Slayer: I Kill All Dragons For Power

Smoke still hangs over the road long after the dragons disappear.

The other slayers remain quiet for a few more seconds.

I keep staring towards the buildings where the wounded dragon vanished.

Part of me still expects it to come rushing back, but nothing happens.

Only the sound of stone settling and distant flames remain.

"Clear!" someone shouts from farther down the street.

Another voice answers.

"East side clear!"

"Sky is clear!"

Onyx finally lowers his weapon.

"Alright. Check the wounded and make sure those cannons are still usable."

The slayers around us begin moving.

I lower my sword.

Now that everything is slowing down, I can actually feel how tired my body is. This is definitely something I expected to feel at some point.

My shoulder hurts from hitting the dragon earlier.

That probably wasn’t my smartest idea but it helped in the fight. I’ll have to keep those things in mind when I fight another dragon.

Sylvia looks towards me.

"You’re doing that thing again."

"What thing?" I question.

"Standing there like you’re waiting for another dragon to fall out of the sky."

I glance upward.

"I wasn’t."

"You literally just looked up."

"I was checking."

"Of course."

Laz lets out a laugh before wiping some of the blood from the side of his face.

"I’ll leave you two to that."

"To what?" I ask.

He just walks away.

I stare after him for a moment.

Is it really that noticeable? I don’t blame him for saying that to me.

Sylvia starts following the others.

"Come on."

I catch up with her.

A few slayers are already surrounding the first dead dragon while others check the tracker.

I can feel something inside me react when I look towards the bodies.

Dragon essence. I didn’t think I’d have an opportunity to get some so soon.

The feeling is almost immediate.

It is like my body knows exactly what is lying there.

~There are two potential sources.

Really? I definitely will be taking advantage of this then.

~That is about what I expected.

I start moving towards the nearest body.

"Where are you going?" Sylvia asks.

"The dragon."

She looks at the corpse.

Then back at me.

"Oh."

She probably already knows.

I walk towards the dead tracker and look at its body is covered in wounds.

The strange creature looks even more unsettling now that it isn’t moving.

Its long limbs are twisted beneath it and its head is partially buried in broken stone.

I kneel beside it.

My hand presses against the rough scales.

Immediately the familiar sensation moves through my body.

Warmth spreads through my arm, my chest, and then the strange pull starts again.

The body doesn’t change much from the outside, at least nobody would know what I’m doing just from looking.

I close my eyes.

More strength... more essence.

Everything I can get from the dragons, especially after what happened today matters.

The sensation suddenly stops.

~Dragon essence successfully absorbed.

I open my eyes.

One. There is still the armored dragon.

I stand.

Before I can move, someone speaks behind me.

"So you really do just touch them."

I turn quickly.

Niko is standing a few feet away.

He has some kind of tool resting over one shoulder.

I don’t remember seeing him this close before.

Most of the time he has been near the cannon or shouting something from behind us.

His clothes are covered in soot and dust.

There is a dark mark across one side of his face and his hair looks like it has been through an explosion.

"What?"

He points towards the dead dragon.

"You walked over here, touched it, then stood there for a few seconds."

I don’t answer.

Sylvia stops beside me.

Niko looks between us.

"I’m not asking you to explain it."

"Good."

He smiles.

"Not much of a talker?"

"Depends."

"On?"

"What you’re asking."

He laughs.

It is hard to figure out what to make of him since I’ve only talked to him once.

Niko moves towards the tracker and crouches beside it.

Unlike me, he doesn’t touch the scales immediately... instead he looks over the wounds.

"The shell did less damage than I thought."

"Less?"

"It tore half of the other dragon’s chest open."

"That was point blank."

"Exactly."

He points towards one of the wounds on the tracker.

"This one got hit from much farther away."

I look at the damaged scales.

Some of them are cracked apart, but the injury beneath them isn’t nearly as deep.

"So distance matters?"

"With those rounds? A lot."

That makes sense.

The explosion itself is powerful, but the shell probably loses force before it reaches the target.

Niko stands again.

"Though that second shot would’ve been useless if you didn’t move the dragon."

I raise an eyebrow.

"You nearly killed me with it."

"You heard me yell fire."

"After I was already next to it."

"Still moved."

Sylvia covers her mouth for a second.

Is she trying not to laugh?

I look towards her.

She immediately lowers her hand.

"I’m not saying anything."

Niko grins.

"I like her."

"Don’t encourage her."

"Too late."

Great.

Another one.

Niko starts walking towards the damaged cannon.

I look towards the second dragon corpse.

The weapon almost tore that dragon apart and I haven’t seen anything like it before.

I follow him and Sylvia comes with me.

The cannon looks much worse up close.

A large crack runs along one side of the structure holding it together.

Several symbols carved across the barrel are completely dark now.

Two people are removing pieces from the back.

One of them shakes their head.

"This one is done."

Niko sighs.

"Barrel?"

"Barrel is fine. Stabilizer isn’t."

"Of course."

I look towards the cannon.

"What exactly is this thing?"

Niko turns towards me.

"A cannon."

"I know that."

"Then why’d you ask?"

I stare at him.

He laughs again.

"I’m messing with you."

He really is an interesting guy.

Niko pats the side of the cannon.

"Standard artillery doesn’t do much against dragons unless you hit somewhere vulnerable. These were built specifically for them."

"Built by who?"

"A lot of people."

"That doesn’t answer anything."

"It answers enough."

Sylvia looks over the glowing symbols.

"They’re enchanted."

Niko nods.

"Partially."

"Partially?"

"The cannon itself isn’t entirely magical. Neither are the shells."

He reaches towards one of the empty casings on the ground and lifts it.

It is much larger than I expected.

Symbols cover nearly the entire thing.

"Metal shell. Reinforced core. Magical inscriptions."

He taps one of the symbols.

"Then someone much smarter than me makes sure it doesn’t explode before we want it to."

"You don’t make them?"

"I maintain them."

He looks offended for half a second.

"Mostly."

"Mostly?"

"Sometimes I change things."

One of the people working on the cannon looks towards him.

"Which is why this one nearly killed us last month."

Niko immediately points at him.

"It worked."

"It fired backwards."

"It still fired."

Sylvia starts laughing.

I stare at Niko.

"You fired a cannon backwards?"

"Once."

"How?"

"Very carefully."

That doesn’t answer anything.

Niko puts the shell casing down.

"It was fixed."

The other man shakes his head and goes back to work.

I look towards the cannon again.

"So you’re some kind of weapons specialist?"

"Something like that."

"Are you a slayer?"

Niko pauses.

"No."

That catches me off guard.

I look at him again.

He doesn’t look particularly weak.

But everyone I’ve seen fighting here so far has been a slayer.

"You aren’t?"

"Nope."

"Then why are you here?"

Niko looks towards the ruined street.

"Same reason everyone else is."

His voice changes slightly.

No joke this time.

"Dragons don’t really care what profession you have when they destroy your home."

I stay quiet.

Niko glances towards me.

"I learned how to use these because I can’t do what you people do."

"You could become a slayer."

He shakes his head.

"Not everyone can."

Right, I already knew that.

Most of the people around me lately have been slayers. It was probably wrong of me to just assume he is one.

It is easy to forget that there are people fighting this war who can’t run directly at a dragon with a sword.

Niko looks towards the damaged cannon.

"So I do this."

He kicks one of the broken pieces lightly.

"Usually without destroying my own equipment."

"Usually?"

"Important word."

Sylvia smiles.

I crouch near the cannon and look at the symbols.

Some are similar to things I’ve seen before.

Others aren’t.

"That round you fired..."

"The special one?"

"Yeah."

Niko’s expression becomes a little more serious.

"Expensive."

"That wasn’t what I was going to ask."

"It usually is what commanders ask."

"What makes it different?"

He crouches beside me.

"The first stage breaks the outer defenses."

He points towards one symbol.

"The second releases the stored energy."

"So the shell breaking causes the explosion?" I question.

"Basically. If I explain every part, we’ll be here all day."

"I don’t mind."

Niko looks surprised.

Sylvia looks at me too.

"What?"

"Nothing," she says.

Niko smirks.

"You actually like this stuff."

"I like knowing how things work."

"That’s dangerous."

"How?"

"That’s how you end up standing next to me while I test something."

I stand immediately.

"I’m reconsidering."

He laughs.

Someone calls from behind us.

"Niko!"

He turns.

Onyx is approaching.

His armor is damaged and there is dried blood across one side of it, but he still walks like nothing happened.

"Status."

Niko points towards the cannon.

"This one is dead until I replace the stabilizer."

"The other?"

"Still operational. Probably."

Onyx narrows his eyes.

"Probably?"

"I haven’t checked it yet."

"Check it."

"Yes, commander."

Onyx looks towards me and Sylvia.

"You two alright?"

"I’m fine."

Sylvia immediately sighs as Onyx looks towards my arm.

"That’s bleeding."

"It’s a cut."

"Get it cleaned."

"After I—"

"Now."

I stop.

Sylvia smiles.

"See?"

I stare at her.

Onyx continues walking.

Niko watches him leave before looking towards me.

"You’re bad at following orders?"

"I’m getting better."

Sylvia laughs.

"He actually is."

Niko looks amused.

"That’s concerning."

"It was worse before."

"I said I’m getting better."

"You are."

She sounds sincere this time.

I look away, but Niko notices.

Of course he does.

His grin slowly gets wider and I point towards the cannon.

"Don’t you have something to fix?"

"Definitely."

He starts walking backwards.

"But this is more interesting."

"Go."

"Alright, alright."

He turns and heads towards the other cannon.

Sylvia watches him leave.

"I think he likes you."

"Why?"

"Probably because you’re easy to bother."

"I’m not."

She looks at me.

"You definitely are."

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