"Here he comes!"
Ben held his breath as he looked down at the homunculus sitting in his lap.
"You sure you don't want to sit this out in my bag?" Ben asked nervously, his friend shook his head vigorously from side to side.
"No young master, I want to see him melt." The manikin breathed out softly to Ben.
Sorrel gasped out when Nettlebrand showed himself, Ben almost gasped as well, he was huge! Bigger than huge! It was like ten Firedrakes in one. The silver dragon growled a bit and slowly rose in the air, Maia following in suit. Nettlebrand let out a mighty roar so loud that it made Ben, Sorrel, and Burr Burr Chan cover their ears.
"Ohhh angel death caps..." Sorrel breathed out once she let go of her ears.
Nettlebrand let out a loud haughty laugh when he saw the two dragons circling above his head.
"Yes! A bunch of appetizers before my main meal! And look! The traitorous manikin as well! YES! I will enjoy eating you the most!" The faux golden dragon roared out to Twigleg sitting with Ben.
"Not while I'm alive you won't!" Firedrake roared back, then, without wasting anymore time, he flew down and breathed his fire down upon their enemy. The blue flames licked upon Nettlebrands golden armor and just seemed to roll down and cause no harm to the giant beast. Maia let out her own flames, like before, the flames didn't seem to do much to the large dragon and Nettlebrand laughed once again.
"You think your flames have any effect on me?! I was build to resist your petty flames!"
Twigleg's eyes widen as he watched in horror the realization that his old master was not melting.
"He's not melting! WHY ISN'T HE MELTING!" Sorrel cried out, however, before anyone could answer the brownie, Nettlebrand lunged up going for Firedrakes tail.
Before his large mouth could clamp down the silver dragon's tail, Maia dive bombed Nettlebrand, using all of her body's strength as she smashed right into the side of the foe's large jugular. Just as quickly as she smashed into him, he turned and grabbed her by the neck with his powerful mouth and in one large bite, he devoured her.
"MAIA!" Firedrake roared out in pure horror as the she-dragon was eaten alive, rage now fueling the silver dragon, he blew fire upon Nettlebrand once more, like before, the blue flames only licked off of the shiny golden armor and didn't even so much as darken the color.
Ben found himself shaking in both fear and anger, why wasn't it working? Was the brownie spit too thin for the armor to melt? To watered down...Or...
Looking at Nettlebrand's armor, Ben noticed that it looked just as shiny as ever, no evidence that there was any brownie spit anywhere on the golden armor. Gravelbeard never cleaned Nettlebrands armor, it's either that or...the dwarf never got the chance to. Ben had a hunch that Gravelbeard is sitting in the golden beasts stomach with Maia now.
Firedrake flapped his wings as hard as he could down towards Nettlebrand, causing dust and stones to fly up into the dragon's face.
"Firedrake! We have to leave the-" Sorrel started to speak, but, was stopped when Nettlebrand's giant paw came down upon them, swiping them out of the air like flies.
Everything that happened next happened fast, Ben felt him and Twigleg go flying off to the side of Firedrake's back, the rope holding him down snapping in the process. Wanting Twigleg to be safe, the boy held the manikin close to his chest as they fell to the ground below. Ben felt the pain of his shoulder meeting with the hard stone ground. Before he briefly blacked out from the pain, he swore he felt his shoulder blade fracture, the feeling of the bone just splitting up into the multiple parts as the pain of fire erupted in his shoulder.
He came to no more than mere minutes later, Twigleg shaking him awake, whispering to him frantically.
"Young master, hurry, we must hurry!" Twigleg grabbed onto Ben's hand and tugged at it, wanting the boy to his feet quickly. His mind hazy with pain and confusion, Ben didn't move at first, he just stared at Twigleg. He became aware of a sound, a rather unpleasant sound of someone chewing loudly, wanting to see the cause of the sound, he started to turn his head towards it, but Twigleg came into his view and started to turn his head away from the sound.
"No. No...Don't look...Get up...Before he sees you. Please young master."
Twigleg frantically pulled at Ben's good hand, that seemed to do the tick as slowly, Ben got up to his feet, getting the hint that he needed to get out of there. However, as he tried to step, he staggered to the side and fell back down on his bad shoulder, making him cry out in pain.
"Shhh! Shhh!" Twigleg whispered to Ben as quietly as he could, also trying his best to sooth Ben, The pain was getting to be too much for Ben, he thought he was going to pass out again. However, it was the sound of something big and heavy coming their way, the sound of feet thumping against the floor. Turning his head, Ben saw Nettlebrand, the giant golden dragon making his way towards them, blood splattered against his muzzle, obviously ready to make his next kill.
Accept his fate, Ben laid his head down in defeat.
Upon hearing the sigh leave Ben's mouth, Twigleg felt tears collect in the corner of his eyes, everything looked so bleak, but, he wasn't going to allow the monster that is Nettlebrand hurt the young master.
"NO! STOP RIGHT THERE!" Twigleg bellowed out to Nettlebrand when he came close enough to the two of them. Much to the manikin's surprise, the golden dragon did just that, he stopped. Taking a deep breath, Twigleg felt the tears start to pour freely from his face as he spoke to his old master.
"I've watched you eat up my creator, my eleven brothers, and now, I watched you eat up my friends...But, I cannot watch you eat Ben! Please! Please hear me out when I plea with you here...Spare him, I'll go back to cleaning your armor for thousands of years if you'd like. I'll...Do anything you please and I won't complain at all, you will have my humble servitude once again...If you please spare the young master here." Twigleg pleaded loudly to the golden dragon in front of him, he was almost ready to fall down to his boney knees and start begging.
"Twig-" Ben started to protest, but was cut off when Nettlebrand laughed loudly, his laugh echoing loudly around the now silent cave, it was so loud that it caused the pebbles on the ground to rattle on the ground.
"You seem to really care for this pathetic thing. You know what? I'll do it. I'll spare him." Nettlebrand laughed, his voice still booming around them. Twigleg didn't question the beasts sudden generosity, instead the homunculus turned to Ben, about to help the human boy up to is feet. However, when he felt Nettlebrand's hot breath on the back of his neck, Twigleg's blood ran ice cold with fear.
"I wanted a new armor cleaner anyway." Was the last thing Twigleg heard the monster say before he was engulfed in darkness.
Swallowing Twigleg down, Nettlebrand looked down at Ben, the human now looking up at him, he looked so meek and pitiful it was almost humorous to the golden monster.
Ben slowly sat up, holding his injured arm close to him, his facial expression was a mixture between pain and sadness. Nettlebrand could only chuckle darkly at the human,
"Oh yes, you're small enough to do the job. You're going to shine my golden scales, file down my nails, polish my teeth, get the woodlice out from underneath my scales...I hope you're remembering all of this...Dragon Rider..."