Chapter 19: Foul smell.
Having journeyed through the mountain pass, the Count guided Lance through many treacherous side roads which looked like they could kill a normal human anytime.
Just when Lance had thought that things could not have gotten any harder, a foul smell in the air overwhelmed him, as he almost fainted from the shock. Alerted by the strong smell, Lance asked the Count if he sensed it as well.
“Count…Do you smell that?” While trying to ask the Count about to smell, he stopped to hold his breath, as the odor was painful to his nose.
“Yeah…I think it’s coming from up ahead, should we investigate?” The Count asked, reacting somewhat differently to the smell than Lance.
“Whatever it is, it sure reeks! The sooner I know what it is, the faster I can kill it!” Lance said while inhaling another dose of the pungent smell.
“Judging by the smell, it’s probably already dead...” The Count said as he started moving forward.
As they continued on the road, following the smell which got increasingly stronger with each step they took, Lance continued to have a difficult time withstanding the smell, as he finally fainted from a sudden wind that forced even more of the smell to wash over him.
“Lance! We found the source of the smell!” The Count said as stood atop a small cliff.
“Guuurgh! Ju…just kill it already!” Groaning in pain as he finally fainted, Lance couldn’t help himself wonder how the Count could withstand the smell.
“That might prove difficult, since I was right about it being dead.” The Count said, while staring at what could only be described as a dragon, with its flesh still clinging to the bones as it rotted away slowly.
Surrounding this majestic beast was a crater 1km in diameter, with hundreds of skeletal figures dotting the brown ground with their white appearance. Next to the dragon was something akin to a birds nest, only bigger.
Before moving further inside the crater, the Count decided to help Lance who was coming and going out of consciousness, by covering him with his mantle.
Lance who had his eyes closed, felt that something was covering his body. Soon after that, he noticed that he could breathe once more. As he opened his eyes, he found himself surrounded by a familiar darkness.
Inside that darkness, he started to shout trying to call for the Count, but his efforts were in vain. Isolated, he could do nothing but wait patiently for the Count to release him.
While Lance was trapped inside the mantle, the Count went to challenge the Zombie Dragon.
“Sorry Lance, but this is something you don’t need to worry your head with, just yet.” The Count said as he entered the crater.
The unusual smell that emanated from the dragon, seemed to be stronger than what its flesh should have been able to produce, as it was slowly affecting even the Counts nose.
The closer he got the more unnerved he became, as he sensed something more dangerous than the dragon, inside the nest behind it.
“I wonder what it could be, to cause such an ominous presence?” The Count walked cautiously towards it, but as the sensation became somewhat familiar, it forced him to quicken his pace as he passed the skeletons that were standing still.
Without warning, some of the skeletons attacked the Count using sharp scythes, forcing him to take a step back.
“That was close, I was so focused on reaching that nest that I forgot about the small fry.” The Count said as he swiftly dodged another two attacks.
“Mind if I take one?” The Count said, as he pulled one of the skeletons towards him with the scythe and cleanly smashed his skull.
The Count mowed down enemy after enemy, but as their numbers started to shrink, the dragon that was silently watching the fight from afar, started to move in.
Seeing the dragon close in on him, he decided to finish the rest of the skeletons using one of his many skills.
“Weapon Skill Ares: Whirlwind!” As if the wind had turned into a hundred blades of steel, anything it touched turned to dust.
Furious with the Counts intrusion, the Dragon opened its mouth as it tried to breathe fire upon his foe, but all it did was release more of the pungent smell which was in itself devastating.
“Settle down, I only wish to see what you are hiding in your nest.” The Count talked as if he was communicating with an intelligent being.
“URUUUU-KAAAAAAAA!” The dragon responded with great hardship as the Count concentrated on listening every murmur and guttural sound he produced.
“…I see.” With sorrow in his eyes, the Count readied his weapon.
“PAAAAAA-ORAAAAAAAAAA!” The dragon said with anger and pride in his voice.
“Don’t worry, I will let her know immediately of what happened here!” The Count said with conviction.
Seeing the Count getting ready to fight, forced the dragon to almost smile as it prepared for its final moments.
It all ended in a flash, as the dragons head fell to the ground, while the rest of its body collapsed into a mass of decomposing mater. For a dragon, a death in battle would have been the most honorable kind of death it could achieve.
As if to honor his death, the Count took his mask of his face revealing it before the eyes of the decapitated dragon head, allowing it to know the identity of the one who had released it from eternal subjugation.
Wasting no time, the Count made a small magic circle and after shedding just one drop of blood from a vial he was holding on the inside of his vest, a portal opened revealing a green scenery on the other side, and from it a woman’s singing voice could be heard.
Who is this woman, and what is the Count planning, find out in the next chapter.
