"The dragon?" Hori, Sora and Kurai exclaimed in unison.

"But we already gave it what it asked for," Hori worried.

"Seems like it wants more, come on." Kurai sighed leading Sora, Hori and the knight away.

Kesshō followed them, but the boy thought better of it and returned to his unconscious companions. They went straight towards the front gate of the fort, grabbing a coat from the stand they pushed the door open and were met by a cold gust of wind.

The gust wasn't natural, it was made by the dragon flapping its wings. The snow-white dragon with blue eyes stared at them as they exited the fort's protection and stood outside in front of the massive beast. It was easily taller than the fort's wall and large enough to barely fit on the flat area in front of the fort. It growled as they stood right in front of it, a low growl which was still enough to strike fear in the heart of even the greatest warriors. The dragon stood with its four legs clasped around the sides of the narrow path and its wings half folded to help balance.

Yuki was already there when they arrived, her attention on the dragon. She nodded as Kurai approached and stepped behind him, allowing him to go ahead and talk.

"What do you want?" Kurai questioned the dragon, almost shouting so that his words might reach the dragon.

The dragon gave a low contemplating growl. "Food," He answered in a low-pitched humanoid voice.

"We don't have much, we already gave you most of it earlier, our deal-." Hori argued.

"That is your problem," The dragon snarled. "Give me what I want otherwise your fort can enjoy an ice age and a carnage."

Kurai clenched his jaw, his situation helpless, not knowing how to solve this predicament and protect the people. The dragon hissed at Kurai, threatening him, receiving a hiss from Kesshō, startling it. It eyed her for a while, examining her curiously.

"A hybrid?" The dragon gasped after a while. "You humans dare threaten me with a hybrid?" The dragon bellowed.

"No." Kurai denied quickly, pulling Kesshō closer and slightly behind him to shield her.

She kept the dragon fixed with an intimidating glare, as intimidating as she could muster. The dragon snarled at her, trying to threaten her, but it didn't work as Kesshō stood unflinching.

"You better keep your pet in check," The dragon warned.

Kurai clenched his jaw again, trying to keep his own anger in check. Kesshō's tails rattled behind her, wanting to rip the dragon to shreds, and the rare occassion of Kesshō agreeing with their violent desires.

"There isn't anything else we can do," Kurai sighed. The others nodded their agreement in disappointment. "Is there any room for negotiation?" Kurai asked the dragon.

"What do you propose?" The dragon inquired.

Kurai thought for a while, looking around every now and then. "A lot more than we can offer right now," He answered.

"And how are you going to do that?"

"There is going to be a war, in a few weeks, I am sure of it. The armies are on their move already. You can have all the spoils of war on our enemy's side, not ours however."

"Both sides," The dragon interjected.

"We can't do that, there are many who would wish to see the remains of their family that fought and died," Kurai insisted.

"The odds are not in your favor here. You wish to go against the king's armies, against one of the strongest kingdoms on the continent. The chances of your victory are negligible. I would be able to strike a better deal by offering the king my help in conquering the world, an offer worthy of my attention, and a reward worthy of my presence," The dragon declared proudly.

"We can't afford to give you any more than that, we don't have much ourselves and we are going to be attacked by one of the biggest armies in the continent, don't you have a heart?" Yuki yelled at the dragon in anger.

"You are walking on thin ice here glacial mage," The dragon hissed.

Yuki stepped back, clenching her fist in anger. Kurai put a hand on her shoulder, gesturing her to calm down. Yuki sighed and lowered her head.

"Surely a dragon wouldn't be that hard to deal with," Kurai whispered.

The dragon let out a hiss before swinging its talon at Kurai. Kurai barely jumped out of the way as the talon passed, tearing some of his coat on the way. Seeing this Kesshō charged right at the dragon, not caring about the shouts of the others. With her claws, wings, and tails out she quickly climbed up its leg onto its back, digging her claws and tails in to push herself upwards with the boost from her wings.

Her tails slashed at the dragon's body, prying out some scales and stabbing at the exposed flesh, drawing blood in the process. Kesshō did the same with her claws, trying to create an opening suitable for injecting large amounts of venom into the dragon. This did not go unopposed however.

The dragon swung itself wildly, lashing its tail and clawing its back with its talons. Kesshō jumped around, dodging the large claws and strong tail. Just one attack would be enough to knock her off if not kill her. Her tails continued attacking, creating openings, not suitable for injecting venom yet, but suitable for other things.

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Not having done this before, Kesshō tried her best to guess how to do it. Taking in a deep breath through her mouth, she blew it back out with all her force, while imagining spitting fire, which is exactly what happened. The fire breath didn't last long, the icy scales and cold blood not letting them last, but the damage was done.

The dragon roared and shook itself even quicker, not caring about losing its own footing. Kesshō clung to its back for dear life, being thrashed around wildly, not being flung away thanks to the extra help from her tails which were stabbed into the dragon's flesh. As her body smashed into its back she slammed her claws on some of its exposed flesh, successfully keeping herself from being thrashed around any longer.

The dragon clawed where Kesshō was clinging, certain to get the hit this time. That would have been the case, if Kessho wouldn't have let go, with her hands. She swung around, smashing her body onto the dragon's back several times as it continued to thrash violently. The dragon tilted its body to the left and prepared to smash itself on the side of the mountain nearby. Just as it moved its body towards the mountain's side the ground beneath its left front talon turned to ice and crumbled beneath its weight.

Losing balance, the dragon smashed its neck on a jagged part of the mountain peak, creating a wound on its neck that was exposed and slightly bleeding as the dragon fell to it's knees. Kesshō saw the opportunity as the dragon attempted to get up, having stopped thrashing wildly, and made her way to the wound as fast as she could. By the time she got there the dragon was nearly up. It snarled as she reached the wound, guessing her intentions, and almost accurately at that

The dragon shook its neck in an attempt to throw her off, not clawing with the fear of harming itself more than she could, which it was wrong about. Lying down and sinking her claws and tails into the wound, she bit on the exposed part, right over a blood vessel, injecting nearly all her venom.

The dragon shook more wildly and began to claw itself, drawing large amounts of blood and unhooking Kesshō in the process. She got away safely, using her wings to glide away from the dragon. She landed in front of it, halfway between the dragon and everyone else. Spinning on her heels she faced the dragon, watching as it slowly succumbed to the venom.

However, the dragon showed no signs of the venom affecting it, from the inside at least. Its neck melted where she injected the venom but the dragon still stood strong. It opened its jaws and a chilling blast of ice breath starting to form inside. Its pearl-white scales were now covered in blood and claw marks, both its own and Kesshō's.

Kesshō herself was also worse for the wear. Her entire body was bruised with a large amount of cuts from the dragon's sharp scales. She was covered in blood, her lips were split and she was bleeding from a wound at her head.

Disregarding her injuries Kesshō prepared her own fire breath, knowing it would be no match for the ice breath of the colossal dragon, but also knowing there was no other way. She was determined still, not wishing to go down without mortally wounding the dragon. She blew a fireball straight into the dragon's mouth, which seemed a good idea at first, but didn't work as well as expected.

Kesshō's fire was too small and weak, not enough to melt the ice forming in the dragon's mouth. The flames were quickly extinguished, only achieving to delay the attack by a few seconds. With her flames having failed her, she readied herself for the only weapon she knew worked, not very well, but she needed all the help she could.

Opening her jaw she sprayed all her recharged venom into the dragon's mouth, most of it landing around the jaw while some managed to make it inside. The dragon choked on the venom, closing its jaws and damaging itself with the ice that formed inside. The dragon spluttered and choked for a few seconds before slumping to the ground, dead from the looks of it.

Or on closer inspection, actually not. As Kesshō reached near she realized the dragon wasn't dead, its eyes followed her movements and its breathing was shallow. It wasn't dead, but was dying, the only explanation being her venom. The venom injected from the bite just seemed to be taking some time to spread throughout the dragon's much larger body than any other creature Kesshō encountered yet. Even now the dragon wasn't completely paralyzed.

Kesshō moved away, running to Kurai and burying her face in his clothes, not wanting to witness the blood flood that was about to occur up close. She was welcomed by looks of 'are you serious'. Everyone was surprised, and mildly confused at her victory. Defeating a dragon is no easy task after all, some can even wipe out entire kingdoms and most require an entire well-coordinated and well-maintained army to be defeated. And this one was certainly strong, the only reason for Kesshō's victory, her venom, and some credit to her tails for helping to not be thrown into the valley.

"That was unexpected," Sora muttered after a while of silence.

Everyone nodded before their attention turned to the source of a 'pop' sound from behind. Kesshō was already aware what the sound was and didn't turn, not wanting to witness a dragon carcass surrounded with blood. The orc still gave her nightmares, a dragon would be the end of her sleep. Yuki almost looked like she was going to throw up as well.

Hori and Kurai were both disgusted at the site of the dragon carcass bursting with blood, Sora remaining to be the only one with an expression of curiosity and interest. He observed the carcass and what happened from afar before muttering something to himself and nodding.

"What have you figured out?" Hori asked.

"How her venom works." Sora replied with a shrug.

"Please enlighten us," Hori requested.

"Certainly. Her venom works on the heart and brain at the same time. It shuts down some parts of the brain, disabling all voluntary movement of the victim. Then, it takes its time working on the heart. Slowly, all blood vessels start bursting while the victim is still alive, and could most likely feel all the pain, before the heart bursts itself, finally ending its life," Sora explained.

Hori's expression turned to horror and he glanced between Kesshō and the dragon, probably expecting Kesshō to bite him and himself to end up like that. Kurai's expression didn't change much, he just tried to suppress his disgust, not wanting to dishearten Kesshō, though it was already done.

Kesshō didn't suppose that the victims went through that much at first, she expected they were dead before the worse part, or that they didn't feel the pain. Kesshō didn't wish to use her venom ever again, but she couldn't deny the hard truth that there was only so much she could do without it. It was her strongest weapon, and one that worked on everything, small or big.

"Is he actually dead?" Yuki asked after getting over her nausea.

"Yes, I doubt anything could survive her venom now," Sora replied.

Yuki nodded. "Well, that is one problem dealt with," She sighed.

"There are other matters that need to be discussed, Kesshō, you are free to go anywhere you want, in the fort, we have some important work to do. Go wash the blood off and rest first." Kurai ordered her, leading others back into the fort before parting ways with her.

Kesshō returned to the garden and stood there alone, looking at the sky as it slowly turned dark. She was surrounded by grass halfway up her knees and a great many flowers of many different colors. There were no trees or boulders in this part of the garden, offering not much space to sit except the grass.

"Are you lost little one?" A voice inquired.