Tyrune’s three, gruesome heads flailed around him as the people of Tadcaster ran to their houses. They knew, of course, that their houses were doomed, but they wanted to feel comfortable in their final moments. They needed a miracle to survive this, to survive the demon dragon.

They got one.

A total of 5 shots flew through the air, and into Tyrune’s leftmost head. The head screamed in pain, and the others followed suit after the left brain told the others what had happened.

“Who dares?!” roared Tyrune.

“I dare.” said Edge, holding his gun up.

“YOU!? HERE!? But I…I left you for dead! You would have been mincemeat for the Stryders if I hadn’t saved you! You convinced me to let you die slowly when you shot me. But, this time, you won’t be so lucky. I’m going to destroy you, Divine Visitor.”

“I keep telling you! I’m NOT the Divine Visitor!”

“Oh yes, you are! And you know the thing about visitors? They never know when it’s time to leave!”

And with that, Tyrune flew into the sky, raised all three heads, and rained down his arrows of light upon Tadcaster.

The impact was incredible. It seemed like the whole town went up in one, huge explosion, but the people weren’t harmed. The sound was deafening, the light blinding, the fire deadly hot. And yet, not a single person got hurt in that explosion.

When the smoke had cleared, one side of the town was completely gone. All evidence that buildings had stood there, even bricks, rubble and wood, were vaporised by Tyrune’s deadly shots.

Edge was ticked. He aimed his gun and fired. He fired again. And again. And again. He wasn’t going to stop until he had destroyed Tyrune.

But Tyrune was unlike any other dragon Edge had fought. He had three brains, so he realised Edge’s tactics faster than most monsters would ever be able to. As each shot flew towards Tyrune, a laser fired from Tyrune’s mouth and intercepted the bullet. The miniature explosions that occurred each time a shot was intercepted rocked the town, almost like a miniature earthquake with every one. It took Edge a while to realise his efforts were futile, and then he stopped.

“Heh. Not as smart as you thought, Divine Visitor?” One head of Tyrune’s looked right at Paet. Another one looked at Spirit. The third one, the middle one, kept his eyes firmly on Edge. The effect on the three ground targets was one of sheer terror. Then, the head that was looking at Spirit spoke.

“Ah. Look here. A little pet. Aren’t you so cute?” Tyrune’s heads moved about like snakes eyeing up their prey. “Well, guess what? I hate cute.”

Tyrune’s heads rose up again. Edge realised what he was about to do, so he shouted at Paet. “Paet! Grab the pup and RUN! Get him as far away from here as you can! I’ll hold him off here!”

“Where do I run to?”

“I don’t know! Just GO!!”

Tyrune fired his lasers. Edge was banking on a reverse of Tyrune’s plan: as the lasers rushed towards him, he would shoot them and cancel them out. It was simple. There was only one problem, and Edge knew it: Tyrune’s lasers would carve through his gun’s shots like a sword through a Lathum. The only power that can match the dragons is the power of the dragons themselves. The old mantra. Skiad-Ops-Endow knew it. Now Edge knows it. But nonetheless, he had to try. He had to save himself, and what was left of Tadcaster. He shot at one of Tyrune’s lasers.

The shot disintegrated.

It wouldn’t work.

---

While Edge was carrying out his death wish plan, Paet was running through the half of Tadcaster that was still standing. He had Spirit in his hands, and he was just willing his legs to run anywhere that he would be safe. That wasn’t going to be anywhere with a couple of miles. He stopped.

Paet, you idiot, he thought, you need to find somewhere where this little one can be safe. But where? Tyrune could be blowing Edge to bits right this second, and the dragon needed to be somewhere that Tyrune wouldn’t look for it.

Paet would have laughed at his next thought if the Grim Reaper wasn’t winking at him. He knew Tyrune wouldn’t look. He would resort to just destroying absolutely EVERYTHING until he found the pup.

Wait. There was one place that Tyrune wouldn’t go near. He couldn’t. And from what Paet had seen, Tyrune’s lasers were powerful, but they weren’t accurate over any sort of range. If the dragon could be put in a small area that Tyrune couldn’t fly near, then he would be pretty safe.

The scent rock storage house.

That’s it.

Scent rock was a valuable thing in this world. Scent rock was a naturally occuring mineral, found virtually anywhere. That wasn’t what made it valuable. The scent rock was often buried deep in walls or the ground. It took expensive equipment to get it, but it was worth it. Scent rock, when burned, created a fume that was nice smelling to human beings, but to monsters, it was a concentrated acid in a gas. Any monster that sniffed in scent rock gas found itself being burned internally, not badly enough to kill it at first, but prolonged exposure meant a coma or death.

Paet knew that gases go upwards. If he could put the dragon underneath the storage house, it wouldn’t be harmed by the scent rock gas. Holding the dragon, he started to run towards the storage house. It was a great pity that it was on the other side of town.

Paet never got to that storage house.

When he turned round the first corner, Spirit started to glow. It wasn’t very noticeable at first, but as Paet played with the idea of the storage house in his head, he saw the glow. The glow got brighter and brighter has the idea turned over in Paet’s head.

“What is going on here?”

Spirit chirped at Paet, nodding towards the ground.

Put me down.

Paet did so. Then, instinctively, he stood back. He thought that Spirit was going to unleash an amazing attack that would hit Tyrune smack bang in the chest and take him out for good. He was wrong. But he wasn’t far off when he thought that it was going to be spectacular. The glow intensified. Spirit’s green skin was now almost white. The light was brighter than the sun at noon, and it was getting brighter. Paet thought the dragon was going to blow up. When there was an explosion from Spirit’s direction, Paet thought he was right! But when he looked again, he was proven wrong. The dragon was still there; only it was totally green and featureless. And it was growing.

Growing!? Oh how it grew! The dragon was growing rapidly to the size of a full grown Coolia. But it didn’t stop there. It kept growing, and growing. Finally, it was as tall as Paet, and twice as long as he was tall. The green glow vanished with another flash of light, and the green, featureless exterior disappeared.

Paet gasped.

What had been only a 2 foot tall Coolia pup no more than a minute ago had grown into a dragon. A great, grey dragon, with wings as powerful as any Conana! The glow in the dragon’s throat was breathtakingly bright compared to the dull grey, armour-like exterior of the creature. This was truly the dragon the legends, that Paet had grown up with, spoke of.

A holy messenger.

A divine deliverer.

From the gods.

The dragon held its head up and roared loud enough for Tadcaster and the surrounding area to hear it. Almost like a taunt. Everyone in Tadcaster heard it.

Including Tyrune.

---

Tyrune, the three headed dragon in question, was at that moment standing over a very bloody Edge. The shot tactic did not work, and Edge had been pummelled with Tyrune’s arrows. Tyrune knew he would win, so he lowered the power of his lasers so that while they would inflict great pain, they would not kill. At least, not until he had gloated enough. His rightmost head knocked Edge’s gun away from him, so there could not be a performance of the desert trick.

“I suppose you think you are clever, Divine Visitor. I suppose you think that using my own tactics against me would result in victory. I suppose…no, I know, that you were feeling pretty good about yourself, weren’t you?”

Edge groaned.

“Well, I’m sorry, Divine Visitor. This is the end of the line. You may have scored one against our kind, but the game was far from over. Just hold still, Visitor. The game will be over for you very, very…”

That’s when Spirit’s roar echoed through Tadcaster.

All three of Tyrune’s heads said it at exactly the same time.

“What?!”

Then Tyrune saw Spirit. Edge saw Spirit. The townsfolk saw Spirit. And how they cheered! They knew that a miracle had just occurred; a messenger of the gods was going to defeat their aggressor!

Spirit flew at Tyrune like a dragon possessed. Tyrune wasn’t ready, and soon found himself on the receiving end of a powerful body-check.

Tyrune flew, without the use of his wings this time, into a building. Someone in the crowd screamed out that that was his house, but no one else really cared. They were mesmerised by the duel of the dragons.

Tyrune’s wings started flapping, raising him above the ground. He was ticked now, but at the same time a sick smile crossed his face. A challenger. At last.

“Hey, Divine Visitor!” Tyrune called out, “It looks like your story was right. You do have a dragon. And what a dragon. Let’s see how he handles defence, shall we?” Tyrune raised his head again, and Spirit did too. Both dragons fired their lasers at the exact same time, but Tyrune had the advantage of having multiple launchers. Triple the number of Spirit’s lasers flew through the air, and took out the lasers that Spirit had fired. The lasers that had not cancelled out flew right past Spirit, much to the dragon’s bemusement, and hurtled off into the sunset.

“Bah.” said Tyrune, “You got lucky, you can use your arrows of light well enough. But how are your spells progressing? You’ve just matured, cub, so I doubt you’ll be able to match this!”

Tyrune adopted his familiar pose before he fired, and Spirit awaited the attack.

Tyrune vanished.

Spirit looked around, but couldn’t find him anywhere.

“Spirit!” called Edge, “Look behind you!”

Spirit turned around to see Tyrune in a new pose. Only one head was raised, the other two were stuck firmly out to the sides. All the townsfolk shivered, as did Edge. That was one hell of a weird feeling. But Edge knew it well. It was the feeling of Evil. With a capital E.

“SAY GOODBYE TO YOUR DRAGON, DIVINE VISITOR!!!! CRIMMMMSOOOONNN LIGHTNING!!!!”

An arc of red lightning formed above Tyrune, between the two heads at the side, and a single, crimson laser fired from it. Tyrune’s attack was swift and, for once, accurate. It hit Spirit right in the stomach. Spirit gave a squeak, and then plummeted to the ground.

“Spirit…” Edge groaned. He couldn’t even run up to him because he was still severely hurt from Tyrune’s laser assault.

Spirit gave a rather unsatisfactory chirp to let Edge know he was OK. Edge wasn’t convinced.

“Pah! Call yourself a dragon? That was me going easy on you, kid. You need a few more changes before you can handle me. Before you can handle anything.” Tyrune flew closer to Spirit, getting in his face. “You defeated Sestren, didn’t you? That is funny, really, it is. A twerp like you defeated the mighty Lord Sestren. You might be the Heresy Dragon, and you might stand for the freedom of humanity from the Ancient Age, but when it comes down to it, you’re NOTHING. You think I’m tough? I’m a beginner, Heresy, I really am. While I’m good, there are better. No matter where you go in this world, there will be a dragon, purging the strong from the weak. You fall into the latter category. And unless you get stronger, you’re going to be crapped on from a high point my friend. If you want to free this world from us, you’re going have to do better than what you did today.”

Tyrune flew back a little, and then blasted a random building of the remaining Tadcaster. It was the dragon equivalent of spitting on someone or something you find pathetic.

“I’m going to give you another chance. I don’t know why, perhaps I want to see what kind of challenge you can give me when you’ve grown up. I have a pressing engagement anyway. I have a town to visit by sunset. You may know it. It’s called Zoah.”

Edge froze.

“Farewell…I was going to say “Divine Visitor” but that would be stupid. The Divine Visitor should be stronger than you any day. Farewell, LOSER.”

And with that, Tyrune flew off.

“TYRUNE!!!!!” Edge screamed. He knew he couldn’t move. He knew that Spirit needed time to recover. But that wasn’t what upset him. He saw the direction Tyrune flew off in. It was East. He WAS heading for Zoah.

I might have a dragon. I might have a gun. But I’ve failed again.

I’ve failed to save Zoah.