Owen's observation about their last encounter with the fire dragon made Elwin wonder about what could be done about the fire dragon continually escaping when they had it on the ropes. Elwin felt like dealing damage to the fire dragon at that mont wasn't realistic, given how he recalled when he'd tried attacking the dragon when ti was escaping the first ti he'd encountered it.
Patricia seed interested in trying to figure out not only how to strike the dragon at that mont, but also when to attack. As it was clear that their regular attacks weren't working on the dragon.
After they'd encountered each other during that battle, they'd started travelling together and had encountered the fire dragon three tis after that.
Now, they were starting to head into a valley with a hill in the center. Elwin wished they could just end the dragon. Waiting for it to appear and attack whenever was starting to get rather tiring.
Two of the attacks had occurred in the middle of the night and both tis Elwin wasn't on watch. The first one was with Owen on watch and the second with Leon. The last attack occurred during the thunderstorm.
That fight didn't seem to take as long as the others and Elwin suspected the dragon had as much difficulty with the pelting rain as the rest of them. As not only was the ground so slick to the point that staying balanced while fighting was nearly impossible.
If the dragon hadn't been having as much trouble as the rest of them, Elwin was confident that they'd have all been killed. That it would have had no trouble. However, while it retreated most of the ti when it started to get overwheld, this ti Elwin suspected that it retreated simply because it could tell it wasn't going to do very well in the fight.
This ti, they had reached the bottom of the hill, while they were tracking a herd of deer, when the dragon rely appeared in the middle of their combined group. Unlike previous tis, it didn't approach from a distance, but rather was suddenly in the midst of them without warning. Owen's bow was incinerated as he jumped away when the dragon swiped at him.
Elwin couldn't say why, but he had a feeling that if they didn't slay the dragon this ti, that they weren't going to at all. He hadn't shared that feeling with anyone, even his brother Leon, but the feeling was there. He worried that nothing they did would have a lasting effect, but the only way to find out was to see how this fight ended.
After Owen's bow, the next casualty was Leon's shield. It was mostly tal, but there was enough wood in it apparently that it fell apart after the fifth ti in the fight that Leon used it to block an attack from the dragon. Then after that, Patrick was launched through the air again by the dragon's tail, making Elwin rember the fight where they'd t up with Patrick and Patricia.
However, this ti, as Patrick flew through the air, he launched a pillar of flas, hitting the dragon so hard that it nearly fell to the ground. Elwin wasn't able to see what most of their combined group was doing, as he was focusing on his own challenges with fighting the dragon.
Elwin could feel how heavy his sword was getting in his hands, a testant to how tired he was getting with all the fighting with the dragon that they'd been doing. In addition to the loss of sleep from when the dragon attacked, as well as how much energy they'd expend fighting the dragon, the toll was adding up. Elwin suspected that if they didn't defeat the dragon this ti, that they wouldn't have the energy to last until it had to run. That it would be able to finish them off just from wearing them down.
While Bart was also showing signs of fatigue, Elwin had to admire that he was able to hold his own for as long as he had been. Although, he had to wonder how much of that was because of his system rather than what he would have been able to do on his own.
The dragon had appeared when the sun was still close to the horizon in the morning, but as the fight wore on, Elwin could feel himself starting to lose focus. Not from what he needed to do to the dragon, but rather with what was going on around them. He could feel the heat of the day warming up, to the point he was pretty sure that things were reaching the middle of the day.
When he was knocked back, Elwin couldn't maintain his balance and fell backward when he landed, despite having been able to land on his feet. Then even as he did his best to stand up, he could feel his legs refusing to cooperate.
As he could see light brightening up around him, he looked up to see the dragon preparing to flee again. However, as he looked on, he saw his brother Leon lunging forward, his sword held straight out in front of him. It was clear Leon intended to impale the fire dragon with his sword, as if it was a piercing weapon rather than a slashing one.
Elwin didn't think anything would happen to his brother as a result, so he could only watch on in horror as his brother's blade pierced into the dragon, like Owen's arrow had, in the split second when it was in the process of disappearing on them again.
As his blade embedded itself in the dragon, a flood of liquid fire fell directly on Leon, not sure immolating him, but also his armor and clothing. As Elwin watched, he was helpless to do anything as the liquid fire didn't just consu him, but also leave nothing of Leon behind. Not even ashes. All that was left was the flas that burned for several minutes before going out altogether.
Elwin stopped moving for several minutes. During that ti, he had no idea what anyone else was doing. The only thing that he could focus on was where his brother had been. Where he t his end.
When he finally started to move again, his body felt stiff. As if he had kept that position for hours instead of minutes. The stiffness he could only assu was from his tired body complaining about having been put through such continuous exertion with all the fighting they'd been doing with the dragon while continuing to move in order to keep a food supply ready.
Elwin first walked over to where the flas that consud his brother were sputtering out on their own. He couldn't say what how it had happened, even though he'd witnessed it firsthand. From the ti when he'd been knocked back, everything seed surreal. Like maybe he'd been knocked out and his brother being killed was rely a nightmare that he was experiencing while unconscious.
Yet, the world around him felt too real to be a creation of his mind. His body ached to much to feel like he really was in a dream. He was certain that the fire dragon had been killed, even though there wasn't any body for it around. Which made sense to him, given that his brother's body had been burned into nothing. Even Leon's sword and armor had been burned away.
Elwin was vaguely aware of Owen and Patrick walking off, though he couldn't say what it was bout. He wasn't able to do much more than move around and notice what was going on. It felt like he was an observer to that couldn't interact with what he saw.
He wasn't sure what it was that he was feeling at the mont. Just that it was vague and undefined. He thought about asking the others about it, but in the end, he rely started walking.
He walked around the hill so he wouldn't be faced by the reminder of the battle they'd just had. The battle where his brother was killed in a blink of an eye. Where everything around him stopped mattering.
When he reached the other side of the hill, his legs started to feel like rubber and he just sank to the ground. He was starting to lose all his feelings, like they were disappearing on him. He couldn't explain what was going on, but he couldn't bring himself to care at that mont either.
It wasn't until his face was streaked with tears that he even beca aware he was crying. He couldn't say when he had started crying either. Just that they wouldn't stop flowing out of him. Out of the eyes that couldn't unsee what horror they had witnessed that day.
Elwin had no idea how long he'd been there, all he knew was that the sun had been hanging lower in the sky when soone else sat next to him. Elin. He didn't even see her until after she spoke, as if she'd appeared out of thin air and only had just co into existence at that particular mont.
"Are you okay?" she asked, and Elwin wasn't sure how to answer that. Only that sohow he was able to start feeling again. That the numbness was starting to fade just from the words Elin spoke with genuine feeling.
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