Guns and Shield (The Rising of the Shield Hero Fanfiction)

21- Rage

As Filo ran up the mountain to where the dragon was supposed to be, I adjusted my mask.

I made sure it was covering my mouth and nose, in case the poison manages to get to me as well.

Once I was done, I looked beside me to both Naofumi and Raphtalia, making sure that they had their masks on properly too.

The clunking of the rocks against the wooden wheels of the carriage.

The sun was shining and the skies were blue, but I just had the slightest feeling that something wasn't going to end up good when we were going to deal with the dragon.

I shrugged the feeling away and softly jumped along with the carriage.

As soon as we went close to the dragon, there was a strong putrid stench I hated, and it was so bad it was almost giving me a headache.

The carriage stopped.

"Master, I think we're here! I can smell dragons. I hate those things" Filo sneered.

We all hopped off of the cart and walked towards the big flat 'stage' the rotting dragon was on.

The bones of the dragon were showing, and the spot where the eye is supposed to be was hollow.

I had the goosebumps and shivers when I saw the hollow eye sockets.

I gingerly sidestepped towards Naofumi and nudged him, "what are we going to do with that?"

"It doesn't seem to move or anything, so I guess we could just somehow dispose of it."

I furrowed my eyebrows.

"How?"

Before he could say anything more and reply, the zombie dragon stood up slowly, unleashing more of the putrid smell that I had gotten slightly nauseous of.

"Oh my, that smell is certainly something." I gagged.

The dragon unleashed a ferocious roar, and I coughed at its breath.

"The breath stinks too, darn. This is a hard mission."

I stayed quiet and observed the dragon. It might've seemed rotten, but it still looked like it could fight us all.

Suddenly, I paid attention to something that was like a scraping noise, or the noise that you make when you're grinding your teeth.

It was annoying me to no end, so I decided to look beside me and saw that Filo's eyes had sharpened and her beak was grinding against one another.

"Master, I'm going to fight that thing!"

Naofumi quickly tried to convince her to stop, "No, Filo don't! It's dangerous!"

Filo ignored his calls after her and quickly hopped up the ledges of the mountain and up to where the dragon was.

She walked back and started sprinting at full speed to land a big kick on the face of the dragon.

I knew how strong she was, but there was no way she'd make it if she was that hasty.

I got my guns ready and shot at the distracted dragon to switch his anger and attention onto me.

As I intended, the dragon faced towards me with his empty eye sockets.

I suddenly felt as if all the energy has seeped from my legs.

It was like the time the 3 headed beast stared at me before charging, and before Adryel had to give up his own life to save a cowardly me who wasn't even worth it.

My legs were shaking, and my eyes were widened and shook with fear.

"Sister! Don't worry! I hate these dragons, so I'll help you! Don't be scared!"

I looked up at the sprinting Filo the jumped up with all her force to land a hit on the dragon.

But before she did, the dragon had decided that I was no harm, and turned back to where Filo was.

The plump white bird ended up in the throat of the dragon, red substance flying all over the place.

It landed on my face and I screamed, thinking about all of the times Filo had with us, had with me.

The big lump in the dragons throat slowly went down, and the more deep it went the louder my screams of terror were.

I remember when she was first hatched, and I was jealous of Naofumi for winning her love before I did.

Tears slid down my face like a waterfall, and I blamed everything upon myself.

If I had just been a bit stronger, a bit more courageous, she wouldn't have lost her life like that.

She did it to protect me and make me feel safe!

Everything happened so fast that it didn't seem real.

If only this dragon weren't here in the first place.

If only I could just get rid of it.

"Why are you in this world? What are those things in your hands?"

Suddenly feeling an odd feeling coursing through my veins to my head and eyes, my vision became red and black.

"She can't be one of the people that is supposed to save our land."

My entire body felt warm, and I felt as if I had been encased my a soundproof shield, blocking me inside with the words of hatred.

"You think you're a hero? You think we'd accept you?"

I could slightly hear people shouting my name from the outside, although it was a bit muffled.

Raphtalia, Naofumi.

My warm hands turned scalding hot, and my vision was flashing and glitching.

"You're just a monster."

The gun in my hands could've probably burnt off a layer of my skin by now, but I felt invincible. No one could stop me.

Let alone this dragon.

I felt myself open my mouth and let out a shout of fury, but I couldn't hear anything except for my ragged breaths.

I crossed my guns across my chest and then thrust them in front of me with all the power I had.

I pressed down on both of the triggers and I sent out so many bullets so quickly that it was almost like light beams.

I could feel the retaliation wanting to move me back, but I stood my ground and felt it sink under me.

The dragon swayed its head in pain, and I grinned feeling pleased with myself.

When the head reached the ground I blanked out for a split second and the next thing I knew, I was on the ground.

The ringing noise went in and out of my ears, and I saw 2 blurry people in my vision, swerving and creating doubles.

Last but not least, a fluffy silhouette with red stains popped out from behind and cupped me up along with another body.

I sunk into the fluff and closed my eyes, feeling all sorts of pain enter me.

I wanted to ask about what had happened to me, or to the dragon, or as to why this familiar fluff and comfortable place to sleep seemed so similar to me.

My head beckoned me to sleep, so I did.

Today was a strange day.