The Wrath of the Dragon's Breath

Prompt: Dragon vs Knight

Word Count: 1646


         Erdrick stepped into the dark, eerie cave that’s only light source was the odd glowing moss laced on the walls. It would pulse a deep light blue color every few seconds, like a heartbeat. He could hear the beast breathing heavily as it slumbered, regaining its energy from the previous attack on Erdrick’s city of Clearwater.
         Erdrick’s eyes were filled with anger as he inched ever so deeper into the glowing cave, hatred for the dragon blocking out his basic senses. All he wanted to do right now was put his steel sword into the beast’s heart and watch it die.
         As he neared towards the slumbering monster however, his own heart began to race. He had been blinded by anger before but, now he realized that he was about to single handedly fight a dragon. He found his courage though, pushed these fears away and continued down the path of blue lights.
         He came into a large open area. The ceiling raised up higher than the large tunnel and it was obvious that this was the inside of a mountain. The walls in the large room were also covered in the odd glowing moss, and it seemed to pulse faster here. So fast that, it seemed as if the room was always lit by the eerie blue lights.
         The dragon was resting in the middle of the cave. It was breathing heavily as it slept. It’s dark chest rising and falling as it slumbered. It was completely covered in black scales, and as such hard to see. It would’ve been impossible for Erdrick if not for the moss.
         He approached the dragon. His steel sword and shield were out in front of him, ready to attack if the dragon were to awaken. The bright blue lights reflected off of his shining armor, somewhat blending him into the walls. Everything was shining brightly except for the dark dragon in the center of the room.
         Erdrick expected the beast to awaken, to jump up and slash at him with its claws or breath its deadly breath. It didn’t however, and the knight made it to the dragon without a problem. He looked over its large body, wondering where the heart was at. He didn’t know the location of the monster‘s internal organs after all.
         The dragon’s stomach was gray, a very dark gray, and it was obviously weaker than the hard scales lined on its back. He glared at the large beast. Hating it, wanting to drive his blade right into its heart. He gripped the sword tightly and prepared to stab the beast’s belly as hard as he could.
         “My son.” He mumbled angrily.
         As he brought the blade forward the beast opened its large, dark orange eyes. Before it could react however, Erdrick’s sword ripped through the monster’s flesh and landed tightly inside it.
         The dragon jerked awake, and kicked Erdrick away. The knight hit the wall hard and fell onto the floor dazed. The dragon leaned up and roared loudly, it pulled back and shot a line of its flaming breath at the knight.
         Erdrick was prepared for this however, and he raised his thick steel shield up, allowing the wave of fire to wash around him as it ate away at the golden squid symbol painted on the shield’s front.
         Erdrick’s shield was useless now however, and he threw it to the side as he rushed to the left. The beast roared again and darted after him. It snapped at the knight, which in return he rolled out of the way of the beast’s sharp teeth. He ran underneath it and reached for his sword. As he grabbed for though, the black dragon leaned up and brought its front legs down onto the knight.
         He jerked the side of the monster but, the powerful dragon shook the ground around Erdrick and this caused him to lose his footing. He cursed as he fell down to the right of the dragon’s legs. The beast pulled back again and brought its legs down for another attempt to crush the knight.
         Erdrick reacted swiftly however. He rolled away from the beast’s legs and, as they hit the floor, used the earthquake like blow to roll over to his sword. He reached up and held onto the blade as the dragon raised back up. The sword slid out nicely and he turned and fled, the blue moss pulsing ever so faster.
         As Erdrick was trying to get better ground, the dragon swiped its claw at him. It connected and smacked him against the wall again, knocking his left gauntlet and helmet off this time.
         The dragon roared triumphantly and inched towards the injured knight. Ready to devour him. As it leaned in to feast on what it thought was a corpse, Erdrick pushed his blade forward and dug the sword into the dragon’s left eye. It exploded in a gross burst of fluid that splashed over Erdrick’s face and armor.
         The dragon roared in agony, it was so loud that Erdrick’s ears started to bleed. The knight paid no notice of this however. He was so close to actually killing a dragon, by himself, that the joy and excitement overwhelmed him and he continued onward, running on pure adrenaline. He wiped the remnants of the dragon’s eye off of his face and smiled crazily as the thoughts washed over him.
         The dragon stomped on the ground and roared again in anger. It looked behind it to see where Erdrick was and brought its tail down onto the knight. He saw the tail clearly and leaped to the right and let it connect with the ground. The dragon threw its tail down again, this time Erdrick jumped away and then brought his sword down, chopping the very tip of the tail off.
         The dragon roared again but, instead of retreating whipped its tail at Erdrick, smashing him into the wall of the cave. His armor dented and he dropped his sword. He fell to the ground and began to feel the pain overwhelm his body. He coughed hard and saw blood spew from his mouth and onto the cave’s floor.
         He grabbed the sword and tried to keep moving. He lost his footing however, and fell back to the ground. The dragon breathed through its nose oddly, almost like it was laughing at injured knight.
         The moss was pulsing slower now. Erdrick stared at the dragon in defeat, the blue light would illuminate for about a second before flooding the two in darkness for another five. Each time the dim blue lights came to life the dragon was getting closer and closer, the only constantly visible thing in the room was the dragon’s one orange eye that shone eerily in the darkness of the cave.
         The dragon brought its front left claw down slowly, like it was toying with knight. Planning on crushing the warrior slowly. Erdrick started to laugh dryly, not planning to die just yet. As the dragon’s foot neared his face he used everything he had left, all of his energy that hadn’t been drained to slice his sword upwards, as hard as he could. He connected with the dragon’s foot and sliced one of the claws off.
         He was surprised at how easily the beast was injured. Maybe they weren’t as deadly as the legends say. Hope filled Erdrick again as he ran forward. The dragon fell to all fours again and roared in agony at the bleeding spot on its foot. While it was distracted Erdrick rushed under it and drove his sword up into its chest.
         By some miracle of the gods the blade stuck into its heart. It stopped and fell away  painfully as it fell down onto its side, glaring at the knight in surprise and pain. Erdrick tripped over and fell down onto the wall to the opposite side of the dragon. They both stared at each other as the blue moss held it light, not turning to dark any longer.
         The dragon breathed hard and blinked in shock at the knight, who was holding his chest as blood slowly seeped out of his mouth. The dragon looked forward, like it was searching for something. In the end it just stared up at the bright blue moss as its eyes blanked and it fell still. The dragon’s scales began to slowly fall off of its corpse. As they fell they caught fire and withered away into nothing.
         Erdrick continued to stare at the event in silent joy. He was nearly dead and yet, he had killed a dragon. Having avenged the death of his son he could rest in peace now, and he was fine by that. To his surprise however, the fire was an odd dark purple color. He smiled at the sight of the monstrous beast burning away from the odd, magical flames, with the eerie blue of the moss in the background. It was a grimly, beautiful site.
         As the dragon’s flesh and scales were consumed by the purple flames, its bones began to wither away as well. Erdrick sighed when he realized there would never be proof of his heroic deed but, he didn’t really care that much. He had gained revenge and that was all that mattered. Soon the entire corpse was gone, even the ashes blew up into the air and fell apart until there was nothing left except for the brave knight.
         Erdrick stared up at the ceiling of the cave. The blue moss was slowly beginning to stop shining. The darkness was lingering longer and longer and soon he knew there would be nothing. He breathed heavily as he felt death’s cold touch. He said a prayer to Vita, the god of water, and held his gaze at the dim blue light of the moss until there was nothing left.
         Darkness.