“Rep, can I borrow your sword?” Zalan asked.
Rep immediately handed over his sword, not a moment’s hesitation.
“Any idea you have is much better than my lack of idea or ability. Take everything you need,” Rep said earnestly, watching Hatewing’s eyes for its next attack.
“Sky blue! Ice!” Gorb called, pulling Fran off their pile of gold and huddling behind it.
Zalan and Rep followed suit, Rep opening a small flame in his palm for them to share as the temperature dropped drastically throughout the room. The dragon had struck the pile of gold that Zalan was hiding behind previously, filling it with spikes of ice and ruining it for any further shelter. Zalan and Rep looked to one another in fear. The dragon might target them next.
“We should move!” Rep said, panicked.
“Right,” Zalan agreed, immediately hopping over their pile and rushing to the next one closest to them.
They were about thirty feet from the dragon now. Zalan decided not to throw lighting at it and draw its attention, trying to keep a low profile before executing his plan. Fran had no such hesitations, throwing a series of five small fireballs from behind her pile of treasure on the other side of the arena-like room, about twenty feet from the dragon. Hatewing seemed to be annoyed by the attack, similar to how it reacted to Zalan’s lightning attacks. But Zalan’s attacks would leave tiny dark marks on the dragon’s black hide where Fran’s left no such evidence. The dragon was fully immune to flame. Hatewing was ignoring Fran’s attacks where it had mild reactions to Zalan’s.
“This does not seem to be working!” Fran said, a permanent smile on her face throughout the battle. “What is your plan?”
“Gorb, I need you to send me upward and into the dragon’s face. I’ll imbue these two swords with lightning and drive them into its eyes. I think the lightning will do a lot of damage. Once it’s blind, we won’t have to worry as much about the Elemental blasts and we can get the Homeseeker and get out of here!” Zalan explained quickly.
“Sounds good! I will draw its attention away from you!” Fran said.
“I am completely spent of my energy!” Gorb called back. “I cannot send you flying so far. You will have to get closer!”
Zalan peeked his head over the pile of treasure he was hiding behind, nervously analyzing the dragon as it stared into Fran’s soul with bloodlust.
“How much closer?” Zalan asked, concerned.
“Get within five feet and I will send you up,” Gorb said.
“So close?” Rep asked.
“He intends to jump into the dragon’s face! He is not concerned about a distance like that!” Gorb replied.
“Riiight,” Zalan said in a small voice, looking queasily at Rep.
“You do not have to do this,” Rep said.
“Think of another way and I’ll try it. Right now, getting its eyes is the best idea I’ve got,” Zalan said, peering over the side just as Hatewing’s eyes decided on the next attack.
“Green eyes!” Fran said.
“Have we seen that before?” Rep asked, already losing track.
“No, just get down!” Fran called.
Hatewing breathed in deeply, held the breath for a tiny moment, then unleashed a hurricane of air into the room. Roaches, gold, treasures, and Artifacts flew all over the place. Zalan shielded his face with his arms and still felt something small strike against his forehead. Rep was hit with a golden statue of Docrun and pinned under it, but it did well to shelter him from the rest of the items flying through the air. The wind died down and Zalan stood up to assess the room. The next pile that he planned to run behind was reduced to a puddle of gold coins. He looked back to Rep and moved to help him out from under the statue.
“You are bleeding!” Rep said, shocked.
Zalan felt warm fluid run down his cheek. Whatever struck his head cut him deep.
“I’m fine, just push hard to get this up,” Zalan said.
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Rep and Zalan shoved against the statue, but it hardly budged. Zalan pressed hard, putting all his weight behind the statue, but still couldn’t move it at all. Rep was trapped.
“Go on, take out the dragon’s eyes,” Rep said.
“I can’t leave you like this! What if it shoots water again, you’ll drown!” Zalan immediately protested, trying to push the statue again.
“Do not give it the opportunity. Take out its ability to see and we may find that it gives up immediately,” Rep said.
“You’re not just asking me to abandon you because you don’t think you’re worth it, right?” Zalan asked.
Rep grinned, his mouth a bloody red. He’d cut open the inside of his lip from biting it again.
“We do not have time to discuss my motivations,” Rep said. “Go! Hurry, before it decides to drown me!”
The look on Rep’s face gave Zalan a drive of confidence. Rep was normally so nervous in these situations, but now he seemed at ease, trusting Zalan to leave him behind and save them all. It made Zalan really believe that he could do it. He peeked his head above the pile of gold he was using as shelter.
“Gorb?” Zalan called.
“Ready! Just get in close and jump as high as you can!” Gorb said.
“Got it!” Zalan said, feeling adrenaline coursing through him.
But his legs wouldn’t move. He trembled too much to stand. The dragon was the largest creature he’d ever witnessed. He swallowed in fear of how massive it stood above him. It could bite him in half or throw a Roach at him with enough velocity that it would break his neck. And he was supposed to run toward the thing! He confronted the idea the only way that he could think of.
“This isn’t real. None of this is real. This is all a dream,” Zalan promised himself, pumping himself up. He finally sprung up, fueled by his self-assuredness.
“Yellow eyes! Stay down, Hatewing wishes to deal more lightning!” Fran called just as Zalan stood up.
Zalan groaned and knelt back down, placing a hand on the statue that was holding Rep down in order to redirect any electricity away from them. He suddenly remembered that there was another member of their party.
“Yelsa, are you okay?” Zalan called.
“I am in pain and not looking forward to the next burst of lightning,” Yelsa’s pained voice replied. “But I have located some golden arrows. Perhaps they will be of use if I survive this next attack.”
As if in response to Yelsa, Hatewing unleashed the nerve-shattering lightning into the room, electrifying everything. Again, Zalan spent a lot of time pulling lightning from himself and Rep and throwing it away from them. He felt fully covered in the lightning as he did this, as though he was imbued with power just like he did with his sword. The sensation made him feel like it was possible to imbue more than just weapons. When the attack subsided, Zalan immediately shot up.
“Zalan…” Gorb said, breathing painfully. He had used his power to help Fran and himself avoid the lightning attack again. “Hurry.”
He was clearly on the brink of total collapse. Zalan began running right at Hatewing, both swords brandished. He screamed as he charged, stumbling over wet coins and treasures. Hatewing watched him intently, its eyes spinning through its vortex of colors as it glared at its oncoming enemy. Zalan got a few good strides in and was able to close the gap between them while maintaining his footing. He was so close that if Hatewing decided to lunge forward, he could have swallowed him whole. But Fran seemed right that Hatewing had no interest in close-quarters encounters and even took a slight step back as Zalan approached. Hatewing’s eyes turned fully orange and it began inhaling menacingly, all its attention on Zalan.
“Now, Gorb, now!” Zalan screamed.
Zalan leapt up in the air with all his might and felt dread in his heart as he began falling back down. Then, Gorb’s air blasted him upward several feet, sending him clean above the dragon and on a direct course for its face. With seconds to spare, Zalan imbued both blades with as much lightning as he could. The arcs of light exploded around him, dancing around the treasure room with erratic intensity, washing himself and the dragon in dancing, jagged shadows. Zalan knew this would be the best chance he had. The only chance. He raised both swords above him, aiming carefully to stab both eyes simultaneously.
Hatewing blasted a torrent of flame at him and Zalan was scared that he would fall as a small pile of ash. The burst of fire suddenly split down the middle, totally redirected by a loudly laughing Fran behind him.
“Get him, Zalan!” Fran screamed assertively, a manic smile on her face as he descended upon the massive creature.
Zalan roared a battle cry and Hatewing’s eyes went wide with fear as this one human was able to get past all of its attacks. Its eyes diluted from orange back to its multicolored shine as its fire was expended. Zalan swung both his arms down with as much force as he could muster. Both lightning-imbued swords crashed into Hatewing’s eyes.
And neither of them did any damage.
Zalan’s confidence was swept away in a moment of harrowing dread as Rep’s sword scratched lightly at the open eye and his own sword broke in half against the other eye. Hatewing blinked in annoyance. The eye he hit with Rep’s sword went a slight hue redder with pain, but Hatewing showed no indication of not being able to see out of it any less than before.
The attack was a complete failure. His combined Strength and Wisdom wasn’t enough to do any real damage to an Elemental Dragon.
Zalan smashed into Hatewing’s nose and rolled off the side, trying to stab his sword into the dragon to act as a handhold, but instead slipping off and crashing into the floor, landing on his stomach. Zalan groaned, dazed and in pain as he heard Fran and Rep hollering at him frantically. He couldn’t piece together the words they said and raised his head to try and get a feel for their concern when suddenly his back exploded in pain, the air driven out of him. His right arm felt like it was on fire and his left arm was stuck sticking out in front of him. He was surrounded by a black canvas.
It took him a second to understand that the canvas was one of the dragon’s claws around and on top of him. Hatewing had pinned him to the ground.