I am loathed to admit it… but I would definitely be dead if it wasn’t for him. But we can’t drag a child into this fight. This thing has already killed Zayan… I can’t let it kill another innocent child.

  Dwynfel: “You need to get back inside. That thing could kill you.”

  Johnny: “And it would have killed you if I wasn’t here.”

  Dwynfel: “I know that, but…”

  Johnny: “I’m the best chance you’ve got!”

  He started shooting that beam of ice out of his hands in front of him and he skated in a wide circle around the dragon. The dragon’s gaze followed him with a look of curiosity.

  Chenowith: “Can you freeze it, as you did the cockatrice?”

  Johnny: “Doubt it. This thing’s huge.”

  While the dragon had been distracted by Johnny, the tower shield guy had advanced upon it. He jammed his spear into its underbelly. The spear got stuck, and as the dragon turned to confront its attacker the spear was pulled from his hands. He backed away slowly, holding his shield firm, prepared for the imminent attack.

  The dragon was clearly sick of this man getting back up repeatedly. This time it attempted to bite down on him. The force of a dragon’s jaw could crush even the heaviest of armours. However, the dragon’s jaws were slowed down by the sudden emergence of a thick pillar of ice directly between the dragon and the man. The ice pillar did not stop the dragon’s terrible maw… but it slowed it down enough for the intrepid adventurer to dive out of the way.

  Johnny proceeded to shoot a barrage of icicles at the dragon’s head. As each shard hit the dragon it looked more and more irritated.

  Johnny: “I can distract and defend. But you guys need to kill it!”

  Chenowith: “On it!”

  Johnny resumed skating round the dragon in circles. It tried to follow him with a torrent of fire… but Johnny was moving too quickly… all it accomplished was melting the sheet of ice that Johnny had left behind him.

  The rest of us regrouped as the dragon was distracted.

  Knight 3: “The fuck do we do? The scales on that thing are far too thick.”

  Dwynfel: “Where blades are ineffective, blunt force trauma is usually the best option.”

  Farrow: “So hammers instead of swords?”

  Knight 3: “Not to dip a fly in the ointment here, but my hammer ain’t doin’ shit to that thing.”

  Chenowith: “The rogue’s blade cut into the dragon. That was your doing, was it not?”

  He gestured towards Kiyui.

  Kiyui: “Yes. I cast salient blade on his dagger.”

  Chenowith: “Does that work on any blade?”

  Kiyui: “Yes, but I can only cast one enhancement spell at a time. And I can only cast it on one weapon. I would be better off enhancing the hammer.”

  Chenowith: “Explain.”

  Kiyui: “I can boost the hammer’s armour destruction properties. If we can smash the scales, then all blades will be able to cause it damage.”

  Chenowith: “Do it.”

  Knight 3: “Great, over to me then.”

  Farrow, Chenowith and the hammer guy all spread out around the squarer. The crossbow guy and I stayed by Kiyui. Neither of us will be of any use up close.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  While the dragon was still trying to hit Johnny with fire, the tower shield guy moved in close and yanked his spear out of the dragon’s underside. The dragon let out a yelp before moving to assault the tower shield guy… once again its assault was interrupted by a barrage of icicles to the face and its attention was once again drawn to Johnny. I have to admit… he is pretty good at this. He’ll be a great adventurer when he’s older.

  Kiyui: “Sundering blows.”

  The hammer guy’s hammer started to glow. He looked at it and smirked to himself.

  Knight 3: “Okay… let’s see what this can do.”

  He ran forward with his hammer raised. The dragon saw him coming at the edge of its vision. It largely ignored him and kept its head focused on Johnny. It simply opted to swipe its claw at this new attacker. As you or I would swat a fly away.

  The hammer guy was unable to get close enough to hit the dragon’s main body. But he saw his opportunity to see exactly what this boost could do. He swung his hammer with all his might at the large claw that was bearing down on him.

  The hammer struck the claw and the claw repelled away. Given that the dragon was able to swipe the tower shield guy away like he was nothing earlier, I certainly wasn’t expecting its claw to be stopped by the hammer… much less actively forced away. I was expecting damage, yes, but not that level of force.

  As the claw was pushed back by the force, the vicious nails crumbled and the scales on the hand cracked and disintegrated. The claw looked… wrong… it looked fleshy… weak… and vulnerable.

  Knight 3: “Bloody hell!”

  The dragon… it… it was not happy with this. It completely disregarded Johnny and its eyes glared at the hammer guy. It placed all its feet firmly on the ground and readied itself to charge at him.

  It attempted to charge, but its weakened claw had been frozen to the ground. Of course… the dragon’s resistances come from its scales. He was able to freeze that claw because the scales are gone…

  The hammer guy saw his chance to strike once more in the dragon’s moment of confusion. He rushed forward and struck his hammer against the dragon’s side. Once again… the scales cracked and crumbled… leaving a large fleshy mass exposed to assault.

  The dragon breathed fire on its frozen foot… releasing it. The hammer guy retreated and Farrow moved in with Chenowith. The dragon swung its good claw at Farrow, but she is incredibly nimble and slid under it. She brought all five of her flying swords forwards and tore into the dragon’s exposed flesh. The wounds were deep… but still, the dragon showed no signs of defeat.

  The dragon swung its neck around and attempted to bite her but was once again hit with a barrage of icicles in the face, knocking off its aim and allowing Farrow do duck out of danger.

  It tried to swipe at her with its tail, but Chenowith stepped in and blocked it with his shield. Clearly the dragon is more injured that I thought… a tail hit like that should have knocked him back a lot further than it did.

  The hammer guy went rushing in once more. Clearly understanding that its aim would be thrown off by Johnny, the dragon elected to just outright slam its entire head down on Chenowith. The hammer guy arrived just in time… he swung his hammer upwards with significant force… the hammer struck the dragon’s chin, shattering all of the scales on its lower jaw as well as most of the teeth.

  The dragon let out an almighty screech. It lowered its head to the ground and started drawing in a massive breath. Shit… it feels cornered… it is going to unleash as much fire as it can possibly muster. This is bad… this is bad.

  It went to unleash an ungodly amount of fire… it opened its mouth wide… then suddenly it stopped… its lower jaw had been frozen in place… connected to the ground by an increasingly thick amount of ice. Using the ice as a stepping stone, the hammer guy jumped up and brought his hammer down on the creature’s head. The scales shattered and the skull cracked. Farrow and Chenowith rushed forwards and plunged all of their blades into the newly created gap in the dragon’s exposed skull. Then the dragon… went limp.