Rusty was flying through the desert sky as the sun had passed its highest point. He looked at the desert not in admiration but in determination as he followed the trails of blood the SandWing Beast had left behind. Feeling the heat of the sun hit his scales while flying was a soothing experience, much better than the scorching hot flames of the Beast.
Rusty stopped mid-air, grabbing his left side. He could feel the burn marks on his scales, the pain was slowly crawling back. He had hoped the potion would've stopped the pain for good but it seemed to only nullify the pain for a certain amount of time.
Great, I need to apply the potion again then.
Landing on the desert sand below, Rusty got out the potion chest from his pouch, feeling his claws brush against the severed tail of the Beast.
As he applied the potion onto his scales he decided to check out the other potions, each one a different size and color. He looked at the first potion, a bright red colored liquid with a blue label. He tried to remember what the RainWings had told him what effects the potion had and what the labels meant. The memory struck him and he remembered, a blue label meant it was drinkable, red means you're supposed to throw it at an enemy and both of them together means you're supposed to apply it onto yourself.
Now for the actual potion itself, the bright red one is meant for enhancing your strength for a short amount of time. In fact, each potion's effects only lasted a certain amount of time. An excellent sounding potion but it had the smallest sized bottle, only enough for one usage. After that was a medium sized deep blue colored potion. This potion is supposed to help you relax your mind and focus better. Not the most exciting sounding potion but it could be somewhat useful. Rusty had to look at the bottle for a bit as the blue label blended in with the potion's color. He liked how the potion looked, reminding him of the ocean. Was that really the last time I'll ever see the ocean? He looked at the next 2 potions, they were larger than the strength potion but smaller than the focus potion . One was lime green while the other one was dark purple. Both had red labels and both affected awareness of your surroundings. He already knew what the next potion did. It was a bright orange color and helped nullify pain for a short while. The last potion had no label and was a black color. He remembered the RainWings telling him to be extremely careful with this specific potion as a simple mistake could cost him his life or at the very least a limb.
He closed the chest and placed it back in the chest next to the Beast's tail. When he began flying he dropped the tail as it was far too large to fit in the pouch. He had to chop off most of the tail, leaving only the tail barb which he had to drain it of its venom.
Now that he was ready, he leapt up into the air and continued flying northeast. He noticed the Beast's trail was leading farther and farther away from the SandWing Kingdom as he could make out the shape of the Claws of the Clouds Mountain.
Rusty then stopped and hovered in the air. He could see footprints alongside the trail of blood.
It must have landed here.
The footprints led to a rock formation, the blood trail became more faint.
It must have stopped bleeding then.
Rusty landed near one of the many boulders around the rock formation. He carefully followed the footprints with his axe in his talons. He heard the sounds of the Beast around him, echoing through the air. He finally found the Beast and quickly hid behind a boulder.
Did it see me?
He cautiously poked his head from his hiding spot and saw the Beast looking at what remained of its tail. It let out a small roar, as if it was angry at itself for losing its tail. Its eyes appeared to be lifeless, as if it had no soul.
Then something strange started happening. It started smacking the sand on the ground with its tail. Rusty felt a gust of wind pass through him but it felt strange, almost unnatural. The wind then became very strong as sand started flying in the air. Rusty attempted to cover his face, but still tried to keep an eye on the Beast. The sand in the air then started to form around where the Beast's tail was. The sand started to condense and an explosion of sand occurred. Rusty was shocked at what he saw. the Beast had gotten his tail back.
How? How is that possible? Did the sand regenerate the Beast?
He quickly checked his pouch to see if he still had the Beast's tail barb. But the only thing he found inside the pouch besides the chest was just sand. I had its tail. This can't be possible! He felt the weight of defeat on shoulders.
How am I supposed to kill it if it can just regenerate?
Whatever he did he had to do it quickly as he would lose the element of surprise very soon.
Rusty sighed. I hope this works again.
He climbed on top of the boulder he was hiding behind and jumped up in the air, smashing down his axe and cutting the Beast's tail off again. A roar filled the air as the Beast backed up from Rusty exactly the same way it did the first time.
But instead of running away, the Beast charged at Rusty. He barely dodged the Beast's attack as he heard the boulder crumble into small pieces. The Beast shot a jet of flames in his direction. A great pain swept Rusty's front side as he stumbled back. He gritted his teeth and took a swipe with his axe. The Beast backed up, avoiding the swipe and seemed hesitant to advance. Using this opportunity, Rusty dashed for another boulder to hide behind. He touched his face while running and could feel burns.
Not again.
Once he found a suitable boulder to hide behind he took out the chest and started to apply the orange potion onto his face. He felt burn marks on his arms and neck as well so he had to apply the potion to them too. When he was done he had only a little left so he had to be more careful. As he was putting back the orange potion, the black potion got his attention.
A thought struck Rusty. Maybe I can dip the daggers in the potion.
Carefully, he opened the potion and dipped the dagger's blade into the potion. The black substance dripped from the blade, landing on the sand like dew drops. Leaving his items next to the boulder, Rusty quietly walked to find the Beast. The Beast was strangely silent, only leaving its footsteps to be heard.
It's more cautious than it was last time.
Rusty finally found the Beast looking behind a few boulders in an attempt to find him. He threw the dagger at the Beast's left wing. The dagger got lodged in the wing and the black substance started to consume the wing, melting off a part of the wing. The SandWing Beast let out a roar of pain, louder than any other roar before.
Got to get back to my stuff.
He arrived at the boulder he was hiding at before and dipped another dagger in the black potion. Unfortunately for Rusty, the Beast appeared. Surprised, Rusty threw the dagger in the Beast's direction but the Beast dodged. Rusty frantically tried to dip the next dagger but he heard the Beast's footsteps getting louder and louder. In desperation, he threw the entire potion at the Beast. The Beast attempted to dodge but the potion managed to hit its right side. The black substance began eating away at the Beast's scales and roared again in frustration, the Beast smashed its claws on the ground and Rusty jumped back. The Beast charged at Rusty and he had to back up farther away from his items.
Ok sword, it's your time to shine.
He unsheathed the sword and took a swipe at the Beast. Sparks flew when the sword slashed the Beast's scales and it stopped in its tracks baffled.
It caused sparks?
Once again Rusty began to run, this time to get his stuff back. As he was running, he noticed the severed tail of the Beast squirming around violently as if it was trying to sting Rusty. He stabbed the tail with the sword and heard the Beast cry out. He looked back and saw the tail shrivel up, burning up in flames leaving it as a burnt mess.
It burns scales then.
Rusty continued to run and started to loop around the rock formation. He eventually found the boulder where he had his items. He took out the strength potion from the chest and drank it. He felt a tingling feeling in his talons and a surge of power went through his body. Let's test this out. He grabbed the boulder and lifted it up as if it weighed no more than a 1 month old dragonet.
"Hey Beast! I'm over here!"
Immediately, the Beast ran in Rusty's direction. Rusty threw the boulder at the Beast's face and it immediately stumbled back. Rusty went to go grab more boulders and threw them at the Beast's face. Each time the boulders landed, the Beast seemed to lose more and more balance. After the 10th boulder, the Beast appeared to lose consciousness and collapsed on the ground with a huge thud.
Rusty slowly approached the Beast's body and could hear it breathing heavily. A strong gust of wind similar to the one that passed through when the Beast regenerated its tail filled the air and sand started to form around the Beast's left wing and side where Rusty had thrown the potion at.
Not this time.
Rusty slashed the Beast's wing with his sword and the wing shriveled up in flames the exact same way the tail did. The sand around the wing then fell onto the ground, lifeless. Before Rusty was able to stop the sand from forming around the Beast's side, the Beast awoke.
At first it looked at Rusty with anger in its eyes. But when it noticed it's wing wasn't regenerating like its side, the Beast's expression changed from anger to fear. It looked at Rusty's sword and fled, running away as it could no longer fly.
"You won't run away from me that easily!"
Rusty grabbed a boulder and threw it at the Beast but missed. As he attempted to grab another one, he suddenly felt the tingling feeling in his talons disappear. He tried to lift the boulder up but could not hold it up anymore. "
The potion's effect must've run out.
He went to grab his axe and quickly applied the orange potion to himself as the pain began to resurface. He looked in the direction where the Beast ran off too.
It's going west, back to the Kingdom of Sand.
Wasting no time, he followed the Beast as fast as he could, eager for the next battle.
A/N: Hey guys, CrystalDynamite here. Another apology for taking a while to update, I'm far more busy than I thought I would be. But I hit another small achievement, 2k words in just this chapter! Insane!
I also want to thank Omniscient Overseer for pointing out a few mistakes I made. I will fix those mistakes in the previous chapters when I publish the final chapter.
Other than that thanks for waiting and reading this chapter!.
