Silence.
Nothing but the sound of their own breathing and the occasional drip of water echoing in the cavern.
Alex wiped dust off his gauntlet, exhaling. "Okay. I think we're good now—"
Then the ground shook.
A low, guttural sound filled the cavern.
Not the sound of shifting rock.
Not the whisper of undead voices.
Something deeper. Older. Hungrier.
Hughie swallowed. "…Guys?"
Deadpool raised a finger. "Before anyone says it—yes. I do, in fact, feel like we're about to be in deep sh**."
Then they saw them.
High above, in the deep, endless blackness of the cave's ceiling—
Two massive, golden eyes opened.
No pupils. No whites. Just two glowing orbs of pure, ancient malice.
Frenchie stiffened. "…C'est impossible."
A rush of air.
A shifting of shadows.
Then—
It rose.
A mountain of black scales shifting against rock.
Huge, razor-sharp talons scraping the cavern floor.
And when it finally stretched its colossal wings—
It nearly touched the ceiling.
Hughie let out a weak, strangled, "oh, sh.**"
Raju, still standing behind them, paled. "Bhai saab… woh toh ek saamp nahi hai. Woh toh saala DRAGON hai!"
Deadpool blinked.
Then he slowly turned his head toward some invisible camera only he could see.
"ARE YOU SERIOUS RIGHT NOW, AUTHOR?!" he screamed into the void. "GODZILLA BARELY FINISHED HIS MOVIE RUN, AND NOW YOU WANNA THROW A DRAGON AT US?! GIVE US A DAMN BREAK!"
Alex, mid-panic, glanced at him. "Who the hell are you talking to?!"
Deadpool whirled back, pointing at the massive, fire-breathing nightmare in front of them.
"OH, I DON'T KNOW, MAYBE THE SADISTIC SON OF A B** WRITING THIS?!**"
The dragon exhaled.
The air instantly became hot.
It wasn't just some mindless beast.
No.
This thing had lived. It had waited. It had been here since before even the British, slumbering beneath this forgotten battlefield.
And now?
Now it was awake.
The dragon reared its massive head, scales shimmering in the dim light.
Its nostrils flared.
Its chest expanded.
The air in the cavern became dry.
Alex's instincts screamed.
"GET DOWN!"
Then—FIRE.
A massive torrent of flames erupted from the dragon's maw.
A pure, white-hot inferno.
But that wasn't the worst part.
The flames hit the far side of the cavern—
Where hundreds of crates still sat.
Old, rotting TNT crates.
Left behind by the British soldiers.
Forgotten for over a century.
The fire met gunpowder.
Alex had exactly half a second to register what was about to happen before—
KABOOOOOOOOOM.
The entire cavern detonated.
The shockwave hit them like a truck.
The ceiling cracked.
The cavern entrance collapsed.
Rocks, dust, and fire erupted into the sky as sunlight finally poured in.
And in the middle of it all—
The dragon soared upward.
It burst from the collapsing cave, wings unfurling into the open sky.
And with one final, earth-shaking roar—
It was free.
Deadpool, sitting on the ground, covered in soot, coughed and muttered, "I f*ing hate this story.**"