Reptilian Complications: Page 2

I drew on the last of my reserves of power, casting the flight spell again, leaping into the air.

I managed to avoid the jagged, crystal covered walls of the geode, coming to a stop about a dozen feet (3.5m) above the ground.

Samara was still working on the ritual, while struggling to maintain a shield to block the dragons lightning breath attacks. Unfortunately, he seemed to realize his breath weapon wasn't really working. He charged towards her, chomping down on the barrier. Under his impressive bite, the shield began to crack. One more and she'd be done for.

I raced forward, putting all of my energy into getting there in time. I slammed into the dragons flank, probably breaking my left shoulder. It was enough at least to distract him for a moment.

But now what?

He swiped his tail at me, which I barely avoided, but my hasty dodge left me open.

His claw lashed out, and I was just slightly too slow in avoiding it. He left a deep gouge in my chest. I howled in pain, nearly losing focus on my flight spell.

But as I flew back out of his reach, I saw something. That obsidian staff. We may have been out of power, but our enemy had a battery glued to his back.

I darted forward, narrowly dodging bite and a tail whip, landing with a thud on his back.

I grabbed the staff, pulling as hard as my one good arm allowed. My muscles burned but I kept pulling. I could feel it slowly pulling away from the dragons skin. But he wasn't going to make it easy on me.

He lurched and twisted, shaking his body wildly. I nearly lost my grip, but I dug my heels into his treasure incrusted body.

"GET OFF ME YOU WORTHLESS APE!"

"Fine."

With a final great tug, the staff came free of him, and tumbled to the ground. I luckily fell into the mud near the water, which meant I didn't break my other arm. Unfortunately, the flight spell finally gave out, right as the dragon was stalking towards Samara.

I pushed myself to my feet, my entire body sore and pained. I ran towards Samara, ignored the pain in my chest. But I was too slow. With how slow I was, he'd reach her at least a few seconds before me.

I watched in horror as, less than 20 feet (6m) away, his jaw widened, ready to bite through her shield and devour her.

Time seemed to move in slow motion. I watched his gums peel back to uncover his massive teeth. A last second, complete hail mary idea popped into my head, and without any time to question it, I acted.

I flung the staff forwards, into the dragons mouth right before he reached the barrier.

The solid obsidian crumpled easily, but that's what I wanted. As the staff broke in two, it's energy, the font of raw magic I felt inside of it, exploded outwards.

In the blink of an eye, the dragons head was enveloped in a sphere of exploding magic. A hundred different colors, like a swirling rainbow of fire, expanded outwards, knocking me back. The fire didn't hurt me, but the thunderous boom was deafening.

Then as soon as it happened, it was over. I stumbled forward, ears ringing, seeing the dragon's corpse. Everything above his stomach area was just gone, reduce to ash. The two pieces of the staff lay on the ground, smoke pouring off of them.

"Lucas, the ritual is ready, we have to go!"

I quickly snagged the broken staff and joined Samara in the circle.

"Seriously? It's broken."

"Maybe I can fix it. It's clearly powerful."

Samara rolled her eyes.

"Let's just get out of here."

She grabbed my shoulder and spoke the final word or the ritual, and the world turned black around us.