Like a Dragon

From up here in the sky, getting to the castle would be a sinch. All we had to do was fly there, and we had more than enough people capable of defying gravity to do it.

“Do we just want to fly to the castle?” I presented the idea. “I think It’ll be a lot safer.”

Uncle was okay with that, but he pointed out that we’d get tired if we went too quickly.

“I still have stamina potions.” Cat Mella said from her broom. “Don’t worry about exhaustion.”

I seem to remember her only having three left though, so we'd want to hold onto them as long as we can. But hording in video games isn't really a good idea, because those items need to get used eventually. I say we save it for the final boss.

“Should we worry about those demons down there?” Marek fearfully pointed downward from his new position on Mella’s broomstick.

“Drat…those Nephilim were flying before.” I turned back down, and saw them heading our way. Our enemy really had all his bases covered here.

Without thinking, I primed the mana cannon to shoot at them, but Uncle forced it to shut off.

“What the hey, Uncle?” I gave him a pouty look.

“Not necessary.” He smirked.

“Why?”

Off in the distance, the loud cry of a monster could be heard. It echoed across the land, claiming everything in the range of its voice.

“Raaah!”

A serpent like form appeared way off in the dark clouds, swimming in and out like a snake of a stellar ocean. But unlike a crafty animal, this creature made no attempt to hide itself.

“Is that a dragon?” Indena remarked, stoked at what we were seeing.

It was definitely a dragon, an eastern style one. Silver dust trailed in its wind, spreading over the sky and causing the rainbow night to fade to the actual constellations.

Mountains and landscapes that didn’t exist in this dream realm appeared in the waves of silver, but were quickly phased back by the odd dream energy.

The dragon wasn’t heading our way, rather setting its sights on our pursuers.

Chomp!

He caught one in his mouth, then ate it whole! Reeling back for another bite!

Chomp!

The demons cowered in its presence, giving it the veneration a powerful creature deserves.

The dragon coiled up in the sky, then parted its maw to take in a breath of air. Its belly lit up a bright silver.

White flames blasted out of its mouth and it destroyed all the demons chasing us in one powerful breath attack!

“Woah!” I cheered.

“That’s awesome!” Indena raised her fist and yelled.

Alerted to our presence, the dragon flew our way now. It looked like I was his target.

Oh boy, was he on our side? I sure hope so!

“Raww!” The dragon cried and he flew right under me.

Then he stopped when his head was just below my feet, slowly raising his altitude until I was planted firmly on his forehead.

“What the?”

The dragon started to make a low grumble, something like a purring sound.

“Oh…I see.” Mella put a paw to her lips, shocked by something.

Why did the dragon let me stand on his head? Did he know who I was?

This dragon was being way too nice. Why just save us from that mess?

“It took you long enough to find her, Samael.” Uncle announced.

“Sammy?!” I shouted with excitement. This was my snake!? Or now, he was like a dragon!

“Rawwr!” He cried out.

Has he ever seen an eastern dragon before?

HA! Wait, yes he has! It was once, a while back in a video game I played called Hanzai. The main character of that story has the tattoo of a dragon all around his body, not far off from the type of tattoos Indena has outside of this dream.

“Samael, is this what you dream about every night?” I asked.

“Raaawr.” His head bobbed up and down a little. “Graaa.”

I should have known he would be in this dream too. I mean, he was with us when the demon lord forced us here.

“You’re telling me that that’s the stupid snake?!” Indena sounded shocked and disappointed. “Why the heck does he get to be a dragon and I’m stuck as a little shrimp kid?” It was funny hearing her voice squeak so much.

If you think about it, eastern dragons look a lot like snakes. I know there’s a big difference, but imagine you're a tiny little guy looking up to what appears to be a bigger version of yourself. It was impressive that he was able to dream that up.

Now that he was here, getting to the castle would be a lot easier. Everyone could get on and be carried to the destination.

“Uncle, you sounded like you met with Samael here before.”

“I told you I was sent to fight a dragon, right?” He laughed. “Had Samael not recognized me, I never would have imagined it was him.”

Samael was then prompted by Uncle to go look for us. Which brings us to where we are now.

“Ain’t it just a regular reunion.” Indena commented.

“Not yet, we still need Yamin, no?” Marek said.

And no doubt Yamin would be at the castle…same place as the demon lord.

~☆☆☆~

Samael saved us a lot of time flying us the rest of the way. It was exciting to be on the back of a real dragon. This is how he must feel sitting in my hair all day.

We landed right at the front gates, bypassing any walls or enemies. Samael went on a killing spree while we figured out the door, eating and blazing demons with white flame.

“Get em’!” I rooted for my boy!

“Don’t cheer for violence.” Uncle ordered.

I mean, demons were my natural enemy. So attacking them like this seemed pretty okay. But still, Uncle had a point. Violence is violence.

When I spawned the key from my inventory, the door slot accepted it and automatically twisted the lock open. The front gates slid apart. Unfortunately, Samael couldn’t come in, because there wasn’t any room. He had to stay outside.

Not that he minded. There were plenty of demons to keep him busy.

The inside of the castle was mostly the same as when we first were here, but it was even more dusty. Piles of ash covered the floor.

“What is this?” Indena kicked some of it up, regretting getting all the dust in the air.

I did a scan and found the composition of the ash to be mostly carbon and sulfur, which are the building blocks for demonic beings. So if my theory is correct, these piles of ash were once demons.

“It looks like someone already cleared this place out.” Uncle said.

“That’s less work for us.” Marek commented.

As good as that was, we had no idea what caused this. If it wasn't on our side, we might have to deal with it later. I'm assuming that since only stardust can kill a demon, we might have less to worry about than we thought.

Mella jumped up on Marek’s head, then sniffed around.

“The Evil One is close,” our cat witch deduced.

“What about the demon lord?” Indena asked.

“He is near as well.” Mella pointed a paw to a hallway on the left. “That is where we will find the Evil One…” then her paw pointed up the stairs, “and that is where the demon lord is.”

Before going any further into enemy territory, I checked my map. It still wasn't functioning properly, so I had to set up the motion tracker again to at least see if there were any hostile movement around the area.

There were a bunch of blips suddenly on the radar, all of them surrounding us.

“Ambush!”

CING!

My spear immediately met the end of a metal pipe!

No, wait…there was stardust on the end of that pipe. And it wasn't a demon, it was a human man.

BONK!

Another stardust pipe hit me on the back of my head! These guys were all over the place.

“Owww!” That really hurt my head!

“Take these demons down, men!” a man in a hat shouted.

A dozen guys dove out from behind furniture and ran at us with rods and farm tools. One of them had a book.

My sensors didn't pick them up as much of a threat, but the problem was that I couldn’t attack humans without a really good reason.

“Yalda, activate HR Protocol!!”

BEEP BEEP!

-Human Ambushers tagged; Foe-

The Human Restrain protocol allowed me to subdue humans that were a threat to myself or somebody else. It enabled some use of force if needed.

I quickly struck both the men that were attacking me with the blunt end of my spear, causing both to flop onto the ground.

Then I raced around to protect Marek, who was wrestling with another man. He was the one with the book.

“Eat holy book, you demons!” The man growled, shoving a bible in Marek’s face.

“Stop it! I’m not a demon!” Marek put his hands on the book and got a paper cut. “Ouch!”

“Ha ha! I knew it would hurt you!”

I stole the book away and slapped the man hard enough to knock him to the floor.

“Books are meant to be read, not used as blunt objects!” I argued.

Meanwhile, Uncle was protecting the little ones by knocking all the men out.

Something was odd about these guys. They weren't possessed, but I was picking up darkness in them. It was barely detectable, so little that I'm not sure how to help them exactly.

“No! Stop fighting!” A girl came running down the hallway. It was Yamin! She was scanning over the recent battle here.  “Oh no, I was too late…”