Chương 30: Book 2 Chapter Twenty-Seven: Dragon Hunters

TWENTY-SEVEN"Only that deep?" Roan asked as he pushed the small bundle of delicate explosives into the ground.

"That's what she said," someone said reflexively. Roan paused, his hands filled with enough explosive material to turn them all into nothing more than charred bones. Taoya's snort of amusement wasn't helping.

"I think we have to worry about the other way around. We need it to be shallow enough that our bolt of fire hits it," Taoya finally said. Roan grunted and finished burying the caches of explosives, gently pushing loose soil over it. They were far from the cave, near a natural clearing where they'd decided they'd kill the dragon. Taoya had sent others to seed the route with small explosives and mark the trail they'd need to follow.

"Line the trees and get ready. We have ten minutes before the sun sets and the dragon should start leaving its cave," Taoya ordered, pointing to the line of trees on the edge of the forest. In the distance there was a dull boom of a detonation. Everyone froze and Taoya grimaced. The momentary freeze ended as everyone raced to their spots. Roan followed right after them scaling his tree with ease and sitting on the branches, hidden from casual sight.

Taoya ran toward the explosions, he was the final leg of the relay that would take the dragon into the ambush spot." Nine of us, eight if the shaman staff shooter exhausts himself firing. Much stronger than we were even a few days ago, but is it going to be enough to kill the dragon?" Roan couldn't help but feel pessimistic about their chances. When Taoya had first fought the beast it had been nearly pointless as it outhealed all the damage heaped on it.

That the corruption in it would have taken further root was without a doubt." Bloodline will be able to have some fun at least. Will get to see if my enchantments are worth a shit." Roan had to shift again when a second explosion sounded closer. There would be two more before Taoya took over. Time moved slowly, watching the sun sink lower below the horizon. Sweat rolled down his back, burned his eyes, his beat hammering in his chest, a mix of excitement and nerves." Kill the false dragon and consume its mana core."

The voice was filled with anger and hunger and it shadowed Roan's thoughts. He wanted to see the beast dead because it was the challenge he hadn't been able to overcome. That voice that had been whispering to him since he'd entered the tower wanted the dragon dead in the way a pair of apex predators couldn't stand each other in their territory." What will that do?" Roan asked. Silence was his only response, the voice only speaking when it wished to.

A sense of irritation washed over him as he thought of the voice, wondering if he could purge it with his newfound bloodline." Relax. I am simply a passenger with you to the higher levels. Rely on my experience and knowledge." The voice whispered to him instantly. Roan stiffened as he realized he couldn't plan with this creature in his mind. It knew his thoughts the moment he had them." You accepted the deal before you entered the tower. Just stay alive and kill this false creature and I shall continue to aid you."

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Another explosion and then, less than a minute later, the last one. It was close enough that Roan could see the flash of light through the trees. A screamed pain of rage shook the air as the ground began to tremble. Roan's breath tightened as he saw the blue-lightning of Taoya's form as he shot across the ambush site in a blur. Trees came crashing down as the dragon barged into the clearing, just moments after Taoya.

It was just as large as it had been the last time that Roan had seen it. Fifteen feet tall and thirty long, six legs that trampled the world as it charged forward. Its long neck swung back and forth, breaking apart trees like they were kindling. Tusks dripped with some foul black gunk and its bottom two eyes were both cloudy white. Where there had been only a small tumor on its middle leg had become a massive stretch of blackened, bulging skin that writhed.

From its armpit all the way back to the base of its spine it was covered in pulsing pustules of black tumors. Roan hardly had time to stare at it before the world turned white. The blast slapped him against the trunk like a petulant god swiping away a mistake. His ears rang, vision blurry, he slowly pushed himself up, legs straddling the branch. He'd kept his polearm in hand, but he felt weak as he looked up to stare at the remnants of the dragon.

Tears formed in his eyes as he blinked them rapidly, trying to focus even with the loud concussive ringing in his ears. The dragon wasn't much more than pieces of blood meat, limbs held together by the barest of ligaments and strands of muscle. Bone jutted from its injured body, bloody white spears that rose into the sky like a forest. Roan slipped free of the tree branch and landed with a grunt, his knees bending painfully stiff. He shook his head, trying to shake free the loud ringing and double images.

Others landed around him, those who had recovered nearly as fast as he had." Where's Taoya? He was closest to the blast." There was nothing around the dragon now aside from the broken dragon, writhing on the ground. A crater had been formed where the explosive had gone off, though the majority of the dragon had slumped inside of it.

"I'm fine. Just a little scorched," Taoya said, jogging out of the woods to the side. His clothes were singed and the lightning around him was the thickest that Roan had ever seen so far. It was like a suit of living armor around him, the excess energy pouring off of him.

"How's it not dead?" Roan asked, staring down at the bloody ruins of the creature. Even as he watched pieces of it were reknitting together, strands of bloody muscle clutching at bone and dragging it back into place.

"Kill it!" Taoya yelled, leaping forth in a burst of motion that sent a cloud of dirt and dust up from the force of his leap. The man hung perched in the air for a second above the ruined dragon. A comet of blue light that descended with the repurposed power of the bomb they'd just set off. Roan was shoved backward by the backblast as Taoya hit the dragon dead center. Bits of the creature's body blew in every direction as the remnants of the dragon were dispersed under the single attack.

A dust cloud rose up and then fell over them, coughing and choking ensued. Roan waved his hand in front of him, pushing the dust away. He tripped over a piece of something, looked down and grimaced as he saw a long dragon claw under his foot." Core might not have survived that." All Roan got was a dismissive feeling from his passenger. He reached the edge of the crater, the dirt lip collapsing under his feet when he stopped to look down at the aftermath.

Taoya stood slumped in the middle of the crater, mud sliding down toward him. The dragon had popped like an overfilled balloon and the remnants of its innards coated the entire craterside. Roan coughed and wiped at his eyes again, trying to get the dust out of them. With slightly clearer eyes he saw that the mud wasn't mud. It was black, oozing mass. It grabbed every piece of the dragon, scales, talons, teeth, strands of muscles, and dragged them back down to the bottom of the crater.

Not far from Taoya was a lump in the dirt, the size of his fist, covered in more of the black ooze. Everything was headed toward it, bits of dragon stitching itself together around the lump." That's the core. Purify it."