Once we had every piece of dragon-slaying equipment prepped and all strategies decided, there remained only one ultimate lifeform for us to slay - the ARK dragon. Oh, there were so many dragons you could find across the ARK - wyverns with flaming, electric or poison breath on Scorched Earth, cave dwelling rock-drakes that rested within Aberration, cat-like Managarmr's that roamed the corrupted Earth below, the lava-dwelling Magmasaur inside of the Genesis simulation (at least I think that was a type of dragon), and even the biomechanical Voidwyrm that lived in the void of space surrounding the Genesis Starship. But the one on this island was the biggest of them all, and it was probably the hardest to kill.
Also, it looked like a realistic version of Spyro. I have no idea why that was. Maybe people just liked that look. Maybe whoever made the ARK system liked Spyro. Or maybe they had a grudge against the series. Go figure - I wasn't really intersted in figuring out the reasoning right now, I just wanted to kill it and get this over with. While I certainly wanted to laze about on the ARK and have fun, I also got the feeling that Celm would get angry about that - and since I was here on his suggestion, there was a good chance he would object to me lazing about here. He probably had his own plans to see through.
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Before we left on our mission, I made sure that all of our little ones were secured away from the action. Given the absolute hell that the fight with the dragon involved (you fought it in a volcano with tons of angry pterosaurs), I knew this was going to be a grueling fight, and the kids with us would likely not want to see this.
We'd spared no expenses when we got to work on dealing with this beast - we had what could easily be called on army of Microraptor with us, dozens of Pteranodon and Tapejara, enough chaolicotheres to reduce a castle to rubble using all the boulders we had, a dozen rexes, and that wasn't even our whole army. We were not taking any chances here!
Also, we'd loaded up our tech rifles and gathered as much element as possible to keep them loaded for this fight - again, take no chances here. And just to be sure, we'd brought as many shotguns and rockets with us as we could. After killing two ultimate lifeforms, I wanted to get this over with. And maybe go off-script after we killed the Overseer - trying to survive in a land of dinosaurs was getting boring too quickly. Plus reverse engineering the shit out of the ARK technology was going to be an exercise in and of itself, which I was really looking forward to.
Oh, and I supposed that figuring out why people from multiple different fictional universes were showing up in this ARK. But first I wanted to add dragonslayer to my titles!
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So it was that we finally reached the Red Obelisk, with enough tribute to open the gateway to the dragon's roost. All of our warriors and beasts were arrayed for the fight, with those deemed unable to assist back at camp. And yes, we made sure to check one last time to be sure that all of the children were still at camp. One screw up was too much.
As soon as the tribute was offered, the countdown began. Hastily, we saddled up our beasts, in particular focusing on the fliers we had arrayed - the true battle would be in the skies, not on the ground. We would face fire and need to be swift to avoid it.
And when the wait finally ended, we were all anxious to face the mighty flyer.
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When the light of the teleportation faded, we found our foe staring down at us, a look of surprise on its face. Said look only lasted until we pointed our weapons at it, to which the dragon responded by letting out an ear-splitting roar. Said roar was also a signal for its innumerable pterosaur minions to take to the skies, to which we responded in kind.
And thus was the battle joined!
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"Watch out!" shouted AA-12, just barely managing to bring her shotgun into position to fire upon a screeching pterosaur. The bat sized creature died in an instant, but even if it hadn't, the fall would certainly have finished it off. Just in front of her, M4 was loading a new magazine, having already expended her current one ventilating a larger pterosaur before it could attack their crested mount.
"You two holding up fine?" asked their 'pilot' Gunnar, who was directing the pterosaur to take them toward the great dragon, if only to avoid its flames.
"Well enough," answered M4, who took aim at yet another pterosaur, only for her action to be rendered unnecessary when their Viking pilot pulled out and threw a spear, which went clean through the opposing flyer's heart, leaving it to crash into a lava river below.
"...Nice aim," squeaked out the surprise shotgun T-Doll, not sure how else to respond.
"Fighting men gives you plenty of time to practice your aim with a spear. These things give me more challenge than the knights ever did."
The T-Dolls just nodded, a little shocked, before returning to the battle going on around them. The fight was not yet one, and their comrades were still in danger from the beasts around them...wait, what were those things moving on the ground?
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Livewire shoved the pike forward, ramming it clean through the giant lizard's brain.
The Megalania had certainly been a surprise - the records they'd recovered from other survivors indicated that this beast only had flying creatures as minions, not ground dwellers. These new additions had cost them a few dilos and compies, though thankfully none that anyone in the 'tribe' had any particular bonds with. Still, these beasts weren't enough to ruin their plans - the had great numbers, but they were against a literal army of creatures bigger and meaner than they were. This fight was hardly something that these beasts could hope to win through numbers.
Of course, numbers were meaningless when your opponent was a flying WMD - the dragon was beyond the reach of most of their beasts, and could easily scare off those that could challenge it. A whole pack of carnos sent to attack it had been scorched by its flames when the beast had taken off, leading them to try and dunk themselves into a nearby river in a desperate effort to quench the flames. Since said river had been composed of lava, those predators were now ash flowing to who knows where. Several flyers had also met their end fighting the dragon, though the how varied. Some were set alight by the creature's fiery breath, their burning corpses illuminating the skies like shooting stars or volcano ejecta, falling either to the ground of the arena or into oblivion. Others who flew too close felt the wrath of the creature's claws and were torn apart, their remains now littering the ground. Some creatures had even been swallowed whole by the dragon, though fortunately their remains did little to heal the beast. A few particularly unlucky warriors had been sent to their deaths when the dragon had done a barrel (aileron?) roll, breaking their bodies and those of their mounts against the giant flyer's wings.
Yet despite the casualties the beast had inflicted, even this giant monster feeling the toll of this battle. Great wounds now covered its body, with large amounts of blood pooling up from them all. Those who took the time to observe its breathing would also note that each breath now seemed to be more labored than the last, a clear sign of exhaustion. The gouts of flame were growing more infrequent, and as the dragon's breathing grew more labored, they would only grow sparser.
If the group could keep up the pressure, than eventually, even this beast would fall.
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The great fire breather batted one of the fin-headed flyers away, sending the trio of greek warriors atop it to their doom. Letting out a sonorous roar, the creature moved to launch another strafing run against the warriors on the ground.
The dragon was not the first of its kind, nor was it the last. It, like all the ultimate life forms on the ARK, had innumerable clones stored away, meant to replace the current iteration should that form fall. This was how things had always been - every tribe that dwelled on the would fight among themselves until the strongest remained, the rest either wiped out, beaten/cowled into submission, or absorbed via conquest or diplomacy. From there, that tribe would then work to defeat the ultimate life forms, after which they would advance upon the Tek Cave to face the Overseer. If they conquered this final challenge, ascension would begin, sending them to the next arc. Such was the cycle, since the beginnings of the ARKs.
Of course, there was the possibility of the dominant tribe not seeking out the Tek Cave - instead, they might have used their powers to lord over the other tribes that refused to submit to them and evaded destruction. Wealth, food, women, it mattered not what they wanted, only that they focused on dominion over progression. The ARK accounted for that - aggressive new creatures would be spawned to force the tribe to focus on the Cave. Occasionally, this resulted in the entire tribe being purged, and their minds stored away, memories scrubbed so that they could be reborn on a different ARK, where they would not make the same mistakes they did in their previous lives. That did not preclue them from making entirely new mistakes, but that was a risk that had to be undertaken.
If you were to introduce a certified zoologist to the ultimate life forms, and said zoologist was not killed by said creatures, they would rather quickly note that these creatures weren't natural. Beyond breaking the square-cube law, the ultimates were far too aggressive to function in the wild. Creatures that attacked and killed anything that came near them were not going to last long - injuries would pile up until the creature was too beaten to survive. But then these were obviously not normal creatures - they were tests of strength for the tribes to progress onwards. Victory here would prove that they were ready to face the Overseer, and progress onto the path to save the Earth below.
Speaking of victory, it was fast becoming apparent that the warriors assembled today would have it - despite its best efforts, the dragon was losing. The injuries it had accumulated were finally starting to wear it down, with its attacks becoming weaker and less frequent. The hail of bullets, plasma, arrows, spears, and boulders were taking their toll on the mighty beast. Eventually, exhaustion finally overtaking it, the dragon fell to the ground below.
Slowly, the form of a Rex walked up to the dragon, atop which was the leader of the warriors. Letting out a final roar, the dragon inhaled one last fire breath, only for the Rex to ram the beast's lower jaw. A loud crack filled the air as the dragon's head bent to such a degree that its neck snapped, finally ending its life.
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Flame's POV
It was done. The dragon was dead. Mentally, I was already planning out celebrations. But while such a victory was massive, it didn't quite leave me calmed.
After all, we still had one final opponent to defeat. And even that didn't quite account for what else this island might throw at us...or what its siblings could unleash...
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AN: Sorry for taking so long to get this posted. Anyway, read and review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!