Chapter 7: Slaying the Dragon
Nebule was immediately caught off when when he saw that the interior of this room was huge. It was big enough to fit an entire dragon! However, he found himself a little uneasy when a couple of bones were spotted over by the corner.
"What a disturbing room…"
"Who dares enter the great lair of Froodtail?!" the loud, booming voice was apparently coming from the giant dragon Nebule was facing. The loud roar he emitted echoed through the room and even pushed Nebule back a bit!
"Ummmmmm… Hi, Mr. Froodtail!" Nebule slowly waved to the dragon as he slowly drew the Sword of Light. "My name is Nebule… And, um… I'm here to kill you to save this land. I need the Grass Tablet."
Froodtail looked down at Nebule with his frightening red eyes. "You're here to kill me, you say? Pah! A small creature carrying a small butter knife is going to kill me! How pathetic! You don't have the guts to kill me! I'm ten times your size!"
"Well… That may be… But I carry the Sword of Light! This thing is capable of wiping MANY enemies out!" Nebule held the sword up high so its light could emit through the room.
"I see… So you're the Chosen One… But, why a boy? You'd make a nice meal rather than a Chosen One! Besides… I am hungry, so you could be a little snack! But first… I think I'll play around with you for a bit!"
"Well no one's going to eat anyone! I'm going to slay you whether you like it or NOT!" Nebule gripped his sword and gave Froodtail a determined look. "You're going DOWN, Froodtail!"
"Very well! It's snack time for Froodtail!"
Boss: Froodtail
Being a pet to the Shadow Queen, this dragon spreads fear across Grass Land, eating those who are unfortunate to be spotted by his eyes. Just the mere name of Froodtail is enough to give people the terrors...
The dragon opened his mouth and attempted to chomp down on Nebule. However, he jumped out of the way and slashed at his face with his sword, causing him to scream
"GAH! That slash! It's so painful!"
"Well, that's what you get for trying to eat anyone in town! …If you've eaten any, that is!" Nebule got on top of Froodtail's head and tried to stab at him. However, he got knocked off when Froodtail's claw swatted him away.
"First things first… I need to fry up my meal so they're nice and crispy!" Froodtail unleashed his fire breath upon Nebule and left him covered in soot. "Gwar har har har! Now THAT'S a smell that I like!"
"But I don't even taste good, dragon! Why not go to a bar and get something to eat there? I heard that they have some delicious food, such as, uh… Chicken, salad, chicken, fish, chicken, and even more chicken!"
"My diet consists of live people," Froodtail informed, attempting to burn him once again with his fire breath. Nebule swung his sword and fired a beam of light energy at him instead. Not only did it hurt him, but it made him blind.
"My eyes! I cannot see!"
"Heh heh heh!" Nebule jumped on top of Froodtail's head and began to slash at the top of his head, leaving some nasty scars on him. However, despite being blind, Froodtail was able to feel where Nebule was and tried to swat him away.
"Get off my head, meal!"
"I'm NOT your meal!" he retorted while slashing at Froodtail's back. Luckily, there was no way of him being swatted away by him while on his back, due to his short arms. He stabbed at the dragon once, but it only caused him to fly up in the room and spin around to get him off.
"Now I have you!" Froodtail dove down toward Nebule while he was on the ground and opened his mouth. The young boy rolled out of the way and let Froodtail's nose crash onto the hard ground.
"My nose! My beautiful, beautiful nose!"
"Serves you right," Nebule said before jumping out of the way from Froodtail's jaws. However, he decided to knock him over with his tail instead to leave him stunned for a couple of seconds.
What made it worse was that he held the boy down with his tail. "Now's the time for me to make a meal out of you!"
But before he could opened his jaws again, Nebule pulled and ice arrow out and fired it straight at his chest. Not only did this do a lot of damage, but it left him as a giant frozen popsicle as well.
"Wow… I actually froze this thing." Nebule blinked. "Now that's impressive."
But it wasn't long until Froodtail was unfrozen. He didn't take any more time to attack, so he simply smacked Nebule with his claw. He noticed his face had a large bruise.
"What's the matter? Are you getting all worn out?" Froodtail cackled as he burnt Nebule with his fire breath. "It's best to give up now and let me gobble you down! I think that would suit you more! Heh heh heh!"
"No way, Froodtail!" Nebule growled, stabbing Froodtails paw, causing him to screech in pain. "This is the beginning of my quest! I don't want to disappoint Merlon right now! And most of all, I don't want to leave the princess in captivity. I WISH to see her again!"
"Very well…" Froodtail stomped toward Nebule and brought his paw down on him, squishing him easily. "I suppose flattening you down wouldn't be such a bad idea. It works perfectly for a pancake!"
"Be a vegetarian instead, monster," he said as he fired a flaming Sword Beam at him and set him on fire. However, it didn't seem to do much against him. "Dang it… I don't know what else to do right now."
But when he saw Froodtail open his jaw in an attempt to eat him, he instantly pulled a bomb out.
"Eat this!" Nebule grinned as he threw the bomb into Froodtail's mouth. He swallowed it whole…but felt an explosion inside him.
"GAH! What kind of internal pain was that?!" Froodtail screeched as Nebule began to slash at his head a couple of times while he was down. This did seem bad for Froodtail, seeing that he was covered in scars and stabs.
"How is this kid able to take me on like this?" the dragon thought. "If the queen hears about my defeat from a kid, then she'll be disappointed in me."
"Hey, Froodtail! How about YOU give up and tell me where the Grass Tablet is!" suggested Nebule.
"Me? Tell you where the Grass Tablet is? HA! I would never do such a thing!"
"Well, then have a little of this!" Nebule shot a light arrow right into his underside, causing him to be in more pain. He screeched as Nebule continuously slashed at him. It felt like he couldn't take any more of this either.
"You must be very stupid if you think you're going to win this fight. You're all scarred up from my attacks!" Froodtail cackled as he squished Chopper with his paw once again. He tired clawing him, but he was able to stab at his paw and cause him to screech again.
"ARGH! Stop stabbing my paw, you little…!"
"You're the one asking for it in the first place…"
"You… Just DIE already!"
Froodtail used his fire breath one again to burn Nebule down, but this time he saw that he was holding himself in pain, which seemed to show that he was almost ready to lose the battle.
"Excellent! This is just what I wanted to see!"
"Not so fast, Froodtail!" Nebule pulled out an apple he kept with him for a while and chomped down on it to heal himself for a bit. "Ahhhhhhh! Now that makes me feel a lithe better! I think I've got more energy to fight back!"
"We'll see how that turns out, blonde boy!" Froodtail grinned, flying up in the air and slamming himself down to the ground. The large earthquake made the entire room shake as well.
"Ugh… I think I still have a chance to win this." Nebule thought as he jumped on Froodtail's head and grabbed a hold of his back. But, when he thought he wouldn't get hurt, Froodtail had an idea.
"Perhaps I can drop him to the ground outside of my castle," Froodtail thought. "That way, the boy will surely die! It's genius!"
He flew up in the air and flew straight to the sky. Nebule gulped as he hung onto him for dear life as the dragon began to spin around in order to make Nebule release his grip.
He did see something fall to the ground, however. It looked rather lime to him, so he decided to fly back to the large room…until he felt his back being stabbed once again…by the Sword of Light.
"What?! I thought you fell off of me?!" Froodtail gaped while screeching in pain.
"Oh, I just threw a bomb that I painted to make you THINK that I fell! And luckily, it happened to work!"
"You little…!" Froodtail flew to the outer rim of his room and swatted Nebule off. He didn't plummet to his doom, but he was able to get onto the outer rim. It wasn't even far from the floor anyway.
"Yeesh… I'm really high up…" Nebule gulped, looking down from the top of the castle. Froodtail, however, began to fly off into the sky and charge straight for him.
"Uh oh… He's coming for me!"
"Say your prayers, boy!" Froodtail screamed. "This should finish you off once and for all!"
Nebule pulled out his bow and aimed for Froodtail's underside. Surely he had to have SOME sort of weak spot there. That's the softest part of a dragon anyway! So, wouldn't there be one?
"Wait… I see something dark in his underside… What is that?" he looked straight the glowing dark spot on his underside that he didn't seem to see before. But, thinking about this made Froodtail get even closer.
"It's time for me to snack!" Froodtail cackled as he opened his jaws to devour Nebule.
"Not this time!" Nebule retorted, aiming for the dark spot on his underside. "This is where it ends!"
He fired the light arrow straight at Froodtail, and, to his surprise, succeeded in striking him in the dark spot that he intended to hit.
"AAAAAAAAAAAARGH!" Froodtail let out a painful scream. "N-No… You… You found my weak area… But none could see that!"
"Except for the Chosen One," Nebule smirked. "And I managed to take down an entire dragon by myself!"
"But… But…" the dragon coughed and wheezed. "My queen… I am sorry… He's too strong for me…"
Froodtail began to plummet from the castle and even created a huge hole in the floor. Was he gone? Nebule didn't know, but when rocks came down on the hole, he knew that the dragon wasn't getting out of there.
"Finally… I did it! I managed to take down a dragon! That's…awesome!" Nebule smiled. "But… Where is the Grass Tablet?"
"Thank you, Chosen One… Thank you kindly." Nebule paused for a minute when he saw a spirit of a woman in many shades of blue and long, white hair fly from the hole and up to Nebule. She looked like she was glittering with magic, but there was no way of seeing what her face really looked like.
"Wait a second… Who are you, exactly?" Nebule asked.
"My name is Merlumina," she explained. "I am the spirit that you freed from that horrid dragon! Being stuck in there was disgusting!"
"Yeah… I guess it was… But what do you want?"
"I discovered from you that you were the Chosen One while I watched you fight the dragon. So, it seems that the lands are being taken over by the Shadow King and Queen themselves…"
"Excuse me, but do you know anything about them?"
"We don't know much about their background, but they came here and invaded a castle… It was in a town called Rosslind. The poor Queen Silvia was killed and her castle was destroyed… But her daughter was rescued by some strange brown furry creature…"
"That must have been Lilia that was rescued…" Nebule realized. "Man… I can't believe she lost her mother…"
"Not only that, but they attacked a town called Tagel as well. The king perished there, and his castle was destroyed."
These words made Nebule shocked.
"Tagel?! Destroyed?! So... I guess that bounty hunter was telling the truth... But what about Lighten? My mentor? Does that mean he's…"
"Unfortunately, I don't know the whereabouts of him, nor do I know if he's still alive or not," Merlumina said, worrying Nebule. "Now, getting back to what I was saying… They attacked those two places and left them in ruins. The only way to counter them is with all of the Land Tablets. I happen to carry the Grass Tablet. Though, being trapped inside a dragon was not fun..."
"So that dragon had it, but had you inside of him? That's...strange..."
Merlumina held up a tablet with green grass carved on it, along with a vein glowing green. "O, chosen one! Please take this Grass Tablet to reveal the next world!"
"I will," Nebule nodded.
"Thank you very much, Chosen One… I leave this in your hands now."
When the Grass Tablet landed in Nebule's leather-gloved hands, a large, light aura expelled from the tablet and turned the dark sky back to its original state.
You got the Grass Tablet!
Nebule himself was surrounded by a strange magic that let him slowly descend from Froodtail Castle and back to the entrance.
"Whoa! This is intense!"
As he slowly began to descend, Merlumina closed her eyes and looked away. "Good luck, Chosen One… Please tell my great great great great great great great great great grandson that I said hello."
Underneath the rock, Froodtail remained unconscious, barely able to move due to the pain he received. But then his eyes slightly opened when he heard something appear. That sound... It was no ordinary sound!
And there he saw it. And evil, dark figure slowly approaching him. The aura surrounding the figure was darker than anything he had seen.
"Pitiful Froodtail..." the figure hissed. "Such a shame that you had to lose to a mere child. You know, I do not take failure well, right?"
"Unnngghhh..." Froodtail groaned.
"What? You're too weak from the arrow that hit your weak point? Well, then I suppose this'll be easier for me!"
"Grrrrgghhhh..."
"Do you remember the last time someone had badly failed to listen to my command? Last time I checked, I sent them into the Pit."
"N-No... Not...uuunnghhhh..."
"That's right, Froodtail," the dark figure nodded. "And don't think about trying to escape either. It will all be for nothing!"
"Urrrgghhh... P-Please..."
"Ha ha ha! So long, Froodtail!" the dark figure cackled, raising a hand in front of the large dragon. "May you spend all eternity rotting in the Pit!"
Before Froodtail knew it, a lightning bolt had struck him, and suddenly he was no longer in sight. The figure, meanwhile, continued to cackle as he slowly disappeared.
Now that was one heck of a boss fight! And that was the first boss in the story! It was a lot better than the first boss in "Chopper of Clara", that's for sure.
Now, some of you are probably wondering where Lilia is at the moment. Well, with this boss chapter, there's always an interlude. It usually takes place between a boss chapter and a new land that's explore (if you couldn't figure that out already). Also, we'll get to see some of the villains of this story too! ...And there just might be a chance that we could see some other characters...
Well, you'll see.