The Warrior

The Warrior stood on the hill, armor shining, sword held in both hands, ready for an ambush. Almost immediately he heard the thunderous beating of wings, at once he knew what he had been sent for. Craning his neck to see where the dragon was, the beating grew louder. He could not distinguish where the noise was coming from, the surrounding foothills masked the sound. As he turned around, he saw a column of smoke from the top of a hill.

He readied himself, taking a step onto his injured leg, he winced. The injury was caused by his own stupidity, but there was no time to think about battles long past, for the dragon was upon him.

Sword and claws flailing the warrior and dragon wrestled. The dragon came at him with a flurry of attacks, his head coming closer, trying to bite him. Although this dragon was small, he had seen men swallowed whole by ones even smaller than this. All he could do was block the attacks and wait, wait until the dragon grew weak, that was the way of the warrior.

One after another the attacks came, the sharp claws almost getting him many times. The dragon hit him a few times, his armor dented and his armor bloodied from the blood of man and dragon alike. He let out a cry, not in pain, but a battle cry, mustering all of his strength he cut into the dragon's leg, the blade hit bone and was stuck. The dragon roared in pain, it grabbed the weaponless warrior with its uninjured leg. Air squeezed out of his chest, his armor crushed like cloth, the dragon threw him down the hill.

The warrior hit the ground in a daze. He came out of it too late, the dragon was already over him. As the dragon studied its prey, realizing he had no weapon, with a great swing of his arm, the warrior broke one of the dragon's teeth off. When the dragon recoiled in pain, he grabbed the tooth and tried to roll away, but the dragon grabbed him and started to fly.

After what seemed like an eternity, the warrior heard a whistling and the dragon roared in pain. He looked over and saw that an arrow had pierced the dragon's wing. At this, he grabbed onto the dragon's leg and stabbed it with the tooth. When the dragon released him, he climbed up onto the dragon's back. The warrior dragged himself up the dragon's neck until he reached the head, all the while more arrows were whistling past. With one great blow, he smashed the dragon's skull, the dragon went limp as he realized they were hundreds of feet above the ground. The dragon dropped faster and faster out of the sky, the warrior held on for his life. There was a crash as the dragon's body hit the ground and slid to a stop in front of the encampment of elven rangers.

They rushed out to see if they could help the warrior, but it was too late. As they checked the remains of the fight all they found was his shredded armor.