Asher was sprinting as fast as his childlike legs could take him, which was strangely faster than he’d ever been in his previous life. He weaved in and out of the foliage, zig-zagging through the trees, but the black dragon was fast on his trail and gaining.

“Holy crap! What the fuck, what the fuck is that?!” Asher yelled in between deep breaths. “Okay Ash, think...how can I get out of this alive?” he thought to himself and his eyes grew wide with realization. “The scroll!” he dug into his pockets to find absolutely nothing. He groaned slightly, accepting the reality of probably dying twice within 24 hours.

A window appeared in front of his eyes. “Do You Wish To Access Your Inventory?” ( Y/N )

“YES!” The window minimized and another opened up revealing a humanoid shape with “Commoner Shirt,” “Commoner Pants,” and “Commoner Shoes” equipped into the appropriate slots on the humanoid. To the right he saw a bag icon with four empty slots next to it. He imagined clicking on the bag and it opened up to reveal a 5x5 square with all the slots empty except one. The one containing the scroll.

“Do you wish to retrieve ‘Get Out Of Jail Free’ scroll?” ( Y/N )

As he was reading, the trees behind him were being stepped on as if they were ants. Merely insignificant obstacles in the path of an unstoppable force. The dragon stopped and looked at Asher, who for some reason was the object of his focused aggression. The serpentine neck flew recoiled a bit and the head cocked back. Something seemed to be crawling its way up from the belly of the beast into its neck. At once Asher realized what was happening.

“A breath attack...you’ve got to be shitting me!” He quickly made his way to cover behind the thickest tree he could spot. He heard a sound that could only be described as a disgustingly wet roar as the dragon spewed black icher towards his direction. He could hear as the globules of acid attached themselves to anything solid and the distinct sizzle they made as they went to work breaking down everything they came into contact with. The tree was quickly losing its ability to sustain its own weight.

“Do you wish to retrieve ‘Get Out Of Jail Free’ scroll?” ( Y/N )

“Yes,” Asher said calmly and the scroll appeared in his hand. He opened up the parchment and he could see the magical lines and patterns imbued into it. He could feel the incredible power and he felt confidence begin to bubble up in the depths of his soul. He imagined the scroll “activating” and suddenly all the power left the parchment and seven magical orbs appeared around Asher’s head. The orbs began circling around his head and he felt the innate ability to send the orbs at the dragon. He sends two of the orbs and on impact, both orbs ballooned in size before exploding into a dazzling light, ripping chunks out of the dragon’s body. The mighty dragon roared louder than it had previously. The serpentine body quickly spun, whipping its strong tail and completely turning the trees next to him into splinters. Asher immediately sent two more orbs to detonate on the tyrannical lizard and turned to start running again. The area this battle had taken place was quickly becoming more favorable for the dragon and Asher knew he couldn’t afford to make any mistakes.

The bells in town were being struck in rapid succession by the town guards.

“DRAGON! A DRAGON HAS BEEN SPOTTED IN THE JUNGLE OUTSIDE THE CITY” one guard announced.

“REMAIN CALM, PANIC WILL ONLY CAUSE MORE DESTRUCTION. PLEASE EVACUATE TO THE DESIGNATED SHELTERS IN AN ORDERLY FASHION.” another guard ordered.

An assembly of guards, roughly 40 in all, had gathered near the entrance to town facing towards the dragon’s last known location. Another, smaller, detachment of people were gathered together adjacent to the guards. One man with long blond hair and well polished armor stood up on a pedestal, his pointed ears sticking out through his hair, a key feature of those with elven ancestry. He cleared his throat and bellowed out to the makeshift crowd.

“This is the first dragon we’ve spotted in this area in decades, perhaps even centuries,” the elf looked at the crowd to gauge the atmosphere and morale of his men and women. “We’re the ones who’ve been chosen by our Duke to defend our homes. Show bravery in the face of death! Make Duke Bennett proud! Protect our home!” the elf yelled as the fighters stomped their feet with each statement. “And most importantly, LET’S KILL OURSELVES A DAMN DRAGON!”

The group of fighters roared their individual war cries and set off towards the jungle. Deep in the foliage a quick flash of light could be seen.

The elf was marching at the end of the group to keep overwatch of everything. To his right side was a more rugged man with tanned skin in studded black leather armor with a scimitar hanging off of each hip. The man in black spoke, “Jandar, do you really think we’re enough to handle this thing? The report said it was huge, the size of an adult.”

“If I’m being honest, Aldren, I don’t know. I’ve never fought one before and from what I’ve heard not many people have and lived to talk about it. We don’t really have a choice though, we have to try and protect the citizens.” Jandar looked at Aldren who was keeping his hands on his blades, ready for action at a moment’s notice. It had been a couple minutes since they’d set off from the city into the jungle. They could hear mind-numbing roars, the roars of a dragon. Since they’d begun their trek, they could see the disturbance in the canopies off in the distance, trees being knocked over. They could hear the commotion and it was getting closer, they had also seen another bright flash of light.

The men and women of Jandar’s dragon suppression force were becoming antsy. Sweat was trickling down their foreheads with anticipation, and the anxiety had turned their mouths dry. Just as things were hitting their fever point, they saw something that none of them would have expected, a child running at breakneck speed in their general direction. The boy’s eyes locked with Jandar’s and the kid screamed “Run away! I can’t try to fight this thing if I have to worry about you!”

“Worry about us?!” Jandar yelled back, “This place is more dangerous than normal right now, quick hurry back home little--”

Jandar was cut off as the trees were suddenly uprooted and tossed to the side. The black serpentine body of the dragon had made itself known to the suppression force. It is said that the presence of a mighty dragon can induce fear into the souls of those who gaze upon them and that myth was proven true as roughly half of the people seemed to run away, almost instantly, at the sight of the thing. The boy who had been running towards their direction made a sharp left turn and for some reason the dragon seemed to be following.

“Steel your nerves! We knew what we were getting ourselves into, and now we have a child to save!” Jandar yelled to his people.

“Jandar look,” Aldren said as he gestured towards the boy and the dragon with his scimitar, “That thing is hurt, bad. Look at the boy too, he seems to be strangely calm and what are those things around his head?”

The elf looked at the boy and without a doubt, there seemed to be orbs circling around the head of the child. The boy also had the expression of someone who was resolved to settle things. Both the boy and the dragon had created their distance from Jandar’s group and were becoming less visible by the second.

“Follow them!” Jandar yelled as he and his remaining force began their pursuit.

“Oh my god, why are there people here?!” Asher thought to himself as he turned left and tried to distance himself from any more potential casualties. The dragon still seemed to tunnel vision on him and proceeded to give chase. Once they’d gotten to what Asher determined was a sufficient enough distance away from the group of people he turned and ordered 2 more orbs to detonate on the dragon. The bright light nearly blinded Asher as more large chunks of flesh were blasted from its right flank and left shoulder.

The dragon swiped its tail, practically flattening the terrain and removing any immediate hiding spots for Asher to take advantage of. Then the dragon lunged forward faster than it had been moving up until and grabbed hold of Asher’s small body in its massive fist. The pain was nearly unbearable. “This is what it feels like to be crushed to death by 5 pythons at the same time.” Asher thought to himself as it was becoming more of a struggle to get air into his lungs. With Asher in his clutches the dragon spread its wings, and with a few massive flaps they were in the air.

Jandar and Aldren, along with their men, had been following the path of destruction left by the dragon when they’d finally managed to catch up with the pair. They looked in awe as they watched the boy. They saw 2 of the orbs circling around the boy’s head leave him and go after the dragon. When the orbs touched, they rapidly ballooned in size and an explosion of light was created. Holes in the flesh were left where the orbs had touched and looked eerily similar to the damage Aldren had pointed out to Jandar earlier. “Is this boy...fighting this thing?” Jandar whispered faintly.

Suddenly the area was quickly deforested as the dragon swung its mighty tail. The next thing they saw was the boy in the dragon’s clutches as the mighty lizard beat its wings and took to the air.

They’d gotten approximately 60 feet in the air within the few seconds since Asher had been grabbed. Asher locked his eyes with the dragon’s and he felt the hair on his neck stand up. He saw the same creeping motion coming up from the dragon's gullet and as the dragon opened its mouth.

“No you don’t!” Asher yelled, sending the final orb down the throat of the great lizard. The dragon shut its mouth and made a disgusting gagging noise, light suddenly began to pour out of the open wounds on the dragon’s body. It screeched at such a deafeningly high pitch that Asher felt himself going slightly dizzy. They’d begun to lose altitude with light still pouring out of the dragon.

“AHHH!!” Asher yelled as the trees below him had begun to grow larger and larger.

The dragon was falling with its wings towards the ground and they hit with a disgustingly dull and wet thud. Asher pushed himself up from the dragon’s grip and he looked down at the mighty beast. The eyes exploded out of the skull of the monster with more light pouring out of the open sockets. The body gave one final shudder from nerves still firing off even after death and the light coming from the beast subsided.

A window appeared in his eyesight again “CONGRATULATIONS! You Have Defeated An Adult Black Dragon! Would You Like To Loot?” ( Y/N )

“Yes” Asher mumbled.

Suddenly the massive carcass of the dragon was beginning to break down and it seemed like the essence of the creature was being absorbed into Asher until only he remained there standing.

“Adult Black Dragon Looted”

Asher let out a sigh of relief until suddenly his vision started to fill up with prompts from his ability.

Level Up! Level Up!

Level Up! Level Up!

Level Up!

In every fiber of his being it felt like something that should’ve been enjoyed in incremental amounts, had washed over Asher like a Tsunami completely sucking away any stamina he had left. His vision went hazy and then he fainted.