(Zack)

"It comes," I rise from where I've been sitting, then begin stretching.

The Adventurers near me give me confused looks for a moment, but quickly return to raining hell upon our enemies. Mama Bear approaches.

"Are you going out to meet it?" She asks. "Or waiting until it draws closer?"

"It's still in the pass right now," I answer as I release my sight. "I'll wait until it's in the valley. If I'm making things out correctly, the King Monsters are now within the valley as well."

"So they did come with the third wave for today?" She asks.

"Yes," I point. "Look."

She does, spotting them in the distance. It might be miles away, but we have a high vantage point and the use of the Perception Stat to augment our ability to see that far. The four King Monsters are approaching as a group, as expected.

"At the rate they're moving," I say. "They'll move ahead of the third wave. They may actually reach here in the next couple of hours. Three hours at the most."

"While we'll still be fighting, exhausted from this wave," she sighs. "We can't get a break, can we?"

"No," I say. "But as Nik said, this is war. How is the ghost doing?"

"He's exhausted," she looks down the line of mages. He's up here, casting spells as well. "It's been a long time since he's been in a proper battle, so while he might be powerful, his stamina isn't as it was."

"He's still doing plenty of damage," I say. "He's taken out three different Bounty Beasts by himself. And they weren't weak ones."

I turn my attention back to the direction of the other pass. If I'm not mistaken in my comparisons, that Dragon is massive. Its eyeballs are going to be as tall as me. At least. Alexander really picked a big one to send towards me.

Inhaling, I stretch out my wings, tail, and arms.

The first violet flare goes up, from the direction my team was in. A quick use of my sight reveals Luca set it off. His Perception might be decent for a ten-year-old, but that's still impressive that he saw it while still handling his duties to the rest of the team.

Moments later, other flares start going off, and I cancel my sight.

"See you," I tell Mama Bear, then jump off the City Wall, flapping my wings to gain height. I fly over the fields, past the horde.

The Dragon's over the forest now, and I meet it before it reaches three-quarters of the way through it. Its dark red scales, its spikes, its horns, its teeth, its massive form – they all look terrifying up-close.

One day, I'll manage to take on such a form, only I'll be bigger, more beautiful, and more terrifying.

I crash into the Dragon, landing on its head as I draw my Dragon Hell Sword. I immediately start striking down, using Strike of Darkness with each strike. Though it's not much, there is damage being done.

This thing has over three hundred million Health for me to take out, and it's going to recover pretty decently from these weaker strikes, so I press even harder, just in time for it to twitch its head, sending me tumbling.

"You're so ugly," I say as I pass by its ears. "Your daddy thought you were a cockroach when you were born and tried to feed you to your brothers."

The Dragon snarls lightly, and I fly upwards. The Dragon, knowing I was just taunting it, follows anyway. It knows I'm here to annoy the hell out of it, and has decided it's going to play with me. Good.

It must be confident it can carry out both of the missions Alexander assigned to it. Destroy the City Barrier, and kill Zack Noruva.

Based on how much larger this one is than any on-record of having attacked Cities before during these battles, it may actually be capable of that. But I'm going to push those thoughts from my head and just annoy the shit out of this thing.

"What would it be like if you started shitting while up here?" I ask. "Or do you have to, like, brace yourself, like a dog or something? I know birds just drop it where they are, but you've got the tool for peeing, too, which is why I'm curious. Are you more like a mammal?"

The Dragon scoffs, and I twist, allowing myself to drop a bit. When it's time, I spread my wings back out to glide, soaring along its left wing with my sword cutting into it. The Dragon flaps its wing, throwing me up into the air. That was stupid.

The Dragon lashes out with its tail, and I evade to the side, sending several Fireballs at it. They just splash off of it. Asshole.

It seems to be treating me like an amusing fly. Alexander really picked a strong one for me to go against. I'm doing a couple thousand damage per hit against something which recovers more than that every second.

I'm not going to give up, though, because I'm Zack Norvua, and I don't give up against shit like this. If there's a way to kill this thing, I'll find it.

Because of that, I keep attacking and evading, occasionally taking hits, using Heal, and drinking potions. The Dragon and I fly higher, higher, up until I know we're definitely out of sight of anyone else below.

I continue to attack the damn beast, while it continues to treat me like I'm just a pest. I can't wait for the day I'm like this thing. How long will that take me, once I'm able to access my transformation ability? A century? A hundred of them?

"How old are you?" I ask the Dragon, which exhales its dragonfire. I spin out of its way. "That's not a viable answer!"

The Dragon snorts, and I soar at it, striking at it several times with my sword. This is like if Luca wanted to kill me. Well, if Luca wanted to kill me and was buffed up a fair bit. Buffed up a fuckton. And I'm him and the Dragon's me.

I don't give up, though. There will be a way to kill this thing. It keeps closing its damn eyes, but I'm getting better at aiming those strikes at the crack where the eyelid meets the spot underneath. If I can get a good strike in there…

Well, I'd probably not do much more than actually annoy the Dragon, but it's a start. The beast's underside is scaled as well, and the part that's actually skin isn't taking much more damage than I'm doing to its scales, which goes to show just how much raw Endurance this thing has.

We continue this little sparring match as I hit this thing with everything I have. I summon my auras, I mix my Skills, and yet I can barely increase my damage dealt. To make matters worse, every time, the Dragon's healing it already from its natural regenerations.

As I fight, I do my best to think up a new strategy. At least the Dragon's decided it'll play with me rather than go after the City Barrier. There's no way I could stop it as I am now. But Alexander wants me dead, and I'm right here. It doesn't matter if the City Barrier is destroyed now or in five hours, once the Dragon finally manages to kill me, as long as it's destroyed and I'm killed.

Thankfully, I'm quick enough I can avoid most of its attacks. Except for the occasional wingflap or tail strike. Like the tail flick that just sent me tumbling again. I right myself in time to see flames coming at me, and soar away. They pass right behind me. I can feel the heat on my skin as they burn my clothes, my armor absorbing the magical flames that come into contact with them.

The flames go out quickly from my high movement depriving them of oxygen. I can put on fresh pants after this fight is over, charred or whole, they don't offer much protection, anyway. I'd have worn more armor, but that hinders my movement and doesn't feel comfortable. It wouldn't make a difference, anyway.

I recover from the little bit of damage the flames did to me as I soar around. The best thing at my disposal is my own fire. If I can get that into the Dragon's brain, it'll die, no matter how powerful this thing is. The problem is granting it enough power that it can ignore the Dragon's Willpower well enough to damage it quickly and still have plenty to override the Dragon's natural regeneration.

I continue dodging attacks, taking the occasional one, and delivering my own to the Dragon as I think. My body is wearing out. How long have I been fighting? Half an hour? An hour? Longer? It doesn't matter. I'm still buying time for everyone down below.

But that also means the King Monsters are drawing nearer, and no one is sure we can handle that. If we can't kill at least two of them, Maelnor is lost, even if the Dragon leaves. And it's not going to unless either it dies or it carries out both of its missions.

We could restore the City Barrier as long as the Flame Slime King doesn't protect it. That might buy us a little more time, but Alexander might-

Restore the City Barrier. Draw on the flames. My preparations and studying of the runes. I completely forgot about the runes! And if I draw on my own flames, the flames within my soul…

"I bet you're only chasing me because you're too stupid to do anything else, you giant, overgrown winged lizard!" I Taunt the Dragon, then start to soar upwards. "You're just an ugly beast who's jealous of my superior appearance when I take on my own Dragon form, and you want to keep me from ever doing that again, you pathetic creature with cold little flames!"

The Dragon roars, then begins following me. Based on its thoughts, it's furious at my Taunt. I smirk, continuing to soar upwards. At the same time, I ready my sword in front of me and begin drawing on it with runic magic, preparing a spell as I draw on my inner Sacred Crystal. I'll get one chance with this, and I pray for a fucking miracle, because that's the only way this is going to work.

The clouds draw closer and closer, but I ignore that, focusing on the spell. It's taking all of my concentration to create the runes on my sword at this high speed while evading the Dragon's breaths and drinking Mana Potions when needed. I'm not the me of the visions from long ago, I'm not powerful enough to simply shatter it from reality.

But with this sword and its resonance for fire magics, the runes of power, and the flames of my soul and inner, Sacred Crystal, this will work. It has to work.

Because if it doesn't, we really are doomed. The requirements for the tide of battle changing have been completed, but I still don't know who the brothers are. If this fails, I'll learn it in the afterlife, and if it succeeds, I'll get to experience the outcome myself.

The spell completes, and I stop my ascent, spinning as I activate the spell.

"Soul Hellfire Blade!" I roar, allowing myself to drop towards the Dragon.

It's too large and heavy to simply stop its own ascent, while I was able to easily change directions with a twist of my body and flap of my wings. In a moment, I'm landing on its snout in a run as violet flames swirl around my blade. I can feel this drawing from within me, the same way Strike of Darkness does for power, but also the same way I drew on myself for the Enchanted Altars.

I continue running until I'm almost past its eyes, then with a flap of my wings and a Dash-powered kick of my feet, I throw myself backwards in a flip that throws me up higher and over the Dragon's eyes.

As it realizes where I'm aiming, the Dragon begins to close its eyes. It's too late, I'm moving too fast and it's still ascending. Even as it flaps its wings to stop its ascent, it's too late. Much too late. I land on the closing eyelid, continuing to move as my sword stabs downward into the Dragon's eye.

The flames travel from my blade into the Dragon's eyes, and the Dragon roars, shaking in pain. The only reason I manage to stay where I am is because of my sword, the power of the new spell flowing out of me, through my sword which enhances it, and into the Dragon.

The soul hellfire burns hot and bright, and I flap my wings, pulling my sword out. The Dragon begins to drop, its ascent finally halted, and I watch as the violet soul hellfire I inflicted it with continues to consume it.

It takes less than ten seconds for the Dragon to be completely consumed by the violet soul hellfire, which burns through every part of it as easily as a white flame would burn through a piece of paper.

The people down below never got to see my victory, but that doesn't matter. There's nothing left of the Dragon but notifications in my vision and a complete exhaustion through me. I summon a barrier that's five feet in diameter and just lie on it, my arms and legs spread out.

Soaked in sweat, breathing hard, and just sore from all the beatings the Dragon gave me. But I survived. My magic is drained, and it's going to take me a bit to recover, but I'm alive. I've gained a bunch of Levels, and I survived.

And the Dragon is dead.

You have slain a Dragon. +Dragonslayer Title +Heart of the slain Dragon +20 Dragon Ingots +Dragon Hide (20 stretches) +50,000 Platinum +Dragon meat (50 chunks) +Dragon skeleton +Dragon's Crest +Dragon Essence (20 jars)

That was a fucking miracle.