What Lurks Under XI

Ammine leaped up into the air and struck him in the stomach. The dragon definitely did not expect her to have the strength to fight back and was caught completely off guard by her, allowing her to get her attack in when he could've and should've dodged it with ease.

But unfortunately, Ammine did not expect her attack to land and therefore, she didn't put that much force behind it and the punch only made him fly back a tiny bit. "Ah, that could've been dangerous for me. I could've almost been hurt a little." He landed on the floor in front of the exit, blocking it with his body. "Well, playtime's over. I still need to catch your other buddy as well. I don't know how he managed to escape me, but I need to hunt him down after I deal with you two."

What did the dragon say? Other buddy? Did that mean that Kies was alive? Well, that was good, but this wasn't the time to think about that. The two of them needed to deal with the dragon right now.

The dragon stretched his arms and appeared in front of Ammine in a blink of an eye. "Wha-" She didn't have the chance to react and was punched in the gut. The dragon had returned the favor from earlier and knocked her into the same wall she and Falte had crashed into earlier, creating another huge dent in it.

Ammine coughs up blood and yelled at her partner to do something. "D*mn it Falte! Do something!" Even though he was injured, he should at least still be doing something, anything to help, or else the two of them will both die.

"Sorry to say this, but your friend left you to rot."

"What!?" Ammine looked around her surroundings, frantically searching for the demon only to find that he was nowhere to be found. "You f*ucker..." Ammine cursed. He really did leave her behind to die. D*mn it! She should've just tossed him aside and escaped by herself earlier if she knew that he was going to do this.

"Can't say I blame him. There was no chance of you two winning anyway. Better one live than both die, am I right?" the dragon said, shrugging his shoulders, somewhat agreeing with the decision that Falte made. "Don't get me wrong, I mean that is definitely a sc*m move and I'm no fan of it, but like I said, you guys stand no chance against me. And I don't want to add salt to your wounds, but I'm only using a small fraction of my power right now."

The dragon walked up to Ammine and she felt a surge of magic flow into the air. The dragon was emitting so much magic power despite having most of it sealed. His current strength alone could match three of her king's. It was absolutely ridiculous. She really wanted to know what in the world someone like him was doing here in the first place but it didn't seem like she would have the chance to find an answer to her question.

"Don't worry, this won't hurt. I'll make it painless. It's the least I can do after making you go through so much pain," he assured her.

Ammine tried to move her hand and reach for the emergency pearl to get her out of this situation but she couldn't move at all. Her body wouldn't respond to her. It was being restrained by the dragon's powerful magic aura. Ammine closed her eyes and accepted her fate. She swore that if she somehow survived this, she would hunt Falte down and make him pay for this. And in the very likely chance that she didn't, she would come back as a ghost and haunt him for the rest of his life. Either way, he was going to pay for this.

"What a shame. You're brave, strong, and rather beautiful as well. You're just my type. If only you were born a dragon instead," he disappointedly said.

"Do it already!" she shouted at him. He said that it would be quick but he was just rubbing more salt in her wounds.

"Alright, as you wish," the dragon flashed his claws, making sure all his talons were still sharp. He then raised his arm and got ready to end Ammine in a single and swift strike so that she wouldn't feel any discomfort. The dragon brought down his hand and just as it was about to reach Ammine's face, he suddenly froze in place.

"W-wh-? W-why won't m-my body r-respond?" the dragon scrolled his eyes to the right of him where he saw something long and thin stuck in his neck.

"Surprise, surprise, open your eyes." Falte appeared from behind the dragon and chuckled. "Bet you weren't expecting that now were you?"

"Y-you-"

"Don't bother speaking. I won't be sticking around long enough for a conversation. Come on princess, it's time to wake up," he called out to Ammine who still had her eyes closed.

"So you didn't leave me to die." Ammine slowly pushed herself from the floor and wiped the dust off her. She then kicked Falte in the knee.

"Ow! What was that for? I saved you didn't I? Did you really think I would abandon you?"

"I thought you did."

"Ah, have a little more faith in me, will you? I may be selfish, but I won't abandon a comrade like that you know."

Ammine shook her head. She was relieved that Falte came back to her. "What is that anyway?" she asked while pointing at the needle in the dragon's neck.

"Paralyzing poison. The most potent kind. It usually knocks people out cold for days, but he's somehow standing up and still conscious. It's unbelievable how he's able to resist it this much."

The dragon's eyes rolled over to Falte. Though his eyelids and face could hardly move or shift, they could tell that he was quite upset at Falte. "Now the roles have reversed," Ammine told the dragon, his eyes shifting to Ammine as she spoke. "I'll give you a 'quick and painless' death like you were going to do for me."

"I think it's better if we just leave," Falte suggested instead.

"Why? He was trying to kill us?" Ammine reminded him, not sure why he wanted to spare the dragon. He couldn't move right now and was vulnerable. It wouldn't take them much effort at all to kill him even with how exhausted they were.

"Well, for starters, this isn't even his real body."

"What?" Ammine looked back at the dragon who was no longer smiling. "What do you mean it's not the real body? I could literally feel his body temperature and everything," she pointed out while placing her hand on his forehead.

Falte shook his head. "When have you ever heard of a dragon's skin being so soft? If it were his real body, I wouldn't have been able to stab the needle in his neck," he explained.

"What?"

"B-bingo," the dragon murmured.

"Then might as well kill him. I mean, even if it's not the real body, we should still kill it, shouldn't we?"

"Well, that is an option. But I have a better one. Hey, fireball, let me offer you a deal," Falte proposed to the dragon.

"W-what?"

"Even though this isn't your real body, I know that destroying it will be a pain for you. So how about this? We won't destroy this body and you let us go. Do we have a deal?" he offered the dragon.

The dragon stayed silent for a few seconds, thinking about the offer before smiling and say, "I-I a-accept."

"Looks like we have an agreement then. I trust that you won't break it. After all, it's in your pride as a dragon to stay true to your word, am I right."

The dragon raised one of his eyebrows ever so slightly giving him a somewhat surprised look. He didn't expect Falte to know something like that "Y-yes," he slowly said. It was one of the virtues that dragons have to follow. Since they lived extremely long lives to the point where it could be seen as eternity for most other creatures and also had the power to destroy entire civilizations, there was a set of rules they had to follow which was agreed upon by the dragon elders so the world wouldn't fall into chaos.

"Alright, with your strength, the poison should wear off in no time," Falte told the dragon. As if to prove his point, the dragon's arms started to twitch along with his legs, followed by the rest of his body. He was slowly regaining control of his body. "Yeah, you should be fine. We'll be taking our leave first."

Falte pulled Ammine out of the sewers before the dragon could completely regain control over his entire body. Though Falte had already made a deal with the dragon and he wouldn't attack them and break their promise, he still didn't want to take the risk.

The light shone on their faces, blinding them for a short moment as their eyes readjusted to the brightness. "By the way, how did you get behind him? I thought that your legs were injured and you couldn't move."

"Ah, that? You see, that's a special trick I have reserved for emergency situations such as these. It's called acting."

"So you faked your injury the entire time?"

"Well, not the entire time. It's more like most of it I would say," he corrected Ammine. "It was around the time when you picked me up."

"..."

"Hey, don't look at me like that. It's because of my superb acting that we survived."

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