Alexander wished that what he was seeing was merely something his mind had conjured due to stress. This was nothing like the stories he had heard, or the information he learned from historical texts.
Dragons were known as the guardians of humanity. Beings that exuded a majestic presence and were adorned with resplendent scales.
They were creatures that stood atop of the world and maintained order. Not whatever this thing was.
At only a glance, Alexander could tell that it was a malicious entity. Something that was born of fury and sought only destruction. The exact opposite of what he knew dragons to be.
Yet as much as he wished to dismiss it, there was no way that he could ignore its appearance. He had never seen a dragon before in his life, as they only presented themselves to people around every three decades. Still, from the descriptions he had been told and the depictions he had seen in works of art, there was no denying that this thing had taken the shape of a dragon.
'Move!'
The moment that the shadow finally struck was when Alexander's survival instincts exceeded his fear.
With reflexive movements he could hardly believe were his own, he narrowly avoided being swallowed whole as the creature lunged towards him with its toothy maw opened wide.
When Alexander turned his gaze towards where he had been standing just an instant before, he saw that the sturdy stone floor had been carved through by the monster's teeth. If it were ever to catch him in its mouth, there was no doubt that it would tear right through him with ease.
'I need to get out of this room. It's fairly large, so if I can slip into a smaller hallway, it shouldn't be able to follow me.' Alexander thought as he slowly backed away.
A part of him wanted to turn around and run away at full speed, but he knew doing so would only end with him being devoured. The shadow creature whose territory he had trespassed into could move with astounding speed. Only by keeping a careful eye on it, and allowing his reflexes to take over, did he have any chance of avoiding its attacks.
There was another mounting problem to his situation, though. In his current state, he could spare almost no focus to controlling his magic power. Already he could feel his enchanted pendant beginning to shake from the overwhelming energy surging into it. His biggest flaw was once again rearing its head during a desperate time.
'Worrying will only make it worse. I just need to not think about it. My pendant will keep working until it doesn't any longer. All I need to do is keeping going until it breaks, or I escape.'
While doing everything he could to keep his thoughts and emotions in check, Alexander continued to move farther away from the shadow.
Since he had avoided its first strike, it had simply been observing him, as if waiting for panic to break his guard.
Eventually it grew tired of waiting, however, and launched itself forward with blinding speed.
This time, instead of its fangs, the monster stood on its hind legs and swept its claws towards Alexander.
The first swipe he avoided rather easily by taking a large step back, but its other arm came at him even faster while he was still regaining his footing.
Not having the time to think about his best course of action, Alexander bent his body back as far as he could and ducked under the claws coming his way.
He could feel the wind pass over him, and the sound of something sharp cutting through the air assaulted his ears.
Nevertheless, he had managed to avoid being sliced to ribbons, and even got in a counterattack.
With his sword held firmly in his hands, he had thrust up towards the creature's arm as it passed over him.
Unexpectedly, the blade slid into the shadow with relative ease. Alexander had figured his sword would barely be able to puncture the monster, but its body was far less durable than it appeared. It was as if he had just cut into a thick liquid rather than a solid mass.
As his sword came free from its arm, what looked like inky black threads were snapped in two.
However, while Alexander looked on in surprise at what had just occurred, he failed to realize that he had lost his balance. Having anticipated his sword meeting more resistance, he had used more force than needed and ended up tumbling onto his back.
Once his mind had refocused after hitting the hard stone floor, he expected to be crushed under the foot of the large dragon shaped shadow, but instead, it had backed away from him.
Some sort of wispy black substance that resembled fog was leaking out of the cut on the creature's arm, and was falling towards the floor where it dispersed into the air.
Using its other hand, the creature seemed to be attempting to mend the wound that looked far worse than Alexander had anticipated.
'This is my chance.'
He did not know what sort of miracle had occurred to keep him alive this long, but he was not going to pass it up.
Hurriedly, he rose to his feet and began running backwards towards the exit while keeping his eyes fixed on the shadowy dragon. Looking away from it for even a second was bound to be a mistake.
'That's what I figured.'
Not long after Alexander moved to escape again, the monster turned its full attention towards him. Apparently, the injury it had received was not going to be enough to dissuade it from continuing to attack the prey that had unwittingly wandered into its lair.
This was what Alexander expected, of course. So, while he could not help but feel some fear, now having survived two of the shadow's assaults, he was feeling more confident in himself. He would keep evading its strikes and eventually make his escape. This would not be the end of him.
Yet, his positivity was quickly shattered by an unfortunate reality. The magic pendant that was strengthening him had finally reached its limit. With a redounding sound, a large crack formed from one end to the other, and the physical enchantments that had aided Alexander this entire time began to wane.