The snarling should've been terrifying, but Eddie's mind was elsewhere. He knew he needed to survive, and he needed to figure out how.
The fire would take away any chances of hiding in anything, and everyone knew that most dragons were somewhat intelligent, so tricking it was out of the question too.
Eddie met Richie's eyes again and saw the terror. He realized he was literally just going to have to avoid dying for an hour. He'd never been trained to deal with dragons, but he'd also never been trained to deal with Tenebrians.
"I'm gonna have to improvise the fuck out of this," Eddie whispered to himself as the dragon shot another wave of fire at him.
He ran to one of the tunnels and watched the dragon appear on the other side. It blew fire through the tunnel, making Eddie thankful he wasn't dumb enough to have climbed inside.
It roared and leapt up onto the platform above Eddie, its nails digging into the dirt. It looked down and saw Eddie, who realized he had to move or he'd be fucked.
It reached one of its large, clawed talons toward Eddie, who easily avoided it, running to the other platform.
50:11 blinked on the clock outside the cage.
"How the fuck-" Eddie asked himself, but he was cut off by the dragon landing in front of him, its eyes menacing and promising nothing but death.
"Fuck," Eddie whispered, diving into one of the tunnels inside the platformed wall and hastily trying to crawl through.
He felt a terrible pain in his leg and realized the dragon had managed to get one of its claws close to his leg. When he tumbled out of the tunnel on the other side, he saw the sticky trail of crimson pouring from his leg.
"Fuck," Eddie whispered as the dragon leapt onto the platform above him. "Fuck fuck fuck."
•••
Richie stood with Stan, Mike, and Bev, watching as the challenge commenced. They saw the dragon Eddie was going to be facing and heard a soft "fuck" from beside them.
"What is it?" Richie asked Mike, who had been the one to whisper the word.
"That's a Mocca. They're the most lethal dragons anywhere. They're smart and have both fire, poison, and they're quick," Mike explained, looking over toward the throne where Cassie stood beside the king with wide eyes.
Richie felt his heart drop. Eddie still had fifty- five minutes to be stuck with the dragon, and he was Lucantian. He'd never had to survive facing off with an animal, nor had he had to run and have stamina for that long.
When Richie was in Tenebris, he faced off with wolves and wild cats every now and then. Even with that, he wouldn't trust himself to survive for an hour with a psychotic dragon.
"We can't let this keep going!" Richie exclaimed as Eddie managed to dodge the creature and run to the other platform.
"We don't have a choice," Mike responded, clearly aware that Richie was seconds from finding a way to end the battle himself. "Don't do anything stupid."
Bev could tell Richie was about to dive in but was hesitating. She also knew that he was the most able of all of them. He was smart, elusive, and probably the most likely to survive a dragon attack.
"Yeah, Richie, he's just a Lucantian. It's not your job to save him," Bev said, knowing how much it would piss Richie off. She caught Stan's eye and saw his glare.
He knew exactly what she was doing.
"Fuck off, Bev!" Richie snapped, glancing nervously from the clock to where Eddie was crawling into the tunnel.
"Shit," Stan whispered, watching Eddie crawl away.
The blood from his leg was visible to the crowd, meaning there was a lot of it. It was also clear that the dragon had realized it made Eddie bleed, since it sniffed the air and growled, crawling slowly toward the coppery smell.
Bev turned toward Richie, knowing he'd want to save Eddie. She noticed how afraid he looked, but also how hesitant he was. So, Bev said something she knew she'd regret, even though she hoped it would result in Eddie's protection and potentially their survival.
"Good riddance, am I right?" she asked, watching Richie's expression go from afraid to livid within seconds.
He slid through the caged outside that they stood next to and dove onto one of the platforms. Below him he saw Eddie trying to crawl away from the dragon, which was slowly inching closer and closer.
"Fuck you for making me care," Richie snarled to Eddie, who obviously didn't even know he was in the arena.
Richie dove down, landing on the dragon's back. It howled and turned, trying to catch Richie who had slid off the creature and ran off.
Eddie looked away from the dragon, as it had stopped attacking him, and saw Richie running away from it.
"Richie?! What the fuck are you doing?!" Eddie yelled as Richie dove behind a rock in the arena to avoid a wave of fire.
"Saving your ass! Do you think I'd come in here for fun?!" Richie screamed back, trying to think about his next move.
"You're fucking insane!"
"You're welcome!"
Richie ducked into a platform tunnel, crawling through it as quickly as he could. What he didn't do was check behind him to make sure the dragon had fallen for it. When he climbed out, he looked up just in time for the creature to tackle him, holding him down with one of its claws.
"Fuck," Richie whispered, seeing Eddie was too far away and too injured to make it that far. He also knew there was no way anyone else would come save him.
The dragon growled, making eye contact with Richie. It opened its mouth, venom dripping from its fangs. Snarls rippled from its throat, and Richie could see the orange illuminating from wherever it created its fire.
He knew there was no escaping his fate, so Richie closed his eyes and held up his arms in a weak attempt to shield himself from the animal.
Then, the growling stopped.
The fiery blast never came.
Richie opened his eyes, breathing shakily.
Had Eddie found a way to save him? Stan or Bev? How would they stop the creature without killing it?
The dragon released Richie and lowered its nose to his arm, nudging at it.
Richie realized it was trying to lift his sleeve. He was in no position to force it away, so he cautiously lifted his sleeve, revealing his tattoo.
As soon as the dragon saw the spade, it chirped in a way that could only be content, and Richie could've sworn a purr was making its way out of the dragon's throat.
Richie could tell it wasn't going to attack him, so he quickly ran over to Eddie, who was watching the interaction in shock. The dragon followed closely, clearly wanting to be close to Richie.
"Holy fuck, are you okay?!" Richie asked frantically, ridding himself of one of his shirt sleeves and wrapping it around Eddie's leg.
"The spade," Eddie said, ignoring Richie's panic.
"What?"
"It recognized the spade. Tenebrians used to befriend and fight with dragons. It recognizes you."
That's all Eddie said before his eyes rolled to the back of his head and he passed out.
