B3 – Chapter 27: Hunted down

Tristan helped butcher the water dragon, but asked Rory, “How are you supposed to kill these things? I’m pretty sure being bit isn’t the right way to go about it.”

The Drakonid smiled and nudged Bertram with her elbow, “I thought you dragonslayers knew everything about them.”

Bertram responded with a grunt, “Only what gramps had in the book. He never fought water dragons in their territory.” He looked to her and gave her a kiss on the cheek, “Only we’re insane enough to do that.”

Rory stood up and stretched, “Well, you lure them to open water. They love to go for their target with their teeth – just like what this one tried on you. Ideally, you dodge aside, then strike deep through the eye, into the brain, and into the heart behind that. If you miss the first strike, then stick close to it and try again.”

Tristan nodded and filed the information away in his memories, “Right. Good to know. But what about the big ones? Wyrm sized.”

She blinked a few times in shock, “I’ve never seen or heard of one that size except my home Realm’s Protector. I wouldn’t have the faintest idea of how to fight one that large. Her teeth are the size of a tower spire. Her eyes the size of wagons.”

Tristan tried to visualize the scale of such a creature. Even the demon dragon he fought which was Wyrm size was smaller than what she described. And he had never seen an Elemental Realm, wyrm-sized dragon before. They must be enormous if from the Elemental Realms, he thought, thinking back to the adult fire dragon he had slain which was towering in its own right.

Onyx and the unicorns came over with Felicity sitting atop his back. “There is time yet for another hunt, I believe, Lord Tristan.”

He glanced back and nodded, “We finish butchering this beast, and then we’ll depart. Plus, I need to let my essence refill.”

Bertram sighed, “Yeah. That. Mine comes back so slowly. I won’t be able to do those water adaptation spells for another day.”

Tristan glanced down at Rory who had resumed carving, “Mind taking the lead on that for a few minutes?” She grunted in affirmation, and Tristan gestured to Bertram to stand, “Teach me the spells you used.”

Bertram wiped his palms on the rocky stones and nodded, “Sure. Happy to have you bearing the brunt of the essence-weaving.”

After drilling the spells and phrases for an hour, Tristan had learned and memorized both of them. Waveclinger’s Fins, which was what enabled him to travel at such a fast pace, was a First Order spell. The same for Waveclinger’s Adaptation, which is what allowed him to see and breathe underwater; as well as survive the intense pressure.

Once learned, the trio finished off butchering the dragon and filling up Felicity’s storage dimension. “It’s pretty full…” she said, trailing off with a disgusted look on her face. “I don’t like having so much meat in there.”

Rory chuckled, then laughed, “You don’t like being filled with meat, you say?”

Felicity’s face turned red in embarrassment at the sexual pun, Bertram cackled with laughter, and Tristan turned away as his face went beet red as he stifled a laugh. “Oh yeah!” Felicity replied. “Well…I’ll have you know, I’ve got the biggest storage space out of any fairy dragon!”

She was trying to defend her pride, but this statement caused Rory and Bertram to near fall over laughing as Tristan went even more red and walked away. Even the unicorns were whinnying with amusement.

As he took deep breaths to try and calm down, he saw a weird shimmer in the air about three-hundred feet away. Lucky Instinct was still active, and screamed at him that something was wrong. Immediately, he spun his essence crucible at full tilt and activated Scales of Our Foe, armor of Ice, Near Miss, Lucky Instinct, and drew his sword.

A flash of green burst from the odd shimmer, and he managed to duck to the left as it slammed into the ground and exploded in a viscous ooze that sizzled against the ground all around; melting the rocks into a crater. “We’re being attacked!” he shouted as he tried to discern his foe’s location, the shimmering vanishing.

The unicorns lowered their horns and thin, translucent barriers popped into existence around them. Rory and Bertram quickly armed themselves and began looking around for danger, taking partial cover behind the lingering remnants of the dragon corpse. Felicity turned invisible and took off to circle above.

Tristan felt the urge to move, and he listened as he ran to his left. Another blast of green acid spewed out and flew past him, smashing into the ground. They’re after me, he thought. He moved his hand down to the dagger on his hip, poured some of his withering essence into it, and activated Minor Invisibility. He was on the stony beach still, and if he moved carefully, he knew he would not disturb the rocks enough to give away his location.

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And yet another bolt of green flew at him, and even though he was able to sidestep it, the projectile exploded on the ground past him and flung its goop onto his shins and feet. He could see the steam rise from the ice that was being melted, and immediately turned to sprint for the water, hoping it could help ameliorate the substance.

“They are cloaked somehow!” Tristan shouted as he ran past the water dragon corpse and knee-high into the waves.

Rory had her eyes closed, and she turned to her left, raising her shield as a bolt of green manifested and slammed into it. She dropped the barrier and threw her spear in its half-formed configuration, sending it sailing into the invisible assailant, scoring a hit and causing blood to drip from their wound. This was accompanied with a “Gah!” of pain from the target struck.

And that was all the indication of location Bertram needed. He exploded forward with ferocity, chopping a huge, horizontal slash that cut the invisible figure in twain, sending the two halves spurting apart from one another as the black-cloaked assassin so familiar to Tristan suddenly appeared; top and bottom flopping to the dirt before vanishing to dust and leaving behind the black shroud.