“Well, what are you wating for? Come.”

The dragon had paused in its destruction, huge head pointed in our direction as what looked like a smile curved the back corners of its mouth. That at least was good; every second we could draw this out without wasting energy was a win in my book, if that meant having a conversation with it, then that is what I would do.

“Uh, sorry, didn’t know you could, uh, speak... would you be willing to tell me why you’re, uh, destroying the city?”

“I cannot hear you, little cultivator. Perhaps you could come closer?”

The voice was still a rumble that shook the ground, but there was a silken quality to it now, cajoling and persuasive. Of course, I knew that the giant lizard was lying, as it had only recently heard me talking in a low voice from where it was. Still... it was better than fighting, for the moment.

“You two... wait here. I’m going to have a... chat.”

“Hunter, you are a fool at the best of times but this is taking it a little far, even for you. This dragon did not wade into the city like it was a shallow pool for quiet conversation.”

“Darina is right... Hunter. It is clearly being deceptive.”

I turned away from the giant beast to look at my friends and heard a scraping noise, as if a vast rake was grating across stone. Turning back, I saw the dragon casually dragging its massive claws along the ground as it apparently waited for me to move closer.

“I know that, and it knows I know that. But what choice do we have? It’s so... big... and... impressive...”

I did my best to sound hopeless and scared, but I gave both women a look that I hoped conveyed the fact that I was playing for time. I glanced back the way we had come a few times, and after a moment, they seemed to understand, nodding.

“Then I should go, not you. I can heal, if I need to.”

“No, it’s fine. There’s absolutely nothing I can do to get away if it goes wrong, but we have a rapport, sort of, already.”

Darina muttered under her breath low enough that I could not make out what she said, but knowing the diminutive healer, it was probably some variation of an insult.

Toria simply nodded again, though I could tell that she was tense and ready to attack if it came to it. It was good to have friends.

Turning back to the beast, I watched it drag another set of furrows in the ground as it stared at me, the smile now absent from its scaled lips. Squaring my shoulders, I began to walk closer; a hundred feet and then two and more, until I stood within fifty of it, its size made all the more apparent by proximity. Up close, I could see a red sheen to the dragon’s brassy scales.

“That’s... better. Now, what did you say, little cultivator?”

“I asked why you were visiting the city. And, uh, smashing it.”

“Hmm. I think that’s more my business than yours, little cultivator. This is my territory, after all. I don’t recall this... city... being here though, the last time I was awake.”

“You must be a pretty heavy sleeper; I think Ouhl’s been here a while.”

“Nonsense.”

“... Sure. I don’t suppose you could stop destroying it? We’re kind of in the middle of an emergency at the moment, and it was already pretty damaged from that.”

“Emergency... is that why my pleasant dreams stopped? Was it... you, little cultivator?”

“Pleasant dreams? I don’t think so? Until recently, the whole area was covered in an aura that made people... aggressive and angry. Didn’t make for great dreams, honestly.”

“No, that sounds like it... did you stop this aura, little cultivator?”

“Nope, wasn’t me. It was a group called the Risen Throne. If you want to smash them, I’m sure they’ll show up eventually.”

“No, I think I'll continue as I am, I can taste the... aura... on the air, its source is around here somewhere.”

Great, I thought to myself, the dragon was after the blood pool. That was all we needed, an already destructive dragon eating a pool of super-charging insanity fuel.

“Uh, nope. Nothing like that here. This is where they punctured it though, that’s probably what you’re tasting.”

“No, I think not. What year is it, little cultivator?”

“Uh... I don’t actually know. Would you believe that I’m not from around here?”

The dragon wrinkled its long snout in a sneer before continuing, mostly ignoring what I had said.

“Then I am afraid we have reached the end of this conversation. You have been most... unhelpful. Now, why don’t you try to, what did you say, get on top of my head to ‘zap’ me?”

The grin had returned as the dragon spoke, splitting into a toothy grin as it finished speaking. Instinctive Precognition hammered at my mind and I Focused, stepping onto my Path with as much force as I could manage and ran forward, just as crimson flame began to billow from the dragon’s mouth. If my guesses about my relative speed were right, with my Exemplar at forty-percent integrated and both my Focus and Path working at full power, I was moving at the equivalent speed of about seven-hundred and fifty times that of a normal human. This meant I was moving faster than a Foundation stage cultivator could, moving at half again their maximum speed. Normally, when I did this, the world ground to a halt and most people around me seemed to stop, unless they were at the Foundation stage or higher.

The dragon, though slowed was still moving fast enough that I was starting to consider that it might be a very early Pinnacle stage beast, which pretty much meant I was screwed. I still seemed to have a slight edge, however, and managed to dodge under its chin as flames reduced the stone on which I had stood to a molten lake, heat curling my hair, wisps of stinking smoke floating around me. Even my skin felt raw in mere proximity to the red fire.

I could see my friends starting their approach in the distance and wanted to signal them not to come close; they were very skilled and strong for their levels but the only reason I was still alive was that I was ridiculously fast; Darina could heal through most things, but if she was hit by the dragon’s breath, I did not think she would get the chance. Nor did I think resistance to flames would help much against something that could instantly melt stone.

Knowing that I was going to have to distract the dragon if my friends were going to survive, I decided to try to do what the thing had asked, though I did not think it would do a great deal of good; as fast as an early Pinnacle I might be, but I had neither the strength or the power to back that up.

I had apparently hesitated too long in my deliberations, as I felt my Instincts flare again, finding myself diving into one of the deep furrows as a clawed hand swept overhead, the air displaced by its passage almost a blow on its own.

Spitting dust from my mouth, I leapt up before the dragon could take another swipe, dashed to the side and leapt – ensuring I did so only lightly this time - easily rising above the dragon and onto its shoulder, just narrowly outpacing the lashing of its wing, which passed only feet below me as it tried to intercept my jump.

As my feet touched down on the scale, I felt a painful heat radiating from the scales, and I knew that if not for the particular nature of my shiny black clothes – a gift from an Apex equivalent – my flesh would likely be melting already. As it was, I knew that I would have blisters on the soles of my feet at the minimum. Ignoring the pain as best I could, I moved along the shoulder to the serpentine neck, even as it began to thrash from side to side in an effort to dislodge me. Luckily, I felt it coming and was using way too much Praxis to hold me in place, even wrapping my arm around one of the spines that protruded from the armoured hide atop its spine.

I glanced to the side as the world blurred around me and saw that Darina and Toria had barely taken half a dozen steps, though it was tough to tell while riding the world’s biggest bull.

Confident that my friends were not yet in harm’s way, I began to pull myself along the neck, having to expend more energy as I went as the force of the dragon’s head moving increased as I approached it.

I was just about to step onto the skull when I felt a rumble like thunder through my burning feet and arms, and I realised the dragon was growling. I expected the shaking to increase, or for the beast to try plucking me off with a clawed hand; what I did not expect was for it to flip over to roll on its back in the broken stone of the city.

I got some warning, so even as fast as the dragon spun, I managed to press myself in tight and low along the spines, the heat searing my body through my robes. I hissed with the pain, amplified by the degree of contact and held on for life, knowing that as strong and tough as I was, I probably was not going to survive hundreds or thousands of tons of weight rolling over me. Thankfully, the spines I clung to proved strong enough to support the dragon’s weight, and though they ripped more furrows in the stone, they kept me from being crushed, just.

After what felt like hours, the dragon rolled back to its feet and paused; I figured it was waiting for the feeling of shifting weight and held still, the world mostly frozen around us. After several subjective seconds, the great beast turned to look down at the ground where it had rolled, looking for me, I assumed. Taking the opportunity, I let go of the spines – thankfully – and dashed the rest of the way to the head, and spreading my arms as wide as I could, slapped my palms down against the scales, even as my Instinctive Precognition told me in no uncertain terms that what I was about to do was stupid. My right hand sizzled and I screamed as the flesh began to bubble and flow instantly, small flames springing to life around it.

Knowing I only had a moment before the dragon reacted, and before I lost my hand completely, I shifted my attention from my Path, letting the world explode back into motion around me as I drew back my will from keeping my lightning contained and instead used it to force more energy through my Focus and into my arms, where the circuits and patterns I had so painfully driven into them amplified it before sending it out from my hands as violet-white lashes of jagged light, tearing the air with twin screams and filling it with the sharp scent of ozone, enough to cover the smell of burning hair and the nauseating smell of my own barbequed flesh.

I felt the muscles beneath the dragon’s scales tense as a convulsion rippled along the giant lizard’s body, and then another as it dropped to its belly as its legs splayed out. I kept forcing the power out, hoping that I had caught the beast enough by surprise that it would not be able to concentrate enough to block my Praxis.

But the dragon was old and strong, and a creature of the elements. Even as I began to feel hope – incredulous hope – that I might defeat the thing on my own, I felt it gather itself and with a curse diverted the power back to my Path and leapt, directed by Instinctive Precognition once more as an arm rose up and descended down where I had been only a split-second before.

I was lucky, but not that lucky, it seemed.