Chapter 46 - A Lesson That Must Be Learned

Turns out Shia’s “speculations” were right on the money, as no sooner had 12 minutes passed than the dragon finally released a final roar towards the skies before opening that single glittering eye straight in the direction where the late Aetna lay abandoned in a sad, lonely heap.

Fortunately, this place was a true urban jungle, full with gigantic buildings that rose up into the sky, some a good three hundred meters tall or more. I have no idea how they managed to complete such a massive undertaking without the aid of modern machinery and when there was not a single soul in sight, but I had to admit it was damn impressive.

Then again, it was also slightly hysterical as Shia playfully showed me a short animated movie where countless caricature versions of the mighty dragon currently stalking us stood up on two feet and were dressed in the humble cotton tunics a day laborer in that miserable shanty where I’d found Sol might wear for work. The poor dragon workers sweated rocks as they huffed and puffed while laboriously stacking brick after colossal brick in order to build a tower that looked much like the one we were currently hiding in.

Not a bad start for Shia Productions, if I do say so myself.

In any case, the humor had died all too quickly when the earth began to shake and rumble with every cautious step Sharinne took into the city. I wondered that she wasn’t taking a slash-and-burn approach about this, since that’s what I would do. If I were in her shoes, I would be loathe to approach recklessly for fear of falling under yet another hail of violent gunfire, yet also even more reluctant to bid my time since I knew full well the freakish destructive force a whip of the dragon’s tail could deliver at full power. She must know just how grave a blow she had dealt to me, and would be anxious to finish me off. That fell in line with the fact that Sharinne had been blind and helpless for over 10 minutes, yet no counter-attack had been forthcoming.

I think by now she knew me well enough that there was no way in hell she would think I had even the smallest chivalrous bone in my whole body.

No, we both recognized enough of ourselves in the other to know that we were both merciless predators who would close in for the kill without a second’s hesitation once an opening was shown.

Thus, she needed to finish me off before I recovered enough to become a threat again. However, who knew what this devious little human had in store for her within this maze of shadows and stone?

Yeah, that particular thought would keep me warm through the night for many, many moons to come.

It was a work of art, really. Precision killing at its best, with just a pinch of Seth the Godslayer added for a flair. Just a touch, no more.

“You’re fantasizing about the big boom you’re about to make again, aren’t you?” came Shia’s peevish voice right next to my ear.

“Was not!” I coughed violently, then squared my shoulders and adopted a proper victimized expression. “I was just thinking about what to do when we finally see Sol and Reaver again.”

Shia’s derisive snort was all the reply that deserved.

Well, I mean, c’mon. Four Hellion warheads, that was enough to flatten 4 city blocks without dropping a sweat! And that was just the explosive blast damage. The true reason why they were known as Hellbusters was because upon ignition, each warhead would separate into four different cores, each of which would begin a separate plasma meltdown reaction that would liquefy pretty much anything in its way: Reinforced titanium alloy, EM fields, reinforced ferrocrete blast barriers, etc. Everything would turn into a nice, uniform puddle of melted steel, rock and..

“Mommy, you’re doing it again. Focus!” came the urgent call.

Blinking my eyes repeatedly, I cleared my throat to hide my discomfort. I hadn’t realized just how much I’d missed modern weaponry.

Really missed it, that is.

In fact, I hadn’t even minded the freaking chore that it had been to set them all up. Keep in mind that I had to lug all four warheads, each weighing at least 15 kilos. With no better options, I’d simply tied them together into one big bundle before literally jumping down floor to floor for lack of time in order to set them up within the limited window of opportunity I had left. Then rushing back up to prepare the rest of the stuff.

Even with Shia showing me the way, I had cut it way too close.

Still, with rivers of sweat running down my back, I was a happy man.

Oh yeah, just thinking about that baby nuke..

“Mommy!”

“Ahem. I’m here. Stop being such a control freak or you’ll turn out just like your..”

I trailed off as I heard the words that I’d been about to speak, and a brutal fist rose out of my chest to strangle my throat and yank it down into my stomach as I fell back against the wall behind me with a hollow thump.

“Mommy? Are you alright?”

I sighed bitterly, then slowly shook my head.

“Not really, but it doesn’t really matter. Let’s finish this,” I responded, and all the earlier joy and excitement was gone, snuffed out just like that.

***

Dragons must have the worst self-preservation instincts in the world, whether because they’re just not used to being threatened, or maybe Shia had been right and I’d just bullied this poor creature to the edge of perdition. Hell, maybe it finally let its guard down when it saw the smashed up exo-skeleton I’d left hanging for it to see right as it had begun to stalk me.

For whichever reason it was, Sharinne never even realized I was there until I popped my first grenade. It was a relatively pitiful affair: an insignificant puff of fire and smoke that actually hit its intended target before it exploded upon impact.

Hell, I had never expected that clumsy throw to actually hit, I simply wanted to get the dragon’s attention.

Well, now that I’d scorched a dark, sooty ring on the scales along the back of her neck where the grenade had gone off, I had effectively accomplished the same purpose. All the same, I did feel a little cheated. Maybe I should have just tossed the whole belt?

Then again, upon a passing inspection of the blast’s damage, or lack thereof, I nodded judiciously to myself as I instantly jumped off the roof and onto a nearby ledge.

Quite obligingly, Sharinne left no doubt whatsoever as to the fact that I had, in fact, managed to garner all of her undivided attention by promptly swinging her tail against the roof I’d just vacated. A shockingly loud explosion and a flurry of shattered rocks later, the top two floors of the building where I’d been standing were simply gone, just like that.

I hefted the rifle I held under my arm, but at this kind of range I’d be lucky to hit her at all. Still, I needed to generate some pressure or Sharinne would never go along with my plan. Thus, I dutifully peppered her with a few bursts of gunfire, which predictably enough upon impact twanged and twinged, then skimmed harmlessly off her scales.

Still, those had come dangerously close to her face, and with only one eye remaining, Sharinne made a point not to point that big ugly snout of hers at me again, obviously fearful that I’d take another potshot and leave her on the welfare list for disabled dragons for life.

Which I would do happily enough, but there was fat chance that would be happening. At this range, with this skimpy gun, I’d be lucky to hit her face, let alone aim for that one eye she guarded like, you know, the only eye she had left.

“Shia, change route to course D, optimize for highest descending waypoints on the way to objective,” I snarled, realizing I’d been underestimating the sheer blinding speed of her tail once again.

Indeed, no sooner had Shia finished complying with my request, lining up a new course along the rooftops I’d scouted out before hand, I spotted a massive shadow making the wind howl in my ears as it streaked towards the rooftop I was dashing across.

“Damn you, got a long stinking ass, woman,” I growled, while launching myself off the edge a couple steps too early to make a comfortable landing on the other side. After all, time was not a luxury I could afford, as another rooftop crumbled under the violent lash of the dragon’s tail like a tower made out of crackers smashed into oblivion by an iron freaking morningstar.

Alright, I’d envisioned this going a lot more smoothly than this. So sue me.

“Mommy, watch out!” Shia cried out in panic, and I didn’t even bother to turn around as I simply dove into the closest escape route, which happened to be a hole in the middle of the rooftop, which I assumed served as a skylight.

Then it was time for another bone-wrenching explosion of rocks and timber as another floor or two were instantly pulverized, and I scrambled to my feet after executing a perfect roll that would leave bruises for weeks. Immediately upon regaining my feet, I loudly announced the direction I was fleeing in by ricocheting another handful of rubber duckie bullets from my useless gun against the impenetrable scales, for all the good they did. I finally decided enough was enough, and just dumped the useless stupid gun before diving through a wide balcony, and barely managing to catch myself on the edge of the adjacent building.

The dragon, experienced hunter that it was, could feel the chase was nearing its end, and could practically taste the blood in the air as it roared in exultation, before promptly turning its back on me once more and whipping that god damn tail at me again.

I get it, it is the safest way to punish me for being a tiny, insignificant little ant who can only really hope to inflict damage by shooting at vulnerable body parts such as the eyes. However, you great flaming bitch, shouldn’t you be asking what I’d done with all that prodigious amount of heat I’d been packing not 15 minutes ago?

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Little did it know, the moment I’d scrambled up the edge and dashed inside this building, I had immediately jumped right on out of that deathtrap through a hole in the wall on the opposite side that I had prepared ahead of time using the rest of my precious grenades. It would be very difficult, if not impossible, to spot from the dragon’s perspective. Before leaving, however, I did not neglect to throw a cheeky salute to the Hellbuster warhead I’d rigged up against the ceiling to detonate upon impact. As I tumbled my painful way down the long incline of the roof of the house lying on the other side of the hole, I panted harshly to my guide.

“Time!”

“34.4 seconds!”

Not bad if all of this took 34.4 seconds, which was admittedly a good deal faster than the safe 40 second margin I’d given myself for the maneuver. Hey, I’m a do-it kind of guy, always strong in the execution. There was a distinct reason why I’d timed everything so closely.

By this point, I had learned two extremely painful lessons on not underestimating my foe, and  you bet your ass the dragon had as well. I simply had no way to herd it towards a trap, as I simply lacked the mobile firepower to do so. Guerrilla tactics could be counted out for the same reason. Therefore, the only viable option remaining by process of elimination had been to let the big greedy dragon’s razor sharp claws come so stinking close to nipping my neck clean off that it would be nearly impossible for it to stop and think clearly about a possible trap. Plus, the fact that my poor wretched Aetna had been abandoned just like that. It probably knew better than I myself did that summoning such a humongous artifact had cost me dearly, and that could only further increase the dragon’s urgency to hunt me down. After all, if I regained the ability to summon another Aetna, I could simply rain death and mayhem from a safe height above and just crush her like a bug.

Which would be depressingly boring. Again, I’d had enough of wiping bugs off my windshield. Now this, I reflected as I reached the end of the long slanted roof and deftly landed on the private courtyard of a nearby building that lay a presumably safe distance away from the soon to come blast, this was fun as freaking hell.

Hah, I even had a full second to spare!

As it was, I had plenty of time to dive under the reinforced arch of a nearby atrium and curled myself up in a fetal position while flipping up both middle fingers in the dumb freaking lizard’s general direction, regardless of the fact that it obviously couldn’t appreciate the gesture at all through several massive walls of granite.

I instantly regretted it, of course, as I nearly busted my eardrums when the Hellbuster warhead I’d armed and rigged on that particular ceiling went off exactly as I’d planned. I could almost picture the shock and horror on that dumb lizard’s face as it did its “SMAAASH” routine and got a full serving of plasmic freaking meltdown rammed up its ass!

Hey, now there was a worthy next project for the very promising Shia Productions studio.

Still, even as excited as I was I really should have known better and covered my ears before the blast instead of flipping off the dumb reptile when it couldn’t even see me. As it was, a deafening ringing filled my ears, and I had to stumble a couple times before I could climb to my unsteady feet.

“C’mon Mommy, you gotta move! Just a little further!” Shia urged me on.

Not for the first time, I really, truly wished I could give Shia a flesh and blood body, then throw her inside an industrial washing machine and run it on heavily soiled for a few hours just so she would know what it feels like to have your insides violently churned out onto your outsides.

“Try.. trying..” I grunted, as I tottered forward and out into the street with what must have been a dazed look that begged someone, anyone to put me out of my misery.

That’s when, predictably enough, I bumped up against the dragon.

Not physically, of course, since we still stood a good 100 meters from each other. But given the sheer mass of the beast, you can understand why I couldn’t help but freeze there, all goggled eyed. I felt as though I were watching one of those old silent movies, where there was an absolutely unnerving absence of sound while my horrified eyes watched a one hundred meter tall behemoth convulsing in obvious agony while staring at the ragged stump that was all that remained of its once formidable tail.

Crimson blood gushed forth like a fountain, caking every inch of the street around the dragon. I snapped back to my senses and judiciously stepped backwards to avoid the great shower of red as it slowly began to smoke, then ignite, bathing the whole savage scene in a hellishly macabre red glow.

The flaming pieces of smoking flesh and shattered debris were still raining down all around me, and a tiny pebble-sized piece actually bounced off my forehead as though to say, “Duh, what are you waiting for stupid?”

Right.

It was right around this point that I realized I really shouldn’t be standing here twiddling my thumbs, and would you believe it? Coincidentally enough, as I slowly raised my gaze up to find that sole glittering ruby staring back at me with absolutely murderous fury literally blazing from it, I realized the dragon had the exact same epiphany at roughly the exact same time.

I found it almost funny, but apparently the dragon most definitely did not share my good humor.

We both cried out at the same time, me with a startled shout as I finally managed to shock my numb, quivering legs into movement once again; and the dragon as it swore bloody vengeance against me regardless of the cost.

True enough, all considerations of guarding that precious last eye flew straight out of the window in a fit of true draconic rage as I heard the sharp intake of breath that meant an unstoppable deluge of flame and ashes was coming right up, whether I was ready for it or not.

I barely managed to scramble around the corner of the building behind me and dive towards the relative safety of a nearby bench when I felt more than heard that unmistakable roar of roiling fire crashing against smooth granite right around the bend and finding the stone surface far, far too wanting as it began to crumble and melt.

Remembering how viciously tenacious that river of flames was as it splashed its merry way to incinerate indiscriminately, I promptly rolled forward and sprang to my feet in a true heroic sprint as I sped off towards the distance, past caring about the damned map that flashed insistently out of the corner of my vision.

It was well that at least one of us kept her head on her shoulders screwed on tight, as I almost missed my turn when the ominous shadow of the great avenging dragon rose up from behind me and blotted out the moon in its relentless pursuit to exact its gory, sadistic vengeance.

“Left, Mommy! LEFT!” Shia shouted desperately, and thank god I could communicate with her mentally, because I was still mostly deaf in both ears.

Turning so abruptly that I actually skidded a couple feet before dashing into the side alley Shia had pointed out, I reminded myself that at least I wouldn’t need to worry about one of the most stressful aspects of the whole plan: I had no way to know whether I would be able to successfully lure the clever dragoness into my little lizard trap.

The rhythmic tremors that jolted my every step let me know very clearly that I had once again exceeded all expectations, as the blood-thirsty mountain of claws and fire was veritably pouncing along the ground in its unquenchable thirst for my blood.

As the blood-splattered figure of the great dragon finally rounded the last corner, it seemed taken aback at the fact that I simply stood there, barely 200 meters away from it. I even had the gall to raise a hand and wave at it with my happiest grin of the whole night as I used my other hand to trigger the remote detonation device.

A deafening - or at least, I must assume it would be, were I able to hear anything other than a vague ringing tone - roar made the dragon shudder in surprise as it wheeled its great head around, just in time to see a huge fireball rise into the sky from a massive building at its back, well over 300 meters tall and almost as wide. The explosion produced a huge shockwave that flung myriads of shards of shraphnel in the way of flaming debris but they merely bounced off harmlessly against the tough dragon scales.

At last, with a heavy groan, the whole building began to collapse as its whole foundation was effectively liquified. Shia had been instrumental in calculating the exact position for the bomb to maximize the chances to collapse the building in my direction, which was vital for my plan.

Sharinne was certainly shocked by the power of the explosion, but even wounded as she was, she easily avoided the falling building by tumbling in my direction, then shielding her vulnerable head from any further debris under her mighty wing and paws.

Which suited me just fine, as I had turned around and begun to hightail it out of that place as fast as I possibly could, and with my soul-enhanced self I could run so fast even a dragon would - and did, as you will remember from when I crippled Sharinne’s wing - simply stare in stunned awe. Not that she would see anything, as a thick curtain of dust soon blanketed the whole area in nothing but dim shadows and dirt.

Not bothered in the slightest by the sudden darkness, thanks to the handy mini-screen hovering next to my head which displayed a grainy but otherwise perfectly clear image of the road ahead, I once again beat my own expectations. Very handily, at that, as by the time I reached the bright, blinking red line superimposed upon my vision by Shia, the timer under that line still had a good 5 seconds to go. Not one to rest on my laurels, I promptly sought refuge behind a thick wall I’d spotted beforehand for this very purpose, and this time made a point of flipping the bird in the general direction of the big, dumb reptile before carefully plugging my ears with both hands.

The earth rumbled as two more explosions rocked the world, nearly throwing me off my feet as the very ground seemed to ondulate in crazy waves that rippled outward from the alley I’d just exited. More dust made it impossible to see anything, but I could see dim shapes flickering across my vision at impossible speeds - likely more flaming debris, only these had been the size of a freaking car.

That last explosion had triggered the final two Hellbuster warheads, each placed strategically in the buildings adjacent to the dragon’s assumed position so as to form a perfect triangle. The shockwave would further paralyze the already motionless and hunkering dragon, and by the time she realized the buildings - some of the most massive ones Shia had been able to find - were collapsing in an unstoppable avalanche of granite that truly dwarfed her size it would already be far too late, effectively burying her alive.

“Shia,” I panted, already on my feet again though the ground was still unsteady and smaller bits and pieces of flaming detritus kept raining down all around me. “Show me the target zone.”

“Mommy,” Shia murmured, with a slightly trembling voice. “She’s down, you got her. Do you really have to-”

“Show me,” I repeated, and she could hear the steel in my voice even as I kept dashing at full speed until I finally reached set of stairs leading down into two massive double doors, where a blinking red line could finally be seen.

With a heavy, lingering sigh, a new display popped into view. Without the dust in the way, it showed a colossal pile of shattered rocks and flaming debris that popped and crackled like a thing alive. A few loose stones skittered down the top, then stopped, then it was all still, as though the great big mound were a titanic tomb.

“It’s done, Mommy,” Shia whispered, but I held my hand up.

“Wait. Wait for it,” I whispered, squinting my eyes and holding my breath while all my focus lay on the image projected upon the screen.

“What are we..”

“Wait,” I repeated, my eyes still focused keenly upon my prey.

“There!” I cried out loud without realizing it, as an abrupt shower of flaming rocks and other debris flew into the air and, impossibly, a massive claw rose straight out from that gigantic mound of doom, though it was horribly mangled and bleeding.

“Sharinne..” Shia cried out softly, her voice trembling.

“When you face a worthy adversary across the chasm of life and death,” I whispered softly, as we both stared into the image of the battared dragon desperately trying to claw its way out. “You must cut but once, but cut truly, cut deeply..”

A sudden flash of incandescent white flared across the whole image, and unable to withstand the terrible energies unleashed, Shia’s vision was utterly wiped out. Moreover, the world itself was inundated in a howling haze of white, and a great, rumbling roar could be heard from the distance as though the earth itself had cracked and the heavens wept.

“Child, remember..” I finished, refusing to close my eyes as the shockwave hit me, sending my clothes fluttering behind me. I kept my gaze fixed on that great, rising death cloud as it bloomed into horrific life.

“You must cut to kill.”

System Alert: Your Soul Guardian has gained a new matrix crystal!

Your words and actions have reached the Soul Guardian's innermost heart and shaken one of its deepest, most treasured values, irrevocably changing its very nature.

It will forever remember this lesson.

Matrix crystals: 1/2.

Core Matrix crystals: 0/1.

"I.. I understand, Mommy," came Shia's sad reply, and I could hear the tears in her voice.

I opened my mouth, but for the first time in a long, long time, words simply failed me.

In the end, I simply stood in silent vigil over the blossoming mushroom cloud, secretly wondering whether I was grieving over the end of an beautiful fight, or mourning the tragic murder of my own child's innocent heart.