dragon hunting business, boring until you hunt a dragon

the village was truly nothing but ruble and ash upon closer inspection. yet even so life continues to thrive even after the wrath of a great beast. what remained of the population was a measly dozen people hurt and hungry salvaging whatever they could out of their former homes and trying to rebuild. Lina was a regular housewife last month, now her husband was dead, torn to shreds by the scaled demon, her daughter nothing but ash upon the winds after the attack and by a cruel turn of fate she survived. she didn't have the courage to find a large cliff and join them thus she focused entirely on helping others even if none would help her.

today was a day like any other in the hell that she called life; the only difference was the young, enchanted knight riding a crystalline beast through her former hometown rather intrigued with its destruction. " Ser knight, I implore you to leave, the beast yet roams around here please leave and seek refuge elsewhere" she asked the young knight yet all she got was a look of pity. "ma'am, I am a dragon hunter, it's my job to deal with what robbed you of your home, any bit of information you could provide about the beast could help me track it down" he said. hot anger fueled her upon realizing that if he had been here earlier... no the knight was not to blame, he was here now and maybe he could finally get revenge.

she walked closer trying to seem as appealing as possible, "oh knight, I will help in any way I possibly could if you were to slay the beast" she said with any bit of seductiveness she could summon from within her, yet his look of pity only strengthened. " I'm sorry my lady but I am only here for information, rest assured I will slay it should it show itself" he said with conviction. just then she felt something she thought she lost long ago; hope welled within her Bussom. " The beast came a month ago, out of nowhere fire rained down from the sky setting most of our homes ablaze instantly and incinerating all who were not below proper cover" she said, her body shivering as she remembered the chaos and horror of that day.

Leonel dismounted Sarabi and approached her placing his gauntleted hand on her shoulder. she kneeled as tears flowed and he too kneeled not wanting her to feel alone through the retelling of what could only be her most painful memories. " That day... I was preparing dinner when it happened, my husband Ned was out chopping firewood for the night and my daughter was out playing with her friends" she said in between sobs. " Suddenly flames enveloped our home, and I was forced to leave through the back... outside I could see the village men trying to distract the beast... my husband... was bitten in half by the beast" she said, her eyes showing nothing but pain and horror.

"I... could see a pile of little bodies burning... one of them had this pink ribbon I tied on my daughter's hair everyday... I then blacked out and woke out at the edge of the village near the tree line, one of the men had run past me and stopped to pick me up, he saved my life although... truly I wished to die with them" she almost whispered near the end. "listen, i know its hard but I need you to try and remember as to how it looked like, any detail could make it easier for me to hunt it down" he said softly shaking her shoulder. she nodded and turned to him wiping her tears. "it was blue, it had many crystals jutting out of it, its flames where blue, will that help?" she asked. "greatly, tell me do you remember if its tail was spiked? "he asked. she seemed confused but nevertheless closed her eyes reliving her memories trying to remember the day that haunts her nightmares daily.

" It wasn't spiked now that I remember it, it almost seemed like a blue spear" she said. "Then it was a juvenile female glint stone dragon, they hunt alone but eventually venture out to find a mate, it likes to toy with its food almost to a crazy level, there's been confirmed cases of people being found in their dens years later surviving on nothing but whatever scraps it leaves behind" he said as he recalled the book he read on dragons and their sub species. " Weakness, blunt weaponry and extremely weak to enchanted knights for the glint stone on its flesh could be slightly controlled, weakening it to a certain degree" he said, her eyes widened at his knowledge. " don't worry, I am an enchanted knight in training, such a dragon would be an easy feat for me, rest easy and know that when I return it will lay slain somewhere" he said as he stood up and hopped atop Sarabi.

'Sarabi, do you remember any large lakes aside from the limgrave lake?' he asked. ' You have a map do you not cub? in any case there's three smaller lakes and one river on the surface of limgrave, the closest and most probable would-be crag stone lake to our north' she said. ' Then that's where it probably stays, glint stone dragons are notoriously territorial, this village was likely exterminated because a human wandered too close to the lake which they love to nest in' he said. 'Although its odd to see a glint stone dragon willingly leave its natural habitat of liurnia, without the ambient glint stone to eat its growth will be hampered' she said pointing out the peculiarity.

' The only reason they would do that would be... a large mana signature, but who would cast such a powerful spell out here?' he asked quite confused. 'I don't know cub, but I figure well find out once we reach our destination' she said before she began to pick up speed leaving the smoldering village behind. Lina watched him go, she prayed for his safety and the success of the mission... maybe afterwards shed find the courage she needed to finally do what she wished for. as they neared the lake they felt it, the ebb of powerful sorcery likely the reason a glint stone dragon came here. once they reached it, they saw the beast. it was large in size yet not overly so and it was missing the large horn on its head which signified adulthood. behind it stood a large tower which thrummed with magic.

'Seems like that is the reason it's here, its feeding off the wasted mana from whatever is going on inside that tower, are you ready cub?' Sarabi asked as her flames raged in excitement. "of course, lets hunt us a dragon and unlock whatever mystery is in there, let's go Sarabi" he said as he clenched his hand then grasped at the earth below them as they ran. the dragon noticed them instantly and let out a fierce roar trying to scare them off but once it saw that they weren't stopping it gathered power within its throat before unleashing its powerful flames. Sarabi noticed it and jumped above it before dodging the second blast sent their way. suddenly Leonel dragged his hand swiftly in the direction of the dragon, behind them large spikes of glint stone suddenly formed numbering several dozen in size.

the spikes gathered power before launching themselves towards the dragon smashing into its flesh rending chunks of glint stone and scales off the beast leaving behind a gory scene. the dragon roared in pain before lounging towards them. Leonel anticipated this and summoned his halberd before hopping off Sarabi enhanced by the spirits, he switched to mana midway and slammed his mana enhanced halberd down onto the beast below him sending a large blue arc on its back which sent it slamming into the groundbreaking the hard stone below it. still airborne he gathered mana before sending it to the ground below the dizzy dragon. suddenly two large glint stone spikes pierced both its wings rending the thin flesh on it and breaking both wing bones effectively removing its most powerful weapon.

he gathered power before slamming down again yet the pissed off dragon turned its head towards the sky where he was currently descending and sent a powerful blast of fire. he sent a large amount of mana towards his armor, but it still wasn't enough as he felt his flesh being cooked within the armor. intense pain covered his whole being, but he stayed calm and activated his spirit energy which began to fight off the intense heat as it began to heal his body. he slammed down some distance away creating a crater. Sarabi saw this but knew that what she taught him would keep him alive, she rushed the pinned dragon and began to employ hit and run tactics constantly slashing at its skin and dodging its fiery retaliation. Leonel felt the burns on his body fade enough to move thus stood up using the halberd as support. he gathered whatever remaining mana within his body for one final attack.

below his body glint stone began to form due to his distracted concentration wasting a bit of mana. Within his hand laid a large amount of mana, enough to illuminate his surroundings in broad daylight, something which did not go unnoticed by the beast who knew even with its inferior intelligence that if he got that attack off it would die. the two charged their final attacks knowing that it was this or nothing. a Firey flaming column rushed to him, but he simply tapped the ground. a large number of spikes formed before him heading in the direction of the dragon as it upturned the ground and sent waves of water away from it. the two attacks collided fiercely with none giving way to one another but ultimately the crystal attack came from the earth and simply went below the flame reaching the dragon. the fire instead had to break through all the spikes just to reach him but its supply was cut short.

the spikes reached the dragon first and impaled it from the mouth all the way down to the tail raising its body off the ground leaving it suspended like a grim work of art. it was over he had slain a dragon. Leonel crashed onto his knees as he watched the last remaining bit of life leave the beast. suddenly a rush of spirit energy rushed into him healing him a bit and regenerating his mana reserves by quite the bit. he instinctively felt like he could summon the dragon although such a feat would take six times his current mana pool. he turned to Sarabi who stood next to him looking him all over making sure he had no remaining wounds.

she noticed his inquisitive look and sighed, 'cub we really have to open up some time to properly train you as a spirit tuner, what just happened is the soul of the dragon mixing with yours although only a bit properly mixed, the rest very likely is slumbering somewhere in you, with that soul shard you can summon it and if you train properly you could eventually absorb it completely and summon it without the large drain of spiritual energy' she explained as she helped him properly stand. 'of course, for now you won't be able to utilize it in any way due to the large requirements to summon such a large beast, one thing though is that spirit tuners are very likely the strongest beings in the lands between capable of turning an infant dragon spirit into a great dragon spirit with naught but ghost glove wort' she mused.

' when we get back I will make sure to properly teach you, for now rest and gather your strength, I'll go and collect some firewood alongside something to eat, your body needs a large amount of energy after sustaining that much damage, by the way good job cub you used all its weaknesses against it almost killed it without it retaliating' she said as her tail smacked his back encouragingly before entering the nearby woods. he sat there healing the last remaining burns as he internalized the battle. truly it was almost perfect until near the end. he stupidly put himself in a position where he could not escape an attack by having gone that high in the air. 'Next time I have to disable its wings and cut its throat open, never again will I challenge a beast known to be the king of the skies in its own domain' he thought as he planned out different ways in which the fight could've gone.