Volume 1 Chapter 26: Desperate Fight

Dozens of black knights follow Aldrich. He had intentionally run off in a direction away from the retreating villagers. To stall their speed, he'll occasionally breathe fire at the pursuing knights and the area behind him. They however seem to be adamant on catching up to him.

"These guys won't leave me alone."

He speaks to himself as he progressives towards the western side of the village. Unknown to him, the village on this side had already fallen. While the knights were no longer around, as they had moved on after burning much of their path, infantry men and large monsters were following behind the black knights.

Ducking behind a building as a knight throws a black fire jar at him, Aldrich returns fire with his own fire breath. With the knight burning and screaming, Aldrich looks beyond to see if any others are pursuing. With no one else around, he breathes a sigh of relief before turning around and seeing several poorly armed humans charge at him.

"There's the dragon!"

"Get him!"

"We'll get paid big time for this."

They clumsily swing their weapons at him before he deflects it with his arms and dodges the others. He quickly breathes fire at them. The ones who were unharmed back away, but proceed to surround him. More humans proceed to appear on all routes, as if they were sharks closing in on blood.

With his back cornered to the building, he resolves himself to fight his way out instead. On their next charge at him, he swipes his claws at the closest one, inflicting great harm, before pouncing on another and biting their neck. To prevent himself from being completely overwhelmed, he creates a zone of control and bounces off of one side to another. His fire breath helps but he eventually starts to feel the sputtering feeling of his dwindling inner ether supply.

The longer the fight continues, the more human soldiers that join. A few minutes pass before even the black knights appear. Instead of attacking however, they stay back and observe, most likely trying to stop any escape attempt. Aldrich starts to worry. His escape was getting difficult to get to. He moves to blast through a single way, but no matter how many he does cut, burn, slash, bite down, there always seems to be more. The human morale too did not not waver. He could see the terror in the eyes of each human he personally kills, but the ones next to them do not falter despite being the next one to die. It was if they did not consider that they would be next.

His zone of control falters and the humans come storming through over the bodies of their allies. Blades and blunts swing from every direction, slashing and cracking the scales of Aldrich. His fire breaths, becoming smaller and smaller every time he used it, became unable to fend off enough room for him. Spears attempt to break through his scales, but he uses his smaller body to avoid them as much as possible. Still some pierce through, but the humans behind it were always burned by Aldrich's counterattack ensuring that human couldn't do it again.

Closing in on him within grasping range, the humans attempt to pin him down, but he fights with everything to keep himself free. A fierce brawl occurs with Aldrich igniting himself on fire and engaging in a grappling battle with the humans. Though he was smaller than them, he possessed the strength to rip off their heads and limbs with his mouth. Moments of sheer carnage ensues with many heads and limbs rolling away from their owners before he is able to regain his zone of control. The humans however, were content to continue until the familiar whistling of falling rocks turned their attention upwards.

Unable to get to cover Aldrich had to embrace the coming impact. The building behind him is blown apart, black flames bursting through and reaping through the humans around Aldrich like a scythe. Aldrich and the humans scream in agony and pain, but Aldrich quickly uses his white flames to burn a stack of hay near him and jumps inside to cleanse himself. Though the black flames disappeared, the burning sensation on his wings, arms, and legs was not. Looking over at his arm, he saw how the cursed flames ate and melted through his scales and into his flesh like acid. Still, he wasn't burning anymore. Everyone else around him, however, was. The impact was great enough to knock most of the knights down and caught much of the humans on fire.

Using this moment of reprieve, Aldrich climbed up the burning building, avoiding the black flames as much as possible, and scouted a path through the series of destroyed buildings. Exhausted and in pain, he set off before the humans could fully recover. He winces with every step and wonders if the villagers he led made it back alright with Hiram and the others. Unbeknownst to Aldrich, his actions had bought ample time for the villagers all throughout the entire village.