Felkin tapped Metas on the shoulder waking him up. He was on his guard, crouching with his sword in hand. "What's wrong?" asked Metas, readying his spear. "They're here." It was sunrise and while the dim sun slowly rose, a dark shape rose on the horizon. "Wait." Metas stood up and Felkin motioned him to wait.
Another shape began to stir on the opposite side of the first, the other horizon from where the sun wasn't. Both were on guard now, and Yuria began to stir. Metas quietly alerted her, "The beasts, they're here." Yuria sat up and became vigilant watching the shapes that rose from the ground. Suddenly, one of the creatures lunged at the camp, towards Metas.
He snapped his fingers and a flash of flame appeared in front of the beast, dazing it momentarily. Then in a split second, he threw his spear and pierced through its skull. The other beast went towards Felkin and he raised and extended his sword and tried to bring it down onto the lycanthrope. It dodged the attack so Felkin swung it horizontally, catching the beast along its side and bringing it down with a loud "crack". "Its over." Felkin said as he shortened his segmented sword once again.
"Interesting sword." Yuria remarked as Metas pulled over the wolf carcass and Felkin went out to retrieve the other one. The two began to work trying to dissect and disassemble the beast for the first hours of the morning. "You need these for magic right?" asked Metas as he was stripping hide away from flesh. "Well, we can't bring too much along. And I don't suppose we can eat this." The flesh exuded a darkness and oozed off the abyss. Yuria put her hand over her mouth. "I suppose not." She answered.
Yuria saw the wolf's head, fractured and broken by Metas' spear. "Skulls are usually the best next to spines, I can't use that in this condition." Metas answered. "The other wolf still has one intact, right?" Yuria looked to Felkin who was examining the wolf's head. Even dead, the creature had fearsome features and looked ready to move on its own and attack. Its eyes staring back and its teeth sharp and menacing. Felkin dropped it onto the ground.
They decided on taking the arm bones and some of the leg bones and one of the spines of the wolves, as the other wolf had its spine shattered by Felkin's sword. As they prepared to go, Yuria saw something of interest on the wolf carcass that was left. She picked up an untouched paw from the remains. She held it up high and looked on it curiously.
Metas saw this and remarked: "See something interesting?" "It's this claw, it seems to exude some sort of great power." She looked upon it with awe. "Let me have it, for safekeeping. We're all carrying a few bones and it would be less likely to be dropped or fall of if I had it." Said Metas. "Catch." Metas caught the oversized beast claw and stuffed it in his coat. They began to walk in the snowy plains. Felkin and Metas' bloody footsteps left marks on the snow until they have walked sufficiently.
It was another sunny day, but it was still cold. Massive mountains were found in all directions along the tundra. As they continued to walk with no other land nor civilization in sight. There was little plant life save for large trees covered in thick snow. There were small rabbit-like creatures that occasionally emerged from burrows, although Felkin could not catch them as he tried multiple times.
There were a few birds that flew above them and they could sometimes see wolves, the regular kind, moving just outside of clear view. There was sometimes occasional small talk, but mostly it was just the snow, walking and the numerous mountains that stood towering above. "So… cold…" Yuria held onto the wolf's hide tighter as they walked nearby a snow-covered mountain.
"Why don't we take a break here." Said Metas. All of them were quite tired of the journey and they found a small cave to take a short break. They were inside of the mountain and Yuria posed a question. "Where exactly are we going?" Metas answered: "I don't know, all it matters is that we keep moving." Felkin continued with: "We walk and walk until we reach somewhere." They set out again but stopped immediately when Felkin stopped walking and he motioned towards a large odd, shaped mountain.
"What?" asked Metas. Felkin motioned for silence as he slowly walked towards it. The others stopped and watched him intently. Suddenly the ground began to splinter and shake. "Earthquake!" yelled Metas as Yuria was struggling to keep balance. The "mountain" began to stir. The creature which previously resembled a massive stone boulder had begun to show its true shape.
A massive form had revealed itself. Two titanic legs curled up by the knees and two gigantic arms positioned close to the body. The limbs slowly twitched and moved. Each movement sent a trough of snow off the gigantic creature and let out an audible crush sound. Its scales looked identical to stone and the being towered over them casting a shadow throughout the icy valley.
The creature was once compact but began to extend and decompress itself, slowly stretching its limbs out. Wings from its back slowly began to unfurl dropping even more snow onto the ground. Its wings then shot out into the sky, touching the clouds; and with one flap cleared out the misty covering above and revealed a blazing sun, the sky being left with a hole where clouds and mist had parted. Its legs slowly rose and stepped down, creating a shockwave and a crater below.
Metas all his life was taught to venerate the dragon's blood, the creature that stood before him terrified him, as the previous object of his feigned worship emerged right in front of him. He seldom listened to the teachings but wondered momentarily if he had done more the creature would spare him.
The sun above it shone extremely brightly, but almost the entirety of the valley was covered by its shadow. Its eyes had no pupils and were a shade of yellow, they were dim but one could mistake them for the sun itself because of their size. Its mouth slowly opened, it had the sound of a giant boulder being torn apart, like crackling of thunder. A breath went out, and it was like a violent blizzard had emanated from its mouth. Yuria stumbled backwards dropping some of her belongings and she frantically picked them up and was muttering incoherently.
Felkin had felt this feeling before, overwhelming fear and dread. He was on his knees and had let go of his weapon, his eyes were filled with tears of terror. Metas was in a daze, he was trying to process what he was seeing and after a while he was filled with horrible realization. He was the first to snap out of it and grabbed Yuria by the shoulders and tried to pull Felkin away. "Let's go!" he whispered frantically.
Felkin would not budge, his thoughts were only occupied by the towering mass before him. It raised its head and had it practically above the clouds. It was on all fours and whenever its giant claws touched the ground it would leave marks that ran deep through the ground. Felkin only went back to reality when he realized he was being dragged along by Metas through the snow.
He jolted up and found his sword still in his hand. Metas whispered "It's not paying any attention to us, we have to go now." The giant beast was going in the opposite direction, it shook off tons of snow in every step it took and a large boom could be heard from throughout the valley. Felkin gripped the sword hard, not with fear but now with unimaginable rage. His often vacant and void face now replaced with a look of unfathomable fury. "Hurry, let's go." The two were ushering him on.
He suddenly entered a stance, he bent his knees, grabbed the sword with both arms and held it in at the back of his head. He swung. There was silence as the blade went forth akin to a fishing rod, with limitless reel. His blade extended so the side of the blade was facing in a curved motion. It extended and extended until it the front of it disappeared into the clouds. This took almost a minute, with Metas and Yuria watching with awe. Then a loud crash reverberated through the valley.
The shockwave caused the part of the clouds where the blade entered to part, revealing the giant Dragon, facing towards them. Its cold stare inhuman, in its eyes an insect had harmlessly splattered upon it. There was a dark mark, almost like charring on its stone skin where the attack landed. The creature poised itself and began barreling towards them.
When it moved avalanches formed and blanketed it in snow, which promptly flew off because of its sheer speed. Each step it took shook the entire land scape and decimated mountains in its way. Metas pulled Felkin away and they began to run as fast as possible. They began frantically as the creature gained upon them, Yuria lagged so Felkin was forced to carry her. Through gasps Metas was speaking "What… do… we… do… now?!" Yuria, under over Felkin's shoulder shouted, "Hit it again!"
Felkin twirled around Yuria in tow and extended his sword aiming it at the Dragon's eye. The blow connected creating a shockwave but all it did was made the creature wink, and it began to move faster, enraged. "How… about… the abyss?" Metas asked. Yuria considered for one moment then shouted, "We're never going back there!" "Any… ideas?" Metas looked toward Felkin who shook his head. Every step they took, the creature caught up faster, it was near enough for them to feel the shockwave with press of a foot on the ground.
"Wait, I have an idea!" yelled Yuria. "The wolf bones, give them to me!" They handed her what was left of the bones that was not lost in the frantic confusion and Metas reached into his coat and grabbed the beast's paw. He hesitated for a moment and handed it off to her. She grasped these objects and then closed her eyes, as if in deep thought. She then opened them and dark liquid began to cover the massive Dragon. The darkness completely enveloped it and it dripped onto the ground. Only the outline of the Dragon was perceptible now, and it writhed and struggled and managed to free its head for only but a moment to release one final roar before the darkness completely swallowed it up and it disappeared.
They stopped running, and Felkin set Yuria upon the ground before he and Metas fell down, breathing hard from exhaustion. Through pants Metas let out a few words, "Is… It… over?" Yuria breathed sharply. "Looks like it." "Can't believe we manage to pull that off!" said Metas sitting up. "All it took was every wolf bone we had and a good spell." Yuria was examining and found no bones had been left whilst she said the statement.
"We wouldn't be in this situation if he didn't try to hit it." Metas pointed towards Felkin. "All that matters is that we made it out." Said Felkin. Suddenly the sky began to crack. It was as if reality was a piece of glass and it was slowly being fractured. Flames burst forth, creating a fissure high in the sky. The Dragon broke out of the abyss with a breath of blazing intensity. It was partially covered in a swarm of abyssal beasts that had crept up it, trying to bring it down.
The Dragon jumped down from the fissure creating a massive shockwave below and throwing off some of the beasts that had clung onto it, attempting to bite through its impenetrable hide in vain. It ran, more and more beasts that had held onto it fell off and was turned into mush by its rampaging stampede. Felkin, Metas and Yuria stood up once more and began to run.
As it ran, the Dragon breathed and produced fumes from its nostrils as it prepared to unleash hellfire once more. As it breathed flame, it charred the ground and instantly evaporated the once snowy landscape. The fire moved quickly and was quickly advancing upon them. "There!" Felkin exclaimed as he pointed towards a hole in the ground.
Before they entered, Felkin held his sword up high and lengthened it but he made it so it coiled upon itself. He released it with such force and struck the dragon. The creature reacted in pain but continued its seemingly unending blast of flame. They had no choice but to jump in, Felkin went first, Yuria second and Metas last. As they jumped through a burst of flame followed them down but stopped just short because of the cave's depth. The hole they entered through was beside a rock wall in a cavern, so they collided with it, slid along it, and tumbled down shortly before they reached the bottom.