I Guess I'm a Dragon Now (Part 1)

Broodmother

'What the heck is that thing?!' Ergen screamed in his mind as the broodmother was even larger than he was. 'Wasn't I supposed to escape from stuff like this when I left the Land of Legends?!'

"Retreat! Get to the exit, now!" Ergen heard Sera command behind him, though he didn't get any time to run himself before the broodmother's arms suddenly shot forward and attempted to grab his wings. Thankfully he managed to coat them in ice first, making the creature's grip slip off of him before he managed to catch one of it's limbs in his jaws. After grabbing hold of it, Ergen then played in a sort of tug-of-war match while attempting to at least injure the arm, only to soon realize that the broodmother's exoskeleton was most likely harder than his teeth. The creature seemed stronger than him to as the other three arms soon grabbed different places on his body and lifted him up into the air before throwing him to the side of the room.

Smashing through several support columns, Ergen continued his destructive path until he slammed into the side of the dungeon's wall, shattering a section of it before he slid down to the wall's base. However, he was up in an instant afterwards as the broodmother let out another screech and charged towards him again. This time, Ergen had to create more ice around himself to defend himself against the three stingers that circled around the broodmother's body before striking out at him. They each hit with such force that Ergen's ice was shattered instantly, though he wasn't planning on just becoming this thing's punching bag for long before Ergen reached up and grabbed onto one of the stingers with both his front claws and teeth.

Rolling his body while keeping his hold on the stinger, Ergen pulled on the stinger with all of his strength before it thankfully tore off of the creature, causing it to shriek again before he felt the other two stingers hit him in the side. Thankfully the last of his ice armor managed to soften the blows, however it didn't stop the creature from grabbing him again with it's arms before tossing him through several more stone columns and finally towards the other side of the room. And as the columns were destroyed, parts of the ceiling were beginning to collapse, raining down small amounts of rock and other debris onto the before Ergen noticed that he was close to the exit and he quickly entered the hallway. He couldn't pierce this creatures armor and it was stronger than him as well, so the only thing that Ergen thought that he could do was run away into the cramped hallways where it would hopefully have a difficult time in following him. Though that didn't seem to be the case as Ergen immediately heard the broodmother pulling itself through the hallway behind him with it's exoskeleton scrapping against the stone floors.

"Keep moving!" Sera yelled from in front of Ergen, and he couldn't believe that the mercenaries had only made this much progress as he'd already caught up to them. Finally, the last of the mercenaries entered the first chamber that they'd come across, and Ergen was right behind them before he turned to see the broodmother enter as well. Rocks and streams of dirt continued to pour from the ceiling as the creature was so big that it was destroying the ceiling of the hallway behind it as it chased after them. And as soon as it reached the room, it burst through the rest of the already destroyed wall, letting out another screech as the mercenaries kept running towards the dungeon's exit.

As the mercenaries ran, Ergen found himself in a predicament as he was faster than the them, though he could completely trample them if he attempted to go past them. And while a normal dragon might have done just that, Ergen wasn't exactly normal as he turned around to face the broodmother once again. It was still shrieking, and Ergen used that chance to send a stream of frost breath directly into the creature's mouth where it wasn't protected by it's exoskeleton. The shrieking instantly stopped as the broodmother's mouth was frozen, but the attack didn't seem to have injured it critically as the creature started moving in a circled around Ergen. It appeared to be trying to block off his means of escape, but Ergen wasn't going to let it do that without a fight as he sprinted forward and tackled the top half of the broodmother, sending both of them tumbling across the room and through several rock columns before they eventually stopped and Ergen found himself pinned across the ground.

Kicking with his feet while dodging the stingers aimed at his head, Ergen's claws dug deeply into the less armored section of the broodmother's stomach, and it let out a cry of pain from the pain before Ergen once again aimed his frost breath into the creature's mouth. Eventually, he managed to get enough leverage to throw the broodmother off of him, sending it crashing through even more stone columns before a large section of the ceiling crashed down beside both of them.

Seeming to have caused some sort of chain reaction, more and more columns suddenly burst thanks to the extra weight that was left to them from the other missing supports, and soon the room started collapsing entirely while Ergen hurried for the exit. However, as soon as he entered the hallway, so to did the broodmother as it was still chasing him even though the dungeon was falling apart around them. And even though he was left completely in the dark without either the light from the torches or the crystals from before, Ergen ran blindly into the darkness, hitting the walls on either side of him from time to time as he accidentally leaned into them. Though even if he did hit them, the walls didn't slow Ergen down at all as even the hallway was collapsing now, threatening to bury him alive if he didn't reach the exit in time. And just as those thoughts entered his mind, a dim light ahead of him betrayed the exit,and Ergen continued his sprint until he finally managed to run outside. The mercenaries were already gathered there, and Ergen turned around to check on the tunnel only to see that the broodmother was in the process of leaving the exit as well.

Shaking, the entire dragon skull above them seemed to be crumbling away as Ergen suddenly got the idea to suddenly run forwards and block the broodmother before she could escape. He put his front claws over it's mouth, stopping it from opening up it's jaws as the broodmother desperately attempted to sting him with it's stingers. For some reason, it didn't seem to be bothered by the collapse at all, only focused on killing him while it's stingers were thankfully contained in the tunnel behind it. The only problem now was the four arms that now grabbed onto Ergen's stomach, left back leg and wings as they attempted to pull him apart. Though, unfortunately for it, a dragon wasn't that easy to break.

"The top of the dungeon is collapsing!" Rae shouted from behind, and Ergen looked up to see that she was right and that there were several giant slabs of rock headed straight for him. In that instance, Ergen gave the broodmother one final shove before releasing the creature and backing away quickly. And as he did, it responded by slowly exiting the hallway, seeming to think that it's prey had possibly given up as it opened its mouth to let out another screech. Though that screech was suddenly cut short as an enormous slab of rock suddenly fell on two of the creature's arms. The broodmother hissed out in pain while looking at the rock, though it never got the chance to free itself as boulder after boulder started slamming into it, burying it while blasting Ergen and the mercenaries with a wave of dust.

Becoming more and more buried by the second, the broodmother raised its head one last time, seeming to let out a screech full of hatred at Ergen before what looked like the majority of the stone dragon skull finally fell away from above them and the creature was suddenly lost from sight. The ground rumbled underneath Ergen's feet and the dust was so thick in the air that he could hardly breath, but still all he could do was sigh in relief s the dungeon had managed to finish off his opponent for him.