15 – The Burning Dragon

[Green Dragon – S-Tier Monster]

An enormous Green Dragon lay curled in the center of the clearing, its thick scales a profound, mossy emerald.

It rested belly-down, its massive chest rising and falling in the slow cadence of deep sleep. Its eyes remained shut. The oppressive heat radiating off its body sent slow, shimmering waves rising through the air above it.

“What do we…” Simon started, his voice trailing off.

Paco appeared from behind the vast mass of scales and heat. He darted right up to the monster’s colossal snout, circling frantically.

Ashley pictured that terrible maw opening at any second to gulp the pup down in a single swallow. The sheer scale of the beast hit her all at once. The small purple dragon was roughly the size of a single fang in the elder dragon’s upper jaw.

Paco looked absolutely furious. He opened and closed his mouth in sharp, jerky motions. It reminded Ashley of a chihuahua squaring up to a mastiff.

Then, the pup sprayed the uncaring emerald scales with a tiny puff of purple flame.

Ashley, Simon, and even Aury gasped as the elder dragon’s eyelid twitched. They let out a long, collective breath when the eye remained closed.

“That bloody moron!” Simon hissed, both hands flying to his mouth to muffle the sound. Then, in an even lower whisper, he added, “Can’t he choose his fights better?”

“I’ll go and get him,” Aury said, his wings already spreading as his sword blazed to life, poised to take off.

Ashley raised a single finger, stopping the celestial being. “No. I’ll go. You and the Father stay put. When anything happens, grab Paco and run.”

“Sure thing,” Simon breathed, his weight already shifting back toward the safety of the trees. “We’ll flee like hell itself is behind us.”

Ashley turned back to look at them. Her expression had changed. The uncertainty was gone, replaced by a focused, slightly unhinged grin. “I’m just going to need some room to fight that big lad.”

“You what?” Simon said, his eyes widening as he finally realized she had used the word ‘when’ instead of ‘if’. “Are you nuts, woman?”

Simon’s voice came out at full volume, echoing sharply through the quiet cavern.

The dragon’s eye snapped open. A vertical slit of molten gold stared straight at them, the giant pupil contracting as it locked its focus onto the terrified priest.

“Oopsie,” Simon squeaked, his face turning as white as a ghost.

A heartbeat of perfect stillness followed. Nothing moved. Nobody breathed. Nobody even blinked.

Nobody except Ashley and the dragon.

Ashley stepped forward, unflinching.

The dragon’s gargantuan foreleg came down, slamming the earth with a tectonic force that vibrated through the stone floor and straight up through the soles of their boots.

The second foreleg followed with a thunderous crash. The beast found its footing on its rear legs and rose to its full height. A deafening roar tore out of its throat, a localized shockwave that rattled the obsidian walls and sent the entire forest canopy thrashing wildly.

Ashley gathered her magic, feeling the immense power beating and raging inside her chest.

The dragon’s wings unfolded. The tremendous wingspan blanketed the entire clearing in shadow. The air displaced by the motion hit them like a solid wall, whipping Celestine’s pale hair across her face.

Aury intercepted the blast, stepping directly in front of her before the gust had even finished. He raised his sword, the runes blazing with a protective, brilliant light. “I’m coming with you, mistress.”

Ashley’s hand pressed his blade gently down, and she pointed past him toward the dragon. “Aury, wait.”

She paused, realizing what she was seeing.

“Aury, I don’t think that’s necessary,” Ashley said, her voice dropping into a measured, composed tone. “Someone else already took care of her.”

The green dragon lowered her head to the earth. Paco lunged forward, desperately licking her snout, then began jumping left and right in the dirt, his tail swinging in frantic, helpless arcs.

His actions lacked any aggression.

“He was trying to wake her up,” Ashley said.

The big dragon’s broad nose moved closer to Paco, slowly, with care. She brushed against him, nudging him back a single step in the dirt.

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The movement lacked the terrible efficiency the creature’s anatomy was built for, completely stripped of the coiled, volcanic readiness of an apex predator capable of leveling forests and cracking stone. It was incredibly slow. And tender.

“I think that’s his mommy,” Ashley said.

The female dragon turned her gaze toward them. Her predatory eyes, heavy with grief only moments before, softened at last. She bowed her head in a slow, solemn gesture that Ashley chose to read as gratitude. A silent thank you for reuniting her with her child.

Then the dragoness’ knees shook.

A fine trembling started deep within the bone before reaching the surface scales. She tried to shift her weight onto her other legs, but those buckled too, folding sideways at a grotesque angle. Her whole frame gave out entirely, crashing into the stone floor with the full weight of the collapsing creature behind it.

The heavy impact sent a jagged crack splitting through the earth, sharp and clean as the snap of a whip. A cloud of dust rolled outward from the impact.

Strength fled her limbs in a sudden rush, snuffed out like a fire robbed of air. The dragon’s gold eyes rolled back, revealing a pale, terrible white just before the colossal head tipped forward and her long neck came down. Horns as thick as tree trunks cut through the air as the skull began its wild, uncontrolled plunge directly toward them.

Ashley’s palm was already up, the air around it shimmering as the spell formed.