POV Count:
The old man stood in the middle of the swamp, his boots digging into the mud after the ice melted.
The trees around him were bent or uprooted. Bleeding and burned soldiers were sewn all over, panting and squealing.
“Mortal, you are so selfish to even sacrifice your soldiers, dooming them all to die just with your one decision.”
The count felt anger seeping into his bones as he raised his sword, he knew there was no way for him to win, but he was dead set on fighting to his last breath.
‘My soldiers are dying for me. I can only do the same for them.’
The wyrm opened its mouth, hiding high in the sky, out of the effective reach of his sword. It was just casually flapping its wings, hovering about the swamp without worry, making the count even angrier.
Its eyes flashed in bright golden light that drowned his mind. He felt fear and desperation, his resolution and anger fizzling out.
“Come and join me! Just imagine the power you will gain!” the words sounded sweet, like honey, soothing his fear and worry. He just wanted to accept it and be done with the pain.
However, he looked once more at his dying men, his rage returning, pushing back all unexplainable emotions that shrouded his mind.
“Never!”
POV Vesuvius:
Vesuvius felt frustrated at the stubborn count, realising how hard it would be as he lacked any nonlethal attacks.
‘It looks like I will have to break his limbs by the good old way. Well, it could have been worse if he instead decided to run away.’
The dragon flapped his wings, diving straight towards the ground, his eyes locked on the count while dangerously glinting.
He quickly accelerated, his horns glowing as the winds around him strengthened before launching towards the ground like a tsunami.
The count once again put his strength into his legs, bracing against the ground before launching like a bullet out of the dragon’s way.
The wave of wind crashed into the ground, all of the trees in its path cracking and falling.
The dirty muddy water splashed everywhere.
The dragon followed right after, his body landing in the swamp with massive clouds of steam rising up.
The dark smoke erupted out, spreading through the swamp and obscuring everything.
The air vibrated to his side, and the old count in his white cloak appeared right next to him, piercing through the smoke and swinging down his sword.
His skin was red, electricity crackling around his body covered in the semitransparent barrier of his own life force.
The tiny sword glowed brightly, its blade descending towards the colossal dragon like a toothpick.
The dragon almost snickered at the pathetic attack, ‘Yes, come closer so I can subdue you.’
He leaned to the side with elegance and speed, impossible for the dragon of his bulk.
The sword crashed into the ground, a powerful shockwave sweeping through the swamp.
‘Can I smite him with lightning? No, that could likely kill him. Maybe if I used just enough to paralyse him? Nah, there is no way that I could guess how much current to use. ‘
Just a split second later, the count swung his sword again. The shiny blade whistled through the air, moving towards the dragon, lightning striking against it like a lightning rod.
Arrows whistled through the swamp as multiple soldiers shot at the dragon with their crossbows.
The dragon didn’t even bother to dodge. The bolts harmlessly bounced off his armour, with the count’s sword impacting against his armour hard.
A loud bang resounded through the surroundings, the dragon’s whole body vibrating under the force of an impact. Small cracks spread from the place of impact.
However, compared to his large size, it was nothing.
The lightning climbed up to the sword, making the count cry in pain with his white hair standing up. His armour turned red from the heat, the runes on it wildly pulsing.
‘Finally close enough.’
The dragon’s horns glowed in bright light, strong winds whistling around him, whirling the smoke.
The count wavered, caught as he breathed in the heavy and hot toxic fumes. His hands started to tremble, blood leaking from his nose and eyes.
The winds pushed against him, immense pressure pushing him to the ground. His knees bent, loud grunts escaping out of his mouth as he tried to fight against the tremendous force of nature.
The seven horns on the dragon’s head glowed even brighter, more and more mana flowing through their crystal structure.
The bright light shone even through the thick smoke that slowly crawled through the whole swamp, covering everything in its impenetrable veil.
The winds intensified, the smoke constantly mixing, whirling and rotating. The immense force pressed the count towards the ground, his knees shaking.
His eyes glinted in determination even though his burned face was wrinkled in a painful expression.
The ground under him started loose, his legs sinking into the mud. Suddenly an awful snapping sound came out of the count’s knees as he fell to the mud, his knees finally giving up.
More and more crushing sounds came out, with more of his bones snapping.
“Ahhh!” he wailed while the dragon grinned with blue light flooding the swamp, the snow around melting under the hot air escaping out of his mouth.
The dragon’s massive hand descended towards the count, covering him in shadow, who tried to crawl away through the mud, staining his shiny armour and white cape.
The claws grabbed him and turned him to face the dragon.
He tried to resist his muscles bulging as he tried to push back the claws, but they didn’t even budge.
Instead, the disgusting smell of burned flesh filled the swamp as the claws slowly cooked him alive, even with the dragon suppressing his heat as best as he could.
Vesuvius bit into his tongue, the winds around him grabbing the blood and forming a small orb out of it.
The blob of blood moved towards the count, who was just gasping on the ground while walling in pain.
‘Well, maybe I could have done this from the beginning. Burn him to shock him with pain? No, that would be too risky, just a slight misjudgment with temperature, and he would turn into cinders.’
The count couldn’t even resist, his bones crushed and his skin burned. He could only wiggle on the ground.
The blob of blood slowly descended towards his face, his eyes going wide in horror.
The blood entered his eyes and his nose and even pushed into his mouth. Energy erupted out of his body, the flames enveloping his whole body, burning it away as new cells slowly replaced the old ones.
Vesuvius let him go, his eyes looking around at the trembling soldiers and knights pointing their weapons at him.
‘I can’t let any witnesses alive. Using fire would be too risky, the higher chance of someone making a connection with me. Something toxic will be better as it fits with monsters normally living in this area.’
The dragon rose up his long tail, mana flowing into the crystal canon on its end. It radiated in bright light through the smoke like a sun obscured by clouds.
The soldiers turned back in panic, throwing away their weapons to run faster.
“Ohhh, God, please save me!”
“Why me?”
Only a few of them remained standing, looking at the scene as if refusing to believe that it was reality, “This must be a dream.!”
‘How cowardly, the count fought even though he could run, yet they abandoned him.’ dragons didn’t only have sins but also virtues as they always held their word and were courageous.
A massive toxic blob grew between the two crystals spike at the end of his tail. He aimed it like a scorpion, the flexible skeleton within allowing him to twist it around and aim it wherever he wanted.
The blob of toxic bubbling goo shot at an immense speed, impacting right into the centre of a small group of soldiers.
The goo splashed in all directions, raining upon the soldier that fell on the ground, dying almost instantly with their remains melting into a puddle of liquified flesh and bones.
More and more blobs formed between the spikes, shooting into the distance and exploding between small groups of soldiers that were running away.
Finally, everything turned quiet except for the ragged breathing of the count as everyone around died.
The count on the ground stirred, opening his reverse-slitted gold eyes. There were no traces of his injuries, with new younger skin visible on his face.
Two long horns crackling with lightning poked out of his head. His white hair flowed down his renewed body busting with vigour and muscle.𝒪𝐯𝐋xt.𝗇t
He immediately fell to his knees, “Your Highness! I was blind towards your grace. Please forgive me!”
Even Vesuvius was shocked by the abrupt and absolute change of his mind. It was almost as if he was speaking to another person.
It was the first time he changed a human against his will, shocking him with how much it affected someone’s mind.
The dragon just stood there in the middle of the destroyed swamp. The trees were uprooted with water, and ice evaporated.