Enchanted Blade

D gritted his teeth and braced himself on his hands and knees holding up the weight of the collapsed building and the dragon. Beneath him, a fourth small arm had grown to hold the sword still while the first continued rapidly scratching away. It had a mass of tiny runes carved into the crimson metal near the base of the blade on one side. Suddenly the hand sprayed its fingers and dug the tips of its claws into the metal around the carved runes. The hand rotated cutting a shallow circle into the metal around the runes and D felt a surge of power flow into the blade. It hummed and thrummed as if alive. Stage one was complete.

One of his new arms dug into the pouch attached to his belt and fished out the golden spell quill. New golden light illuminated his little hollow even as the smoldering wreckage started to cook him faster than he could regenerate. A quick dirty ward was brought into existence and it glowed for a moment gathering power before sinking in to become a circle in the ground. An explosion of kinetic energy blasted from below him with enough strength to send the burning rubble and the dragon flying. D caught in the blast felt most of his ribs shatter and his lungs collapse but he found himself free.

Rolling free as he hit the ground he scrambled up to dart into the burning house. He needed time to heal, just long enough to draw proper breath. Eirlog outside let out a roar of frustration. Never had it faced such frustrating prey, so weak and yet stubbornly clinging to life. "You can not hide from me!" It lashed out with its tail to crash into the burning house. D was a dark streak as he rushed out of the house. He skidded across the ground under the snapping jaw of the dragon before kicking off the ground to slam the point of his sword into its neck. Sparks flew and then flew again as he slashed out twice more before diving away. Eirlog smashed his face into the ground as if to swallow D whole right where he had been a moment ago. D rolled then leapt up before spreading his still healing wings so he landed on the burning palisade wall in the back. He balanced on the smoldering tip of an ancient log.

"You insignificant whelp! You should just lay down and die." Eirlog started to suck in a breath, his entire serpentine body swelling up like a balloon. Emerald light shone from beneath his scales and his eyes blazed. 'Let's see the whelps breath match this!'

D didn't move, not even looking at the ancient dragon. Instead, he gazed at the mess of runes carved into the side of the sword's blade. He was slightly annoyed that the little hand controlled by his partitioned mind had better handwriting than him. Still, he dug four of his fingers claws into the metal at the top edge of the circle towards the point of the sword. Then slashed out leaving four deep gouges in the length of the two handed falchion. Eirlog was a glowing ballon already and D sucked in a breath before spraying a thick mess of his acidic breath. Not the cloud based breath he normally used but a spray of thick viscous liquid.

It coated the crimson blade and settled in both the scratches as well as the rune carvings. As he did Eirlog bellowed out his attack. Not a breath or ball of flames but a wall of emerald fire that crashed across the settlement like a tsunami. D leapt forward with the sword raised over his head and dove into that wave as he slashed down. Eirlog watched as the wave rolled forward towards the whelp.

Then something strange happened. The center of that tidal wave of flame seemed to shimmer and warp. Then with the sound of rushing air, it did something unexpected. Instead of blowing outwards, it seemed to suck inwards to vanish. He saw the dark scaled monster flying forward through the new gap in his wave of flames. That sword it was wielding was covered in emerald flames that sparkled and crackled. As it finished the downward slash a line of fire left the edge of the blade and raced towards Eirlog. "You seek to turn my flame against me? FOOLISH!"

He opened his mouth and snapped his jaws intent on devouring the flames. Instead, Eirlog tasted his own blood for the first time in their long life. The crescent of flame cut into his narrow snout running nearly a quarter of its length. Its forked tongue was split further down and hot blood sprayed free. Eirlog let loose the first true roar of pain ever and started wildly flapping its wings to rise up.

D never hesitated and slashed out with the sword, he angled upwards and to the right letting another similar crescent of flames fly free. It sliced through one of Eirlogs wings as a second of the four glowing lines carved in the blade of the sword went dull.

Eirlog tilted as they lost control of their flight when one of the wings was severed and then came crashing down to the ground. Another slash sent the third crescent of flame towards the dragon thrashing on the ground. With a piercing scream of something, D didn't understand a shimmering curtain of copper light formed to intercept the slash. The curtain shattered and the flame crescent slashed against the dragon but most of its bite had been spent. It blew apart against the scaled body leaving it unhurt.

"You stole my flame and tainted it with that putrid breath of yours! HOW DARE YOU!" Slithering forward the serpentine dragon charged at D faster than seemed possible. Again it crashed into D who used the blade to prevent it from swallowing him whole. The sword cut into the deep vertical slash in the dragon's snout as it smashed D into the back wall of the village. Then turned upwards a second time carrying him up into the sky. When D heard again the strange words that preluded the lances of copper light before he released the last stored slash in the sword.

It rushed forward splitting the dragon's snout down to the back of its jaw and between it's eyes. Blood rushed in and it gurgled causing the spell it was forming to falter. Twisting it turned and dove down driving D back to the earth to smash into the center of the smoldering walled settlement. Pinned to the ground he tried to work the sword's blade deeper, intent on splitting the dragon's skull properly.

Droplets of emerald flame spittled along with blood across D as Eirlog growled out their rage and prepared to burn his enemy alive, pinned to the ground. At the last moment, D spat out his acidic breath right into the dragon's mouth. As it had each time before when his breath weapon mingled with the dragons it detonated like a bomb. This time right inside the dragon's mouth.

D watched as the split upper and lower jaws of the dragon exploded apart to fly in four different directions. The blast dazed him and for a moment he panicked thinking he would be attacked while stunned. Instead, when his head cleared he watched as Eirlog rolled and smashed into everything wildly. Its long snout was completely gone leaving a bloody mess where its mouth had been. The mighty wyrm king crashed to the ground to gurgle and wheeze through its ruined face. One glowing emerald eye, already dimming with encroaching death, swiveled to look at D as he pulled himself to his feet. His chest was charred and his flesh had been peeled back from his ribs. But already he was healing. Flesh rolled over his chest inwards slowly returning to where it had been.

"Wha..t A…re Yoooo..u? Eirlog gurgled and choked on his own words, his tail rattle sounding off sporadically as his body twitched.

D stepped forward and placed one clawed foot on the dragon's neck then drove the sword down into it. With a slight grunt, he wrenched the blade down cutting a long deep wound to expose the dying dragon's innards. Eyes like star cut black diamonds swiveled in twin pools of silver to look the dragon in the eye one last time as he spoke. "HUNGRY."

Eirlog let out a death rattle as the smaller monster tore into its organs. After so long bound in a magical prison, all his efforts were to go to waste. As the light left his glowing eyes he gurgled out a laugh. "They will come for you." His dying words were clear as a bell making D look up as he swallowed down a huge mouthful of bloody meat. The dragon hadn't spoken the last bit out loud. But directly into D's mind. D felt a strange shiver run down his spine.