Write to Rank 2 (entries)

Purple Belt Round • Dragon Wars

The sun shown brightly upon the mountainous landscape as I rode upon my horse. I had been, like countless thousands of others, sent to fight the dragons.

It had been centuries since the last dragon uprising, humans and dragons had learned to yet again live in piece and harmony, but for some unearthly, unknown reason, the balance of equality had been upset. A few rogue dragons was all it took, a few radicals, and the whole world was in chaos.

Dragons, huge, overpowering fire breathing beasts, stacked against a force of nearly a quarter of a million brave men and woman, armed with swords, knives and arrows. Part of me couldn't wait for the battle, couldn't wait to taste victory, but the other part of me dreaded the possible outcomes. If we weren't stealthy enough, weren't efficient enough, we would, for sure, be turned into a smoldering mound of flesh, bone and medal. That, surely, could not happen.

So, with the fear of being handed a crushing defeat in mind, I continued to vigorously ride my horse through the mountains, up one peak, then down to another. Over and over. Why the dragon uprising had to be so far away, I had no clue. But determination pushed me forward, something that I was sure that the horse could feel, something I was surely hoping that the horse could feel.

After about a week of riding, stopping every few hours for a rest, the battle field finally came into sight in the valley beyond the next batch of mountains. Steam billowed up many thousands of meters into the sky, higher than the mountains even, almost to the clouds thanks to the breathing of tens of thousands of dragon beasts. An ever growing line of soldiers, armed with the futile weapons lay ahead, a line which I would soon, anxiously be joining.

I couldn't wait, my blood was rushing through my body as I rode, the thrill of being able to be apart of what should hopefully be a crushing victory for us was already weighing heavily on my mind.

Yet, here I finally was, just one mountain away from the fight of my lifetime, one giant, yet meager mountain away from the place where my name would be part of a list of hero's. The fate of humanity depended on this battle. Humans winning meant the continuation of humanity and more reprocussions for the dragons. However, a dragon win would guarantee dragon supremacy across the lands.

As I crossed the mountain peak and raced down into the valley, I drew my bow and arrow and set it upon my shoulder, ready to pull the string and let an arrow fly at a moments notice, right into the heart of an unsuspecting fire breathing beast.

But as I rode into the valley, my heart and mind were not prepared for the sight that awaited me. Dead. The dead were everywhere, and on both sides. Many thousands of dragons lay slain, piled on top of one another, a massive pile of nose clogging stench and eye breaking destruction lay near the right edge, while the side of the humans wasn't any better. Bodies were everywhere, stacked in piles and trampled under the foot of man, beast and horse. A shattered arm here, a smoldering, smoking head there. The sight was utterly tragic and disgusting. But I would fix it, everything would be alright.

Releasing my first arrow, I watched it sail through the air, piercing straight into the eye and into the brain of the nearest dragon, who instantaneously fell onto the ever growing pile of his, or her, companions.

From a distance, fighting was easy, loading bows, releasing, watching. Sometimes I hit dragon, sometimes I hit human, sometimes horse, and sometimes, well, nothing. But it didn't matter. I still killed beasts, and until my supply of arrows was all used up, I was content to quietly take down more from the sidelines before I got in the middle of the mix and made things interesting.

Arrow after arrow I released, each one flying through the air hitting a target with incredible force at some point, killing it almost instantly, humanely, as some would say.

But, eventually the inevitable happened, I ran out of arrows, and now the real fun could begin.

Straight into the valley I road, straight through the mess of bodies, arrows and small fires, right to the very front lines where the chaos and bloodshed was overwhelming. But I wouldn't shed blood, I couldn't, I refused too!

I through my bow on the ground, deciding that without the precious arrows, I didn't need it anymore, and grabbed at the hilt of my sword, yanking it from it's sheath and directing my horse to gallop directly at the beasts that lay in front of me, breathing their fire out in every direction. Swinging and thrashing, my sword repeatedly clanged against the bodies of the firebreathing beast, cutting some directly in half, while simply piercing through the hearts, guts and heads of others. Regardless, I was killing beasts, and readying a crushing defeat for them.

The more I killed, the more I wanted to kill. The beasts that had fallen thanks to my sword and my arrows must've numbered in the hundreds, and it was far from over yet. The firebreathing beasts hadn't caught onto my stunts yet, sliding right under their lines of fire, slashing right through their bodies, and leaving them in a mangled, smoldering, dead mess I continued to fight, almost unnoticed, but that wouldn't be for long.

But I couldn't keep this up, my arms were exhausted from the constant motion and jarring impacts, I needed to finally get that victory, once and for all.

Mustering all my strength, I began to, as fast as I possibly could, wave my arms, sword frantically slashing at anything and everything near it.

The bones of my arms gave way to massive wings, and my head slowly transformed. It was time to finally declare a winner.

As I rose above everyone, the dragons, the stunned fighters, the scene of death and mayhem, I breathed in, feeling the force of every dragon with me, before breathing out a huge, incinerating line of fire across every human on the meager battlefield below.

I had finally one, thanks to my tricks, I was now superior dragon of the world, and no one could stop me now. Those meager humans thought I could help them, thought I was their hero, but I never knew that shapeshifting would be so easy.