Smurfocalypse Chapter 44: Monster Hunter Part 3

The dragon was closing in quickly almost as though it had business on the plateau. It let out a mighty roar which echoed throughout the land causing a rush of adrenaline to those who heard it.

"Are we ready to fight? We only came out here to gather materials." Johan said.

"This just saves us the trouble of having to track it. Which I'll admit I have no idea how to do." Hefty said.

As the powerful black dragon approached the plateau it opened its mouth and visible sparks could be seen as a literal fire was forming in the back of the beast's throat. It stops flying a couple meters away and throws back its head before bringing it forth again to unleash a five foot tall wall of dragon's fire which cut the plateau in half dividing Hefty's forces. The snow around the fire melted nearly instantly revealing a rocky surface. The land strangely continued to burn even though there was nothing to fuel the fire. Archer readied his bow and aimed for the dragon's head before firing. The arrow struck the creature's head, but it wasn't likely to have caused much more pain than a needle. It did however provoke the dragon into landing.

After two minutes the fire splitting the plateau in half finally died allowing them to regroup just as the dragon landed in the middle of the plateau. They were now face to face with the Dragon. An almost overwhelming fear was inflicted on the party causing Peewit to visibly shake with fear. Even Hefty felt a chill go up his spine as it became clear they were about to have to fight for their lives. The Smurfs had no idea how to respond. The knights waited for Hefty's order, but Hefty was unsure on how he should approach the situation. The dragon was in fact enormous from their point of view. From Johan's point of view the dragon was able to stare him in the face. The Dragon opened its mouth and a fire began to grow in the back of its mouth. This creature wasn't playing around it was going to try to finish them quickly, but Johan quickly bashed its face in a few times with the shield he brought with him. It was a brilliant display of speed and skill. Johan was able to prevent the dragon from using fire by shield bashing it three times in quick succession causing it to flinch each time.

It seemed Johan engaged the dragon in battle, and would be the first of the party to fight. The Dragon lashed out with a powerful bite in retaliation attempting to no doubt remove Johan's head from his shoulders, but Johan was able to quickly dodge the attack, leaping backward before taking a step forward and swinging his sword at the dragon. Johan's sword hit the dragon's head, but rebounded off what seemed to be a strong carapace of sorts.

"It seems to possess a strong carapace." Johan said as he readied his sword for another attack.

"What's a carapace?" Jokey asked.

"It's a natural suit of armor made of hard bone." Papa Smurf said.

"So we'll have to find, or create a flaw to exploit. That'll be its weak point we'll focus on." Hefty said.

The Dragon looked like a dragon, but was serpent-like with small fine black scales, a long neck, and a tail that was nine foot long. Its body was very smooth and was protected by a carapace so strong it was clearly able to reject steel swung by the might and skill of an experienced swordsman. It was a jet black snake-like dragon that stood on two legs, had two large serpent-like eyes, and had a wing span of eighty feet, and when it spread its wings the entire plateau is cast in shadow. Either they were extremely lucky at the moment, or the creature's abilities suffered while fighting on land. It was still too early to tell just how skilled the dragon was at combat aside from it having the ability to completely disintegrate them with a fire attack.

Johan swung his sword at the dragon's head again and the creature lifted his neck to dodge before retaliating with another bite which was blocked by Johan's shield. Johan swings again and hits the dragon in the face causing his sword to bounce off the carapace and successfully angering the dragon. The dragon took a deep breath and at close range blew fire right at Johan. Johan lifted his shield and the item repelled the dragon's fire.

"its fire is no match for the magic shield the king gave me." Johan said as he safely hid behind the shield.

Then it did something unexpected. The dragon quickly turned and whipped its large tail around striking Johan in the stomach with its tail and sent him flying off the plateau much to Peewit's horror. Johan grab onto a tree top and began to descend the tree tops safely, but his weapon and shield were lost somewhere on the ground. It would take him awhile to recover and rejoin the others.

"That trick won't work on me! I'm too short!" Hefty exclaimed as he waved his sword at the dragon.

Hefty surprisingly went right in being the next to challenge the dragon. He quickly sprinted into battle showing great stamina and strength as he ran in full plate armor and jumped high into the air swinging his sword forward in a vertical arc to attempt to hit the dragon. His attack hit and gained the attention of the beast who attempted to simply step on him, but Hefty was too fast and avoided the attack.

"I'll bet the carapace doesn't protect the dragon's eyes. If I could only get a clear shot..." Hefty thought to himself.

"Archer! Aim for the dragon's eyes!" Hefty ordered.

"But what if I hit you?!" Archer asked.

"I trust your skill! We have to take out the eyes! It's our only chance!" Hefty said.

Archer began readying and firing arrows but his target was not standing still and wherever his arrow went it just simply bounced harmlessly off the dragon's body. Hefty was right there only seemed to be one option and that was to blind it. After being pestered by Hefty and clearly not being fast enough to properly retaliate it spread its wings and took flight. It was out of range of Archer's bow in no time and was circling the plateau with its mouth open as though it were about to attack with fire. It circled the plateau as Hefty began thinking of solutions to their problem. At this moment the Dragon was invulnerable, but it was still able to attack them. If it were to realize this it would greatly complicate things.

Suddenly the dragon swooped down mouth open with a large fire burning in it's mouth. The dragon swoops down and attempts to release its attack point blank at Hefty, but before it could a great bolt of lightning fell from the sky and struck the dragon causing it to cry out and fall to the plateau hitting the ground with a large crash that shook the very earth. Hefty turned in confusion to see Papa Smurf holding up a book he had never seen before. There was a visible magic seal around the elderly Smurf and he was chanting in an ancient Smurf language. A second bolt struck the dragon again causing it to collapse.

"Its vulnerable! Charge!" Hefty said as he ran to the where the dragon lay.

The knights screamed their war cry as they fearlessly charged into battle. Most of the carapace protecting the dragon has been destroyed due to the might of Papa Smurf's magic allowing for the Smurfs to do actual damage to the Dragon's body. Hefty began to scale the head using his sword to make his way up by jabbing it into the Dragon's head as he attempted to get to its eyes. Sweepy began bashing literal holes into the Dragon's flesh with his mace. Farmer was creating good sized gashes with his scythe, Clockwork was giving it a real beating, and all around them tiny arrows were sticking out of the dragon's skin some of them flaming. All the while it was struggling to get back to its feet. Once the Dragon finally did get its feet Hefty had his sword sticking out of the dragon's temple and was clinging to it for dear life. The other knights were sent flying and fell scattered all over the plateau hitting the ground hard in their armor.

Sweepy in his heavy armor had the wind knocked out of him. When he recovered he looked around to see some of the others trying to stand and followed suit. Only Hefty was left standing weapon in hand and was working his way up to the eye as the creature protested and tried with all its might to throw him off.