Landing it straight in his eye, I managed to rupture its pupil, blinding its left side. With a delayed roar, I assumed that it is intelligent, but not to the point of being able to comprehend or speak any language. With that out of the way, the giant monster continued roaring, throwing its head back in agony. While it was writhing in pain, I went into a full sprint, weaving in and out of its massive legs, shooting crimson spears into its angles, hoping that this thing had achilles heels.
With constant explosions going on below, the dragon had no idea where I was due to all of the blood, flesh and dirt flying into the air, covering my scent and my tracks. I thought that, as the King obviously did not want a decimated specimen, I decided to disable his movements, as I could easily give the finishing blow afterwards. After a couple of more explosives, all of its legs were now cut enough to not be able to move, dropping this massive beast like an anvil.
With a giant thud, the monster screamed even louder than before. Confused on what happened, and unable to see anything as the giant made a, well, giant dust cloud, covering its injuries. Waiting for the dust to settle, I coughed a bit out of my fake lungs, muscle reflex. Anyways, after a few seconds, I saw the problem that caused the massive beast to lose consciousness. Unluckily for it, all four of its paws were trapped under it, snapped by its own body.
With reddish brown blood oozing out from its torn up legs, I had to gag a little because this was worse than anything I have seen before. Tentatively walking towards its head, which was a little longer than a metro bus and had a width of a regular bus, I avoided looking at its ruptured eye, which was leaking some type of puss, as well as collecting rock particles. It seems not all dragons have automatic healing abilities. Noted. Walking up to its snout and jumping to the crown of its head, I raised my sword over my own head, ready to plunge it down into its head.
"WAIT!" a voice resounded in my head. Like shouting into a megaphone, the voice boomed inside my head like one. Holding my head, waiting for the remnants of the voice to fade out, I looked around for the source.
"What the hell?! Azura, is that you?" I asked, forgiving the intrusion, as she must think that what I was about to do is very dangerous, otherwise she wouldn't make my ears bleed.
"Sorry, master, for the shout. I had to get you to not kill the beast, as this type of dragon explodes once it is dead, and it was all due to their patron god, the God of Earth. A long time ago, the earth dragons were one of the strongest and proudest of the dragon races, inevitably leading to its downfall. These dragons' patron was the god of earth, or geomancy.
"Upon seeing these proud dragons, who the god gave his power to, he regretted his decision, as every other patron god had things given back to us to help them grow as gods, which was almost impossible in our realm. Angry, and unable to take his power back because of another pact signed by the gods, all he could do was curse his natural element, earth.
"With this restriction, all species are considered cursed should they be found to have their magic originating from the earth patron. It was even worse for the dragons, the focus of his rage. For them, their intelligence was taken away, as well as their physical abilities, communication, and a reduction in magic by a massive amount. As an analogy, they were crippled, much worse than any other species, even the subspecies.
"However, with this, they also gained a skill, but most likely something the earth god implanted just to shame them further. Self-destruction. After death, their cellular structure ruptures, imploding in on itself, releasing massive amounts of heat and magic, about as much as they had before the curse. That is why I stopped you." She said, giving me a lot of info at once.
"It sounds like a very petty reason to curse entire communities and species." I said, finding gods to be even less favorable to rescue than I originally thought.
"He, I suppose you could think of us like that. It is just so boring to be all powerful. The things that you might think are tiresome or tedious to do, such as gain power, build kingdoms, hunt monsters, and other things such as that is a very rare occurrence for us, but one we really miss. So, don't think too poorly of us." Azura said, a mirthful smile on her face. I know a face of regret and grief when I see one, from previous experiences, as I have a feeling she truly is sorry for not just her actions, but all the other gods as well.
"Listen, I don't blame you for anything, and I thank you for warning me about the exploding dragon, but what do you suggest I do? I'm not sure if you know this, but I got a quest that sai-" I started to explain, only to be shushed by a cold, slender finger on my lips.
"I can accompany you anywhere, as well as hear and see what you are doing. That is the ability of a God Contractor. With that said, I do have a solution to that. I do understand that the King of this human kingdom needs some power from this dragon to advance itself past the capabilities of its rival, and I know just what he needs. Stand back." Azura said, pushing me aside and off the dragon.
Silently walking a few paces away from the dragon's head, I saw Azura cast a few very powerful magic circles that seemed to encase the dragon with a visible coating of ice around it. A few seconds later, the dragon began to shrink. At a rate of which the human eye could see, the body of the large creature began to shrink millimeter by millimeter, until it's bronze-colored scales started popping off its body like shingles.