The First Hurdle (Part 1)
The smaller monsters didn't wait for the infant dragon to make its move. They ran towards the first person they saw with howls and shrieks, intending to tear him apart.
Cassian's attention on the other hand wasn't on them, it was on the dragon that was about to go for him too, formulating a plan.
'Monsters don't usually interfere or hurt each other. The dragon will try avoiding the other monsters even if I try leading it around.' Even while chasing him, it wouldn't do so recklessly. 'I need to make it lose its reason and whatever rudimentary intelligence it has. To get its sole and undivided attention on me, completely disregarding everything else.'
Cassian grinned, after all almost everything shared one general weakness.
Just as the monster horde was approaching him and the dragon started moving, Cassian dashed forward.
Ducking under the first Orc's swing, he entered the fray with monsters now surrounding him from all sides. He didn't stop, stopping here would mean death, so he continued running forward while weaving between monsters.
Cassian didn't bother attacking them, he had no time for that. Instead, he concentrated fully on dodging all the blows while advancing.
Leaning out of a pouncing imp's way, jumping over the hard armored, sidestepping the orcs, while using their big bodies to obscure and shield himself from other monsters.
He moved with inhuman grace that would make any elven swordsman proud, his body assisted with the natural flexibility elves have.
Then the dragon came into sight, its large body preventing it from moving around freely lest it crush its fellow monsters, but the sight of its prey so close still spurred it on. It reared its head back to snap at the approaching elf.
This was the moment Cassian was waiting for, this was the best chance he would get to score a critical hit. He lowered his left hand and positioned his fingers to activate a Witcher sign.
'Yrden'
Suddenly the ground glowed purple and a glowing circle appeared. On all sides, it had symbols of Yrden on the circle as it encased a couple of meters around Cassian.
This wouldn't stop the dragon. Nowhere near it. Yrden was still underdeveloped and Cassian a level 1. Against a high-level 2 monster, it didn't stand a chance. But, it would slow it down for a little while. A fraction of a second, where the dragon would be left exposed. And that was all the Witcher needed.
The dragon's head came snapping forward at an astonishing speed that Cassian had trouble following, intending to turn the elf into lunch. That was when it crossed the boundary of the purple circle.
The dragon's head was suddenly surrounded by glowing purple wisps of energy and its movements slowed, giving Cassian the opportunity to sidestep the approaching maw of dagger teeth, ending up on the right side of the dragon, looking directly into its eye.
With a gleeful smile that his plan worked, Cassian immediately thrust his left hand forward, curling his fingers in the shape of the sign and getting it right up against the dragon's eye. The universal weakness almost all creatures share.
"Aard!" Releasing the biggest blast, he could, it instantly collided with the glowing red eyeball and exploded it into a shower of red, the eye not durable enough to withstand the impact.
/ROOAAAAR/
The dragon snapped its head back and released a thunderous roar of pain that reverberated off the walls, causing the chamber to shake.
Cassian was disconcerted by the sound. His attack had left his back open to other monsters and they didn't hesitate to strike.
Two orcs swung their clubs at the adventurer from both sides, leaving him with no hope of dodging, with Quen only capable of blocking one.
But Cassian wasn't nervous. He knew nothing would happen to him. And just as he expected…
A wind cannonball collided with the orcs, pulverizing their bodies and leaving the elf unharmed and smiling.
He knew his brother had his back.
Meanwhile, the dragon finally let out all its agony with the scream and concentrated all its focus and rage in his remaining eye on the culprit next to it.
"Well, that's my queue." Immediately Cassian dashed away, knowing his plan had been a success.
/ROOAAAR/
The dragon released another roar, this time filled with fury, and charged after the cursed offender, completely uncaring of its surroundings anymore.
Its massive claws crushed the monsters unfortunate enough to stand between the elf and the dragon, each step sending vibrations through the floor.
Cassian started navigating through the monster horde. He targeted monster clusters for maximum efficiency, leading the rampaging dragon to them, before quickly weaving between them. He dodged all the attacks he could and those he couldn't, were stopped by Nico's spells.
Nico stopped using the wind cannon due to its large blast radius and the risk of having his brother accidentally get caught up in the attack. He decided to change to wind blades to carve openings for Cassian if there were too many monsters concentrated in his path and wind bullets to deflect the hits, he wouldn't be able to respond to.
The orcs and hard armoreds were crushed under the dragon's might. The famed durability the hard armored's shell boasted could do nothing to resist and burst like a watermelon. The imps were better off due to their small size and agility allowing them to avoid the dragon, but not by much.
The infant dragon, blinded by its rage, barreled forward, snapping its massive jaws at Cassian, but a quick placement of Yrden and a Wind Cannon hitting it in the face, caused the monster to lose its balance. Its sheer momentum and weight caused it to crash into a pack of orcs, flattening them to the ground, while the dragon carried on and collided with the wall, leaving a massive crater in there.
It shook its head and got over the dizziness before becoming even more infuriated. Quickly spotting its prey getting distance, it picked up pace and ran after him. The group of imps in its way was not even acknowledged, while their bodies were crushed and sent flying like ragdolls as the monster charged through them.
With each maneuver, Cassian used the terrain and the frenzied horde to his advantage. He weaved through pockets of Imps that darted about, their tiny claws and teeth snapping at him. The dragon followed, crashing through the swarm, its massive tail sweeping through the air and obliterating any Imp foolish enough to get too close.
Cassian ducked just in time, feeling the rush of air as the tail narrowly missed him but obliterated the area where a group of hard armoreds was. Sickening cracks and squelching sounds emanated as they couldn't withstand the hit.
This continued for 15 more minutes. The dragon with its large body was incapable of making the quick turns that Cassian constantly performed, causing its body to smash into other monsters. The monsters that should've been its allies became little more than an annoyance and an obstacle to be plowed through.
Finally, the horde thinned. The clearing had become a battlefield of carnage as it was filled with broken bodies and pools of blood. Only a couple more monsters remained, who were quickly taken out with precise shots of wind bullets.
The Infant Dragon, now alone, stood heaving with exhaustion. Its body was not built to exert this much energy. It snarled, the rage not lessening even a little bit.
Cassian watched and steadied his blade. Phase 1 was successful. Now they would be moving on to phase 2. He had a feeling this would be even harder than before.
The monster before him was still immensely powerful, even with heavy exhaustion.
'I don't even know if my sword will be able to cut through its scales.' Cassian thought grimly.
Nico on the other hand couldn't stop the shaky grin rising on his face. Now they only had the dragon left to deal with. But he didn't let himself slacken. This would be the hardest part.
'I hit it several times in the face with Wind Cannons but all it did was crack its scales and bruise. Meanwhile, I could kill those giant armadillos with that same spell in a single well-placed shot.' The sheer toughness the monster before them displayed, sent a chill to his spine, but that only served to sharpen his focus further.
The performance and teamwork the brothers have displayed were exemplary and would leave even veteran adventurers in awe. As such, it wasn't hard to tell what a newbie like Leo would be feeling.
Admiration was an understatement. Infant Dragons needed dozens of veteran-level ones to even have a chance against, and here she was watching two-level ones fighting against not only that but a horde of monsters as well.
The beast didn't give them much time to collect themselves though. It bellowed and charged at Cassian seeing that the accursed elf was finally going to fight it instead of running this time.
The rudimentary intelligence it possessed was slowly being honed through this battle and the rage became even more focused.
"NICO, WE NEED TO DRAW THIS OUT AND KILL IT SLOWLY! WE DON'T HAVE ENOUGH FIREPOWER TO FINISH IT QUICKLY! CONCENTRATE ON YOUR BULLETS AND AIM FOR THE CRACKS IN ITS SCALES! MAKE IT BLEED!" Cassian shouted his plan to Nico before taking off towards the charging beast.
'Death by a Thousand Cuts, eh? I can do that.' Nico started looking over the areas where his wind cannons hit before and the most broken and vulnerable spots. He started chanting and aimed to make it bleed as his brother told him to.
Cassian and the Dragon finally reached one another. Just as the dragon was about to lunge at him he fired off Igni towards its remaining eye.
The dragon was very heat resistant so the spell had little to no chance of hurting it, but its purpose wasn't hurting it, but blinding it instead, which it accomplished.
It reflexively closed its remaining eye and flinched away, unconsciously becoming more protective of its single eye. While it was incapable of seeing, Cassian dashed into its blindside and swung his sword with all his might.
'Here's the moment of truth. Please work!' The sword impacted its target and dragged along the dragon's scales. The sound was as if metal was being scraped together and the impact even gave off sparks.
However, Cassian's hopes weren't dashed. The runic sword cut through the scales and drew a line, where red blood started pouring out. The wound was shallow, but it was still something.
The fight would take a long while, be he could see their hopeful victory. He just needed to fight like hell and grasp it.
The dragon felt the pain of the wound and immediately turned to the one who inflicted it. Snapping its jaws, the elf barely evaded it and leaped to the side.
Unwilling to let go of him, the beast pursued, however, at that moment it felt some things penetrating its scales and burying in its body, drawing even more blood, which gushed out of the freshly made holes like fountains.
Turning its head, the infant dragon saw the other adventurers that had invaded the dungeon and snarled at them, but it was not given the chance to divert its attention to them as the beast felt several impacts and wounds opening across its legs.
Cassian has taken advantage of the momentary distraction and inflicted as many wounds on the dragon's legs as he could. He determined that taking away its mobility was the best course of action, as the dragon was too damn fast and dangerous when charging in a straight line.
The dragon didn't stay still, with its attention brought back to the pest annoying it, it brought down the tail to crush him, putting a massive crater into the ground as Cassian dodged at the last moment.
This was going to be a long and dangerous fight, where a single mistake could lead to death.