Tilly took a deep breath in and carefully drew his hatchet back, taking great pains to keep his movements slow and deliberate. His Strength Stat was now at 169 and in a moment for a single strike, he would double it to 338… and with his Endurance now down to a measly 28, he was fairly sure he was going to do more damage to himself than to the dragon.
Not that he had much of a choice. He may have been new to this world, but he could tell right off the bat that the dynamic unfolding was one that was going to end up getting someone killed. He was more than betting that dragons didn't know the meaning of mercy or compromise and if he didn't do something to flip this script, everything was going to fall to shit, and fast…
“Ready, dragon?” He called, exhaling his third breath since activating the bracelets.
A snarl of teeth from the ancient killing machine was the only answer as the dragon stood stoically, ready to take any blow the human before him could dish out.
“Alright, here goes nothing…” He muttered to himself, holding the weapon in a motion that felt eerily similar to Ichiro's demonstration of his will-imbued strike at the top of the mountain a month ago. He took another slow breath in, holding it as he began the forward motion of the throw. Contrary to his initial instincts with axe throwing, each throw started in the opposite foot and moved up the body in a whip-like release of potential energy. As the slow twist began to pick up speed, he exhaled, activating [All-Might] just as his shoulder started to rotate in its socket, moving his arm forward in a baseball-style, over-the-head throw. Anticipating just how different his body was with his new Strength, he had been moving as intentionally as possible, but that all changed with the activation of his title Ability.
A concussive blast went off like a cannon right next to his deaf right ear, and something like the Hand of God slammed his body down into the rock of the quarry. The rock attempting to support his legs cracked and exploded into a crater as every bone in his body fractured.
This was the summation of both Tilly’s hopes and fears when he had first read about the Celestial Bracelet's power, incredible power at the price of any sort of balance. His Ax-Throwing Skill was at a respectable 31 and he felt it guiding his limbs even as he applied almost 10 times more force to the motion than he ever had before. It just barely allowed him to instinctively adjust his motions as his body was decimated by Newton's third law. That, plus whatever magic bullshit logic made his Title possible in the first place, allowed him to follow through correctly, finishing the throwing motion even as blood vessels ruptured and muscles ripped free from ligaments with the unparalleled internal force he had just violently subjected his body to.
The sensation of broken glass being shoved into every square inch of his flesh suffused his mind. The few nerve endings that were still intact fired off at him so fast that he was practically being electrocuted as he collapsed into a literal boneless heap.
A 10.0 earthquake whose epicenter was twenty yards in front of Tilly went unnoticed as he focused all of his shattered mind on forcing his body to take its next shallow breath.
Six breaths later the Bracelet’s effect reversed, and the nightmare of world-ending pain was reduced to simply overwhelming as his herculean Endurance was restored, imparting an otherworldly resilience to his remaining bodily functions. It didn’t heal any of the damage, but it slowed the plummeting of his health bar to something just shy of fatal.
Then a wave of warm blue flames washed over him, slowing the fall of his health even further. The first wave was followed by another, and then another, until finally the downward trend started to reverse course, and his ruined body began to reknit itself. At some point, his agony was reduced to a dull roar, and his hearing was restored just in time to catch a roar of fury dampened by a newly created barrier of hundreds of tons of collapsed rock.
“Alright, I have stopped the worst of it, but it took a quarter of my Mana to do it. He had more Debuffs than I have ever seen in a single person.” Erash called from the side. Her report was met with a deep chuckle from right over Tilly and he opened his eyes to find Threstus, Hiro, and Ichiro standing over him.
“Do you ever run out of surprises human? Actually don’t answer that. It is too much fun being around you, and I don't want the magic of it ruined.” Threstus smirked as Hiro continued to shock the world with the basso sound of his actual laughter.
“I never took you for a slapstick man.” Tilly groaned up at the laughing lapin.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“Jonathan Tillman, I know not what that term means, but I must admit a deep enjoyment of such an unexpected reversal of situations.” The Guardian answered, his deep basso chuckle slowly dying, as Ichiro reached down and helped Tilly up. The motion hurt, but Erash’s spells were doing their work, and he was able to bear the weight of his own body as he stood shakily on his feet.
The roar ceased and the recently collapsed opening that Tilly had apparently knocked a dragon through began to pour forth smoke and heat.
“Ah.. that can’t be good. I can’t imagine it's going to be too happy with you, human.” Threstus stage whispered as the small party considered the magma-like slag beginning to flow in rivulets from the cracks in the rubble.
“A fight with such a creature would not have gone well for us… But perhaps we will now have some amount of its respect?” Ichiro added although Tilly couldn’t tell if it was a statement or a question.
Others started to arrive at the mouth of the Quarry, and Hiro split a sharp glance between the forces arriving and the slag pouring from the mountain entrance.
“Threstus, get them out of here. However this goes, we can perhaps limit the damage to those of us who have initially confronted the creature…”
“On it,” Threstus answered, turning toward the arrived troops and sprinting away in a flash, before reappearing before their ranks, and turning them back. Finally, enough of the collapsed rock was melted away, that the flame behind its transformation burst forth, shooting up at an angle like a hellish gieser.
The small group flinched before the display and Hiro whispered, “Spread out. Jonathan, for better or worse, you are on point. We need to find a way to de-escalate the situation, and if possible, find out how it got here. If you are unsuccessful, we will surrender or attack, depending on how this unfolds.”
With that, he leapt away to the right, more or less covering Erash, while Ichiro spread out to the left, leaving Tilly front and center for what was about to come out of that opening.
The fountain of flames cut off, leaving a car-sized hole in the side of the mountain. Then the rumbling began again, and now that he was here to witness it, Tilly realized that it was the dragon shouldering his way through actual stone… Thankfully by the time it burst through the opening, most of the slag had cooled to a glowing, but solid state, and Tilly was able to dodge the falling debris as the snarling mythical creature emerged.
Its eyes immediately zeroed in on him, shooting forward in a slithering rush. Tilly was all out of tricks, so he did the only thing he could think of; he went full bullshit mode.
Assuming as much nonchalance as he could physically force his tense body into, he rested his hands on his hips and held himself still at the dragon’s approach, which stopped just short of striking Tilly. The dragon pulled up to its full height while keeping its neck coiled back, ready to strike.
“Remove this, Ape!” It snarled, smoke puffing out to emphasize each word. The Metaphysical weight crashed into Tilly along with the command, and everything about the dragon’s aura poured forth fury and violence. But through it all, Tilly was shocked to find his hatchet head lodged deep in the dragon's chest, just to the right of its sternum. Around the impact site were several shattered scales, and now that Tilly’s face was just feet away, he could see steaming blood oozing from the spot…
‘That had been one hell of a hit.‘
Doing his best not to piss himself, Tilly looked up at the dragon with a scowl of indifference, channeling his favorite instructor in the fire academy. The guy had done every back-breaking exercise with the new recruits, outdoing even the biggest studs in the class. After PT was done, he would take off his fire gear, and drop the weight vest he kept on underneath. Sometimes, halfway through the worst of their workouts, he would get this crazy look in his eye, like he was willing to die, as long as it meant crushing them into the dust one more time. The guy was forty-five eating twenty-year-olds for breakfast and to this day was still one of Tilly’s heroes,
“My name is Jonathan Tillman, and I don’t have to do shit. If you want a round two… just let me know.” He growled up at the dragon.
The dragon's eyes dilated to razor-thin pupils, and he lowered his head until it was inches from Tilly's face, “I will consume you and destroy this backwater if you do not heed me, Soul-Bound Hoard or not.” It hissed, pushing smoke into Tilly's nostrils and eyes.
Tilly did his best not to cough, and he waved away the acrid substance pooling in his face as his armor rose to cover his mouth and nose.
“Yeah, and how did that go for you the first time? I have another one of these with your name on it.” He snarled, patting the second weapon on his hip and forcing himself to lean closer to the closed jaws.
They held each other’s gaze for a long moment, and Tilly felt his fear begin to melt away. The flame in his chest had become a roaring inferno and he realized that some part of himself believed his own words. He had faced one mind-bending terror after another, and he had pulled through again and again, while each of them had ended up as ash. Maybe he couldn’t go toe to toe with this thing, but that didn’t mean he was some pushover.
The dragon’s Authority attempted to press him into the ground, but Tilly’s Will burned just as hot, and raged against the pressure, using it as fuel to stoke his determination to new heights. Tongues of white flame began to dance in between them, bursting forth like sparks between two crashing rocks.
Then the moment was over and the dragon pulled its head back and relaxed, eyeing the others and taking in a thoughtful breath through its nostrils,
“Yes… you will do nicely. I did not anticipate this when she showed me the augmented Scorch, but I can feel your increase in strength affect my own. This new style of Hoard might work…” He muttered, looking past their group into the valley beyond.
The sudden slackening of pressure caused Tilly to almost stumble, but he readjusted his footing and called up to the creature, who was now, once again lost in thought, “Look, I can get my weapon out of you, but we need to know why you are here.”
The dragon’s eyes lazily slid back down to rest on Tilly, and its lips pulled back in an expression that could have been either a smile or hunger, “Your question is moot, human. I was here long before your little group arrived, this is my domain, no matter what games we play. The question you should be asking is why have you been put here? Fate had woven us together, and the Watcher was crafty indeed to nudge things in this direction.”
At this point, Hiro stepped back in, which was good, because Tilly was at a loss at the sudden change in direction the conversation had taken.
“Dragon, what do we call you and what would be required for us to share a common cause?”
The dragon did not look over at Hiro as he took a long moment to answer, obviously no stranger to dramatics, “My name is too rich for you to comprehend, but you may call me Brokenridge. As to my destiny… I will ascend the peaks of the Contested Lands and take the Dragon Throne by right of conquest. You, my Soul-Bound Hoard will serve me in this.”