Freedom's Heart

Chapter 11

I start to teleport around him faster than I have ever teleported before. The dragon swings his head around, trying to keep up with me, and even when he tries that lightning attack, he still cannot match my speed. I can even see myself. It is like those cartoons I used to watch where the character moves so fast, they appear everywhere all at once. Stop it. I cannot let myself get distracted by such thoughts. I need to defeat this dragon, collect my reward and return home before my parents notice I am missing.

Let us find out how much that barrier can take. I lunch one air guillotine after the other at such speed they end up striking the dragon from multiple sides at almost the same time. Unfortunately, the barrier is still holding. It should not be possible, but it is. Greater dragons really are in a league of their own. It has to break soon. It has to if I keep up this onslaught.

The dragon continues to breathe fire and let out bolts of lightning, but I am too fast for it. No matter where the dragon strikes, I am always a split second ahead of him. I watch the dragon's frustration mount as he continues to only hit thin air. I can do this. I will bring that barrier down and win this fight.

"You truly are a strong one human!" How does he know where I am. All of a sudden, the dragon's eyes glow blue, and no matter how fast I move, he always keeps his eyes fixed on me. "You should be honoured, human! Very few people push me to use this attack!"

With a mighty roar, I am knocked back by the shockwave that hits me from the dragon's mouth. If only that was the dragon's special attack. Before my eyes, the dragon's body glows golden, and every one of its scales suddenly leaves the body of the monster. This is bad! They all head towards me like a swarm of insects, leaving me little room to dodge.

I do my best to avoid the scales, but they are too many and moving too fast. They know my every move appearing wherever I teleport and overwhelming me. The scales tear me apart. I try to dodge and block, but my barrier is broken within seconds. I managed to stay alive by using smaller, more robust barriers around my vital parts, but everything else was destroyed. My arms and legs are cut to pieces, and I can see my bone in some parts. I cast healing magic, but it cannot keep up with the number of wounds the scales inflict on me. It is going to kill me! I am dead if I cannot do something to turn things around.

I can endure the pain through gritted teeth and iron will, but I am unsure how much longer. The only good news is that the attack appears to be ended as several scales return to the dragon's body. If all the scales are starting to return, this could be the chance I am looking for to win this fight. I take a deep breath. I know this will hurt, but I need to do this. Trust me, if there was another way, I would have taken it.

"Ahh!"

I cry out as I smack one of the scales returning to the dragon ripping the skin from my palm, but I hope it is worth the pain. I repeat the process with my other hand, enduring the torturous pain praying my plan will work. It will work. I drop to the ground feeling exhausted as I heal my wounds. If this does not work, then I am dead.

"You are the first person to live through that attack, human!" The dragon looks at me. "I will remember you!"

"No..." I gasp, feeling out of breath. "You won't."

I detonate the fire runes I placed on the dragon's body. In this way, there are two ways to cast magic. Most people cast it from their bodies, but there is another way. Using this spell casting technique, I managed to get past the dragon's impenetrable barrier. You see, when I reached out and touched those scales, I imprinted a rune on them. A rune that when activates the high-level fire spell explosion.

The dragon did not stand a chance. The explosion almost killed me, so there was no way the dragon would have lived. But somehow, when the smoke cleared, the dragon was still breathing. I really got lucky. This dragon could have easily killed me if it had taken me seriously from the start. Slowly I pick myself up and approach the dragon. It is not in good shape, but it could still kill me.