Chp.37: Absolute terror

Every single fairy throughout the capital screamed as the huge dragon stopped in the sky; the monstrous shadow blocking the sunlight was like a terrible herald of death. Many of them were paralyzed for the terror and some even fainted. Within seconds, chaos ensued: everyone was trying to flee in every direction, hoping that the dragon would have attacked anywhere except where they were. They knew there was no place to escape, it was impossible to escape from the powerful wings of a dragon, but they still tried out of utter desperation, in the vain hope that a miracle would have happened and save their lives.

It didn't matter what race they were, all the newcomers in the known world knew of the existence of dragons. And it didn't matter in which stories or tales they appeared, their role was always the same: the one of the monstrous, cruel and indomitable predators who devoured everything, even people, and who knew no mercy or affection for anyone or anything. They were the monsters that parents used to get their children to obey them, the evil creatures that kidnapped the princesses to devour them, the beasts that the hero had to defeat. And often, the hero was even unable to defeat them on their own and they needed the help of other heroes. Even though sometimes some dreamer occasionally imagined of befriending a dragon and flying on their immense wings, no one with a minimum of common sense would ever want to meet one of those gigantic flying reptiles.

In all the stories and tales, the warning was always the same: if a dragon saw you, unless you were a hero blessed by the gods, you could already consider yourself dead. There was no escape.

And now that one of those huge monsters had appeared in the capital, the fairies fully understood why those who had written the stories and tales were so afraid of dragons. The body one hundred and twenty meters long and covered by red and sometimes blue scales, the enormous wings that blocked the sun, the paws equipped with claws so large that they could mangle a person with only the tip, the long tail similar to an enormous snake that writhed continuously and that if it would have hit a building it would undoubtedly have reduced it to crumbs, and above all, the horned head with a gaping mouth bristling with razor-sharp teeth from which oozed saliva similar to poison. Every single piece of that monstrous body was a lethal weapon and exuded a feeling of might and invincibility.

At that moment, no fairy was able to think: instinct took over. The ancestral fear in their blood, transmitted to them by their ancestors who had to hide from those monsters every day, fully emerged and controlled their bodies. Their wings started flapping wildly, more than they had ever flapped in their entire lives, in a desperate attempt to fly as far away from the dragon as possible. By now, no one was thinking of moving away in an orderly manner, of helping those who flew slower, of trying to create an efficient escape plan: the minds of all the fairies had completely emptied, giving way to irrational panic, the same panic that an animal felt as soon as it saw the most terrifying predator of its environment. The kind of panic of a creature that knew for sure that it was nothing more than a meal for the monster in front of it.

Many of the soldiers lost their minds and fled as well, even throwing away their weapons in an attempt to lighten up to fly faster. The veterans, hardened by several battles, managed to keep their minds clear, but still couldn't help shaking like leaves at the sight of the dragon. They knew that no matter how experienced they were or how arduous their training had been, they had no hope against that monster. What they were feeling was no different from what a mouse felt when it faced with a cat: it didn't matter if the mouse was the strongest of its species, against the cat it could only flee, hide and hope that the predator would have gotten tired of looking for it and leave.

The dragon opened their jaws and roared. The sound was so loud that the nearest fairies heard their ears ringing, and an instant later their eardrums bursting. Indeed, those directly in the line of the sound wave felt their body shake, and then they spat blood and fell to the ground unable to breathe as the sound damaged their organs. The roar was heard for hundreds of kilometers, and more than ten kilometers from the dragon the crowns of the trees still stirred and the leaves flew off for the force of the sound wave.

Then, a light formed in the dragon's mouth. The fairies immediately felt the terror grow even stronger, as if their survival instinct was trying in every way to spur them to get away even faster. An instant later, a torrent of flame erupted from the dragon's jaws. The giant reptile breathed fire for just ten seconds, but that was enough to reduce a fifth of the city to ashes. Everything the flames touched that was capable of burning began to burn: wood, fabrics, hair and, of course, living beings. The dragon's fire was so insanely hot and powerful that any fairy who was less than five hundred meters away from the beast and was struck by it was literally sublimated: their bodies instantly passed from a solid to a gaseous state, leaving not even the ash but just dissolving in the air as vapor.

It was like the sun had fallen on earth.

But in a certain sense, the fairies that sublimated were the luckiest, because at least they didn't even have time to suffer: those who were further away and were hit by the flames remained alive for a few minutes before dying, suffering the worst pains as they burned alive. The farther the fire was from the dragon's mouth, the longer the time to die for the stricken fairies, and so was their agony.

But it didn't end there. The jet of fire with a temperature of several thousands of degrees generated another very powerful destructive force in a matter of seconds. The air surrounding the dragon's breath became pressurized to extreme levels, until it exploded in all directions, generating a shock wave so powerful that every house, tree, building, or anything else within a kilometer collapsed as if it was made of paper. The shock wave was so powerful that when it hit the other side of the capital its force was still sufficient to crack walls, bend trees and shatter windows.

But it wasn't over yet. The jet of fire struck the forest floor with incredible speed and force. Although much of that force was released into the air, the pressure was so intense that a small part of it penetrated the ground generating seismic waves. In less than a minute, the entire city was in the throes of an earthquake; it wasn't very strong, but enough to do some serious damage. The houses that the fairies had built on the trees were in fact particularly vulnerable to earthquakes: the trunks in fact had to maintain a precarious balance to prevent the weight of the buildings above from collapsing on themselves. With the earthquake, part of the earth split apart and the roots of the trees emerged from the ground; this, combined with the shock wave, caused countless trees to collapse and with them all the buildings that stood above them. The fairies who had sought refuge inside the houses and the many unfortunates who had been struck by the falling trees were reduced to nothing but blood and mangled organs.

Just two minutes after the dragon's first attack, half of the city had already been destroyed and at least a quarter of the population was dead. These were dragons: flying calamities that could unleash unprecedented destruction, legendary beasts that could literally bend the elements to their will. Just one of their attacks was the equivalent of several natural catastrophes unleashed simultaneously. There was only one word suited to describe them, and it was 'monsters'.

Fridya had watched that horrible spectacle from the royal palace, and although she knew she should have had to bravely defend the capital, she was literally paralyzed with terror. This wasn't like facing another warrior or an army... it was like facing the pure embodiment of destruction itself. "Great gods" she couldn't help but whisper. "We'll never defeat that thing"

She slapped herself. She had to recover, and quickly! If she had stood there, she would have achieved nothing. Her hands moved to the horn strapped to her waist and brought it to her lips. She blew into it with all her might, hoping that the sound of the horn would have drown out the screams and crackling flames.

A few moments passed, and then some fairies covered in armor flew in front of her. They were the few soldiers who had remained at their posts despite that terrifying situation… or who had stopped fleeing as soon as they heard the horn and rushed there in hopes of finding someone who knew what to do. All of them were so pale that they looked like they hadn't seen the sun for years, and Fridya was pretty sure that her skin tone wasn't much different right now. "Listen to me!" she yelled, hoping to sound at least a little authoritarian despite the situation. "I know you're scared. I'm scared too, damn it. But we can't panic, not now. We have to protect this city"

The soldiers didn't say a word, but it was enough for Fridya to look them in the eyes to know that they weren't convinced at all. They were probably still there just out of a sense of duty, but as soon as the dragon would have opened the mouth again they would have ran away like rats. She tried to convince them a little more: "I won't lie to you: most likely, none of us will leave here alive" she said. "But you know that we will die anyway even if we will do nothing. No one will come to save us. The only thing we can do now is to distract the dragon and buy time for our people to flee. So I ask you not to think about the monster that we have in front of us, but to your families, your children, your friends or even just your acquaintances that you could save if you fight! I don't ask you to not be afraid, but to be more afraid for the lives of the others than for yours!"

This time her words got some reaction: although the soldiers' complexion remained no different from the one of a sheet of paper, a light lit up for a few brief moments in their eyes and their posture became a little more secure. They also managed to shake slightly less. Apparently, reminding them how high the stakes were was the right move. After all, they were soldiers: die for their country, and thus protect those people important for them, was their job. This time the situation was no different… except that the threat had come directly to their home and that it was posed not by an enemy army but by the most dangerous predator in the entire world.

"Where is the queen?" someone suddenly asked. Which translated meant: 'Did the queen die like many others, or did she miraculously manage to survive?'.

Fridya reassured them: "The queen is safe... at least for now. The guards have taken her to safety. She is working on a way to fix this" she answered. "We don't have to worry about her, she has trusted warriors by her side. Our thoughts must be directed only to the dragon!"

The soldiers nodded and moved into standard attack formation. Fridya flew in front of them and looked at the dragon. The monstrous beast was staring at the burning city, as if they were appreciating their work. Even though they were far away, Fridya was sure to see that their eyes shone with an eerie light, as if just their gaze could kill.

"Great gods, I don't know what we have done to deserve this... but please protect us!" she whispered, praying wholeheartedly for a miracle to happen, and she was sure the other soldiers (or probably every fairy in the whole capital) were doing the same too. Then, taking a deep breath, she charged at the dragon.