The goristro is without doubt the largest of the commonly occurring demons the smallest of which can smash a four-foot-thick granite wall with a single charge.

They are the siege equipment of the demons, they do not bring battering ram but goristro, the only thing keeping such large monsters from tearing down a castle wall is their lack of magic, slow speed and the difficulty in amassing the flesh needed to give one physical form. – Common Monsters

Adrian

I fall off of the back of Moonlight Runner as soon as she comes to a stop in front of a cave I recognize.

Opening and closing my hands as I try to assuage their cramps from holding on for over an hour, I look around there are scorch marks and burnt ground all over the entrance to this tourist attraction.

“There is one in the cave.”

I smile and sniff the air myself. There is a lot of sulfur in the air, that and the scorch marks Leads me to believe that it is a red dragon within the cave, a gold may have made the same marks but they do not smell like sulfur.

I turn to Moonlight Runner, “hide and be ready to take advantage of an opening, and please stay safe” I tell Moonlight Runner with a quick hug.

I would like if she wasn’t involved in the fight at all but there is no way I could convince her to leave.

She bounds off to the tree line, and I pull at the bond I forced on the spirit of the wolf. It resists my pull but as soon as I begin to whisper and name it; the resistance ends and I can feel it become willing to be as it is.

“Spirit of the wolf, son of the moon I name you Lykou. Come and hunt in my pack.”

A wolf begins to condense out of the moonlight that falls on the ground around me and I know he will be a familiar bound to me forever.

Once he becomes solid he howls and then lowers his head to me. I can feel his acceptance of me as the alpha and that while he is not a piece of me, he will always be a part of me.

I hear Moonlight Runner answer the howl of my familiar and smile. She is glad to have another member in the pack.

Rather than embarrass myself with the pathetic howl I can make I shout into the cave, both Moonlight Runner and Lykou draw strength from the moon. The fight needs to be outside.

“Come out and fight little winged lizard, or are you a wyvern?”

My voice echoes back out of the cave and I begin to twist reality in the way I need it to be, fist accelerating myself in time on a duration. I won’t be as fast as if I held it myself but I’ll be able to cast other magics.

A roar follows my echoed insult out of the cave and I can hear it approaching, this one is bigger than dragon-me was. . .

I draw a rune with light in the air and set it as a focus for a ward against flame.

The red dragon barrels out of the cave and Lykou collides with it in midair. They tumble to the ground, the dragon being twice the size of the wolf, who is just a head taller than Moonlight Runner.

There is no way I can afford to get into melee with this dragon. But that is what my familiar and Moonlight Runner can do.

The claws of the dragon tear through the shoulder of Lykou but he is not fully flesh and the moonlight begins to refill his corporeal form, but not as quickly as the dragon could tear him apart.

I can feel as if I am partially controlling Lykou, and will him to do something I expect that he can as I create a bolt of frost fire and let it fly at the dragon.

Are its resistances and vulnerabilities like I assume they are?

Lykou dissolves into the moonlight and reappears to the side of the dragon his claws slicing into the creature's scales as the bolt of frost fire slams into the dragon's face.

Ice forms and evaporates in a flash of steam but I can see the damage to the beast and hear its roar of rage from the pain. I smile and throw another but it is engulfed by dragon fire rushing at me.

I twist it so that it will veer away from me but feel some resistance to my manipulation. I manage not to be burned but the heat still brings pain to my skin. A light searing.

There is a look of disbelief from the dragon and I feel some backlash build but it drains away into the chains the link Lykou to myself.

I file the obvious questions away to deal with after the battle and place my hands on the ground.

The rocks in the dirt begin to swap places with each other and dirt until they all fit the pattern I want, a snowflake.

The dragon does something with mana, probably a dispel or some other antimagic effect to strip me of the apparent protections I have from his viewpoint.

I smile as nothing changes; my magic is not based on mana. I do not have to care about such like breach or dispel magic.

I push Fire farther than I ever have before a fill the clearing in front of me with frost fire as Lykou once more walks through the moonlight to dodge my spell. I mutter words in necrol pushing for more power in the spell.

Not all of the clearing is filled with the icy flames as I desire but the dragon is surrounded by them for a moment before part of its flames cancel out my own.

The coloration of the dragon has dulled and it is truly in a full rage. I tumble to the side dodging the beast's trample attempt but end up begin struck by dozens of bolts of fiery light that seek me out as I dodged.

Magic missiles, so dragons have spells outside their energy type. They sting and there are marks on my skin where the tiny darts of force struck. Bloody bruises that are healed easily as Lykou rips a chunk out of the dragon’s leg.

That is all I actually need from this creature but I don’t want to just leave now. I want to finish this fight, I want to win and claim the kill as mine.

Rationally I have what I came for but I can also win so I don’t need to retreat. I begin to truly enjoy fighting as I give in to this primal urge.

There is another roar from the dragon and a compulsion to flee rises within me. I almost chuckle as I ignore my foe's attempts to manipulate my mind.

I dash sideways as if I were scared and attempting to flee, drawing the dragon to chase me and just as it begins to breathe fire once more the world flickers and an illusion built up on the manipulation of light breaks.

I ran opposite to the image displayed to the dragon's eyes, now I am by his side and form a blade of darkness. Icy cold death given some physicality.

My blade enters into the lungs of the dragon as both Lykou and Moonlight Runner ruin the wings.

The pained roar is louder and I feel my eardrums rupture, the world goes silent but the dragon spits up blood and globs of fire as it turns to me. It’s claws sashing down on me.

I step forwards inside the reach of the claws but am sent flying by the massive arms, though not before slashing as the elbow of it front left leg.

Now it is my turn to spit up blood in the now silent world. The dragon should be dying, so unless it has divine magic or one of the work around to heal with arcane it is just a matter of time.

My two packmates are circling around the dying dragon, I bare my teeth. This kill is mine.

Dragon fire greets me as I walk towards the dragon faster than I should be. This time the resistance to me turning it away from myself is less and I don’t feel my skin searing.

I slit the throat of the dragon and let the fiery blood spill over me. I can feel the heat but it does not burn.

Moonlight Runner and Lykou back away, they cannot eat this meat or drink this blood. It would harm them.

I heal my body as Lykou dissipates back into the moonlight. Moonlight Runner seems to be staring at me with desire, but I not going to have that kind of fun with her, yet. There is work to do.

The light in the eyes of this dragon have dimmed and left and I start to drink the fresh blood still spilling out of the wounds.

It burns going down and I can feel a burning feeling in my gut. It does not hurt but is closer to eating something too spicy too quickly.

Drinking the blood of this dragon doesn’t seem to be working so I go the next step further and begin to tear out handfuls of meat from the slit on the dragon's neck and eat it.

I feel less repulsed by over the slimy texture of the raw meat than I should, instead the taste is somehow desirable, as if it were sweet and well-seasoned meat.

It does not take long for me to eat my fill, but I still don’t feel anything from the hole where dragon-me used to be, only sleepy.

Ignoring the gore, I lie down and fall asleep almost without noticing what I was doing. I think I might have started muttering words in a language I don’t know . . .

I bolt upright and find myself in the arena where dragon-me was fighting with the wolf.

A large dragon with midnight blue scales sits across from me. So, consuming pieces of that dragon did work.

“Go away, I don’t want to come back. Everyth . . .”

“This is what you left for? To sulk and cry in an empty arena?

Aren’t you supposed to be a dragon? Aren’t you supposed to be my pride?”

“But the hoard was mean to me!”

“So, you run away and cry, pathetic. And why wouldn’t they? They never met you. You don’t get girls by saying hi let’s fuck you idiot.”

“But they are ours, we are supposed to sleep with our treasures.”

“To do that you have to do more, as little as I know about girls I do know that.

. . .

Now are you going to come back?”

“No, everyone is mean to me. Why would I want to go back?”

“Stupid, stupid lizard. Did you even think about the consequences of you tearing yourself away from me?

How worried the others would be from running away for days, or just what me missing pieces of myself would doom them to?

No, you didn’t. Without confidence, I can’t think as I do. Without Void Cache and the stuff in it how are we going to carry the needed food?

Without shifting back into a dragon how could I get back to them before they starve?

So guess what, your pathetic crying fit is over. You don’t get to stay here. You have two choices: 1 go back to being a part of me willingly or 2 being forced to come back.”

Dragon-me glares at me and speaks almost threateningly, “you can’t make me.”

I create more blackened blue chains like those I bound the wolf with to surround dragon-me, as I speak.

“But I can little dragon, this place is still hidden somewhere in my body, you are but a piece of me and there is nothing to stop me from just binding you like a disembodied spirit.”

A smile comes to my face as dragon-me surrenders to my will and I feel this place reconnect to the rest of my soul. This space fades away as the starry void I am more familiar with comes to take over what was apparently dragon-me's choice of mindspace.

I can feel some resentment of being forced to come back from dragon-me but also some sort of joy at being accepted as a part of me.