Forging The Fire

11 ⚔️ Dragon's Gambit

He immediately shoved his glasses back into his pocket and mounted on his bike. Thankfully, he forgot to turn the engine off so he didn't have to reenter the code. He twisted the accelerator and followed the dragon on the motorcycle. He followed the dragon but his motorcycle seemed to be faster than Diato's bike. Diato still managed to keep an eye on him while he drove past several close calls. He was about to be hit by a truck, but he somehow managed to dodge the accident while keeping an eye on the dragon. The dragon was running because he was now aware that he was being hunted by a Drayer. The bald guy didn't know who hit him, but the dragon did and now was running away from Diato. After a long chase, he finally left Shenezwa from Stroll Tog.

"He has left the border of Shenezwa!" Diato spoke in the ear device.

"Follow him until he's dead!" Max said, "don't go deep into the forest, and try to kill him while he's on that motorcycle"

"But I don't have my knife!" Diato replied in panic

"It's your problem now, then. We want the mission completed. And after all, you wouldn't like to fail your first mission, would you?" Max said.

"I wouldn't. I'll figure it out myself, then" Diato said.

He again focused on the dragon going ahead of him. He realised that they were now going towards the Brigands' Bog. Max told him not to go into the deep forest and that was the only thing he was doing. He realised and felt the need to do something before they reached there. He pulled out his bow and an arrow from his quiver. With only one hand, he readied the bow and arrow. Now he only had to pull and let go using the other hand which would take about a second.

Diato thought of hitting the arrow on the dragon's motorcycle's back tyre, so that he wouldn't go further. He stabilized his steering handle and used his right hand to shoot the arrow. As the arrow left the string of the bow, Diato felt like the bike was losing its balance, and he could fall any minute now. He quickly let go of his bow and held the handle tightly with both of his hands.

He realised that it wouldn't take long for the bow to disappear behind him because of the speed he was going in. Sixty Kilometers per hour is not considered slow, after all. He realised that he had to now depend on his club now. And he can't keep losing his weapons like this. He decided that he would collect all of his dropped weapons once he finishes his mission. Maybe the knife would be easy but he was sure it was hard to find the bow in the open fields. It would be like a needle in a hay stack. Because the bow was too small for this large plain area to be noticed immediately on the first try. He decided he'd worry about that later as he had a bigger problem now.

He hit the brakes as hard as he could but that wasn't enough. He saw the dragon lying on the ground in its human form, with the motorcycle with an arrow in its back tyre. Diato's bike hit the dragon's motorcycle. Diato couldn't hit brakes in time and it resulted in a crash. Diato found himself lying on the ground.

His eyes slowly grew wide, as he perceived that he wasn't unconscious. It was just a little crash. He got back up on his feet. He saw the dragon standing firmly in front of him. He glanced at the crashed bikes. He immediately pulled out his metal club from his bike. Diato was ready to fight him and it seemed like the dragon was waiting for it to happen for eternity.

"Now, Nothing can stop my wings from expanding!" The dragon spoke.

Diato realised that the Dragon brought him here to fight him because he wouldn't be able to transform without his wings banging itself everywhere. Diato now realised that the dragon lured him to the brigand's bog to have a good fight. And he hadn't seen any dragon this brave who takes his hunter at a place to fight. He was a little bit scared but also pretty confident. He had killed two dragons at the final selection after all. Most of the people didn't even encounter one.

Diato's grasp on the metal club tightened, as he looked at the dragon. The dragon's eyes turned orange: his pupils turned from round to an oval shape, similar to a cat's pupil. The Dragon's shirt slowly tore itself apart from behind as his wings popped out. His crimson wings with scales shimmering in raw sunlight. The dragon was firm. And so was Diato.

The dragon deeply exhaled his powerful dragon breath at Diato. Diato rolled on his back to the side and dodged the fire. Diato dashed towards the dragon with his metal club aimed for the dragon's head. He jumped as he got close enough to the dragon. But the dragon was way too quick than he expected. Diato thought that the dragons at the final selection would be similar to the dragons in the city. But he couldn't be more wrong. The weakest of the dragons were captured for the final selection to reduce the death rate of new drayers.

The man grabbed the club with his bare hands. He didn't seem to care about the spikes tearing his skin apart. Orange blood slipped down his arm as he charged up his fist with fire and aimed it at Diato. Diato knew it was the end for him. The clenched fist hit Diato's jaw. He felt like his jaw was crushed. He fell down on the ground.

He again got back to his feet. This time, he was prepared to let himself all out. He knew he would be defeated if he held back anymore. He tightened his grip on the hilt of the club and again raced his legs towards the bald man. The half transformed bald dragon man shot fireballs from his palm. The fire balls cut through the air to reach Diato. Diato was not going to be defeated this time. He hit the spikes of the club on the fireballs to crush them mid air. The fireballs' pieces fell on the ground as Diato smacked his club on the Dragon's neck.

Blood spattered around the ground and on the club as the man's head separated from his body. The skin of his neck was torn apart by Diato. His head went flying in the sky. As the head without the body rotated in the air, Diato took a deep breath of satisfaction. He knew he had defeated the dragon. If defeating the least ranked dragon is this hard... How hard would it be to rank up? And how powerful must the B-Ranked or A-Ranked dragons be? Diato thought. As he glanced back at the head still in the sky, falling down.

He could feel the tickling of victory in his heavily pounding heart, and slightly aching brain. He could feel the painful slits fading back to tranquil painlessness. He knew that he had won. But he couldn't be more wrong. The head - still in the air - regenerated its body. A large lump of flesh grew out of the neck. In no time, hands and legs popped out of the naked body. The body with clothes was still lying down in front of Diato. Wings and a long tail also popped out of his bare skin. His wings flapped in the air to keep him from falling.

Surprisingly, the wings were flapping very slowly which made Diato wonder if he was even flying with the wings or with something else. Diato's eyes grew wide as he swallowed his drool of defeat. He knew he didn't win. He was shocked to see the dragon alive. The inscrutable revival of the dragon was breathtaking. Diato sensed the smell of lamentation, as he saw the dragon regenerate and come back to life.

The dragon's wings flapped in the air. Diato saw the wings and wondered if there were bones in those wings. Because they were too flexible to have bones. Diato swallowed his drool in dismay. The dragon was alive and Diato didn't learn how to kill flying dragons. Maybe he did, but he didn't remember it at the right time. The song Bella Ciao kept playing on repeat in his head as he tried to shut his brain up and focus on getting out alive. Because he forgot that dragons could fly too. The city was left behind but he could still feel the warmth. It made him dizzy. He was tired. He had stolen a book... Read an interesting first chapter... Left for his first mission in excitement... Hit the wrong guy... Chased the dragon down the city... And now he is about to be defeated.