“Sir Dragon, you can’t! This is my fault. I am meant to protect him right now,” Ode pleaded, putting an arm in front of Alister between him and the dragon, “I am unfamiliar with the region, not from around here, or else I wouldn’t have allowed us to walk this far. Please forgive our intrusion and let us leav-” Her words got cut off at the very end, replaced by a wet gurgle and a heavy thump as her body hit the floor. The dragon’s large foot pressed down on her midsection, and a single claw sunk through her sternum and flesh. Blood began to pool, then spurt as he removed his claws from her with disdain.

She was annoying, was all he had to say about it as Ode writhed on the floor. It was over so quickly. Alister had pivoted, stunned for a few crucial seconds, before he started to cast some healing magic. The dragon interrupted this by picking him up in his mouth like a cub and taking off, leaving Alister staring that the reddening figure of Ode getting obscured by the trees.

“STOP! We have to go back! Don’t just leave her there! Put me down!!” he screeched, flailing about in the dragon’s mouth, pushing and beating on the sharp teeth that delicately held him there.

I can drop you… but you’d go splat, the dragon laughed with a definite grin, teeth forcing the air out of Alister painfully. I am bored. Entertaining myself with a noble child’s system unlocking experience should be a fun way to spend my day.

He continued to try to cast magic, but every time, the dragon would bite down and cut into his skin to distract him as they flew farther and farther from help.

In a growing pool of her own blood, Odelline staggered onto her side and clutched at her chest. She poured energy into a simple healing spell, opting for brute forcing it since she was actively bleeding out. She muttered the incantation between wheezes, “Light… of the sun and stars… Moons that… guide our way… H-heal this wound… this wound of mine… Fucking please…”

It was a truncated incantation, but it did well enough that her lungs could function properly. Her wound got smaller, the blood pouring with less ferocity now. She felt lightheaded.

“Damn it,” she coughed and hacked, face twisted in pain as it forced more blood from the wound, “Fucking stupid dragon bitch… god fucking damn it I’m dead meat when I get back… might as well die here because Jacob’s gonna kick my ass! And then the Duke and Duchess. And then the king. FUCK!” Ode shouted the last word, and then doubled over from the pain.

“Heal, heal, heal, damn it… fuck…,” she wheezed, closing the last of the wound off. While it was still sore and hurt like hell, it was no longer at threat of killing her. Ode stood, using a nearby tree for support as she continued her personal tirade, “Need to… contact Jacob… Can’t fight a dragon on my own for fuck’s sake! I’ve been fucking useless. Lost another fucking student! I don’t want to lose another kid to some act of the fucking universe… They said the dragon was close, but this close!? Fuck!”

She continued on and on, talking to herself as she stumbled her way back to town, “Why the fuck hasn’t it been hunted yet?!” Or why’d they make a town that close? Fucking hillbillies and fucking dragons. Fuck. Why was the duke so adamant about staying in this middle of nowhere place? It wasn’t even where the capital of the duchy was! Yet the duke managed everything from this podunk, ass-crack-of-nowhere, living-right-next-to-a-fucking-dragon town! And now because of their stupid choices (mixed with a lack of knowledge on her part), she might get stripped of her authority or something if the kid died!

She… really didn’t want him to die. Mage or not, she couldn’t stand the thought of the poor kid getting hurt like she just did. For Alister’s sake, she had to get back to town. Hopefully the beast found him interesting enough to keep around for a while.

The dragon landed with a huff, his hot breath blowing over Alister one last time before he unceremoniously dropped the boy onto the stony ground.

Alister coughed and scrambled to his feet, holding his palm out toward the dragon like a weapon. The dragon grinned wide with its sharp teeth and leveled its head with the little one, What will you do with those hands?

The answer was nothing. He didn’t want to die, didn’t know how far the damned lizard had flown, and wouldn’t know how to get back to Ode from here. Alister dropped his hand to his side and took the opportunity to look around. They were much higher up, with the forest to the east below them and sheer rocky cliffs to the west behind them. Where they were standing was a sort of rocky outcropping made of a hodgepodge of different-sized stones that spanned north to south almost as far as the eye could see. At the very edge of his vision to the south he could see the thin shimmering line of the ocean as a solid demarcation of the horizon.

His grey eyes found the dragon’s orange ones again, “You’ve brought me here against my will, so now what?” Not to mention possibly killed his tutor.

Now you fight and unlock your system, tiny mage.

Alister grimaced at the flighted lizard as it moved away toward the cliffs. The dragon dipped away from sight and Alister released a breath he had been holding unconsciously. He was shaking. This was scary… he was actually scared. Before, he had seen people die, waged war! Why… damn it why was he scared now? He was so weak and useless. His emotions had gotten him into this mess, gotten Ode hurt. A child, a brat, an ungrateful, spiteful little bastard. Damn it!

Okay. First thing first, he had to just… accept that he wasn’t the same anymore. He was Alister. A child. Clearly he couldn’t make adult decisions like he used to, or he wouldn’t have gotten into this situation. He felt like a child playing adult, such a miserable existence, and his undue confidence and emotions had gotten him into this moment of hellish trouble.

…He hoped Ode was still alive.

So… he was a kid. A kid on the cliffs… with a dragon that wanted to watch him fight. Wow, he had gotten himself into a disgusting mess. He just needed to survive. As much as he wanted his system like a spoilt brat, he needed to survive first and foremost.

The dragon returned with a melon-sized tan stone that had streaks of teal crystal running through it. It dropped the heavy stone in front of Alister and stared at the boy, Touch it and fight for me.

How very demanding of the lizard. Alister glared at him, then looked down at the stone. It was some sort of mana crystal, in a natural unfinished state. He had already loaded it up with a summoning spell… great. Awesome. Wonderful. Today sucked.