The beast was basking in the sun right outside of its cave. It was high noon and the perfect time to lure the beast to its death. The instructions Giselle gave him were simple, David only had to open the bottle and the potion’s scent would do the rest.

All he had to do was lead it to the village. Hopefully the potion worked but David was still unsure of Giselle’s capabilities,

‘Only one way to find out.’

David opened the bottle and the wind carried the scent towards the idle Drake. A few seconds passed but there was still no reaction from the Drake. Just as David thought the potion was a failure the Drake started exhibiting an extreme reaction. It scratched itself furiously and bashed its head on the ground.

David already had an idea of what was happening and slowly retreated making as less noise as possible when the Drake’s head snapped towards his location and roared. Without wasting a breath David bolted towards the Village as fast as possible.

He didn’t look back as he heard the Drake recklessly smashing everything in its path as it madly chased him,

‘Damn woman. She didn’t say a word about the side effects. Typical.’

Luckily the berserk beast walked into all his traps without care, however unluckily none of them left a scratch. It was expected though and David’s real motive was to lead into the sword pit.

He avoided the pit and didn’t stop till he heard a crash as the mad beast fell into the pit. It was stopped for a brief minute before the beast let out a roar and climbed out of the pit. There some scratches from the swords but the most notable injury was from a spear jabbed beneath near its stomach.

The Drake seemed not to mind it as it removed the spear not caring for its bleeding wound as it headed straight towards David who had already resumed running. David ran ahead while the beast was stuck in the pit and poured a bit of the potion along the path so that the beast wouldn’t lose track.

He then went ahead and sneaked into the village. David splashed the reminder of the potion near the gates and waited for the beast to come. Hopefully no one would get hurt and he could kill the beast. David didn’t want to imagine about the worst case scenario.

Soon enough David heard shouts near the gate and the screams of the villagers as the gate was smashed open by the Drake. The beast was maddened by the scent and now with so many prey in its midst, it was ready for a good meal.

David rushed to the gate while instructing the panicking villagers to hide indoors. As he arrived at the gate he saw that most of the guards were absent having already abandoned their station and there was one unfortunate guard already in the Drake’s mouth.

“All of you leave the beast to me, go instruct the villagers to hide.”

Seeing some of the guards still frozen in fear, David roared,

“NOW!!!”

The incompetency of the guards was well within his predictions but it still left a sour feeling in David. The Drake carried on with its meal ignoring the fleeing prey. As far as it was concerned, hunting the poor villagers was quite an easy task.

Seeing the Drake leisurely eating fuelled David’s rage and he made the [Eldritch arm] floating behind him put down the giant axe and punch the Drake’s face. The arm had grown stronger with usage and landed a strong hit on the beast making it drop the dead guard’s leg.

Still it seemed to do little damage to the Drake other than turn its attention towards David. The Drake tried to bite the arm but David quickly recalled it before observing the beast.

Making the arm take the Giant Axe in hand both man and beast stared at each other, waiting for the other to make the move. The berserk effects of the scent still lingered on the Drake and it didn’t have the usual clarity nor the wits of a Draconic descendent.

The beast impatiently rushed at David who in turn retreated while sending the axe wielding [Eldritch arm] at the beast. The arm swung the axe at the Drake’s side and to David’s delight left a sizable wound.

An axe forged by the Northern giants was able to wound the beast but the weapon in turn was limited by the one who wielded it, the arm alone did not enough power to do enough damage to the Drake with the axe.

David grimly looked at the Drake as the ‘wound’ was not bleeding, the axe only managed to break the rough scales of the Drake. If David truly wanted to deal any real damage to the Drake he would have to use [Possession] and wield the axe himself,

‘I need to be patient. I should do some more poke damage before risking close combat.’

Thus the battle between a floating arm and a Drake carried out under the sun. An arm without a body had several advantages one of which was its flexibility.

[Eldritch arm] swiftly dodged claws and teeth with unnatural manoeuvres as it slashed at the Drake seeking to break through its tough scales. The Drake wasn’t idle and managed to catch the arm by surprise by bashing it with its tail.

David recalled the arm,

‘Looks like the potion’s effects have faded. I need to finish this soon.’

An angry beast was strong but was also prone to make mistakes and act rashly, a clear-headed Drake wouldn’t be easy to deal with,

“[Possession]”

The [Eldritch arm] dispersed into particles that flew into and ‘possessed’ his right arm. The possession amplified David’s growing frustration and rage of the Drake and so he grabbed the Giant Axe and charged at the Drake.

Mirroring his actions the Drake let out a roar and charged, David smirked and released the possession mid run and stepped on the axe blade as the arm launched him above the Drake. In mid-air, the arm repossessed him and David struck the monster from above.

It all happened to quickly for the Drake to react as it roared in pain as David had finally managed to inflict the first major attack on the Drake. The Blade of the Giant Axe was firmly inside of the beast and caused tremendous damage.

Roaring in pain, the Drake managed to shake David off and ignoring the pain as dark blood spurted from the wound on its back it rushed David in a frenzy.

The unexpected force made David let go of the axe which was stuck in the Drake’s back. Without the axe David could only dodge the beast.

[Possession] only strengthened his arms and so the rest of David’s body did not possess any form of superhuman strength or durability. He was slow to dodge as hid body simple could not keep up with the beast.

Even as he dived to the right the Drake stretched its arm out, leaving David to use [Eldritch arm] as a shield. While he could have used the possessed arm to block the attack, any damage to the possessed arm would reflect on his actual body and David did not want to risk his weapon hand being devastated by the Drake.

Despite his attempt at shielding himself the outstretched limb smashed into David along with the [Eldritch arm] and sent him flying out of the village gates or what was left of it,

“Oh man… yep that’s going to leave a mark.”

While David’s mind was overridden with pain, the Drake didn’t wait and lunged at him with its fangs ready to rip him apart and put an end to the human which brought it so much pain.

David’s vision was blurred from the pain but he knew the danger he was in and tried to move, but the attempt was feeble and fear washed over David as death loomed over him,

‘I should have fucking waited.’

A roar of pain sounded out as the beast was pierced by a large spear. This brief moment gave clarity to David as he ignored the pain of his battered body and picked up the axe with his possessed arm and swung at the injured Drake’s head.

In one clean swing the mighty Drake was beheaded. David didn’t celebrate though as he knew the person who threw the spear was the real reason the Drake died.

On a closer look David realised that the ‘spear’ was actually a giant arrow. It was a little too small to be a spear but its shaft and arrowhead was too large to be launched by one of the villagers. David looked in the direction of the forest and spotted the fading figure of the ogress.

“Thanks… Nakula.”

David only hoped his heartfelt words carried through the wind.

He took the arrow and hid it away lest anyone asks questions and cleaned himself up as the denizens of the village slowly came out of their homes as the sounds of battle ceased. They witnessed David sitting upon the corpse of the monster wiping the blood of his axe and shouted in happiness as the village was saved.

Unbeknownst to the villagers, the corpses of two men had made their way beforehand. Both the old mayor and the innkeeper were lying with the blades in their hands.

He couldn’t be bothered to explain it to the villagers as he let Giselle do all the talking. As the sun set the village honoured the dead and applauded the mayor and innkeeper’s bravery. Their deaths were soon forgotten as the villagers hailed David as a hero.

Giselle had power and sway over the villagers and under her flowery words, the villagers sang praises upon David and some of the young women cast flirtatious looks at David. The men cheered and drank with David.

If David was being honest with himself, he was tired and everything just blurred by him, he was too tired from the battle and only wanted to rest.

David saw Giselle pretending to be the sad widow while also endorsing him among the more influential villagers as a candidate to be the next mayor. No doubt she would succeed as twisting men came quite easily for the half Dryad.

Not everyone was happy as there was one woman who wept at her husband’s grave. David wanted to comfort Alice but was swarmed by villagers offering him drinks and praise. As the moon rose and the village grew even more festive, David managed to find his way to a familiar barn.

He sat down on the stack of hay which he woke up in on the first day he came to this world. Laying back David closed his eyes and saw the notification.

………………………

Mission Completed!

Returning to Base…

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