Chapter 4 - The First Dragon

Chapter 4

The First Dragon



They had been walking for nearly two uneventful hours now...



Nel and Albel walked down the dark tunnel in silence. Albel had caught up to walk next to Nel after grumbling a promise not to try to take the torch from her again.



Nel was trying to calm her nerves with every trick in the book as she walked next to Albel. Everything about that man unnerved her. The way he walked, talked, just about anything he did annoyed her. And yet, she had managed not to blow up in his face as of yet, how?



`I must have superpowers.' she thought as her eyes darted to Albel yet again, making sure he wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary.



Albel knew that Nel had been eyeing him continuously since they had ventured off into their own tunnel, and it was starting to bug him. He turned his head and looked at Nel, seeing her eyes dart away from him and look straight ahead of her.



-“Why do you keep looking at me, maggot?” Albel spat out and Nel stopped walked. Albel walked a few more steps and turned around, standing in front of her now.



Neither of them seemed to notice that they had entered another room in the cave that had two tunnels veering off in different directions.



-“Because I don't trust anything about you.” Nel said and crossed one of her arms across her middle (the other one was holding the torch). Albel sneered.



-“Well I don't trust you either, but you don't see me glancing at you every 10 seconds, do you?” he said.



-“So what if I-” Nel started to protest but Albel suddenly lunged forward and slapped his good hand over her mouth.



-“Shh!” he whispered harshly and quickly grabbed the torch out of Nel's unsuspecting hand. Nel started making some muffled noises of further protest but Albel quickly hushed her again. “Shut up and listen!” he whispered. Nel did.



They were standing at the very entrance of the small room. There were two tunnels leading off in different directions ahead of them. One was closer then the other so they could see down it clearly because of the torch's light, but the other tunnel wasn't nearly as well lit and wouldn't be unless they ventured closer. Not that they would though, considering the strange noise that was coming out of it.



`What's that noise?...It sounds almost like breathing...' Nel wondered.



Albel abruptly took his hand off Nel's mouth. “Do you hear that?” he asked in a whisper. Nel looked up at his face and saw that he looked a little uneasy.



-“Yeah, what is it?”



She watched Albel switch hands that was holding the torch so his claws were free.



-“I think we're about to meet our first dragon.” he said and lifted the torch up higher in the air, hoping to get more light into that corner tunnel without having to move any closer.



The light traveled up the far side of the cave's wall and hit the tunnel, lighting it. Nothing was there, but the noise hadn't disappeared.



-“Where is it?” Nel whispered to Albel, trying very hard not to sound as afraid as she was. Nel knew that she could probably beat the snot out of anything that came out of that tunnel, but she didn't like having to fight in the dark, seeing as she preferred being able to see her opponent and know what she was up against before just running into battle.



-“It's in there, it just doesn't want us to know that. It looks like as if it's getting ready to strike...”Albel trailed off, staring intently at the tunnel.



-“How can you tell? You can't even see what's in there.” Nel whispered. Albel smirked despite their current situation.



-“You can't see it? Look harder, this dragon has red eyes.”



Nel listened to Albel's words and squinted at the dark tunnel. She gasped silently. There was indeed two red eyed staring back at her, almost threateningly. Nel covered her mouth with one hand when she heard a low growl come from the tunnel.



-“Its coming.” Albel said grimly and flexed his claws.



-“What are you going to-” Nel stopped in mid sentence when a large scaly object leaped out of the darkness of the tunnel and plunged towards the two.



Albel swiftly turned around and wrapped his clawed arm around Nel's middle before jumping to the right. He landed and quickly jerked his head back around just in time to see the dragon's claws swipe at the very spot where they had been standing only seconds ago.



The dragon was big, very big. It almost filled half the cave they were in and had wings folded tight against it's back. The dragon landed, making the ground shake beneath Albel and Nel's feet, and turned it's head to look at the two humans in the corner. It's red eyed glowed against the light from the torch as the dragon smirked, it's sharp teeth showing.



Despite her pride, Nel found herself latched onto Albel's arm, even after he had let go of her waist. `How are we going to beat that thing?! It's just standing there and we're already practically boxed in!' She was forced to let go of Albel's arm when he shoved the still lit torch into one of her hands.



-“When I tell you, I want you to use your Ice Daggers on it.”he said and he drew his katana out of it's sheath.



-“But what are you going to-” Nel stuttered.



-“Make sure to aim for it's head, that way if it freezes over, it won't be able to breath fire.” Albel added before charging at the dragon.



-“Wait, Albel!” Nel exclaimed and watched him dodge as the dragon swiped at him with it's claws.



Nel watched from the sidelines as Albel slowly wore down the dragon. Attack after attack, Albel's breathing started to get a little more forced as he started to get tiered. `I've got to end this soon...' he thought as he jumped into the air, dodged the dragon's swiping claws, and landed on it's back.



The dragon jerked it's head this way and that, trying to get the human off it's back. Albel grabbed hold of one of the dragon's wings to steady himself as he pulled his katana's sheath off his side. He hastily threw his sword to the ground and lunged at the back of the dragon's head. Albel punched the dragon on one side of it's face, making it turn it's head in that direction while he quickly moved to the opposite side and jammed his sheath into the dragon's mouth, grabbing it with his other hand when it came out the other side of the dragon's mouth.



Albel pulled the sheath towards him so it was jammed in at the back of the dragon's mouth, propping it open, and jerked both his arms sideways, making the dragon reluctantly turn as well.



-“Now! Aim your Ice Daggers for it's mouth!” Albel called to Nel as he forcefully held the dragon's head into position.



Nel had jammed the torch into a pile of rocks a few minutes ago so it was sticking up and still lighting the cave. She gave Albel a quick nod and focused her energy into her hands.



-“Move!” she exclaimed and took carful aim. She could see flames preparing to exit the dragon's mouth and quickly released her Ice Daggers.



Albel, upon recently hearing her demand, pulled his sheath out of the dragon's mouth. The dragon reacted to the sudden freeness and jerked it's head sharply, sending Albel flying off it's back and slamming into the cave wall before quickly turning back and releasing a heavy amount of fire from it's mouth towards Nel.



Nel, who was still emitting daggers of ice out of her hands, chanced a glance at Albel, who was on his knees and folded in two on the ground at the dragon's side, in obvious pain. `I guess it's up to me now...' she thought and tore her eyes away from Albel.



Fire and Ice met as the two elemental assaults collided. It was a pretty even match at first, but Nel put all she had into her spell, sending ice flowing through the flames and directly into the dragon's open mouth. The flames stopped but Nel continued sending ice at the dragon.



Albel, who had just managed to shakily stand up from the hard tunnel floor, saw what Nel was doing. Gathering up what little energy he had left, Albel ran over to Nel's side and grabbed both her hands firmly.



-“Stop it! You need to save your energy!” he exclaimed and Nel let the spell slide, stopping the flow of ice.



The dragon let out a few choking noises before it's red eyed rolled into it's head and it fell to the ground, making the whole cave shake.



Nel's hands fell to her sides when Albel let go of them.



-“You fool, you need to save your energy for the rest of this cave!” Albel said and watched her carefully, debating on wether or not she was okay. Nel smirked and closed her eyes.



-“Just shut up, Albel...” she muttered before her knees gave out from underneath her. Albel reacted quickly and caught her before she hit the ground. He looked at her face and sighed.



-“The fool went and fainted on me...” he whispered, wondering what he should do next....

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