The First Dragon of Marble

Chapter 10

At least a year has passed since coming into this dungeon according to my age on my personal scroll. I have fought and killed countless monsters leveling more slowly with each level gained. My rations soon ran out after the warg, and I had to resort eating monster meat. Some monsters tasted good but then they tasted horrible even after I learned to use my fire element spell Flame Bullet to cook the meat. At first, I would just turn the meat to ash, but I soon realized that I could control the temperature at which I cast the spell.

I descended from floor to floor of the dungeon with the scenery never changing from the theme of a cavern. There where slight differences such as an underground lake, a forest of stone, ice covering the walls of the cave, or a magma river flowing through volcanic tunnels. With each floor the monsters became stronger, and most were unrecognizable to me. I couldn’t count the number of times that I almost died. I procured more scars with each floor from the life and death fights. If someone were to see me now they would see a bearded and scared hardened warrior that looked like a savage. My clothes from Melcox are long gone leaving me to make clothes from monster fur and skin. I had to learn through trial and error making weapons from the monster parts because my shield and axe became to battered and obsolete from the fights. After multiple struggles to survive I arrive at a massive door on the one hundredth floor, that has cravings and depictions of dragons and people using magic of different spells.

I tilt my head and talk to myself that has become a habit, “Dragons? I have seen lesser wyverns and drakes in this dungeon…is that what these cravings are depicting?” After the fiftieth floor most of the monsters were reptilian like monsters and the system named them with names like lesser wyvern, lizard beasts, drakling, and so on. “I think my assumptions that this dungeon was made by Tiamat and Odin are on the mark. Well, the only way to get out of here is to continue on and maybe I’ll see them soon to ask some of the questions I have.” I check my personal scroll before heading inside to make sure no status effects are affecting from the fight I recently had with poisonous lizard bats.

            I smile at my scroll. I feel powerful and more confident with myself when I face odds that are against me. Once I reached level thirty, I feel like my body wants to change into something else though I cannot explain what that change may be. I open my closed eyes to dismiss the scroll and take a deep breath place my hands on the door in front of me. “One hundred floors of pure hell. Though I can’t deny that it was also exciting and fulfilling in a way, but I do not want to stay in this dungeon forever I want to explore more of what Marble has to offer. I want to destroy those who wrong me and live for myself. No more will I be a pawn in someone else’s games no matter who they are. This must be the end; I just feel it. The thing that has pulling me forward is beyond this door. Whatever it is I will conquer it and move on to conquer more.” I push on the door, and it opens with bright light spilling through the crack.

            Once fully open and my eyes adjust to the light, I see a large room that looks like a coliseum. The bright light is from a massive light sphere hanging from the ceiling. The walls are lined with torches that were a light with fire. At the far side of the coliseum, I am dumbstruck by what I see. It could be nothing more than a fully scaled dragon. It looked nothing like Tiamat with her fur. This one’s whole body is covered with scales that were as black as the epicenter of a black hole. My body shivered at the sheer sight of this creature. While I stood there in my fur clothes, bone spear, and bone axe the monster let out a horrifying roar that let me know that it was the master of this dungeon and the last obstacle for me to be free of this place.

            “Fuck. I just had to be cocky and overconfident. Haa…this is humbling.” I look behind me and see that the door had closed. “Well like I always say, ‘do what you gotta do’, Ladon.” The dragon was still standing still like it was waiting for me to get ready which I took full advantage of pulling out spare weapons from my bag and placing them in my belt at the waist for my axes and the belt around my shoulder that wrapped around my right shoulder and tied to the belt on my waist. I place the extra spears under the shoulder belt and moved around to make sure they would not fall or get in the way of the fight. When I was sure my weapons were in a good to go, I looked back at the dragon and pointed the spear in my right at it with another spear in my left hand. “Alright Mr. Apex let’s do this so that I can finally get out of here.”

            The dragon unfurled its wings and rose its head higher above its back. I watched closely to what it was doing and noticed that it was breathing in deeply and saw its scaled muscular cheeks bulge. “Oh shit.” As soon as I curse a black sludge like liquid spewed from its jaws speeding towards me. “Earth Wall!” I yell as a gigantic wall of stone rises from the ground interrupting the sludge’s path. My magic capacity of my mana organ has grown so much that now I have better control of the mana in my mana organ as well the strength of my spells. The sludge starts to corrode the stone wall where it landed on the wall making a hole for me to see the dragon on the other side. I want to gain the upper hand so manipulating my mana in the wall I thrust my spear at the wall causing cone shaped projectiles to fly through the air and hitting the scaled chest of the dragon.

            “ROOOAARRR!!!” The monster roars in pain as the projectiles pierce of through its scales causing black blood to leak from the wounds. “What the hell? Is everything about this dragon black in color?” I say to myself. Its blood falls to the floor causing steam to rise. The dragon bats away the rest of the earth projectiles away from it as I was still using the wall to attack. Once the wall was gone from me using it for bullets and the corrosive property of the dragon’s sludge the dragon removed the projectiles from its body and stared at me. I stared back waiting for it to make another move. But it seemed this monster was smarter than the other monsters that I had fought so far. I decided to think of a way to attack instead of just defend.

            “What can I do here? It has the weight and reach advantage if I tried to move in with my weapons. My magic worked on it, but I doubt my weapons will pierce its scales. I may have improved my mana organ, but I only have so much mana. Maybe I should actually test if my melee weapons work just to confirm.” I grip my spear in my right hand to a grip where I can throw it and raise it above my head. The dragon just waited for me to before I threw the spear at its most venerable area of its body which is its eyes at supersonic speeds which could be attributed to my strength and agility attributes rising so high. It simply raised its taloned foot to block the path of my spear where my spear broke into a serval pieces of bone on impact. It put its foot back down on the ground and I could have sworn it smirked at me. “Well, that confirms my weapons won’t do much to its scales, but it also confirmed that its eyes are venerable to my weapons. Good to know, I thought maybe they would be magically reinforced or something. I have long left my common sense of the body back when Marble was Earth.”

            Confirming my weapons will not do anything to its outer scales my only option is magic. It is still watching me and not attacking. “Why won’t it counter me?” I look around the room again and realize that it does not much room to move around with its huge body. I smile with relief that I have more maneuverability than this hulking monster that has more advantages than me. This situation feels like David and Goliath, and I feel my confidence rising and a plan forms. I break into a sprint, speeding towards the dragon at a speed no human should be able to do, and throw another spear at its right eye while grabbing another spear from my back. It raises its foot again to block which I take advantage of to jump up about ten feet yet still not the height I want to be, so I cast Push at the bottom of my feet to give me an extra fifteen feet in the air. Now I am looking down at the dragon right at its widening eyes. I smile and throw a spear again which pierces its eye. Elated that I blinded one of its eyes I did not see its wing coming towards me. The wing hits me in midair and flings me to the wall behind me. I crash into the wall causing the wind to be knocked out of my lungs. To add insult to injury I fall from the indent I made in the wall onto the floor further bruising my body.

            I barely had time to catch my breath when I felt magic stirring from the dragon. I look up to see its cheeks bulging again. I quickly cast Earth Wall and rolled to the side sense that the sludge would make it through the wall this time. “What the hell! I didn’t sense magic coming from it the first time it did that.” I look at where I was just before it cast the wall and see a crater steaming with black sludge. With no time to think I quickly sent more stone cones at the dragon from the wall to distract it as I run from around the wall. When I come around, I see the dragon defending from the projectiles I sent at it. I sprint forward again throwing the rest of my spears at its left eye. This time it used its leathery bat like wings to block the spears. When it looked again, I was nowhere in its vision. It looked down to see me sliding underneath it with my axes in my hands. As I was sliding, I tried to hack into its underbelly, but it’s under scales proved to be just as tough as the one on its back and feet. When it saw that I was underneath it, it simply plopped down onto the floor trying to squish me with its weight. Unfortunately, I was already rolling to the right to its blindside. I stood up and jumped onto its back and climbed up to its head avoiding the sharp spikes on its back.

            I finally reach its head staying away from its good eye. I raised my axes and hacked into its damaged eye trying to reach its skull. It thrashed about in pain trying to fling me off, but I held onto its horns atop its head and rode it like a bull. I left the axes in my hands in its damaged eye to further blind it. I unholstered the last two axes in my belt and maneuvered my way to its good eye while still being flung about. Finally reaching it I swung my axe in my right hand and brought it down on its remaining good eye. “ROOOOAAAAAARRRRRR” An earsplitting roar of pain escaped its jaws causing my ears to bleed from the sound damage. I grit my teeth and keep hacking away at its eye. Eventually from it thrashing I was flung off and hit by its extremely long tail in midair straight into the floor. On impact I coughed up no small amount of blood and knew that several ribs were broken and piercing my organs.

            I get up on my hands and knees being able to ignore the pain due to my endurance attribute and look up at the dragon. It had stopped thrashing and was seemingly looking at me though blinded by the damage of my weapons. It was breathing hard from the blood loss and pain. I got up to my feet and raise my fists which are now my only weapons aside from my magic. I was not discouraged though, I have been in this situation multiple times while descending to this level, though facing such a massive monster is a first in its own right. “Haa…Haa…Haa…I believe that this fight is about to come to end eh monster?” The only response I get back is an irritated growl from the beast. It bulges its cheeks again as I feel magic stir from it again. I was not worried because it can barely see now so I started running to left. I looked to see where the sludge lands and noticed the dragon was following my movements. “WHA—AHHHAHHH!!!” Was all I got out as the sludge splashed in front of me and covered my stomach where it landed.

            I quickly used the Fountain spell with more mana than usual to get the sludge off of me. “Haa…haa…How the hell can it follow me? I know it must have good hearing but that really can’t account to the accuracy.” I look at where the sludge landed breathing hard. “It is blind, but it still came close to covering with that shit. Fuck it, no more thinking just do.” I feel like I am going to pass out from the pain that the sludge had caused. I look at my stomach and could see burned skin and muscle. “God this is the most pain I have ever been in.” I look at the dragon again and try to still my nerves and shaking body. It made a movement to spit the black sludge again so cast Earth Wall again and wait right before the sludge hits before sending cones of earth with my fists as they hit the wall different places of the wall. I hear the dragon grunt in pain notifying that my attacks got through. I race around the wall and sprint towards the dragon again only to be met with its jaws open about to send more sludge towards me. Shocked and out of reflex I send two Flame Bullet spells from my fists as I punch the air and roll away to avoid any sludge.  “ROOAARRR” I hear the pained roar of the monster, and I look up confused. I see smoke coming out from its mouth from my spells.

            I smile evilly and mutter in pain, “So your insides are venerable too.” Gathering my strength, I run toward the dragon and when I am close enough, I use the space element spell Pull, to pull its head towards me causing my mana to drain rapidly from the sheer weight of the dragon. I was trying to avoid its full weight, but it seemed just the head of the beast is a vast amount weight. I feel the effects of mana overheat and just ignore it knowing that I will die if I stop my plan. Once its head was level it tried to snap at me but I punched the air sending the spell Flame Bullet into its jaws. It roared in pain and closed its mouth. I still had a hold of its head with the Pull spell as it tried to reach me with its talons but unable to reach me. “OPEN YOUR MOUTH!!!” I yelled past the pain in my back, chest, stomach, and head. It stubbornly kept its mouth closed so I moved to pry open with my hands struggling because of the strain on my body from continually casting Pull to keep it trapped. Prying its mouth proved fruitless. “HAA…HAA…FINE YOU INSOLENT ABOMINATION THAT IS A POOR IMITATION TO MY MOTHER. I TRIED TO KILL YOU PAINLESSLY BUT YOU LEAVE ME NO CHOICE.” I collapse to all fours after yelling. I am starting to lose my hold on the dragon as my spell takes its toll on me. “No Ladon get up. You are so close. Kill it. Kill the monstrosity that tries to imitate what a true dragon looks like!” I struggle to my feet and climb onto its head punch down with all my strength. The sound of crushed bone and metal fill the room. I continue punching the head crushing its scales. With each punch the dragon’s roars of pain become less loud. Soon I see black blood coming out and burning my skin with the same properties of its sludge. I ignore the pain and become blinded by my rage and bloodlust and the mere drive to kill this monster.

            After what seemed like hours of punching the dragon on its skull exhaustion starts to set in and I can feel the pain of my wounds catching up to me. At this point the dragon had either passed out or given up as it laid still. “You were tough monster, but this is the end.” I wrapped my fist in the spell Flame Bullet, stood up and raised my fist. I jumped and put all my weight and strength that I had left into a punch that went straight through the skull breaking it. I could feel brain matter so I cast Flame Bullet with as much mana as I could straight into its skull cavity. The top of its skull exploded not able to contain the heat expanding the bone. I am blown off the dragon’s head and land my back on the floor. The last thing I see as my world went dark was the sun’s rays and flowers all around me.