Killing from the inside

Reaching the edge of the forest, the boy was greeted by a scene which caused him to want to run back to where he had come from. He saw the king of the forest whom even he wouldn't want to face. It wasn't that he feared it, more like he wasn't confidant in killing it very easily.

The injured black winged draconian spat fire at the group surrounding it singeing and burning many of them. The beastmen threw javelins at it. These bright blue javelins carried with them a cold air. Wherever they hit, the monster was frozen. The ice would of course, break in a few breaths but ,this delay annoyed the dragon a great deal and stopped it from using its full bodily strength to swat these insignificant pests. It let out a resounding roar full of majesty.

From among the beastmen, came a few individuals wearing cloaks. They raised their arms towards the lizard before their hands started to glow. From these outstretched hands, blue beams shot out towards the dragon. It was hit and started to freeze and slow down. An enraged roar hit the groups and deafened them.

From the cover of the trees, the boy looked at the struggling dragon from the top of a branch. He grinned seeing it in such a bad condition. He considered for a bit before leaping towards the beastmen with his spear straightened. He stabbed at a surprised beastman and pierced through his body before attacking the others in his surroundings. The innards of those he sliced through, fell out along with a lot of blood. All of those who survived, quickly died as well due to the poison. There was confusion within the ranks and the small army couldn't respond quickly, leading to over 23 casualties in less than 15 breaths.

The dragon looked at the newcomer amusedly. It roared to the sky before sweeping its claws across the battlefield, slaughtering tens of beastmen. It then changed its target to the cloaked figures and swept its tail.

The boy enjoyed the sensation of blood thoroughly. He saw that this blood had a green hue. He continued to slaughter the ranks. He didn't only attack straight forwardly. But, also vanished from time to time to strike behind some of his new prey. He was about to kill another beastman when he saw the last of the cloaked figures on the other side of the battle field. Its cloak had torn, revealing it face. He saw it and froze mid-swing.

This figure looked like him. With a tanned complexion and long red hair, the figure with thin clothes panted as it waved its hands at the gigantic beast, shooting ice beams in order to weaken it. He continued to look at it in a daze when he was stabbed in the abdomen, waking him from his stupor. He swung his spear and impaled his attacker before looking at the figure again trying to ascertain what he had seen. The wound had stopped bleeding and started to heal. He saw the dragon swinging its claws at the red haired human whose race he had confirmed. He let out a loud roar to the dragon, telling it not to kill the other party. But ignoring him, the dragon continued with its attack. To it these pests dared try to kill it. Why shouldn't it kill them? So, it continued its attack and was about to slice through those who stood in its path. Seeing the beast ignore him, the boy vanished with an enraged roar.

The red haired figure closed its brown eyes, ready to face death when suddenly there was a loud boom in front of it, causing it to stumble and fall. Receiving no impact, it opened its eyes to see a scene it would never forget. The huge arm of the dragon had been stopped by a blood covered naked child wearing a white belt. The battlefield went quiet. The boy had stopped a scaly black arm more than twice his height with his bare hands.

The boy looked up at the dragon's eye in rage. The lizard roared as if its dignity had been questioned. But, it was met by an increasingly cold gaze and a low growl. The dragon actually flinched in fear. It could feel a strength from the small boy which approached its own. It was enraged by the momentary feeling of fear and roared at the tiny human in anger once again. It took back its arm and raised it to swing it down again. This time, with even greater force.

The boy turned to the fallen red haired figure who looked at his onyx black eyes in a daze. He turned back to the dragon and rushed forward to meet its claws. He jumped up high and grabbed onto a falling claw and climbed on. He then grabbed it from its base and pulled hard, trying to break it. Right before impact, he broke off a claw from the dragons arm. The boy with the broken claw in his hand rolled off the limb upon impact. This time, the dragon let out a shrill roar of pain. Paying it no mind, the boy picked up the dumbstruck fallen figure and swiftly ran to the cover of the trees.

When the dragon came to, it couldn't find the little boy who had been the cause of its pain. It then proceeded to crush the remaining beastmen who couldn't do anything to retaliate, in order to vent its fury.

***

The boy appeared near the carcass of the buck it had been eating, with the now fainted red haired human on his shoulders. He put it down into the cavity where he had slept that day. He turned back to look at the direction of the dragon. He could hear its furious roar and had a scary grin on his face.

He had gone to help it due to them living in the same area and that he couldn't identify what the attackers were. But, when he had told it to spare one that he was interested in it, the dragon didn't care at all and continued its strike. Did it think that just because it was a king, it could disregard him? He was also one of the five kings. He had built his position on a river of blood. Did that lizard actually think he dared not kill it?

The boy vanished from his position and in 5 breaths appeared back beside of the dragon. He saw that the scene of slaughter he had made had increased and that all of the attackers were now dead. The dragon saw him and let out a heaven shattering roar of rage. It breathed out a plume of fire, intending to burn the cause of its pain. But when the fire cleared, it saw no sign of him. It looked to the other side and swung its tail there as it saw the human who stood there.

But, the boy jumped up and landed on the dragon's moving tail and ran up, disregarding the shaking. The dragon saw this and spat a fireball at the pest only for him to jump and dodge the flames. He reached the dragons back and saw a pair of torn wings. With a few weeks of rest and healing, they would have been back to normal and allowed it to fly again. They must have been the first target of assault by the beastmen and the cloaked….humans. If he had known that the cloaked figures were humans like him, he would not have helped the dragon. Instead, he would have helped the humans kill it from the beginning.

The dragon flapped its flightless wings, trying to shake off the small source danger which was swiftly approaching its head. The dragon was unsuccessful and had no choice but to use its trump card. Its black scales shone brightly in the night and then they released a violet light which threw the boy off flying into the air. The dragon's scales returned to their unlit state and it staggered tiredly. Seeing the boy falling towards it from the sky, the dragon opened its jaws wide at him intending to swallow him whole. The boy saw this and instead of panicking, dove straight into the mouth.

As he entered the mouth, the boy saw a light grey piece of flesh hanging down from its upper jaw. He grabbed onto it and tore it off, before biting onto it. The Dragon's gray blood sprayed inside its mouth as it let out another painful roar. He dived straight into the throat of the dragon where he saw a red organ he had never seen before in any other beast he had killed. He grabbed it, tearing it off as the dragon released another pained roar. He entered the tearing and saw a small dark red stone floating in a vat of viscous black liquid.

The stone looked like the poison stones he had found before. But, it was red in color. As far as he knew, the only prey with stones, were the poison type beasts and only the strongest of them would have a small chance of having one. Besides, they would all be of purple color. This was the first time he had found a stone in a non-poisonous beast and a red one at that. His curiosity got him as he tore the thin transparent membrane separating him from the stone and was blasted by the black substance. He opened his mouth for a taste and immediately spit out the black liquid which he was now sure wasn't edible. He reached out and grabbed the small red stone. It was so small that it fit snuggly in his closed fist. He pushed the stone into the small bag filled with golden blood which he had attached to his belt and went back to the edge of the cavity.

The boy jumped down from the hole back into the esophagus. He pulled out his tusk and stabbed it into the walls to slow his descent. As he was falling, the boy saw the rib cage of the dragon and stabbed deeper into the walls before fully stopping his descent. He then used his other hand to punch the back of the tusk, so that it pierced the walls completely and a gush of blood rushed into the tube. He grabbed the torn membrane and put his tusk back before ripping open the hole wider he had created while withstanding the force of the oncoming rush of blood. He tore the hole big enough for him to fit before holding his breath and diving in.

Inside the ocean of grey, he was barely able to control his direction and prevented himself from being pushed out with the blood. The swam to the rib cage and grabbed on to a large bone. Not having to deal with the current anymore, the boy held two bones and pried open a slit wide enough for himself. It should be noted that, unlike most other beasts he had killed, the ribcage of the dragon didn't have much space between each of the bones so he had to stretch them with enough force for them to break.

He entered the newly made opening before it shut closed. What he saw inside was a greyish black heart bigger than himself, beating erratically. He closed in on it and punched it causing the entire heart to vibrate. Even immersed in the blood where he should not be able to hear anything, he felt the dragon's shriek. He kept punching until he felt that he couldn't hold his breath for much longer. The walls of the heart had turned a deep blue from his punches. Where the light which used to see came from, he didn't know but the entire inside of the dragon was dimly illuminated. He pulled out his tusk and stabbed the part of the heart which was the most blue. The sharp tusk easily penetrated the heart and he pushed his head inside. The heart was filled with air in the region where it had turned blue. He took a deep breath before the heart blood rushed back filling the space.

Now respired, the boy saw the rushing blood and quickly bit into the heart wall in front of him. He started to eat it. After eating a few mouthfuls, the boy felt energized. The whole body of the dragon staggered and then fell as it died, painfully from the inside. Inside the heart chamber, the boy fell out back into the ocean of blood and was swept sideways.

He got up and pried open the ribcage again before getting out. He swam back and following his previous route, came out of the dragon's mouth. The boy no longer had a myriad colors painting him but instead was dripping a grey blood. Shaking himself dry, the boy sprinted back to where he had left the red haired human after retrieving his spear from where he had dropped it. Now that he thought about it, the other human looked quite different from himself as well.

Its skin was a bit brown. Hair was red and eyes were brown. Its chest was a bit wider with round protrusions coming out. Its abdomen was thinner and hips a bit wider. It might have been ill. Or else, why would it be so weak and its body shape be so different from him. He remembered one time long ago, he had fallen ill he had become so weak that he had to climb up and stay in the trees to hide from even a brown skinned poison spike. If it wasn't ill, it could have also been from another species different from him. He almost forgot that it seemed to be able to do what some of the strong beasts could do like that blue ice. Even though it had such power, it wasn't actually very strong. It wasn't strong or fast. Neither could it hide. Yes it must have been ill. He was excited from being able to interact with his own kind for the first time.

When he reached the carcass of the buck and ant, he didn't see the figure was looking for. Instead, beside the buck there was a pool of vomit. But, the human he had placed inside the buck had vanished.