‘Why do dragons exist?’

‘Why does evil exist?’

‘Why do humans exist?’

‘Were we born simply to be led to slaughter?’

‘I don’t understand… why did I survive while everyone else…mom, dad, Nyssa…’

Young boy’s eyes overflowed with tears as he recalled the faces of his family.

It has been two months ever since that fateful day.

He could not have known back then, that this day would haunt him for the rest of his life.

The day he lost everything.

He remembered it very clearly.

The skies grew dark, overflowing with malice. It was almost as though someone dyed the blues of the sky in ash and coal colors.

Young boy’s name was Arma, born into the family of name Blood.

As far as he knew, his late grandfather was an adventurer, killing monsters for a living, but his father decided from an early age to have a less risky profession, taking up farming instead.

As such, Arma only heard tales of his grandfather’s heroic deeds through occasional slips from his parents.

His father thought that heavy rain was about to occur and told his seven year old son to not to worry, it was just rain. If only he knew how wrong he was.

It had not rained for a while, so it would have been very beneficial for their crops. And since they were a family of farmers, they had been hoping for a rain for some time.

Only this time, the sounds in the clouds did not sound anything like they were supposed to. Rather than the noises made by thunder and lightning, it was more like roars of colossal beasts.

Arma’s mother, Myrin, and his sister, Nyssa, were washing linen in a nearby river.

As for his father, he was finally finished with his tasks for today; he managed to plant the seeds for this fall’s harvest, just in time before the rain.

As his family headed home, Arma looked up at the sky once more, but what he saw were not the dark clouds, but the forms of enormous beasts that ruled the skies.

The Dragons.

At first, Arma couldn’t help but stare at them in awe, becoming lost in trance. Those beasts looked so otherworldly…so majestic…as an innocent boy, he could not comprehend just how terrifying they truly were.

Then, he heard his father’s shout as he shook Arma back into his senses.

“RUN!”

But it was too late.

Several dragons came down from the sky and proceeded to burn everything to the ground.

The spark and bright light, followed by a world of flames.

It all happened in an instant.

His home was demolished, the fields his family had worked tirelessly to maintain were now gone, and his family was burned down before his eyes.

But Arma was still alive.

As he looked in front of him, a form of a human made of charcoal was shielding him with his body.

Much to his horror, Arma realized that this was none other than the corpse of his father.

In his last moments, his father tried to protect him, and because of him Arma managed to survive.

Taking the full brunt of dragon fire, his father’s body was essentially cooked into coal. Arma did not escape unscathed either. His backside ended up being severely burned, but thanks to his father, that was the only damage he had suffered.

“Dad…”

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

As Arma’s hand touched the cheek of his father’s charcoal remains, his father’s body dissipated.

Not even bones remained, only dust, carried away by the wind.

The bodies of his younger sister and mother were also reduced to such state.

As the winds grew stronger, their remains, their ashes scattered, leaving nothing behind.

As for the poor boy, he was left completely alone, shivering from head to toe, his hands shaking after he just witnessed his father’s body be destroyed into nothing.

Everything he ever knew, loved, and cherished, was taken away, just like that.

He fell on his knees at the inferno that was before him.

Crying, screaming, and pleading for this nightmare to end…praying for the great angels to come and wake him from his sleep…

Arma Blood screamed until his throat could no longer produce a sound.

Exhausting himself completely, young boy’s passed out, wishing to see his family again when he woke up tomorrow, and they could laugh together at his silly dream…

But alas, such a day never came.

* * *

After two days of mourning, Arma only had what was left of his clothing, everything else was gone.

But among the ruins of his house, he found a single curved dagger; it was a tool that once belonged to his grandfather. Strangely, it was the only thing that seemed to not have been destroyed.

What young Arma did not know back then was the true reason the dagger was left undamaged…but he would find out much later…

Armed only with a small dagger, wearing only rags, Arma left the ruins of what used to be his home.

“Goodbye dad…mom…sis….” Wiping off the tears pouring down his face, young boy now walked further and further away into the unknown.

For his entire life of seven years, he had only known his home, and gone nowhere else.

But now, to survive, he had to go…

* * *

It has been two months since then.

He managed to survive by eating insects, fruits, and catching fish from rivers and lakes he came across.

But while he did manage to survive, Arma felt as though something in him had died on that fateful day.

The cheerful and happy child was gone, only the boy driven by hunger and despair remained.

One day, as he hid inside of a cave for shelter, he heard the same sound he heard back then.

He knew that he could not mistake that noise for anything else.

It was the roar of dragons.

As he climbed out of his cave, he saw snow fall on the ground.

It was weird because it was still time of spring…a truly strange phenomenon.

What was even stranger that it was not only snow, but black soot as well, falling down in strange clumps of white and coal black.

As he looked up in the sky, Arma saw exactly what was causing such phenomenon.

Two dragons, one white and one black, were battling each other in the sky.

Blasting each other with their breaths, using strange magic Arma could not understand, they collided against each other, causing untold amount of devastation to everything that came their way.

Even the cave Arma lived in for the last few weeks was destroyed by a stray blast from one of the dragons.

Eventually, the black dragon managed to blast off a large portion of white dragon’s body, and then it proceeded to bite the white dragon’s neck and threw it towards the ground.

White dragon landed rather roughly.

Now it only had three legs, the front left leg was blasted off, most of the left side of the torso and left wing were gone, the organs and the still beating heart were exposed.

The white dragon was as good as dead.

Black Dragon did not stay around, as soon as the white dragon fell, it flew away.

Now Arma was left with a dying dragon, struggling to breathe.

Ordinarily, a young boy facing such a colossal beast would have run away in fear, but instead, Arma approached closer and closer to the dying dragon.

The white dragon’s slitted eyes had black sclera and white iris. They were gazing at Arma, and Arma stared back with bravery he did not realize he had in him.

For a moment, Arma thought that the white dragon’s eyes had a strange glow in them, but then the eyes reverted to normal.

Now that he was right next to the dragon, Arma did not know what came over him. It was almost like he was possessed.

Anger, hatred, and wrath, all bottled up on the inside burst to the surface.

Holding up his grandfather’s curved dagger, he stabbed the dragon’s hide, piercing into its flesh.

An ordinary weapon can do no harm to a dragon, since they possess magic that gives them extreme protection against most damage, but a certain metal in this world has the capacity to harm them. This metal is called Blazesteel, a metal known for being able to absorb the mana within the atmosphere, which allowed it to be one of the few things that could damage a dragon.

And the dagger Arma was holding just happened to be made from such metal.

Not stopping there, Arma stabbed the dragon again and again, each time, he felt his anger grow.

This was his chance for vengeance, his vendetta against the dragon kind. Why wouldn’t he indulge himself in this once in a lifetime opportunity?

Arma’s found himself lost in a trance, like a madman lost within a drunken delusion.

The dragon was not dead yet, it was watching Arma stab it repeatedly, unable to do anything, almost fascinated by Arma’s actions.

Yet, the dragon did not utter a sound. It was almost as if it has accepted its fate.

Using the curved dagger, Arma cut apart the body of the dragon, breaking ribs, eventually stabbing the dagger right into its still beating heart. With all the strength he could muster, Arma carved the heart out of the dragon’s chest.

Only now, the light within the dragon’s eyes faded as it watched the tiny human take away its heart.

In a most brutal act of savagery, Arma, driven by anger and hunger, took a mighty bite of the heart. Not stopping there, he ate the heart, piece by piece until nothing remained.

This white dragon was the first thing, aside from some small animals, that Arma had ever killed.

But now he knew one thing for certain, a human being can kill a dragon.

Like an ant that managed to triumph over a giant, he just did the impossible.

But the flame of vengeance within his heart did not fade; instead, now that he knew that dragons were killable, it only grew.

Dragons had taken everything away from him…now it was time to pay them back tenfold.

On that day, Arma made his resolve clear.

“I will kill all dragons. I will hunt down every last one of them until not a single one remains!”

That was the day a Dragon Slayer like no other was born.