A bright red light fills the massive space we have entered. The place is quite empty for the most part, except for some bony remains of various things scattered everywhere. A grotesque scenery, but not nearly enough to scare us anymore.

  Finally, a solid distance away from us, on the other side of the big space, glitters a golden hoard. Coins, jewelry, anything valuable you can imagine. It’s so large we cannot even see the end of it. Truly a dragon’s treasure, just like in old fairy tales and legends.

  To our right, next to the large hoard, there’s a large fire burning, showering the golden artifacts with light that is then reflected into the whole place, making it seem like there are some lights switched on. A truly beautiful scenery, if not for the owner lying on top of the treasure.

  A massive creature of green colour, with its skin covered by scales, enormous claws and - most importantly - the majestic wings. Even though they are my kin, I will never get tired of this sight, especially considering how rare it is to come across one of us. There are barely any more dragons in all of Nine Worlds.

  This dragon is dangerous. I sense an aura of such a crushing level that I’m getting a headache from just being close to it. If this thing went rampant, the entire Mortal realm would turn into a wasteland.

  There is no way I can defeat this thing in a battle. We should turn around and run as fast as we can-!

  Too late. The monster wakes up and stares at me with its golden eyes. We spend several seconds in this stalemate, staring at each other without even the slightest bit of motion. I could swear even my heart had stopped beating for a moment there.

  Gathering up whatever is left of my courage, I pull a ring out of my pocket. The golden accessory bears a dragon engraving on it, the emblem of house Pendragon, the Dragon King’s family. I hold it as close to the dragon as I can and speak out loud:

  ‘You are in the presence of your sovereign, mighty one! Greeting me while lying down is a token of disrespect.’

  It raises its head and then gets up with an angry look. A growl echoes through the entire place.

  ‘I have come here searching for the Shards of Eternity! It has been known to me that one is in your possession. I ask of you with utmost respect to give it to me.’

  Inhaling lots of air from the room, the dragon then spreads its wings and roars at me so loud that it would rupture the eardrums of an ordinary person. Judging by the voice, the male dragon is apparently trying to scare me with his pose, looking as if ready to strike me down.

  Did he perhaps not understand me? Or is he intentionally ignoring my request?

  Perhaps this thing before me is a wild dragon, one of our older brethren that have not learned any languages nor developed the ability to speak whatsoever? If so, this is going to get much worse than I had hoped.

  Violence is inevitable.

  My doubts are cleared out by his next move - he immediately starts inhaling air into his mouth again, preparing to burn us with his fiery breath.

  ‘Sun?’ I hear in almost a crying tone from behind me.

  ‘Hide, Aleiana! Quickly, run!’

  Just after I shout at her, the dragon breathes a massive wave of flames towards us. The elven girl screams in terror and begins to run back to where we came from. I turn to face the incoming attack.

  Reaching out my hand, I hold the flames away from my body so that it doesn’t cause me nor my belonging any harm. The heat of this thing is strong enough to make even me feel its warmth. I’m pretty sure it could melt down steel weapons and armour with ease, if not even more heat-resistant materials.

  Once the wave subsides, I waste no time and immediately retaliate - Gathering up a large amount of mana, I give it the shape of several lightning bolts and throw them at the giant monster.

  Seemingly not expecting me to survive his flames, he eats the attack full force, roaring in pain. Despite his natural resistance to magic of all forms, there is an exception to that - Dragon magics.

  It’s kind of ironic that our own magic is our weakest point, however other species have obtained the knowledge necessary to cast spells of this type, too. Many titans, specifically their priests and thaumaturgists, have used these magics to slay many dragons, both wild and intelligent, before. A selected few mortals have been taught this by their ancestors, referring to them as ‘Dragon slayers’ for their sworn duty was to get the world rid of our kin.

  Fuming with rage, my foe roars and then tries breathing fire at me again, much to the same outcome. Seeing the same simple pattern, I hastily chant another lightning strike to hurt the enemy furt-!

  The thick cloud of flames is suddenly pierced by the dragon’s massive tail, hitting me from the side and launching me away. Overwhelmed by the sheer force of that blow, I crash into the rocky wall before even realising what exactly happened.

  ‘Sunamar!!’ I can hear a scream faintly.

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  My whole body screams in pain and I instantly vomit some fluids mixed with my blood. I can’t properly breathe, most of, if not all, of my ribs must be broken. Trying to look up and face my opponent again, my head feels dizzy as I cannot see very well.

  Down on my knees, probably the only part of my body functioning properly is my left arm. Shaking like crazy from the shock and surprise, I need to react somehow before he finishes me off.

  Move. Move, damn it!

  No matter how hard I try, my body needs a little more time to regenerate to the point where I can at least stand up and walk. All I can do is watch the dragon close in on me with the intention of wrapping this up.

  I can’t just become dragon food here! Not today, not tomorrow. My quest has barely started here, I do not have the right to back down just yet.

  ‘Accel…erate…three!’

  As I barely manage to spit the incantation out, my entire body enters an accelerated state. Thankfully I have learned the Time magic, allowing me to slow down or speed up everything happening around me. Right now, I’m using it to make my body function three times as fast, speeding up the regeneration process significantly.

  The nausea immediately gets even stronger, making me vomit again. My body almost instantly heals up to a state in which I can move, allowing me to evade the monster’s claws trying to tear me into little pieces.

  Before he realises it, I use my Blink spell to get onto his back and, clenching my fist, I channel all the magic I can in this state and hit the dragon’s rear with it.

  Finally releasing the Accelerate in order to save mana for my next spell, I can finally breathe freely. It seems most of my wounds have healed to the point where they won’t limit my combat capability anymore, although the blood loss is already quite significant.

  This fight needs to end with one or two more strikes, otherwise I’m going to die.

  While trying to figure out a good battle plan, I feel as if something pats my shoulder, asking for attention. I gasp. Is there really no other way?

  As terrible as this situation is, I had high hopes that there might be a way to finish this quickly enough on my own, however, seeing how much damage I took because of underestimating my opponent, there is no time for a second chance.

  ‘Please, help me this time,’ I whisper as I pull the black blade on my back from its sheath.

  interlude

  ‘...Quickly, run!’ a loud scream keeps echoing in my head as I run. Faster, faster, faster! I need to find shelter somewhere!

  Right off the start, the dragon attacks us with a fiery breath strong enough to turn an entire army into ash, leaving not even bones behind. I know Sun is strong, but even he cannot get out of this unharmed, right? What am I supposed to do now?

  Panic takes complete control of me as I hide in the small crevice we entered from.

  Feeling safe enough, I take a quick peek into the large room to see what is happening.

  Sunamar’s holding off yet another wall of fire flying in our direction, seemingly effortlessly. He truly is on a whole different level compared to me or any of the dragon hunters we met earlier.

  Now that I can see him fighting with an evenly-matched opponent, I finally realise how much he resembles his father, Kretiros. You cannot hide your connection to a genius mage like he was, no matter how hard you try.

  However, suddenly the beast’s tail appears from the flames and strikes my companion into his side, sending him flying.

  ‘Sunamar!!’ I scream before I even realise it. Fortunately, the dragon doesn’t pay me any attention, but that is not the problem right now.

  Is he even alive? Taking a blow of this magnitude would kill even a giant, let alone such a fragile young man! I can very faintly hear some sounds like vomiting as he’s violently shaking. The damage from that blow might be a bit too much, even for him.

  As the monster closes in on him, the mage then appears on its back, as if teleporting around. I can barely even keep up with what is happening, let alone contribute to the effort in any way.

  The dragon roars and bends in pain from the blow to its rear and, shortly after, the entire place is filled with an aura of such vile that it makes me feel sick. Taking a closer look, I can see it.

  Sunamar has pulled out his Godsword.

  He stands up and grips the sword tightly in his left hand, then proceeds to run all the way to the dragon’s tail, cutting its back along the way. A wave of blood instantly bursts out of the long cut, making the beast go into a mindless rage.

  It shakes him off and flails its deadly tail at him once more. One more hit like that and death is certain, even for someone as strong as Sunamar.

  This time, however, the outcome is quite the opposite. Rather than the mage being hurt, his pitch black sword cuts through the spikes on the creature’s tail, almost severing the whole thing from the rest of its body.

  The beast retreats with the wounded part, following up with its razor-sharp claws. In a similar fashion, the Godsword easily breaks the deadly weapon and proceeds to cut off two of the dragon’s fingers. A pained roar of such magnitude that it makes the whole place tremble resounds in here.

  Making use of the opening, Sunamar then charges forward, towards the now unprotected chest of the beast. A quick slash opens it, creating a large pool of hot blood underneath.

  Running up all the way to its rear once more, he cuts the monster in several places before he stops at its nape.

  The black blade suddenly starts glowing in similar colour as the artifact itself and, like a knife cutting butter, decapitates the dragon.

  interlude out

  The blood inside me feels as if it's boiling like hot water. At first, I felt the urge to breathe heavily to vent the heat out, but then I realized there is no need. As if the feeling is nothing but an illusion.

  In front of me appears a nauseating scenery - the dragon’s corpse, covered in countless cuts and with its head severed from the rest of the body, lying in a large pool of blood.

  Exarian did it. As soon as my thoughts get on the sword in my hands, I sheathe it back as fast as I possibly could. The insatiable feeling of anger and hatred suddenly fades away and I am left there, exhausted, but victorious.

  Wounded, but alive.

  What about Aleiana? Is she all right? I start turning around searching for anything that might even resemble the elven beauty that has been my travel companion these past few days.

  There! I can see her figure appearing out of the small crevice that we used to enter the heart of the mountain, running towards me.

  Thank the Seven, she’s unharmed. As relief fills up my mind, I lose all the strength in my legs and collapse on the ground.