Hel hadn’t lied. It wasn’t very long before they found a gaping mouth in the mountain. The entrance ate the light and dissolved it into darkness through a gateway large enough for a few dragons to enter and exit.

They had to wonder how it was never found before but the answer to that question was the clouds that lay at their feet. Balaz had to quickly turn from the sight and hold his stomach.

“Why couldn’t the dragon be underground or something?” He said as he took a deep breath. 

“Because these beasts like to be awkward,” Ash said pulling her hammer from her back and marching into the tunnel.  

Ethel and Balaz just glanced at each other before following the Dragon Slayer into the lair. They allowed a bit of distance between them and Ash, if only so they didn't get in the woman's way when the dragon appeared but as the light leaked away they closed that gap slightly so that fire Balaz conjured could light Ash's way as well.

“Ethel,” Bal whispered, not wanting to alert any scaly ears to their presence. 

“What?" Ethel responded, quietly.

“I know you are very…dedicated with your duty, but I must ask you let me hold onto the stone until we get back to the kingdom.” He saw her eyes narrow in distrust and her mouth open to start talking so he quickly added, “To suppress its power. I’ll let you take it back to the vault and I’ll put the necessary seals on it there; I just ask that you allow me to look after it, for now.” 

After a few moments, Ethel took her eyes off him and pulled them forward.

“Fine.” She agreed reluctantly. 

She didn't like it but she saw Balaz as at least more trustworthy than their runaway thief. He had a chance to kill The King and didn’t, so at least she knew his want to stop the stone’s power was genuine. 

The cave wasn’t too deep so soon the cavern opened up. With their minimal light source, it should have been hard to see the whole cavern but heaps and heaps of shining metal reflected Balaz's fire and sprinkled stars over the grey rock faces. 

Once they had adjusted Balaz and Ethel were taken back by the sheer amount of both object valuables and knowledge valuables that littered the ground. Jewels and gold but also books and scrolls, almost anything that wasn't living but could class as valuable sat in the mountains that probably equalled the wealth of multiple countries.

Ash’s eyes ignored it all. 

Her deep brown eyes fixed on the black scaled form that was starting to rouse from its sleep.

“How are we going to find the stone in all this?” Ethel questioned, pulling her sword and gun ready for a fight as the blood moons of the dragon's eyes became full.

“You two focus on that,” Ash said, smiling, “The scaly magpie is mine.”

Ash darted forward, hammer raised, as the groggy dragon was lazily getting to its feet. 

“You should-“ 

Balaz was about to say Ethel should back Ash up but the Dragon Slayer jumped up, slamming back down with an electrically charged hammerhead. 

The dragon had just woken up, it was trying to dodge but it was too slow, the hammer ploughed into the dragon’s jaw with a crack that for a moment made Ethel and Ash think of thunder but the roar that followed, the panicked scrambling of the dragon and the fact that it couldn't seem to close its jaw told them exactly what it was. 

Ash had broken its jaw.

The dragon's eyes narrowed, its slit pupil barely visible as its wonky jaw showed off rows of razor teeth and gave a clear view of the inferno it was breathing in. 

Ash charged the creature, ready for another blow as it spewed fire but it was far from the jet of flame it had managed to conjure before. The fire shot out in bursts, flying around in random directions and made the dragon slayer skid to a halt and reluctantly take her eyes off her prey so she could predict the path of the fireballs and dodge. 

Balaz conjured his black tinted shield and pulled Ethel behind it as well through the smaller knight's eyes darted around the room trying to find an opening. 

She learned around the shield, shoving off Balaz's attempted to keep her covered and level her pistol, aiming for the dragon's eye. 

Ash acted first though. 

After she managed to find a clear spot from the fire she pulled her hammer back and aimed her handle at the dragon's eye also. With the flick of another switch on her handle a blade shot out the end of the hammer. It whistled through the air, skidding on the dragon's scales and hitting true to its mark.

The dragon reeled, shaking its head in a desperate attempt to dislodge the blade but unable to close its jaws, more flames fired from its mouth in even more sporadic directions. 

"You know, I'm not sure she needs our help," Balaz commented, moving his shield up as fire rained down on them.

Ethel was forced to duck under his shield also. 

"I doubt it too but I'm read just encase." Ethel glared up.

Ash's next charge was swift but patient. She was making a beeline for one of it's stronger back legs but would make sure to take glances up and change direction to avoid any direct hits from uncontrolled fireballs. A few scraped so close Ethel and Balaz worried but they could only guess, considering what she was, that maybe Ash had a higher tolerance to the heat or her armour had greater heat resistance.

Pulling her electrified hammer back she struck the Dragon's back leg in a drive-by swing carrying on under it as the dragon fell. It opened its wings to try catch itself or escape but its wings got too close to the ground. 

Ash turned on her heel and slammed her hammer into the joint on its body that led to its wing and with another pained roar, what was left of its fire breath dribbling from its mouth the dragon's wing fell limp its body following, its balance was lost.

"Is it bad I actually feel sorry for it..." Balaz muttered. 

Ethel said nothing because all that was going through her head was to never, never piss off a dragon slayer. 

Ash didn't stop there. She'd taken a few steps back to make sure the dragon didn't land on her but as soon as it was on the ground she ran onto its body, jumped up and brought the hammer down onto its head.

There was another thunderous crack and then, silence. 

No roar of pain, not a single twitch. The dragon was defeated. 

Balaz's conjured shield faded away as he and Ethel stared baffled. 

Ash took a triumphant deep breath, pulling her hammer back with a glow of pride. Eventually, she realised just how quiet it was and looked over at the knight and mage who were still trying to get their head around the incredible show of prowess they just witnessed. 

"It can't be that surprising," Ash commented as she dismounted the dragon's corpse, "If I couldn't do this, I wouldn't really be able to call myself a dragon slayer."

"I er..." Balaz struggled, "I had heard rumours that your order were expected to be able to take out dragon single-handedly but...I can't say I believed that until now."

Ethel nodded dumbly.

Ash frowned at them, "I have to say I find it quite insulting you didn't think I could do it on my own." 

"It's nothing personal Sir Prohito it's just... I'm not sure any of my knights could do what you just did." Ethel managed to find some words.

"Well, I'm not one of your knights." She shook her head, "What about the stone?" she brought them onto the task at hand.

“R-right.” Balaz shook his head also and remembered why they were here “There are a few powerful relics here but none as powerful as that stone. In other words, I can sense it. It shouldn’t take long to find.” 

“Good,” Ash approved, going to the dragon so she could pull the blade she shot at it out of it's eye.

“We’ll leave it to you then.” Ethel nodded and Balaz walked into the horde trying to avoid the corpse and fight off any disappointment at the burning documents in the piles. 

As promised it only took him a few minutes, during the time Ash had successfully cleaned and reinstalled the blade back into the handle of her hammer and Ethel had picked up a few gold and valuables to give to the king when they returned as an apology for losing Hel.