Arablest/ Prototype

I stared at the dragon as it roared again, wondering what I should do, and how we could fight it. Marcus and his friends, too, were completely taken by surprised.

I decided to try to keep it safe, and use the soldiers to prevent the death of the people I knew. Yes, I know that’s a bit mean to the soldiers, using them as shields, but… I didn’t want to lose anyone I knew, either.

The commander refused to let me command this battle, however.

A few seconds later, as he was up front commanding his soldiers to attack, he was hit by the dragon’s tail, which sent him flying who knows where. I don’t think he survived the impact, but I had no time to think about it.

To tell the truth, by now I was still in shock of having to fight a dragon. I was busy staring at it, scared, wondering how it would be possible to win, and never even gave a thought to commanding until Joseph shock me.

“Jeremy! Pull yourself together! We need you to lead us!”
The rest of the surviving soldiers immediately agreed with her, and, shaken to my senses, I tried thinking again.
“Soldiers! I want you to try your best to damage the dragon as best as you can! Find any weak spots, and if you hit one, we’ll try to target its weaker spots first!”
Somehow, I knew that unlike the legends and stories of heroes finding the spot that can kill the dragon if they hit it, I seriously doubted that this dragon had one like the stories. Maybe the eyes, but they would only blind and enrage the dragon, meaning it would be harder to fight defensively.
“Marcus! Gwen!” I called out. “I want you two to support the soldiers with any attacks you can use, as long as you fight from a distance, ok?”

They nodded at me, and began to attack.
The archers, following Gwen’s order, fired their volleys of arrows when she said so, to maximize the places all the arrows could hit at once.
Pretty much every arrow either broke or bounced off the scales of the dragon. In fact, only two arrows had managed to lodge itself into the dragon somewhere, somehow between the scales.

Marcus, on the other hand, appeared to be doing much better. He brought together the air, flying around his hand, and I actually saw the wind shaped into bluish green crescents as they whipped around his left hand. He lifted his left hand, and they flew out, and then surrounded the dragon. The crescents then smashed into the dragon, and appeared to pierce it, but after the storm was gone, I saw no mark on the dragon itself. The dragon roared whenever Marcus did that, however, so I figured it must have done some damage.
“Joseph!” I called out. “Watch how the dragon attacks, and if you can see any hole in its attacks or defense, I want you to run in and strike! Just wait until you get an opportunity to strike, and then I want you to get out of there as soon as you can! If it’s too dangerous, than just pull out immediately. Kal, If you think you can do it, then you can try, but don’t get yourself killed. And as for you, Garrett, I’m not sure if you armor can hold against the dragon’s attacks, so I want you to stay back, unless you will ride your horse to attack?”
Garrett replied, saying that he usually only fought when he was standing, so he was out of the picture.
Nicolas probably shouldn’t fight, either, so I let him do as he pleased. As long as he didn’t steal from the port, of course.
“Hetzel! Try putting the dragon to sleep with your staff! If you can’t put it into sleep, then you’re just going to have to heal as many people as you can.”
I then watched the fight carefully, seeing if there was anything I need to command. Leona, I kept her next to me, because if she died, then I would have failed my mission. I could not risk her even getting close to the dragon. Garrett, who was standing next to her, was silent for once, watching the battle.

As the fight wore on with the dragon, it was clear that we weren’t doing much to even hurt the dragon. We were losing many soldiers with every attack of the dragon, and the dragon appeared to be just fine, if a little tired. We were easily being annihilated; most of our soldiers lay dead. The Unicorn riders flew around the dragon’s head, flying in and out, trying to strike a blow with their lances and swords, but didn’t do much but annoy the dragon. They certainly were fast enough to avoid most of the dragon’s attacks, at least.
There were literally a very small mountain of dead soldiers surrounding the dragon, some frozen, some crushed, and others pierced or ripped to shreds by the dragon’s sharp teeth or claws.
We were fighting a losing battle.

I looked around on the battle field, and noticed something. Where had Marcus gone? He had disappeared off somewhere, maybe lost somewhere out of view on the battlefield. No, not battlefield. This was a massacre, slaughter. This was insanity.
And if the battle wasn’t bad enough, well, it was about to turn for worse.

Joseph had done a pretty good job surviving, weaving in and out, going between the dragon’s attacks to strike, only to have her axe spark off the dragon’s scales.
Every once in a while her swings cut into the dragon, which was good, obviously. She had actually managed to hurt the dragons sometimes, but the dragon obviously was not happy with that.
The dragon lifted a claw as she rode past, swing her axe and cutting into the dragon, but the dragon swiped with his claw upward, almost casually, and then Joseph wasn’t there anymore.
Then fear struck me as I realized what happened. The dragon had hit Joseph.
I was practically paralyzed. What had happened? Did she survive?
Then Joseph landed near us, crashing into the roof of the building behind us. The noise shook me to my senses, and Leona, Garrett, and I ran to the building, grabbing Hetzel along the way.

But it was Garrett who reached her first.
“Joseph!” He cried, running faster than I would have expected, considering all the heavy armor he wore. “Don’t die on me! We were the best team ever! I wouldn’t be able to work without you! [PROFANITY] it, Joseph…!”
He was hysterically shouting when I got there. He really did care for his friend, and ironically, knowing Garrett, he didn’t even know his own friend was female.
Anyways, as I approached Joseph, I could clearly see that she was in pain. But she wasn’t dead, no, fortunately. Garrett probably exaggerated, but then again, she was losing a lot of blood.
Her horse was nowhere to be seen, and there was a huge gash on her left leg, probably where the dragon struck. It didn’t seem that bad, compared to how some of the soldiers were easily ripped apart in a single blow. I ordered Hetzel to do his best healing her, and I turned away, unable to continue looking at her massive wound.
“Joseph.” I said. “What happened out there?”
“I…I’m s-sorry.” She said. She was breathing very heavily, and her voiced was laced with pain. She was stuttering, too. “I…I wasn’t c-careful, and… the d-dragon hit me. I was… f-fortunate to have… a horse like mine; it…it actually… it turned a-away… and…and took the blow… for me… h-he… didn’t survive. If…If it wasn’t for… my h-horse… I prob-probably… would be d-dead right now.”
“That’s enough, Joseph.” I replied, tears in my eyes. I blamed myself for what had happened; it was my strategy, after all. “Save your energy for now; Hetzel’s here to heal you. Hetzel! Get Joseph to Pierre, and have both of you heal Joseph, if you can.”
I didn’t want to lose Joseph, one of the few people here I actually considered a friend now.
Then Garret spoke with menace. “I’m going to kill that dragon.”
“What? No! Garrett, you wouldn’t be able to get close!” I shouted. I wasn’t going to lose someone else.
“I don’t care. That [PROFANITY]ing dragon is going down.” He said, slowly rising to his feet. He picked up a steel lance that was in the hand of a lifeless soldier, and walked outside. Leona and I followed him, leaving Hetzel to tend to Joseph’s wounds.
He stood outside, facing the dragon, and then with a yell, he ran with speed I thought impossible for all that armor he was wearing.

Of course the dragon saw him. It turned to face Garrett, and raised a talon to strike at him. I cringed, and literally flinched as I saw the dragon strike.
I definitely saw sparks fly as a claw brushed against his armor, I definitely saw blood, and I definitely saw some piece of armor fly and hit another soldier, knocking him back.
And then I thought I had lost him.