Sinbad POV
"Come on pull yourself together, get up or you'll die," I muttered as I stared at the noble, who was slowly opening his eyes. His face was pale, streaked with dirt and blood, the arrogant demeanor from before completely shattered.
The dragon roared above us, its massive form casting a shadow that seemed to swallow what little light filtered through the cavern. The sound reverberated through the place, shaking the walls, making only more geysers blow up. It didn't seem happy that its prey had escaped, and I could see the intelligence burning in those massive green eyes—this wasn't just some mindless beast.
"Kill me."
I heard the whisper at my side, barely audible over the dragon's continued roaring.
"Kill me," Drakon repeated, his voice growing stronger with each word. "I've failed as a soldier. I hesitated in front of an enemy and only thought about wanting to live. Such behavior... Don't hesitate and run. Throw your life away in the glory of the empire. That is the pride of Parthevians." His hands were shaking as he spoke, whether from fear or shame, I couldn't tell. "However, I just thought, I don't want to die. This is most disgraceful. I can never show my face as one of the Dragul family again! Enough, kill me!"
I looked down at him, this broken noble who had commanded soldiers to their deaths, who had talked about using me as a decoy mere minutes ago.
"Boring," I muttered, interrupting his groveling. The word seemed to cut through his despair like a blade. "What's so disgraceful about not wanting to die? Isn't that natural for human beings?"
I stood up, brushing dust and dragon's blood from my clothes. The Lightning King watched us with predatory patience, as if it knew we were trapped and was savoring the moment before it struck.
"Don't hesitate and throw your life away?" I continued, my voice growing louder, more passionate. "If you do that and die for your country, will the King and the army save its citizens? Parthevia never saved them!" The words poured out of me, years of frustration and loss fueling every syllable. "A country exists to protect the people who live in it. A country that abandons its people should never exist!"
My father's face flashed in my mind—the scars that covered his body, the way he'd been branded a traitor for refusing to blindly follow orders. My mother, dying alone while I was away trying to survive in a world that demanded sacrifice after sacrifice from those who had already given everything.
As I finished speaking, I heard the roars of the Dragon King growing more impatient, but beneath that sound was something else—the rushing of water through the walls, the building pressure that preceded the geysers exploding from the stone. The rhythm was becoming clearer now, a pattern I could read like waves.
It was time to put my plan into action.
I grabbed Drakon's shield from where it had fallen on the stone floor. It was heavier than I'd expected, ornate with the imperial crest emblazoned across its surface. A symbol of everything I'd grown to despise, and yet it might be the very thing that saved us both.
"I'm taking this," I told him before he could say anything else. Drakon just stared at me with hollow eyes, still lost in his own shame.
I now stood in front of the Lightning King, the massive dragon that had consumed its own children without hesitation. Its white mane flowed along it's back, and blue electricity crackled between its teeth. This was a creature that had ruled its domain for who knows how long, unchallenged and absolute in its power.
"Can you hear me Drakon!" I yelled, making sure my voice carried over the dragon's rumbling. "Sacrifices have been made for those with power. This is the sound of their retribution!"
I unsheathed my blade, my father's blade, feeling its familiar weight in my hands. Now I held both of my weapons—in one hand the sword that had seen my father through countless battles, in the other a noble's shield almost as big as myself, both just weapons at the end of the day, weapons which would help me overcome this obstacle.
I closed my eyes for a moment, listening to the rushing water through the cavern's hidden channels. The geysers weren't random—they followed the mountain's natural rhythms, building pressure and releasing it in predictable cycles.
"There's no wave I can't overcome," I muttered, remembering Yunan's encouragement, remembering every moment that had led me to this impossible situation.
I began to run, my feet pounding against the rough stone floor. The Lightning King tracked my movement, its massive head turning to follow my path. Blue light began to gather in its maw, but I was already moving, already committed to my course.
I jumped off a protruding rock just as the pressure beneath reached its peak. The timing had to be perfect—one second too early or too late and I'd be nothing more than a smear on the cavern floor.
The geyser burst forth with tremendous force, sending superheated water and steam roaring toward the ceiling. I quickly positioned the shield under my feet, using it like a board to ride the column of water skyward. The heat was incredible, even through the metal of the shield, and I could feel my clothes beginning to singe.
The Dragon King roared in confusion and anger, its massive form writhing as it tried to track my unexpected aerial maneuver. This was clearly not how its usual prey behaved.
Two more geysers erupted in sequence, their timing synchronized with the mountain's hidden heartbeat. I leaped from one to the other, the shield spinning beneath me as I used the water's force to propel myself higher and higher. The cavern wall rushed past in a blur of stone and steam.
The final geyser carried me in a high arc that passed just beside the dragon's massive neck. For a moment, we were at eye level—predator and prey, terror and unawakened. I could see my reflection in those enormous green orbs.
I swung my father's blade with all the strength I could muster, the steel biting deep into the dragon's neck. But the hide was thick, tougher than anything I'd ever encountered. The cut was painful but not fatal—I could see dark blood welling from the wound, but it was far too shallow to bring down such a massive creature.
ROAR
The Dragon King's bellow of pain and rage shook the entire cavern. Stalactites crashed down around us as it thrashed in fury, its massive wings beating against the walls. Blue lightning erupted from its maw, a beam of pure electrical energy that lanced toward the ceiling, turning stone to molten slag wherever it touched.
I rode the geyser's arc to its highest point, then pushed off the shield, sending it spinning away into the darkness while I plummeted toward the dragon's head. This was the moment—everything depended on what happened in the next few seconds.
As I fell, I could see it clearly now—a single scale on the dragon's head that was different from the others. Where the rest were smooth and oriented downward, this one pointed upward, exposing the tender flesh beneath. The reverse scale, the one weakness that every dragon possessed, Darius stories were really a saving grace.
The air rushed past me as I fell, and for a moment I felt weightless, suspended between victory and death. The remaining sparks of the dragon's lightning beam still crackled through the air around me, turning the world into a web of blue electricity.
I gripped my father's blade with both hands, feeling the worn leather of its grip, remembering all the times I'd watched him care for this weapon. It had protected him through countless battles, had been his companion when everything else was taken from him. Now it would either save us both or be buried with me in this forsaken place.
I could only do one thing now—pour everything I had, everything I was, into this single moment.
"AAAHHHH!!!"
My battle cry echoed through the cavern as my father's blade found its target, piercing through the reverse scale and driving deep into the dragon's skull. Blood spurted forth in a crimson fountain, and the Lightning King's scream of agony was unlike anything I'd ever heard—a sound of pure anguish that seemed to shake the very foundations of the mountain.
I held on desperately as the massive creature thrashed, my blade buried to the hilt in its skull. Every movement threatened to tear me loose and send me plummeting to the stone floor far below. Blood soaked my clothes, my hands, making everything slippery and treacherous.
Slowly, gradually, the Lightning King's movements became less violent, its struggles weaker. The light in those massive green eyes began to dim, and with one final, shuddering breath, the ancient terror collapsed.
The impact of the dragon's body hitting the cavern floor sent shockwaves through the stone, nearly jarring me loose from my precarious position. I tried to stand tall on the dragon's head, to savor this impossible victory, but exhaustion hit me like a physical blow. All I could do was release ragged breaths, my entire body shaking from the effort and adrenaline.
That's when the voice came back, clearer and more distinct than ever before.
[You have slain an awakened terror, Lightning Dragon King.]
[You have received a memory: Baal's Blade]
[You have coursed through lightning and water, your divine lineage awakens]
[You have received an attribute]
I smiled through my exhaustion. I had no clue why the voice spoke or what it meant, but something fundamental had changed. I could feel it in my bones, in the very essence of my being.
I looked toward the door that had been blocked by the dragon's massive form. Six holes were carved into its surface, each one perfectly circular and clearly meant to hold something specific. A terror was supposed to have six soul shards, right? That had to be it.
"Drakon, get here!" I yelled, my voice hoarse from shouting and breathing in steam, as I inspected the terror's body. "We need to get the soul shards!"
The noble came out of his stupefaction, his face a mixture of awe and confusion. For the first time since I'd met him, he looked at me not as a commoner or a traitor, but as someone who had accomplished the impossible.
"Just who are you anyway?"
I turned to Drakon and smiled blowing away all my exhaustion and pointing at myself with my thumb. "I'm Sinbad the Sailor!"
He just stared at me for a seconds, stupefied.
"Now come on, help me get the soul shards," I said, sliding down from the dragon's head with considerably less grace than I would have liked.
He nodded wordlessly and joined me beside the massive corpse. The process of extracting the soul shards was messy and exhausting work. We had to dig through layers of muscle and bone, following the threads of essence that led to the creature's six cores. Each shard was about the size of my chest, glowing. I wanted to crush them in my grip and remake my soul core as fast as possible but I couldn't do that, we needed them to open the door.
By the time we finished, both Drakon and I were covered head to toe in dragon's blood, our hands cramped from the digging. But we each held three soul shards, their warm light casting dancing shadows on the cavern walls.
We approached the door together, and I placed my three shards into three of the holes while Drakon did the same with his. The moment the final shard clicked into place, the door began to rumble and shake. Ancient mechanisms long dormant groaned to life, and slowly, majestically, the massive portal began to open.
Bright light filtered through the growing gap, so brilliant after the cavern's gloom that I had to shield my eyes. But before I could see what lay beyond, the voice resounded once more in my mind, stronger and more distinct than ever.
[You have proven yourself worthy]
[You have received an attribute]
[Wake up --, your nightmare is over]
[Prepare for appraisal..... ]