Dragon Half

-.

OF COURSE.

Because what was a fantasy world without a dragon, am I right?

I clambered up on top of the middle carriage and then asked Garm, "Tell me about these dragons. Are dragons… thinking beings? Are they powerful? Are they capable of magic?"

"Dragons are powerful beings, yes. They are thinking beings. Dragons inhabit the Sanctuary Grounds in the middle of this country, that's their territory. No one's allowed to go there, and dragons don't terrorize people as long as no one intrudes on their land." Garm then grimaced. "At least, that's how it's supposed to work…"

"Did someone trespass into the sanctuary?!" Olga yelped. If someone invaded their land, this could be justifiable anger. Then she shook her head. "No… if that were so, we would be seeing more than one dragon. We would not be able to stand against them!"

"So what *is* this?" I asked.

Garm answered "Every few years, young dragons appear and wreak havoc among our settlements. But even when we strike them down, no one comes to avenge them. Dragons only care about their territory – if young dragons are the invaders, they won't care."

"So, what, they steal cattle, ruin the fields, or something?"

Garm shook his head and replied roughly "No. The harsh truth is that once a dragon has acquired a taste for meat, it won't stop. It used to be that farmers would lay tribute, but young dragons get greedy. To them, we are all as good as cattle when it comes to food."

"Ugh…" I looked up. "And we're out in the open. We're prey."

"That we are! I recommend we move to the side of the road under the shadow of the trees and make best speed to Eld!"

"Understood. Get everyone into formation. We'll have to use [Reinforcement] magic to make it happen. If we're caught out here, it's too risky to fight."

"We cannot allow any harm to fall upon the ambassador!" Lyon spoke up. "That's our only mission."

Then he turned to Garm and asked "Can you defeat a dragon?"

The wolf beastkin shook his head. "If we had a hundred of our best elite royal soldiers, it might be possible. But even a young dragon is resistant to magic, and any injury that isn't critical will only make them angrier. They're a proud race, and more like living natural disasters."

Fighting would put Arma in danger, and that was unacceptable. "Let's get to the village and under cover. Yumina!"

Yumina peered out of the carriage window. "Yes, Sir Zah?"

"Shadow cloak, sound dampening, Covert Assault Protocols."

"Yes, sir!"

As she began to cast [Shadow Cloak] and [Mute] over the carriages, I prepared my own magic. "Everyone hang on!" I shouted. "Oh, Light, grant us insight. Oh, Lightning, grant us sprightliness. Oh, Fire, grant us might. Body reinforcement combat magic – [FORTIFY PHYSICAL!]"

A brief yellow glow suffused us for a moment, and then we were covered by Yumina's dark fog.

The whole group galloped away, the sounds of hooves only slightly muffled. A dark shadow passed over us again, and we held out breaths as we watched the red dot move by on Monika's projected tactical map. The dragon roared, and it was all we could do stop the horses from panicking and crashing.

But the dragon swooped away again and soon enough we were in sight of the walled forest village of Eld.

The dragon was nowhere in sight, but it was now completely dark at night. The only nights to be seen were the stars and the lamplights of the village. Unlike Belfast's forest villages, Eld wasn't a walled village. We slid to a stop inside the village center, the horses neighing noisily as they tried to suddenly break. The carriages dragged on a bit, pulling the horses with them, before crashing to a stop against the side of the village headman's house.

A wizened old beastkin man with a long white beard and a gnarled cane hobbled out. All other people saw the carriages rushing in and people rushing out with drawn weapons, and immediately shuttered themselves inside their homes.

"P-peace," the old man huffed. "I am Solum, the village chief. W-what do you want, good sirs? We do not have much gold... take what you want, but please leave us unharmed."

"What are you people doing?" Garm asked. "Don't you know there's a dragon around?"

"A d-dragon?! This is a disaster!"

"Get your people to safety! Douse all lights!" Then Garm turned around and said "We can't fight a dragon! But our mission is still to bring Miss Olga safely to meet His Majesty! Don't worry about us, we can try to draw its attention while you escape."

I hissed "If it attacks this village…"

"We will try to lead it away from the village, of course!"

"I commend your bravery, captain!" Lyon Blitz called out. "You will have my sword, let us help you in this!"

"I refuse! This is not a fight for you Belfastians! Go protect Miss Olga until the end, that's your duty! Don't get in the way and let us do ours!"

"Out in the open, you're all just going to die," I said flatly. Swords were very poor weapons for fighting great beasts. They were light guard cavalry, so they carried cavalry sabers instead of lances.

There was an echoing roar, and I heard screaming from behind me. The villagers had noticed the dragon, it was circling around above the village, silhouetted against the moonlit night sky.

"Monika, details. How big is it? What percentage of its size are its wings? How high is it flying?"

/"Player, do not put your hopes in the square cube law. Forget the promise of science and reason, for in this other world, there is only magic and wonder and the laughter of uncaring gods,"/ Monika intoned, and then in a more normal voice added/"There is very much *not* enough wing area to keep that creature of that size aloft, it has to be flying through natural magic. It is approximately… 60 meters above us."/

"Using scientific measurements instead of imperial, I love it." I looked up and considered the roof of the village chieftain's house and its bell tower. "Get the villagers moving, I'll see if we can still resolve this diplomatically."

I rushed up to the top of the bell tower while preparing spells to amplify my voice and hearing. "DRAGON! HEY DRAGON!" I shouted up at it as I clung to the roof. "CAN YOU HEAR ME? CAN YOU UNDERSTAND ME?"

I could hear a bestial roar that somehow added up to "{PATHETIC INSECTS!}"

"I WILL TAKE THAT AS A YES." Awesome, magic translation cheat still works. Living in this other world would have been ginormously more frustrating if I had to learn a new language every time I moved to a new place or spoke to a different species. "OH MIGHTY DRAGON, WE RECOGNIZE YOUR POWER. PLEASE SPARE US YOUR WRATH. IS THERE ANYTHING WE CAN DO TO APPEASE YOU?"

"{I WILL RIP YOU TO SHREDS AND CHEW THE GRISTLE OFF YOUR CHARRED BONES!}"

Humans have barely any meat compared to cows. Shite, it probably thinks humans as crunchy snack food the same way we like the crunch of potato chips.

"WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?" I shouted up. "WE HAVE DONE YOU NO HARM, OH MIGHTY DRAGON. PLEASE ALLOW US TO OFFER TRIBUTE! LET US GIVE YOU A FEAST WORTHY OF THE AGES!"

"{YOU WILL NOT INTERRUPT MY AMUSEMENT, INSECTS. DIE SCREAMING.}"

"NEGOTIATIONS HAVE FAILED!" I shouted down. "EVERYBODY FLEE FOR YOUR LIVES!"

The dragon swooped down at me, and spat a fireball at the bell tower. I could from the light of its fire breath that it was a mighty creature, with long, robust and well-muscled limb, oily black scales, a long barbed tail and a pair of large bat-like wings coming off its back. It had in total six limbs – clawed arms, legs, and wing – a true dragon, not a mere drake or wyvern!

I jumped, and as the bell tower exploded behind me in a shower of stones and burning thatch, I screamed out "THIS IS LIKE HELGEN ALL OVER AGAINNN!"

-.
-.

I dropped to the ground and then boosted forward again. And then there was only time for fire and screaming.

The dragon began swoop and set the village roofs aflame with its fire breath. People began running in panic all over the place. "Secure their evacuation!" I shouted to the delegation guards as I rushed by.

"Dammit," I breathed out. "This is my fault. If we didn't seek to go into the village for cover…"

/"Don't be so arrogant as to claim responsibility for all catastrophes. You're not at fault here, Player. That was reasonable enough decision for all of us because we believed the dragon wouldn't be actually so malicious as to attack a village and was only looking for easy prey. But if it is so monstrous as to want to kill and burn for its own amusement, then clearly it wanted to burn and eat this village anyway."/

Monika shook her head sadly. /"Your attempt at diplomacy playing up to its ego was also reasonable, considering what we expected out of dragons."/

"Then the only thing we can do now is to fight and win." I turned around while still moving forward on hover-boots sliding around like a Dom Tropen.

"HEY YOU OVERGROWN LIZARD! STOP THAT!" I pointed my index and middle fingers upwards.

Thoom.

A bolt of lightning shot up towards the dragon. And narrowly missed as it was just swooping down again to burn another swath of the village.

Fine. Thoom. Thoom. Thoom. Thoom. Thoom.

Lightning shot forth from my fingers alternating between hands, my elbows jerking back and forth in approximation of anti-air artillery. The blue streaks stitched a line in the sky until the last few actually managed to clip the dragon by the belly.

It roared in pain, but obviously not in real injury. I sighed. Of course. Dragons are most at risk from other dragons, so their hides should be mostly fireproof and nonconductive.

"I'M OVER HERE! FIGHT ME!"

"{INSIGNIFICANT INSECT! YOU SEEK DEATH!}"

I reached into my belt bag and brought out a fistful of iron pellets, each one one about the size of my thumb or a 20mm shell. I magnetically levitated the pellet between my palms, with my first two fingers still held outwards. I extended an invisible magnetic channel to about six meters out and –

SHRAK!

The pellet lanced out at about one a half times the speed of sound.

The dragon roared as the magic railgun shot punched it in the snout.

SHRAK. SHRAK. SHRAK.

I flicked my thumb up and down to 'load' ammo into the magic railgun. Unlike magic lightning which I could cast as fast as I could gather what I thought was an appropriate amount of energy, firing the magic railgun was two seconds between shots. This was because due to the inherent way railguns worked – I needed to build up the charge for the field and each time I fired the opposing magnetic fields threatened to push away and rip apart my outstretched arms.

I aimed at the wings this time. The slugs punched through the soft flesh and cartilage and… while that caused it some pain again, it did nothing to inhibit its flight other than make some little holes half an inch wide in its wide leathery wings. I winced.

Because railgun slugs still operated via KE=mv2. Just like plywood used as a backstop for gun targets in a shooting range, bullets would just punch through easily leaving the rest of it undisturbed because there is no resistance whatsoever to transmit force.

Magic railguns were also a function of *length*. The further away and the longer I set the magnetic field channel, and with the corresponding length of time to build up the charge, the more velocity onto the ferromagnetic slug which could hopefully build up enough velocity to create an appreciable shockwave as it passed.

Which would not be viable here because

a) the target was moving

b) time I spent aiming and building the charge would give it more time to burninate innocent people, and

c) because it's a function of length, that means I would need to be far enough away with clear line of sight.

I had [Aqua Cutter], which could work, but the ice blade had a ballistic trajectory and it would cause much damage falling into the village. It was also somewhat slow, tumbling through the air unless I could somehow tempt the dragon to get down on the ground. [Blade Tornado] was out for the same reason.

Anything [Fire] related was probably completely worthless too.

So victory and saving all these people relied upon being so SUPER ANNOYING that it would choose to chase me out into the open where we might more easily fight it instead of wrecking the village even further.

"YOUR MOTHER WAS A HAMSTER AND YOUR FATHER SMELLED OF ELDERBERRIES! *I CAST [FIST]!*"

THOOOOM!

I punched up and sent a long, sustained bolt of lightning at the black dragon, enough to push it away in the air from a stream of crackling electric fury.

The dragon's head snapped back, but it managed to stay aloft with furious flapping of its wings. Then it glared balefully down at me, and noticed my attempt to get out of the village. It opened its maw and hot power gathered between its jaws. Then it swept down at me, throwing a focused fiery blast out of its maw like some sort of draconic doomlaser.

FAHCK.

I clipped to the right, just as the dragon beam passed by and cleanly bisected a stone house. I heard someone scream from inside.

Crapbaskets! I followed through and punched through the walls as well. As the roof started to collapse down, I punched upwards and blew it away with a [Rising Tornado Uppercut]. A spiraling gout of wind blew apart the whole roof, exposing the night sky outside and the glow of uncontrolled fires.

A woman was still kneeling on the ground trying to shield her child from the danger. Both of them stared up at me with wide, frightened eyes.

"Run!" I hissed, then with a burst of wind, I shot upwards and into the sky.

-.

The village was a sea of flames. People were running, screaming and stumbling in panic. The guards waved and urged them to take a common paths between the cover of taller buildings. "Prioritize saving the civilians!" Garm shouted. "Carry those who can't move to safety!"

"You heard him, men! Let none be left behind!" Lyon ordered. The Belfastian knights helped carry people to safety, picking up children in their arms so that their parents can run faster.

THOOOOOOOM.

"I AM VENGEANCE! I AM THE NIGHT!"

I bounced up and down, shooting at it before dipping back under cover, like a whackamole the dragon not knowing behind which outer area house I would appear from next. At least this meant the dragon would be focusing on only one quarter of the village if it couldn't be persuaded to chase me outside of it.

"{RAAARGH! ANNOYING INSECT! YOU DARE CHALLENGE ME IN THE SKY! DIE! DIE! DIE!}"

"I AM THE POPTART OF MY SHADOW CAT GAUSS RIFLE BUILD!"

The [Air Shield] didn't work so well against dragonfire – temperature would just leak through, since the [Air Shield] worked mainly through deflection. I set up a more solid shield of air, and that focused stream of dragon fire was deflected off to the side, but enough to force me away on the opposite direction.

I slammed back-first onto the second floor walls of a house. Fortunately it was made of wood, so I didn't break my spine with the inherent durability applied by the [Reinforce Physical] spell. That spell was made to save Monika the headache of needing to assign cores just to [Amplify] my durability and instead spend more of her attention monitoring the battlespace and save people and issue orders for evacuation.

Unfortunately, it was made of wood, so it splintered inwards from the impact and now I was stuck halfway into the wall. Oh no.

The dragon landed own the clearing in front of me and gave a dark, satisfied chuckle. It opened it mouth and roared, sending a flood of flames my way like a flamethrower. It didn't want to kill me. It wanted to cook me.

"[AQUA SHELL!]"

A spinning blue shield of ice appeared in front, repelling the fiery assault.

"Mister Zah!" Linze cried out from below.

I waved, as much as I was able, with my arms still halfway in and my butt hanging out the inside of the second-floor wall. "Hey."

"I CAST [FIST!]" Elze yelled as she sprang out from a dark side alley and punched at the dragon's face.

Sproonng. There was a ringing metallic sound as the dragon's massive head snapped around.

Then it roared in pain as Yae leapt from the other side and jabbed one of her katanas into one of its surprised eyes. It shut its eyelids and twisted its head back, ripping her sword out of her hands. It swept away with its clawed arms and Yae ducked under them. She didn't have as much luck with the curtain of fire billowing out its mouth accompanying its pained yell.

Yae slammed into the ground and began rolling to put out her pink kimono on fire.

"[AQUA SHELL!"] Linze put another ice shield in front of me. Not herself.

"LINZE STOP!" I shouted down.

Enraged to madness with one of its its eyes lost – I could still see Yae's sword stuck in between the closed eyelids, the dragon began throwing fireballs and blaze flows all around.

Elze tackled her sister out of the way, and the twins rolled on the ground as a fireball swept past overhead. The Aqua Shell dropped to the ground, its magic no longer fixing it in space with the loss of attention from its caster. The fireball exploded under me, shattering the rest of the house and fortunately also freeing me at the same time as perforating me with flaming splinters.

I dropped down and looked up just in time to see Elze and Linze come to a stop beside a wall. Elze slumped, her right arm clearly broken.

"What…" I whispered.

"Sis… your hand…!"

Elze let out a little 'heh' and lifted the green metal gauntlet "FACEPUNCHER". Blood welled out from between the cracks.

"Ahaha... That thing's hide… is tougher than it looks." [Boost] normally protected her from the effects of her punching, but for the first time she suffered recoil – from the dragon's flesh, instead of her punch just cracking its scales, deformed inwards and then sending the force right back at her.

The general sponginess of draconic muscles was a required secondary power from a multi-ton beastie being able to survive crashing out of the air at full speed when in combat with other dragons.

The dragon huffed, and cast its baleful gaze around with its one remaining eye. It saw me and then Elze and Linze.

Thoom.

I threw a lance of lightning that splashed against its face. It turned away from me.

And it chose to kill them instead because it knew by instinct that it would hurt me more.

-.

No.

YOU DAMN DRAGON.

I stood up and stumbled back down, because a long piece of wood had punctured into my thigh. Armor cloth could only go so far. Like silk used in backing armor, holding shut around the arrowhead while the flesh gives way.

"Hiyaaah!"

Yae screamed and leaped at the dragon aiming at its other eye. The dragon moved its head slightly, her sword meeting its cheek. Her sword shattered. Then the dragon backhanded her out of the air.

Then it turned back towards Elze and Linze.

"[A-Aqua Shell!]" Linze managed to yelp out, just as the dragon sent a flow of burning crimson at them, flowing up and around the ice shell.

Watching from the side, I could see Elze grab her twin sister and tried to shield her with her own body. The Aqua Shell wouldn't last for much longer.

Thoom. I raised one arm and threw another bolt of lightning at the dragon's face.

"FIGHT ME!" I screamed at the dragon.

Vrooosh! It kept the fiery pressure on.

I took off my gloves, ripping the white gloves off with the magic stones stitched into the fingertips. Damn things were useless. Useless! Useless! I clutched at the ground, helplessly scratching up dirt. Against a real dragon we are but worms.

/"Player. Is it time?"/

Blood thundered in my ears.

/"I see. It is time then. No more holding back."/

I heard only thunder.

/"We shall be the one thing they fear."/

The village around me was in flames.

The sight – the sound – the smell – the feeling of it boiling under my skin. I could hear the crack-crack-crack of many spellform crystals breaking.

Blood and fire.

I threw my head back and roared at the sky. "STRUN. BAH. QUH!"

-.

And the skies obeyed me. The stars hid behind the clouds, and there was rain.

There was thunder.

And there was fury.

-.
-.

Ssshh. Ssshhhh.

Rain fell down at an angle, blown by uncertain winds, punctuated by the rumbling tone of thunder. The black dragon looked up, confused at the sudden change in weather.

Thoom. Thum. Thum.

Thunder began rolling across the sky, sounding eerily similar to drums. The rains outlined the shape of a woman who spoke

/"They are wrath. They are death.

/"Many thought they were but a myth. That *they* were safe."

/"They were wrong."/

The dragon turned towards me and blinked with its one good eye, somehow a confused look of 'are you doing this?' over its broad armored face. That look then turned into one that that seemed so very insulted for some reason.

/"And when the truth dawns, it dawns in FIRE."/

"HRRROOO!" the dragon roared and spat an unending stream of fire.

"[FOH] [KRAH] [DIIIIN!]" Frost. Cold. Freeze. I opened my mouth and spat out an unending stream of frosty wind.

The magic of this other world… there was a word for it…

Convenient.

So easy. Speak the words, call out the elements, and the effect happens. You can't even harm yourself accidentally. It was an elegantly designed mechanism.

But there was another word for it…

The air screamed and hissed where our breaths met. My brain blanked out in cold fire, like that of spending too much time without sleep but frustratingly unable to rest. I could feel the energy being pulled out from the world around me, funneled, and transformed.

The dragon had to stop to take a breath, and so did I. Our elemental breaths stopped at almost the same time, but behind that he was still a massive dragon with magic-and-blade resistant scales and claws and I was a squishy human – a fangless, clawless biped with only our wits as our power.

But power was also power. Might and violence as ever ruled the world.

/"But there is ONE they fear."/

The dragon roared and showed off its rows of gleaming tooth-like-swords and scales-like-shields. It sprang up, an unstoppable mass of impenetrable muscle and sinew.

"[FUS.] [RO] [DAH!]" Force. Balance. Push. A wave of force met the beast in mid-spring.

The black dragon stood on its rear legs awkwardly like a baby trying to get up, then toppled backwards, crashing into a house and pulling the stone wall down behind itself. It roared, more in surprise and more offence, than in feeling any pain.

{"WHAT IS THIS? INSECT! YOU CANNOT HARM ME!"}

I shouted back "[Krif Pruzah, Krif Vazah, Dovah!]" Fight well, fight true, dragon!

And Monika began to sing, her sweet voice backstopped by a deep chorus. (1)

/"Our hero, our hero
/"Claims a warrior's heart."/

Her voice had a mournful quality, like the clear still air after a winter night's fall.

Likewise, I took deep, cold, heavy breaths. Monika and I could design custom spells, but we found that they needed more words. More words that were a liability in combat.

Spell matrices inside spell stones required no words.

Monika's [Application] Null Spell could combine spell effects, but while magic [Apps] were fast and required no somatic components as well, they locked down her processing cores.

It spat a quick sequence of fireballs at me, then turned its head towards Elze and Linze.

There was a word to describe magic chants in this world.

And that word was Slow.

Magic that used spell chants could only happen as fast as you could describe what you wanted to happen to the world.

[TIID.]

Time. The world seemed to slow down.

[KLO.]

Sand. I could see individual raindrops passing by.

[UL.]

Eternity. I watched the fireballs approach Elze and Linze as if crawling through the air. I could see Elze starting to pull her sister up and throw her aside to save her life. Linze looked oddly at peace, her head turning towards me.

I stepped aside and shouted [VEN] [GAAR] [NOS].

Wind. Unleash. Strike. A [Cyclone] erupted in between the girls and the dragon, and just pulled up and tore apart the balls of flame. Another fireball passed close by, and exploded the house right behind me.

Time resumed.

/"With a voice wielding power
/"Of the ancient Nord art..."/

We fixed the issue by using a BETTER vocabulary for casting. The problem was that it would consume a spell stone for each effectively pre-cast spell, that now only needed a voice trigger, but then that also explained why I was so obsessed with money. Now money – or rather, a garish number of spell stones – was literally power.

"[QOH!]"

Thoom!

Lightning lanced down, and drove the dragon back to the ground just as it was trying to get up. The bolt was substantially larger than what I could throw from my lightning hands. The tang of ozone and billowing clouds of dust obscured the fallen beast for a moment.

The dragon roared. {"YOUR MAGIC CAN'T HARM ME!"}

The dragon clawed at a nearby wall and grasped at a large chunk of mortared stones. Rather than use more of its dragon fire, it threw the wall section at me. It struggled then to get back to its feet, and flapped its wings wide open.

I didn't even bother to dodge the incoming slab. "[FEIM]", I whispered. Fade.

The mass of stone passed through me like I was a ghost.

The dragon's wings curled inwards, and then flapped open wider again. The dragon's remaining eye squinted in calculation.

/"For the darkness has passed, and the legend yet grows,
/"You'll know, you'll knooow"/

Mantling. Self-hypnosis. Method acting. Walk like them until they walk like you. Call it what you want.

{"HMF!"} the dragon snorted with twin flares of smoke out of its nostrils. {"I HAVE HAD ENOUGH FUN WITH YOU PATHETIC MORSELS FOR NOW. COUNT YOURSELF FORTUNATE!"}

It shrugged out of the fallen house and flapped its black leathery wings. Soon it was heading straight up into the sky.

"[Nikriin Dovah Daal!]" I shouted at it. Coward Dragon Return. "Where do you think you can go after this?!"

"[WULD]!" Whirlwind. I shouted and jumped.

Violent invisible Force flung me high up into the air, not from behind me, but it was like my whole body just threw itself through the distance illogically without any initating motion.

"[NAH]." Fury.

The second syllable imparted a horizontal correction to my leap, turning it into an arc following the fleeing dragon.

[KEST!] Tempest. The third syllable amplified the air pressure behind me, and soon enough I managed to reach and grab ahold of the dragon's back.

Dovahkiin, Dovahkiin
naal ok zin los vahriin
/"Dragonborn, dragonborn,
/"by his honor is sworn-"/

{"WHAT… WHAT IS THIS?! ARE YOU TRYING TO *RIDE* ME?!"} The dragon screeched and began to twist to and fro in mid-air. {"NO! I REFUSE! I REFUSE! THIS IS NOT RIGHT! GET OFF ME, YOU WORTHLESS INSECT!"}

I clung to its spines and slowly worked my way up towards its head. I could feel the skin being rubbed off my palms. The slick blood made it harder to keep my grip. Maybe I should not have removed my gloves after all.

"[STRUN!] [BAH!] [QOH!]" I cast [Storm Call] again, and the skies grew even more violent around us. Thunder and wind boiled.

"You are fire. You are death!" I screamed over the howling wind. "I am the lightning! I am the tempest!"

wah dein vokul mahfaeraak ahst vaal!
/"To keep evil forever at bay!"/

I reached out towards its neck and "[QOH!]"

Thoom.

Lightning slammed into Yae's sword still stuck in between its tough armored eyelids and the current went straight into its eye socket. The dragon bellowed in pain.

Ahrk fin norok paal graan
/"And the fiercest foes rout!/

"[QOH!]"

Thoom.

I clambered higher up the dragon's limp neck until I could touch the sword.

"[QOH!]"

Thoom.

fod nust hon zindro zaan
/"When they hear triumph's shout!"/

"[QOH!]"

Thoom. The eyeball popped in a burst of hot, bloody liquid.

"[QOH!]"

Thoom. Brains began to cook.

"[QOH!]"

Dovahkiin, dovahkiin,
fah hin kogaan mu draal!
/"Dragonborn, dragonborn…
/"For your blessing we pray…/

I didn't let go, riding the lightning and the falling dragon all the way down to the ground.

Khrump! The black dragon's body slammed hard onto the soft soil and dragged a deep furrow before it finally stopped.

The rain and the fury of the storm began to fade. As the skies cleared, a sharp moonbeam cast over our slumped forms. With shaky arms I slowly pushed off to get back to my feet.

Her voice echoed in the sudden stillness and the acrid tang of ozone cloaking the air:

/"This is the Man Born with the Soul of a Dragon
/"And my Beloved,
/"In whom I am Well Pleased."/

That was also a John the Baptist reference, Monika. Why.

I closed my eyes and waited.

… Nothing.

"So you're just meat after all…" I whispered. It was crazy of me to expect anything to happen.

Something bubbled up from within my gut.

Laughter.

"Aheh. Ahah. Ahahahaha…!"

That was so stupid, I couldn't believe it worked! Ahahaha. I laughed and put a hand over my face, leaving bloody smears on my white mask. I laughed until it hurt.

Ouch. Ouch. Seriously this hurts.

My gut. My hands. My brain.

Ahahaha I can't stop laughing, someone help me.

Help me.

-.

-.

Slowly everyone started to approach and see what could be done to rebuild their shattered lives. The [Storm Call] put out all the fires. Lyon and Garm and the soldiers had the people standing in lines checking each other to see if anyone was lost or left behind.

Everyone stared with wonder at the dead dragon. I was supported on either side by Elze and Linze because my muscles were locked up from all the exertion and it would be disgraceful if I faceplanted right there. Note to self: actually invent a real flight spell before trying to fistfight a dragon in the air next time. Yae and Yumina looked around, wondering how else they could help.

Yae's empty hands opened and closed. She had no swords. Her other sword still stuck inside the dragon's eye socket was half-melted. She licked her lips and frowned minutely.

And then we all heard the flapping of great wings.

We all looked up to see another dragon, a white dragon. One older, much larger, and more dangerous than the one we'd just managed to put down only under great unconventional effort.

We narrowed our eyes.

And thunder rolled across clear skies.

-.