Chapter 8

While his spear was strong, it was heavy and hard to use even with his enhanced strength. He had to fix that, or his chances of winning the upcoming battle were even lower. So he turned to a rare and complicated magic, runes. He was excited when he went into it, feeling happy that he had solved his problem, but found it to be harder than he thought.

Runes were very complicated magic, and even a single mistake could result in the death of the caster. And he only wanted to use a few, not even learn the whole magic. In the end he decided on using a lightweight rune, a sharpness rune, a piercing rune, and the most complicated of all, blood rune. While the first 3 were quite simple, all he had to do was carve the symbol onto the spear and put a little magic into it. The last was not.

He groaned, running frustrated hands through his hair as he stared down at an old tome. The book made it sound easy "put a piece of your soul into your blood and draw the symbol on the object."Simple right? Not! The rune was supposed to do something similar to Mjolnir, make it so only he could lift it, and be able to pull it back to him no matter where it was. And that was all great, IF HE COULD FIGURE OUT HOW IT WORKED!

He put the book down again, following its instructions on taking away a piece of his soul. He sat cross legged with his hands on his knees and a straight back. He breathed in, and out. He reached into himself, imagining his mind and body forming into one, joining together to become his true self. All he embodied, represented by one idea. His eyes snapped open.

In Front of him was a beautiful beach, pure white sand.. Not glistening? He looked up, and a sun was not what he found. Instead, a starry night sky, filled to the brim with countless constellations. He was in awe, but he eventually looked back down and found that the beach was actually not a beach at all, but a patch of sand connected to an abyss. He looked behind him, finding a small grass patch with a tree in the middle. The island he was on floated aimlessly in the void of stars.

He walked to the edge of the beach, looking down and seeing more constellations. He focused in on one of them, instantly finding himself reliving the memory of the time he scraped his knee riding a bike. He smiled softly, realizing that all these constellations were his memories, and that this place was his soul. "So, I have to take a piece of this back with me? But what do I take?" The void seemed to answer his question, a watery ball of silver light appearing in his hand, displaying the memory he was just viewing. He frowned, throwing it back and watching it take the form of a constellation again. He didn't want something simple like that, no he wanted a core memory, something strong to make his weapon strong.

He walked to the tree, putting his hand on it and watching as a piece of bark slid away and a stone spiral staircase going down was revealed. He entered and watched as countless torches lit up the stairs, casting shadows with every step he took. The staircase was long, and it felt like hours when he eventually reached the bottom, finding a simple wooden door, the kind you would find in a medieval castle. He grabbed the handle, turning it and pushing revealing the inside. And…. All he could do was laugh.

Before him was a library, more like a study actually, with a fire going and a comfy looking chair sitting close. He pulled a book off the shelf, opening it and finding a complete recollection of his 13th birthday, every detail down to the amount of dust that day recorded. He closed the book, smiling softly and placing it back onto the shelf and walking over to the chair. He sat down letting out a blissful sigh as he sank into it. On a coffee table next to the chair sat a book. Unlike the others, this one was unlabeled. He opened it, and widened his eyes as the first page wrote about his birth. He flipped through the book, looking at birthdays, injuries and everything that he had ever done up to now. Even as he got to the last page he watched it filling in words about what he was doing at this very moment. To be honest, it was quite creepy to know that he was being watched by himself, even though that made no sense.

He sighed and closed the book, going imagining what he wanted and summoning it. He smirked reading the title. "First Time Skydiving" he was pretty sure it would be sufficient for what he needed. He turned into that same watery ball and imagined himself leaving. When he opened his eyes next, he was back in the tower with the memory in his hand. He laid the spear in front of him, making a cut on his finger and bringing the memory close to it. It was sucked in and he could no longer remember that moment, no it wasn't that he couldn't remember it, it was like it never even happened in the first place.

He shook his head and began drawing the symbol, when he was done the symbol glowed and disappeared. He could instantly feel it, there was a link between him and the spear, and if someone had tethered them. He threw the spear across the room, and held his hand out to it, watching as it whizzed back to him. He let out a laugh of excitement. Now, he felt that he was ready to fight the dragon. He pulled on his battle suit and called out "World Travel. Destination: Middle Earth. Location: Gates of Erebor." He vanished a moment later.

*Smaug POV*

The dragon snored softly, for a dragon anyway, lying on top of his mountain of gold. However, his eyes snapped open and his lips curled into a sneer as his nose picked up a certain scent. He roared, something heard for miles and clawed his way towards the gate. He started picking up speed as he neared the sealed entrance. When he finally got close he flapped his wings and slammed straight through the rock as if it was paper. He emerged, flying high up and letting out a blood curdling roar as his eyes locked onto a human form standing on the ground. "YOU DARE SHOW YOURSELF HERE? IN MY KINGDOM?" His bellow was incredibly loud, and created winds that were felt in lake town as alarms started to sound.

The human below didn't look phased, responding calmly "I believe that this isn't YOUR kingdom Smaoug. In fact, the people it belongs to are nearing by the minute." Smaug only snarled and flapped his wings, shooting towards the ground like a bullet. James dodged to the side, swinging his spear, only to cause a small scratch as his spear glanced off of his scales.

The dragon turned his neck the second he missed, mouth open and chest glowing red as he released a torrent of flames. Jame held his hand in front of him, creating a wind barrier and cooling himself down with ice magic. After a while, the flames ended and the ground around James was completely scorched and he was sweating heavily. However, as Smaug regained his bearings James sped forward, piercing the left eye of Smaug and pumping lightning magic into his head.

Smaug roared in pain as he blindly swiped at James, his mind literally fried. James avoided the slow blundering strikes with comical ease, coming in and swiping at the other eye, completely blinding the dragon. Now, the dragon was basically dead, all he had to do was finish it. James walked to the side, where he saw the missing scale. His spear became covered in electricity as he pushed the piercing power to the max and threw the spear into Smaug's body, ending the tale of the Great Fire Drake. He sighed, and just as he was about to turn, he choked on his own blood, he looked down, and found himself impaled by the dragon's spiked tail. He choked again as the tail left his body, truly dying this time as he collapsed onto his knees, blood filling his mouth and putting him in the realm of unconsciousness.