Flames

Unable to distinguish the sound coming from afar, Yoichi stood motionless to look in that direction. His breathing became weaker, helping his hearing to be focused.

*swing*swing* - That indistinct sound became clearer and more intermittent. Shortly before he could identify it, Yoichi finally saw something on the horizon.

A black spot was flying in the air right in its direction: travelling at incredible speed, its diameter grew more and more. "Oh, fuck..." Yoichi whispered, taking a step back. His legs trembled with fear.

Little by little, in addition to the central body of that unidentified object, two huge wings waved sideways. Yoichi continued to walk backwards, failing to look away from that stunning vision.

The high-flying being continued to approach as fast as a rocket, travelling most of the desert within seconds. Finally, the young tamer managed to recognize its features: between the two black horns on top of the elongated head, a long sharp tail swung behind the body as if it were the rudder of that divine being.

The black reptile body was covered with hard scales, which extended to the chest, also covering part of the wings. They were black and red in the inner section.

The area below that colossal being, with a wingspan of almost twenty meters, was identical to that of a large feline. Paws similar to those of a fierce lion were equipped with sharp, shiny obsidian claws.

When it was close enough to perfectly spot Yoichi's outline among the reddish sand of the desert, the dragon roared strongly.

"Graaargh!" – flapping its wings even more, it unleashed a strong shockwave that disintegrated the dunes in its trajectory. "Holy bitch! Fuck!" Yoichi gasped, falling backwards and getting up quickly.

Trying to find grips in the sand and continuing to stumble, the young tamer began to run away with all the energy of his body. His heart was beating so hard that it rumbled into the rib cage.

His feet sank into the thick layer of sand while that colossal black dragon descended more and more in altitude. Feeling like a prey fleeing from the predator, Yoichi knew that if he failed to dodge the attack, that dragon would shred him.

The young tamer advanced about ten meters. "Kenji! Kenji, is that you?!" he yelled desperately, waving his arms upwards and trying to get the full attention of the black dragon.

"It's me, Kenji! I'm Yoichi, your tamer!" – knowing that the dragon would take a few seconds to reach him, Yoichi took courage and stopped. He turned to the giant winged reptile and raised his arms to the sky.

"Grooargh!" *swing*swing*swing* – the flapping of the wings in the background enriched that tenacious roar. No human being or demon could have countered that ancient and invincible being, whose size reflected its arcane power.

"Stop, Kenji! Please!" Yoichi yelled again as the dragon arrived a hundred yards away from him, above his head. After the words of the young and unwitting warrior, the dragon's red eyes glazed, shining in the sunlight like two rubies.

Its wide sharp-toothed jaws closed, and its chest began to swell. The swelling spread in the upper part of its body, moving from the centre of the chest to the long neck, then to the chin.

Suddenly, swooping towards Yoichi, the black dragon slightly opened its mouth. Between its teeth, a trail of flames cut the air behind it.

"Kenji?! Kenji! Oh, holy bitch! Yoichi screamed once again, with his heart in his throat. Believing he was at death's door, he leapt over a sand dune, landing behind it.

At the same time, the colossal black dragon opened its jaws wide. A giant ray of fire was fired from his mouth, hitting the desert sand and disintegrating it in its path.

The fiery beam cut the dune behind which Yoichi was hidden in half, reducing the sand to black ash. "Aargh! Holy bitch, what the fuck!"

Yoichi continued to run, changing direction and abandoning the dune, shouting all the profanities in his personal vocabulary. Behind him, after its destructive passage, the dragon interrupted the fire beam, continuing to fly hundreds of meters further forward.

Behind it, a trail of black ash had cut that desert area into two parts. "How do I do it now? None of this is real, it… it can't be real! The dragons went extinct and that... that must be Kenji!" Yoichi thought aloud, try to be as rational as possible.

The dragon folded its wings sideways, diverting its trajectory. Forcefully, it regained altitude, returning in the previous direction. Once again, Yoichi stood by and waited for it to attack for the second time.

"I can't just die like this, Kenji!" he yelled at the dragon. "Against Kato, I chose to live and save you, my friend! If I die, you die too! Please, stop your rush!"

"Graaaargh! Screeek!" – the young tamer's words did not seem to worry the dragon, who, pointing with his snout in his direction, was intent on launching another of his powerful fire attacks.

Channelling the draconic flames between the jaws, the mouth of the winged reptile filled up, ready to disintegrate everything in its path.

A flood of memories in the form of images overwhelmed Yoichi's mind. The words of his best friend Enatsu, the promise made to Princess Sui, the little time dedicated to his new guild companions. None of this would have made sense if he had died consumed by the flames of his own Oracle.

Knowing that those words would be his last hope, Yoichi cleared his throat and screamed, "Ildriss!" shutting his eyes.

Suddenly, the fire in the dragon's mouth died out and its wings bent forward. Curbing its advance, the shockwave caused by the huge red wings wiped out Yoichi, causing his body to roll on the sand backwards.

"Ouch! Aargh!" – continuing to roll on his back for more than ten meters, he turned raised his gaze to the dragon and what he had hoped for before uttering those words, happened.