Wanting Spirit - Chapter 5

Chapter 5
Battling the Red Dragon

The dragon towered over me, its roar ripping the air apart. It spread its huge wings as it lowered its head to stare down right at me.

"Impressive," I teased. The dragon snorted at me, its hot breath kicking up a wind. I could see small spits of fire rising out of its nostrils.

"You don't belong here, monster," I said to it, "and if you won't leave this Star Hill, I'll have to make you."

The dragon seemed like he could understand me, as his mouth curled into something that resembled a sinister smile. He raised his front paw up in the air and took a huge swipe at me. I stepped quickly away and his claws dug into the ground, scattering rocks everywhere.

I hoped this form was agile. I charged up to the dragon and smacked it in the jaw, its head flying back in surprise. He quickly swung again, and I rolled out of the way behind him, where he tripped me with his tail. It certainly did smart.

It was kind of hard to right myself back up, but eventually I was up to face it again. He tried to kick me with one of his hind legs, and I twisted around behind him and hit him with a Flash to remind him not to try that again. He didn't look so much in pain as a bit annoyed by this attack, which was more than a little disconcerting.

He started to spin around wildly, trying to swat at me with his great paws, but I was too quick for him. The rocks that made up my form folded quickly around each other to skirt his hits, which I thought was a clever advantage. Eventually, though, he did manage to hit me, and I was thrown clear.

It took all my strength to hold myself together, literally. I landed quite a distance away, leaving a gash in the ground as I skidded away to a stop. I was going to break apart with a few more hits like that.

No more fooling around, I had to get him this time.

I climbed out of the crater, undeterred, and saw that the dragon was turned away for me. It wasn't very smart, it would seem. Relishing the opening, I fired a Whirl at him, and it went straight through him. He yowled with pain, and I couldn't help but pump my arm in celebration.

The dragon, though, turned back towards me, looking none too amused. He bared his giant wings to me and then thrust them down quickly, kicking up a huge wind, blowing me right out of the crater and almost off the Hill altogether.

Groaning, I looked up and saw the dragon up in the air, flapping his wings with huge 'whoosh' noises, staring right at me. It wanted to take this battle to the air.

I stepped up closer to it, defiant. It leered down at me as I came closer.

"You want to fight up there? So be it," I said, "I'll take you down!"

In response, the dragon took a deep breath, rearing its head back. I looked curiously at this; I wasn't sure what he was going to do.

Suddenly, he jabbed his head forward with his mouth open, and I could see a fireball fly out from deep inside his throat.

With a quick shout of fright, I leapt aside as the inferno shot past me, dissolving into the air a few feet away. It left the ground black and smouldering, plumes of smoke rising from the heated ground. Looking quickly upwards, I could see that the dragon was grinning smugly at me.

No way I was gonna take that. I reared back to hit him with a Blast, but just as I was about to fire it, huge streams of fire shot out of his nostrils like a pair of flamethrowers, and I had to dodge them again.

He flapped his wings harder and started to fly around in the air, soaring low over the Hill. I tried to chase alongside him, trying to hit it with a Blast, but it had started to shoot big spits of fire at me out of its mouth, raining down on me. I was straining to stay ahead of them, trying to blast it with a few Beams and Whirls, but that wasn't doing much to weaken it. I had to find an opportunity to weave away so that I could charge up a Blast to hit it with.

I was so focused on trying to avoid getting fried, I hadn't noticed that I was about to run out of Hill, and was going to run right off into the dark below in about half a second.

"WHOA!" I yelped, and suddenly turned and ran alongside the edge of the Hill. I saw the dragon fly right over me, off into the darkness. I stopped and watched it go, a red shadow against the indigo sky, and I could see that it was turning back around.

This gave me an idea. I stepped back from the edge of the Hill, and widened my stance as I saw the dragon rush toward me again.

He was flying in low, just like I had expected him to, and he was going to try and take me out head-on. The sound of his glide grew louder and louder as it drew closer, but I held my ground. With a tremendous roar, it lunged right at me.

As soon as he was about to hit, I jumped up, over his head, and landed on top of his neck.

I immediately lost my footing, though, and started to slide quickly down the beast's back along his spines, right between his huge wings, all the way down to his tail. The spines were incredibly hard, they chipped away at my rocky body as I slid down them. In a panic, I flipped myself over and wrapped myself around his spines, keeping myself from flying off.

I felt the dragon ascend quickly as my grip tightened around its spikes. Looking down, I could see it was circling high above the Hill. I couldn't look too long, though, because it started to swing its tail back and forth, trying to throw me off.

I couldn't stay here for very long before I'd be chucked into the sea, so I tried crawling up the dragon's back, wrapping my arms and legs around its huge, black spines. The strong wind was holding me back, but I kept climbing.

Soon, I had gotten up to the dragon's back, between its flapping wings. The space between them was really narrow, and if I came into contact with those enormous wings thundering up and down, I'd be dashed to pieces. I snuck up slowly between the wings, trying my best to shield myself from the ferocious wind, but soon, I was on the dragon's neck again. It didn't seem to notice me.

It was time to make my move. I lunged forward as fast as I could, up the dragon's neck. My chest brushed up against a few of the spines near his head, taking out huge chunks of it, but I was keeping myself together. I made it right up to it head. Glancing up at me, it balked in surprise.

"Hi," I said, and I wrapped myself tightly around his horns, forcing its head forward. It reared upwards and screamed, fire erupting desperately from its nostrils, but I managed to hang on.

It stopped circling the hill, and eventually it was flying straight ahead, too disoriented to circle. The night of Star Hill faded away to the dim orange glow of dawn, and below me, I could see us soaring quick over the Kingdom, the dragon still flailing its head wildly.

Looking ahead, I spotted an enormous brown volcano with a wide, yawning crater along its flat top, a thin plume of smoke rising from it.

"That seems like a better place for you," I said to the dragon. I placed my legs firmly against the base of its horns. This would take all my strength.

"Let me help you... move IN!!"

With all the force I could summon, I kicked off the dragon's head, letting go of his horns and flipping off of his head. Yelping, it headed straight for the crater. Its chest slammed up against the edge of it and it was left clinging, groaning with pain and defeat. I flipped through the air and landed on the opposite side of the crater.

"So," I shouted at it, "you'll stay away from Star Hill now, won't you?"

The dragon made a grunt, and crawled out of the crater and down the side of the volcano, off to find a new home.

A job well done, I thought to myself, as I spotted the sun rising up over the east, onto a beautiful new day.