an oversized popcorn bag by his side, toppled over and empty.
"You're about fifteen minutes late" Slyrak said as he looked at the oversized wristwatch he has on "You should've seen the Defense of the Ancients 2 trailer!"
"I never knew you had this strange habit of talking pure nonsense" Davion fell to the ground in exhaustion "I'm going to hunt you down"
"So why me? There are other dragons here to kill and there's one mountain dragon ravaging the village in a distance over there" Slyrak gestured to the 500-meter long behemoth trampling the houses on its feet some few kilometers away.
"You kidding me? I won't stand a chance to last against that thing! Put a little brains in your head please"
"Hmm… Even I won't last against it. If only that creature could fly then it would be more famous than me. So you came here to kill me? Fine, let the battle commence!"
"Wait!" Davion raised both his arms in the air "Let me rest first!"
"There's no way you can beat me anyway so why not we get started now? How about this, if you could chop off my tail then you win and I will have to fuse in you and grant you draconic powers" Slyrak ignored the fact that this person aiming to kill him is acting weird, perhaps trying to manipulate him?
"Can you do that?"
"No, not really" Slyrak scratched his head "If I could do that I should've been on a rampage, possessing random individuals and going on a killing spree"
"Makes sense" Davion slowly stood up "Got any glass of water in here?"
"Help yourself" Slyrak pointed at the well inside his well-furnished home "It seems like an hour later you're yelling at me and now you're asking for a glass of water? Doesn't make any sense at all"
"I'll kill you after I drink. Mountain climbing sure is hard if you know what I mean. I knew you can't kill me for that is a non-honorable act of foolishness. If you kill me now, the gods will make your life an endless suffering"
Slyrak raised an eyebrow, wondering what Davion just said but ignored it and changed the subject "Got any questions regarding dragons? Just wondering what's going on in those human brains of yours" Slyrak said as he grabbed an oversized book in the oversized cabinet "Do humans consider dragons as an intelligent species?"
"Classified, you dragons should not know" Davion took out a cup from his package of supplies.
"That water will not be free unless you answer the question first" Slyrak began looking through the pages of the book he just got.
"Fine, I will not use that water anymore" Davion put back the cup and took out a soda can instead "Some information are just too valuable"
"Yeah right. It says here on the local dragon newspaper, you're always on the hunt for challenging dragon duels? What about the old and weak ones?"
"I just leave them on their own. There is no honor in killing an old reptile. I only kill for honor and justice"
"How heroic and stupid at the same time. You will never know but what if that dragon could literally change its appearance to fool the 'heroic' hunters like you? I wouldn't be surprised if a dragon buddy of mine told me a story on how he ate a person like you"
"We'll settle this in a heroic duel soon"
"I know of an arena where dragons fight it out their duels. Perhaps you'd like we do the fighting there?"
"And become a free snack? Hell no"
"Why don't we-" Slyrak was cut off by the ringing of the oversized alarm clock on an oversized table "My favorite show's about to begin in fifteen minutes. Let's get outta here!" He dashed in and grabbed Davion and flew outside.
Slyrak swooped down to the base of the mountain in a few seconds' time and placed the armored person gently down while landing in front of him.
"Better make this quick, 14 minutes before the show starts. Go have fun and try to slice me off. I won't even move-" Slyrak is still in the middle of his talk when Davion came in charging at him, sword pointed and shouting out loud in a heroic fashion.
Slyrak didn't even move and stayed there, thinking about the show he was about to miss rather than evading.
Davion jumped up and did an overhead slice straight into the dragon's finger, only to come bouncing off. Slyrak's scales are far too tough for it to even breach, let alone scratch., which explains why his attacks on villages are almost always successful.
Frustrated and not wanting the opponent see how embarrassed he was for failing, Davion focused his attack on a small patch of scales on the dragon's finger, trying to peel them off.
Slyrak on the other hand, thinking of ending the fight immediately, flicked his finger, sending Davion tumbling on the ground. By the time the knight got back to his feet, Slyrak suddenly has oversized aviators on him, complete with a turned-back cap and a dog tag. Davion was surprised for a moment and after he blinked, all of Slyrak's accessories are gone.
Davion rushed again, seeing Slyrak's yawn offensive. Slyrak saw it coming and pick up a fairly large rock and tossed it at the knight, hitting him in the helmet in a perfect headshot, sending the opponent down again.
"9 minutes to go pal, ready to give up?" Slyrak taunted.
"No!" Davion slowly got up in a heroic manner, complete with the light breeze blowing through the trees behind him "The fight is not yet over!"
"Oh come on and gather all your senses" The dragon stopped a bit, seeing Davion ran around and started slashing at his unarmored underbelly, yet the hide there is so tough the sword still wouldn't penetrate.
"Do you really think I would survive my regular dragon raids if evolution wasn't on my side? If you think your puny sword could breach my natural defenses then I should've died a long time ago. And by the way, you're the first person to ever challenge me alone… You're a beginner to this career aren't you?"
"I am not a beginner!" Davion shouted back while still slashing Slyrak's underbelly.
"Dragon-slaying parties that come after me are normally composed of around twenty individuals, each with their own role to play. I suggest you go home and just continue your Pygmy Dragon-slaying instead of pretending you're a pro"
"I am not pretending to be a pro! I am a pro!"
Slyrak sighed 'Will this human ever learn?' he thought to himself as he looked again at his oversized wristwatch to check the time.
"I feel like I'm just wasting my time here…" Slyrak sighed again and looked at the small attacker "Could you just go back an hour later after my show?"
"I will not be overpowered!" Davion continued his battle cries.
"Give it a rest, pal. You only got five minutes"
"N-" Davion was cut off before he could even speak as Slyrak grabbed him again and flew up.
"Put the fight on hold, I'm going to watch my show first" Slyrak said calmly, ignoring the knight's pleas, taunts, or whatever words he is using right now.
It took them another minute before reaching the cave entrance in which the dragon gently put his cargo on the ground again "Promise you'll love this show"
"I don't watch television this hour in the afternoon, dragon, there's nothing to watch apart from drama shows. Can we just finish the fight?" Davion crossed his arms and tapped his right foot on the ground "Hell I'm not even supposed to be hanging out with a giant winged reptile"
"What drama shows are you talkin' about? I'm just watching DotA 2. You know, the trailer earlier? The Killing Arena Reality Show Celebrity Search?" Slyrak said as he sat in front of his oversized flatscreen television set, complete with CD,DVD, Playstation and other random stuff Davion didn't even know. He didn't even know dragons had their own versions of furniture in the first place.
"What celebrity search are you talking about? Isn't DotA 2 a reality multiplayer battle arena like The Hungry Games?" Davion walked over and sat on the ground a short distance away from the huge reptile.
"But unlike the Hungry Games, DotA 2 allows its contestants to wear fashionable garments instead of actual armor. Example, look at the elemental contestants. Including the ones with elemental powers. See what I mean?"
"Color-coded outfits? No actual armor"
"Yep, and that's what makes it special… and the ones humans call as 'pretty' and 'cool' are quite popular… Celebrity Search? Get it?"
Davion rolled his eyes at Slyrak's joke he counts as lame "I'm going to join them as soon as I'm finished here"
"Why are you telling me stories? You serious you're going to kill me?"
It took a while before Davion could respond "I can't even scratch your scales… I'll just leave soon. You're not going to eat me, are you?"
"Humans taste horrible. Have you ever read the newspaper? Did it say I eat humans? No… You said you're joining DotA 2?"
Davion nodded "Why yes of course"
"That was some serious stuff. Am I allowed there? I heard there's some two-headed dragon hybrid in there. So I guess I could join as well?"
"Yeah sure"
"Wanna be teammates? We could literally own them"
Davion raised an eyebrow and looked at the dragon "What's gotten into you?"
"You think I destroy things without reason? Everyone has his reasons. I became famous because of my raids and was hoping one day one man would come here and recruit me as an ally. You know them, the ones who yell 'bow before me and serve your new master!'. It's easy to befriend humans anyway and we'll dominate that arena.
"Are you out of your mind? Destroying villages for attention? Does that sound normal to you? By the way you could just go there and ask if you could join… and that requires two people"
"Exactly. They'll be scared to have me as an ally. But my supposed new 'master' isn't… Unless we could be partners?"
Both fell silent as the TV screen displays a particular ice elemental creating a blizzard together with a wind spirit in the form of a buffalo.
"You'll end your raids if I let you join me?"
"You'll even look like a hero. The man who ended the dragon's rampage!"
"I think you're already missing your show" Davion gestured to the TV screen but it went black. Slyrak turned it off.
"What are we waiting for?"
"Let's get going"
"You're not going to regret you trusted me, bro" Slyrak walked outside, Davion slowly following behind him.
After some final preparations, the duo started their journey.
…
"So some old man on a white horse insists we merge eh? I kinda like my new cool glowing reptilian eyes though" Davion said to himself "Plus a new sword with some random insignias etched to it"
'Whatever works. When my time comes, I'll shred them and their annoying sense of attire to bits' Said a voice from inside his head.
Davion walked along the forest, ignoring the simple summer breeze. It's been only a day since they arrived here but that is no excuse they should be out training first, every warrior here is a battle-hardened veteran, or so they assumed, so they should be alert at all costs. They could die in any moment. Although they will just respawn again, the pain of being killed is unbearable.
'They're coming' Davion thought to himself as he saw faint rustles in the leaves of the bushes.
'Then let's get this party started'