Chapter 16
There was nothing but destruction everywhere we looked.
Dead fighters, dead monsters, broken and charred army vehicles, you name it. I was thankful there were corpses that the remaining monsters could feast on so we could sneak by undetected, even though I shouldn't be.
The one who led us deeper into Smaug's lair was a longsword guy named Brian, with a friend of his named Graham, known by his moniker 'the hammer guy'. The remaining six, myself included, were strangers to one another, but we all followed Brian's lead since he's a resident of the area and was familiar with the ins and outs of it. We journeyed as quietly as possible across the ruined campus until we entered the center of the complex, looking back and forth in case something jumped on us.
Brian would sometimes break the silence with his snippets of information.
"The idea is, if we blow up the supercomputer that the red monster is guarding, it could somehow fix our world and return the all those monsters back in the game… and our memories will be restored, hopefully." I nodded, even if I have little knowledge on the matter.
"Now, can you guys feel it?"
"Feel what?" A woman with a big gun asked.
"There's this little hum that you can hear just a little bit faintly. I'll bet anything that humming sound comes from the super-machine thing inside the campus, somewhere just below the main building."
But then… how were we going to destroy the thing, anyway? I was about to ask, but…
"Hmm? Some of you have broken away from the rest… Do you wish to fight me directly?"
Damn. It knew. Smaug somehow sensed the eight of us even as we moved in as indiscreetly as possible. I peeked out from behind a wall to see the creature uncurled and began stalking its locale. Did it expect us to jump right out of our hiding places while screaming? It appeared so as it lifted wrecked cars and debris looking for us.
We took care to not step on anything that could give our locations away, all the while the Red Dragon continued its search.
Graham peeked out just as the creature passed him. Wait, what was he doing…?
"Over here!" To my shock, he surprised the dragon by jumping from under an overturned car and smacked the creature in the face using his hammer.
Smaug was disoriented, allowing the hammer guy to attack his forelegs. Soon another person, wielding a great sword of some kind, joined in and wounded the dragon's wings. Together they battled the dragon, wounding it some more in the face, forelegs, and wings. With every strike, every damage dealt with precision, the creature became bewildered as it had no idea which person it had to strike back first. Not long after, the rest of us came out of hiding and began laying assault on the dragon. Two women with big guns fired piercing bullets to tear through its tough scales, opening soft spots for those with sharp weapons to hit, while those with blunt weapons kept Smaug busy
One heavy smack from Graham's spiked hammer, followed by sustained gunfire to its head by the two gunners, and then my relentless attack on the dragon's hind legs, and sure enough, the creature was toppled and squirmed on the ground. Brian and his longsword impaled the dragon's right wing and ripped it to shreds, hoping to prevent it from flying away.
We all screamed in fury and excitement as we descended on the fallen dragon. Who knew that this big ugly Red Dragon could be felled by eight hunters working in tandem?! We took no pity on the monster's squirming body as the gunners unleashed every bullet they had on their person to put an end to- Oops, I think we got too greedy, for the freaking monster undulated like a snake before swiping its jagged tail across the ground, hitting our legs and caused us to lose balance. My sword impaled it in its front paw in my attempt to regain our advantage, but in its thrashing, the dragon kept the sword from going in deeper and yanked it out, knocking me away in the process.
I looked up and saw Smaug regaining its footing. It looked beat yet mostly unharmed.
"Impressive…"
Brian the longsword guy spat on the ground. Yeah, I didn't think he appreciated being praised by the creature.
We readied ourselves to continue our assault.
What we didn't anticipate was for the big red bastard to suddenly jam its claws on the ground, and then there were weird blue energy thingy coming from everywhere on the ground, snaking up the Red Dragon's claws and into his body, and for some goddamn reason, all that damage we dealt to the monster's body was healed! Its broken horns, scales, wings, everything all over the frigging thing regrew as if they were never injured! The monster roared exultantly as it set its sights on us once more.
Everyone gasped at the sight of this regenerative ability, and even more so when Smaug seemingly smirked.
It taunted us with its ability.
Now I had no idea. I honestly had no idea how we're going to fight a monster that could heal itself.
With the table seemingly turned against us, the dragon prepared to deliver a painful retribution, but just as things began to go south, we all heard screeches echoing in the sky as two large shadows flew past us. Those were Elder Dragons! The Velkhana and Alatreon from before joined in on the carnage! All eight of us jumped out of the way as the two Elder Dragons locked in on Smaug, ready to tear and mutilate it to shreds. Still rolling on the ground, I watched the Red Dragon's laser beam engaged in a beam-o'-war with Alatreon's fire breath and Velkhana's ice breath, so stupidly bedazzled at the sheer power those two unleashed to withstand the searing laser.
I felt someone dragging me away by the collar of my vest. Just in time for an explosion to rock the place. Fiery and icy embers floated all around me yet nothing dropped dead… not yet. Ah, thank God it was Brian. I thought he was dead already.
The Elder Dragons retreated, but didn't leave the locale, simply hanging out on the edges. The Red Dragon looked unsatisfied but otherwise content on letting them leave.
"Wisely-chosen…"
Brian lifted me up before saying, "There has to be a main breaker box or something like it in this place."
"What are you going to do, hit it until it breaks? Shoot it until it blows up?"
"Short-circuiting the power should be able to disrupt the machine that the dragon is guarding!"
Smaug then turned its attention on the longsword guy before he could finish talking.
As I watched Brian leading two others away from the dragon's gluttonous jaws, I formulated a last-minute plan; if I could somehow get the dragon trapped in a place where it couldn't move about freely, then perhaps we could injure it even more than before.
The plan was too simple and not very detailed, but by then, I was already sprinting across the dragon's lair. I threw a stone at the Red Dragon's shoulder to no avail; a bigger distraction should be able to gain its attention, right? Luckily, I brought with me a flare. I wished I had brought a bomb or a flashbang rather than a flare, but when I saw the dragon's eyes following the flare I threw before laying its sight on me, I felt a little bit proud that the flare served its purpose. I broke into a run to one of the campus' larger buildings.
My plan worked… eh, not really. Smaug did follow me into the building's main atrium by smashing its head through the large front doors, but the two ladies with guns also ran inside with me and opened their salvos too early before the monster could get stuck inside the doorframe, derailing my plan. The monster retreated back outside, reeling from the attack and I had to follow it and make it chase me again. Just as I exited the building, the monster came crashing through a window on the right, but this time it fired its laser beam twice. The first one nearly set the atrium alight in flames, and then it fired again…
I heard somebody screaming. I was covering my ears from the sound of the atrium's windows all shattering from the dragon's immense power. Graham ran past me and I opened my ears and eyes to see a gunner lady laid dead on the ground. The hammer guy knelt near her to check her vitals but as he realized the woman was gone, he cursed.
Dammit, I never thought my idea would potentially do more harm than good. Now I have one woman's blood in my hands.
"Would you like to try again?"
For a minute I was tempted to answer verbally. Well, I never had to, as the two Elder Dragons came back for round two; Alatreon pinned the Red Dragon to the ground while Velkhana stabbed its wings and body using a tail covered in sharp ice spikes.
Even with all its might, Smaug was in no shape to battle two enemies at once. It then let out a series of barks and shrills; a call for help, I assume. The two dragons apparently heard it, too, for they then let go of the creature and readied themselves to engage the Fatalis trio; Alatreon dealt with the White Fatalis whereas Velkhana picked the Black Fatalis as its opponent. Seriously, I had no idea why those three bothered to obey this thing.
Now reduced to seven hunters, we charged at the Red Dragon to finish it off, but the surprise appearance of the Crimson Fatalis prevented us from getting closer. We briefly battled it; gunshots aimed at the Crimson One's head, hammers pounding its chest and belly, and swords slashing away at the legs or tail. Once or twice, the Fatalis breathed fireballs at us, but because it was badly outmatched seven-to-one, we were able to keep up with its frantic movement. I was feeling skeptical at our prospects of survival, but thankfully I was proven wrong when dozens of people reached the campus complex, be they hunters or soldiers or gun lovers.
The Crimson One could've finished us off right there and then, but the reinforcements, with their rifles and bombs and medieval weaponry, managed to wound its body here and there. For every fireball the Fatalis fired to kill one assailant, thirty bullets would rain on it. In the ensuing commotion, I chose to attack the Crimson Fatalis' tail. I used a thin metal bar with a broken tip I found lying on the ground to impale the creature's tail, believing that if I thrusted it deep enough, I could pin the tail on the ground and limit its movement. The metal bar failed to pin it down, but it pierced through the thinner end of the Crimson One's tail. Confused, the monster swirled around trying to see who was impaling its tail just as I raised my sword high and slashed it twice with as much power as I could muster.
The tail tip was cut off and the Fatalis roared in anger. It would have killed me right away if it wasn't for fighters with their large bows firing a dozen arrows at the Crimson One's head; one arrow nearly blinded it in the eye and the monster responded with five fireballs.
Its hasty departure to deal with those archers should've been a reprieve for us, but Graham yelled while pointing at Smaug.
Well, fuck. It was all a distraction! The Red Dragon managed to recover itself!
Things were going downhill fast. Exhausted of other choices, I began slamming the hilt of my weapon after every slash I made; whether to the dragon's head or legs, I took any chance I got to injure it, hoping that the monster would overtax itself from continuous healing. Graham thought so too, if his targeting the same wound on Smaug's shoulder might stall the monster from healing its broken parts. Every swing he made, he aimed it to the dragon's shoulder wound and never anywhere else.
Using its uninjured foreclaws, the dragon swiped at me and Graham, only to miss when both of us ducked at the last second.
Wait, no, it didn't miss! Another hammer user got caught in its claws! Graham, I, and another hunter assaulted the claws that gripped the poor man. I even went as far as to stab and slash the shoulder wound Graham left. Seemingly noticing me, the Red Dragon headbutted me out of the way before pounding the captured hammer user to the ground. Once, twice, thrice, until it lost interest with the man and tossed him aside.
Its eyes stared at me next with bloodlust and gluttony. Before any of us made a move, five explosions rocked the sky and I heard something screeched with pain and anger. What was it?! What was it fighting?! A dozen more explosions coming from missiles and rockets flying in the sky spooked both me and the Red Dragon, temporarily stopping our fight. The thing from before screeched again, louder and more painful, as a thin cold mist saturated the campus complex. I ran out of the mist's reach to see a heavy object crashed near the Red Dragon. I mistakenly thought it was an airplane of sort until I looked closer. It was the Black Fatalis, charred and twisted and impaled with so many ice shards from head to tail! But who did it…?
The Velkhana's bird-like roar informed everyone that one enemy had been dealt with. It stood proud despite burn marks lining its lithe body.
More helicopters could be seen on the horizon; I assumed they helped the Elder Dragon took down its opponent. Things seemed to be turning in our favor now!