Chapter 6

I had never heard a real dragon’s rawr. You hear them in movies and TV shows, and you would think, since this is a game, it would be similar. 

It was not. 

The rawr this dragon made was deep. It shook the mountain that surrounded us and made me feel nauseous.

Fenton gripped my hand and buried his head into my side, trying to cover his ears. 

“Run!" he screamed, “Run now!" Fenton yelled so loud over the rawr, but we could barely hear him. 

I didn't need to be told twice though. I dropped the torch, pulled him along, and ushered Kendrick and the other soldier back down the tunnel where we came. 

We ran into the darkness at full speed, but the darkness very soon was illuminated by something behind us. 

“Fire!" Fenton yelled. He stopped quickly and pulled a shield out of his inventory. 

The heat from the dragon's fire was so strong that we took some damage, and the shield broke. Luckily, we weren't dead.

"It will probably need some time to attack again, let's keep moving!” Kendrick called out ahead of us. 

It looked like he had gotten out a shield too. He ushered us ahead of him so he could be in the back. The look on his face was a mixture of desperation and worry. 

We finally made it to the exit as another rumble from the dragon shook everything. 

Out of the cave, down the ladder, into the open space, just in time to see the dragon breaking through the roof of the mountain. His exit sent rock debris everywhere.

I held onto Fenton and we narrowly missed being struck by a giant boulder. 

"It said we'd have to kill it to take the artifact!” Fenton yelled.

"What?” I looked at him confused. I don't recall hearing the dragon say anything.

“Just trust me! It said we'd have to kill it, and the one who does will have to take it to the temple. If anyone else tries to take it, the ritual will be incomplete." He seemed desperate telling me all this.

For the life of me I couldn't think of a single moment in the last five minutes when any of this could have been said. I didn't think he was lying though. 

I looked around for Kendrick or Jacob. I saw the two brothers together, presumably talking about what happened, while the giant dragon flew overhead. 

We ran up to them and I said, "In the cave, we heard the dragon talk. It said to get the artifact, you need to kill it. And whoever does will need to take the artifact to the temple.”

Jacob looked at Kendrick for confirmation. 

" …They were closer in the cave than I was, it could have said that,” he stammered. 

“Good enough for me." Jacob took a whistle from around his neck and blew into it. 

Soon all of his soldiers lined up in predetermined rows. Some kept their eyes and weapons trained on the dragon circling overhead. Some faced Jacob and listened for instructions.

"One, that dragon needs to die by any means necessary. Two, I need to be the one to make the final kill." No one questioned who should do the final kill. This must have been something discussed before. 

“Mages, make sure you have this lizard frozen in place. Rogues, find their weak spot. Tanks, hit him hard! Get started!" He yelled at the top of his lungs.

Everyone broke apart into their own groups. They were prepared for this. Fenton and I were not. 

Jacob approached us, “We’ll take all the fire power we can get. Just be sure to stay out of the way and not get killed," with that, he left to join one of the groups in getting the dragon to land for its fight.

I was still holding Fenton’s hand and could feel him shaking. 

“They probably won't notice if we do nothing," I said smiling. 

“We can't do that…we should help somehow," Fenton whispered.

“What's with this sudden helpful streak? …GASP are you emotionally cheating on me with the general?" I threw my hand up dramatically. “But we just got engaged!" 

Before Fenton had the chance to smack me, we heard a soldier yell "congratulations!” from across the clearing.

“What weapon do you use?" Fenton groaned, clearly  trying to change the subject, while checking his inventory.

“Oh… I don't use a weapon," I said shyly. 

Fenton looked over at me “What?" He looked genuinely confused. 

“I've never had to use one before?" I said, unsure of how much I could say.

“How have you survived all this time…” He started, and then stopped himself, shaking his head. "No, it's fine. Here. I have this sword. I can lift it, so you should be able to also. Just do what you can,” he paused for a moment, "And don't die,” he said softly.

The dragon had circled overhead three times. Players from all over the area probably couldn't miss it. 

It finally took a perch on a large boulder that was as tall as a building. The dragon looked at the group of knights and rawred, shaking the earth again with his scream.

The mages started in on him and were using ice magic. The dragon's health bar popped up above their heads, and, to everyone's dismay, it wasn't touched. Ice magic didn't seem to be his weakness. It did slow his movements and delayed his attack. 

We watched as the mages split into two groups. One to continue freezing, and one to try something else. 

"So, do we just stand here and wait I guess?” I asked this seriously, but it might have sounded bad. 

Fenton ran over to where a group of rogues were. They were preparing their bows. Fenton pulled out a bow from his inventory and aimed carefully. I snuck up behind him and lightly laid my hand on his shoulder. When they gave the signal, they let go. 

The arrows raced over to the dragon, aiming at his face.

One particular arrow glittered in the light and made direct contact with the dragon's left eye. 

The dragon let out a piercing rawr and finally there was a dent to the dragon's HP. 

"Yes! Faust! I think that was my arrow! I've been practicing lately, I think I'm making some great progress!” He was so excited he was bouncing.

“I saw! That was amazing!" 

Our congratulations were cut short by the dragon taking to the air again. 

Everyone held their breath as we watched what the dragon would do next. It looked like it might do its three laps again, but instead it started to dive bomb the group of rogues. Opening its mouth, it was clear it was about to shoot fire. 

I held onto Fenton while he put up another shield. The other rogues did the same right before the fire hit. 

This time the fire lasted longer, this wasn't just a fireball but a stream of lava coming out of his mouth. He poured it on us and flew a safe distance. 

We all took damage from the force of the hit, but no one was killed. All of the shields remained intact but damaged. It was a miracle. 

I pulled out two health potions I had taken from the guild's inventory and handed one to Fenton. 

“Thank you. That was so lucky. That could have killed us," he stammered.

“Do you have another shield?" I asked. 

“No…I only brought the two,” he whispered with a worried look on his face. 

“Let me see it. I grabbed a portable work bench," I started working in my inventory to fix the shield while everyone got to work on the second wave of attacks. 

"The portable benches are awful, why did you bother?” Fenton huffed. 

With a loud ‘shing’ sound the shield was fixed and upgraded. 

Fenton stared at his upgraded shield and then looked up at me. 

"How?” Was all he asked. 

"... just lucky I guess,” I said with a smile. I've been pushing it. This really isn't the time to take it easy, but I've been around him too long now. He will definitely get suspicious if this continues.

“Ok," he said, side eyeing me. “Let's join the rogues for another hit." 

We ran over to where the others were grouped. The dragon was only down to a fourth of its health at this point. 

A rogue yelled out, "His chest! There is something on the beast's chest now!" 

We could all see the small glimmer of something, a gem maybe? On the dragon's chest. It hadn't been there before, and with each hit it seemed to be coming more and more into view.

“Aim at its chest!" Everyone called out in unison. This seemed like it might be a weak spot on the dragon. 

Fenton and the rogue group were firing arrow after arrow. I held onto the hem of his tunic, trying to not be in the way. Fenton noticed me standing there though. 

“Do you need a bow instead?" He asked while loading his for another shot. 

“...I've actually never used one before." 

In fact, I hadn't used any weapons in the game before. Normally, I would have leveled up one or two, but I didn't really want to take any unnecessary risk with my actual life. 

“Well you can't just stand around and watch!" He yelled. 

Fenton pulled an extra bow out of his inventory and gave me some arrows. 

"Here, just don't hit any of us! You can practice by aiming at the giant fire breathing dragon in front of you!” He turned and resumed the attack. 

I stared at the bow and arrows for a bit. In other games you didn't really have to think about how to do it. You just hit the A button. I had never held a real bow and arrow in the real world either. So it took me a bit of time to get the arrow to not just go out to the left. 

The dragon was about to take off for another one of its loops when I finally shot my first arrow. 

It did not hit the dragon. 

Instead, it hit an inventory tent that was close by. This wouldn't have been a problem in most cases because no one was currently in any of the tents. The issue that arose was when the arrow had struck a canister that contained some type of flammable substance. Said flammable substance then set off a chain reaction inside that small tent. 

Canister after canister exploded. Bombs went off, magical items ignited. All of which caused a barrage of shrapnel that conveniently struck the dragon mid take off. 

More than that, the spot that was hit over and over again, was the glittering weak spot on the dragon's chest.