I stared at the dragon's furious amber eyes. His dark pupils were shaped like a crescent moon, drilling a hole into my soul.

My senses suddenly sharpened and I became hyper aware of every move and even twitch.

I changed the grip on my spear and pointed it toward the dragon's head.

The beast twitched toward the left clearly aware of the danger my spear represented.

The old man was too far away from me. It would take him a long time to descend the stone hill. I had to defend myself and I was going to impale the dragon if it tried getting too close.

Absolute language comprehension included body language. Even the body language of beasts.

I could tell something was wrong. Despite going into a wide stance, keeping eye contact and being as imposing as possible the dragon kept growling at me.

I glanced at the yellow-blue dragon caught in the net and that's when I realised the problem.

Eggs! Their progeny was hiding inside the nest, probably inside of tiny colourful eggs.

The yellow-blue dragon was probably the girl and the deep blue amber eyed monster in front of me was the man. Dragons are territorial only when mating and raising children. Otherwise they're very amicable creatures. Well, as amiable as a bloodthirsty, thousand sword heavy predator can be.

Combat was the only option!

The dragon's wings suddenly spread into an aerodynamic pattern.

Dragons jump by propelling themselves into the air and then use their wings to glide onto their target, pouncing their victims into a bloody paste. If they intend to eat you then they'll grab you instead and literally drag you to death, skinning you in the process.

I sent every drop of magical power into my limbs and jumped like a released spring while pre aiming at the dragon's head.

An eruption almost ruptured my eardrums as the dragons underside volcanoes exploded with hot air, creating a deadly blast zone.

I was flung a horse's length away.

The dragon raised his head and aggressively roared.

There was a tiny barely visible hole in the ground next to his leg. I had missed the head and hit the ground as the dragon swayed in the last moment of flight.

My head was ringing like an old church bell. My vision was fogging up and I could feel my heart thumping rhythmically. I could taste a salty liquid in my mouth.

I stabbed my spear into the ground and slowly raised myself back to my feet. Staying on the ground meant being trampled to death.

I was badly beaten but I wasn't going to give up. Sure the beast may be car-sized. Sure it may be able to spew lightning…

It can spew lightning!

An electric bolt arced out of the dragon's cheeks and bounced off of his tongue, turning into a death spreading weapon. The air suddenly became extremely hot as the first few arcs bounced off the many draconic scales, casting an electric skin all over the dragon.

Now I can't even get close!

Then all of a sudden a thick bolt of lightning jumped toward me.

Too fast! I couldn't react at all. My entire right arm was paralyzed and I could smell burning flesh. The metallic bracer hadn't helped at all. But at least the bolt arced toward the metal spear tip, stabbed in the ground. Otherwise I would have died from a heart attack.

Wait, that's it!

I looked at the struggling dragoness. The air around the net was shimmering from the heat but there were no lightning bolts. Why? The metallic weights that held the net in place were acting as a grounding component for the electricity. The metal was almost glowing from the enormous electric current.

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After stabilising myself I pulled the spear out of the clutch of my unresponsive hand. A layer of melted skin stayed stuck on the spear's shaft and I could see a meaty bit hanging from it. Probably one of my fingers.

I lunged the spear with full power. It whistled through the air lunging into the beasts neck where the scales were more sparsely present.

The dragon growled in pain, his eyes fixating on me.

I looked the dragon straight in the eye and grabbed the quilt with crossbow bolts that were hanging from my waist. In a single move I scattered the bolts all over the ground, around the dragon.

The lightning arced to the metal tips, creating an inconsistent lightning skirt around the creature, disabling the electric skin effect from before.

I drew my cutlass and charged into the gap between the electric bolts.

"Exterminate!"

A long diagonal gash formed on the dragon's face, exploding his right eye.

The dragon stunned by my move took a while to react.

I used the full motion of my hand to chop with surgical precision. Bits of dragon flesh and scales flew all over the place, painting me with a grotesque dark paint, made of draconic blood and other liquids.

I managed to open up the right side of his head, exposing his milky white bones and the remains of his electricity shooting tongue. My clothes seemed to have caught on fire at some point but I didn't care. There was only one thought racing through my mind: "Exterminate!"

The dragon whizzed in pain as he shot out his last bolt before I fully cut off his tongue. It was inevitable that he would hit from this distance.

I suddenly felt the world go black so with the last of my consciousness I used magic power to pump as much blood as possible toward my vital organs. A sharp headache brought me back into the world, where I realised that my right eye was impaired.

Pure darkness. I couldn't see anything right of my nose.

I must have been gone for only a split second because I could see the dragon biting toward my arm, trying to tear it off.

I used the pommel of my sword and aimed at his exposed lower jaw. A sharp crack followed and his teeth exploded out of their cavities. However, the bite wasn't over. The dragon chomped down, trying to slice my arm off with his upper teeth.

He squeezed my fingers between the handle and the cutlass' guard like a hydraulic press. I barely pulled out my sword but then the dragon threw himself at me with his body the size of a carriage.

I stabbed the sword deep into his neck, penetrating the scaly skin and held on for my dear life as the dragon blasted up into the air, toward the treeline.

Suddenly I was midair. The wind was whistling past my ears as my body moved away from the ground, hanging from the dragon's neck.

The dragon took a swipe at me with his massive claws. Penetrating my shiny landshark scalemail and scratching the iron plate below. I could feel my rib cage creaking under the pressure but the iron plate held.

When that didn't work the dragon stopped gliding in the air and bolted toward the ground in an attempt to squash me under his weight.

I shot my leg around his neck and jumped into the dragon riding position, dislocating a bone in the process.

The dragon landed within an enormous explosion that generated a crater beneath his feet. However, this wasn't enough to throw me off. I held with even more vigour: determined to bring the dragon down along with me.

Unsuccessful, the dragon tried spinning then rolling on the ground.

As he sprung into a roll I sacrificed the two fingers trapped in between the guard and the handle and tore my hand away, generating a bloody cloud.

I jumped down from the dragon's back and rolled on the ground. Blood sprayed out of my hand, creating a bloody trail behind me.

I tried getting away but I tripped on something box-shaped and fell to the ground a short distance away from the crater.

This was it! There was nowhere I could move or run. I pulled a secret blade out of my boot and aimed it at the wheezing dragon. My last line of defence!

However, the dragon didn't move. He just stood there trying to breathe. There was a large dark pool underneath the dragon, created out of hundreds of bloody streams. There were deep gashes scattered all over his body. The dragon had a cutlass impaled through his neck and two of my fingers were hanging out of the smashed guard, like some sort of an obscene piercing decoration. The broad headed spear tip was stuck in the lower part of his neck, while the shaft had broken off long ago. His right eye was replaced with a bloody hole and his white skull was visibly exposed in multiple places.

The dragon directed a hate filled wheeze toward me and walked off into the jungle.

I sat there stupefied. Looking at his retreating figure.

No, that can't be it! I looked at my mangled hand. All of this for nothing!

I wanted to scream at him. Why was he leaving now? Didn't he want to fight? Take revenge for the misery I had inflicted upon him.

I dragged myself toward his retreating figure but I once again tripped on the box shaped thing.

Step by step he left, leaving behind a thick and dark bloody trail.

Ah, whatever. It's not like wild dragons breed in captivity. Still, I desperately wanted his skull on my bedroom wall for some reason.

As the adrenaline rush receded I felt more and more pain especially in my hands.

My feet hurt as well. I was more or less immobilised now.

It's all because of that stupid box.

I kicked at the damn thing and a metallic sound reached my ears. I closely observed the target of my righteous anger and all of a sudden an explosion went off in my head.

*****

New Language Discovered: Weldian Runes

*****

What was that just now?