The three adventurers stepped up to face their dragon once more after their regrouping. Errrkkkk had been healed and revitalized thanks to Roden's Adventure domain ability. Riakon had some dings and had exhausted all of his magic, but as Errrkkkk pointed out, he was no worse off than he was at the start of the last dragon fight. Roden found he hadn't used all that much magic either. His main concern was his Grove Armor was gone and that left him vulnerable.

For a time the three men stood in front of Shu'zet the Unsleeping as she sat coiled tight like a spring. Light still escaped from the places between her scales and she had grown nearly twice the size she was when they had started. Her growth was more of an expansion, she had grown thicker and more solid than simply taller, although she had gotten a bit taller as well.

"What do you say boys? We give it another shot?" Roden doing his best action hero impression.

"At the very least we get Grok back." Riakon said resolutely.

"No way. We finish this, cacaw!" Errrkkkk said, releasing his golden aura.

"Brother, you go high. I'll go low."

"I'll hit'em from a distance." They all nodded at their plan and set to work.

Riakon and Errrkkkk took off in opposite directions to attack Shu'zet from the sides. Errrkkkk was faster and drew the dragon's attention. With her focused on Errrkkkk, Riakon lobbed his hammer which crashed into her just as Errrkkkk began his assault of fist and feet. Meanwhile Roden conjured up his Sylvan Weaponry as a bow and unleashed a ranged assault straight at Shu'zet's chest.

The coordinated attacks confused and angered their foe. Riakon snatched his hammer as it returned to his hand following up with a sweeping hammer strike that connected, causing Shu to recoil from the blow. Errrkkkk danced back with a flap of his wings and couched his hands. At Shu's grimace of pain, he unleashed a beam of chi at her throat.

A flash of light followed by Errrkkkk's "Caaaaaaaaa, Caaaaaaawwwwwww!!!!!!" was the culmination of the two warriors' onslaught.

Shu hissed a wicked sound that thundered through the men. Shu'zet's eyes flared with the sudden wave of sound. Roden felt a familiar dread wash over him. A deep fear frayed his nerves, for a moment, his every instinct told him to run. The next moment he felt his confidence return. Instead of the cold sweat of fear he felt his mind shrug off the dragon's aura of terror. Worried for his companions, Roden glanced to each of them. He was relieved to see they both were still aloft and on guard.

Riakon renewed his attack with a strafing run of his cold breath, while Errrkkkk crashed into Shu's head with a falling axe kick from above. The dragon was being overwhelmed by their coordination until a huge claw connected with a retreating Riakon. The wide arcing blow slapped Riakon like an annoying fly sending him crashing into the dirt. With one down, Shu turned her attention to the monk.

Roden saw the break in their assault and decided it was time to pull out his contingency plan. Way back before the start of the battle he'd activated all of his normal buffs. He'd called up his Grove Armor and Herald's Strength intending on using them throughout the fight. His long term plan was his Mozzetta of Clouds, he'd activated it in the very beginning allowing it to build up a charge for as long as possible. By that point it was vibrating with elemental energy. It was the densest charge he'd carried on his back to that point.

Roden fixed his attention and visualized what he needed to do. He held out his hand calling his bow to become his sword. The hilt slid into his palm and he aimed it at the dragon's chest. He discharged the stored energy within his cloak. The rush of lightning erupted out of the point of his sword slamming into Shu in an instant tearing through the wing she managed to raise just before impact.

Errrkkkk wasted no time, he drew his hands back gathering his chi. He prepared for a finishing blow.

"Caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, Caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwww!!!!!!"

Shu could hear the monk charging up his attack and knew what was coming. She met his beam with one of her own. By that point her rage was waning. Dragons were not endurance fighters, they were battle ending forces meant to finish off the enemy. She put her remaining reserves into the caustic beam that tore from her throat.

Errrkkkk's beam was powerful, but it was no match for Shu's. Their attacks clashed and Errrkkkk's was overwhelmed. He poured his aura into his stream of chi energy. His golden glow was pulled into the torrent, slowing Shu'zet's last effort to finish the monk, but he was overcome nonetheless.

Riakon raised himself up to his hands and knees in time to see Errrkkkk blasted out of the sky. He was helpless as his oldest friend, his brother, his greatest ally fell smoking. It sparked a fury deep within Riakon. He hated these fucking dragons and was tired of this one in particular. He launched himself in a beeline toward Shu as he called his hammer. Without regard for himself he rammed into the dragon's exposed underbelly. The force of the collision folded the serpent at the midsection. Riakon pivoted and spun around in a looping swing of his hammer. Shu countered his strike with a swing of her tail sending Riakon to the dirt again except this time she had him pinned.

Roden was already moving atop his Nimbus when he saw Errrkkkk fall. His beam hadn't connected with the monster, but it had succeeded in draining her remaining power. The glow from within her went dark. Whatever power was driving her was finally spent.

Seeing her weakened, Roden was casting Hero's Strike by the time Riakon was trapped under Shu's tail. His blade billowed with the white flame that wasn't a flame. He reached his target and slashed with all his might. The slice detonated as he passed, the magically charged attack ripped into the dragon's hide before bursting out in a plume of white radiant energy.

Roden had hoped his last high tier spell would put an end to their fight. His confidence in that idea diminished greatly when instead of falling to the ground Shu'zet batted him out of the sky. He skidded to the ground within sight of Errrkkkk, who was still smoking from his confrontation with a full power dragon's breath.

Roden was happy to see he was still breathing, but that was all the attention he could afford to give his friend as Shu bore down on him. She slithered across the ground, a snake after a mouse. She rose up, mouth open about to strike him when a wooden stake sprouted from the roof of her mouth. Roden could see the faint green glow pulsating from the comically small splinter. The initial pain Shu felt from the unseen attack wasn't great, it was the resulting explosion that ripped through the roof of her mouth that was crippling.

Shu'zet the Unsleeping wailed and writhed on the ground twitching back and forth. She attempted to slip into the nearest hole except she was pulled up short by Riakon's grip on her tail. Her form had been slowly shrinking ever since her primal rage had ended, which made it all the easier for Riakon to manhandle her. Roden couldn't make out the words she spoke to Riakon as he drew back his hammer. He could only assume her groveling and promises fell on deaf ears when Riakon drove his hammer through her skull putting an end to their protracted fight.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Roden was ready to shout out in triumph when he saw movement from the dragon's form. He moved to continue their assault, but halted when he noticed Shu's head was still lolled to the side and her eye held no sign of life. Riakon dropped his hammer and used both hands to lift Shu'zet's upper jaw. Roden couldn't see what happened next, but he did see a black figure spill out onto the ground.

'Fucking Grok!' the thought shot through Roden's mind, bulling over all other concerns.

He rushed to the garg's side. While the garg was covered in saliva and had patches of bald spots all over his lower body, no doubt the result of his stint with Shu'zet's stomach. Yet, overall the garg looked mostly okay. Riakon was already healing the garg with his Faith Healing ability by the time Roden arrived next to his teammates.

"Riakon, is he okay?!"

Riakon nodded with a goofy grin on his face, "Yeah my boy will be just fine."

Roden let out a sigh of relief that was quickly followed by an intense curiosity, "How the fuck is he fine?"

At his words Grok reached into the bag across his chest and withdrew a glass potion decanter and presented it to Roden with a toothy smile.

Roden was shocked and proud all at once, when he realized what the garg had done. Riakon confirmed that after their furry friend had been swallowed he bided his time within Shu'Zet's stomach by clinging to the walls of the dragon's stomach. When he would get burned badly enough, he'd drink one of the many potions Riakon had stored in his dimensional bag. Grok even bragged that he had still attacked Shu from the inside by ripping at her insides.

Without a need for his life saving magic, Roden set to healing everyone individually with his Triage spell. Riakon had suffered a few broken ribs requiring a slightly overcharged casting. Roden himself was feeling his injuries and healed himself nearly just as much. When he moved to go treat Errrkkkk with his last most powerful spell, he saw Branch hovering over the birdman applying a sticky salve to his wounds.

"Hey Errrkkkk, need healing?" Roden asked.

From the ground Errrkkkk gave Roden his approximation of a thumbs up,

"Yeah Branch is doing his best, but I think I might need a bit more when he's done."

"Hey Branch." Roden said, addressing the little Treant. "Great job out there."

It was always difficult to tell what the plant creature was thinking, but the praise spawned a slight curvature on what served as his mouth. Roden counted it as a victory and set to healing Errrkkkk a bit more after Branch was finished.

Once everyone was as healed as they could make them, the group gathered together to assess their situation.

"So what now?" Riakon said addressing everyone.

"Loot?" Roden suggested.

"Of course, cacaw."

"Yeah, but where is it?" Riakon said, looking around.

Roden knew Shu'zet's horde was at the very bottom of her underwater lair, he's gotten so used to slipping his prophetic knowledge into situations he felt he could get away with this one without raising too much suspicion.

"If I had to guess, I'd say it's in one of those pools."

All three men groaned as they eyed the slowly burbling pools. When Roden's eyes returned from the pool to his friends he saw both had put a claw to their respective noses.

Roden closed his eyes, defeated, "Gods dammit!"

"To be fair you have the most healing among us in case it's all acid." Riakon said sheepishly.

"Shit not today. I'm nearly spent." Roden countered.

"Sounds like we are staying, do you have enough for your treehouse or do we need to build a nest, cacaw."

Roden begrudgingly set to conjuring up his treehouse for them to spend the night in the domain of a freshly slain dragon. While scouting the area for a good place to put his Adventurer's Refuge, Roden noticed Shu'zet's corpse had started to glow. The glow intensified to the point it drew everyone's attention. In minutes the scales began peeling back while dissolving into what they could only assume was pure magical energy. The entire process took about fifteen minutes leaving no trace of the ancient monster.

That night the party continued their nightly tradition of star gazing from the comfort of their rooftop treetop nest. Roden had chosen a dry stop along the shore just south of Shu'zet's home. From there the night sky was just as awe inspiring as always.

"I gotta say I think the other dragon had a better view." Roden said into the darkness.

"And smell, I almost forgot what fresh air smelled like. That the gods your treehouse filters out the swamp stench." Riakon replied.

"Makes me wonder what the next dragon is going to be like, cacaw."

"Hmmmm" Riakon pondered before pulling out the map given to them by the high priest. He perused the map for a moment before holding it up and pointing to a section a bit southwest of the center.

"Here is where the map says the next closest dragon is."

"Doesn't look too far from here, cacaw."

"Not at all, just over those mountains to the west."

All of them turned their gaze to their right. Out in the darkness they could just make out the looming silhouette of a range of mountains off in the distance. Even Roden with his ability to see in the dark couldn't see them with any particular clarity.

"Should we pop over there tomorrow and handle it, cacaw?"

Both Riakon and Roden looked at Errrkkkk as if he'd grown a second head.

Roden tried to broach the topic reasonably, "I mean don't we have quite a few things we need to do to prepare for that fight?"

Picking up on Roden's tact, Riakon added, "and you need to swap your necklace's resistance."

Errrkkkk clicked his tongue, "What resistance? We don't know anything about that dragon, cacaw."

"Fair point." Riakon said begrudgingly.

"That means another trip to the library then huh?" Roden added hopeful.

"Fine, cacaw." the Birdfolk replied, drawing out the word like a petulant child.

Roden let out a sigh of relief, "Besides I'm sure I have an Advancement coming I'll need to navigate and if last time was any indication Riakon should be getting some more magic back."

"Oh! Right, he has a point!" Riakon said with rising excitement.

There was a long pause between them that dampened the general tone of enthusiasm. Roden wasn't sure what had caused it beyond the postponing of their third dragon. Riakon on the other hand picked up on his adoptive brother's somber mood.

"What's wrong brother?"

"Nothing, cacaw."

"I don't believe you." The Dragonkin pressed.

"I'm fine, cacaw."

"Spoken like someone who isn't fine." Roden said

Errrkkkk huffed, "I just the dragons done, cacaw."

"We will brother. We just have to be careful. I don't want anyone to get killed over my mistake."

"Yeah I know, cacaw."

It took Errrkkkk's omission to trigger Roden's memory. He knew what Errrkkkk wanted to say, but had to approach the topic carefully.

"Should we take a break on the dragons?"

Riakon frown rapidly softened as he considered Roden's words, "they are quite a lot to handle."

"We do have the Shade to go to for Mu'tumbo." Roden added, trying to steer the conversation.

Errrkkkk chirped in frustration, "Guys it's fine. We just need to finish the dragons when we get back, cacaw."

"Brother, I can see something is bothering you. Now tell ol'Riakon why you want to finish off the dragons so badly."

Errrkkkk sat in his frustration and contemplation before responding, "I wanna go to my Dad's dimension."

That was the omission Roden was expecting and was ready,

"Hmmm that could be fun, but how do we get there?"

Errrkkkk opened his beak to speak, but had nothing to offer so he closed it again.

"Do you think we could get Yan to send us?" Riakon offered.

"Maybe, but how do we get home then?" Roden countered.

"Also a fair point."

"Well if I remember correctly, I should be able to hop between the different planes and dimensions after a few more Advancements. So if you can hold out a bit longer I think I can get us there and back."

Errrkkkk squawked in excitement, "You can do that, cacaw!"

Roden nodded, his knowledge of the Cleric spell list from Adventures and Antics bolstering his confidence. "As long as we can get something from the place we want to go, I should be able to get us there."

"Would Errrkkkk count? He is a Birdfolk." Riakon asked.

"I'm not positive on the details of the spell, but I don't think so considering he was born here."

Errrkkkk started digging through his pack and presented the party with a long feather. Its color was unclear given the lack of light, but the way Errrkkkk held it out made its importance clear to the others.

"What do you have there, brother?"

"It's a feather from my Dad, cacaw."

Roden saw his chance "Now that should work perfectly."

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