Tristan raised his sword up and deflected his grandfather’s swing to the side. The enormous blade sank into the ground, and Tristan backpedaled towards the pit in the center of the room, “Grandfather! Snap out of it!”

  “Die for the master!” Hurvun shouted as he swung in a huge, horizontal slice that Tristan jumped up and over. He brought the blade back as Tristan landed, and the younger dragonslayer had to block the blade, catching the enormous, two-handed sword on the flat of his sword, bracing with his forearm. His grandfather might have been strong…but Tristan was stronger, and his guard held firm.

  Tristan moved into his grandfather’s chest and delivered a wicked headbutt from his helmet to the old man’s face. He felt the crunch of bone underneath as he broke the nose – but his grandfather moved back and pulled his blade out of Tristan’s block, raising it up for a cross slash from an upward angle.

  Tristan dodged the incoming strike by strafing backward, and he used his longer sword to get inside his grandfather’s guard, trying to cut his wrist so that he would drop the massive blade. But his grandfather, even when under this beast’s thrall, was skilled at combat – and not just against dragons. He batted Tristan’s blade away with his gauntleted forearm and chopped the opposite way with his blade.

  Tristan got his sword in the way of the incoming blow and deflected it. I can’t risk hurting him permanently. But, then, he remembered one of the weaknesses of the armor. Something that his grandfather had thought unnecessary against dragons. But something that Tristan had seen on every other suit of armor. A codpiece.

  Tristan delivered a swift kick to his grandfather’s junk, “Sorry!” he shouted as he did so.

  His grandfather grunted and fell over, dropping his sword as he crumpled to the ground whimpering.

  Tristan wheeled around to see the demonic dragon circling the other side of the hole. He kicked his grandfather’s sword to the side, and planted his fist on the ground. “Ich beschw?re eine Wand aus Eis herauf.” (I summon forth a wall of ice). He willed the wall to form around his grandfather’s now-prone form and trap him in a cylinder of ice with room for air to escape the top.

  “You are a feisty one, aren’t you?” the creature taunted. “Why fight me? Why not work for me? I could provide you with anything you desire, given time.”

  Tristan ignored the creature’s pleading-disguised-as-an-offer and rushed it, but the creature slid over the edge of the pit and reached the bottom. It shouted out for its servants, and Tristan saw dozens of people begin to climb the sides of the vertical shaft using the handholds.

  He also saw Felicity flying up at him, with her paw-claws extended. As she approached, he waited until the last second before grabbing her by the throat and squeezing just enough for her to pass out. Backing up, he tossed her over the top of the cylinder so she landed next to the still-recovering Hurvun.

  Going back to the pit, he saw that the climbers were close. I can’t kill all these people. Think, Tristan, think! Then, it hit him. That’s it! He quickly incanted and re-applied Blended Body to himself, but then at the tunnel entrance he focused his vision and put his offhand to the dagger. Pouring his essence into the blade, he focused on his pictured desire as the illusion primer had instructed. Focusing his gaze on a rock, he thought what he wanted to appear. I need that rock to look like me.

  The rock was…overlaid by another image. Tristan could see the rock still, but another image was laid over the top, as if he was holding his hand up to his face and could still see thanks to his left eye; that overlaid vision. He saw a perfect visual recreation of himself. Moving around to the opposite side of the tunnel entrance, he waited next to the opening.

  The thralled townsfolk who had been abducted clambered out of the pit and charged at the illusion, swinging at it, hitting the rock beneath, and then…stood there. This creature must have willed them to kill me…and after hitting the illusion, and seeing it vanish, they think I died.

  He waited, and felt his essence continuing to slowly drain as it fueled the four spells. I can’t keep this up for long, and I don’t have Felicity to get into that storage dimension to drink down an essence elixir.

  After another two minutes, when his essence was almost gone, he saw the serpent flying back up the hole. It did not seem to spot him, and he was not sure how it was flying, as he did not see any type of wings. He reversed the grip on his sword, and as soon as he was sure he would not miss, he leaped forward, landing on the monster and stabbing deep with the singular motion.

  It let out a hissing shriek as it plummeted to the ground, coiling its body inward as it tried to find what injured it. Tristan let the Body Blending fade, along with the Minor Illusion. “I got you!” he shouted in triumph as he kept a firm grip on the blade.

  The creature slammed into the ground of the tunnel below, and Tristan felt the jarring impact up his body – lessened, thanks to the creature hitting before him. But he still felt a deep pain in his thighs as they took the brunt of the impact. Keeping a grip on his weapon, he ran forward along its length as he ripped the blade through the serpent skin.

  It shrieked and flailed about, flinging him off along with his blade in his grip. He slammed into the wall and felt the wind knocked out of him, but the armor took the blow and kept him from being injured heavily. He would definitely be bruised the next day. Pushing himself to his feet, he had to let all of his spells fade as his essence dwindled.

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  The monstrous creature writhed in pain before it finally caught sight of him. “You dare!”

  “I do,” Tristan grunted out as he ran forward. The monster opened its maw and let out a hissing shriek, and Tristan had to dive to the ground as a globule of some type of ichor flew out. He rolled back to his feet and got to the creature.

  “Caught you!” It shouted in triumph as it brought its long tail around, slamming it into Tristan and flinging him to the side.

  Tristan barely pushed enough essence into his armor to reactivate the spell before he slammed into the wall of the cavern and fell prone. He felt a few ribs break and tried his best to keep silent to play dead.

  But, he held his blade in his right hand. Get closer you stupid dragon, he thought to himself. He was able to see the reflection of the beast through the sword’s shine, and he waited for it to get closer.

  It let out a rasping laugh, “Ha! You…you may have injured me…but I have your stupid pet and your family. And now…I think…I think I want to eat a little snack.” It moved forward on its legs, inching closer and closer.

  Tristan kept a close eye on the thing as he kept up his ruse, and as it opened its mouth and moved closer, he shut off the flow of essence to his armor, pushed it into his weapon, and got up to a crouch as he stabbed forward – piercing the thing through the eye and deep into its skull.

  It let out a screeching hiss of pain before collapsing. Tristan pulled the blade free and took several shaky breaths. Barely enough essence for the spell. So this time, blood first. He put his hand on the creature and felt along the body until he located a bulge near the center of its long mass. Then, he stabbed inward, wrenched the blade back and forth, and was greeted with a geyser of blood.

  Shoving his face into the wound, he began sucking down the ichor. He kept drinking as much as he could, and he felt like he was choking. As if something was filling his lungs. Some type of smoke. He had to pull back to cough, clear his lungs as black clouds expanded up, and then went back in to gorge himself to bursting on the vital fluid. Only when he was as full as he could be did he step back, sheath his blade, and put his hands into the spell gesture for Drain Dragon. “Mighty beast which now lays slain, I take from you what you can no longer use and is mine by right of conquest.”

  The silvery essence surged out of him and coated the creature, but there were also streams of intertwined crimson and gold in the silver, and another stream of icy-blue. His essence coated the creature, and then he saw black flecks pulled back as the essence returned to him. He began coughing, and collapsed on the ground as he kept coughing up black clouds of smoke. This persisted for a few minutes, and when he finally caught his breath, spittle flying from his lips as he drew in shaky lungfuls of clean air, he felt a presence nearby.

  Looking over, he saw Felicity was sitting on the ground. “Yuck! You look disgusting! All covered in icky goop.”

  Tristan winced as he felt his broken ribs, “Healing elixir,” he said as he nursed his broken ribs that, until then, were forgotten in the coughing and euphoria of slaying the dragon and consuming it.

  She fished around in her external storage dimension and ripped the leaf off of the top of the vial, handing it to him. Tristan gulped it down, and felt a soothing warm spread out from his stomach. “You are all covered in blood.”

  “Welcome to my life as a dragonslayer,” Tristan replied. “How is everyone up top?”

  “They looked confused. Also,” she crossed her arms and pouted, “I did not consent to being choked out!”

  “You were under his control.”

  “I…I was? It felt like an out of body experience. Until you grabbed me around the neck.”

  “Sorry,” Tristan muttered as he stood up. “Come on…I…” he sat down. “You know what? Grandfather can wait until the ice melts or those people help him out.”

  “I’ll fly up and tell them to break them out and get you a rope or something.”

  Thirty minutes later Hurvun clambered down the wall of the pit. “Hey,” he said softly. “Good job killing this thing.”

  Tristan looked up at his grandfather, “Sorry for kicking you in the balls.”

  The man chuckled, “If you will forgive me for falling victim to its enchantment.” He sighed, “I’m too old for this shit,” he said as he pinched the bridge of his nose. “I…I’m ready to retire, I think. I’m slower…I should not have fallen victim to enchantment, but it was powerful. I’ve never even hunted one of these things.”

  For the first time in his life, Tristan saw the truth of his grandfather’s current state. He was old. Probably in his mid-sixties. A hard sixty years spent adventuring, fighting, getting who-knows how many injuries and uncountable fights with dragons and other monstrous foes. He was a shadow of his former self. A legend brought to a hollow husk of what he once was. And Tristan did not feel anything save for regret. Regret that he did not get to have this experience with his grandfather while the man was in his prime.

  Hurvun chuckled, “Ignore my ramblings, son. Did you do the spell I taught you?”

  Tristan nodded and gestured to the corpse. “It’s all yours.”

  “Only one dragonslayer’s Drain Dragon spell may affect each of the beasts. But, I will help myself to some of its blood.” The old man walked over to the gash that Tristan had carved and made a larger gap, then shoved his arm inside until he found the heart and cut it out entirely.

  Felicity flew down from above. “I filled them in. We’ll head to the town down the mountain, and then take them to see their families. Seems like everyone survived!”

  Hurvun took a bite out of the raw heart, and began eating it. He swallowed down a chunk, “You can drink the blood alone, but I like eating it as well. The meat doesn’t do anything special, remember.”

  Felicity made a gagging noise, “Bleh! Disgusting.” She looked at Tristan, “You drank its blood?”

  Tristan nodded as Hurvun took another bite of the heart. “Yes, I did,” Tristan said as he lay back on the ground. “I wonder what exactly the blood did? Normally, drinking it gives an Anorox family member the resistance associated with the Elemental Realm it comes from…but a dragon from the Demon Realm? What could that be?”

  “Enchantment?” Felicity asked. “We could try it.”

  Tristan nodded, “Try something on me.”

  Felicity nodded and performed the Command spell, shifting her paw-claws into Human hands as she did the spell gesture. “Stand!”

  Tristan did not feel any pressure against his temples. “Nope, nothing.”

  “Huh. Look at that,” She cocked her head sideways as her paws shifted back to normal. “That is quite interesting.”

  Hurvun walked over with the last few bits of the heart and gobbled them down before letting out a belch. “Come on, boy, let’s climb out of here.”

  “I got some broken ribs,” Tristan replied. “Climbing is going to be painful.”

  “Ah. Felicity, mind opening that storage dimension for me? I packed rope.”

  She did so, and Hurvun clambered up to the cave above before climbing back down on the rope. “The group of townsfolk are going to head back to the town, and we’ll join them soon. First…we have a dragon to butcher.”