RD-14 

 

Two days later, Sean heard the "under attack" alarm for the first time. It was a panicky-sounding drumbeat that reminded him of the day he was summoned. His eyes opened and his heartbeat skyrocketed. He was laying on his stomach, asleep, on his pillow, in his usual position. But his back was cold. All his scales, except for those that regrew early after the last fight, were gone, having fallen off in the last day or two. He was finally "100%", fully scaled, but for two weeks a year, one right before summer and one right before winter, he was vulnerable as all his scales fell off and regrew within a week. His fluffy lovers slept on his back and legs to keep him warm during this transition, but they were gone. Sean didn't know this, but they had already fled to the House of the Young, as per alarm protocols.  

 

Making sure he wouldn't hurt anybody, he turned over, and with a feeling of impending doom, asked no one in particular, "What's going---"

 

*THUNK* An unbelievable impact reverberated through his body as a familiar spiked mace crashed through Sean's unprotected stomach. As the Knight standing above him twisted his weapon back and forth, mincing Sean's guts, he realized that this wasn't a wound that he would miraculously heal from and survive, yet again growing stronger. No, this was the wound that would end his life.

 

"All your furry friends in the capital are dead, you rat-fucker," the Knight declared victoriously, picking up Excalibur2 from where it lay nearby and flinging it off, deep into the forest. "I had Lydia wait on the path and stomp any squirrels that came to warn you. We continued to do that along the path, killing any that weren't smart enough to run into the forest." *TWIST* "She's guarding the path to make sure you get no backup." *TWIST* "Just you and me, now. A fair fight." *TWIST* "When I'm done with you, I'll smash all the rats that live in your little town." *TWIST*  

 

Sean was in too much pain to see or think, but he could still hear every terrible thing the Knight was saying. *SNAP, CRACKLE, POP, POP, POP, POP* A fireworks display of aural magic exploded in front of the Knight's face, causing him to take a step back and pinch the bridge of his nose like he had a migraine.  

 

"Sean nooooo!! I'm so sorrrryyyy!!" Twilight wailed, as she dumped her magic on the Knight's face as fast as she could.  

 

"So it was you doing that, rat," The Knight growled, walking over to Twilight while dragging Sean's guts out of his abdomen with his mace as he went. Sean could only watch in uncomprehending horror and pain.  

 

While sobbing, Twilight cried out, "Why did I run for my armor?!" *SNAP* I already have these claws! *POP* "These useless, ugly, pointless claws! I failed you, my Dragon!" *SNAP* "I'm so, so sorry!!!" *Squish*  

 

But you're beautiful and perfect just the way you are, Sean thought but forever lost the chance to say as he watched the Knight crush Twilight under his boot and grind her away to nothingness. 

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

 

 

I don't want to live without Twilight, Sean realized. This would have to be the day he died, then. He had nothing else to live and fight for. But as the Knight raised his spiked mace to finish Sean off, Sean couldn't help but scream in fear at his impending death.  

 

The scream became a titanic roar and the night darkened even further so that only Sean's Draconic eyes could still see. The Knight, who seemed to become more resistant to magic the more he experienced it, didn't run away this time; he just froze, mace held high in the air above his head with two hands. Sean began to gently glow, but it appeared as a bright white light in the pitch-black darkness.  

 

To his surprise, at least a thousand little lights flickered into being all around him in his city. He remembered that he still had something to fight for. He was Humanity's Dragon, and he would die today, but he would do so by defending the people who loved him. His fear was gone, his pain was gone, and he even had strength, stolen from another. He rolled to his feet and picked up the Knight, one arm between his legs and one around his neck, then lifted the heavier man onto his shoulders. Sean ran down Dragon's Road, his own guts trailing behind him, determined to get his opponent out of the city before the effects of the roar wore off so that the fight would not wreck his hometown like it did the Cromag's capital. He hopped over the defensive layers of walls and flung the Knight over the perimeter and onto the wooden and iron spikes that were meant to deter cabbits. The Knight's new chainmail could not protect him as perfectly as his old full plate, and several spears of wood and iron made it through the links and into his back, arms, and legs.  

 

Oops, that's my limit, Sean realized as his glow started to fade, he lost all strength and fell to his knees. Hopefully, after finishing Sean off, the Knight would retreat to treat those wounds and give his people a chance to escape deeper into the forest. It was the best he could do.  

But it wasn't the best that he AND his people could do.  

 

All three "Moss-Breakers", the golden-robed individuals that had mastered both the bone-breaking healing arts of the Cromag Shamans and skin-flaying healing art of the Druidic Mossers, shed their robes and flung themselves into Sean's exposed abdominal cavity without hesitation. Even though Sean's magical glowing buff was fading, theirs still glowed brightly as all three snapped their own tails in unison. With horrible little squeaks and screams, they disintegrated into Sean's body, every part of their body used to replace, patch, tie together Sean's own destroyed body.  

 

When it was over several seconds later, there was a patch of metallic blue fur where the wound used to be and Sean's insides were... Wrong. Things were not the right shape or size, and not in the right location. Sean felt as if he were probably still dying. But, somehow, a magical Band-Aid had been placed over Sean's death, and he would be able to fight a little longer. As soon as he could move again, the Knight climbed to his feet, screaming in frustration and pain.  

 

"You cheating piece of shit!" He swore, as he reached behind himself and yanked out all the little spears that he could. Some were in his back where he couldn't reach, and some were lodged firmly in bone. Sean staggered to his feet like a zombie, but that was the best he could do. He had lost buckets of blood and his insides were messed up, leaving him dizzy and weak. When the Knight started marching back towards Sean, forcing him to retreat back down Dragon's Road and into the city, he felt like he had gained nothing for his efforts.  

 

When the Knight again raised his mace for a finishing blow, he was hit with a series of magical attacks, sound, light, wind, water, earth, illusion, and misdirection. While the Knight stumbled, disoriented, hundreds of glowing little squirrels attacked him, swinging, stabbing, tripping, biting, dying. While Sean was molting, King Rafael had sent a thousand additional troops and every combat occultist in the Kingdom to guard his beloved Dragon God during its time of greatest vulnerability. This had left the capital vulnerable to the foreign Dragon's attack, but it gave Sean a chance, now.  

 

Enraged, the Knight swung and stomped, blindly killing a dozen squirrels at a time. Sean jumped at what might be his only chance and slashed at the Knight's face, the only part that wasn't armored in chainmail. Sean had forgotten that he was still regrowing the scales needed to support his claws, and was surprised at the pain of all five fingernails/claws ripping free from his right hand to become stuck in the Knight's face.  

 

I got one of his eyes! Sean thought in the instant before the Knight's counterattack slammed into his face, destroying half of it in return. Sean came to an instant later, again dying on the ground, but then heard a "crunch, crunch, break" as the Tail-Breakers broke their tails and the tails of others to repair Sean's wounds. His destroyed eye didn't regain its sight, but his face was again in one piece; he could keep fighting. He sat up and watched the white glow finally fade from his squirrel allies, and they weakened and slowed, no longer any sort of threat to the Knight. As they were crushed by the dozens, Sean feared their sacrifice would be in vain and he wouldn't be able to save any of them.  

 

Fear! I'm afraid again! Sean realized his roar ability had recharged and screamed with all his might. The squirrels glowed even brighter than before and some seemed to become feral, stripping off their clothes and leaping impossibly high in the air (like REAL squirrels, Sean thought) to climb up the Knight and bite him all over his body. As Sean watched, he saw Dawn lead a horde of fluffy, ex-pleasure whelp rescuees into the fight, and she herself leaped up under the Knight's chainmail skirt and bit something sensitive underneath. The Knight couldn't ignore this attack, and ripped Dawn off (along with vital pieces of his own body) and flung them deep into the woods to break into pieces against a tree. Now both Twilight and Dawn were gone, forever. 

 

"Die with me, today," Sean invited in a low gurgle, talking through the blood that he didn't realize was running freely from his mouth, as he pounced and put his remaining thumb claw through the Knight's remaining eye. In response, the Knight, who was finally immune to the roar and every other magic being sent his way, swung and took that arm of Sean's off at the elbow. Sean backed up, looking at his own stump of an arm in horror, only not feeling it because he was still glowing white from his magical draconic roar.  

 

The Knight began to ignore the squirrels and marched down Dragon's Road towards Sean. As Sean kept backing up towards the House of the Young, and the Knight unstoppably marched toward him, he realized that his claw had pinned the Knight's eye in place by stabbing it below the pupil, but, somehow, the Knight could still see. The Knight kept his gory eye, weeping blood, fixed on Sean as he stalked him to the end of the road. Sean spat into his remaining hand and ignited it by rubbing his clawless thumb across the tears on the remaining side of his face (one side having been destroyed by the Knight's mace) then pressing it to his palm.  

 

But before he could even pull back his arm to throw, the Knight, still covered in glowing, biting squirrels from head to toe, seemed to teleport to Sean's side and removed Sean's remaining hand at the wrist. The spitball's ensuing explosion knocked Sean onto his butt and back against the House of the Young, in the exact same position where he had fallen to die after his first battle with the Titans. The Knight was hardly affected by this explosion; his arm holding the mace was jerked back, but he didn't lose his grip. He raised it above his head and prepared yet again for a final blow.  

 

Handless, Sean did the only thing he could do; He took a breath to breathe fire, even though he knew he didn't have time. As he stepped forward to strike, Sean saw Hope, movement speed boosted by the mud shoe technique that was Jafaar's specialty, do the only thing she could do and fling herself under the Knight's boot, causing him to unbalance and slip on her body and blood as he lunged. The mace got stuck in the tree above their heads and the Knight fell into Sean's destroyed and shortened arms. Sean finished breathing in; but before he could cough flame, the Knight headbutted him, smashing open Sean's lower jaw as Sean had once done to Famine, the Titan. This made Sean again choke his molten flem down into his stomach, wasting it.  

 

That's my spit on his forehead, Sean accurately deduced, before using his destroyed arms and neck to pull the Knight's spit and blood-soaked forehead into his own tears and blood-soaked cheek in one final, morbid embrace. The resulting electric explosion brought the battle and Sean's story to an end. 

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------