Hellfire - A Dragon's Lifestory (Prologue)

Chap. 07 - "Purgatory Dragon"

We were chasing a demon and tried to take it down, but... now we're lost in this cave. The demon ran away to a cave under a volcano that erupted a few years ago. The eruption was reported to have been only half a day. The volcano suddenly stopped erupting after that.

Still, what a crazy thing to happen. The volcanic eruption only lasted half a day? And, it suddenly stopped afterwards? I find it odd.

"Arron, over here. There's ice on the ground, and on the walls. It must've went this way."

The girl with me is named Philia. She's an experienced swordswoman and she was once already asked to become the new instructor in a school that teaches swordsmanship. But, she refused the offer. She says that she'd rather continue her life as an adventurer until the very end.

Philia is a childhood friend of mine. We were competitors when we just started out on being adventurers. So we decided to be be in a different party. Years have already passed since then, and now that we're experienced adventurers, we've been tasked to hunt down this certain demon that's been spotted in a nearby village.

The demon had already eaten a child before we received the job request. Me and Philia just happened to bump into each other in the adventurer's guild. We decided to take this mission as a way of going back to old times again.

Our first mission together was hunting down a monster. And here we are now... hunting down a demon. With our skills, we should be fine, but... I still worry at times.

We heard a stream of water at the end of the path. Philia carefully and cautiously looked for any dangers ahead. It looked like she saw something and wants me to come over to her since she waved her hand at me. She looked surprised.

I also looked to see for myself what she saw, and... I couldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. A terrifyingly large crocodile with overgrown teeth and sharp spines sticking out on its tail is... drinking water with a young cockatrice?! And not just any cockatrice... that thing has orange feathers and has a chain wrapped around its neck.

Arron(whisper): "Philia... this is..."

Philia(whisper): "I know... beautiful, right?"

Arron(whisper): "Hah?"

Ah... I forgot that she's into these kinds of things. She said it gave off some kind of romantic vibe or something. I don't really know what that's all about. Probably a girl thing. I remember she went crazy and assaulted a bunch of hunters who were chasing a monster wolf even though it was only trying to protect its child. Those hunters were never heard from again.

Philia(whisper): "Haa~ah... This is nature in its finest."

I don't think this has anything to do with nature at all. The size of that crocodile is way too abnormal. And, cockatrice usually prey on crocodiles, so... seeing them together like this... yeah... I'm convinced. This has nothing to do with nature at all.

Philia(whisper): "Come on, Arron. Let's not get in their way."

Arron(whisper): "Oh... right."

It's best not to fight against something like that. Though, I'm pretty sure with our skills, we can handle that thing, but that's not what we came here for. We'd just be wasting our energy.

Philia(whisper): "Up ahead. There's a light."

We both entered cautiously like before. It seems we've entered a place where there's a hole in the ceiling since there's light coming out of it. There's a really tall rock tower right where the light is coming down onto. There's also water surrounding the rock tower. What is this place?

While thinking about all that, I saw something move. Philia saw it too. It's... a dragon?! It's small, but there's no mistaking it. I've seen baby dragons before and they still pack a punch, but there's something different about this one. It has small wings, long slender tail, sharp claws on all four limbs, black scales, and piercing red eyes. Hang on... I know what dragon this is.

I casually reveal myself and walk towards the dragon. Philia tried to stop me, but I shoved her off. The dragon looks up at me. It sure is brave not to run away after seeing me. Or is it because it's underestimating me? I grab on to my scythe that I carried behind me and held it upwards.

Arron: "I have nothing against you, but... seeing as you're a Purgatory Dragon, don't take this too personally. Just stay there... and die!"

I heavily swing down my scythe and aimed it at the dragon's head.