My arrow soared through the air towards the malevolent dragon, but he was too fast for me. He lifted his clawed hand and batted it away, like swatting a fly, before turning his full attention to me.

I was laid prone, half covered by a stack of coins which had buried me during the landslide. They were heavy and I struggled to move under the weight of the dragon’s financial might.

I’d heard the saying money is power before, but this wasn’t exactly what I’d had in mind.

The dragon took a thundering step towards me, shaking the ground and causing more of the gold to slide down the money mountain.

I lifted my bow and nocked another arrow, my stamina running dangerously low. The dragon sneered, curling its lip beneath the odd white moustache which hung off the edge of its muzzle.

Its glaring, golden eyes peered dangerously at me, daring me to try it. I could tell that if I loosed my arrow it would be the last thing I ever did.

I thought of my wife Layla and our child who I had never met. They had given me strength before, literally in one particular case, and they gave me strength now.

My wife wasn’t the most caring women, but she was a straight-shooting pragmatist who had always cared deeply for her loved ones. If she was here, she’d have told me to cut my losses and run. Of course, if she was in my position, that would be the last thing she’d do. She’d fight to the end, and that was exactly what I planned to do.

I didn’t want to die. I wanted to protect them, to bring them here so we could be a family again. That being said, nobody would be able to say that Kaleb Akabane died a whimpering coward.

If I was going to die, I would die fighting.

I gritted my teeth, narrowed my eyes, and fired my shot.

The dragon sighed like a disappointed father scolding an unruly child for the umpteenth time as it snorted a tiny fireball which collided with the arrow, burning it to a crisp in mid-air.

“Why are all you humans so stupid?” The dragon asked as it shook its head and looked down on me. “It’s like you only have two brain cells and they’re so preoccupied in fighting each other over third place, that even they are useless to you.”

It sounded fed up, not at all what I expected as it lifted its three-clawed foot above my head. There it was, I was about to be made in pate.

I fucking hated pate.

“Not on my watch you overgrown garden skink!” Sally yelled and the dragon turned away from me just as her oversized, black blade slammed into the top of its skull.

It stagged backwards dazedly, its huge foot landing mere inches from my face. I gasped, looking wide eyed between Sally and the dragon, and blinking slowly.

That was way too close.

“Get out of the way Gonads,” Sally scolded me. “The pros are here now.”

She offered me her hand and I grasped it firmly as she pulled me out of the coins so hard I felt my shoulder creak as my arm nearly came out of its socket.

I staggered towards her and she let go of my hand, side stepping me deftly as I stumbled behind her. Tilly scowled at me as she walked past, her hips swaying with practiced swagger.

The dragon looked at them with disgust, like a man who had taken a bite of a juicy beef burger only to find out it was actually some vegan replacement shit. Its eyes burned with a contempt-fuelled hatred and Sally sneered back, baring her fangs.

“Phase four are you?” It growled, barely opening its mouth as it spoke. “Not bad for a house cat.” It spat as fire exploded from its mouth in little, simmering globs of spittle. “It’s a shame I don’t keep pets.”

It dived towards them in a flurry of wings and claws as Sally lifted her sword to block and was flung across the room into a pile of gold near Bell and the rest of the team.

I looked at her open mouthed and then back towards the dragon but in that split second, Tilly had made her move. The elf girl fired a myriad of arrows, her hand nocking, drawing, and releasing the string faster than my eyes could comprehend.

The dragon’s claws moved just as fast and when she finally let up, it held an entire quiver’s worth of arrows between his claws. The dragon sneered and pulled its red, scaled arm back for the haymaker.

I knew I had to do something, even if it wasn’t much, so I slammed down on a stamina potion in my inventory and the poured almost all of my remaining stamina into the Perception Of The Apex Predator skill.

Perception of the Apex Predator (rare)

Slow down time for a period determined by the amount of stamina you use on the skill. Cooldown determined by the amount of stamina used on the skill.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

It was a skill I hadn’t used too often as it seemed to be geared towards people with much higher stamina than myself, but I was at a loss and this was all I could think of.

Time stopped and I dived towards Tilly, knocking her out of the way with my shoulder and falling to the floor. Then I rolled away from her as fast as I could. It wasn’t much, but perhaps it would save her life.

Time resumed after barely a second and the dragon altered his aim slightly, scowling as he flung the arrows across the room. They hit Tilly before she even had time to gasp. I looked towards her still standing body, acupuncture hadn’t terrified me this much since I’d watched Final Destination 5 as a kid.

“When I asked Santa for a good dicking this Christmas, this is not what I had in mind!” Bell yelled from across the room.

I barely heard her as I stared up at the deathly beast, ready to face my end. We were well and truly fucked, up shit’s creek without a paddle didn’t even begin to describe our situation.

Just call me Nagasaki cause I’m about to get wrecked by a fat man, I thought dourly, looking up at the belly of the beat above me.

I tried to find words, or the strength to keep fighting but my body wouldn’t move and my mouth wouldn’t mouth.

“Dirty, venerable lesser races!” The dragon bellowed as I stared up at it from the floor, unable to speak, unsure what to do. “It doesn’t matter where I go, this always happens.

“Why won’t you odious cretins leave me be? All I wanted was a peaceful life. I should have listened to my mother when she told me that it simply wasn’t in the cards for a dragon.

“What did I ever do to you?” It screamed, but I thought it might be a rhetorical question so I didn’t even try to reply. I was right. “I just wanted to live out my days, hoarding my wealth and eating the occasional dwarf or two. Is that too much to ask?”

I looked up at it in disbelief, my fear quickly turning to shock. Was this thing really throwing a temper tantrum? It seemed so regal before, now it reminded me of a toddler in a fancy restaurant, or a toddler on a plane, or a toddler being denied access to a toy store.

Ok, I think I might have had a bit of a hang up about screaming kids in public places, but this was a god forsaken dragon for crying out loud! What in the ever-loving fuck was happening?

“That’s it.” It continued, its voice suddenly cold and menacing. “I tried to live the peaceful, solitary life, but you lesser life forms couldn’t leave me be. There’s only one solution now.

“I’ll have to rid this island of your filth all together.” Its eyes glinted as it looked slightly above me, like it had a sudden lightbulb moment and had completely forgotten we existed. “I’ll just have to eradicate you all, then I can finally get some peace and quiet.”

Its voice sounded distant, psychotic even, as it grinned like a madman and flapped its powerful wings.

It hovered above us for a moment and the entire team stared at it, unsure what to do or say. Then it opened its mouth and spewed a firestorm of a cyclone at the side of the lair, blasting a hole through the side of the mountain.

It flew through the new exit it had created, seemingly forgetting we were even there. It had obviously gotten pretty caught up in its Bond villain monologue.

The room was silent.

I stared at the hole in the wall in disbelief. Had that really just happened? How was I still alive? We needed to warn someone, anyone, everyone. The gold eyes red dragon was pissed and every person on the island was about to be its punching bag.

Shit!

I stumbled to my feet and turned towards Tilly the elf. Her body laid next to me; more arrow than elf at this point as dark, pooling blood spilled out around her.

The only part of her body which didn’t have holes in it was her face. She was beautiful, serene in death as her gleaming eyes stared into the void which I was sure was staring back at her just as passionately.

“Reggie, stay with me!” Jamie’s trembling voice pierced through my melancholic ponderings of elven death, bringing me back into the room.

I turned on my heels and rushed towards him, sliding on my knees, and arriving next to Reggie. He looked like Anakin Skywalker at the end of Revenge of the Sith and for a split second I was surprised that Bell wasn’t standing on top of the gold pile shouting: “You were my brother!”

It certainly seemed like something she would do, but instead she simply stared blankly at the scene before her. It seemed that even she wasn’t callous enough to crack a joke as our friend struggled to cling on to life.

Reggie’s head turned towards me slightly, it was hard to make out his facial features through the charred flesh but I swear he smiled at me. It was only a flicker of his lips through ragged, slow breathing. Yet as I looked at our dying healer, I took it as him telling me to keep the rest of them safe.

We hadn’t been together long, but still, watching the light as it left his eyes and his body turn to ash was heart wrenching. I’d gotten used to killing, but seeing a friend die before my eyes… I wasn’t sure I’d ever get used to that.

The floor rumbled and I lost my balance slightly as the entire room shook. It was like an earthquake had started out of nowhere.

The sound of clattering, clinking coins filled the room as the mountains of gold began sliding over each other.

“We need to get out of here!” Panda shouted, poking his fluffy, black and white head through the mineshaft hole.

I looked at him for a moment before fully comprehending the situation. He was right. We needed to skedaddle right the fuck now. I stood up, grabbing Jamie’s shoulder and yanking him with me.

He looked at me with hollow, teary eyes.

“I can’t leave him.” He muttered, clearly in severe shock. He pulled against me but it was a weak effort.

I tugged his arm more firmly, ushering him towards the tunnel. He wouldn’t budge. He just kept repeating the words: “I can’t leave him,” over and again every time I tried to get him to move.

We didn’t have time for this. I felt bad for him, hell I was upset and I’d not even known the guy all that long, still, the living had to come first.

I slapped Jamie hard across the face, snapping his head to the side as his faraway eyes snapped back into focus.

“He’d want you to live!” I yelled, trying desperately to be heard over the rumbling of the collapsing cave as I grabbed his shoulders.

He stared back at me, barely comprehending and I tossed him towards the hole. There was no time to be nice about it and he wasn’t the only one who needed my help.

“Strike!” Bell yelled as she jogged towards me.

I didn’t have time to admonish her for the poorly timed bowling joke as I shook my head and rushed towards the closest gold pile.

She bent down and touched Reggie before heading to the escape hole herself.

Mere seconds after she moved away from our former healer’s ashes, rocks rained down and a boulder crashed into his corpse, scattering him around the lair.

I reached the gold pile and could just about make out a single, muscular arm trapped beneath the mountain of coins. I grabbed it and began pulling when a notification popped up on my HUD and I’d never been so happy to be living in a world with a looting system.

Do you want to loot gold coins?

Y/N