Chapter 40 - Thirty-Eight

The ground shook as the thing moved, his massive body coming to view piece by piece, it's gigantic arrow-shaped head with red and greenhorns almost formed a coral on his back, contrasting with his blue and white scales on the rest of the body.

He had gigantic talons too, rasping deep inside the sand with membranes between the fingers, his body ending in a long tail with a red coral-plant covering it and moving with the current like hair would do.

And even with the lack of wings I could easily tell what the thing was.

DRAGON!

I start snarling at him, not before having one last good look at the creature:

Coral Water Dragon – This type of dragon has immense power and agility underwater. Is an expert in magical attacks, sneak attacks underwater, and is very territorial. Like many dragons is a collector of shiny objects.

I don't care!

Kill the dragon!

Death to all the dragons! Smug bastards! Home stealers!

…

I really don't like them…

Already alert and prepared to battle we could see when the Coral Dragon started to use his magic, turmoils of water spiraling and trying to suck us in and out of the bubble.

Well, let just say that for a water user this place was heaven, and for a fire/air user… Not so much.

The pressure started to build up, clouding our vision from the outside even more as the sand raised with the water, so this time when Leonel comes closer and wraps an arm around my waist I don't even protest.

I could use half of my magic attacks here without consuming our air, so I use my Shadow Illusion together with my Shadow Veil once Leo uses the air to hop us up and farther away from the attacks.

The dragon was still focused on the illusion, closing in with tornados of water unto our illusion, and when he reaches it he sucks the illusion right into his mouth, making good use of his water manipulation.

"Let's back up, for now." Says Leonel.

And as far as I want to deal with this dragon, I agree that it was impossible to win against it underwater.

So, for now, we flee- I mean, strategically fall back.

~~~~

In the end we spend one more night there, thinking and planning; and I hadn't received my title of Strategist for naught.

One thing for sure that we easily agree on was that we needed to change the battle to our favor by taking the dragon off the water.

We first thought to annoyed it in a way that it would follow us out, but it was too dangerous to go underwater as I wouldn't be able to dodge and dash and my fire attacks wouldn't reach him, as well as Leo's attacks, since light could blind it but we didn't know how effective that would even be…

And we needed to think of a way to improve our chances of winning on land as well, after all, once out of the water it was our only chance; the creature woulnd't fall for the same trick twice.

So we thought carefully that night, barely talking, eating mechanically.

And then, of course, I had the brilliant idea that would get us to pass the creature and into the door beyond him.

That's how, now, I ended up acting as bait; You see, dragons love shining things, and I just have the right thing right on my forehead and changing into my Hell Form made it quite sizable.

We waited for the night to come so that my crystal would appear more as I approach the water, pretending to go for a drink while Leo stayed hidden, giving a little more light for my crystal to reflect into the water.

Then we waited.

I was suddenly getting anxious, looking at the undisturbed water, waiting for a gigantic head to pop up, his snout filled with sharp teeth coming right at me and chewing me down.

I had to contain a shiver at the idea.

Even more because it wasn't that impossible to happen.

Great, now I'm jinxing myself.

…

And I kind of did when he had to keep this plan up for 2 days without results.

After that long I thought to be even silly how I was scared once; now I was just bored and irritated, thinking about other plans, some pretty absurd as trying to boil all the water so the dragon would cook inside.

As tempting as it was to try, it would have been futile, and stupid, to do as my MP would dried out before I even reached the deeps.

As I was lost in thoughts it was a surprise when the water started to move and my plan started to work, and damn the creature was massive, even in my Hell Form I was just the size of its head.

Our eyes met when he started to get out of the water, his colossal clawed paws touching the land and making the ground shake.

He opens his mouth, letting visible the three layers of sharp-curved teeth, the long tongue coming out to lick his eye as he kept staring me down, or rather, kept starring my crystal down.

"Sorry pal, but I need this thing to keep myself alive, so… see ya!"

I breathe a fan of flames on his face and start dashing back, feeling the ground shake as the creature ran in pursuit, very very close to me.

Hell, shit, I don't think this was a good idea anymore!

I go to the side where there were the rocks that hide the circle of water, bringing him to a more enclosure place where we prepared a trap.

I stop when I reach a wall, the circle of rocks opening enough that the dragon could come closer and stand on his hind legs, gurgling a grow at me. I step back until my butt touches the stone and the dragon closes in, a smug expression over his eyes and a snarl showing off his massive teeth, while his long red tail stood over the entrance and blocked my path.

I grow back at him, looking up the hills and waiting to see Leonel there, but once I don't see him and the dragon tries to close in more, I go to "the hell with it" mode and attack it.

From his shadows many Shadow Tentacles go up as if a marine monster himself was resting just below the Coral Dragon, the huge arms curving around the dragon's body and restraining his movements.

Yes! I try to bring his head down to the ground but he keeps his standing position against the firm grip of my tentacles, forcing his mouth open against the moorings.

Shit, he was strong, I couldn't keep this much longer.

I try to use the Shadow Spikes, but even when I combined with the tentacles and pierced very close to the skin the scales deflected, unscratched, my attacks.

Pissed I go all out, breath fire at his face, try to concentrate the flame in one part, even manipulate fire to cover all of his body, which only leads for it to get very, very pissed at me.

Once I tired myself out his escape against the tentacles was bound to happen.

And he knows it.

With a smile showing off his back teeth he gurgles again, bringing his enormous paw closer.

"Leo…LEO! This would be a good time for, you know, a little help?!"

He did not left me behind now did he?

The mere thought made me look back at the enormous creature in front of me, the colossal scaled paw coming closer. I dodge as long as I can, which is not much now since I brought it to a tight place.

Seriously Leonel, now would be a good time as ever you know…

I started to get really worried when suddenly his figure appears over the peak, as he screams:

"Close your eyes!"

I do as he says, waiting to be hit by the enormous paw any second, but time passes with nothing happening so I slowly open my eyes to see the dragon… paralyzed mid-motion, his paw stuck midair, his eyes black as if… dozed off or something.

Standing on my hind legs I look him up, seemly completely ignoring me. What the hell…

Then I look around us and the wall… turned into mirrors? They were reflecting us, making a circle around the dragon and taking in all his angles. In one of them there was a gigantic rune so, so complex that I couldn't even make out how many layers of runes it was made off.

"Thilgon, let's go!"

Leo comes down from the rock and walks in my direction, but I answer:

"Wait, just go? We can kill it right now!"

"Kill him when we do not need to? You were the one who said yesterday that you didn't like meaningless killing, weren't you?" He says, raising an eyebrow.

Me and my big snout.

"But it wouldn't be meaningless, we could get levels and experience…"

"You had your chance to battle against it, and finishing him off now wouldn't be right or recommended as a slight touch will awake him from this state. Let's go, your brother is waiting for you."

Damn, using the brother card now, aren't we?

"I just wanted to kill the dragon… they are up to no good I tell ya!"

"Talking from experience I assume?" He says when we start to walk again.

I said nothing at that, but a mumble escapes me:

"It was scary back then…"

"What?"

"Hum…? Nothing, but hey you took your pretty ass time going out to help me now didn't you?"

He stops them as we reached the edge of the circular lake again, looking deep into my eyes, having it a little higher now because of my Hell Form; and if wasn't from his serious expression I would have made a remark about it.

"You know, there is nothing wrong on be scared sometimes…"

But I wasn't scared!

"I wasn't… " Damn this elf language!

His gaze turns gentle as his eyes drift over the water as he says:

"You know what I'm scared of?"

I nod a no, suddenly very curious. What could make him nervous?

"I fear… failing. Of not been enough, of making mistakes, the cost of those mistakes… Is a very poisonous self-destructive fear, always present, making me work harder, better, never resting, in fear that… I'm not strong enough. Does that make sense?"

It did, kind off, but I never thought that he, being strong as he was, would fear such a… normal thing.

"No one is perfect, mistakes are part of life…and even if is just trying you always gain something out of it, even if is just experience, so don't be too hard on yourself ok?"

He smiles, nodding. "Easier said and done, but I'm up to the challenge, if you promise to stop that."

"That what?"

"Keeping the strong face around me. Nobody is strong all the time, and I would rather have you-"

He is cut off by a gurgling roar coming from behind us. We exchanged looks before jumping in the water together, accelerating and focusing on reaching the door before its gatekeeper was back.

As we shared the bubble of air again we struggle to make it go faster, me using my fire magic while Leo's uses his wind magic, creating almost a vortex of fire underwater, which looked pretty cool.

We reach the deeps at the same time that a pressure came down the water as an enormous shadow grows over us. I grab Leo with my teeth and start running in the direction of the door.

Mid-run Leo manages to hop on my back instead of staying like a puppy on my fangs. It was difficult to see underwater so I blindly follow my third eyes energy view, reaching the middle and the pillar rock structure, almost hitting my head into it.

I had no time to wonder why the energy went inside as the ground trembles behind us and sand is raised from the Coral Dragon landing. Maybe the door is on one of the sides of the pillar I quickly think without stopping to look back, circulating around the structure.

I don't think our plan of distraction worked very well, but if we didn't get to the door now we will need to make a new plan, or even have to train to try and kill this thing.

It was a strange sensation, to say the least, running underwater without been able to see anything as the sand crunched underneath my paw pads.

We only found the door because we got sucked in an enormous hole that lead inside the pillar, going up into the structure until we found a place with land and air.

We walk out of the hole with water that we came in, and looking around us it became clear why the dragon didn't want us anywhere near here; and why it was so mad right now.

This was his treasure room, with many things made of gold, silver, raw minerals and crystals, to even shining plants that somehow survived down here laying around. It was an amazing sight that we did not have enough time to appreciate as an explosion of water came from the hole behind us, giving space to an enormous arrow shaped head to appear, a pair of glazing eyes staring us down.

Shit.

He throws a strangely green stream of water at us, making me dodge between the treasures, until, behind the immense piles, we spotted a grey stone door standing alone in the middle of the circular space, a drawing of a mushroom in it.

But how do we open this?!

Well… Let just say that a few days's acting as bait gave me enough time to think about it. For instance, why the doors have a mechanism like this to begging with?

That is explained by the dungeon been a monster; it doesn't want that the creature inside it leaves, so it does its best to have then die inside to harvest their energy.

And what best way than making the doors have an opposite element mechanism in it?

For example, on the last floor all creatures had dark physical to them, so the door would only open with light magic; and as all creatures had the opposite element, it was almost impossible for them to escape, me included.

Now, this one is very simple; which element is the opposite of water?

I answer that with a fireball at the door, still running at full speed into it and praying that it really opens quickly enough that I wouldn't bash my face against it.

I receive my answer once the mushroom drawing catches on fire, slowly making an opening to the black void beyond.

Angered for losing its prey the dragon roars, not before trying to attack once more.

I can still feel the air shake with its screams even after the door closes behind us. Tired from the experience I let Leo hop off as I revert back at my normal hound form, flopping on the floor.

"Ah… that was close, let's not do that again."

"Uhm."

Leonel stays tall beside me, alert, and for once draws my attention to the place we were in. Wait, I know those green shining mushrooms, those high ceiling cave systems, those rats and bats scooting away.

We were on the first floor!

"Yes, finally we can leave!" I said, excited for some fresh air but once I try to stand I flop back on the floor, legs weak for some reason.

Leo notices immediately, wide eyes as he looks me up and down as I start to feel a numbness grow over my body. I look back at my tail then only to see it starting to grow green and dry as black spots start to blur my vision.

Shit.

That's why I really hate dragons, I think before passing out. Again.

~~~~

Ugh, this one was a big one…

…

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For those who are as eager as I for the OP MC… You won't have to wait long ;D