POV Intruders:
Steps were resounding through the fields of ash together with a clanging of metal.
A small group of six soldiers carefully advanced forwards. Their armours were covered in ash and soot, obscuring their shiny surfaces.
All of them had their weapons raised in the air, ready to defend or attack at a moment’s notice. Their faces were hidden behind a cloth wrapped around their mouths and noses.
Everything around them was covered in dense clouds, making it impossible to see further than their swords’ tips.
A gash of air passed behind them, sending ripples through the smoke in the air.
Everyone immediately tensed up, turning behind, their eyes under the visors of their helmets, moving from one corner to another, searching for danger.
“Must have been a wind.” one of them slightly relaxed, lowering his sword. His helmet muffled his voice. He sounded tired and weary.
They all turned back when the air behind them suddenly turned hot, their armour quickly heating up, pain stabbing through their backs.
They gripped their swords in panic even tighter than before as they froze. Their knees trembled, and their eyes went wide. They were covered in sweat even though it was already winter.
The smoke suddenly moved, getting sucked into an enormous vortex, revealing a large cave-like mouth opened behind them. Lines of teeth were glinting inside of it. They were pointy and sharp-looking, like the teeth of a shark. Magma and weird goo were dripping from them.
The two large golden eyes flared up in the smoke, looking straight at them, making them feel as if something saw straight into their very own souls.
Their hands started to tremble, they wanted to run or cry for help, but they couldn’t. Their legs and tongues were not listening to their commands, as something was wrong with these eyes.
The mouth moved towards them, the teeth quickly closing towards them. They moved so fast that the soldiers couldn’t react. Their skin started to burn and carbonised under the immense heat.
And then the mouth closed around them.
POV Vesuvius:
The dragon gulped down his dinner and resumed his walk towards the mountains, his hunger and anger soothed out by a tiny bit.
His large body moved nimbly like a cat without the heavy armour weighing him down. He was moving like a predator, hidden within the smoke. It was his territory, his hunting area.
The steps through the plains were quickly multiplying, approaching from all sides. The sounds of battles and cries constantly resounded everywhere as his monsters fought against the soldiers.
He could no longer avoid them. He had to fight his path through.
His wings were still mangled, bounding him to the ground, ‘Even I they healed, I would get shot down the moment that I would get off the ground.’
Suddenly he caught steps on his path. There were lots of them, and more were coming from his side.
‘It looks like I will have to just cut my path through them.’
The dragon crouched, his black body blending with the smoke and ash. He quietly strode forwards, the sound of breathing and heartbeats getting closer and closer to him.
‘At least fifteen of them. That shouldn’t be a problem.’
Voices came from the distance, “Damn, why do I feel like something is watching us?”
“It must be these dammed wolves!”
Suddenly the dragon sprung from the ground, the loud howling of the winds hiding his steps dampened by his ring. He ran forwards on all four like a tiger. He still felt pain in his muscles, but it had already subsided by a lot, pushed back by the adrenaline of the hunt.
Finally, a small group of soldiers appeared in the smoke advancing forwards with unsteady steps. They were spread in a large circular formation, making it impossible to take them down in one go.
His eyes flashed in the faint golden light. In an instant, all of the soldiers froze, their bodies paralysed with fear.
The dragon cut the distance in the blink of an eye and swung his clawed hand towards the nearby soldiers who couldn’t even move.
The smoke whirled around the large crystal claws that fell towards the two shocked soldiers. The sharp claws tore through their armours as if they were made of paper, and their bodies exploded in blood and viscera under the force of an impact.
The rest of the soldiers got out of shock and fear, and their swords immediately flared up in the energy that shone out of their long toothy blades.
“Attack! The beast must be injured. We can finish it off!”
They bent their knees and launched towards the dragon, the frozen soil cracking under their armoured feet. They turned into blurs, their swords descending towards the dragon’s black scales.
Vesuvius snickered at their poor attempt, ‘It looks like I am not the only one who underestimated their foe today. This is what I expected from humans. They are so weak without their tricks and toys.’𝒪𝐯𝐋xt.𝗇t
The swords fell upon the dragon’s scaly hand that was covered in the blood of their comrades.
The loud clangs resounded through the battlefield, the sharp blades bouncing off the hard scales, not leaving even a scratch behind them.
Before the soldiers could retreat, the dragon moved his hand towards them, the black mass crashing against their swords, snapping them in half before smashing into their bodies like a battering ram. Their armours creaked and bent before flying into the distance, creating trails through the smoke.
They fell to the ground, where they remained lying without moving.
“It’s a monster!”
“Ohh, God, please save me!”
At the same time, the dragon’s tail swung, turning into a blur as it swished through the air, the two sharp blades on its end passing through the soldiers like a giant scythe, splitting their bodies in half, with blood splashing out of them.
Their bodies fell to the ground with loud thuds and clangs, blood forming a small pool under them.
The dragon just grinned, enjoying at least this small revenge as he moved forwards like a tank, rushing towards the soldiers shaking in fear. The ground shook under his heavy steps, smoke wildly whirling around him.
His teeth glinted in the light from the depth of his throat as his mouth opened, moving towards the last surviving soldiers.
The mouth closed around them with the sound of crunching and scraping metal coming out of his mouth.
Vesuvius just remained there standing, the ground around him soaked in blood, with dead bodies lying on it.
He felt empty, ‘Killing these lowly grunts isn’t a solution. I can kill as many of them as I want, but new ones will come again. If I want revenge and satisfaction, then I need to take down these that ordered this attack.’
There were no more steps or sounds coming from the direction of the mountains. So the dragon stepped forwards into the clouds of smoke, his black body quickly vanishing.