Hellfire - A Dragon's Lifestory (Prologue)

Chap. 03 - "Competition"

Flying faster than the fastest bats in the cave, a tremendously large bat makes his way through cave holes and open crevices with impressive speed and maneuverability. He does all this while carrying a heavy carcass with its feet. Adding to this along the already built-in echolocation that bats naturally already have, he can see where he's going, what he's about to bump into, and what's ahead of him with just sound alone, but his level of echolocation surpasses that of normal bats. He can adjust its frequency, widen its range, or if he really tries hard enough, he can even hear a heartbeat that's half a kilometer away! Assuming there's little to no interference.

The bat arrives at a very wide space inside the cave. There's a tall rock tower which extends to the ceiling and it's surrounded by water. The rock tower points to a hole in the ceiling and there is a tiny light coming out of the hole. It is thought to be connected to the outside. That light makes the dark cave bright and the water really sparkles beautifully when the light is at its brightest.

A small black dragon lies on top of the rock tower. It seems to be sleeping. The bat flies over to him and lands the carcass directly on top of him. That sure made the dragon wake up. The smell of meat!

"Gaah! H-hey! Who did that?!"

"Ha ha ha ha ha!!! Wakey-wakey, sleepyhead!"

"Garg! I knew it was you all along!"

Garg: "No, you didn't. You even asked who I was. Ha ha ha! What a laugh! You should've seen the look on your face! Ha ha ha ha!!"

Garg. The dragon gave him that name since he grew big from ingesting dragon blood, including the egg membrane. Since he started to look more like a gargoyle, the dragon gave him the name "Garg".

"Grrr... alright, alright, you had your fun. So, where are the others?"

Garg lands next to the dragon.

Garg: "Dunno. But, who cares~ I got here first! And, I dare say I caught the largest prey out of all us."

"The largest prey, you say?"

A large fiery salamander enters the cave. Its whole body was burning brightly from its elbows, its frills, its knees, and even the tip of its tail. Its scales are orange, and its eyes are yellow. From its mouth, the salamander drops an unbelievably huge fish.

"Now, then. Who did you say brought the largest prey out of all of us again?"

Garg: "Kuh... Nevermind."

"Yeah. I thought so."

The dragon went down from the rock tower and went near the salamander.

"So, Mander. You finished hunting as well?"

Mander: "Sure did, Boss. And, I may not have been the first to return, but I'm definitely the one who brought the largest prey out of the three of us."

"Haha! Well, let's just wait and see if Croc brings in anything bigger."

Mander: "Doubt it."

Garg: "Hah! That's what I thought until you showed up! Better get surprised as to what that big boy is gonna bring in soon."

Mander: "Rmmmph..."

The ground started to shake as if something is headed their way.

Garg: "Oh. Speak of the devil. Here comes..."

A humongous earthworm appeared from the cave wall.

Garg: "... Croc?"

The earthworm starts wrecking the place up. Garg flew to the ceiling, Mander created a wall of fire around him, and the dragon was inside the wall of fire along with him.

Mander: "I'm gonna go ahead and assume that Croc brought him here."

Garg: "Uh-huh. You got that right."

Mander: "That overgrown lizard..."

Croc showed up from the hole where the earthworm appeared. He was a very large crocodile to begin with. But ever since he ingested the dragon tail, and the rusty egg membrane, his size grew exponentially. He definitely has the strongest bite force out of all of them. But other than his size, he hasn't shown any other distinction or obtaining any kind of special ability after getting bigger. Although his tail is spikier and his muscles are bulkier than before.

Croc: "I see everyone is here. Was I the last one?"

Mander: "Yeah, you are."

Garg: "Ha ha! See? What'd I say? Told ya you'd be surprised at what the big boy brings when he gets here."

Mander grinds his teeth from his words.

"So, Croc. Mind telling us why you brought that thing here fresh?"

Croc: "Sorry, Boss. It seemed to have gotten away."

The earthworm continues to rage in a frenzy. There's a large bite mark on its skin with some teeth attached to it.

"Say, Croc... did you already take a bit out of that thing? Is that your teeth on there?"

Croc: "Yes. I already bit it once. And I purposely pulled those teeth off of me while I was biting at it since I saw it as a good chance to remove my bad teeth."

Mander: "Who knew crocodiles actually care for their teeth! ... Or is it just you, Croc?"

Croc: "I wouldn't know."

"Say, want me to handle that thing for you?"

Croc: "Ah. No need. I got it."

Croc moves in close to the earthworm. And with one snap of his jaw, it got ripped apart. That one snap was also enough to create a force which blew off Mander's wall of fire.

Mander: "Hey!"

Croc spat out the earthworm's body part from his mouth.

Croc: "My bad."

The earthworm's ripped-in-half body still wriggled on the ground.

"Well, Croc. At least you tried. Let me take care of this."

Mander: "Now, hold on a second, Boss. If you use your fire on that thing, you'd just burn its ash into nothingness. Let my flames do the killing."

"Okay, then. Suit yourself."

Mander shoots fire out of his mouth. The earthworm, while still wriggling, is burned alive. It's kind of slow. It's been a while already and it's still wriggling after being burned alive.

"Mander, your flames are too slow. I told you to leave this to me."

Mander: "Ah, wait! It's almost done!"

The dragon shoots scorching red and black flames at the earthworm. But it seems like he shot too much. His fire created an explosion that melted the cave walls and ceilings to goo and there was nothing left of the earthworm apart from the tiny piece that Croc spat out before.

Croc shielded Garg and Mander from the explosion and none of them were hurt.

Mander: "And... there goes our lunch. Way to go, Boss."

"Guuh... Well... let's make do with the ones you two brought."

Garg: "Ha ha! Funny thing, though... The prey I brought got burned by your flames halfway through. Only less than half remains from it!"

"...... Mander... how's the one you brought?"

Mander: "Heh. Still intact, of course."

"Then, hand it all over to me... I'm hungry."

Mander: "What?! Hey, this is my game! I should have the largest part of it!"

"Well, I'm the boss, so you best listen to me!"

Garg: "I want some too!"

Croc: "I'll just look for another one."

The three continue to bicker over the last bit of fish that Mander brought while Croc left them be.